Fudging the numbers

Last night the scuttlebutt concerned the President’s bungled public cabinet meeting, in which she ended up debating the Education Secretary on how best to fudge the numbers concerning classrooms. The news stories of course, do not capture the flavor of what happened the way Jove Francisco’s eyewitness account can. How best to explain the fudging that was bungled? Uniffors explains it mirthfully, comparing it to a passage from Alice in Wonderland:

Secretary of Education Fe Hiidalgo reported a classroom shortage of 6,832 based on a ratio of 45 students per classroom. Queen Taray disagreed. She said the classroom shortage would only be 1,000 if Hidalgo used a 100:1 ratio.

As the discussion over dinner went last night, based on the President’s logic, hold 24 hour marathon classes (half day classes, four times a day), and there would be no classroom shortage!

More action in the fudging numbers department: there’s been a heated debate in Pinoy Tech Blog (via Captain’s Log) on the fabled 9 million hits-visitors-pixels claim.

My Arab News column for this week is The Tragedy of Failing to Improve the Country With OFW Remittances.

For another view, which views migration with alarm, read Gail Ilagan:  in a commencement speech she recently delivered, she argues that exporting people reflects a warped sense of priorities.

Greg Makabenta reminds us of the concern in some quarters among Filipinos abroad, over the manner in which they might be deprived of the vote. I first advocated the overseas vote in 1997 and continue to think it’s important.

Liu Xiabao on how China hasn’t confronted the horrors of the Cultural Revolution.

David Byrne has an exceedingly interesting entry on the “fair use” of photos of anonymous people.

Technorati Tags: Philippines, politics

Migrating call centers

I spent last weekend in Cebu (attending a conference). I had a chance to catch up with an old friend there. We were discussing the restaurant scene and he told me places to eat have to periodically reinvent themselves. Cebuanos, he said (he is one) are quite thrifty, and so among other things, many tend to still go home for lunch. He says there really isn’t an office worker culture yet in that city, although a new kind of worker has emerged: the call center employee. That phenomenon, he says, has had an impact on the economy and of course, the habits of young people. It seems though, that Cebu’s saturated, if this article’s any guide.

Even as a former rebel becomes the last victim of an assassination, the Armed Forces brass continue the behavior they learned thanks to Executive Order 464. The eternal Roman question arises: who will guard the guardians?

The Palace is confident it can get its pork barrel projects restored.

San Miguel Corporation reacts to rumors Coca-Cola may scrap its bottling deal in the Philippines. Coca-Cola importation to come?

The Nation of Thailand provides an overview of what’s going wrong in East Timor.

Tony Abaya thinks the President has let slip her intention to rule past 2010.

A letter writer on why Marcos trounced Macapagal in 1965 and why Marcos was no Lee Kwan Yew.

JB Baylon has an idea that people tell me is actually popular in Mindanao (as Baylon says it is): abolish the House.

comelec AKO doesn’t like how senators treated the Comelec chairman (or how the chairman wilted).

Amusing survey from New Economist: people would be happier in the UK if politicians stopped talking about happiness.

The Unlawyer illustrates a point I’ve become convinced of, recently: all the discussions about form of government reflect a kind of escapism. You don’t need a change in system to fix the things that madden people about government -and governance.

Expectorants and Walk This Way weigh in with good examples of beautification.

Here’s something remarkable: Project Gutenberg of the Philippines. Which suggests, as this article in MediaShift does, that the migration of printed materials from books to digital formats may not be suitable for all books, but for some kinds of books. Personally, I believe reference works, and that includes textbooks, are more suitable for digital use than novels, or books for the general reader.

Sustainable Business praises Inq7.net’s coverage of environmental matters.

Red’s Herring dwells some more on the tar baby controversy.

Theory is the Reason launches an anniversary contest you may want to join.

And, since today is my 36th birthday, the obligatory Amazon Wish List. And if you want to make a donation or find a way to help the earthquake victims in Indonesia, contact your local Philippine National Red Cross chapter.

Technorati Tags: Marcos, media, military, Philippines, politics

Earthquake weather

The Earthquake in Indonesia reminds me of something my father used to say when the weather was very hot, and unnaturally still: “earthquake weather.” Seems we’ve been having that kind of weather lately.

Some quick links:

Thailand’s The Nation editorializes on the economic dangers of a parliament unable to convene.

Hugo Chavez’s kiss of death, politically.

Slate on What the framers [of the US Constitution] would say about raids on congressional offices.

Hanging judge: former Chief Justice Davide in limbo over his U.N. appointment.

Futile flags is my column today, inspired by this Manila Times feature, on the makers of flags.

World press leaders debate how to join Internet revolution: read also Ethan Zuckerman on the dangers of breaking up the internet into “internets” -at a time when, according to Jakob Nielsen, the world has one billion internet users, and another billion in a decade.

A colleague inquired as to when the parliamentary system envisioned by the 1973 Constitution became a semi-parliamentary one. This time line is very helpful.

Blair’s Congressional gold medal: for some reason, he won’t pick it up.

Region 6 demographics, courtesy of Iloilo City Boy.

comelec AKO has a practical suggestion for promoting English proficiency.

Bunker Chronicles points to the First Family of Taiwan’s media woes.

Measly Meanderings on the perils of entrepreneurship.

In Online Journalism Review, a columnist-blogger discusses the balancing act required by two different kinds of writing.

Bloggers Punzi and La Vida Lawyer helped with Talk of the Town!

Mamutong points to an intriguing item on the Japanese and Mindanao.

Out of my mind on vigilantism.

baratillo@cubao on fact checking.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, constitution, journalism, medals, media, Philippines

Proclaimed a National Artist, not awarded

The Comelec clams up. Amnesty International expresses alarm over the killings of Filipino journalists. Overseas, Thais wonder, is Thaksin a “peekaboo prime minister,” and what does it all mean? After all, he went on vacation and is now attempting a comeback.

Also, a persnickety clarification. National Artist is a title (titles in general are not forbidden: what are forbidden by the Constitution are titles of nobility). Someone becomes a National Artist by being proclaimed as such by the President of the Philippines. By virtue of having been proclaimed a National Artist, the person then gets to be conferred the insignia of the Order of National Artists, which symbolizes their belonging to the group of National Artists of the Philippines. Therefore, simply to refer to the “National Artist Award” is erroneous, forgetting both the origins and meaning of what someone becoming a National Artist involves and means. The title was, of course, inspired by the title of National Artist of the USSR, which has been carried over in some former Soviet republics.

So read this news article and see what’s wrong: FPJ named National Artist for Film. It should have read, “FPJ proclaimed National Artist for Film.” This story, for example, is written correctly: Poe proclaimed National Artist for Movies.

Parellel Universes (pioneering Philippine medical blog) hosts, for the third time, Grand Rounds, an online medical journal, in the form of commentaries and a roundup of interesting medical blog entries. A sampling of interesting entries, for the medical professional and layman alike: to be, or not to be, present at a resuscitation; a new quit smoking pill; and which sugar substitute’s best.

Something that caught my eye: Shrinkette puts together something we’ll see pretty often in the future: the blog equivalent of a festschrift for a departing (or departed) blogger.

In the punditocracy, my Arab News column for this week is Assassinations Destroying the Future of Filipino Journalists (under a different title, it will also be my Inquirer column tomorrow, that’s how strongly I feel about the issue). Dan Mariano devotes his column to the same death that inspired mine, and explains why everyone should care. IKn his column, he refers to a blogger who knew the slain journalist.

Manuel Buencamino ponders the lurid details of a model’s spectacular allegations (and the ensuing controversy).

Torn and Frayed points to a funny story (which becomes hilarious when you view the film clip), of a fellow applying for a job and mistakenly invited to guest in the BBC’s studio because he had the same first name as an expert. Watch the film clip of the interview and read this follow-up story from The Guardian.

And something nifty, via Philippine Commentary: photos of the first working prototype of the $100 laptop computer. Ignatian Perspective on computing obsolescence.

The San Francisco Chronicle launches a podcast channel for Filipinos, a groundbreaking effort. What’s interesting, besides the effort, market, and subject matter, is that the podcasts will alternate between different Philippine languages.  Click here to check out Pinoy Pod.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, journalism, medals, media, Philippines, politics

Tar baby controversy

This is the first time a journalist who’s been murdered is someone I’ve actually met. I was a guest on Fernando Batul’s radio show when I was last in Puerto Princesa City. He seemed a nice enough person. From what I saw during his radio show, he didn’t seem particularly different from other hard-hitting radio hosts. Now he’s dead.

Good news: a bill exempting those who earn 125,000 pesos a year or below from income tax is closer to being approved. In his column, John Mangun suggests that all isn’t peachy keen in the economic front, though. Besides which, as Punzi points out, it’s increasingly obvious that despite working hard, people aren’t getting what they deserve as compensation for their efforts.

Connie Veneracion explains what’s wrong with the compromise deals the PCGG wants with the Marcoses.

Overseas, Netindia reports a controversy involving contending claims as to which Filipino was really the first to climb Everest. The Nation of Thailand points to round two in the Thaksin drama. After having beaten a strategic retreat, Thaksin’s now attempting a comeback. As Thepchai Yong’s opinion column explains,

So the question is whether Thaksin will improve things or make them worse with his comeback.

For Thai Rak Thai, its leader’s sudden political re-entry was definitely a boon to its rank and file, who have been badly demoralised by the changing political tide. The party is facing the possibility of dissolution after a sub-committee of the Election Commission found some of its top officials to be involved in bribing small parties to contest the April 2 election. Thaksin himself is facing a lawsuit in the Administrative Court that threatens to strip him of the premiership for alleged dereliction of duty.

But it’s the pending election that was probably a major factor in prompting Thaksin to end his break. Without their leader actively at the helm, Thai Rak Thai was obviously as disoriented as the government itself. The prolonged political stalemate that was already causing rumblings within the party threatened to intensify factional conflicts that might result in mass defections.

So it’s fairly easy to see the reasons for Thaksin’s latest political flip-flop. Salvaging Thai Rak Thai’s sagging image and saving it from a possible disintegration was at the top of his agenda. The party also badly needs him to lead the charge into the next election.

But for the public at large, Thaksin’s return signals a protracted deadlock. Lest he forget, the political anarchy in the country now is entirely Thaksin’s doing. His six-week political hiatus only compounded it.

Thaksin’s resumption of the premiership will not in any way dispel the charges of conflict of interest, abuse of power and interference with independent bodies that have been levelled against him and which were the reasons for him being rejected by large sections of society. His party’s continuing support for the embattled election commissioners also lends weight to the accusation that they are working hand-in-glove.

If the election date as proposed by the Election Commission holds, it means that the current caretaker government with Thaksin at the helm will continue to hold power for another five months. And that means another five months of political uncertainty.

Thaksin’s political juggling only proves that his style of CEO leadership has been a big failure and his Thai Rak Thai is anything but a political institution. Even top level Cabinet members, including his second in command, often cited as his possible political heirs, were helpless without their commander-in-chief around.

Sounds familiar. As does the paper’s editorial calling for an end to the revolving-door and heavily politicized policies towards the Fourth Army of the Thai military.

A reader pointed out a tar baby controversy in America, concerning the new White House spokesman (and former Fox News anchor) Tony Snow. What’s wrong with using the term tar baby? This cartoon tells it all:

Actually, that’s a parody cartoon. What really happened is explained by Dr. Marc Lamont Hill: the context of the statement and why it has been found objectionable by so many, though he suggests Snow was a victim of a culture that doesn’t consider the feelings of others. PERRspectives graphically demonstrates why “tar baby” is objectionable.  Sea Change adds that the statement is more likely a slip, and focusing too much on it ignores other acts of racism that deserve attention. Then again, prying1 says it’s all much ado about nothing -another case of political correctness run amuck.

I’m inclined to agree with Lamont, if only because the tar baby story itself is a kind of age reference: only Filipinos of my generation know the story, just as American whites of Snow’s generation may know it without realizing how it’s viewed as a racist image or epithet by non-whites. The speed at which things can change is actually best demonstrated by my generation: I think we were the last to think nothing of being taught to sing “Yankee Doodle” in school, and read about Abraham Lincoln in classes.

The Suburban Ecstasies writes a hard-hitting critique of what he considers the reverse-racism of other conservatives, such as the one I most like to dislike, Michelle Malkin: he say’s she’s on the warpath on allegedly racist statements made against her, but really, she’s only being selective about the facts. And just for the hell of it, Click Mo Mukha Mo on a Filipina pornstar running for governor of Nevada makes a good companion story.

And there’s the sudden death of the most insanely popular gossip blog (at least for a few weeks: it was certainly causing mental -well, okay, emotional- anguish among the glitterati).

Technorati Tags: journalism, Marcos, Philippines, politics

da Vinci crapfest

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours talking to young activists about the national situation. It was an extremely interesting interaction. This entry in tonypierce.com (hat tip to Mamutong), shows clearly that young people giving their elders a tough time (politically, anyway) is par for the course. The country’s changing, and it was good to talk to students who care about what sort of changes will take place.

I watched The da Vinci Code on opening night and it was a complete waste of time and money. Slate’s review sums it up best: worse than the book. The reactions and reviews of World Famous in the Philippines (who points to Howstuffwork’s analysis of how the movie doesn’t work; they also have a great set of annotated photos of da Vinci’s Last Supper)  and Morofilm sum up everything wrong with the film.

After the movie, one of the people I watched the film with, who’d apparently never read the book, asked me what I thought of the book. “Airplane reading,” I replied: fun but forgettable. I had to keep asking a friend during the movie, “was that in the book?” I’d forgotten.

Though it can make for difficult slogging at times, “Foucault’s Pendulum” (Umberto Eco) seems to me to have, at least, solid academic credentials behind it; it was also one of the first Templar-Mason conspiracy novels I read and much more intricately interesting than Dan Brown’s bestseller. The bar for historical-detective-thriller type novels was really set by “The Club Dumas” (Arturo Perez-Reverte). Splendid book, lousy movie.

If you want to get into pseudo-history, you could, of course, read “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” (Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln), which is, actually, lots of fun to read. But if one really wants to get into the meat of the matter, and go beyond fiction, Elaine Pagels, can’t be beat: her writing isn’t lurid. The first book of hers I read was “The Origin of Satan (Vintage)” (Elaine Pagels) followed by “The Gnostic Gospels” (ELAINE PAGELS). All these books are available in Metro Manila bookstores, by the way.

This week’s Talk of the town in the Inquirer is on ethanol and the implications of government’s support for its production. Growing energy and opportunities gives an overview of the issues concerned. Ethanol sweeteners discusses the economic benefits and debates on social costs.  Seeing through the smokescreen provides the view of sugar planters, while Sugarcane Solomon wanted provides that of the sugar millers.

My column for today is Mediocrity long imposed on voters, a response to a reader’s letter to the editor.

Dante Ang, owner of the Manila Times, only publishes commentaries in his paper when something big is going on. His latest piece, Time to do penance, is aimed at Alfonso Yuchengco. The case is interesting because it involves allegations that Yuchengco and his companies were slandered in the blog of angry education plan holders. the past year has seen the use of the law against Philippine blogs: first, for political reasons and now, for commercial reasons. Atty-at-work takes notice of the case and points out he has an entry on e-libel.

When does a disagreement stop being he said, she said? When the argument starts involving provable, and disprovable, things. The continued claims of Sigaw ng Bayan (the number of visitors, and how they count them) get pretty thoroughly dissected by Captain’s Log and Yugatech (who gets pretty sarcastic in this entry -I love it!). As for what I think, it’s in my May 8 column.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, journalism, people’s initiative, Philippines, politics

The Long View: The tar baby

The tar baby

By Manuel L. Quezon III

WHAT was orchestrated along the lines of Lenei Reifenstahl’s propaganda masterpiece “Triumph of the Will” (her film of the 1934 Nuremberg rally of the Nazis) has turned into a scene straight out of Walt Disney’s “Song of the South,” in particular, the fable of Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, in which a fox gets the goat of a rootin’ tootin’ but rather vain rabbit by setting up a baby made of tar along the side of the road. The rabbit, spotting the tar baby, tries to strike up a conversation, and gets frustrated over the tar baby’s silence. The rabbit tries to beat up the tar baby, but with every kick and punch, he gets more and more stuck until the fox comes out and taunts the rabbit. The lesson, of course, is that you shouldn’t mess with something you have no business with in the first place.

Charter change, as originally scripted, was supposed to result in the intimidating yet seductive spectacle of a population rising up to reclaim democracy. It was going to be breathtaking and unstoppable. It was like putting a Japanese bullet train on Philippine National Railways (PNR) tracks. Pull the train whistle all you like, make all the speeches in the world, bring out the brass bands, publish all the glossy timetables you desire, and still, the result is what we have: cash and saliva don’t a popular initiative make; popularity does. And it simply wasn’t — and isn’t — popular enough. The Sigaw ng Bayan bullet train was all about shouting and found itself stuck in time-tested tracks. Now it is being subjected to what real-world PNR trains regularly endure: an assault from the public.

From the start, everyone from the stationmaster down to the locomotive driver and conductor were told it simply wouldn’t work: The Constitution is like our narrow-gauge railroad tracks and putting a shiny bullet train there was an exercise in futility. Perhaps the President hoped, and some of her people promised, that the train would magnetically, or even magically, levitate over the tracks, perhaps they read “The Little Engine That Could” once too often, but reality has a harsh way of intruding into zany schemes and the people’s initiative has proven exactly that: too zany to work.

Now, like some folksy Uncle Remus (the character in “Song of the South” who tells the Brer Rabbit fables) sitting in the caboose watching all the fuss, some of the President’s allies decided to tell the story of the tar baby and convinced the powers-that-be that Charter change through a people’s initiative is an unwinnable fight. You don’t need a bullet train, the old PNR engine will do. Rev it up enough, and it will smash its way through anything in its path. And while perhaps the Lambinos and Bengzons of the present have invested too much, emotionally or otherwise, in the vain hope of making their bullet train fly, they can be left trying while the pros try something else. It’s like a variation on a math problem: If engine A leaves station 1, traveling to point B at 20 kph, and engine B leaves station 2, traveling to point be at 10 kph, which engine will arrive at point B first? The correct, political answer is: It doesn’t matter. The government owns both engines, so whichever one gets there first can be proclaimed a win-win triumph of transportation. The Strong Republic railroad.

Just the other day, a foreign journalist interviewing me for a series on the political situation remarked, in between takes, “You know, I’ve been trying to get hold of a government spokesman but no one is replying.”

I told him that perhaps the government was still formulating its message. He said that was quite possible.

The new message is being broadcast loud and clear: It’s the Dagupan Express all the way! The Charter change express has shifted engines, that’s all. And it’s good to consider, at this point, what some versions of the tar baby fable have as their ending. Having been taunted by the fox, Brer Rabbit recovers his wits, begs the fox to throw him into a briar patch, and the sadistic fox complies, not realizing the rabbit can handle the thorny leaves and he can’t chase him through the briars. Brer Rabbit gets thrown into the briar patch and has the last laugh.

So who is Brer Rabbit, who is Brer Fox, and who is the tar baby? It depends on whom you ask. I happen to think Brer Rabbit is the President, Brer Fox is the Speaker, and the tar baby is the public and its hostility to the so-called people’s initiative. Then again, our Loony Tunes political situation means the big players, at various points in time, play the role of the rabbit and the fox — at times all fight and bluff, at other times, engaging in crafty cunning and plotting. And every one of them, at whichever time they want to play the fox, can create as many tar babies as they please. And each time they decide to be the rabbit, they expect to outwit the fox. And as for you and me — well, sometimes one has to be thankful for the tar babies.

Whether we’re watching the Brer rabbits or foxes and their tar baby games, you have to wonder how that will affect your reality. Looking at that shiny, noisy but useless “people’s initiative” sitting dead in its tracks, makes you wonder how much of our taxes went to what is a spectacularly failed experiment. And watching the happy face of the Speaker as he wets his whistle, you have to wonder, too: Will that Dagupan Express remove the stones and dirt, the cracked and uneatable grains, from National Food Authority rice at P15 to P20 a kilo? What’s cheap shouldn’t necessarily be of inferior quality. And at P5.50 to P6.50 a pack, instant noodles are more affordable and cleaner than what the government can provide.

And that’s the true moral of the tale: a constitution doesn’t provide edible rice. People do. But if they’re wrestling tar babies, well…

Tar baby

My column for today is The tar baby. In it, I refer to a couple of things: Triumph of the Will, and the fable of Brer Rabbit and the tar baby.

The tar baby story in the original dialect.

Another version of the tar baby story  in a more readily understandable form.

Plan B

My Arab News column for this week is Are Filipinos Ready to Cha-Cha Just to Get Rid of President Arroyo?

Neal Cruz broke in his column today what’s been the scuttlebutt for some time: Senator Miriam Defensor. Together with Newsstand’s survey of interesting, emerging political developments, one can see the shift in strategy that’s taking place.

The “people’s initative” has been put on the back burner, and the President’s decided to pursue a Constituetnt Assembly once more.

Technorati Tags: constitution, people’s initiative, Philippines, politics

Presentations

Here is a PowerPoint presentation by Fr. Joaquin Bernas, S.J. which is very educational, indeed. His presentation is on Charter Change and the nature of parliamentary versus presidential, and unitary versus federal.
Charter Change MBC-1.ppt

Here is a PowerPoint presentation by Christian Monsod:
CSM presentation ver3-1.ppt

In it, he explains not only his opposition to Charter Change as proposed, but also indicating the need to find a peaceful, constructive, solution to the political crisis. I have told him both privately and in meetings (as well as other people) that I find myself agreeing with many, if not most, of his proposals. We differ on a couple of things: he says there hasn’t been People Power because people don’t support it or no longer believe in it -I only partially agree: I do think people believe that it’s the instrument of last resort, and with no clear alternatives in sight, people think it’s too risky; we also disagree on the President’s “end game” -he thinks her only interest is in lasting until 2010; I remain convinced she has no option but to stay in office beyond that, not only because by so doing, she would keep her enemies at bay, but because she is thoroughly convinced at this point, that she is only one qualified to lead (include the personal “to hell with all of you!” feeling a survivor like her must have by now).

But in my case, whatever differences in opinion I might have with Monsod’s views shouldn’t detract from his larger message, which is, that the public have firmly demonstrated their opposition to extreme solutions -transitional councils, coups, a dictatorship- and their dislike for Charter Change is it’s being attempted at present.

Do we want Charter Change? Then elect a Constitutional Convention. An end to the crisis of legitimacy? You don’t need the surveys to realize there are only three Constitutional options: resignation (which requires the President’s agreement), impeachment (prevented so far); a snap election, which is a pretty popular solution, is possible, but getting the President and others to agree might take a convincing statement from the electorate, say in the 2007 elections.

Technorati Tags: constitution, people power, people’s initiative, Philippines, politics

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