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Harsh Words
By Michael Alan Hamlin
July 5, 2004
Funnyman Bill Cosby doesn't seem
so funny a lot of the time these days. In May Cosby criticized the
poor language skills many black youth in America display, and cautioned
them to stop blaming others for their problems. Black youth who
commit crimes and wind up in jail, he said, "are not political
prisoners," and have no one to blame but themselves for their
problems.
Many pro-poor activists reacted with
outrage to Cosby's comments, arguing that blacks are still at severe
disadvantage compared to other ethnic minorities. Cosby, however,
was not moved. Last week he was at it again, this time criticizing
his detractors for trying to hide the black community's "dirty
laundry. Let me tell you something," he said, "your dirty
laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day; it's cursing and calling
each other nigger as they're walking up and down the street.
"They think they're hip,"
Cosby continued. "They can't read; they can't write. They're
laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere." In May Cosby
was also concerned about poor educational attainment levels and
language skills. "Everybody knows it's important to speak English
except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind
of crap coming out of your mouth," he said.
American blacks aren't the only group of disadvantaged individuals
that, as Cosby insists, like to look for scapegoats for their failings,
of course. And while there's no doubt that many blacks and other
minorities do face significant and unfair disadvantages compared
to their peers from other ethnic groups, Cosby feels that those
hurdles shouldn't be excuses for refusing to educate yourself or
resorting to a life of crime. There's much value in his message.
Here in the Philippines, we have
our own whipping boys. The Spanish and the American colonists top
the list for holding the country back. The Japanese brutalized the
nation. The elites corner economic and business opportunity, and
are loathe to share it with the burgeoning population less well
off. Government is corrupt and has allowed educational infrastructure
to deteriorate dismally.
But these "reasons" for
the ways things are, in fact, are nothing more than excuses. As
an "old-new" administration takes office amid much conjecture
over its willingness to make the hard decisions required to really
get the Philippine economic engine going, it's important to remember
that how well we do as individuals depends much more on us individually
than it does on the government.
There are plenty of great examples to illustrate this argument.
One that always comes to mind is the tandem of Orlando (Doy) Vea
and Dave Fernando. Vea's business and marketing savvy and Fernando's
engineering talent enabled this duo to overcome tremendous odds
- including intense political pressure - to bring affordable mobile
telephony to the masses and made the company they founded, Smart
Telecommunications, a global phenomenon. Instead of just grousing
about the negative consequences of poor telephone penetration in
the Philippines, they did something - something very big - about
it.
Tony Tan Caktiong is another fine
example. Ernst & Young recently named Tan World Entrepreneur
of the Year in glittering ceremonies in Monte Carlo. Tan has become
legendary for showing up fast-food pioneer McDonald's in the Philippines.
No other local competitor anywhere in the world has done as good
a job at competing with the giant multinational.
But Tan wasn't born with a bag of gold under his bed. In fact, when
McDonald's announced that it was first entering the Philippine market,
Tan and his brother and a friend seriously considered turning their
ice cream parlor into a hardware store. But the then young men -
Tan still looks youthful, by the way - decided they would compete
with McDonald's, and beat them at their own game. And they did,
and do.
BayanTrade president & COO Dante
Briones likewise comes from very humble beginnings, and depended
on scholarships to educate himself. After graduating from the University
of the Philippines, Briones was accepted for post-graduate studies
at a number of top-flight US universities. Most he turned down because
there were no scholarships available. When one finally did present
itself, he taught to help pay expenses. Eschewing the chance to
stay in the US, he returned to the Philippines to make a contribution
here, where he's on the leading edge of sourcing and procurement
outsourcing processes.
These three examples clearly show
that there's just no excuse for excuses no matter what hurdles lie
between you and success.
(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing
director of consultancy TeamAsia and the author of three books on
Asian economies and companies. His latest book is Marketing Asian
Places, of which he is a co-author (Wiley, 2001), and he is currently
at work on High Visibility: The Making and Marketing of Asian Professionals
into Celebrities. Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).
Copyright © 2004
Michael Alan Hamlin. All Rights Reserved.
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