PARADOXICAL

Wanted: Urgent Re-prioritization for the Real 'Great Reset'

Actor Benjamin Alves said something so aptly worded, so true, and so sad: "Filipinos are being priced out of their own country."

If an artista who can easily earn millions -- and who ostensibly don't belong to any of those leftist ideology-driven 'militant' groups -- can feel the pinch, imagine what this means for those who receive ordinary salaries in terms of their nutrition, health, housing, retirement, overall quality of life...

What have we done to our country and our people? We have made it become more and more difficult to live in every aspect of life. As reports have documented in detail over the years, we have made it very difficult to eat well, get educated, find a job, marry, have kids, get sick, get old, and even die. And not because Filipinos are dumb and lazy.

In our towns and villages, basic things are utterly missing: proper roads with proper sidewalks; decent drainage system; proper basketball court; spacious park with a decent playground for kids to play safely and sports complex for athletes to train; basic agricultural facilities; greenhouses, nurseries, and seed banks to sustain local food production; affordable, efficient, and convenient transport system that put in mind the welfare of lowly commuters and not just car-owners; adequate number of sorely needed healthcare and helping specialists such as allergologists, EENTs, psychologists, psychiatrists, OB-Gyne, counselors/therapists per capita; companies and manufacturing firms that are part of entire industries that could provide opportunities for a host of professions and workers...

Something should be done right away to right things before things boil over.

I don't know how, but something needs to be done right away with the pricing of basic commodities and most especially the steep pricing of utility providers which eat up most of household budgets. Bring back the purchasing power of the peso.

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Over the long term, it looks like what we need to be, as a nation, is one that is capable of producing its own fuel and energy source (be it oil and gas or alternatives), food, medicine, and other essential needs -- all at affordable prices. And while at it, let's not forget self-defense.

This requires diverse alternative energy sources, efficient and modern agriculture, local production of pharmaceuticals, and an assortment of manufacturing industries, preferably those supporting these basic needs: oil extraction and refineries, alterative power generators, farm inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, feeds), machines, raw materials processing facilities, and factories of medical and food products.

I may sound dreaming, but the alternative scenarios are all nightmarish and dystopic.

We should pivot to the strategy of learning how to stand on our own two feet, for a change. We should be the ones making the great reset, not some mysterious cabal of globalists who don't have our best interests on their agenda.

posted by Resty Odon  # 10:15 PM