Skip to main content

The joys of 53 peso gas, Econ 11 with Robina Gokongwei, grad speeches

Drivers like me have noticed something in the last few weeks. Ever since coming back from a spate of field work in April and May, I have noticed that there are fewer cars on Manila's main streets even on weekdays.

It was possible for me to go to Manila Ocean Park in Luneta from Diliman in 30 minutes on a weekday! On weekends even on a Saturday (the worst day according to motorists) when number coding is not in effect, there is less traffic nowadays.

The crisis has taken a big bite. The first sign of a recession is less cars on the road. Fewer people will go to the malls, such as the one owned by the Gokongweis.

And speaking of the Gokongweis, the Kwentong Peyups of the Philippine Star last Sunday (25 May) had Robina Gokongwei's commencement speech to the centennial graduates of the UP School of Economics. You can download a pdf file of her speech at the UP Econ website.

Robina is famous for having been kidnapped in the early 80s when she was an Econ senior. Thus she was sent overseas and didn't get a UP degree. Anyway her speech I believe ranks as one of the best commencement speeches I have ever read. Throughout my life I have heard many commencement speeches (I am a prof and this is the torture I have to go through every year!) most of which are so boring. In my high school graduation, the commencement speech was given by a top minister of the Marcos regime. The only thing I remember from the speech was this economics fact "The Philippines is the 5th largest producer of sweet potatoes (kamote)". The grad rites were saved by the memorable valedictory of class egghead Bunny Pena (a daughter of Marcos environment minister Teddy Pena) when she challenged us to "give more since we have been given more". Nothing should challenge a UP high grad such as that. Well not to disappoint Bunny, I am trying to give my most to this day!

I don't even recall the grad speeches when I got by BSc and MSc but when I got my PhD the grad speech was given by a top rate Aussie zoologist from Melbourne Uni who challenged us to "first get a dog" before we embark on an academic career. Wise advice. Dogs will die for you but not your department chair!

Nonetheless Robina's speech was a quick backtrack on Economics 11. I was lucky to have Winnie Monsod as my econ 11 prof. It was a good refresher. But I liked it when Robina said she did not wear a midriff when she was kidnapped. She said she had not and never will have the body to wear such a thing. Best of all she explained once more the theory of diminishing returns. Nothing demonstrates what a PhD can give you as that theory. How I wish they would pay us senior manager's salary. Hey waitaminit, the UP Charter is now law. That should raise our pay. Her advice to the new grads? Stick to your jobs. The Desiderata counsels the same.

And for her kakambal na ahas? What has that to do with Economics. Well she tells the whole story in her speech. It has something to do with market competition.

Now that we are in a bad economic time, Robina's speech is a whiff of a breeze!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Simoun's lamp has been lit, finally.. not by one but by the many!

"So often have we been haunted by the spectre of subversion which, with some fostering, has come to be a positive and real being, whose very name steals our serenity and makes us commit the greatest blunders... If before the reality, instead of changing the fear of one is increased, and the confusion of the other is exacerbated, then they must be left in the hands of time..." Dr Jose Rizal "To the Filipino People and their Government" Jose Rizal dominates the Luneta, which is sacred to the Philippine nation as a place of martyrdom. And many perhaps all of those executed in the Luneta, with the exception of the three Filipino secular priests martyred in 1872, have read Rizal's  El Filibusterismo . Dr Rizal's second novel is a darker and more sinister one that its prequel but has much significance across the century and more after it was published for it preaches the need for revolution with caveats,  which are when the time is right and who will in...

Kung bakit dapat maging wikang pambansa din ang Ingles

Isang kakatwang eksena ang nasaksihan ko sa isang pribabdong opisina kamakailan lang. Dalawang empleyado ang inatasang bigyan ng solusyon ang isang isyu tungkol sa logistics. Ang isa ang tubong Davao at ang isa ay taga Iloilo. Ang unang wika nila ay Cebuano (Bisaya) at Hiligaynon (Ilonggo). Ang dalawang wika ay halos pareho ngunit may mga katagang iba ang kahulugan sa isa't isang wika. Ginamit nila ang wika nilang kinalakihan at hindi sila nagkaintindihan. Ang nangyari tuloy ay gumamit na lang sila ng wikang Ingles! Yung na nga rin ang sabi ko. Mag-English na lang kaya kayo! At bakit di wikang Filipino ang ginamit nila? Sa totoo lang, marami pa rin ang hindi bihasa sa Filipino upang gamitin ito sa mga larangan tulad ng logistics. At hindi lamang sa mga larangang teknikal, sa mga biyahe ko sa ibat-ibat lugar sa Pilipinas, ang mga naka-paskel sa mga CR o palikuran tungkol sa pagtitipid ng tubig ay naka sulat sa 1)Wika ng rehiyon 2) Wikang Ingles 3) at minsa'y sa wikang Filipino S...

Leonard Co (1953-2010), Filipino botanist

With much sadness and shock I learned from WWF chair Lory Tan that internationally renowned botanist Leonard Co was killed together with a guide and a forest ranger last Monday, 15 November in a firefight in Leyte between Armed Forces of the Philippines soldiers and Communist guerrillas. As the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports it ,  Co and his researchers were surveying a forest plot of the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) for native Philippine trees and plants especially those that are in danger of extinction, like this Rafflesia flower (the picture I got from Dr Julie Barcelona's blog . Thank you Julie) The 41 year old Communist insurgency has again claimed another life of the best and brightest of the Philippines. In Leonard Co's case, a bright life that cannot be replaced. For he was one of if not the last of  the classically trained botanists in plant taxonomy and systematics in the Philippines. While one can learn the basics of these disciplines i...