“All warfare is based on deception” - A short note on why Sun Tzu's statement remains widely practiced in China today

Deception may be morally wrong to some, but it can be used as a tool to be successful even in today’s way of doing business. This can be particularly important when it comes to doing business negotiations and deals. When dealing with a potential business partner or client, many tend to exaggerate/stress only the benefits that they are going to offer their client. For instance, the Chinese emphasizes how China is a booming economy, provide potentially lower costs, and offer a huge domestic market. Although these statements have truth to them, they are usually not fully explained in detail (the devil is in the details!). Disadvantages, meanwhile, are often shunned during these discussions (for obvious reasons). Their foreign partners or counterparts, meanwhile, are more transparent on what they can offer. Although there are formal contracts after negotiations, these are normally not followed. More often than not, unwritten laws do surface later on. There even are cases in which Chinese companies simply learn and "steal" the technology of their foreign partner, and after that, will separately set-up a business with similar technology.

However, in modern business, these may seem unethical and immoral. As a consequence, there are some conservative companies that refuse to enter China, despite knowing that there are opportunities present.

China's evolution to a market-oriented economy will gradually make business negotiations more transparent and less deceptive. The reputation of the “deceptive” company will surely be ruined when it presents ambiguous facts and dubious agreements. Previously, domestic Chinese companies view that stakes are high in a competitive environment so many would rather go for the deceptive way of doing business, in hopes of accelerating deals and partnerships. However, many would soon realize that the key to long-term success is to adopt ethical business practices.

Oil at US$1000/bbl?

If we could only store oil-filled barrels in our homes without the fear of getting burned alive while sleeping… we would probably do so.

The recent surge in oil prices is truly mind-boggling. Just ten years ago, this non-renewable resource was selling for just under ten dollars a barrel. It was practically taken for granted. With the straight line increase of demand over the past few years, prices have skyrocketed to a high of around USD 147/ barrel. Some put the blame on commodity traders and hedge fund managers who speculate that oil prices would go even higher, thereby creating an artificial demand that put more upward pressure on prices. Others point fingers to emerging China and India, whose thirst for energy has never been on such an unprecedented scale. These two countries, with a combined population of nearly three billion, consume 8 million barrels of oil per day. If these two giants’ per capita consumption were to reach 69 bbl/ year (the current per capita consumption of the US), the 8 million consumed now will balloon to 158 million barrels a day.

Let us do the math. Research would show that the current proven reserves of oil producing nations, at current rates of consumption, have around 65 years to completely eradicate the supply of oil in the world. That’s less than two generations! But world oil consumption is not static. With the transformation of highly populated countries to economic powerhouses, consumption is expected to rise further. The good news is, supply is also not static. While it is a non-renewable resource, there is still much undiscovered oil in the world. Oil explorations have started in remote regions such as the Arctic, speculated to hold around 10% of the world’s supply of undiscovered oil. It would, however, take a long time before infrastructure can be set-up to pump oil from these far-flung regions of the world.

Time will only tell when demand will outpace supply by a huge margin… If demand does not slow down, one day, we would be waking up to US$1000 per barrel of oil!

Development & Economic Growth

All or almost all nations in the world desire to be wealthy, and maintain an economy that is stable & consistently rising. What is it that economic growth bring about that makes it so important and to all?

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has long been used as a benchmark for measuring the economies of the world. With GDP, We may say that a country is “rich” or “poor,” and know whether the population has a high or low standard of living (using GDP per capita.) In addition, positive fluctuations in the GDP may be termed as “economic growth,” while negative fluctuations are declines of the economy.
Webster’s Dictionary defines development the process of “growth, evolution, and differentiation.” With this definition in mind, development may cover almost all aspects of society. Even economic growth can be characterized as one type of development, that is, “Financial Development.” Many other types of development occur in a society that in one way or another, but not necessarily, go hand in hand with economic growth. Social development, health care development, and cultural development are some examples.
Development in these aspects of society may somehow be coupled to economic growth. This is because the more the resources a nation has, the more wealth is allocated to all aspects of society. For instance, the Japanese government swears that they only allocate 1% of its national budget to defense. But this insignificant proportion of their spending may already represent the entire economies of poorer Third-World countries. Thus, more money is allocated to the development of defense of Japan as compared to poor nations who have to make use of such amount to all facets of society.
It may be safe to conclude that economic growth and development correlates with each other, but not essentially a relationship of causation. This will depend entirely on how the government can make use of a nation’s wealth and be able to vary its spending. If it wishes to put 100% of its GDP on investments and foreign trade, then there would be no more room for the social & cultural development, and the like. On the other hand, if it does not venture on rewarding investments but rather concentrate on non-earning projects of development, then growth on the part of the government may somehow be hindered. Therefore, it’s really all a matter of diversification of government spending: If growth in the economy goes together with growth of all other sectors of the country, then that is “development”.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo often sings her own praises by saying that GDP growth has been growing steadily over her short administration. In fact, The GDP growth rate of the country last year even reached its highest level since the 1997 financial crisis. However, the starving masses of the country are complaining that this so-called “growth” was never felt by them, and only rich entrepreneurs are able to take advantage of this economic upturn. Thus, the economic growth seemed artificial because development was really not felt by the people: accumulation of human labor, capital and other resources may not be all that important to the development of a nation.

On a Mission

For the next 30 days, I'm on a mission to build a better, stronger and more powerful vocabulary. To do this, I shall try to write short anecdotes using the new set of words that I will learn for the day.

The Difference between Hong Kong and Manila

Differences between the two Asian cities 2 hours apart by plane:

(1) Mode of Transportation

In Manila, it is more convenient for one to drive a car. While in HK, public transportation, such as taking the MTR, is more common than driving.

One of the reasons why this is so is due to the cheap parking rates that Manilenyos are so used to. I realized how cheap parking rates are in the Philippines (40 pesos, 7.5HKD for one whole day in some establishments) the first time I saw a sign which says "120 HKD (PHP 650) for ONE WHOLE DAY!" For five days worth of parking in HK, one could already afford to rent out a parking space for an entire month in the Makati CBD.

The second reason is perhaps very obvious. Manila lacks an efficient public transport system, which makes the traveling experience for commuters a nightmare. For instance, the best effort that I've seen to organize this system is the MMDA setting up an organized bus route along EDSA. Then again, this so-called "organization" is still pretty chaotic, as passengers are still dropped off anywhere they want along the sidestreets of the highway. In addition, our MRT and LRT lines are pretty much a disaster compared to what HK has to offer.

In contrast, HK boasts of an extremely efficient transport system and because of this, you can pretty much predict exactly when you are going to arrive at your destination. Efficiency seems to be the rule here in HK, and an exception in Manila. There was one time in the MTR, for example, where the train suddenly stopped since a passenger inside the train that was ahead of us needed some assistance. I worried that this may take some time and l may be late for office that day. Contrary to my expectations, the train was again moving after only 3 minutes. There was even an electronic apology that was heard from the train speakers "SORRY FOR THE DELAY" - a clear indication that efficiency is top priority in this society.

Bus stops also have clear signs as to the bus routes and schedule. MTR stations are properly linked from one line to another, thereby elimitating the hassle of walking long distances to reach an interchange station. If you're unfamiliar with the location in which you're headed to, there are clear, descriptive signs that will help you find your way out of the station.

- to be cont'd

Account of an Assembly-line Worker

“It’s hard, it’s tough, and yet I have to do it” the young woman I interviewed said.

For many Boholanos, Manila is seen as the land of milk and honey, where all the golden opportunities await. For a hopeful Marilyn Gomez, this was the case. Shortly before leaving the rural farmlands of Bohol, she waved goodbye to her family and ventured into a new quest. Like any ordinary Boholana, Marilyn Gomez had her fears. One of them was being left alone with no close family to talk or come home to. Some were very unrealistic. But despite these qualms, she was determined to do whatever is possible to support a family in dire need of help—a promise she had made to her family and to herself.

Marilyn arrived in the port of Manila some two years ago. Like most typical teenagers in her locality, Marilyn had studied in a public high school. It wasn’t long before she was forced to withdraw from her studies to help support her family. They were already in extreme poverty and they could no longer spare enough money for her studies. Even though she did not have to pay tuition, staying in school was still difficult for a family that was barely making ends meet. According to Marilyn, the expenses for High School—for school supplies, and the like—have skyrocketed over the past few years. In addition, she also said that spending another cent of their budget for books, transportation and snacks would be very wasteful. Because of this, she was left with no other choice but to find work to help the family earn a living. With many siblings still at a very young age, Marilyn knew and understood that more opportunities awaited them as opposed to her. Choosing to be selfless, she knew that she had to make certain sacrifices now, so that their standard of living might alleviate in the near future. Thus, at the very young age of 18, she had to find work. With only a few hundred pesos in her pocket, she bought a ferry ride ticket to Manila, with hopes of taking the center stage, pushing her fears in away in the deepest recesses of her brain.

Upon arriving in Manila, she was awestricken with all the towering skyscrapers surrounding the city. Her cousin, who was working in Manila, came to fetch her from the sea port. Still skeptical of all the opportunities waiting for her, Marilyn and her cousin traveled and left off to the remote area of Barangay Hulo, Mandaluyong City where her cousin resided. Life wasn’t all that well for the next few months. She mentioned that they were living a hand to mouth existence from her cousin’s meager earnings, as she remained jobless for three months straight, relying merely on her cousin for survival.

An opportunity finally came when Marilyn found a job opening in a garments factory in the greater metropolis area. The opening job was for an assembly line worker, whose sole work was to basically check the quality of the finished goods sent in batches, or in other words, a “checker”. Knowing that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, she grabbed the job. She described her task as a very easy task, wherein a handful of clothes is passed on to her, after every production run. Her job was to check for discoloration of the garments, inspect for holes or any missing buttons, and check if the shirts are sewn correctly, one by one. After careful inspection, she would then pass it on to the tagging department.

The work, at first, was perfect for the girl who had an educational attainment only up to 2nd-year High School. It was a low skilled job that paid slightly above the minimum wage. Pay was enough to live through the days, and there was sufficient savings to be sent home every month. She was contented with everything about her job at first. Although promotion seemed impossible, this was her ultimate dream—to belong amongst the white-collared sector workers in the factory. Marilyn’s work became one of the most important things in her life; in fact she gave up many things to get the job. This isn’t really surprising for people like her, for many of her kababayans have also left home to find greater opportunities. Marilyn wasn’t alone in her pursuit. In the small town of Bohol, economy was never there to speak of. However, here in Manila, economy is the rule.

Over the next few months, what seemed to be a determined Marilyn has become less resolute in her ways and words. I noticed how her character shifted from what she described to who I was now talking to face to face. Maybe she had never guessed how working here in Manila would affect her psychologically; the utter emptiness of being alone in an unfamiliar place, with no close friends and family to console with is already enough to justify this. She was happy about her pay, but in some way, I could see that she realized that she had never truly been contented with her work.

Marilyn saw the factory as something that would fulfill her goals of earning money for the future of her family. On the other hand, what I see is a big industrial unit, of which in its entirety, is a huge garment producing machine where the need of man to be clothed is fulfilled. In such case, maybe the company as a whole can be “humanizing” in a sense that it wrests something from nature. This starts from the gathering of supply from nature (i.e., cotton) and transforming them to more durable types of garments with different sizes, styles, colors, etc. The clothing perfects human beings in that it fulfills whatever size, style, color is needed by the person for a specific occasion.

However, Marilyn’s job, seen as an individual department among the rest of the company is undeniably dehumanizing. How a person could be reduced to do such a mechanical work is appalling. She can be replaced by just any high-technology quality control machine, but maybe because of cost-cutting or lack of machinery, employees like her were used instead. The reality that they used human beings instead to do a machine’s work is really an excruciating fact. All the potentialities of that human being, Marilyn Gomez in this case, have all been erased from her; it’s just like being born without a human mind, feeling, talent, skill or even a soul! This is the reality of Marilyn’s job that she has to face day by day. She works only for the sake of compensation—to get a diminutive sum of money in return. In my point of view, the antagonism of subjectivity and objectivity seems to be very clear now. Marilyn, like all human beings is an embodiment of subjectivity, but in her work, her objectivity is what dominates her. It is not anymore her human soul using only her body as an instrument to transfer meaning, but rather, it uses the functional characteristic of her objective self primarily, repeating whatever work that needs to be repeated.

The humdrum activity of checking, checking, and more checking is what seems to revolve around Marilyn’s work. She has no chance of imparting even the slightest of creativity given to her by God. Though I myself would not be able to concretely know what she exactly feels by the way she described her work, the monotonous process seemingly presents itself. The enslaving monotony of the work, in my opinion, would seem analogous to the relationship of a dog and his master. When a dog fetches an artificial bone thrown by his master, I see Marilyn at work. When a dog catches the bone and promptly returns it to his master, I see Marilyn at work. When a dog cheerfully accepts the dog pellet rewarded by his master after doing a job well-done, I see Marilyn at work. On and on, the three-step routine happens over and over again in a seemingly endless process.

When asked what type of work she would want in the near future, she replied, “office work. If I have earned enough money to support my own studies and that of my siblings, then I can continue my studies and hopefully I can get into some sort of office work.” She continued and said in a very serious tone, “But if God wants me to remain at my present work, I really have no choice.” This, for me, was proof of her frustration with work, mainly because she can not really fully grow as person, with all her God-given talents and ideas going down the drain as work went on.

I really sympathize, if not pity, with Marilyn. It wasn’t her choice to be born in the slums of Bohol. Poverty, for her, was a given fact rather than a choice she could make; a facticity which she needed to face and endure. She made a move and transcended this physical and material poverty by trying to find work in the urbanized city of Manila. It would seem that she had transcended it, because of the “sufficient” earnings she received monthly. At the heart of it, however, is her very soul diminishing because of the monotony of the work—of being used as an object. Of what seemed a transcendence of her materially, resulted in the gradual poverty of her soul.

With this, I have now come to a better understanding of what Marx was saying with regard to the needs of people. Marx views the true needs of man as “those whose fulfillment is necessary of his essence as a human being.” In Marilyn’s case, there is financial fulfillment in that she can now eat a better meal or maybe even sleep under a better shelter. Then again, this does not come without a certain kind of compromise: she has to endure an aspect of alienation in her work. The extrinsic rewards come as a medium of exchange for all the work she gives, but intrinsic fulfillment is what really counts in a human being. Such rewards is what makes her truly human in that she develops love for her work from the inside—establishing passion for the job with a certain degree of permanency. However, all she gets are extrinsic rewards that are superficial and only provide for her short term ends and goals.

A look back into this interview made me realize something: contentment is a value, and this I have learned to cherish after this experience. One really can’t expect for everything to be handed down in a silver platter. Tomorrow, or a few days after this interview, I would once more get on with my life and maybe even forget about my encounter with this worker. However, from this point forward, I have learned to respect the value of workers; especially for most blue-collared factory workers who work for the sake of money— combating poverty even if it means losing their humanity in the process.