WHAT IS WRONG WITH AMERICA?

The Philippine Star
09/14/07

This question perhaps comes from news stories that have shown a country confused, angered and divided as its young soldiers lose their lives in Iraq on a war started on premises that were never really validated. This is a nation reported to have failed to respond with swiftness and resolute in the wake of lost lives and properties in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Recently, we had seen an America that fumbled too long in its response to two urgent global issues. Till today, its Congress is still debating on how best to cope with the threat of a fossil fuel energy crisis and the melting of the ice caps on its northern mountains.

Even in terms of managing its economy, the U.S. seems to be clueless about how its housing credit woes have suddenly just popped from seemingly out of the blue, and in the process has put the whole world on tenterhooks about the possibility of the biggest economy in the world going into a recession.

Perhaps, the next big question to ask is: Does America know there is something wrong with her?

Two authors

There are two books recently published and both authored by Americans who have gained respect and popularity for the way they think and work. They have attempted to dissect America's problems, and in the process offer solutions.

“Where Have All the Leaders Gone?” is by Lee Iacocca, a business icon better known for his radical solutions and leadership that turned around Chrysler Corporation from bankruptcy to profit. He is also author to a couple of best-selling books on how to manage a business.

The other book is by Al Gore, noted for that now-famous introductory line in his award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”: “I am Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States.” Gore's book that attempts to deal with America's current maladies is titled “The Assault on Reason.”

Both men exude immense passion for what they believe in. Iacocca is obsessed by a search for America's next leaders in coming 2008 US elections. Gore is gripped by a mission to save Mother Earth from a climate crisis.

And both express the same feelings towards America's current CEO – no other than George W. Bush. Iococca is more liberal, direct to the point, and scathing as he devotes more than a hundred pages in trying to decipher where Bush, in his estimation, failed the American people.

Gore, on the other hand, is more measured and subtle as he perhaps tries to avoid being tagged as a sore loser, having lost to Bush in the last elections by a slim margin that is rumored to have been the result of some manipulation at the polls. Nonetheless, you get his point – ably argued in well-reasoned chapters.

The personal jabs aside, the two authors are still able to offer plausible answers to a lot of questions about what is wrong with America. In fact, their respective books make cozy companions to the recently published GWB biography “Dead Certain” by Robert Draper.

It's television

Between Iococca and Gore, it is the latter who offers a deeper insight into America's malady. The ailment, according to Gore, is the dulled senses and sensibilities of his countrymen brought about by the spoon-feeding of information through broadcast media.

The non-stop barrage of news and opinion through television, in particular, have captured and imprisoned the country's thought process to the point that Americans have stopped questioning what they hear and see. They have been immobilized by sound bite after sound bite.

Television, Gore further contends, has fragmented America and allowed its plunder and pillage by less meaning, sometimes out-and-out opportunistic individuals who have the resources and influence to use this expensive media. Indeed, Gore details how television has become an all too powerful – and dangerous – communication tool.

This realization has given Gore the impetus to support Internet as the new media that would restore democratic processes so that individuals are encouraged to think, speak out and exchange ideas and concepts.

Going for the jugular

While Gore builds a case for his treatise on the role of broadcast media in today's America as a cancer that is eating at the heart of its democracy, Iacocca goes for the jugular – Bush's, that is.

He takes his Nine Cs of Leadership from the corporate boardroom to the political arena. In the first chapters of his book, he rates GWB on Curiosity, Creativity, Communication, Character, Courage, Conviction, Charisma, Competence and Common Sense. Don't be surprised if, in the management guru's scoring, Bush failed all.

If there is anything wrong with America today, Iacocca is quite emphatic when he points his finger to Washington D.C. and the White House and proclaims: “It's the leadership.”

And since an elected president has some fundamental rights to his seat of power that an appointed corporate CEO does not have, the best advice that Iacocca can dish out is for Americans to sharpen their analytic skills and prepare to choose a better President in the forthcoming electoral race.

In fact, he has offered his preliminary views on emerging candidates. This makes for additional interesting reading.

Realizing that the Nine Cs can be universally applied, why not use it on our present leadership? Or even on the first Philippine president who was recently convicted on the crime of plunder?

Perhaps we also could gain useful insights that would help us move forward on more firm footing.

Poker training sessions

New converts to the increasingly popular mind game, Hold'Em poker, are invited to join the training sessions being conducted by Philippine Poker Tour (PPT), the leading proponent of non-wager poker skills tournaments. Practice games are regularly being held at THE PLAYER'S DEN, the PPT clubhouse, located at 1786 A. Mabini, Malate, Manila.

Daily “free-roll” (no tournament fees) competitions are also being conducted. At stake in the “free-roll” competitions are seat certificates with total value amounting to P100,000. Winners of the “free-roll” are qualified to join for FREE satellite competitions where Seat Certificates to the Main Event worth P55,000 each are awarded.

The Main Event of the 4th PPT Million-Peso Hold'Em Champions competitions, the only locally organized tournament that guarantees the champion a minimum of P1 million as prize, is scheduled to be held on 15th December 2007.

For details and schedule of events at THE PLAYER'S DEN, visit www.PhilippinePokerTour.com or call the PPT Secretariat at 812-0153, 524-7254, 0926-6452956, or 0920-9218891.

“Pag-usapan Natin” at IBC-TV 13

Watch “Pag-usapan Natin”, a segment in the IBC-TV 13 news program, News Tonite, from 10:30 pm to 11 pm (Mondays to Fridays) as we discuss issues that have relevance to our everyday living. Viewers may send their comments to Sunshine Television c/o Valle Verde Country Club, Pasig City.   

Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at reydgamboa@yahoo.com.

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