Informal Economy Top 3 Nations

State of the Nation Address

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile; Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.; Vice President Jejomar Binay; former Presidents Fidel Valdez Ramos and Joseph Ejercito Estrada; Chief Justice Renato Corona and the honorable Justices of the Supreme Court; honorable members of the diplomatic corps; members of the House of Representatives and the Senate; Local Government Officials; members of our Cabinet; members of the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police; to my fellow servants of the Filipino people;

And to my beloved countrymen, my Bosses:

I stood before you during my inauguration and promised: we would do away with the use of the wang-wang. This one gesture has become the symbol of change, not just in our streets, but even in our collective attitude.

Over the years, the wang-wang had come to symbolize abuse of authority. It was routinely used by public officials to violate traffic laws, inconveniencing ordinary motorists—as if only the time of the powerful few, and no one else’s, mattered. Instead of behaving like public servants, they acted like kings. This privilege was extended to their cronies and patrons, who moved along the streets as if they were aristocracy, indifferent to those who were forced to give way and were left behind. Abusing privilege despite promising to serve—this is the wang-wang mindset; this is the mindset of entitlement.

They had no right to do this. The law authorizes only the President, the Vice President, the Senate President, the Speaker, the Chief Justice, and police vehicles, fire trucks, and ambulances to use sirens in the fulfillment of their official duties—no one else. Yet the flagrant abuse we bore witness to prompts us to ask: if they felt it their privilege to flout the simplest traffic laws, how could we expect them not to help themselves to a share of projects funded by the Filipino people?

Do you want the corrupt held accountable? So do I. Do you want to see the end of wang-wang, both on the streets and in the sense of entitlement that has led to the abuse that we have lived with for so long? So do I. Do you want to give everyone a fair chance to improve their lot in life? So do I.

We have fought against the wang-wang, and our efforts have yielded results. Just this year, the number of Filipinos who experienced hunger has come down. Self-rated hunger has gone down from 20.5% in March to 15.1% this June—equivalent to a million Filipino families who used to go hungry, but who now say they eat properly every day.

Extreme Mortman » Blog Archive » “American Foreign Policy Top ...

Foreign policy is a set of political goals that seeks to outline how  USA will interact with other countries;it’s designed to help protect our national interests, national security, ideological goals, and economic growth. Successful foreign policy needs electoral and financial support. This comes naturally when you demonstrate the permanent presence of external threats like the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or international terrorism, to keep the nation alert and in line. Foreign policy serves to help you with domestic problems which often “push” you to make hard international decisions. It’s not about democracy in Iraq — it’s about your reelection.

                  U.S. National Security Strategy 2010

1. Globalization intensified the dangers we face – international terrorism…” - implementation of chosen policy option

You have to decide if you want to design and execute foreign policy all by yourself, even not telling Secretary of State about your confidential talks, negotiations or special operations. There’s one more strong point — you also have considerable advantages over Congress in foreign policy making — you know why?

 First, as head of foreign policy bureaucracy, the diplomatic corps, the intelligence agencies and the military, you control information that is vital to the foreign policy making.  Fourth, as the executor of foreign policy, Commander in Chief of the armed forces and appointer of diplomatic personnel, you are in the best position to judge the capacity of the government to carry out a given foreign policy initiative. Fifth, you are elected by a national constituency and you can focus on international problems that affect the entire nation.  Finally, get  highly professional staff, because international relations  involve a diverse range of issues, from globalization to global warming, nuclear proliferation, nationalism, terrorism, organized crime, human security, and human rights.

  “Golden” rules

1. International treaties have to be negotiated by diplomats prior to endorsement by  presidents. 5. National security is your top priority and is the “king’s job” because actually you have no domestic political obstacles to your foreign policy (if it’s a question of war), so you are a chief decision maker there. (The CIA Director has to be excluded from this process — you don’t need him. Besides, the CIA even today, no matter how hard I tried to educate the Agency, remains the worst of the worst and is not to be reformed — it has to be abolished. We have to transfer political intelligence functions to Pentagon. National security is designed to protect the United States and the vital interests (investments) of big business and to promote American values in a world of rivals, and the CIA, through all 60 years of its history, has proved to be absolutely unsuitable for the job). 6. Any country has to be involved in the sphere of our strategic interests if it has a strategic geographic position, significant sources of raw materials, a well-developed transportation system, or could be used as a military base. The strategic policy of any country rotates around the USA and if not — that means a certain President is waiting for greater incentives to come on board. Against target countries, don’t hesitate to use the strategies of pre-emptive war, post-war (post-crisis) reconstruction, and nation building (which means erasing national identity and supplanting it by liberal values). 8. Create super-profitable conditions for big business by political penetration worldwide. Big money men start investing abroad when they find a safe environment — law and order. The more they invest the more political power they get (international corporationsis the most important element of  international system ; the other two are governments and non-governmental organizations). 9. Use big investors to ruin other national economies and governments by withdrawing finances when the economic situation is worsening. As soon as the country opens its financial markets, it increases its dependence on global economic processes that it cannot control; and a financial crisis can easily be staged. Conversely, other countries’ access to the US markets is a powerful economic and political tool. 14. Use “informal diplomacy” – recruit politicians in other nations who might be able to give informal access to a country’s leadership. In some situations, such as betweeb USA  and China diplomacy is done through semi-formal channels using  interlocutors such as  academic members or thinktanks. This occurs in situations when presidents wish to express intentions or to suggest methods of resolving a diplomatic situation, but do not wish to express a formal position. 29. Ignore the UN — Secretary General has no real power, but you can take advantage of such a thing as the UN peace-keeping if it corresponds with your interests – the US economic costs could be minimized. Besides, UN peacekeeping can promote a spirit of international accountability in solving a certain regional problem. Don’t forget to explain your strategy to the Congress – they don’t like the UN either. On the other hand, you have to manage an international crisis, if it threatens our national interests (start with strategic planning, check national security system for the adequate response, use propaganda to get domestic and international support, consult with big business and allies, start crisis negotiations if possible, use diplomacy (see below) and force or threat of force). 30. To reach global leadership you must have enough resources, national support and a well-calculated strategy (see also “Strategic planning”). As you already know, the US budget is financed by foreign lending. When the dollar goes down in foreign exchange markets, it’s supported by foreign central banks and you’re OK as long as Japan, Saudi Arabia and Germany have an interest in propping up the American economy and do not raise the price for financing America’s debt. The worst situation would be to lose support both at home and abroad.

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