Php 70.00 Vol. 44 No. 1 • JANUARY 2010 - IMPACT Magazine Online!

EDITORIAL
A gov’t of 4 trillion debts ................................. 27
COVER STORY
CONTENTS
Human Ecology and Peace .............................. 16
ARTICLES
If you want to cultivate peace, protect
creation .............................................................. 4
IMPACT January 2010 / Vol 44 • No 1
If You Want Peace, Protect Creation ................ 7
The Copenhagen Discord, or divide and rule
in climate change ........................................... 10
DEPARTMENTS
Quote in the Act ................................................. 2
Advertorial ....................................................... 12
News Features ................................................... 21
Statements .......................................................... 23
From the Blogs ................................................... 26
From the Inbox .................................................. 28
Book Reviews ..................................................... 29
Entertainment .................................................... 30
Asia Briefing ...................................................... 31
As if by force of habit, or
is it by strategic political
spin?, government forecasters
the likes of National
Economic and Development
Authority (NEDA) and the whole
caboodle of Palace technocrats
always races with the soothsayers
of Quiapo and the Feng
Shui connoisseurs of Binondo
in cracking the crystal ball for
what’s in store for the country
in every new year.
Immediately after the smog of
firecrackers cleared the Manila
sky, NEDA projected that the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
will grow by 2.6 to 3.6 percent in
2010 and expressed a wholesale
confidence that the country’s
economy will be stronger due to
the economic reforms undertaken
by the current Administration.
To substantiate their prediction,
the bright boys of Malacañang
then gave a litany of the following
growth drivers that will
propel the economy to heights:
trade, tourism, business process
outsourcing, construction, mining
and quarrying, government
services, air transportation,
manufacturing, communication
and agriculture. This, of
course, is a template that
always appears every time
the government winks.
The public takes this
forecast nonchalantly just
like it does with every State
of the Nation Address of the big boss.
People know that it is hard to cheat
the stomach which is a better barometer
than government forecasts
or social surveys that according to a
presidential candidate can be bought
in Quiapo.
The analysts of the University of
the Philippines (UP) see the country’s
economic lot differently. Dr.
Rene Ofreneo, for instance, said that
the country “will continue to reel
from the effects of the crisis until
2010 due to low investments in the
Philippines, as well as natural and
political disasters like Maguindanao
massacre and martial law.”
Commenting about the increase in
the number of underemployed and
unemployed, another UP professor,
Dr. Benjamin Diokno, said that due to
structural problems in the economy
and weak external demand for labor,
job prospects in the country may
continue to be weak until 2014. And
employment, according to a former
National Treasurer, Leonor
Briones, is the most reliable indicator
of whether the economy is
in good shape or otherwise.
This issue opens with the
message of Pope Benedict XVI
for the World Day of Peace: If
you want to cultivate peace,
protect creation. The pontiff
observes that the current pace
of environmental exploitation is
seriously endangering the supply
of certain resources not only
for the present generation, but for
generations yet to come.
Our staff writer, Charles Avila
writes the cover story with his
“Human Ecology and Peace.”
Albeit inflated, there is a grain of
truth when he opines that if our
demands on the planet continue
at the same rate, in less than two
decades we will need the equivalent
of two planets to maintain
our lifestyles. Read on.
Volume 44 • Number 1 3