Confronting mass stupidity

[craftbeerlover]

5 minutes ago, hk blues said:

It's not an education problem, it's a cultural problem. 

or both

 

[hk blues]

9 minutes ago, craftbeerlover said:

or both

 

Indeed...

A chicken and egg scenario, perhaps?

[Lee]

1 hour ago, hk blues said:

It's not an education problem, it's a cultural problem. 

IMO, it's both.

[Joey G]

My parents never allowed us to call anyone "stupid".  

Not saying there isn't a problem with education in the Philippines. However if the author wants to make progress, and get people to listen, he'd be better served laying off the clickbait headlines and degrading generalizations of people... it never works.  

[Mike J]

It seems there are lots of people upset with the education system here.  The question is what are they willing and capable of doing to fix it?  Going back to 10 years of education from 12 is not the solution in my opinion.  It's going to take many more classroom, more days in the classroom, a radical shift in class curriculum, and finally stop teaching kids to sing, dance, marching, etc. etc.  

[Lee]

IMO, the school situation might never get fixed if qualified foreign teachers and administrators aren't allowed to come to the PI and fix what's broken.

Never will happen I'm sure.

[Lee1154]

19 hours ago, Possum said:

Indeed opportunities would open up. A simple study of development progress over time comparing the Philippines to Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia etc., which have better education systems shows this. Though education isn't the only index it is a major factor.

Manufacturing is mostly what is increasing opportunity in other parts of Asia.  The Philippines has the highest cost of electricity of all Asian countries while 60% of most manufacturing cost is electricity.  The other obstacle that that some Asian countries have overcome is the one stop shop concerning dealing with the government.  The Philippines has the opposite approach.  Here, not just foreign companies but everyone has to deal with jumping through useless hoops that is a complete waste of time.  I remember reading 5 or 6 years ago about a Japanese firm attempting to build an oil refinery in Luzon.  They jumped through all of the hoops with the federal government and were approved.  The last loop was the governor of the province wanted a pay off.  They told the governor to F off and dropped the whole deal.  No, I do not remember which province but I remember that it was a province north of Manila.  It was sad for me to read the article knowing how many good jobs were lost.  I could not find any articles that suggested that the governor ever suffered any consequences. 

The other thing that I do not understand is how a corporation gets past the 60% Filipino owned business requirement is avoided.  Maybe someone else can enlighten me on that issue.  I just know that you would never get a large corporation to capitalize 100% of a venture while only realizing a 40% return.

After living here for years, it seems that the people in control do not give one hoot about the ordinary citizen.

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by Lee1154

[hk blues]

4 hours ago, Lee said:

IMO, the school situation might never get fixed if qualified foreign teachers and administrators aren't allowed to come to the PI and fix what's broken.

Never will happen I'm sure.

The problem isn't at that level, IMO.  The issue goes much deeper than simply than the quality of those on the frontline. 

[OnMyWay]

3 hours ago, Lee1154 said:

After living here for years, it seems that the people in control do not give one hoot about the ordinary citizen.

I was going to say, the article does not mention that big elephant in the room.  As we have discussed many times, it would appear that the smaller group of elites would prefer that the vast majority of the citizens stay uneducated.  If you break out of handcuffs, at first opportunity, you leave PH for greener pastures.  Vicious cycle.

[hk blues]

Just now, OnMyWay said:

I was going to say, the article does not mention that big elephant in the room.  As we have discussed many times, it would appear that the smaller group of elites would prefer that the vast majority of the citizens stay uneducated.  If you break out of handcuffs, at first opportunity, you leave PH for greener pastures.  Vicious cycle.

Isn't it the same everywhere, just the extent to which the elites get their own way varies?

I'm pretty sure the British Royal Family, for example, would be happy enough if we were all still agricultural workers and not giving them gyp!