Recovery

IS the party starting again? Not, says the head of the United Nations’ trade and development commission.
UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi said in a statement released Tuesday that rising stock prices and companies' bottomlines don't mean it's time to roll out the barrel of fun again.
Mr. Supachai called such attitude a "casino mentality" as speculation on currencies and commodities continue to grip the global financial system.
The head of the UN Commission on Trade and Development hinted that such money play shouldn't be mistaken for a recovery from the global recession.
Mr. Supachai based his views Ecuadorian Diego Borja Cornejo's take on the crisis: the play on money –spending with and for it– was the cause of the world’s current headache.
“Welfare had been confused with consumerism,” said Mr. Cornejo, Ecuador Minister for Coordination of Economic Policy.
Mr. Cornejo said in the statement that economies belatedly realized they were wrong in thinking that "constant, increasing consumption could be the engine for economic growth."
Cash became a commodity, he said, "a good to be consumed and accumulated."
"Money was no longer a means to an end."
Those who played it as such was motivated to profit effortlessly, Mr. Cornejo said.
He noted that because of such motive, businessmen and women sought to profit on the short term rather than focus energies on "the production of tangible goods."
"Money simply was used to make money."
M. Cyrille Pierre of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quoted as saying such unbridled gobbling of goods produced in natural resources-rich developing countries further pushed food and energy prices up.
Thus, the recession that followed became a triple whammy for developing countries.
A year after the United States suffered its third consecutive negative growth, unemployment continues to plague it and the countries relying on trade with the US.
"The countries of the South had become almost exclusively producers of raw materials for the use and exploitation of the North," Mr. Cornejo said.
The Unctad said there could neither be "green shoots" or signs of recovery if unemployment, economic damage, and four million additional people per week suffer from hunger, and "continue to plague developing nations."
Hence, Mr. Supachai said equating "signs of improved performance in the financial sector" with recovery is "certainly worrying."
"It implies that we have not learned from our recent experiences."
Mr. Cornejo advises to drop all pretense that the current financial system can still be fixed.
Nope, he said.
"It has to be transformed, based on an egalitarian approach that [is] truly dedicated to development."

Art Charity

FORMER investment banker Estella Tansengco-Schapero's exhibit "Art Without Borders" opened Saturday and will run until September 28, 2009 at the Artists Space of the Ayala Museum.

The invitation said the "proceeds will fund the pre-school adopted by the Schapero's through the Hong Kong-based International care Ministries."

The invitation added that the pre-school is located on a squatter relocation settlement three kilometers outside Bacolod City.

As Tansengco-Schapero said on her website, ICM, a registered charity in the Philippines, Hong Kong and the United States, "is a non-profit organization serving the poorest of the poor in the slums on the islands of Negros, Bohol and Mindanao in the Philippines since 1992."

The group, she said, has local Christian churches as partners.

"By addressing the real needs of those living in poverty, ICM empowers local pastors and their congregations to tangibly share the Christian message within their communities."

According to her website , she is "a Filipino of Chinese descent with a background in finance and a passion for things Asian."

Her exhibit displays ten works mostly mixed media on canvas that, based on the photos, evokes a migrant's pining to the noble ancestry of the people in her homeland.

Mabuti Pa

When I planned this space, I decided it should only contain English content. So pardon me for posting here a song I crafted in my head while walking from Edsa to Philcoa last Friday. The story behind this limerick, the tune of which I borrowed from Gary Granada's Mabuti Pa lilt, is posted at swelas.blogspot.com.

Mabuti Pa* (Ng Isang Pasahero)

Mabuti pa ang may kotse,
mas mabilis pag uwian
Mabuti pa ang may bisikleta,
andar agad 'sang padyak lang

Mabuti pa ang may motor
mauunahan ang ulan
Di tulad kong naglalakad lang
sa daan

Mabuti pa ang Senador,
may pambili ng SUV
Mabuti pa ang Kongresista,
minsa'y tatlo pa ang CRV
Mabuti pa ang pulis
may kotse na may wang-wang
Di tulad kong naglalakad lang
sa daan

Turuan nyo ako
Mahalin ang sarili
Bakit si Willie Revillame
Kahit na jet nakakabili?

Mabuti pa ulit si Willie
may mabilis na Ferrari
Mabuti pa si Secretary
Safari, Patrol kayang bilhin
Mabuti pa ang artista
umiyak lang may kotse na
Di tulad kong
pamadyak lang dal'wang paa

Mabuti pa si Claire Fuentes
may sandosenang unit ng bus
Mabuti pa si Enriquez
taxi units di maubos
Mabuti pa si Fernando
may pangtakbong pampangulo
Di tulad kong luha na lang
ang tinutulo

*Pasintabi kay G. Gary Granada