BNPP, Oil and Bureaucracy
8.09.2004
I've always wondered what could have happened to the Philippines if the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant was utilized? Could it be that we are a nuclear power now? Our scientists, not diverted to other academic functions and siphoned off by other countries? Would we have less dependency on oil --- and hence perhaps years and years of progress and less inflation per year? What could have happened then? Would it have been good?
At the other extreme I am scared of the possibility of a Chernobyl like accident. A nuclear blast in Bataan that will poison the waters of Manila Bay and rain down nuclear dust all over Luzon. All $1.2 billion of it --- and yet, still I think all these years we have been paying - each of us Filipinos paying for an asset that was not utilized at all. That is as far as I know - have yet to verify that but if anybody can tell me the exact figure I'll be glad to see it and compute backwards.
Given those two options is there a clear choice? Now, news is that the government will convert it to a gas plant. I wonder why they thought of that only now. Is the BNPP too much of a Marcos ghost that didn't thought of touching it several years back? And now they'll want more of our tax money to resuscitate the plant?
Calling all Creative minds
So we convert it to a gas plant. Only catch is it will take until 2008 before it can work - by then we'll be four years sunk on our dependency on oil. Why only now? Is the government lacking creative thinkers to have thought this only now when BNPP needs the most of repairs or is it just too big a bureaucracy that it takes so long for an idea to reach the top? Possibly there's too many cooks as well - spoils the broth. Either way, I'll take this news to be the proof. Well whatever happens that means 4 more years of dependency on oil. I wonder if we have thought about implementing the use of alternative sources of energy - those that we have the most resources - geothermal, wind, and tidal energy.
It's either the Government knows about it now, is doing something about it (maybe) but it is just so slow (quite possibly) or it just lacks creative people (very much likely) --- meanwhile we can sit back and relax with increasing oil prices... and wait our asses off for the first 100 days of the next president expect that to happen. Do we have a choice?
Crazy thing is if there's no trade-off it's not gonna happen. Do we have any choice? Well I thought perhaps it's because --- Alternative sources of energy are cheap - meaning - less ways to increase the bottomline budget --- less corruption. A good friend of mine made a working fiber glass windmill for his thesis project in Physics from a mere PhP10,000 DOST grant. How can anyone pad that up and expect kickback when we have just proven that the government lacks a pool of creative people?
Simple math.
Calling creative thinkers from Ateneo, UP, La Salle. Please work for the government and earn PhP7,000 monthly. Easy just pass the same exam that even PNP officers can't even pass and get paid tremendously less than what they earn. Do we have a choice? Darn, you can't even pay for your gas and phone bills with that! And we honestly expect the government to solve our problems? Hehehehe... I should add - how I admired those that choose to work for it - perhaps they are indeed motivated by higher ideals - but hey, I can't be that thrifty!
What a sad rainy day it is today here in Manila.
posted by Jdavies @ 8/09/2004,
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The Author
J.Davies
Jdavies lives in Quezon City, Philippines and has been blogging since 2002. A brand manager in a leading technology company and a freelance new media/web strategy consultant, he has refocused his blogging from personal, political & sociological observations, to marketing-related efforts and Internet trends that are relevant to his career and branding advocacies.
About This Blog
This blog is a depot of thoughts and observations on marketing trends which remain personally relevant to the Author as far as his marketing career is concerned. Having evolved from the personal blog of Jdavies, much of the earlier work contained herein are laced with personal speculation, political views, and similar advocacies. These posts are being kept for posterity's sake and for no other reason. No effort is being made to claim that the author will not contradict himself from his previous positions or that such advocacies are absolute.
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