Philippine politics

The Filipino people are not really divided into liberal or conservative, socialist or capitalist, communist or fascist. Sure there are religious and ethnic and linguistic groups, but for the most part these are groups that can get along with each other.

One would think that without any of these divisive ideologies cutting through the social order, we would have one united population happily moving the country forward. But no, Philippine politics is divided as well: The two political groups we have are the administration and the opposition.

Neither of these two have a coherent political ideology that they stand for. One of them concerns themselves with administering the government and moving the country forward, and the other gains political points by hindering progress and moving the country backward (ironically, so that they may someday be the ones moving the country forward). Once in a while, the opposition succeeds in bringing down the administration, then the two groups exchange roles and the cycle continues. Make no mistake, both of them are driven by personal ambition and self-interest, though neither group recognizes it in themselves.

I could blog every single day about all this political noise that goes on (it's tempting!), but I feel I'd only be contributing to it without making a hint of difference one way or the other. Although the economy actually is moving forward quite nicely and things seem to be getting better all the time, the political situation is the same today as it was 10 years ago, and will be 10 years from now.