The more the economy grows, the more poor people we have.

That’s not the way it’s supposed to be. Common sense tells us that the higher the rate of economic growth, the fewer will be the number of the poor. But that cruel paradox of more poor with higher growth is described by economists as the “poverty elasticity of growth,” which is the measure of how much poverty is negatively correlated with economic growth.

In the 1970s, government implemented the Balik Scientist Program to allow foreign-based Filipino experts to return and share their expertise with the Department of Science and Technology in its priority projects. However, except for some cases, it was generally a failure. The program did not succeed in bringing back our top Filipino scientists to share their knowledge and competencies in improving the country’s science and technology (S&T) capacity, mainly due to the lack of government support.

WHEN Manny Pacquiao stepped into history on Sunday as the only boxer ever to win seven titles in seven weight classifications, it wasn’t just Miguel Cotto he vanquished. He defied, as well, all superlatives, with even the best writers seemingly reduced to simply saying he is the greatest boxer of all time.