How PH Think Tank PIDS Thinks About Covid-19, And How It Misses The Whole Point By P2.5 Trillion!

Delight in the negative is what afflicts PH think tank PIDS – not to mention PH journalists!

I can imagine the glee lighting the editorial room when CAV Olano submits his report to his paper, “Coronavirus May Cost PHL Up To P2.5 Trillion In Economic Output” (16 April 2020, BusinessWorld[1]). Mr Olano is citing the results of a study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, PIDS, “Projected Disease Transmission, Health System Requirements, and Macroeconomic Impacts of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the Philippines.”

Extremely negative, right? Right!
And no, there is no reported results of a parallel PIDS study how PH can thrive, even given the worst-case scenario!

Why is a government think tank thinking only negative, extremely negative?! No hope for the country?

The PIDS is recommending “aggressive efforts” against the Covid-19 disease, saying the above are necessary “to suppress the outbreak.”

All that, Mr Olano and Mr PIDS, is dealing with the negatives that Covid-19 has brought and continues to bring into the country.

Why is there no tank-thinking on what “aggressive efforts” PH can undertake beyond the lockdown? Why is there a dearth of tank-thinking for the future?

Why is PIDS locked down on thinking critically and not going about thinking creatively?!

While I leave BusinessWorld and Mr Olano to their thoughts, I now move digitally to the United States, reading Teddie Potter’s essay, “To Reduce The Risk Of Future Pandemics, We Need To Move From Domination To Partnership With Nature.” human_hand&foot image from Ensia[2]

Democracies like that of ours are dominated by domination. When nature strikes back such as with a pandemic, we are helpless. Mr Potter says:

Domination systems are characterized by rigid hierarchical ranking. Communication is top down, leaders use power to support the status quo… Members tend to pattern their behavior after the leader and bully those… of lower rank. There is little innovation because diverse ideas are not tolerated.

Mr Potter recommends, distinctly, emphatically:

In the long run, the best way we can help health-care professionals fight crises like COVID-19 is by changing the way we live and the choices we make.

I rewrite:

In the long run, the best way we can help ourselves fight diseases is by changing the way we live and the choices we make.

We must choose partneringwith nature, not dominating nature:

Human cultures that orient strongly toward domination consider humans at the apex of the ecosystem pyramid. At best, nature is seen as a commodity; at worst, nature is feared and destroyed… human health has no connection to the health of the land or other members of the ecosystem.

Humans cannot exist at the expense of Planet Earth.

Elsewhere, Omar Hassan says[3] (MSN):

The US, UK and others will need to protect the future of their businesses… and look for opportunities to benefit from the new economic world order, not deny it.

PIDS: You are looking only at the immediate PH future. Why not 5-10 years from now?!517

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[1]https://www.bworldonline.com/coronavirus-may-cost-phl-up-to-p2-5-trillion-in-economic-output/?fbclid=IwAR1Z75DxotwC19rphYoppf9dUvsQu_wl48nVp5b01_pwSEuFmCqtdcL5wnw

[2]https://ensia.com/voices/pandemic-domination-partnership-nature/?fbclid=IwAR1Hs10TLPZYsXQ0tSbgca5OCHpXDrWu7A-HxTmh5jet23J6Thidzafgr9k

[3]https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/coronavirus-will-bankrupt-more-people-than-it-kills-—-and-thats-the-real-global-emergency/ar-BB116Wlf?ocid=spartandhp&fbclid=IwAR2jDDhJUmI_tvEGleBJBPpefTnrlAEbVWIRVsKXwrQgdJAqBrZo4L_yhYM