The Profits of I's. What Pinoy rice farmers can learn from ICRISAT
MANILA: I'm worried about the AFTA coming to town in 2015, even if UP Diliman Professor of Asian Studies Eduardo Climaco Tadem is not, even as he quotes a conclusion of a 2013 joint study by the Asian Development Bank and Southeast Asian Studies that the Asean Free Trade Area is not going to happen in 2015, that Asean "has no prospect of coming close to (becoming a) single market by the AEC's 2015 deadline – or even by 2020 or 2025" (04 May 2014, inquirer.net ). What they mean is that the AFTA is not going to be fully implemented in 2015. That's like saying there are not going to be market earthquakes in the Asean next year, so why worry? Ah yes, the optimist see the doughnut, the pessimist sees the hole! Professor Tadem does not see the donut that I see, even as I also see that we have to cook it before we can eat it. Because he cannot see the whole, the Professor is not considering the parts that make the whole. So, he echoes former NEDA Director General