Readers' turn to speak

BIZLINKS

By Rey Gamboa

We give way to our readers once again. The first one comes from Juan Jose Berenguer Testa of Mondial Tours who wants to share his views on our column, “PAL after Tan”. Here is what he says.

PAL’s role

“Yes! yes! Because we have nine million Filipinos abroad, we must help PAL get healthy as soon as possible. And the first order of the day should be to get those Boeing 777s in the air across the Pacific to San Francisco as soon as possible.

“PAL deserves it and the travailing public more. PAL is being unjustly punished because of the downgrade to Category 1 by the FAA, which calls for the refusal by the US to effect any changes in the existing air agreement. However, it appears to be one sided as the condition does not affect the two recent US carriers now in the Philippine skies.

“PAL is our best tourism arm, and the US market must be the priority area to show the world what service we can provide. We need to pamper millions of Pinoys and Filams who hardly know our country.

“What other carriers are aiming for by operating in the country is the potential labor traffic and not too much feelings for the development of our tourism.

“We cannot develop a sound tourism industry with only ‘low cost carriers.’ We need regular flights or we will miss the boat again.”

Stinking toilets

Still on the issue of tourism, one reader who introduced himself as David wrote:

“I am an American married to a Filipina. Fifty years ago, while on my way to Vietnam by passing through the Philippines, my beloved next door neighbor Mrs. Garcia, a Filipino who was a nurse in Minneapolis, gave me a small bar of soap to stick in my pocket.

“She told me to carry it when I went sightseeing in any place in the Philippines because the bathrooms were stinking filthy and without soap no matter where I went.

“The same is true today throughout the nation. Government buildings, shopping malls, restaurants, hospitals and doctors’ offices have filthy bathrooms and no soap. Doctors and nurses treat patients in facilities with no soap at hand. 

“Quit kidding ourselves. The Western world will not come here knowing what is at hand with CRs. No one with any self-respect from anywhere in the world wants to be trapped in a situation whereby bathrooms are stinking filthy and without soap and water in abundance.

“It will not happen no matter what the slogan is.”

Altruistic cause

And finally, reacting to our column, “Search for Filipino Steve Jobs”, Augusto Sanchez hopes that through this column, any one of the two giant telecom companies will give him some attention.

“I am a retired IT professional who has been into IT continuously since the ’70s. I do not presume that I can remotely replicate what the late Mr. Jobs had done in his lifetime. Interestingly though, I have done some work in IT that can have some parallels to what Jobs had done early on in his illustrious career. In his land of opportunity, he must have been motivated by financial gains. Here our paths diverge because my cause is altruistic.

“My work may well be a singular achievement by a Filipino not necessarily in terms of a new technology developed but in the application of technology to enrich our lives. It is a computerized system designed to enhance the English language and general knowledge in students and at the same time enable them to earn a little on the side. I dubbed it “Learn N Earn.”

“The features that set it apart are: 1) It is very user-friendly despite the complexity of its processes; 2) It is enjoyable and at the same time mentally challenging to the user; 3) It covers over eight man-years of development work and still counting. Its enormous data bank is a veritable repository of knowledge in digital form for the student learner; 4) Its output is guaranteed to be unique; 5) It is primed to set off a series of initiatives that have been conceptualized as its natural outgrowth. Thus its benefits to poor students could be just the tip of the metaphorical iceberg.

“Steve Jobs was a visionary. Although some of his visions may have been extant ideas in technology not originally his own, he improved on them and made them work because of people who were willing to listen and because he was already making a name for himself as a man who could deliver. The environment that nurtured him is alien in this country and as inhospitable as a lunar landscape to an unknown upstart.

“I tried to ‘sell’ my concept to newspapers, being its logical starting point. I never reached first base despite the sugar coating, i.e., the potential benefits. Apparently nobody took interest in it.

“After still trying on others, it dawned on me that that the problem is the Pinoy penchant to belittle a significant work by a fellow Pinoy. Most of us tend to deny the crab mindset. The odyssey of my system since Jan. 9, 2008 tells me it exists, at least in the subconscious, and it cannot be exorcised because we are in denial.

Futile search

“Your search, Mr. Gamboa, is for technical creativity, as embodied in Jobs, amongst us Pinoys. In the face of this crab mentality, it would be like the search for an honest man by Diogenes who was in denial of the existence of such a man.

“My concept could be a candidate for assistance from the ‘fund’ not financially but for support to get started. If you get down to it, you will find that it holds great promise that could impact our country educationally, economically, socially and culturally and could cost the government very minimally. What is more is that the business side of it is viable even to highbrow business execs.

“I have high hopes that you would at least make the request to e-mail the system summary so that you can have it evaluated by technical men to find out its value as a technical work in preparation to a demo. You really have to see it to believe in what a Pinoy is capable of doing.”

Champions League (PCCL) 2012 National Collegiate Championship

Congratulations to Coach Yayoy Alcoseba and his Southwestern University Cobras for winning the 2012 CESAFI (Cebu) crown. CESAFI is the most popular collegiate league in Visayas and Mindanao, next to UAAP and NCAA.

The Cobras, together with CESAFI runner-up, University of Visayas Green Lancers, and third placer, University of San Jose-Recoletos Jaguars, are seeded in the Round 16 (Sweet 16) of the Champions League (PCCL) 2012 National Collegiate Championship.

As of date, the other seeded teams in the Round 16 are Ateneo Blue Eagles, UST Growling Tigers, National U Bulldogs, DLSU Green Archers, San Beda Red Lions, San Sebastian-Recoletos Golden Stags and Letran Knights.

San Sebastian College-Recoletos Golden Stags are the defending National Collegiate Champion, beating Ateneo in last year’s final and became the first NCAA team to win the national title since ten years ago.

Visit www.CollgiateChampionsLeague.net for more details about the Champions League (PCCL) National Collegiate competitions.

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Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at reydgamboa@yahoo.com. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net.