The end of globalization

VIRTUAL REALITY

- TONY LOPEZ

The tariff wars or the globalization crisis shows no signs of abating. It looks like the end of globalization or the cutting of barriers to exports and imports across borders is a done deal.

The enormous loss of trust among countries trading with each other will take a long time to restore, if at all. And one valuable lesson every country must learn from the end of globalization is self-reliance. The three-year Russia-Ukraine war, in fact, should have implanted the doctrine of self-reliance among leaders and policymakers.

To survive in the coming years, a country must increasingly rely on its own people, its own resources and on its own resilience.

In this regard, the Philippines is well positioned among the ten-member countries of the ASEAN to beat the tariff game.

The country has vast resources—120 million people, rich natural resources that can feed more than 300 million and strategic location for which the world powers are fighting to control.

When Lapulapu defeated the fleet of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521, the seeds of resilience were planted in the Filipino psyche. Magellan, after all, represented Spain, in the 16th century the world's greatest naval power. Yet, Lapulapu defeated it, in less than a day, with just 1,000 men, using nothing more modern than bows, arrows, bolos, knives, true grit and raw courage.

Thanks to Donald J. Trump, self-reliance is now being embraced by the European Union and by the more than 30 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

President Trump has claimed the United States spent up to $300 billion defending Ukraine. He has finally gotten tired of bankrolling a seemingly endless war that to him has little or no strategic value.