The ignorance of the entitled, or how Senator Pimentel is out to lunch
MRT in 2020?
By Joe America
Senator Koko Pimentel recently criticized law enforcement officials for failing to enforce motorcycle safety laws (Koko calls for proper implementation of laws on motorcycle safety).
“For government agencies, enforcing the law is mandatory and not optional. They must enforce these motorcycle safety laws firmly and consistently. Otherwise, why do they exist in the first place?”, said Pimentel.
. . .
The Senate President is alarmed at the increasing rates of motorcycle fatalities in the country, as figures from the Metro Manila Development Authority showed that motorcycles constituted 35% of all vehicles involved in fatal accidents.
Pimentel said, “Sometimes a law is passed, enforced vigorously, and then conveniently forgotten by both the people and enforcers. That is not how things should work. Laws do not have an expiry date. Until repealed or amended, we all have a duty to uphold them.”
I live in a community where most people barely get by. They pedal pedicabs, work the rice fields, mow the weeds along the side of the road, work as store clerks, or do hard labor construction at 200 pesos per day.
Their sedan is a motorcycle, and they take their kids to school or church or to fiestas three, four, or five on the motorcycle. They can’t afford helmets. They can’t afford a second motorcycle. The one they have may not be registered because they can’t afford the LTO fees.
The enforcers themselves, whether LTO or police, understand. They don’t get paid that much, either. It isn’t bribery or failure to do the job that is the problem. It is the real-life situation ‘on the ground’. A bigger problem than bare-headed kids on a motorcycle is that entitled, out of touch government officials want to mandate obedience as if poor people actually had a choice. And little actually gets done to improve safety.
The only choice for poor people is feed the kids or don’t feed the kids.
- Pimentel’s motorcycle safety law is like Angara’s tax law. Out of touch.
- PAO Acosta’s dengue vaccine ‘investigation’ is proving harmful to kids’ health by scaring their parents away from all vaccines. She acts like she doesn’t have a clue about these political ‘side effects’. She is more dangerous than the vaccine.
- Duterte’s threat to protesting UP students that he would give their slots to Lumads offended both students and Lumads. This is a man who is absolutely lacking in empathy, except when there is a photo-top at hand.
You see, entitlement generates ignorance. It shuts out information and replaces it with self-determined ideas that have little to do with real life.
Vice President Robredo is always listening, always out in the communities. She’s smart. Wise, actually. The entitled only go to local communities for photo ops, sucking in the adulation they need to feel good about themselves. They of course hold resentment toward the Robredos of the world.
You know . . . I’d like to see Senator Pimentel write tickets to punish poor families for breaking motorcycle laws. Here’s an invitation. Stop by the local LTO and grab an enforcement official. Drive over to my barangay road about 7:10 in the morning when the morning rush hour is in session. There will be lots of ‘culprits’ there motoring off to school or work. Lots and lots of them. I figure 300 in an hour, times 20 barangays would be about 6,000 tickets a day.
If he actually has to face the problem, he might suddenly ‘get it’.
The senate chamber is not real life, where poor people reside.
Entitlement creates a fictional world, like the cartoon shows my kid watches. People who live in it are crazy to think they understand. Their solutions to problems don’t make much sense, in the real world. Proper solutions would have government carrying the burdens, not poor people . . . like pick up stray dogs and exterminate them, or run free school buses.
Enough bad laws and a whole lot of people start ignoring those that just make things harder.
Recognize this trait?
It’s the ignorance of the entitled shaping Philippine law and disorder.
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
Everything greatly said, except for the “pick up stray dogs and exterminate them.” That’s man entitled.
Hi, Marina. I knew that would receive objection when I wrote it. It almost requires a blog, I think, as to what a dog is, in Philippine society. To some they are pets. For others they are useful, to yap at intruders or eat scraps. In the poor provinces, they are a lot like rats, woebegotten, diseased animals breeding relentlessly. I’ve run over one (cost me p15,000 for a new air-con part), one slammed into my door which now carries a dent, my wife got flipped from her motorcycle by one darting across the road (scraped but she was wearing a helmet), last week she ran over one in her car causing her considerable emotional distress, we have some in our yard for intruders, and one of those would die to defend me. And in that regard they are better than a lot of people.
ps, it was the ‘rats’ I was referring to in the article.
Visayans do not eat dogs? This is not a put down but where I originally came from, men eat dog meat. I was told that dog meat is an aphrodisiac so women should not have it.
Yes, some do but it is not common. I know next to nothing about women in the matter to which you refer. 🙂
As real as it gets!
It does seem to me that passing laws that make sense to educated people living in gated communities do not make sense to people without money, and once a law is ignored, it is not really a law but some rootie tootie’s high falutin’ pipe dream.
Duralex is toughened glass and not the law.
…The law is hard( difficult to understand not harsh)
Though Pablo below has some valid points, he is wrong to assume or to accuse anyone not of not being concerned about some one’s safety.
it is true that many laws are not practical though a good idea or well intentioned at a time.
The seatbelt law does not apply to jeepneys.
The overpass is not senior citizen friendly, though that example has more pros than cons.
There is such a thing as over protection, and many laws are over protective.
Yes, agree. I do think legislators get caught in the trap of always running for election, and therefore are incapable of taking positions that are healthy for the nation but against popular perception.
Spot on article on the nitty gritty life in the Philippines, thanks Joe. I take exception to the realities inside gated communities, they are mushrooming everywhere and I think that it is good. Most philantrophists live in gated communities, I don’t think they should be generalized as the entitled because many worked hard to where they wanted to live. Most gated communities have good relationship with the people ‘ outside’ – this is very Filipino, getting along with each other whether living in or out of the gate. Have you heard of the latest news, residents in one barangay in Navotas had fled their community because for fear of the ‘tokhang’ that’s happening every night? This reminds me of the ‘ Rohingya’ crises in Thailand, people fleeing in masse for fear of their lives. What a mess these ‘entitled’ are making in people’s lives!
I think the Lumads are the PH counterpart of Myanmar’s Rohingyas. Enlighten me if I am wrong. I hope that PRD’s design for their ancestral lands will not displace and oppress them.
Sorry, what was I thinking that the Rohingyas are from Thailand instead of Myanmar? Thanks Juana Pilipinas for the reply. Tokhang is one way of displacing a lot of people in one community and if this continue would bear the mark of a ‘genocide’, Duterte’s kind.
Close to home, Lumads may have nowhere to go…
http://opinion.inquirer.net/110872/will-lumad-go
The article shows how the President’s thinking is not driven by plan or policy, but by expediency, which shifts as the wind blows. Plus, he is ruthless.
I like gated communities, actually.
Koko Pimentel is losing it big time. The man is acting like he is possessed by evil spirits. It is a shame because he is a very smart person.
What happened to him and Cayetano? Their fathers were hailed as statesmen. Nene still makes a lot of sense and has deep love for PH and his countrymen. Anyare? Sinapian ata ng maligno ang mga anak?
PH politicians are mostly out-of-touch because they only pander to the masses during election time. They are mostly a narcissistic and self-serving lot.
*******
Smart does not equate to wise.
Probably add Sonny Angara to the list. And Gloria.
The Marcos bunch take after the father. So do the Ejercitos and the Estradas.
But the Binay brood — at least Nancy — seems to be undergoing reevaluation.
I’m trying to think of a second- or third-generation heir/heiress — senate and presidency only — that surpassed the progenitor but am coming up empty-handed. The Roxas/Osmena/Laurel heirs never reached the top.
*****
They were pandering to us on Binay and, alas, we were pandered . . .
At least there WAS pandering…Now? Not so….
Gordon:” House, not Senate, should probe Duterte’s wealth”
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/966662/gordon-house-not-senate-should-probe-dutertes-wealth
How many months before an impeachment complaint can be filed, di na dapat umubra yung no personal knowledge ek ek, bat yung ke Sereno, personal knowledge ba lahat yun?
Culture. Just spent some time on Dollar-Street (highly recommended, more below) to realize that the economic situation is extremely important in defining culture. People react to their environment, what they see, what the can control, what they have to avoid, etc. Thus whatever the country, people seem to be very similar. Although I think that individual beliefs and behavior lag, they react not only on the current environment but also to values and beliefs of parents and grandparents, thus to previous environments.
The worlds of the entitled people (above 5,000$ a month) are very different from the environments the poor (below 100$ a month) live in. National cultures might be very influenced by the income distributions, with dominance of the majority class/group and the inspiring class/group just above them.
Living in Ghana, Honduras, Moldavia or Cambodia is so identical for people with similar incomes. So problems and challenges for equal groups in all countries must be similar. Some countries solved them, some are struggling and some didn’t even address them. Pimentel should not only name the problem but also come up with methods to solve it and examples of countries with similar populations that managed to solve it.
https://www.gapminder.org/dollar-street/matrix
“Dollar street” explains itself in its Quick Guide. You can select what objects you want to compare for what income range and for what region, amazing
*******
I search the Philippines for toilet paper — and there’s no paper! Only tabo’s and pails.
*****
You need to ask for ’tissue’. There is tissue.
Frankly, I would prefer pail and tabo, if only there is a water faucet and soap to use after the tabo process. 🙂
As long as it is not Thinking Pinoy.
Wouldn’t your rather have a clean behind with the TP (tabo and pail) process, than a corrupted and confused mind with that other TP?
Even though I think while taking a —–… yeah tabo and pail is much preferred
Toilet papers are used by restaurants as tissues. People do not realise these papers are bleached so white it’s toxic. The posterior may take it, but wipe your mouth in restaurants mmmmmh.
if there’s no toilet paper, a bar of soap and a bottle of isopropyl alcohol would suffice after washing the butt.
Perfect elaboration on the point of the article. Thanks.
Still, the truism: “one’s position determines his perspective.” Still, poverty and the more than comfortable starkly define one’s thinking and action. Unless the habit of critical thinking is exercised no later than High School.
A political leader, it seems to me, should always have in his staff a smart trusted one he sees or drinks with regularly who tells him what he does not otherwise want to hear — and more importantly weighs the advice.
Thanks again, Joe, for a confirmation of the “truth.”
👊👊👊
It’s always good to have a fresh perspective. I had to take a second look at the dog part. Of course they breed like rats, cute when small, dispossessed and shown the door when grown up. Makes you think of the Philippines. Good for fiestas and show of force only, like the Papal welcome? Still we, I, have to keep on believing in the truth. What is truth? That it’s more life in the Philippines. The only thing that makes sense to me, when the Filipino turns over on his good side. But the bad side is burnt already, and something’s burning in the kitchen. Leaders like Koko Pimentel shouldn’t be in the kitchen. They can eat, but not cook. They can be followers, but not leaders. Not leaders.
Nicely said.
Frameable!
I rarely wander into the Manila Times website because it usually a waste of my time. Today is a rare day of finding something worth sharing. Nonetheless, written by Francisco Tatad who I will forever associate with Proclamation #1081. In the article below, he enumerates the deadly sins that the present administration and its lackeys committed against the people of PH.
“Each of these problems could sink this administration. Together, they could all sink the nation.”
http://www.manilatimes.net/given-serious-ills-silly-response/378716/
I agree. A rather comprehensive list there from Tatad, considering that he is still a Marcos Senior defender — and by extension, Bongbong Marcos, the son — and so, is a “natural” ally of Duterte who is one with Bongbong. Quite unlike, say, a Cayetano, a Johnny-come-lately.
The smartmatic partt was actuallupy in defense of BBM, but the other points are well put.
TRIUMP OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT
The first kind:
The blog article picture
The second kind:
Payload in tonnes of Elon Musk’s Falcon Heavy Rocket
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42969020
TRIUMP OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT = TRIUMPH OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT
*******
The synchronized landing of the booster rockets was the shit.
And in motion:
*****
Indeed — great works of fire! (I notice though that the other rocket, to the right, is somewhat tilted on landing, but I am nitpicking.)
IN CHARITY TO KOKO
I may be more charitable to Koko if the same “high-horse” attitude displayed on the enforcement of motorbikers safety law was displayed on the unethical antics of Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chair Gordon.
Cherry picking is a prized tool of a politician.
Magaling sila sa turo-turo.
Motorbikers Safety Law ng mga wakatitot . . .
I have been waiting, waiting, (or asleep too and had just missed it) here in TSoH for snoozers sa panis pancitan to comment and demand to declare unlawful bike or motor cycle riding in tandem by two men. Men riding with queridas, sweethearts, wives or gay partners IF UNARMED may be allowed to ride bikes in tandem. So far thousands may already have been murdered and the authorities and law abiding snoozers are still in induced coma to stop the crimes.
Can you imagine SWAT men riding in tandem with their wangwangs lord it over commuters in congested MetroManila Avenues like they are the fearsome Hells Angels of North America. Dapat mga naghihilik pagsisipain para magising. Mga Wakarang.
When my kid was about 2 or 3 he said “I do not understand even if he meant “I do not know”, I searched for wakarang and I found this Nihingo term which may mean I do not understand and I do not know, the word is: Wakaranai!
‘Wakaramashta’ I do understand. It’s what I muttered to myself as a project was sent back for further study. Further study is what the Japanese order to avoid risk on a decision. Better not to make a decision than make it and have things go wrong.
Very enlightening, thanks!
All this bashing of “For further study Abaya” proved to be misplaced.
Nancy Binay recently told Tugade to stop talking then enumerated his promises.
Also Noynoying is misplaced.
Build,Build,Build
and they will come- Field of dreams
China will return the islands
– Field of Dreams sequel
———
Today on the news.
Duterte- Yes, I am a dictator.
Roque to feminists- you are still over reacting, by now, you should have gotten used to his jokes.
RICE SHORTAGE OR NOT
NFA Spokesperson Rebecca Olarte: the agency’s present stock is only good for two days, way below the required 15-day buffer stock or around 400,000 metric tons that the NFA should have in store at any given time.
Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol: “Contrary to reports that there is a looming rice shortage because the NFA has not brought in imported rice, there is actually a huge inventory of locally harvested rice.”
The problem of TRUST in the Administration’s words come to the fore. I hope Roque, Andanar and Uson do not further muddle the issue. The issue comes in the heels of the spike in the January 2018 price inflation.
Nevertheless, the situation prompted Senators Binay and Villar to file Senate Resolutions to investigate the rice supply situation.
Low supply of affordable rice, worry not, the unaffordable rice abounds.
hahaha
A la Marie-Antoinette of “Let them eat cake” fame? (Although historians say that Marie-Antoinette did no really say “Let them eat cake” but sadly attributed to her and helped spark the French Revolution.)
She actually said let them eat caviar.
🙂
She said let them eat brioches, not a cake, more like ensaymada.
So it was like some akward Aquino/Mar statements, not more. But as an Austrian princess, Marie Antoinette already was disliked by many Frenchmen of those days.
Qu’ils mangent de la brioche
Can they take back this after agreeing on 13000 killings?
”He was conferred Doctor of Humanities honoris causa”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquilino_Pimentel_III
Doctor of Something Honoris Causa
Not worth a “bowl of s…” as that Honorific has become lately.
Is it possible Groucho Marx had that in mind when he said, “I Don’t Want to Belong to Any Club That Will Accept Me as a Member?”
First of all, you mix motorcycle safety with other subjects which have no relation And thereby confusing and ridiculing the issue. So, let’s stick to motorcycle safety, shall we? Then I must tell you that you are absolutely wrong and this attitude results to probably 5000 people killed unnecessarily every year. And yes, I do have a motorcycle and I am very, VERY aware of the conditions pushing people to drive with 3 persons on a bike. But that is not the whole story. The rest if the story is that in our municipality, every week, about 200 people visit yet another funeral of a person killed on the road. Last week, a father to 3 kids, the son of a father and.mother, a brother to 4 sisters and 3 brothers, an uncle to so many nieces etc etc. One person killed, many lives affected in many graduations. How does the wife have to survive with 3 kids, they were poor before, they are in deep shit now. Almost every week. And almost always on the national road, the accidents on the rural roads normally end up in fractures.
And most of the time, these accidents could have been prevented. No, not simply by stopping everybody and checking for papers and helmets, but by full implementation of the law on the roads. From alcohol checks to lightchecks and YES: helmets. Focus on the National Roads where the majority of the fatalities happen. And why do you suggest that it should be done by spot checks only? Sir, there are proven systems how to implement and check rules. It starts by first being motivated. By believing that killing so many Filipinos every year is bad. By caring for your fellow countrymen. Then, transfer this emotion to your people, tell them that you will start checks, that you understand the restrictions, but that being killed or ending up in hospital is much more expensive than 2 helmets. Tell them that replacing a P15 lightbulb can save their lives. And tell them that this ridiculous overtaking behaviour is suicide and you will not accept it.
Then, start implementing it. On the major roads where all the accidents happen. Who cares about the backroads?
Sir, if you do this properly, you can easily score 5000 lives prevented. More than half the road accidents can be prevented with some effective type if control.
Of course, it will not happen in Philippines as the LTO is completely ineffective and they and the police don’t have a clue what to check and how to check.
But: I have seen it done. The new king in Jordan had those feelings I described and he arranged for 12 (only) experienced policemen to come to Jordan and start an implementation program. A huge success. And that in a country with desert highways, much more accident prone than Philippines.
Sir, I believe that your statement is criminal. Certainly, the president can be held responsible for the killing of “drug” people. But many more people get killed on the road EVERY YEAR. And nobody gives a damn and you even make it sound ridiculous to do anything against it.
Sir, there are good laws in Philippines.
And many laws are relatively easy to apply.
Start doing it and Philippines will be a fun country.
Maybe I sound emotional here, but I have seen so many lives destroyed because if accidents. In my work and private. Luckily, never “one of my people” was ever seriously hurt, I would not have a good night sleep ever after. But I came close when I hit a motorbike without lights when I turned left. I did all the right things, blinker, staying to the left of the road, but the motorbike tried to overtake be and I could not see him because it was night and his light was broken. The driver, wife and baby spilled on the road, no helmets, no nothing. But luckily at low speed, nobody was hurt. It could have been so much worse. And here clearly: no rule was adhered to, the driver probably even did not know the rules, he certainly had no papers. But I was the lucky one, I still sleep OK at night.
So, Sir, I hope you are lucky that you never will be involved in a traffic accident where somebody is hurt. Chances are that you will face an accident. Then, please reconsider your attitude and ask yourself that if the law had been applied, the other party maybe still would have been alive?
Or you just drive on and don’t care because accidents are an “act of God” and shit happens, the attitude which you displayed in your post.
No, no discussion necessary, your post clearly gives excuses NOT to apply the law instead of trying to make it work and prevent the killings of so many. Shame!
Maybe it is time for REAL ( Official lessons by driving instructor and a practical examination by a state examinator, one you can not give 100 peso under the table to pass?) drivers license before you enter the road?
Pablo
All your points are valid, your observations and ideas are spot on.
But you miss the gist of the article.
The writer is trying to point out people living in stratosphere cannot see problems on the grounds. Hence their approach is just high falutin and not addressing the real problems. When there is clarity, there is solution.
Pablo, if may comment: I believe:
– that the poor, when confronted with expenditures that would rather go to medicine for a life-threatening ailment or life-threatening need for food, intuitively balances the risk to themselves of not strictly following the law on motorcycle driving; and the implementing policemen seeing this understand the situation;
– that the blog article is partly satirical on laws that are forced to be followed without regard to consequences on those of different situations versus those — probably of greater consequences and — of longer-term importance to the country, but set aside on the say so of an authority.
Thanks for the counter-view. I think you believe I want people to die, which I indeed do not. The Philippines is a lawless land, in the main, with traffic being a daily trip into chaos. I don’t believe it is criminal to suggest that government accept the burden of making improvements to transportation, to improve safety, rather than make poor people who only want to get their kids to school absorb the burdens. They face the choice of not sending their kids to school or not eating. What we have today is evidence of the failure of imposed authoritarian commands. People ignore the laws because they are not practical. They are burdens, not solutions. The shame is that people (leaders) keep making the same mistakes and somehow think they will get a different result. Or maybe they think that a police state enforcing order is a good thing.
“society can be severe with individuals only when it has provided them with the means necessary for their moral perfection” – Rizal.
That guy was smart.
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There are several ways of looking at Rizal’s maxim.
1. We can say that Filipino society cannot be harsh with individuals because it has not provided them with the means for their moral perfection. There are two means but both are not state-sponsored. These are Christianity — in particular, Catholicism — and Islam. Both are not universal. And Catholicism is more honored in the breach than in the observance.
2. The societies that provide the means necessary for moral perfection are, at one end nation-state theocracies, and at the other end, small insular communities like monasteries and nunneries.
2.1. Nation-state theocracies that observe Islam as the state religion, like those in the Middle East, are severe to individuals. Apostasy is not allowed and beheadings are not infrequent.
2.2. Similarly severe are Communist countries — notably China and North Korea — that are agnostic theocracies. Either the Party or the Dear Leader represents God. In these countries, allegiance to the ersatz God is seen as moral perfection.
2.3. Russia is a special case. Neither Communist nor theocracy, it is a gangster state. It deals harshly with individuals but offers immoral perfection.
3. Rizal is right with respect to Islamic theocracies — and if you are a believer and not an infidel.
3.1. His maxim also applies to Communist countries… if one allows for the peculiar definition of the means for moral perfection.
3.2. Despite Duterte’s self-identification and camaraderie with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, the Philippines is closer to Russia than to China. It is a gangster state and offers no means for moral perfection. And it is severe to individuals without any Rizalian justification.
*****
“We can’t be perfect” is a bit hyperbolic I think, and a typical Filipino excuse so very often.
But a society that is good enough, not perfect, can give people a chance to be good.
No need to lie, cheat or steal to get by, or pay the kid’s medical expenses.
No deadly rat race that means either corrupt and rich or honest and poor.
The kind of life we, Edgar (and sonny and Popoy) have in the modern West.
The security we have keeps us (at least me) out of trouble and temptations.
Or maybe it offers us less excuses – also good, as we (Pinoys/Filipinos) love them.
Plus seeing those running the show (mostly) follow the rules is part of developing morality properly as well… I wonder what American morality will be after Trump.
The entitled are either out of touch with the ground or out of touch with their brains.
She is touching her hair though.
oops those are her blouse.
That also shows a society with too many regulations.
Too many laws leads to confusion.
The obvious becomes disorienting.
If there is no instruction, everything will proceed smoothly.
Same with road signs, Ped Xing together with a zebra lane, for instance will make you wonder who the hell is this Ped Xing guy, instead of crossing on the zebra.
Too much is overwhelming and disorienting.
When I first drove in the Philippines, I was frustrated by lack of signage or obedience to driving rules. But now I appreciate how there is actually a kind of expedience to it – natural – as everyone presses forward aggressively, but yields when necessary to keep from getting smashed. The only problem is when someone stops in the middle of the road.
And the damn dogs. heh heh
heh heh.
AN ECONOMIST WRITES
Dr. Gerardo P. Sicat — Professor of Economics at UP, MIT Economics PhD, former Chairman of the National Economic Council, former Director General of NEDA — has a nuanced article which touched, among others, on:
– the recent US DOW Plunge and the associated PSE Index Plunge;
– the new US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell who Sicat notes is a lawyer and his practice has been more as a private investor, though he had served as a deputy secretary in the US Treasury;
– the new Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Along with stock and financial market movements, there are political nuances both in the US and the PH to which both the new Fed Chairman and the new Governor of BSP will surely be tested.
http://www.philstar.com/business/2018/02/07/1785244/new-external-shock-us-stock-market-plunge
Tax reductions -> deficits -> inflationary expectations -> (stocks end runup?)
New people at Fed means wariness
Trump/Russia unknown
PH losing investors -> monetary policy to be used soon to boost the peso
I don’t think the sky is falling, but do observe Chemrock is in his bunker.
Yep, chemrock, the factor to monitor!
🙂
Chemrock IS the factor to monitor.
http://business.inquirer.net/245680/pseis-2018-gains-wiped
NH,
Now, our policymakers are adjusting their forecasts.
Even from just two months ago.
http://business.inquirer.net/245638/bsp-raises-2018-inflation-forecast-4-3
This could be a ”turning point” because now the people will start ”feeling” in the pockets what is going on…Wait for your next kuryente bill
http://bworldonline.com/meralco-implement-p1-08-per-kwh-rate-hike-2-tranches/
Not even talking about soft drinks, transportation, cigarettes and liquor…
And goodbye BPO….
February 05, 2018
http://www.investphilippines.info/arangkada/bir-removes-special-tax-rate-bpo-subsector/
@Sup,
The pros of a weak
Peso of more exports and more consumption due to remittances is offset by the fuel and energy taxes.
Meralco Bills will always use the exchange rate and the power plants costs.
To say it will have minimal effect, or it will only hurt in the start is …. ( insert synonym of a lie)
The veto of the President regarding preferential tax rate is bomalabs, so it is business as usual according to the Association of MNCs and regional headquarters.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/967723/bam-aquino-says-train-law-will-kill-jobs-livelihood
Senator Aquino seems to be stepping up his game. This with “we don’t need a dictator”.
To prevent the sky from falling.(at least some of it)
Introducing: Reusable rockets.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reusable_launch_system
Very interesting read…
PHL among ‘most inaccurate’ countries, but also among most confident — survey
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/world/642544/phl-among-most-inaccurate-countries-but-also-among-most-confident-survey/story/?just_in
COMMENT
It is interesting that the chart of Misperceptions Index which I show below, which depicts South Africa, Brazil, Philippines, Peru (ranked 1 to 4, respectively) as among the most inaccurate in their perceptions are probably among those China has targeted, along with other considerations, to “influence.” China itself is ranked 27.
Here are the ranks of some countries on the Misperceptions Index:
Japan 14
France 16
Hong Kong 21
USA 23
Russia 24
Germany 25
Australia 26
China 27
Singapore 28
Israel 29
Great Britain 30
Canada 32
Spain 35
Denmark 36
Norway 37
Sweden 38
Title was updated to the most ignorant countries.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2018/02/07/philippines-not-too-soft-china-palace-says-587753
With our leaders playing us for fools, they think they can fool other ASEAN members.
I might want to believe the ignorance index mentioned
Karl, the way I see it, it does not matter, as Roque explains, that we are “not being too soft on China.” It is rather, that China thinks we are too soft — as that Misperceptions Index shows. And that is the vital item. After all that country is the Goliath and we are the mouse, no matter if we “roar” which we don’t; rather we appease, unlike the Vietnamese.
Send the Filipino women to fight back. We have a lot of Filipinas who are tough, determined and smart. Do not discount this suggestion. Vietnam has a long history of women helping in resisting the Chinese invasion of their country.
You say that historically, Vietnamese women have exhibited courage against invading Chinese. In this mainly benighted country of ours, women have also shown great courage, more balls than men, speaking in general terms. We have heard or read about this observation. Why is that?
Vietnam jails activists even just for livestreaming a pollution protest.
https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/06/vietnam-jails-activist-for-14-years-for-livestreaming-pollution-march
If that is the case NH, the big data analytic software is dead wrong. China should be the most misinformed, we are not soft, we are fragile and brittle.
BOBO sila! (c) Mocha
ignorance is blessed (c) Irineo
The confidence of the dumb (c) JoeAm
Did MRP ever use bobotante? who can we copyright that word?
I like the patenting and copyrighting of TSoH memes.
This is a show of confidence.He is confident about being belittled and insulted.
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/02/06/1785259/duterte-believes-he-will-be-belittled-brussels-meet
He can insult, but does not want to be insulted.
As Trump is, so is Duterte — birds of a feather.
Look: at this moment 75% don’t care 25% angry about this:
”Int’l Criminal Court takes 1st step in probe into Duterte drug war”
file:///C:/Users/CHARLEY/Desktop/News%20%20%20Multimedia%20%20%20Citizen%20Journalism%20%20%20Social%20Media%20-%20RAPPLER.htm
I think the Survey above is ” Spot on ”
Sup, do you mean the Rappler’s “mood meter” on the Item which on the time stamp reads:
Happy 80%
Inspired 7%
Angry 4%
Annoyed 4%
Others 5%
RAPPLER: Int’l Criminal Court takes 1st step in probe into Duterte drug war
Lian Buan and Jodesz Gavilan
Published 12:22 PM, February 08, 2018
Updated 3:11 PM, February 08, 2018
https://www.rappler.com/nation/195492-icc-the-hague-netherlands-duterte-drug-war-killings
When i did read it Sir Herrera it was 75% don’t care 25% angry……Maybe i was reading it right after publishing so not to many votes?
Well, at least, if I read the Rappler “mood meter” correctly, the current numbers show a big percentage happy about that news.
Any other link, I think that is a file on someone’s computer.
Oh, NH found it.
Captured in short phrases. By the way, Irineo, it seems your Germany will soon have a Coalition.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/599031/qc-cops-told-to-catch-criminals-not-lovers-making-out-in-parked-cars
Pros- It will lessen extortion
-Lovers do not have to spend for motels.
Cond- lovers are easy prey for voyeurs
Bottom line- Some laws are meant to be broken.
While compiling some works of long ago, I accidentally stumbled on a forgotten draft introduction to a still-born Novel (shelved after first two and last chapter ) entitled “TATWA.” Seemingly still timely and with few word changes here and there, I thought I can post it for TSoH reflections.
———————
TATWA: an inspired, imagined wannabe novel
presumptive of modern Noli Me Tangere or
Voltaire’s CANDIDE
Tatwa is The Denial of Anything Godly
and the Propagation of Evil.
In the beginning during the reign of error
of an alleged fake president, there narrate a conjunction
of thoughts from many people about world view
of the country, as probably
the most corrupt, with leaders as liars,
cheaters and thieves, views reinforced
by humanist Kurt Vonnegut
who included in his book the assertion
that it’s the devil and not God
who created the world,
that if there are people in the moon,
those lunar people
have made earth their lunatic asylum.
From political pundits and the uncensored thoughts
of Pinoy (natural-born Filipinos
who may have acquired other citizenships,
but remain Filipinos in psyche and culture)
bloggers, and OFWs, an idea could be shaped
into a novel of a different animal farm
of fictionalized existing realities.
Get On With It. Is not what the elite
will think.
It is deep imagination to think
of a nation as made up
of only two big islands in the novel
which are compressed integration
of thousands of isles. Certainly not
the islands subsuming the core definitions
of Asia’s cultural minutiae.
A fiction, this is about a real country not name here
out of respect for it as one of God’s beautiful creation,
out of love to the land of many languages, multi-culture.
Yes, the country shall remain unnamed
because it was a paradise ravaged by greed, avarice
and the most injurious long lasting
sin ever possess by men.
I think it justifiable not to utter its name
out of disgust for majority of its people
who allowed it to sink to the deepest bowels
of darkness no other people can match
for centuries to come.
It’s best to give it a fictitious name
to portray its ugliness, to rethink its broken soul
and give it an abstract dimension unique and all its own.
Never to be claimed and duplicated by any other.
It shall be called Kotong country,
its people the Kotongyans.
Its geography shall be modest,
almost bereft of God’s natural gifts
its elite had wantonly dissipated.
It shall be composed of only two islands
of denuded hills and mountains,
of dried streams and polluted rivers,
of bays and lagoons of poisoned fishes,
of lowlands made barren by exploitative farming.
Of villages buried by landslides,
of towns and cities of squalor and congestions,
misgoverned milking cows, these inhuman habitats
of inadequate hospitals, beautifully kept churches,
Kotong is surreal Patria Adorada.
It is story of real events and
events that did not happen and of unreal people
encapsulated into decades of record
human descent into folly and sin.
In short it is about real space and time
and people living unreal lives.
It also chronicles the seeming ineffectual struggle
of heroes and heroines living the lives
of have-nots against entrenched power elites.
Decades have passed with inactions
on the promotion and protection of families,
of nurturing and educating the children,
of resuscitating dying institutions,
of shameless inaction of what was promised
in the annual state of Kotong address (SOKA);
rebuilding the military as a defensive force;
increased competition and private sector
delivery of social services,
limiting national government involvement
in mainly provincial jurisdictions eg. social policy,
improving legislation, recognizing poorer regions
for more allocation of resources;
reduction of elite accommodation as
the main feature of governance
(here the Kotongians can not speak of
even a mild grassroots rebellion
to articulate their interests),
Kotong political parties exist and operate
only to serve the interests of members,
not the party’s interest, much more the people’s
and country’s interests.
The Kotong New People’s Party does not
even know the tenets of neo-liberalism
which include balanced budget, fair and just
taxation, minimum interference in the economy.
The two islands in one abstract spatial dimension
shall demonstrate inter-culture; like two windows
juxtaposed, even independent and separate
but conjoined, at times overlapping and
most of the time fused into one big
undeveloped, complacent, million years
coral abutments, stagnating landfills
of a human habitat.
Has anyone noticed that if there is
WORD POWER, there’s more
in single LETTER POWER?
when Reign Of Terror
floods the street gutters
with blood of the elite,
remove the “t”
to make a Reign of Error
a bloodless novel of corruption.
Suggested titles for Duterte’s future biography:
1. Tatay, tatay, bakit mo ipinamigay?
2. Build, build, build! (China: ok, olrayt)
3. How I Managed to Fool 16M of my Countrymen Into Believing Me
4. Hope is not a Strategy (reference to Malacanang’s hope that China adheres to its promises on the West Phil Sea and Phil Rise)
5. Halik sa Watawat, Paalam sa Dagat
6. Why Fish is so Expensive in Manila restaurants (ha ha ha)
🙂
7. Where the wind blows, I will decide.
8. Promises are not policies.
International Criminal Court is setting up the preliminary investigation of the alleged human rights abuses committed by PRD based on complaints lodged by Sabio, Trillanes and Alejano:
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2018/02/08/icc-acts-complaint-vs-duterte-opens-probe-587897
comment on the link
When a Wakatitot put words in the mouth of a presidential (not a boxer’s) mouth piece, it can go something like this. No preliminary examination can be announced without doing a real, a priori preliminary examination.
The complaint has hurdled and goes beyond first refusal. The announcement formalizes what’s been done to continue it to the next step; it is a concrete denial of VACUITY in the complaint; but still, there remains a theoretical 50-50 chance of proceeding or NOT proceeding to its juridical end.
The complaint ceased to be intangible and has started to become tangible. Like water the loose molecules has gained impetus to solidify or could vaporized into thin air. Preliminary examination is the process that proves there is being from nothing.
pls explain wakatikot and wakarang
wakatikot = wala kang “tikot”
wakarang = wala kang “rang”
Sorry, Popoy and karl, making fun here on a slow day.
Malay mo NH, baka tama.
Karl and NH both of you are right. It could be anything you like to believe.
Both terms are power of unlibelous words, of sincerety and anger. If the
allusion or allegation is not true, so be it. If it is true, then get the just reward.
Like: Those Senators and Congressmen who are not thieves may not raise
their hands and those who are thieves may do the same. Those who are
philanderers may say Nyet, Those who are not philanderers may say Jawohl.
Walang Kawala. Pag pumiyok, sya yung umotot..
Ganyan ang buhay, ganyan ang gulong ng palad, minsan nasa ibabaw,
minsan Malabo ang paliwanag.
In the annals of infinite quest for knowledge, art wannabe social science like politics has immutable character not captured by any definitions.
For example: Politics is the art of the Possible. It is fair in Love, in War and in Politics. Nah, never in the continuum of political science history was MURDER an acceptable part of its theory and practice. Politicians defy that to their peril and permanent notoriety.
TSoH may name their names from recent records of the ICC of justice.
Oh Yes to unexplain Wakarang, in the late forties when we teen agers have so much free time to be estambay sa kanto to ogle girls passing by and exchange our teen age wisdom about syota and syoki . . .
Those do-gooders who disliked to join us from sun down to sun come up talking, are Wakarangs all Walang Karancho. It’s got deeper meanings than being a loner or a prude or a snub or the recent term being plastic. In the late forties, TSOH is a street corner where Wakatitots looks down on Wakarangs.
In frat infested UP Diliman a Wakarang is a Barbarian like an Upscan .during my time.
What about wakatikot is it a self deprecating jargon or neolgism?
About what’s a Wakatitot, I answered already yesterday in my den’s laptop. but WordPress or another thing sent it to oblivion. It was not dynamite just a wannabe power reply. I said the incumbent presidents of Pinas and USA are not Wakatitots but WAKARANGS.
Among former topnotch city fiscals and city mayors in Pinas, the former is a Wakarang; while the latter among business mogul billionaires in USA is a Wakarang not a Wakatitot.
Wakarangs are extremes of good and evil. Among the good world leaders the Pope and Queen Elizabeth are Wakarangs. In a linear continuum Wakatitots inhabit the mid or central positions as compliant moderates. They could be not so bad or not so good nobodies. Abraham Lincoln was a Wakatitot.
Most of USA Founding Fathers were Wakatitots until empowered by politics, many became Wakarangs. As I said the WAKAs are not name calls (tags) or labels, but definitions comprising a typology. Did I not say that the first step in the scientific method is classification based on facts; if the typology is based on the senses, those are mere stereotypes.
May I conjecture that TSoH is a Wakatitot stop over for some wannabe Wakarangs. Dalawa started already as Wakarangs. Sino sila? Heh, Heh.
Ahhhh, Oh my; so sorry Joe Am, I way laid the readers. The Missus (pondido na) already had stopped asking questions. I noticed that my students of yore were happy when I consumed the entire session elaborating on a single question.
Wakaramasta!
Wakarimasen = I don’t understand
Watashimo Boku mo
Roque is really something. Ibang klase.China will return the islans to us eventually.
https://globalnation.inquirer.net/163945/poe-says-china-giving-back-militarized-islands-ph-wishful-thinking-poe-senate-palace-china-south-china-sea-west-philippine-sea
Of course Sen Poe was right in labeling as “wishful thinking,” Roque’s statement that PH will be thankful later to China when it eventually gives back the militarized island-bases to PH.
I have this thought that Roque was taken as the new spokesperson — from the earlier dignified, serious, if not boring Abella — to make most others in the Administration sound good. Question is would you like this clown to be your professor of law?
If I will ever enroll in law, no way!
OH my Karl I am really a Wakatitot if I have been a clown professor of something before in Diliman. My jokes I am sad to say made my discerning students cringe instead of laugh. Let me look for a song I posted her before; a President’s song really.
I thought I heard the first time laughing was written as living; such is the power of a changed word. Serendipitous. Eh?|
I started a joke, which started the whole world crying,
But I didn’t see that the joke was on me, oh no.
I started to cry, which started the whole world laughing,
Oh, if I’d only seen that the joke was on me.
I looked at the skies, running my hands over my eyes,
And I fell out of bed, hurting my head from things that I’d said.
Til I finally died, which started the whole world living,
Oh, if I’d only seen that the joke was on me.
I looked at the skies, running my hands over my eyes,
And I fell out of bed, hurting my head from things that I’d said.
Til I finally died, which started the whole world living,
Oh, if I’d only seen that the joke was one me.
In a lighter vein, Karl don’t ask if Roque is a Wakatitot or a Wakarang or as you said “is really something”.; he is none of the above, he is . . . . Guess what?
https://www.ptvnews.ph/roque-hits-back-poe-free-dream-china-returning-ph-reefs/
It is free to dream.
The initial substantial fruit of the efforts of the trio of Senators [former] Cayetano, Pimentel, Trillanes on ex-VP Binay has come with his scheduled arraignment at the Third Division of Sandigan on February 23.
But as in a lot of things in PH, I can foresee twists and turns on the expected trial — not excluding some horse trading. (Sorry to say.)
https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/national/sandigan-to-proceed-with-trial-of-ex-vp-binay/ar-BBIQLan?ocid=spartanntp
Out on bail JPE, Jinggoy……..Bong Bong, BinaySr,Binayjr
grrrrr.
Unbailable my foot!
Before the long appropriate peroration of IBRS let me repost my long introd to a shelved novel above:
While compiling some works of long ago, I accidentally stumbled on a forgotten draft introduction to a still-born Novel (shelved after first two and last chapter ) entitled “TATWA.” Seemingly still timely and with few word changes here and there, I thought I can post it for TSoH reflections.
———————
TATWA: an inspired, imagined wannabe novel
presumptive of modern Noli Me Tangere or
Voltaire’s CANDIDE
Tatwa is The Denial of Anything Godly
and the Propagation of Evil.
——————
It is NO LONGER Quo Vadiz Philippines. Pinas says, been there done that already; and it’s cool to the wolves to be still doing it, a never ending orgasm.
There is a passage in the Noli where the ignorance of the entitled – even Rizal’s alter ego Ibarra – comes to the fore.. and it has do to with the PNPs institutional ancestor, the Guardia Civil..
Elias the rebel tells Ibarra this, among other things: “You must take into account the truth that society can be severe with individuals only when it has provided them with the means necessary for their moral perfection. In our country, where there is no society, since there is no unity between the people and the government, the latter should be indulgent, not only because indulgence is necessary but also because the individual, abandoned and uncared for by it, has less responsibility, for the very reason that he has received less guidance.” And it continues…
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6737/6737-h/6737-h.htm (around 378)
“To weaken the Civil Guard would be to endanger the security of the towns.”
“The security of the towns!” exclaimed Elias bitterly. “It will soon be fifteen years since the towns have had their Civil Guard, and look: still we have tulisanes, still we hear that they sack towns, that they infest the highways. Robberies continue and the perpetrators are not hunted down; crime flourishes, and the real criminal goes scot-free, [378]but not so the peaceful inhabitant of the town. Ask any honorable citizen if he looks upon this institution as a benefit, a protection on the part of the government, and not as an imposition, a despotism whose outrageous acts do more damage than the violent deeds of criminals. These latter are indeed serious, but they are rare, and against them one has the right to defend himself, but against the molestations of legal force he is not even allowed a protest, and if they are not serious they are nevertheless continued and sanctioned. What effect does this institution produce among our people? It paralyzes communication because all are afraid of being abused on trifling pretexts. It pays more attention to formalities than to the real nature of things, which is the first symptom of incapacity. Because one has forgotten his cedula he must be manacled and knocked about, regardless of the fact that he may be a decent and respectable citizen. The superiors hold it their first duty to make people salute them, either willingly or forcibly, even in the darkness of the night, and their inferiors imitate them by mistreating and robbing the country folk, nor are pretexts lacking to this end. Sanctity of the home does not exist; not long ago in Kalamba they entered, by forcing their way through the windows, the house of a peaceful inhabitant to whom their chief owed money and favors. There is no personal security; when they need to have their barracks or houses cleaned they go out and arrest any one who does not resist them, in order to make him work the whole day. Do you care to hear more? During these holidays gambling, which is prohibited by law, has gone on while they forcibly broke up the celebrations permitted by the authorities. You saw what the people thought about these things; what have they got by repressing their anger and hoping for human justice? Ah, sir, if that is what you call keeping the peace—”
“I agree with you that there are evils,” replied Ibarra, “but let us bear with those evils on account of the benefits [379]that accompany them. This institution may be imperfect, but, believe me, by the fear that it inspires it keeps the number of criminals from increasing.”
“Say rather that by this fear the number is increased,” corrected Elias. “Before the creation of this corps almost all the evil-doers, with the exception of a very few, were criminals from hunger. They plundered and robbed in order to live, but when their time of want was passed, they again left the highways clear. Sufficient to put them to flight were the poor, but brave cuadrilleros, they who have been so calumniated by the writers about our country, who have for a right, death, for duty, fighting, and for reward, jests. Now there are tulisanes who are such for life. A single fault, a crime inhumanly punished, resistance against the outrages of this power, fear of atrocious tortures, east them out forever from society and condemn them to slay or be slain. The terrorism of the Civil Guard closes against them the doors of repentance, and as outlaws they fight to defend themselves in the mountains better than the soldiers at whom they laugh. The result is that we are unable to put an end to the evil that we have created. Remember what the prudence of the Captain-General de la Torre1 accomplished. The amnesty granted by him to those unhappy people has proved that in those mountains there still beat the hearts of men and that they only wait for pardon. Terrorism is useful when the people are slaves, when the mountains afford no hiding-places, when power places a sentinel behind every tree, and when the body of the slave contains nothing more than a stomach and intestines. But when in desperation he fights for his life, feeling his arm strong, his heart throb, his whole being fill with hate, how can terrorism hope to extinguish the flame to which it is only adding fuel?”
[380]“I am perplexed, Elias, to hear you talk thus, and I should almost believe that you were right had I not my own convictions. But note this fact—and don’t be offended, for I consider you an exception—look who the men are that ask for these reforms” nearly all criminals or on the way to be such!”
“Criminals now, or future criminals; but why are they such? Because their peace has been disturbed, their happiness destroyed, their dearest affections wounded, and when they have asked justice for protection, they have become convinced that they can expect it only from themselves. But you are mistaken, sir, if you think that only the criminals ask for justice. Go from town to town, from house to house, listen to the secret sighings in the bosoms of the families, and you will be convinced that the evils which the Civil Guard corrects are the same as, if not less than, those it causes all the time. Should we decide from this that all the people are criminals? If so, then why defend some from the others, why not destroy them all?”
Elias again, a few sentences later: “What would you say of the members of a family that dwells in peace only through the intervention of an outsider: a country that is obedient because it is deceived; a government that commands be, cause it avails itself of fraud, a government that does not know how to make itself loved or respected for its own sake? Pardon me, sir, but I believe that our government is stupid and is working its own ruin when it rejoices that such is the belief.” (strange how relevant so much still is, until now)
“Should we decide from this that all the people are criminals?” That’s what Pimentel is suggesting, I think. Thanks for finding these passages, Irineo.
Thanks Irineo for the Project Gutenberg link to the free Noli of Rizal which I downloaded to my Kindle App via Google’s One Drive. I have the book but misplaced it somewhere in the house.
(For readers who may wish to download and read via Kindle, you may get the free app
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/fd/kcp
One, of course, can read via “text” format from Project Gutenberg link of Irineo, but it will not appear as good as in the Kindle App)
Aside from the e-book of Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, I also got his El filibusterismo from Project Gutenberg. Thanks again, Irineo.
*******
Ahaha! That’s a good one.
Certain Western societies allow us to become morally perfect — not by providing us the means but by leaving us alone so that we can find the means ourselves.
I think this is the ideal situation. As long as the government, the others and we ourselves recognize that diversity is good, certain boundaries (like civil rights) must not be crossed, and certain obligations (like excessive taxes) must not be imposed.
So have we improved on Rizal?
“Society must never be severe with individuals and must provide them the freedom necessary for them to develop the means for their moral perfection.”
*****
*******
This was in reply to Irineo’s Feb 9 at 3:11 pm post.
*****