6 Miracles of Philippine Nationalism

Posted by BongV on Nov 8, 2015 

While the pinoy mob chows down on the#laglagbala issue – and all the ityty-bitty details of who did what, it felt like I was staring at the branch or chip of a rotting tree, trying to differentiate the pest in one part of the tree with the pest from another bark of the tree.

Unfortunately for the public who took the bait, it’s not really about the different pests on the bark of the tree.

Rather, what you thought was a shrub – is actually, an OVERGROWN weed that has been sucking up all the resources which should have gone to your vegetables, yard, shrubs, hedges.

Or maybe, what you thought was a sunflower (because you have not seen one) was actually overgrown crab grass.

It is pointless to look at the different pests on the “sunflower”  – when you ought to be removing the crab grass (which you mistook for a “sunflower”).

And no it’s not your fault, because – you were taught – from kindergarten to college to your post graduate degree – that crabgrass is sunflower and that sunflower is crabgrass.

That freedom from Filipinos is equal to slavery by non-Filipinos. That war on Moros/Chinese/non-Filipinosis peace for Filipinos.

That ignorance of economics and business is strength.

Or the clincher – that taking care of yourself, thinking of yourself, not being pakisama,  being kontrapelo – of figuring things out for yourself, determining what you want, creating the path that drawas what you want to you – is dangerous; and that you are a wild uncontrollable being that needs to be tamed by the state/the church/the barkada/the traditions/culture/the pamilya.

And that the answer to this wild barbaric creature called yourself – is the collective/nation/church/community/friends/family.

This belief  in the miracles of the nation and forced groupings (watch: Divergent) is supposedly the key to unlocking your dreams  – how has that really turned out?

Laglag bala? That’s just an offshoot of the regulations needed to keep the nation continue serving you.

How exactly is the Philippine nation serving you?

Here’s what they are going to do:

1 – Another probe (Napoles redux).

2. The probe will be another soap opera.

3. The probe will be an opportunity for the different politicians to provide “solutions” to the problem they themselves caused!

4. The probe will be televised.

5. The controlled media will start calling in advertising contracts as the captive audiences minds are entrained. ABS-CBN charges hefty advertising revenue – there’s no one else to go!

7. Perhaps some lowly government employees and middle managers heads will roll – they are dispensable.

8. The convictions/indictment – will be blown up in the media (remember Napoles).

9. People will get relief that the problem has been addressed.

10. The issue will die down

11. Meanwhile – parallel activities are in progress. Take your pick:

• A global currency reset;
• Return of Hacienda Luisitia to the Aquinos;
• Non-enforcement of the SC ruling on the DAP/PDAF;
• Mamasapano whitewash – possible participation of an international criminal cabal ?
• 2010 PCOS remains unresolved ; and PCOS will be used again in 2016 (are you fakkin kidding me!!!)
• More tax increases?
• More regulations? balikbayan box? etc

Do you seriously think that the next administration (if there will still be one) will be any different?

How exactly are all the taxes you pay for, supposedly to improve your well being – delivered the miracles of nationalism?

All that microscopic attention is being brought to bear down on a couple of crooks – in order to distract attention from the bigger crooks!

The proof of the pudding, is in the eating. How exactly is the Philippine nation serving you?

Anyways, so, after more than two decades of Philippine ULTRA-nationalism – since 1972 to the present,what have we got to show for it?

After FORTY THREE 43 years of extreme Filipino-first policy/constitutionally mandated 60-40 policy –what have we got to show for it?

Allow me to present – the 6 miracles of #Philippines Nationalism

(adopted from ~Bennett Owen, National Review in 1990)

1. There’s no unemployment, but nobody actually works.
2. No one works, but everyone gets paid.
3. Everyone gets paid, but there’s nothing to buy with the money.
4. No one can buy anything, but everyone owns everything.
5. Everyone owns everything, but no one is satisfied.
6. No one is satisfied, but 99% of the people vote for the system.

For your reference, here are the slides used. Feel free to download and pass around.

World’s Dumbest Scammer is Filipina Ma Abegail Cardenas Soriano

Posted by rafterman on Nov 5, 2015

We caught this dumb scammer Ma Abegail Cardenas Soriano trying to scam people by pretending to have either Kidney Failure or Ulcer. For one person she said she had an ulcer, while for a couple of other people she said she had kidney failure.

She also told one person her husband was injured with an amputated leg, and another person she told that her husband was dead.

She also claimed to have ulcer and kidney failure but her timeline has indications she has been drinking liquor and partying.

World’s dumbest criminal anyone? Enjoy these clips from the chat log our friends gave us of this very dumb scammer. If you want to let her know what you think, her phone number is 09463669606 and her Facebook profile is at https://www.facebook.com/abby.cardenas.963?fref=ts

Stop judging people who cry for Paris!

November 16, 2015

by benign0

When Kim Kardashian breaks a fingernail, the world gasps. Meanwhile, hundreds of young girls could be kidnapped and raped in places like Nigeria and Bangladesh. There’d be a token burst of indignation across social media and, perhaps if these girls are lucky, a mention on a big mainstream media new outlet. Beyond that, it is an uphill slog to sustain public awareness. Indeed, it is astounding how the amount of attention Kardashian’s fingernail would attract could utterly dwarf the public response to the cry of anguish ofall those Nigerian and Bangladeshi girls combined.

Today the world stands in solidarity with the people of France following the vicious terrorist attack on Paris by Islamic terrorists. But the strength of this solidarity highlights the starkness of the lack of attention other terrorist attacks in other cities attract. But I’m not here to judge people who choose to shed tears for Paris today (and adding the French colours to their profile photos on Facebook) after scrolling past news about similar attacks on Beirut and other cities on their timelines.

That’s just the way the world works, folks.

We can’t really pretend to be people who give equal attention to all things in our environment. In fact, we are physically incapable of doing so. If we were creatures who could be equally indignant about every outrageous event that happens around us, we’d suffer the same thing Superman suffered when he first started developing his super-hearing powers as a teenager. Superman had to train himself to focus only on the important signals and filter out the noise in order to make the most of his super-sensitive senses. Ordinary people like us, on the other hand, did not need to consciously train ourselves to filter out noise from the barrage of data collected by our five senses that hit our brain every second. We were born to be selective about what we pay attention to.

This acute selectiveness is a cognitive skill we apply at a subconscious level. We can, for example, focus on the voice and the words of a specific person we are having a conversation with in a room full of people who are talking as loud as that person. That is a remarkable brain skill that we are hardly conscious of — because it is part of an ancient mechanism that is hard-wired in our brain. We also know of times when a single word or sound from across that din of chatter can just as easily direct our attention away from the person right in front of us. My ability to quickly tune in on a conversation I subconsciously perceive to be, say, important to me from a across a long dinner table attests to the awesomeness of the finely-tuned alert mechanism that is in our brains.

In the same way, we cannot really blame the broader public for the seemingly disproportionate amount of attention it gives to Paris over and above the rest of the suffering world. Paris, after all, is a city everybody loves — which is not the same sort of thing one could honestly say about Beirut or Dhaka, perhaps.

When something bad happens to Paris, everybody becomes sad because most people could relate to Paris. Even people who have not been to Paris, can claim to have a personal relationship with The City of Love thanks to the abundance of literature and media content filled with stories and experience set there. Paris is like family to most of the world’s citizens. When something bad happens to family, empathy comes easy.

Closer to home, we hear certain activists lament the way Filipinos can be so vocal about their grief about the victims of the Paris terrorist attacks half a world away while being oblivious to the plight of the Lumads (indigenous people who live in Mindanao) just a few hundred kilometres from imperial Manila. Well, we’ve always celebrated the way mass communication technology has made the world a more connected place, haven’t we? As such, there are certain realities about such a world we need to come to terms with.

Perhaps those who have never experienced being trapped in a conversation they don’t want to be in at a cocktail party while keeping their radars up scanning the room for better company or even listening in on more interesting chatter going on at the other table should be the first to cast the first stone at folk who cry and ‘pray’ for Paris today.

Nobody can presume to be an authority on what or who one cries for.

[Photo courtesy ABC News.]

Preparation for #APEC2015 should have included fixing the Philippines’ infrastructure

November 14, 2015

by Ilda

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is a major event, which strangely enough, will be held in the Philippines, a country with poor facilities and infrastructure. About twenty world leaders are said to be attending including US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The latter requested talks about the ongoing dispute between China and the Philippines over islands located along South China Sea be put aside during the summit. Tensions should give way to cooler heads in favor of more productive issues like promoting free and open trade among countries participating in the event. In other words, both parties will have to talk through gritted teeth during the event.

The South China Sea issue will likely be a no-go-zone for Aquino and Xi.

The Philippine government’s preparation for the event under President Benigno Simeon Aquino reportedly includes fencing off eyesores like shanty towns and hiding street dwellers camped out along the major routes that the foreign dignitaries will be using. Some people have criticized the government for copying Imelda Marcos’s ideas in hiding the poor from foreign visitors in the 1970s. They say it appears BS Aquino has become one of the people he is fond of criticizing for being callous to the plight of poor Filipinos. Some of his supporters though, defend the move by saying that it is important to impress the investors. Sure, if they consider deceiving investors about the real state of the nation, they can keep telling themselves that.

Some religious leaders have slammed the preparation for the summit as extravagant and immoral. The event, to quote an excerpt from their statement: “…constitute a serious violation of human rights, a very grave injustice for those concerned: more than 1,125 domestic and international flights canceled, millions of wage earners deprived of four days’ salaries, undue sufferings to city commuters, school calendar disrupted, shameful cover-up of poverty areas and excessive expenditures on unnecessary objects and activities.” What they are saying is starting to make sense considering some world leaders from Russia, Indonesia and Taiwan have so far cancelled their trip.

It’s not so much the lack of facilities and infrastructure that’s the problem in holding the summit in the Philippines. Rather, it’s the lack of both imagination and foresight combined with misguided pride by the current government in holding it in Metro Manila. Indeed, there are alternative venues outside of the capital where it would cause less disruption for the general public. Former President Fidel Ramos was surprised that BS Aquino did not consider holding the summit again in Subic Bay, Zambales where the first APEC in the Philippines was held. It even has Clark airport close by to serve air transport needs without much disruption to the rest of the country. The reported 10 billion-peso budget for this event could have been spent building accommodation similar to the one built in 1996 at Subic instead of spending it on unnecessary items like fencing and posh accommodations for street dwellers.

An unhealthy ego could also be to blame. This is evident in the way the BS Aquino government felt the need to hide the real condition of Manila from potential investors. Hiding the truth means the organizers are not confident about being accepted for who we are as a people. It’s like they are ashamed of being from a poor country and not even consider that most people from the international community already know the Philippines is poor. It’s not like pictures of squatter colonies just outside of Manila’s business district have not reached global news before. Besides, we don’t hear about countries like Mexico hiding their poor during international events.

Yes, the BS Aquino government wants to pretend the Philippines is already progressive under his regime. We all know that is a lie. In fact, if the purpose of the APEC is to showcase the Philippines’ business competitiveness to foreign investors, fencing off the shanties won’t be enough to lure them in.

Of course the APEC summit will be a good opportunity for the both public and private sector to network with prospective foreign investors. Foreign investors can provide jobs for millions of unemployed Filipinos. However, the summit itself will not necessarily result in deals. It will still be a long process. Foreign investors come in to see what the Philippines have to offer. Some of them have specific needs that the country might meet like our ability to speak English but some of them might get turned off with restrictions in foreign ownership and the lack of infrastructure.

In order to attract investors, the following needs to be done:

1. Upgrade the public transport system and fix the traffic chaos.

Not to be showcased to the APEC delegates: Awful traffic on a normal day in Manila.

The fact that the BS Aquino government mandated the cancellation of classes and office work in some parts of Manila should be a warning to investors that something is not right in the transport system in the country. It means it cannot handle the normal capacity of commuters and motorists moving from point A to B. This is bad for business because it can mean delays and loss of productivity and, eventually, loss of income.

2. Upgrade of facilities and vital infrastructure like telecommunications and power.

Ask anyone using the Internet in the Philippines and they will tell you that they have to live with slow and unreliable Internet connection from a limited set of local telecommunications companies. The worst part is Filipinos are also paying more for the crappy connections. Swearing is part of the process as well as not holding your breath.

Filipinos are also paying more for their power supply:

Electricity rates in the Philippines are among the highest in the region, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said in a report.

“Data from Asean Center for Energy show that among the ten countries in Southeast Asia in 2007, the country ranks as having the third highest residential electricity tariffs, fifth highest for commercial, and fourth highest in terms of industrial electricity tariffs,” NSCB secretary-general Jose Albert said.

One of the main reasons for this is the absence of government subsidies for electricity, unlike in Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, where the government subsidizes electricity costs.

The Philippines is also losing out to Vietnam due to the latter having “very low wages, relatively good infrastructure and business environment”. This is sad news considering Vietnam was a devastated country after the Vietnam War as recently as the 1970s.

3. Respect principle of sanctity of contract.

The Philippines suffers from a bad reputation thanks to its government’s getting into the habit of breaching contracts over recent years; particularly after BS Aquino started his term. These contract breaches include the cancellation — seemingly out of spite — of GMA’s PhP1.9 billion worth of various flood control projects as well as the P18.7 billion Laguna de Bay dredging project signed during her term. The Belgian company, Baggerwerken Decloedt en Zoon (BDC) which was contracted to do the dredging job filed a lawsuit against the Aquino government for the cancellation of the deal.

Another case is that of JKG-Power Plates, the company that won the bid to supply the Motor Vehicle License Plate Standardization Program (MVLPSP) of the Land Transportation Office (LTO). After delivering motor vehicle plates worth P620.35 million, the government reportedly has so far only paid them P477.90 million. The worst part was the Commission on Audit (COA) disallowed additional disbursements for the project saying, “it did not undergo legitimate procurement processes”.

If word gets around that Filipinos cannot keep their promises, foreign investors will look to other countries for the needed stability required to do business.

4. Philippines need to fix red tape to improve ease of doing business for foreign investors.

According to a World Bank report, the Philippines’ ranking dropped six notches to 103rd from last year’s 97th spot across 189 economies. This is no surprise if you consider all above issues investors have to deal with.

In addition to the above mentioned, Japanese investors also cited difficulties in refunding taxes. They also cited the impact of congestion at the Port of Manila on local operations as being among the biggest concerns.

Many Filipinos have been saying that some of the funds from the bloated budget for the APEC summit could have gone to upgrading the country’s facilities and infrastructure instead. It would, they argue, have yielded more return on the investment. Unfortunately, it seems that making a superficial impression while masking the underlying truth about the Philippines is deemed the more worthwhile pursuit.

Tips PNoy should observe during #APEC2015 to prevent embarrassment for Filipinos

November 13, 2015

by benign0

It’s simple, really. Be considerate and observe good manners, Mister President. It’s stuff we all got taught in kindergarten. It’s time to revisit good ol’ Insulares breeding in times when we are hosting important guests.

So here is the first and probably most important one: Less talk about your mother. I mean, come on, would one be able to take seriously big leaders of the free and not-so-free worlds of the APEC forum waxing nostalgia about their moms every other two or three sentences?

Real men get “Mom” tattoos on their backs. Vladimir Putin probably has one. That way, they don’t have to talk about how much they miss their moms as much.

Following through on the topic of the women in our lives comes the next piece of advice: Hands off the ladies for now, Mister President.

Some athletes abstain from intimate activities before a crucial match. Considering that schmoozing with world leaders is mentally- and physically-demanding work, it is best that the President be a hundred percent on top of his attention span and, yes, in peak health.

This means getting a good night’s rest every night over the course of the APEC meet. A good night’s sleep makes for a sound mind and robustresistensya (a healthy immune system) to prevent those coughing fits that tend to hit smokers every now and then.

Nonetheless, given that your favourite topics — your mom and your chicks — are deemed taboo throughout the APEC summit, at least try to look interested in the discussions.

I mean, lots of things are at stake here — most pressing of all the future of economic trade amongst the countries represented in this meet considering that barriers to trade are coming down and pressure is bearing down on the monopolistic oligarch businesses in the Philippines to compete on a level field. Then there is the South China Sea situation — the elephant in the room; the topic that must not be spoken about. The President needs to approach that awkwardness with full mental hands on deck.

On that note, it’s worthwhile reminding the President to be careful about talk and gestures that could be misconstrued as a provocation to a fight.

“Laban” (fight!) is a dirty word when you are surrounded by people who are one-upping one another in a regional arms race the likes of which we have not seen since the end of the Cold War.

Even then, if and when the President actually gets around to paying attention to the important things going on around him, he should remain conscious of the state of his lower jaw.

I mean, to be fair, we all get slack jawed when we are awestruck by a rivetting speech or some other attention-grabbing event. But that’s what separates the men from the boys — an ability to keep it together under any circumstance. Composure and mindfulness is the operative term here when you are leader of a nation of 100 million.

So, yeah, when listening and not speaking, mouth closed Mr President. And in addition to that, sit up straight.

Think of James Bond. We never see James Bond standing on one leg or seated with a curved back while “playing the odds”, right?

Filipinos are in desperate need of their proud moment Mr. President. Do the country proud!