The Chinese Way Of Viewing A Crisis

MANILA, September 2, 2004 (STAR) By Wilson Lee Flores - "When written in
Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters - one represents
danger, and the other represents opportunity."- John F. Kennedy
"The optimist sees opportunity in every danger; the pessimist
sees danger in every opportunity."- Winston Churchill
How can our fiscal crisis actually be the prelude to possible
long-term economic good news?
When President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo unsettled the
international business community by confirming that the Philippines is in
"fiscal crisis," the foreign media published a lot of negative news.
However, almost unnoticed was the fact that Chinese-language newspapers –
from Manila's World News and Chinese Commercial News in Binondo to Hong
Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Kaohsiung, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Guangzhou,
Bangkok, Beijing, Xiamen, Nanjing, San Francisco, Vancouver, New York and
other cities - used the Chinese phrase wei-ji for its headline news.
Unique to the Chinese language and cannot be fully translated in other
languages, the phrase wei-ji meaning literally "crisis" is actually made
up of two characters - "wei" meaning "danger" and "ji" meaning
"opportunity." The phrase "we-xien" in Mandarin or "hwi-hyam" in Hokkien
is "danger," while the phrase "ji-hwey" in Mandarin or "ki-hwe" in Hokkien
is "opportunity."
In the Chinese psyche and cultural ethos, the concept of "crisis" has two
intrinsic features - in every crisis there is danger as well as
opportunity!
The Chinese way of viewing crisis as part-opportunity is not
naïve optimism, but almost similar to what that American Jewish
psychologist Martin Seligman described as "learned optimism." Florence
Foods Corporation CEO Henson Tiu Laurel recently told this writer that
learned optimism is totally different from naïve optimism of fools or
liars.
For example, naïve optimists in Nazi prison camps would keep
believing that they will gain freedom by the coming December on the Jewish
Hannukah but would every year be disappointed and die heart-broken, while
people who have learned optimism fully recognized the brutal realities of
life, but had an invincible hope that they will eventually triumph.
Laurel said, "Learned optimism is learning to explain crisis and
problems that come our way in a positive manner, how we explain our set
backs to ourselves can make a big difference between overcoming defeat and
surrendering to it. Seligman had documented the power of optimism in
promoting achievement and improving health. I think the Philippines as a
whole needs this kind of positive thinking, not only for economic progress
but also to boost national morale." Crisis To Trigger Creative Destruction
America's life insurance management guru Bill Goodwin said, "The highest
form of insanity is doing the same things over and over, expecting
different results. The point is, if you want different results - you have
got to make some changes." In this fiscal crisis confronting the
Philippines due to years of irresponsible government spending, excessive
corruption, low national savings, high foreign borrowings and meager
foreign investment inflows, can we and our political leaders seize the
opportunities for decisive national renewal and economic regeneration?
Would this crisis be able to puncture the arrogance of our
bureaucrats and politicians, and compel them to heed the call of President
Gloria M. Arroyo to tighten our belts, pursue draconian austerity
measures? Would GMA have the guts to punish those who do not toe the line,
those who cannot slash unnecessary government expenditures like too many
foreign trips/junkets, fancy government cars/vehicles being used for
private purposes, lavish state offices, officials acting like datus?
Instead of raising taxes that might fan socio-political
instability and weaken struggling businesses, why not proclaim an
across-the-board 20 percent cut-down on government budget problems sourced
from lesser corruption, then publicly cut off a few political heads so
that GMA can set a chilling example that she and the government mean
business?
This writer recommends using lethal injection as punishment for
government officials, military/police officers/generals and high-ranking
politicians who derail Philippine economic recovery with plunder,
corruption, wastage, crimes or other nefarious activities.
This crisis might be the lightning bolt that will force radical
socio-economic reforms in our society. Couldn't this crisis – like
corporate bankruptcies cleansing and ridding the economy of inefficient
firms or the vultures eating away the carcass of diseased dead animals as
a way to cleanse the jungle of a possible widespread plague - begin the
necessary yet painful process of creative destruction to purge Philippine
society?
Can this crisis purge our society of so many bad habits and
anti-entrepreneur cultural values inherited from our Spanish colonizers,
as well as shatter the age-old stranglehold of sloth and corruption?
Taipan John L. Gokongwei Jr. of JG Summit Holdings offered
several short-term suggestions to reverse the tide of pessimism in the
Philippines. He proposed:
"We need reforms in lowering electric power costs, improving the
labor situation, peace and order and other factors affecting inflow of
investments, but I suggest an immediate short-term project to boost our
economy, which is for government to construct a good airport near Boracay.
"If an entrepreneur like me plans a factory, it will take five
years to have an impact on the economy, but an ordinary airport near
Boracay as big as those in Bacolod or Iloilo will take only the government
one year and not too much costs. If this airport is built, our Cebu
Pacific airline can fly many thousands of tourists from Singapore, Hong
Kong, Seoul, Tokyo and other places direct to Boracay - no need to pass by
Manila - and other airlines can also do so. This will bring hundreds of
thousands of tourists to Boracay and boost our foreign exchange earnings.
"We should develop our other infrastructures in tourism in
Pagudpod in Ilocos Norte, the Hundred Islands in Pangasinan, places in
Cebu, Mindanao, Visayas. We need willpower to do all of these things
immediately, not just talk, talk and talk."
Taipan Lucio C. Tan said that apart from depending on overseas
Filipino workers (OFWs), the Philippine economy should pin its high hopes
and encourage the robust expansion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
nationwide. He offered his Allied Bank and the Philippine National Bank as
lenders to SME entrepreneurs, urging people to invest more in globally
competitive ventures that will create new jobs and be export-oriented. No
Regrets Of Yesterday, No Fears Of Tomorrow There is a wonderful little
book authored years ago by Spencer Johnson entitled The Precious Present.
He wrote there: "Regret over yesterday and fear of tomorrow are the twin
thieves that rob me of today."
Indeed, the leaders of the Philippines cannot afford to daydream
or keep romanticizing about the American colonial era - when we had
Southeast Asia's most modern economy with its strength enduring up to the
postwar years, when the Americans built perhaps Asia's best public schools
here, the nicest roads, when our sugar, copra, gold and other exports had
almost unlimited access to the US market. We also cannot afford to waste
all our time blaming all our ills on 333 years of backward Spanish
colonial policies, cultural subjugation and their economic exploitation.
The Christian survivor of Nazi death camps, Corrie Ten Boom,
wrote: "Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of
its strength." The Philippines should not fear tomorrow - the irreversible
crashing down of trade barriers, the startling onslaught of globalization,
the instability in world oil prices, or the rise of other Asian economic
powers.
We have no time to waste on regrets, on fears, on worries. We
should immerse ourselves on non-stop and unrelenting hard work, unwavering
pursuit of national discipline and indomitable hope. We should reexamine
the woeful and decaying state of the national economy, purge it of
inefficiencies and exorcise all anti-business ghouls. Use heavy doses of
bitter medicine immediately on the Philippine economy, not false
palliatives like aspirins which will only bring about good politics but
lousy economics. We should put a stop to all cosmetic measures for
political pogi points. We should not flinch with undertaking major
surgery, cutting away the diseases and gangrenes like corruption, sloth,
bureaucratic red tape and political ennui, no matter how much blood
letting or pain are necessary!

The Philippines should not succumb to pessimism and implode like
Argentina did in 2001, but must fearlessly confront this monster fiscal
crisis head-on, resolutely grab the bull by the horns, and extract all
possible opportunities out of this crisis situation. There are still so
much positive good news in this archipelago - rich natural resources, vast
arable lands, great tourism potentials, large pool of young talent, the
best tropical climate, eight million overseas Filipino workers sending
foreign exchange back home and many other exciting possibilities waiting
to be tapped.
The Chinese phrase "wei-ji" for "crisis" is indeed wise in
reminding us about both danger and opportunity. A crisis can destroy us,
or it can actually strengthen and cleanse the Philippines - depending on
our response, our outlook and attitude. How many great persons in history
became strong-willed, tough-minded, resolute, disciplined and immovable in
their invincible dreams after going through the crucible of crisis? The
same fire that melts butter is also the same fire that hardens steel and
purifies gold.
We must demand that all our political leaders boldly push the
most far-reaching social, economic, cultural and even political reforms
and -if necessary, vigorously shake up and turn the whole Philippine
society upside down - today!

From: leeq@sympatico.ca