Dear friends of Philippine liberalism,

Filipinos continue to seek opportunities to improve the quality of the country’s educational system. One new idea that is gaining ground is open education. This is any initiative that uses information technology to promote learning in a free and open environment. This type of system lends itself to the liberal approach to education as it provides students with access to information as well as enables them to develop critical thinking. Further exploring its use will certainly be a boon to the country’s educational system.

Education could also be one of the conditions that moves our limited access society into an open access one. According to Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics laureate Douglass North, you cannot deliberately impose the conditions of a free society on a restricted one. Instead you have to move a limited access country slowly along from its fragile state without threatening its ruling elites. Education, with its capacity to grant equal access to opportunity, is the right tool to move the process along.

Still on the subject of education, we would like to introduce you to the redesigned liberal library section of our Website. Do check it out: http://www.fnf.org.ph/liberallibrary/index.htm. We have arranged it by subject to provide ease in browsing. Themes are based on liberal values: liberalism, democracy, human rights, rule of law, etc. Works range from papers published by our Liberal Institute in Germany to lectures by speakers in our various seminars. All of these are downloadable as either Adobe PDF files or PowerPoint presentations. Just another enhancement as we strive to make the Friedrich Naumann Foundation Philippine office a wealth of information on liberalism and freedom.

Until next time … stay tuned!

Siegfried “Siggi” Herzog

 

Philippine Commons Holds Conference on Open Education

Creative Commons, the Arellano School of Law and the Vibal Foundation held a forum entitled: “Open Education: Are we ready and where are we?” on 23 April 2008 in Pasay City. The aim was to explore the opportunities and benefits open education could bring to the country’s education system. It brought together actors from government, the private sector and NGOs to understand what open education means, what the global trends are and to explore ways to harness it in the country.

Open education is intimately tied to the rise of the Internet. Attorney Jaime Soriano, executive director of the E-law Center of Arellano Law School, said it is ”any scholarly, academic or guided initiative that promotes access to learning and knowledge in a free, open and collaborative environment using the tools and infrastructure of information technology.” More: http://www.fnf.org.ph/news/philippine-commons-on-open-education.htm

Nobel Laureate Speaks on Institutions and Economic Development

1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics laureate Douglass C. North was the guest speaker at the Ronald Coase Institute and the Philippine Economic Society workshop on institutional analysis on 13 March 2008 at Los Baños, Laguna. Supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), the aim of the conference was to encourage young academics to apply institutional analysis to a variety of developmental issues and to receive critical input and feedback from some of the most noted academics in the field.

Douglass C. North spoke on an institutional approach to economic development as he has made it his life work to understand why some countries are rich while others remain poor. The root of the dilemma, he discussed, was in the way human societies have evolved institutionally. A social order develops to limit and control violence. This has usually been achieved by a coalition of elites that is ultimately based on personal ties, which is why he terms this type of state “natural.” Read more on Douglass North. More: http://www.fnf.org.ph/news/nobel-laureate-speaks-on-institutions.htm

Institutions and Economic Development

This is a lecture by Professor Douglass North. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1993, and is one of the foremost exponents of neo-institutional economics. He provides fascinating insights into the rational, character and durability of political and economic systems that exclude the majority of the population. He also explains the difficulty of changing them to a system based on open access. Listen at: http://www.fnf.org.ph/podcast/index.html

Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty
Makati Central Post Office Box 3196, Makati City, 1271 Philippines
Tel.: (63)(2) 8403728/29
Fax: (63)(2) 8103189
Website: www.fnf.org.ph
Send comments to: liberal@fnst.org
Listen to The Liberal Times Manila Podcast