Comments | idaisda: go local! go indie!

idaisda

go local! go indie!

Jul 21, 2006 13:14

ever wonder why there's such a wide gap between the rich and the poor in our country? the answer is quite obvious for some - the domination of multi-million/multi-national corporations running our lives and hogging all the economic wealth most likely by questionable means. it all seems unfair and we can either blame "them" or find a way to do ( Read more... )

Comments 9

yo_jo_mo July 21 2006, 08:01:52 UTC

actually, i think the biggest problem in our country is less of the multi-national companies and more because the philippines is still basically a feudal system. most of the nation's wealth is in the hands of certain families that practically run the whole country: the ayalas, the yuchencos, and others ( ... )

idaisda July 21 2006, 17:56:27 UTC

"there has to be a way to reorganize society so that we don't rely on this modern feudal system. then we can go on and fight the multi-nationals."

--> reorganizing an entire society is ideal. but we can't wait for society to be reorganized before we can do something about these corporations hogging all the profits and controlling the market. nothing will happen if we wait for the system to change. we can, however, start with small, concrete steps. even something as simple as chosing local over imported or starting your own business that markets locally made products. its a small start, but a start. david didnt let power or size or the system stop him from defeating goliath.

yo_jo_mo July 22 2006, 01:18:22 UTC

speaking of suppporting local businesses, your custom-made journals and pants are great! dude! once you have enough capital, you could start your own business already. call it ida's printas. har har har.;P

asthenos July 21 2006, 14:21:01 UTC

I have to agree with JoQ. The Philippines is a rich country--this cliche we've heard often enough. What is lacking is equitable wealth distribution ( ... )

idaisda July 21 2006, 17:47:28 UTC

its a start. its an ideal. it may not seem practical but in the long run it could lead to greater things. maybe not for the business minded but perhaps for our national identity. it doesn't hurt to have a little pride (as i understand yabang is a loose translation of pride in tagalog ( ... )

asthenos July 23 2006, 07:10:26 UTC

I'm not in any way questioning the nobility of the project, or the potential efficacy of taking things one small step at a time. But I certainly have reservations about the project, especially since all I have to go on is the information they have on their Web site, which doesn't include any of the products you mentioned. I want to see what the abaca band represents.

If the movement wants to set up viable, sustainable companies producing local products exclusively, the organizers need to offer something more compelling than appeals to national pride, because, generally speaking, Filipinos aren't, for lack of a better term, conceptual consumers.

With regard to the use of "yabang", the word usually connotes arrogance, so it's not one I'm comfortable with.

the_erotomanic July 23 2006, 06:58:09 UTC

interesting discussion.

i think we have people supporting our own products. there're a lot of clothing stores in the country that are filipino owned. just not sure if they're being manufactured here. but the main problem with filipino made products is the price. unfortunately for us, filipino-made products would cost us an arm and a leg, because it's "export quality". although the production cost is low, the markup is high. i don't even know the logic in this. we have to pay extra because they made sure that the product is not defective in anyway. it's like we don't deserve our own products. although, it's good that we put high value in our work, but business wise, that's not much help.

asthenos July 23 2006, 07:22:26 UTC

Actually, our production cost is higher than in a lot of different places. Remember the flap that ensued when it was discovered that the so-called Baguio vegetables were actually from Australia?

the_erotomanic July 23 2006, 08:21:02 UTC

is it higher? yeah, well, if you're going to compare it to china, it is. but still, i think, we could still manufacture stuff here, and it won't cost too much.

don't remember much aobut the baguio vegetables coming from australia, but i do remember that there was an issue regarding that. i have really bad memory. hehe!