Thr #Philippines' democracy is a flawed and failed copy of Western democracy

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Contrary to the popular belief, we are not America's trying hard copycats. That's just the skin. We are a society built on the "Hispanic Model". Spain has taught us the culture of extremity and grandiosity. Just look on how many fiestas we have, and how most of us are devoted to their religion. This is where the problem lies, we learned to indulge ourselves too much even on trivial things to the point that we don't even know if it's still right or logical.

On the contrary, Singapore and the US are built on the "English Model". They emphasize practicality. Business is business, politics is politics, so on and so forth. They don't waste their time on trivial things. When they do things, they do it efficiently.

Comparing these "models" we could already know which one is better. Most countries influenced by the British are prosperous. On the contrary, those influenced by the Hispanians are either unstable or suffering economic hardships. Look at Latin America, and even Spain herself.

Now, we look again at Lee Kuan Yew's lessons. It is true that our politicians did it all wrong, because they took it word for word, instead of getting between and beyond the lines. Do we expect ourselves to learn from him if we can't even understand the differences of the culture we grew up with?

Lee grew up learning the English way. We grew up on the Hispanic way.

IMO, this is one of the first lessons one must learn to be an effective leader and statesman: he must know his nation like the palm of his hand. It is only then that we could truly start to learn from Lee.

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This is a GRP Featured Comment. Join the discussion!
http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2015/03/lee-kuan-yew-and-the-singapore-he-built-is-proof-that-the-philippines-did-it-all-wrong/comment-page-1/#comment-1131465

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