How Do You Pay Off a Debt ( Utang ) Worth 52.5 Billion US Dollars?

Photo Taken From:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Madoff

The Philippines has a debt, or utang, worth 52.5 BILLION U.S. Dollars ( as of the time of this writing, the first week of July in 2009, 1 US Dollar is equivalent to around 48 Philippine Pesos). If you are a Pinoy, you are one of those obligated to pay it back. Now, how do you do that?

It sounds like an insane amount. We Pinoys can easily imagine taking a Pag-Ibig FUND loan of around 2 Million Philippine Pesos to be able to secure a house and lot for our families. 2 Million PHP is equivalent to around 40,000 or so US Dollars. Can you in your wildest dreams imagine taking a Pag-Ibig FUND loan worth 52.5 Billion US Dollars, or the equivalent of around 2 Trillion 520 Billion PHP? ( Don't bother counting the zeroes ).

If you have that much cash with you, it probably means you won the Lotto each and every day for 2 months in a row. Or maybe 3 months in a row. Or maybe a year. Such an amount is that big. With a Pag-Ibig FUND loan like that, you could probably buy three or more SM Supermalls...including all the merchandise inside.

A 2 Million PHP loan is in itself quite a burden enough to repay, and most Pinoys would even prefer to pay it back within 25 long years, just so's it wouldn't be too much of a burden on the wallet. How much more a TRILLION Pesos worth of utang?

Would any single person be stratospherically mad enough to secure an utang like that?

Hilariously enough, there is. Just search the name "Bernard Madoff" on the Internet, and you'll discover that this stupid person actually has a debt to hundreds, maybe thousands, of people that is said to be worth a total of around 65 BILLION US Dollars. That's even bigger than the utang of the whole Philippine nation! It's so preposterously humongous that Bernard Madoff was recently sentenced to 150 years in prison for not being able to repay that utang. He was condemned as a swindler and a thief for committing the biggest, most unbelievable fraud in human history. To get a sense of how much money 65 Billion US Dollars is, money experts recommend that you imagine stringing together 1 Dollar bills side-by-side lengthwise. That string of money could stretch from the Earth to the Moon and back to Earth again 12 times.

Photo Taken From:

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/image/s_full-moon.jpg

Well, the Philippines seems to be better off than Mr. Madoff, because instead of just one Pinoy having the 52.5 Billion US Dollar-utang, it's the whole population that shoulders it. That means we are 60 or 80 million souls who are supposed to pay it back to our creditors. If it's also any consolation, that much money strung together in 1 Dollar bills might only stretch from the Earth to the Moon and back to Earth again only 10 times instead of 12. Perhaps.

But how can we repay an amount like that? Would it be as simple as paying for a typical Pag-Ibig FUND loan? Can we settle it in 25 years? It is imminent that each and every Pinoy is obligated to pay this loan back, so we'd better find a way to do it.

Do we raise taxes? Do we send more OFW's abroad, so that their remittances grow exponentially? Do we sell all SM Supermalls in the Philippines on E-Bay? Can we just simply tell our creditors, "Oh Hell! That's a stupid amount! I refuse to pay it back!"

The floor is open to suggestions! Again, how do we pay off an utang worth 52.5 Billion US Dollars?

Photo Taken From:

http://news.holidayhypermarket.co.uk/Images/18446944/Weak_US_Dollar_Will_Benefit_UK_Tourists_large.jpg

To Kill Sons and Daughters--An Effective Way to Stop Corruption In The Government?

Photo Taken From:

http://www.worldemergency.org/images/alisto_photo_06.jpg

Corruption and graft among our Pinoy politicians could be stopped completely by eradicating their sons and daughters...to be a bit more formal about it. Might this extreme measure perhaps be the only way?

The killing of sons and daughters for bringing about positive change is easily seen as reprehensible, reckless, and outright barbaric. It could be argued as another example of the "means" not justifying the "ends". Would such acts be better off dismissed as "unimaginable"? Perhaps. Would such acts have been performed in the past? Some tidbits of history seem to suggest so.

Photo Taken From:

http://www.thebricktestament.com/exodus/the_tenth_plague/ex11_01.jpg

The Christian Bible itself tells of how "spirit of God" killed all the "firstborn" of the Egyptians--both human and animal--in order to force the hand of the Egyptian Pharaoh of ancient times to release from slavery and bondage the Israelites, God's "chosen people". The story is found in the Book of Exodus in the Bible, and was all the more made popular by the movie "Cecille B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments". Although the truthfulness of the Bible account is debatable, some pre-eminent scholars argue that such an event may have been possible. In any case, it would be hard to imagine the Pharaoh of Egypt not capitulating to demands that the people of Israel be given unconditional freedom after seeing his most favored heir having died.

In this instance, the most dreadful of tragedies seems to have been induced in order to achieve the emancipation of a slave nation.

Photo Taken From:

http://www.myninjaplease.com/politricks/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/iraq_saddam_hussein_222.jpg

In the modern era, the freedom of a nation also carried the price of having every one of its former leader's progeny, well...neutralized, to put it mildly. Every Pinoy by now knows of the 21st-century story concerning the dictator Saddam Hussein of Iraq. After US forces invaded Iraq under the presidency of George W. Bush, Mr. Hussein was eventually tracked down to his hiding place, and was later subsequently executed by hanging--a punishment brought about by his outrageous "crimes against humanity".

What most Pinoys might not know about is that Mr. Hussein's eleven sons ( and, presumably, his heirs ) were each already dead--most presumably killed--by the time he was captured. On the one hand, something like this could be viewed as tragic beyond all measure. On the other hand, it totally guaranteed against any reprisals for Mr. Hussein's punishment. As anyone can see by now, Iraq might well be free of any Saddam Hussein-wannabe's in the near future.

Photo Taken From:

http://www.brutallyhonest.org/photos/saddam_husseins_demise/saddamshirt3.jpg

We Pinoys are aware that our country is in the perpetual grip of nearly unfettered corruption and plunder by the officials in its government. Stealing is a criminal act in every way, and yet the mantle of political office protects government officials from any legal sanctions when they perform it. The proposal might seem very radical--and admittedly morbid...and yet, a scenario in which the punishment for any government official found guilty of graft and corruption went so far and so grave as to involve their sons and daughters could be argued as, well, effective.

It would be effective as a deterrent because any official would rather lose money than lose sons and daughters. It would also be effective as a way of recovering the public funds stolen if it were somehow carried out. Any President would absolutely think twice about using public taxes for self-enrichment if the penalty were to go home to a house empty of all his or her sons and daughters.

Photo Taken From:

http://image14.webshots.com/15/4/92/37/333749237RIWVxr_ph.jpg

If one were to be matter-of-fact about it, perhaps government officials who steal billions of pesos from the public's own money do deserve to lose all their inheritors...if the trade-off is that the millions upon millions of us Pinoys--the powerless, the disenfranchised, the oppressed--are to enjoy a country free of corruption, which generally ensures a better future for all our sons and daughters.

Hmmmm. Would killing certain sons and daughters be the solution to the problem of corruption? Why or why not?