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Focus on the Philippines Number 38 |
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Contra Factum non esse disputandum: Reply to the UP School of Economics on the Fiscal Crisis
By Walden Bello, Lidy Nacpil, and Ana Maria Nemenzo*
The September 19, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer featured a response to the critique of Walden Bello, Lidy Nacpil, and Ana Maria Nemenzo on the UP School of Economics paper on the fiscal crisis (FOP 36). The response entitled “The Bello, et al critique: Biased and Economically unsound” was penned by six Phd student of the UP School of Economics (available at HYPERLINK "http://news.inq7.net/opinion/index.php?index=1&col=&story_id=11939"http://n
ews.inq7.net/opinion/index.php?index=1&col=&story_id=11939). In this issue of FOP we feature Bello, Nacpil, and Nemenzo’s reply to the paper of the UPSE students. This came out in the Talk of the Town section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer last 26 September 2004.
Walden Bello is professor of sociology and public administration at the University of the Philippines and executive director of Focus on the Global South. Lidy Nacpil is secretary general of the Freedom from Debt Coalition.Ana Maria Nemenzo is president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition. |
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Focus on the Philippines Number 37 |
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Beirut 2004: A Milestone in the Global Struggle against Injustice and War
Speech at the Assembly on "Where Next for the Anti-War and Anti-Globalization Movements?," in Beirut, Lebanon, Sept. 17, 2004
By Walden Bello
In this Issue
We feature the speech of Walden Bello at the opening of the International Strategy Meeting of the Anti-War and Anti-Globalization Movements held from September 17-19 2004 in Beirut, Lebanon. The historic assembly in Beirut had two main objectives: It was organized to provide a venue for activists to debate and agree upon a global plan of action to oppose US-led globalization, imperialism and militarism and to build a broad, international movement by establishing links between anti-war, anti-globalisation, Arab/Middle East movements and the rest of the international movement.
In his speech, Bello outlined the historical context of the movement (the Anti-War and Anti-Globalization Movements) from marginalization less than ten years ago to global civil society’s emergence as a global political force. The meat of Bello’s speech of course centers on the war in Iraq and the Iraqi Peoples’ Resistance. Bello posed a challenge to the Movement to come to terms with its position on the Iraqi Resistance. To overcome the hesitation to support the Resistance that Bello observed within the peace movement and to help understand its important role in Iraq, he emphasized that “there has never been any pretty movement for national liberation or independence.” “What progressives forget is that national liberation movements are not asking them mainly for ideological or political support. What they really want from the outside, from progressive like us, is international pressure for the withdrawal of an illegitimate occupying power so that internal forces can have the space to forge a truly national government based on their unique processes.”
Walden Bello was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for 2003. The prize is better known as the Alternative Nobel Prize. Bello is executive director of the Bangkok-based research organization Focus on the Global South and a professor of sociology and public administration at the University of the Philippines
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Focus on the Philippines Number 36 |
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The UP School of Economics Report: Overdue, Selective, Not Daring Enough
By Walden Bello, Lidy Nacpil, and Ana Marie Nemenzo*
In this Issue:
We feature Bello, Nacpil, and Nemenzo’s response to the much talked-about UP School of Economics report on the fiscal crisis. Prior to this critique, the discussions on the fiscal crisis, in media and among government bureacrats and advisers, have all focused on the dire need to raise revenues through new tax measures and cutting down on expenditures by reducing the “pork” . This article points out the problem of the UP reports in so far as timing--“This is a report that should have come out before the election campaign. Then it could probably have acted as a brake on the administration’s spending its way to victory in the May 10 elections—a fact underlined by the sharp P7.8 billion rise in government expenditure in April compared to the figure for April 2003.”, of bias – “What it fails to point out is that the unilateral liberalization program initiated by Ramos’ technocrats made it more difficult for succeeding administrations to balance the budget.Why is such a major cause of significantly reduced revenue completely ignored by the UPSE report? Can it be that the reason lies in the ideological bias of some of the authors, who were uncritical supporters of the program of unilateral trade liberalization?”, and lack of courage in addressing the issue of public debt-- “The truth of the matter is that the main item that has busted and will always bust any attempt at fiscal alleviation, much less balance, is the never ending and rising payments to foreign creditors.”
This article came out in the front page of the BusinessWorld last 27 August 2004.
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Focus on the Philippines Number 35 |
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On the Side of Empire?
by Herbert Docena
In this issue:
We feature a speech delivered by Herbert Docena on behalf of Gathering for Peace and the Iraq Solidarity Campaign at the the forum “Hostaged? Philippine Foreign Policy after Angelo dela Cruz” in UP Diliman last August 12.
Herbert Docena is a foreign policy analyst with Focus on the Global South.
ON THE SIDE OF EMPIRE?
By Herbert Docena
In 1948, George Kennan, then a director of planning at the US State Department, wrote what has become a classic quote among foreign policy circles. “We have about 60 per cent of the world's wealth but only 6.3 per cent of its population,” he said. Our real task in the coming period (will be) to maintain this position of disparity... We will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming...The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts.... The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.” |
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Focus on the Philippines Number 34 |
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G 20 Leaders Succumb to Divide-and-Rule Tactics:
The Story behind Washington’s Triumph in Geneva
By Walden Bello and Aileen Kwa*
In this issue
We feature Walden Bello and Aileen Kwa’s critical look at the process that produced the WTO Framework agreement in Geneva last July. The article outlines the uncanny efforts of the trade superpowers to push their trade agenda by undermining and co-opting the so called “third world unity” that seemed to have emerged in Cancun. In the end, the shifting tactics and rhetoric of the United States and Europe paid off. The US and the EU (and the corporate interests these governments serve) got what they want and in the process made developing countries like the Philippines believe that the flawed framework will also be good for them.
Walden Bello is Executive Director of Focus on the Global South and Aileen Kwa is a research associate of Focus on the Global South and co-author of the book “Behind the Scenes at the WTO: The real world of international trade negotiations.
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