More on Bio-terrorism, Charter-Change, Beliefs

Rewrites of Jottings: More on Bio-terrorism, Charter-Change, Beliefs
Mindanao Post 21 January 2004
There might be some good after all from the bio-terror hysteria evoked by Jemaah Islamiyah. We can make preparations to head off attacks on our food supply, agroterror attacks that require less sophistication and technical know-how, much easier for the terrorist to carry out. The rapid spread of foot-and-mouth disease presently existing sporadically, anticrop agents that can be spread by the wind, and large chicken farms which could be devastated by the exotic Newcastle disease or avian flu are some of the scenarios to guard against.
The recent attempt to import chicken eggs from China, exposed by DA Secretary Luis Lorenzo as technical smuggling (import papers declared the item as carrots) may not be a terrorist act, but the method could be one way a terrorist would carry out dispersion of the bird flu. This animal disease devastated Hong Kong’s poultry industry, which involved the destruction of millions of chickens to control the epidemic. The Avian flu is being studied to see if cases of the disease that afflicted humans can become a human epidemic.
o-o-o
Constitutional change: Are we ready for it? My answer to the rhetorical question, by inference, is no, we are not.
The conditions obtaining in the nation paints a picture of turmoil, chaos, and instability. The nation is in tumultuous flux, needing only an unknown factor to shatter and disintegrate the remaining bonds and cohesiveness of society. The Basic Law provides that bond, that cohesion, that stability. It is the bedrock of stability. The business community says that one reason keeping investors away is a perceived image of instability prevailing in the country. Tinkering with the Constitution at this time would reinforce the perception.
Speaking of tumult and flux in our community, the latest event that sent a shudder to civil society (not the self-proclaimed group that calls themselves by that name) are the demonstrations in support of Chief Justice Davide headed by IBP president Anselmo Cadiz. He said the IBP and the Philippine Association of Law Schools (PALS), the Philippine Judges Association (PJA) and the Philippine Confederation of Court Employees Association would wear black armbands, hold prayer rallies and noise barrages.
Wearing armbands and holding prayer rallies could be considered within the realm of civilized behavior. But isn’t noise barrages the sole prerogative of the dregs of society? Isn’t decorum and dignity taught in law schools? Must communications and dialogue outside the courtroom be confrontational, forgetting for the sake of civility that the judicial process is adversarial? Is affability extinct in our society?
A curious sideshow of the demonstrations was the anti-Davide faction composed of the rank and file employees of lower courts who staged their own rally. They claim the JDF goodies did not trickle down to them. The Judicial Development Fund (JDF) created by PD 1949 issued by President Marcos is funded from a percentage of court fees.
Moral: share the spoils; even a pittance will mollify the envious; and to the ordinary citizen, keep your nose clean and avoid litigation as court fees may be hiked to replenish the JDF.
Davide supporters allege that disbursement decisions were made en banc or with concurrence of several Justices, not exclusive decisions of the Chief Justice. This implicates the entire body of the Supreme Court, whose final judgment is not appealable. Former chief justice Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, who headed the 1986 commission that drafted the Constitution, said any doubts on the issue should be deferred to the Supreme Court "which under the Constitution is ordained to be the final interpreter of the Constitution’s provisions and intent." This brings to mind the anecdotal fable where an innocent man was condemned to suffer punishment by the King (the supreme magistrate whose judgment is not appealable) who heard the case in a sleepy state. The man respectfully protested and said ”I appeal from the King asleep to the King awake.” But the current impeachment brouhaha is not in the least a joking matter.

o-o-o
In the U.S., Fox News, of "Fair and Balanced" fame, has released the results of a survey just completed, revealing that 92 percent of Americans say they believe in God, 85 percent in heaven and 82 percent in miracles. Filipinos, too, believe in beliefs.
They believe in the supernatural — religion, ghosts, miracles, prayer and divine intervention. And they believe in maxims, one such maxim being put into widespread practice: United we stand, divided we fall. So why then do we often hear of the divisiveness of Pinoys? The number of associations, clubs and unions in this country is astounding and a major cause of the diversity of viewpoints about any issue, a diversity that usually ends up in bickering and fractiousness. And this in turn leads to dire warnings of undesirable forebodings and self-fulfilling prophecies (military adventurism, constitutional crisis, economic collapse.)
A columnist sardonically wrote in relation to the impeachment of Chief Justice Davide, “Why don’t we just close down the Philippines? Declare bankruptcy, hang the "Closed for Business" sign on our borders, and start shipping out of here.” Apparently, the writer has not perceived the possibility that the process might already be in progress, the exodus having started with the overseas Filipino workers. Another indicator is the wish of one-fifth of Filipinos expressed in a survey to emigrate and work abroad. It merely needs enough desperation and determination to goad the wish into action. Many of the émigrés will take up permanent residence abroad (illustrated by the lukewarm response to the OFW voting rights), and finally find means for their family to join them — the satire turned into self-fulfilling prophecy.
Bertrand Russell said: "As long as people believe in absurdities then they will continue to commit atrocities."

Utopia Imagine a world in which there are no stories of murder in newspapers, everyone is so omniscient that no house ever catches fire, no husband deserts his wife, no pastor elopes with his choir girl, no king abdicates his throne for love, no man changes his mind, and everyone proceeds to carry out with logical precision a career that he mapped out for himself at the age of ten ─ good-by to this human world! All the excitement and uncertainty of life would be gone. There would be no literature because there would be no sin, no misbehavior, no human weakness, no upsetting passion, no prejudices, no irregularities and, worst of all, no surprises. ─ Lin Yutang

Broadband

In modern physics we now know the four fundamental forces in the unified theory of forces (the fifth could not be located): the weak nuclear force, the strong nuclear force, gravity and electromagnetism. A component of electromagnetism is the electromagnetic spectrum which deals with the topic of Broadband. The electromagnetic spectrum from 10 kilohertz to 300 gigahertz is a natural resource of communication. The part of the spectrum that is regarded as the radio spectrum encompasses all forms of wireless communication including television, all radio broadcasting, telephone calls sent by microwave radio, is densely populated by services of all kinds. It is clear that both national and international wireless communication would be chaotic without some system for allocating the finite number of places in the radio spectrum. The primary international institution established to allocate places on the spectrum and to promulgate technical rules is a specialized agency of the United Nations, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The Philippine agency is the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

The term broadband first came to public awareness when the ZTE-NBN deal started to stink. Before this, it was familiar only to Web surfers with Internet connections at home.

Briefly, ZTE-NBN is an amorphous arrangement between a Chinese Company ZTE to supply and install a broadband backbone for the Philippine government infrastructure. It was signed in Boao China by Secretary Mendoza of DOTC and witnessed by President Arroyo. Shortly after signing the papers were lost or stolen, reconstituted, but has yet to be exposed to the public. The lack of transparency evoked suspicions of overpricing, bribery and other illegalities.

President. Arroyo decided to discontinue the NBN-ZTE deal during her bilateral meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Shanghai early Oct. Arroyo called on local telecommunications firms to propose how the government could reduce communications costs and link up with the broadband network. She confirmed that she asked Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza to discuss with private telecommunications firms how the government could cut down its huge phone bill amounting to P3 billion a year.

Mrs. Arroyo said it is the local telecommunications firms that created the problem because of their high charges for the government’s communications needs. Trade Secretary Peter Favila said the government must step in because local telecommunication firms would hesitate to provide service to areas where they would not make money. Business firms are loathe to invest in orphan areas – Big Pharma on research and development on rare diseases, airlines on remote airports.

The NBN deal cancellation has also led to the suspension of other Chinese-funded project proposals including the Cyber Education project, for which the President also expressed her disappointment. Investments from the business process outsourcing industry have been put on hold because the government has no broadband network.

“We said also that by 2010 we would like every high school to be connected. If you’re a high school in a 6th class municipality, how can you be connected now without the Cyber Ed?” Mrs. Arroyo said.

What is broadband? (You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat. )

Broadband is just a word we use when we're talking about any kind of fast Internet connection. If your computer already has an Internet connection, you probably connect to the Internet with a modem that plugs into your telephone line (often referred to as a "dial-up connection"), and you're probably no longer satisfied with the performance it offers.

A broadband connection is actually not all that different from a dial-up connection. The equipment is very similar - a different kind of modem, and in many cases the connection is still made through your telephone line. You’ll be able to do things that just weren't practical with a dial-up connection. You'll be able to:

• Watch video clips and listen to music in real time, including live broadcasts.

• Download music, software, film trailers and other files much more quickly.

• Play games online.

• Do everything you could do before, just much more quickly!

Dial-up modems are generally only capable of a maximum bitrate of 56 kbit/s (kilobits per second) and require the full use of a telephone line—whereas broadband technologies supply at least double this speed and generally without disrupting telephone use.

Although various minimum speeds have been used in definitions of broadband, ranging up from 64 kbit/s up to 1.0 Mbit/s, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Broadband Statistics report is typical in counting only download speeds equal to or faster than 256 kbit/s as broadband, and the US FCC use 200 kbit/s in their definition.

Speeds are defined in terms of maximum download because several common consumer broadband technologies such as ADSL are "asymmetric" - supporting much slower upload speeds than download.

Broadband, often called high-speed Internet usually has a high rate of data transmission. In general, any connection to the customer of 256 kbit/s (0.256 Mbit/s) or more is considered broadband Internet. The International Telecommunication Union Standardization Sector (ITU-T) recommendation has defined broadband as a transmission capacity that is faster than primary rate, at 1.5 to 2 Mbit/s. The FCC definition of broadband is 200 kbit/s (0.2 Mbit/s) in one direction, and advanced broadband is at least 200 kbit/s in both directions. OECD has defined broadband as 256 kbit/s in at least one direction and this bit rate is the most common baseline that is marketed as "broadband" around the world. There is no specific bit rate defined by the industry, however, and "broadband" can mean lower-bitrate transmission methods. Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use this to their advantage in marketing lower-bitrate connections as broadband. In practice, the advertised bandwidth is not always reliably available to the customer; ISPs often allow a greater number of subscribers than their backbone connection can handle, under the assumption that most users will not be using their full connection capacity very frequently. (My own cable modem fiber optic connection allows 150 kbps nominal but drops to 120 actual downstream and 60kbps upstream.)

This aggregation strategy works more often than not, so users can typically burst to their full bandwidth most of the time; however, some systems, often requiring extended durations of high bandwidth, stress these assumptions, and can cause major problems for ISPs who have excessively overbooked their capacity.

The standard broadband technologies in most areas are DSL and cable modems. Newer technologies in use include optical fiber connections closer to the subscriber in both telephone and cable plants. Fiber-optic communication has played a crucial role in enabling Broadband Internet access by making transmission of information over larger distances much more cost-effective than copper wire technology. In a few areas not served by cable or ADSL, community organizations have begun to install Wi-Fi networks, and in some cities (Cagayan de Oro for one) and towns local governments are installing municipal Wi-Fi networks. As of 2006, high speed mobile Internet access has become available at the consumer level in some countries. The newest technology being deployed for mobile and stationary broadband access is WiMAX.

One example of a robust broadband network is a passive optical network (PON), which brings fiber as close to customers as possible. This network is often described as d-fiber-to-the-home. It will support switched wavelength services with bandwidth to the customer at rates up to 622 Mbps (Megabits per second downstream) and from the customer (upstream) at rates up to 155 Mbps, about 100 times faster than most commercial DSL services.

National Broadband Policy

To explore the pivotally important topic of high speed internet access for government, it involves discussing the extent of access to broadband technology, whether the prices are affordable, whether the speeds are adequate and how to make future improvements. This presupposes a transaction that is legal and transparent, a more credible definition of speed than the current 100 kilobits per second for broadband and more granular measures of deployment, as well as to start gathering data on price and the experience of other nations.

Key notes on broadband figures for December 2006 :

European countries have continued their advance with high broadband penetration rates. In December 2006, eight countries (Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Korea, Switzerland, Finland, Norway and Sweden) led the OECD in broadband penetration, each with at least 26 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

Operators in several countries continue with their upgrades to fibre. Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and Fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) subscriptions now comprise nearly 7% of all broadband connections in the OECD and the percentage is growing. Korea and Japan each have more than 6 fibre-based broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) continues to be the leading platform in 28 OECD countries. Cable modem subscribers outnumber DSL in Canada and the United States.

The breakdown of broadband technologies in December 2006:

DSL : 62%, Cable modem : 29%, FTTH/FTTB : 7%

Other (e.g. satellite, fixed wireless, powerline communication) : 2%



Broadband connections included in OECD data must have download speeds equal to or faster than 256 kbit/s. The new FTTH/FTTB category includes fiber-to-the-home subscribers and fiber-to-the-building subscribers who are connected to the fibre in the building via LAN type technologies (e.g. Ethernet). The “other” broadband category includes satellite, fixed wireless and power line communications. It does not include 3G mobile technologies.



Satellite Internet

This employs a satellite in geostationary orbit to relay data from the satellite company to each customer. Satellite Internet is usually among the most expensive ways of gaining broadband Internet access, but in rural areas it may only compete with cellular broadband. However, costs have been coming down in recent years to the point that it is becoming more competitive with other high-speed options.

Satellite Internet also has a high latency problem caused by the signal having to travel 35,000 km (22,000 miles) out into space to the satellite and back to Earth again. The signal delay can be as much as 500 milliseconds to 900 milliseconds, which makes this service unsuitable for applications requiring real-time user input such as certain multiplayer Internet games and first-person shooters played over the connection These problems are more than tolerable for just basic email access and web browsing and in most cases are barely noticeable.

There is no simple way to get around this problem. The delay is primarily due to the speed of light being only 300,000 km/second (186,000 miles per second). Even if all other signaling delays could be eliminated it still takes the electromagnetic wave 233 milliseconds to travel from ground to the satellite and back to the ground, a total of 70,000 km (44,000 miles) to travel from you to the satellite company.

Since the satellite is usually being used for two-way communications, the total distance increases to 140,000 km (88,000 miles), which takes a radio wave 466 ms to travel. Factoring in normal delays from other network sources gives a typical connection latency of 500-700 ms. This is far worse latency than even most dial-up modem users' experience, at typically only 150-200 ms total latency.

Agila2

The Mabuhay Satellite Philippines Corporation gave yet another first for the Philippines. For the first time in the ASEAN Summit history, the major international broadcasters used Agila2 satellite for their broadcast requirements. Mabuhay also provided satellite uplink services.



Futoshi Yamada of NHK Japan said, “This is the first time for NHK and the Japan Pool to use Mabuhay Uplink service and the Agila2 satellite. At first, we were reluctant, but when we experienced the efficiency of the service and power of the satellite, we decided to use it for all our feeds from Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).”

The 12th ASEAN Summit is not the first time that Mabuhay showcased its capabilities in satellite service. In December 2005, Mabuhay was designated as the Exclusive Satellite Service Provider for the 23rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, providing satellite uplink facilities for all broadcasters of participating countries. In the 22nd SEA Games held in Vietnam, Mabuhay was the Unilateral Transmit Facility for the Philippine Pool, which brought the games to local broadcasters.



Agila2’s footprint and radiated power are two major points in the success of Mabuhay’s satellite service. The footprint covers over 21 countries in the Asia-Pacific Region. A spotbeam in Hawaii provides access to mainland US through its partner teleports. The radiated power goes as high as 41dBW, providing good reception to receivers within the coverage.”

The company's Agila-II satellite system cost an estimated US$ 243 million to implement. Agila-II is a high-power communication spacecraft with a design based on the Space Systems/Loral FS-1300 satellite bus, has an electrical capacity of more than 9 kilowatts at launch and is expected to produce an estimated 8.2 kilowatts at its end of life (EOL). This makes it one of the most powerful communication satellites ever built and launched into space. Deployed to orbit by a Chinese Long March 3B rocket on 20 August 1997, Agila-II is expected to achieve a mission lifetime of more than 15 years.

Agila-II carries more than enough capacity to relay 50,000 simultaneous two-way telephone conversations and 190 channels of digital TV programming.

The satellite's C-band coverage beam illuminates Bangladesh, China, the Hawaiian islands, India, Japan, Pakistan, The Philippines, and Southeast Asia, while the Ku-band coverage zone encompasses Taiwan, portions of mainland China and Vietnam, as well as the entire Philippines archipelago. The satellite's transponders may also be commanded for the purpose of broadcasting direct-to-home digital TV services.

The spacecraft is presently located at 146 degrees east longitude. The Aguila satellite control and management facilities are located at the MPSC Space Center in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.



Cellular Broadband

Cellular telephones are becoming capable as Internet browsers. Since the cellular phone towers are already in place, cellular broadband access is rapidly becoming a popular means to access the Internet, with or without a cell phone.

Most of the cell phones sold today have some kind of support for Internet access. Since cellular networks often cover large areas of the nation, many traveling people prefer cellular Internet access to other technologies such as WiFi wireless and satellite. Because many people need to connect computer equipment to the Internet, and not just their cell phone, cellular broadband access is available with this in mind. A user with a single computer can access the Internet by tethering their cell phone to their laptop or PC, normally using a USB connection..

Power-line Internet

This is a new service still in its infancy that may eventually permit broadband Internet data to travel down standard high-voltage power lines. However, the system has a number of complex issues, the primary one being that power lines are inherently a very noisy environment. Every time a device turns on or off, it introduces a pop or click into the line. Energy-saving devices often introduce noisy harmonics into the line. The system must be designed to deal with these natural signaling disruptions and work around them.



Computer Education Project (CEP)

President Arroyo has given DepEd the go-signal to resume efforts to implement CyberEd CEP which was suspended along with the national broadband network project due to controversies and allegations of bribery.

According to plans, DepEd will tap satellite technology to enable it to provide interactive digital technology to some 37,000 public schools throughout the country, ensuring the delivery of quality education to public school students. With satellite broadcast capability, DepEd plans to beam 20-minute lectures of the best public school English, Math and Science teachers in other public schools to ensure that quality education in model public schools are also available to other schools.



Many critics have sprang up, some within the department itself that claim the failure of the Department of Education (DepEd) to attend to its most basic functions such as distributing textbooks and computers for the use of public school students all over the country showed that it was not ready to implement an ambitious multi-billion undertaking such as their proposed P26.48 billion Cyber Education Project (CEP).

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), a federation of public and private school teachers’ associations, said that a recently released Commission on Audit (COA) report on the operations of DepEd for 2006 showed gross inefficiency and ineptness.

Antonio Tinio, ACT chairperson asked, “How can the DepEd be entrusted with the $465-million Cyber Education Project when it cannot even manage the most basic logistical tasks, such as the distribution of textbooks?”

It was learned that COA auditors found that for 2006, DepEd failed to distribute 2.51 million textbooks and instructional materials worth at least P186.96 million to intended school beneficiaries. It also found that P138.84 million worth of computer packages were not used because recipient schools lacked the capacity to use them, while another P115.7 million worth of computers were diverted to principals’ offices rather than to the classrooms for which they were intended.

“The revelation that a large number of computers acquired by the DepEd are not actually being used in the classrooms raises serious concerns about the agency’s readiness to implement high-tech, high-maintenance ICT projects such as CyberEd,” Tinio noted.

“In this light, we reiterate our call for the cancellation of the Cyber Education Project and for the government to focus instead on addressing the basic needs of our public schools,” Tinio said.



A number of formidable problems court disaster. Foremost is the human aspect, demanding the hiring of teachers holding a teacher’s professional license coupled with an IT proficiency certificate (whatever that entails), persuade the person to accept assignment to a miserable post and then to motivate him/her to stay. Good teachers are emigrating to overseas jobs. Even in urban areas, teachers would have to be computer proficient but also have Internat savvy – firewalls, anti-virus, spam, phishing, and protect students from bad sites – sophisticated teachers know that kids are not all created equal – some are brighter, some dumber, some timid, some daring. The bolder kid will explore and discover porno, sleaze and pedophile chat.

Remote barangays lack electricity to power computers or to recharge batteries of cellphones, laptops.or CB radios. This link would have to be served by lo-tech carrier pigeons which would run the gauntlet of air-rifle hunters.

And think about all those numerous textbook entry errors (garbage) transmitted at cyber speed.

Broadcast TV in U.S. will convert from analog to digital in 2009, locals are expected to follow suit. Hardware advances every one or two years, obsolescence in five.

Some of the severest critics of the superfluity of CyberEd come from bloggers, aka informal journalists lurking in the Web. The following samples were culled from some blogs:

“… The private sector is already doing part of the job … Ayala Foundation is currently engaged in an outreach project called GILAS (Gearing UP Internet Literacy and Access for Students), where it connects selected public schools to cyberspace thru the internet, and multimedia (esp. TV). As of yearend 2006, it already did that for 1,040 high schools benefiting at least half a million students across the country. Ayala Foundation’s goal is to connect 5,789 public high schools to cyberspace by 2010.”

“…not a single cent coming from the national coffers. USAID and Australia are already giving support for Phil. education. USAID alone appropriated some $30 million in 2005, another $30 million in 2007, and promised to give $190 million in the next few years, mostly for education in Mindanao.”

A statement from USAID: “Once one of the best in Asia, the Philippine education system has deteriorated in recent years. In response, USAID is training teachers and providing computers, textbooks, and other materials to schools. By supporting improved teaching of math, science, and English in Mindanao’s public schools, USAID is increasing access to quality education and livelihood skills in areas most affected by conflict and poverty.”

The Cyber Education project would use television sets to broadcast lessons to all public schools in the country for just 20 minutes of lessons a day, excluding the days that the TV sets would be out of commission because of typhoons, brownouts, system failure etc. Is it necessary to broadcast the lessons to all the schools simultaneously? More practical instead to just produce millions of DVDs and send them to the schools - one disc costs only a few pesos, and it can be played repeatedly. If some students miss the lesson, the disc can be replayed. In the Cyber Ed, once they miss a lesson, the lesson is gone for good.

Tied Loans

The CyberEd project, like the discontinued ZTE-NBN is a tied loan project.

“More strict oversight by Congress or parliaments over government projects financed by foreign aid and foreign loans would result in a more efficient accomplishment of the projects supported by such aid or loans. It would also reduce if not eliminate cases of corruption involving foreign financial aid or loans for projects in developing countries, including the Philippines,” Senator Loren Legarda said.

Legarda’s call for a Senate probe and IPU’s statement against tied loans came on the heels of the controversy over the $329-million national broadband network deal between the government and ZTE Corp. of China. The project would have required the government to enter into a “tied loan” agreement with China.

Under a tied aid agreement, “the transfer of funds and technical aid are made contingent on the purchase of goods and services from the donor countries,” according to IPU. In a draft report, IPU said tied aid “decreases the value of a resource that is in desperately short supply in the fight against poverty, it is also incompatible with the other objectives set by the donors.” The absence of free market contracting means they cannot obtain the same goods and services at a lower price elsewhere. Tied aid may result in the transfer of unsuitable products, services and technology,” the IPU report said. “Comparisons of purchase prices have shown that tied aid reduced the value of the aid by 11 to 30 percent,” it said.



"If it weren't for electricity we'd all be watching television by candlelight."George Gobol.

The Nation’s Trillion Peso Debt

Mindanao Post October 2003

In a statement, Mrs. Arroyo sought to allay fears and apprehensions over the country’s worsening indebtedness primarily blamed on the government’s financing its budgetary deficit through heavy borrowing from domestic and foreign sources. Borrowing from domestic sources accounted for 52 percent of total debts while the rest were foreign loans

The government "has the will and the means" to repay its P3.158-trillion debts as long the economy grows amid the latest political turmoil rocking the country, President Arroyo said recently. Mrs. Arroyo gave the reassurances after the Department of Finance (DOF) reported out the total debt stocks of the government have ballooned by as much as 17.2 percent as of August this year from the P2.7 trillion level a year ago.
Assuming Mrs Arroyo is re-elected in 2004, at the rate of 17% increase of indebtedness annually, simple arithmetic indicates that by the end of her term in 2010 (6 years multiplied by 17% equals 102%) the state would double its current debt. We would be allocating 80%, twice the 40% of the national budget we now pay yearly. That leaves 20% to run the government. Now with that scenario, what kind of idiot would want to be her presidential successor? That would be slim pickings indeed.

Perhaps I’m too dense to comprehend the contemporary economics paradigm. The state is comprised of the family as its basic unit. If a family’s spending exceeds its income, it would have to fill the deficiency by borrowing. But as Ben Franklin said, “ If you want to know the value of money, go and try borrowing some.” The family would have to stop borrowing after running out of things to hock. The government has no such restraints. It can, and does, borrow and borrow from local and global pawnshops, until lenders slam the door in its face, as in the case of Argentina. Inflation then soars like a balloon until one deflated pandesal costs hundreds of pesos each.

So, why doesn’t the government just renege on a payment or two of outstanding debt or repudiate it altogether? That would be unthinkable to finance officialdom — the nation would be treated as a pariah or like a SARS carrier in the global financial and commercial community.

The family who runs out of resources to pawn or borrow from will figuratively, even literally, tighten its belt by reducing consumption of essentials and cutting off non-essentials. Can government leaders visualize a similar approach? Sure they can, if accompanied by resolve, sincerity and imagination. To mention a few of the ways:

Eliminate waste — corruption and inefficiency are estimated to zap 20% of the budget. Lifestyle checks is a modest start. More vigorous methods must be applied: pruning the bloated bureaucracy, eliminating redundant agencies and duplication of functions (example, the superfluous DPWH since private contractors do the work); phase out (gradually, to ease the pain) of the Countryside Development Fund (CDF, a euphemism for pork barrel) and transform this into a comprehensive equitable national infrastructure program, or alternatively, to increase the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of each City, municipality and Province to 80% (a way of obviating cha-cha for federalist form of government).and decentralize and devolve the functions of Departments to the Regional branches (except Foreign Affairs and Defense). Revise populist policies that promote the concept of a socialist welfare state that encourages indolence and mendicancy in the community.

One impediment to the creation of more revenues is pseudo-nationalism that stems from xenophobia. The policy limiting entry of foreigners into commerce and owning real estate discourages the investment climate and potential jobs from foreign investors. The policy plan of job creation through the agricultural sector is myopic. In less than half a generation, the rural birth rate will force a search for employment away from farming. We need to loosen the reins and allow more foreign investors, not just in confined places like economic zones and industrial farms, but even in such hazardous places like Bangsa Moro and Sayaff territory . Commerce and trade in these areas could succeed where guns failed. Speculatively, Robot’s citrus farm with a foreign partner or principal would have by now pioneered development in Tawi Tawi, instead of more forays and marauding into neighbor Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople, presiding over a U.N. General Assembly roundtable on financing for development, said debt swap for anti-poverty programs will help poor countries realize the U.N. millennium goal of reducing the incidence by half by the year 2015. Under the debt/swap scheme, debts would be forgiven provided the savings are allocated entirely to anti-poverty programs, including micro financing for small enterprises, especially in the countryside.

As if on cue and superb timing, Governor of Banko Sentral Rafael Buenaventura called on banks to support its micro-finance program, which he said is a viable financial undertaking, citing extremely high repayment rates for credit extended to the poor. This assertion is credible, given the success of the thriving”5/6” underground lending system, and the Bangladesh Grameen bank experience.

The seed funds provided by the government savings under the debt/swap scheme would then be supplemented by finds generated by a putative savings mobilization program started during of National Treasurer Leonor M. Briones which allowed retail investors to buy Treasury bills for as low as ₧5,000 from accredited banks through an electronic platform.

“If you can count your money you don’t have a billion dollars” --- Paul Getty billionaire

Running into debt doesn’t bother me it’s running into my creditors that’s upsetting. ─ Gus Edson New York Daily News

Poverty is hard but debt is horrible. — Spurgeon

Ignorance and Trust

Executive seminars are common practices of large companies to ensure their managers gather no moss. Although a number of these seminars are of the “meatloaf” variety ─ half of the time you meet, the rest of the time you loaf ─ sort of like a paid vacation on company time, they are believed to produce better managers.

In one such executive seminar session, the moderator who was a management consultant posed some questions to the participants. Asked what is the most important resource of an organization, the group almost in unison answered, “its people”. The next question that challenged the group, “What is the most precious thing in the world?” , took a little bit more pondering and elicited a wide range of responses. But eventually a consensus emerged: Trust.

A third question was then asked, “What would you say is the most expensive thing in the world?” After many moments of reflection, many answers were offered ─ platinum, plutonium, uranium for atomic fuel, and even gold and oil were mentioned. The consultant then cut in with the answer that stunned many. “The most expensive thing in the world is ignorance. He then cited examples of actual events where firms came to grief because of ignorance of an employee who makes decisions with incomplete or wrong facts.

In one newspaper report, a senator flayed a top customs official for ignorance when the official allowed realistic toy guns to be imported in violation of a presidential decree banning such importation. Of course, we can expect that there would be bureaucratic decisions based on ignorance, but the dirt would be swept under the rug.

Returning to the topic of trust, the Americans, just like us Filipinos who demonetized the sentimo, made their cent a museum piece. Embossed on the coins were the words In God We Trust. The pennies are gone but the words linger. Pinoys are aware of the motto that adorns many sari-sari stores, but with a slight twist: In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash.

Trust is the essence of good business. Consumers trust the quality and safety of the goods they buy. Depositors entrust their money in banks (who reciprocate by offering sign pens with a string attached); commuters trust the carriers, planes, buses, and ferries to take them safely to their destination. Buyers and sellers rely on mutual trustworthiness in their deals.

In the context of Philippine economy, foreign investments are eagerly sought that would provide jobs and boost a sluggish economy. But we would be sending the wrong message to potential investors if we amend the Constitution as is being proposed. They would likely ask what protection their investments will have if Philippine laws, even the Constitution, are unstable and whimsically changed. The Base Law remains the only institution where trust still has sheen. Much of the branches of government ─ the judicial, the legislative, and above all, the executive ─ have been tarnished by corrosive elements. Implied in the question, is the doubt on the stability of the bedrock where they can repose their trust, in the fair play they rely on.

If the Constitution were not amended, how then would Federalism be effected? Simple, my dear Watson; increase the Internal Revenue Allotment to 80%. After all, power and autonomy is synonymous to who controls the funds.

When no one trusts, does it matter that everyone lies?

Rewrites of Jottings: The Great Dictator

Whenever the name of Ferdinand Edralin Marcos is brought up in media he is usually derided as a despicable dictator, so much so that it is becoming a trite expression. Everything he did were misdeeds, terrible ones, not a single kind word said, the personification of absolute evil. This is a bit puzzling to me. No man could be that bad.

Mulling the thought further, I searched for something positive about him. If the man was so vicious and vile, and his countrymen ashamed and disgusted that he ever existed within our midst, why haven’t four succeeding administrations expunged the memory of his name and his dictatorial edicts, the Presidential Decrees? Worse, why are these decrees still carried in the statute books and our Judicial System to punish Filipinos?

In late October1989, a columnist of a leading Manila paper wrote in opposing Marcos’ cadaver to return to the country:

Strange People

We are a strange people. We get rid of a dictator and now there are those in our midst who want him back. Anyway, they say, he’s dead. What harm can he do? …

That’s it precisely. Ferdinand Marcos had done harm. He ha d done his worst. He deserves to rest where he is. … As a people we are practicing Christians. We mourn Ferdinand Marcos, pray for him and forgive his trespasses though we never heard him ask for forgiveness from his victims. But surely, he is unforgettable.

Not to forget the tyranny of his rule. Not to forget his monumental plunder. Not to forget how we, only three years ago, raged against the ceaseless excesses of Marcos, his family and favorites.

… We are a strange people. We are free and don’t seem to know it. Those of us who agitate to return the Marcoses have tied up ourselves in knots to the Constitution and the law. Just like Marcos, the brilliant lawyer. Everything he did was according to the Constitution and the law, including his powers to make laws. No one could be more majestic than Ferdinand Marcos in his regard for the law. No one invoked the law more than he who suppressed the freedoms of his people.

(the column goes on denigrating in heavy sarcasm).

A reader responded:

… no, we are not a strange people. Please do not impose your alienation from self, people and truth on the Filipinos with your literary fiat. No, we are not practicing Christianity. It is a universal principle to assume a man’s innocence until proven guilty. … as for forgiveness, that implies judgment. Have you brought him to any legitimate court with criminal charges? You were afraid that bringing him back to face Filipino Courts might lead to civil unrest. Wasn’t EDSA civil unrest? Besides, why talk of justice and fear its consequences?

How dare you speak of justice when you cannot understand its first principle: presumption of innocence, presumption of innocence! How many times will we have to repeat it to your (unflattering) mind? And will you dictate to history that it should judge while you yourself have already judged?

So, shall we leave it to history to judge Marcos? Who will write the history books that future generations will read? — the bumbling authors that riddle textbooks with silly errors? (but that’s another story). He is already remembered as the 14^th President of the Republic, with no pejorative title appended.

As my views run against the grain of prevailing mood, I offer this quote: The clash of ideas is the sound of freedom.

The Supreme Court of the Philippines recently ruled (although not yet final and executory) that the Marcos assets held in escrow by the Philippine National Bank is ill gotten. The loot ordered forfeited to the government, rightfully belongs to the entire Filipino people and should be utilized to benefit the general welfare, not just a special segment of society, not just human rights victims of martial rule as ordered by U.S. Judge Real (they can claim from the Marcos Estate), not just agrarian reform beneficiaries as required by law, and certainly not just to subsidize socialized housing as proposed by a Congressman. I believe that the applying the money to pay a portion of our huge national debt will benefit every citizen including unborn generations who are now heavily hocked by government borrowings that started with Marcos.

Rewrite of Jottings: Constitutional Change: Are We Ready For It?

Mindanao Post

The clamor for Constitutional amendments is rising in intensity. Lawyers, legal minds and intelligentia are joining the voices. But the motives that drive the demand for change are as varied as the tribes and vernacular dialects of the 7,000 islands of the archipelago. These motives are packaged into political jargon — Parliamentary or Federal form of government, term limits of elected officials, Constutional Convention or Constituent Assembly being among the foremost. The imminent 2004 elections is the adrenalin stimulating the clamor.

In all honesty, has our society matured sufficiently to make such a change? Consider this. In the economic sense, we are a developing nation barely able to grow our own food to feed the population, where the poor are proud of their status and mendicancy has attained a level of respectability in society. Poverty has seen to that. In the International arena, we are puny, unable to fend off military intruders, even those in the guise and garb of fishermen. In the civil order domain, the established order is a regime under challenge by several groups that are separatist or communist and is under siege by kidnappers, bank robbers and money launderers, the government manned by corrupt bureaucrats and bumbling police, a government that sells or gives away the national patrimony to a select few so that those that hold the reins of power can advance their own interests, and a bureaucracy that repudiates the principle of command responsibility and ethics, blind to padded payrolls and subordinate misdeeds. Most worrisome of all is the general public feeling that government neglect is to blame for their personal problems has transformed into bitterness and cynicism about all authority and agencies of government. This state of affairs may be the precursor to civil disobedience and disorder.

Our written history clearly shows the domination of foreign powers — Spanish, Japanese and finally American who shaped our system of government. American democracy strongly influenced our current system and Filipino ingenuity crafted statutes to suit local conditions, at times even beneficial to the general welfare. Although our system of governance had American underpinnings, it lacked some of the essentials of American democracy and constitutional order, of debate, elections and representative political institutions, ingenuous traditions and the paramount concept that the American tradition abhors the notion of rulers and the ruled, that they do not live under a government, never mind under a regime; that the people are the government.

The three branches of our Government are mutually independent and exercise checks and balance on each other. That’s the theory. Yet, it seems that while unconstitutional exercise of power by the legislative or executive branches of the Government is subject to judicial restraint, the only check upon the judicial exercise of power is its own sense of restraint.

In all honesty, can any Filipino deny and dissemble the truth that this nation is “run like hell by Filipinos”, a deluded preference of a past President? Has our society gained enough sense of respect for the rights of others to the extent of reviewing the mollycoddling of squatters? Even so, are we ready for charter change? Can change make a difference? Can we expect a beneficial change in such short order when the legislative process has not passed legislation that would replace the enduring Presidential Decrees, edicts of a despised dictator, 16 years after he was deposed? Will amendment establish finally the principle of a government that governs by the consent of the governed?

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader? ~ Benjamin Disraeli

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him. But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves. ~ Lao-Tzu

CASINO GAMBLING SCIENCE

Rewrite of Jottings: CASINO GAMBLING SCIENCE

If the City Administration had its way a Casino will soon re-emerge in Cagayan de Oro. The PAGCOR casino’s fleeting appearance a dozen years ago was nipped in the bud by hostile reception, despite the Supreme Court’s decision of its legality. Heeding the decision’s notation that the casino operation should not be objectionable to residents (the social acceptability proviso), PAGCOR finally decided that retreat was the prudent course of action. Just a few weeks ago, PAGCOR again had to abandon plans to set up a casino, this time in Boracay, due to opposition from residents, parish leaders and local officials. If the casino does reappear in CDO, some foreknowledge of casino gambling basics might come in handy to first timers.

Casinos evolved from the card habitués of Europe and are found worldwide. The best known are in Las Vegas, Monte Carlo and Atlantic City. Gambling in a casino is an activity that involves money, but unlike a business, which requires rational behavior in making financial decisions, it can evoke hunches and all-or-nothing behavior. The atmosphere in a casino, sometimes called palace of pecuniary persuasion, ranges from the sedate Monte Carlo to the raucous Atlantic City. The rules of the game are designed to give the casino an advantage.

Studies of casino gamblers show that at any given time half of the gamblers don’t know what they are doing, and only about 10 percent are knowledgeable about odds, house edge and money management. The use of chips for gambling in a casino is another edge for the casino and is intended to make money meaningless and for the gambler to forget that money has value.

A fling at the casino can be enjoyable and maybe profitable. But the glamour and excitement of the casino action can sway even the most prudent and restrained person. The wise player takes measures to improve his statistical and psychological odds, first by following three basic rules:

1. Play only with money you can afford to lose. Set aside the amount you will play with and never, never dip into your wallet for more.

2. Know when to leave the table whether winning or losing.

3. Drink only after playing.

A player should consider certain minimums for his gambling amount. A game should be started with enough chips to cushion a bad streak then recoup. Imagine a bet as a unit. Experts believe 40-50 units is a thumb rule minimum. Since each game has minimum bets (baccarat highest and slot lowest), the player’s bankroll will depend on which game he intends to play. The edge varies widely in each game and the player has to choose with care if he is to have a fighting chance.

The usual games in a casino are blackjack (or “21”), craps (dice), roulette (steel ball rolling on a spinning carousel), baccarat (chemin de fer) and slot machines (the notorious one-armed bandit). While all games are based on chance, only blackjack offers the player to use skill (by keeping track of the cards played/discarded0 and gain advantage over the house.

Roulette has 38 numbers, going from 1 to 38, plus 0 and 00. The natural odds of betting on a number are 37 to 1, but the casino pays out only 35 to 1, a house advantage of 5.26 percent.

Dice, or craps, is played with a shooter (bettor) rolling a pair of dice (cubes with surfaces marked 1 to 6) and other bettors laying bets on the PASS LINE expecting the shooter to win, or on the DON’T PASS if they expect the shooter to lose. If the shooter makes a 7 or 11 on the first roll, he wins, but loses if he rolls a 2,3 or 12. If he rolls any other number (4,5,6,8,9 or 10) on that first attempt, that number becomes his “point”. The shooter keeps rolling the dice until his point turns up again for a win or until he rolls a 7 where he loses both his money and the dice. The house pays even money but has an edge of 1.4 percent.

The simplest game is blackjack, or “21.” Up to 7 bettors play against a house dealer using from one 52-card deck or up to six decks (which reduces the players’ memory skill. The object is to get closer to 21 than the dealer. Each card equals its face value, Aces being optional at 1 or 11, and the picture cards (J,Q or K) equal to 10. A player who gets a two-card set totaling 21 (Ace plus a 10 or picture card) is blackjack and wins 3 to 2. Any other winning hand gets even money. The edge of the house is in the players getting busted (totals more than 21, a losing hand) ahead of the dealer.

Baccarat (chemin de fer) is for the high stakes gambler, and is played with cards with up to 14 bettors seated at a table. The rules of the game again give the house some advantage, and there is no skill involved, just pure chance. Only two hands are played: the “bank” and the player hands. Each tries to beat the other by drawing two or more cards to obtain the winning total. Bettors bet on either the “bank” or the player. Each side can draw cards only in accordance with complex rules.

Slot machines are programmed to release a percentage of its coin intake during a “cycle.” Each pull on the lever located at the right side (maybe there are “lefties”? which spins the reels (3 to 5) to display one of the symbols (bells, limes cherries etc.) on each reel. Certain combinations of symbols resulting from a pull will release a specific number of coins as prize. The house takes from 10 to 25 percent of the players’ coins thus justifying the machine’s sobriquet: one-armed bandit.

Since in all games the casino has an edge, it chips away at even a prudent and cautious player who overstays — and in the long run cleans him out. The probability of loss is common to all casino gamblers, but most important to keep in mind is that losing a little for the excitement is an experience, but losing control can be tragic.



"There is no better way to exercise the imagination than the study of the law. No artist ever interpreted nature as freely as a lawyer interprets the truth." -- Jean Giradoux

Our Binary World

In primary school, we are taught to count to ten, then in multiples of ten, the basic decimal system. When we look at our extremities, we see ten fingers on our hands and ten toes on our feet

Taking a closer look at the math in life, however, one is soon aware that it also comes in pairs. In the sports arena, there is a winner and there is a loser; in commerce, a buyer and a seller; in charity, a donor and donee. Humans have organs that come in pairs ─ eyes, hands, feet, testicles, brain lobes, lungs, kidneys and liver. It takes two to make a quarrel or to tango, and in wildlife, the predator must have its prey and the herbivore its herbs. In morality, there are double standards or double books of accounting. All of these are embraced in the binary system that counts in twos.

The marvelous machine that brought on the information age, the computer, does its thing with a simple yes or no, a binary system using two digits, 1 and 0 (one and zero), in an on-off system of electronic switches called diodes in a complex matrix of integrated circuits.

Binaries are present even in political systems, the pros and cons of debates; the proposal to amend the Constitution splits people into two camps, those who favor and those who oppose. Moreover, within the ranks of those who favor, the method of making the change is divided into two groups— those that advocate a Constituent Assembly against those who prefer a Constitutional Convention, in short the elected versus the selected. The former opposes a Convention due to its high expense and the quality of the selection process ( if we consider that this President is stigmatized with having 6 cabinet secretaries that abandoned the ship of state in the short span of 2 ½ years), and the latter opposes an Assembly due to fear of self-aggrandizement.

A few binaries have suffered degradation. Once upon a time, only two sexes were recognized: either an individual was male or female, but today society has accepted the existence of gays and lesbians. Husband and wife duo has now been joined by gay partnerships that are even solemnized in some religious sects. A further degradation is predicted by scientists to occur in 125,000 years when the male of the species will be irrelevant and superfluous. Presumably, so would the transvestites.

Communications

When a baby cries, it is communicating its distress, pain or hunger, and the anxious parent responds, a classic illustration of basic human communication -- viva voce (oral) but not quite language, a system the baby has yet to learn. Fundamental communications use the binary system: a source and a terminal, the baby as source and the parent as terminal in the illustration. We know that people and animals communicate with its own kind, and perhaps plants and the lower life forms do too. Humans have progressed from oral means advancing from the primitive grunts and growls to the contemporary shriek and howl songs, and developed sophisticated methods of transmission beyond line of sight voice, body and sign language, semaphore and flashing light to long distance telegraphy

Telephones started the trend of long distance communications that can reach beyond shouting range. The electrical device carried conversation via a copper wire hung on poles. But after a few kilometers the internal resistance of the wire sapped signal strength (attenuated) making the sound faint or inaudible. To solve the attenuation problem, amplifiers were inserted at strategic points. The phone served intranational talk well enough and even with neighbor nations, but costly cables laid on the ocean floor were needed for intercontinental conversation.

The next leap came when radiotelegraphy and Morse code was invented. Radio waves (which travel in a straight line) was bounced back to earth by the ionosphere layer. This inexpensive technology had one drawback: sunspot activity sends out rays dispersing the ionosphere layer. Without its reflector, radio signals go straight out to space. The same effect also silences short wave voice radio. Even today, those nasty sunspots zap satellite TV transmission.

Satellite sovereignty

The prediction of futurists that our rapidly advancing information and communications technology will create a global village is becoming a reality, but the ancient differences among nations linger. It was not washed away by the new wave of information and understanding.

The initial forays of satellite broadcasting had two components, one for transmitting television broadcasts to TV or cable stations on the ground, and another directly transmitting the TV program to homes. A test program of direct-to-home transmission from satellite was conducted in India, a brainchild in part of science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke who originated the idea of placing communications satellites 22,300 miles above the equator in the geostationary orbit now called the Clarke orbit.

The satellite has made it easier for nations to talk, but it also raised new suspicions. Direct broadcast to homes has weakened control of governments (especially the authoritarian type) on ideology and propaganda dominion over its citizens. More than sovereignty is at stake. There are also economic concerns, strongly voiced by the Group of 77 (composed of 120 third world nations) demanding equitable sharing of the world’s natural resources. One of these natural resources is the geostationary orbit. Only a limited number of satellites can be placed along the 100,000-mile ribbon in the sky.

Most communications satellites, which transmit at lower frequencies and create wider beams than direct broadcast satellites are spaced about four degrees apart in the Clarke orbit. But, direct broadcast satellites operate by international agreement at the high frequency of 12 gigahertz (12 billion hertz). With the narrower beam, they can be placed closer together without mutual interference. Satellites placed every two degrees around the Earth (approximately 900 miles apart) can accommodate 180 slots.

To control the situation, in a 1977 meeting of the World Administrative Radio Conference, a ruling was approved stating that every nation, regardless of size, be awarded at least one slot in the Clarke orbit with five transmitting channels per satellite (essentially applicable to Europe, Asia and Africa, the Eastern hemisphere). The Western hemisphere allocation for North and South America in an International Telecommunications Conference, gave the U.S. 8 slots, Canada 6, Mexico 4, Brazil 5, Argentina 2, Carribean consortium 1, and South American consortium 1. Thirty-two channels for each orbital slot was agreed on by the delegates.

The rulings make certain that nations cannot beam signals that overlap and interfere with each other, producing bedlam on the ground. Politically, the rulings insure that each nation can exert a controlling power over transmissions beamed from direct broadcast satellites to citizens.

Any self-respecting economic tiger should have its own satellite. Being a tenant on someone’s skyflyer is flaunting one’s poverty. So, moved by this irresistible force, a Pinoy satellite was launched to a geo-stationary orbit above our airspace. Agila II owned by the Mabuhay Philippines Satellite Corporation went skyward from a Chinese launch center on board a Chinese rocket in mid-1997.This status symbol does not come cheap, and the risk of launch failure significant. But the lure of profit overpowered timidity and the Pinoy skyflyer joined the rest of man-made objects crowding earth’s sky.

Space above earth’s stratosphere is crisscrossed by orbiting objects sent up by the superpowers that created the ICBM (InterContinental Ballistic Missile) technology, the rocket delivery system for nuclear warheads designed to wipe out humankind from the planet. Fortunately for Homo sapiens, saner minds prevailed over mindless trigger fingers and averted what could have resulted in what was expressed as “mutually assured destruction” (acronym MAD). Much later, the regional conflicts of other powers fueled a race to acquire ballistic technology which led to satellite launching technology. France, Pakistan, North Korea, and lately, China, have joined the original launchers U.S. and Russia.

Some of the first orbiters have fallen back to earth unscheduled and uncontrolled, raising untold anxiety in the countries along the probable swath of the crash landing. The MIR space station launched by the Soviets in the mid-80’s plummeted to earth like the entry of a meteor.

Satellites have made profound changes in the manner and speed of communications and broadcast entertainment. Other advances are in mapping, weather, spying, navigation and fishery, and many more technologies are being developed at a dizzy pace. It does have drawbacks. One of these is the hazard of falling debris from defunct machines. Another is the cacophony of microwaves (although beyond hearing of the human ear) that are reflected or initiated by the satellites. A coming hazard would be the quarrels and conflicts over atmospheric domain that would be analogous to the territorial disagreements on the surface.

Mapping satellites may help in resolving conflicting territorial claims and disputes, particularly in potential oil bearing areas. Weather is routinely forecast from data such as ocean surface temperatures and wind activity obtained from a meteorological network scattered over the globe and transmitted via satellite. For purposes of plotting a ship’s position, mariners have mothballed their sextants and archived star tables, and now use the more convenient GPS (Global Positioning System) from a group of satellites to navigate the oceans.



National Broadband Network

The Electronic Commerce Act of 2000 mandated government to install an electronic network to facilitate transactions between government agencies from the national down to the local level. The objective of the network is to reduce government's expenses on information and communications technologies. A confusing and hazy hierarchy involving the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), a policy-making body directed to establish and administer comprehensive and integrated programs in information and communications technology, and the Department of Transportation and Communication (DoTC) brainstormed and came up with the National Broadband Network (NBN) project. This ambitious project aims to create an intranet or an "internal" network for government institutions, to include connectivity to remote barangays. The law mandates the establishment of a web-based government portal, and a domestic Internet exchange system to help communications and electronic transactions between government agencies, and eventually to the public.

The project ran afoul of obstacles and criticism ranging from lack of transparency to absence of feasibility study and cost estimate, suspicions of overprices and bribes, even technical infrastructure, and duplication of an existing network, the Department of Science and Technology's Preginet (Philippine Research, Education and Government Information Network). Critics cannot comprehend the need for computers in a remote barangay which has no electricity. The most telling argument against the project was the failed Telepono sa barangay fiasco.

The broadband technology and its participation in the electromagnetic spectrum inferred in the project is another matter for another story.



If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don't accept, for you will lose a friend. If two strangers ask you to judge a dispute, accept, for you will gain a friend. — Source Unknown

Change

The only constant in the universe is change, so the saying goes. The cosmos is undergoing change, expanding, merging, bursting and collapsing. Our planet too is under constant transformation ─ changing weather and climate, geology, topography. Certainly, we humans are by nature changeable creatures. We often change clothes, change money into coins, or the TV channel being watched. Some change hair color with dyes, or whiten skin into a sickly pale hue. We often change our mind, the school we attend or our latest amour. These changes are easy; most being mere reflex (unthinking) action or require only minor decisions. Tougher decisions are involved when switching to another job or a new home. However, people by nature resist change if the change is involuntary, particularly when it affects them personally and negatively.

Progress usually requires change, and change does not take place without resistance. Minimizing this reaction to change is an important function of a manager whether in private business or in public administration.

Take for instance the case of relocating squatters (who are now called the landless or the patronizing term informal settlers), which involves a change in their place of abode. The positive lure of the change is the promise of free or concessionary real estate, even housing, that could improve the lifestyle of beneficiaries. However, there are also negatives that are personally threatening. A primary factor is economics, such as the added cost of shuttling to their place of work or livelihood, to the market, and to the children’s school. Another would probably be a lack of basic water and electric power facilities. The beneficiaries who find that the negatives outweigh the benefits will determine their attitude and ultimately resist the change.

Changes in the routes of public utility vehicles to decongest traffic if done too frequently will eventually be resented and resisted, particularly if dissemination of the plan is poor or inadequate and disrupt commuters’ travel habits.

During an interview in a TV talk show, a government official stated, “the planned change would be implemented, subject to the availability of funds.” Planning a change with uncertain funding is not planning. It should be categorized as dreaming.

A study made on why planned projects fail found that the greatest stumbling block was lack of management decision. Lack of funds or time were less of a retarding factor. This is in opposition to often heard statements about shortage of personnel or funds to support new projects. The implication is quite clear that management itself may be the most serious impediment to innovative progress.

Managers of large business corporations have learned to anticipate the challenges of change and how to manage the change. Here are six tips to minimize the resistance to change:

1) Announce and explain a change as soon as possible. Tell why it is necessary and how it will benefit those affected. People tend to suspect what reaches them only by rumor, and to fear what they do not understand.

2) Bring your subordinates into the act. Ask their advice. Their participation in planning for change commits them to cooperate with it.

3) Make sure the change is profitable. Change without visible improvement will encounter bitter resistance, and will be remembered the next time you want to make a change ─ even if it is a worthwhile one.

4) Make one change at a time. Nothing is more disruptive than a series of changes in quick succession. A good manager tries to space them.

5) Give the change time. Opposition does not vanish overnight. Allow people time to adjust. If opposition persists, find out why.

6) Admit a mistake. If a change will not work, say so ─ and drop it. Whipping a dead horse accomplishes nothing.

There is one significant exception to the reality of universal change ─ the independent mindedness of the youth.

“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders, and they love to chatter instead of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.” ─ Socrates, roughly 400 B.C.

Two millennia and four centuries later, the same lament can still be heard

Even if youthful behavior has not changed much, the youth themselves change ─ they become parents and elders ─ and in their wisdom see the youth of the succeeding generation behave as badly as they once did in their time.

"Change has considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better. Obviously, then, one’s character and frame of mind determine how readily he brings about change and how he reacts to change that is imposed on him." - King Whitney Jr.

(Bumper sticker): Change is inevitable. Progress is optional

Of Civility, Word of Honor, Ethics and Honesty

As a young pupil in grade school, one lesson was deeply etched into my young brain and remains vivid to this day of my twilight years. The teacher was explaining the anecdote of the boy (shepherd) who cried wolf. To emphasize the lesson, she asked each pupil to draw the boy watching a flock of sheep and the menacing wolf. My drawing was incomprehensible; I interpreted the sheep as “ship” as pronounced by the teacher. I drew a boy watching a banca (the ship). From that unforgettable embarrassment, I certainly learned from the anecdote the consequences of fibbing, and the values of honesty and word of honor.

It was perhaps serendipity that the teacher’s pronunciation “painted that memory with colors that never fade”(from Perfect Day poem). Other Filipinos may not have been so lucky — they have not learned in such a striking manner the value of palabra de honor and delicadeza, word of honor and civility — and this nation is suffering from the dearth of this virtue so glaringly lacking in its leadership.

I am of course alluding to the retracted vow of the President not to run for election in 2004. The self-imposed declaration not to run was made in December 2002, for the sake of national unity, she said. A few months later, she declared she will run after all, full speed ahead, national unity be damned. It is a terrible feeling of betrayal and anxiety that one feels when pronouncements of our top executive can not be relied upon, words that will never be transformed into action and will remain in the category of forgettable promises.

During the tense hours of the Oakwood coup when the surrender ultimatum deadline was on its last minutes, the negotiators’ word (primarily Ambassador and former General Cimatu) was accepted as credible by the coup leaders. They consented to be court martialled.

Now Malacanang has been persuaded, or perhaps did the persuading, that the coup leaders will be charged in a civil court reneging Cimatu’s word which has the force and authority of the President of the Philippines. Betrayal of one’s own ambassador plenipotentiary — this is statesmanship?

The language of politics is assuming greater heights of incivility. Perhaps this is the new culture that evolved from a series of civil disorders spawned by EDSA I. The first “people power” mob toppled Marcos the prolific producer of Presidential Decrees, the second deposed Erap on suspicions of patent greed and replaced by Gloria who is now accused by detractors with having links to the murky Jose Pidal issue, which raises the question: Have we replaced overt greed with covert greed?

Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. recently said, "The crying and urgent need is not only national unity and reconciliation but the return of civility among our leaders and a reservoir of goodwill and trust." He added that it was unfortunate that President Arroyo’s offer of a "principled reconciliation" to various political groups — particularly to all those involved in the House of Representatives’ attempt to impeach Chief Justice Davide — have "been met with little enthusiasm, if not distrust and derision.” He added that achieving political reconciliation will need more than an offer from the President. "It cannot be reconciliation for the purpose of election," an apparent dig at GMA’s intention to seek a full six-year term in next May’s presidential elections.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., for his part, said a "reconciliation between the administration and the opposition is possible but only under the rules of civility and democratic discourse."

The latest instances of incivility of word are from respectable sectors of the community in the wake of President Arroyo’s retraction of her moratorium on death-penalty executions. .The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippine (CBCP) accused Mrs. Arroyo of attempting to appease the Chinese-Filipino community to boost her candidacy in the May 2004 elections and human rights groups led by the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) said Mrs. Arroyo’s decision to lift the moratorium was nothing more than "a display of politics. The reasons for the flip-flop is obvious; she needs to win votes and curry favor." Knowing the penchant of GMA to pursue whatever is in her self-interest — after all she is a mere mortal with human frailties — these groups could have remained civil with brief statements of regret.

Breaking one’s word is telling a lie, and one who does could be an inveterate liar or a congenital liar. Breaking one’s word does breed mistrust and incivility in future discourse.

Ethics

What philosophical principles forbid biotechnology from engaging in certain practices such as:

· Transfer of genetic material from one species to another?

· Interference with the life process?

· Physicians in life support methods?

· Controversial medical practice like abortion, euthanasia, surrogate parenthood, sale of human eggs or organs, cloning humans, nanotechnology (building life forms atom by atom)?

· The case of Brenda Winners ─ when she found out that her unborn child lacked most of the brain’s cerebral cortex, she could have decided to abort or give birth then let it die. Instead, she and her husband chose to have the baby, keep it alive, and let its organs be used as transplants.” God brings these babies into the world and they should be able to do some good, even if they can’t live.” said Brenda Winners

HOW PERVASIVE IS DISHONESTY?

When ERAP was deposed as President and GMA installed in his place as de facto President, the event was the culmination of an epic political drama. Starting with an impeachment trial as prescribed in the Constitution, this due process sputtered to a screeching halt when evidence was suppressed at the trial triggering the resignation of the panel of Congressmen-prosecutors. The trial’s sudden demise rekindled the rage of indignant ERAP critics and spelled the end of the ERAP era.

What was the essence of the four articles of impeachment? Dishonesty, pure and simple. A sitting president is deposed just because of simple acts of dishonesty? Surely, people should understand that the bigger the belly, the bigger the hunger, and a hyperactive libido urges randy hedonist activity ─ all demanding basketsful of money. After all, dishonesty is common in society

In sports, there are those that misdeclare their age, disobey training rules, give excuses, find fault or blame others when they lose. In schools, there’s cheating in exams, giving or receiving unearned grades for a fee, violation of copyrights by photocopying books or magazines, purchase ready-made or plagiarize thesis and term papers. In business, there are tampered scales, cheating on taxes, gouging consumers with fake medicines and imitation goods, and pirating intellectual property. In the bureaucracy, graft is commonplace, names of ghosts in the payroll, rosters heavy with kin and crony, and insults the public with surly service. In politics, well, that’s apparently where Imeldific and ERAP honed their sticky-finger skill.

The perception that the bureaucracy, once known as the civil service, are not just lacking civility, but are seemingly ashamed of the idea of serving, demeaned by the word servant. A great many look at the bloated bureaucracy as teeming with corruption, and believe that it needs “a little more pruning and a little less grafting. Now the public must ponder: it takes two to tango; the corrupt bureaucrat does not commit graft on his own, he always has a corruptor ─ the dishonest citizen – or a weak minded victim. This citizen might be a neighbor, a friend, a kin. Finally, look in the mirror if the reflection has a clean conscience. You must have heard the former president blurt often that he has a clear conscience. Well, some wit countered that “a clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.”

People judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold, but so has a hard-boiled egg. — Good Reading

Decency It is discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. — Noel Coward