pursuit of happiness

A number of friends have asked me how the Philippine economy is doing right now. In response, I like to borrow a brilliant phrase from an official of S&P about how the country is an island of calm amidst the global financial crisis. As my economics professor Solita Monsod has pointed out, the Philippine economic portfolio is diversified and not heavily dependent on any one country. The economy continues to grow, the employment rate is increasing, inflation at 11.2% is manageable, and remittances are projected to increase (the Central Bank's economic indicators are here). For all her well-known faults, President Arroyo has done an excellent job as the national cheerleader by focusing on the economy and keeping business people calm and optimistic. Had laws allowed it, I think that she and future Presidents deserve the higher salary that was proposed a couple of weeks ago, both as a means to avoid corruption and an incentive for well-qualified people to run for the position (Singapore provides a successful model for this, with its Prime Minister now earning five times more than the US President).

During challenging times such as these, I get inspiration from cross-country running. It's both an individual and a team sport, since you draw strength from within yourself and your teammates, sometimes even adversaries against whom you pace yourself. In high school, to keep the team motivated during the run, Coach Ernie liked to say, "Keep running! You don't know who's going to win until someone reaches the finish line." Everyone had to run the same distance and face the same obstacles and therefore had the same chance of winning. Here are lines of a poem that best express the spirit of this sport, an attitude that can be applied to all aspects of one's life:

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.

- Walter Wintle, "Thinking"


Thanks to Erik Santos for the song "This is the Moment."