Sanchez: Shock doctrine

MY BACOLEÑO friend, Emman Carmona and now a Chicago resident, gave me a pasalubong the last time he was in Bacolod with his family.

He gave me “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.” His book did not come as a surprise. Emman and I are environmental and social activists. We focused on the conservation of Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park and hinterland mountain poverty issues.

Written by Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein, Emman’s pasalubong turned a cerebral yet a compelling read.

In the book, Klein argues that neoliberal free market policies (as advocated by the economist Milton Friedman) have risen to prominence in some developed countries because of a deliberate strategy of “shock therapy.”

According to Klein, this “therapy” centers on the exploitation of national crises to push through controversial policies while citizens are too emotionally and physically distracted by disasters or upheavals to mount an effective resistance.

No Marxist ideologue, Klein’s well-researched book garnered praises from dyed-in-the-wool capitalist reporter Paul B. Farrell of the Dow Jones Business News. According to Farrell, The Shock Doctrine “may be the most important book on economics in the 21st century.

William S. Kowinski of the San Francisco Chronicle praised Klein’s prose and wrote that the author “may well have revealed the master narrative of our time.”

I remember Klein’s book when Negrense sugarcane producers reacted to the statement of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno that the planned liberalization of sugar imports would negatively affect local producers, this would benefit a greater number of consumers.

“That is a very unfortunate statement coming from one who has not experienced the privilege of poverty. How do we balance the interest between the consumers/importers and producers? What is the policy of the state in respect to alleviating poverty? Kill the sugar industry and deprived the small farmers of their livelihood?” Sugar Board member Roland Beltran asked.

Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, angrily said, “In any industry, the consumers outnumber the producers. However, killing the industry is not the right approach in solving the problem of high retail prices, even at times when millgate prices are low.”

Nicholas Ledesma, president of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations’ Negros-Panay chapter, argued that “more consumers than sugar producers” is largely debatable, since consumption of sugar is minimal.

Question: is Diokno’s liberalization argument the shock therapy that an earthquake with a magnitude of 7? Are Duterte’s tirades against the Catholic Church the diversion for imposing this liberalization policy?

(bqsanc@yahoomail.com)

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