Time is a space and so is ambition
Analysis and Opinion
By Joe America
One of my more recent discoveries is the fiction writer Martin Cruz Smith. He is best known for “Gorky Park”, a murder mystery centered in Moscow. His protagonist is a very flawed yet likable detective, good cop, bad cop rolled into one. I’ve been binge reading the series that Gorky Park spawned. Smith spins a good tale and every once in a while pops out a few lines that are positively brilliant.
One from my current reading, “Tatiana”, is the somewhat cynical notion that, for some people, time is a space where they gather, like 1:00 in the morning. They are found in their space working doggedly to solve a murder whilst staying alive. Yes, some people, a very few I would imagine, occupy that space.
That leads me to another spacial concept that most Filipinos do NOT occupy. That is the space of career ambition, the drive that impels people to do good work, honestly, and to excel at it. Filipinos just go to work. Most at low-paying dead-end jobs. Many accept bribes (PNP) to supplement their lousy pay.
Most Filipinos have never occupied the space of a job with a future that is exciting for the self-fulfillment that comes with higher pay and bigger responsibilities. They don’t comprehend the concept of a career path that offers a future that is so valuable they want to hold onto it. That is so valuable they won’t risk cheating.
Their space is day-to-day.
The ideal space has a future.
How does the Philippines change its employment space to one with a future?
- Get salary specifics out of laws. Replace them with a mandate for career paths.
- In government, increase top-range salaries but don’t grant them to everyone. Make the step-up ambitious. Keep increasing upper ranges until they are stretched a long distance from entry to top. Give all workers a target, a goal, a future. A way to improve their lot in life. Require promotions from within.
- In the private sector, end contractualized labor among businesses with at least 50 employees. Mandate professional Human Resources functions that assure workers of career paths. Develop rules that build a future into every job with merit increases, bonuses, and promotions. Mandate that jobs be filled predominantly from within (that outside hires are only allowed for specific technical reasons). Assess large fines for violations.
Ambition is a wonderful thing. It is future-space. It drives hard work, creativity, and honesty. Unified, it generates wealth.
The Philippines needs a whole lot more of the stuff.
_______________
Photo image from Bing under the prompt “the idea that time is a space that people occupy.”
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
Gorky Park is indeed a great crime thriller, and Arkady Renko is among the best messed-up criminal investigators, up there with The Wire’s Jimmy McNulty.
As for Filipinos and ambition, as we know, the latter is seen as a bad word by many of the former, possibly because most career paths in the Philippines involve mainly politicking. Of course, office politics is all over the world, but the Philippines has too much of it, I think.
What I still wonder about is what I read once, that BPO outfits had it easy to find staff but had a hard time finding more qualified levels. First of all, shout out to everybody here, is that true? Second, if it is true, why is it like that? Is upping one’s game a “mortal sin” for most Filipinos?
Looking at how the Philippines often treats its international gold medalists, that is possible.
Maybe less of what you call “face and power”, Joe, and more focus on real results will change things, and the measures you mentioned could be a start. Won’t be easy, I guess.
Yes, that is true. They can do the routines as agents but have no experience managing others. So there is a shortfall of managerial types. Or was a couple of years ago when I read about it. Managing takes the skill of being other oriented in listening and giving guidance. Delegating is a stretch of one’s ability to let go. I don’t know if these things are taught at universities or not.
The typical Filipino boss, especially in government, is a control freak and a micro-manager.
The more modern enabling style is probably alien to many a Filipino.
I have a filipino boss once. he was so deeply invested in the business that he ended up bossing workers around, all must work as prescribed, heads down and no talking, right on time and not a minute less. it was like walking on eggshell for us workers.
apparently, he wanted to maximize profit, the sooner the better. then, he got sick from too much stress coupled with endless worries mostly self inflected. the business would have belly up had misis not got in and changes few things. we got our break, our leave, and we got paid. and we got to sigh in relief, our pays not ducked for sighing.
Right.
As someone here who had some experience working for BPOs, I saw former lawyers, former dentists, med students etc.
Some managerial positions were pirated from other contacr centers.
Outliers can also be applicable to my comment.
Pinay ” ambisyosa” derogatory or pejorative for social climber
Most Pinoys are in the “isang kahig, isang tuka” catergory . Some are working students to pull themselves out from poverty. With the government requirement to undergo ROTC that means loss of opportunity to earn extra money .
Agree with this. Thinking that ROTC should at max be at the Senior HS level.
Welcome back Joeam. I’ve missed your posts.
Thank you arlene. The demands became a burden so I lightened the load. I’ll still pop in now and then. Thanks for being here when I do.
For some reason this post reminded me of another post from Paul Graham:
http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html
Wealth and Power
Making wealth is not the only way to get rich. For most of human history it has not even been the most common. Until a few centuries ago, the main sources of wealth were mines, slaves and serfs, land, and cattle, and the only ways to acquire these rapidly were by inheritance, marriage, conquest, or confiscation. Naturally wealth had a bad reputation.
Two things changed. The first was the rule of law. For most of the world’s history, if you did somehow accumulate a fortune, the ruler or his henchmen would find a way to steal it. But in medieval Europe something new happened. A new class of merchants and manufacturers began to collect in towns. [10] Together they were able to withstand the local feudal lord. So for the first time in our history, the bullies stopped stealing the nerds’ lunch money. This was naturally a great incentive, and possibly indeed the main cause of the second big change, industrialization.
Yes, Medieval European towns started to have their own charters – and their own defensive walls.
It is no wonder that the word Bürger (citizen) in German or the equivalent word cittadino in Italian have a relation to Burg (castle) or citta (city) which is related to citadel.
Of course the democracies in those cities were initially limited to those who had a business – or guild members practicing a specialized profession of sort, even if it was “just” being a butcher for instance, what was important is one had to train to qualify.
Early civic society excluded both the aristocracy and vagrants, who had to be outside the City after dark.
Rich citizens paid mercenaries to help defend the city while less affluent citizens had to do guard duty or military service at times. In Swiss cities, men of the same guild often formed part of the same military unit, as their bond was strong and they did not desert each other.
The resistance of the Swiss against knights and nobility was via pikemen in formation. If the infantrymen holding the pipes manage not to chicken out at the sight of men on horses in armor charging at them, they can win because the horses stop at the pikes or even rear up. Swiss early democracy was defended by units of townsmates from small towns or guildmates from big towns, so closely knit that they were willing to risk death and often won their gamble.
I remember talking to girls working at department stores there. like SM Gaisano and they were basically moonlighting as prostitutes cuz their jobs were considered temporary, thus they could not only be fired at any time but also no benefits are conferred. Pay was so measly.
So maybe unions would be good too. Its those Chinese businessmen they know all the ins and outs loopholes of labor laws.
I was really surprise how big machine operators like excavators etc and really skilled craftsmen like A carpenters were just low wage laborers there. those are skilled laborers here with good pay, especially electricians and plumbers and such. if communists
there stopped playing Che Guevarra and just focused on unionizing and focus on those Chinese Filipino businessmen always screwing other Filipinos over, then you’d conquer space time in the realm of labor and fairness.
People gotta know their value. it was unions that showed the rich here what peoples value was. Class Action lawsuits there needs to be more of that too. https://joeam.com/2015/05/21/a-filipino-aclu-and-lawyering-in-the-philippines/
https://www.courthousenews.com/6-5-million-wage-settlement-okd-for-exotic-dancers-in-california/
(CN) — A federal judge has signed off on a $6.5 million settlement in a wage-and-hour dispute between exotic dancers and strip clubs in San Francisco and San Diego.
A class of 8,402 exotic dancers sued SFBSC Management in San Francisco and Déjà Vu Services in San Diego in 2014 for allegedly misclassifying them as independent contractors and engaging in unlawful tip sharing.
According to this week’s settlement order, the parties reached a $5 million settlement in 2017 which the Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded in 2019, citing several inadequacies in equity to former dancers and scrutiny of settlement terms. Since then, similar lawsuits have been filed in Northern California and another resulting in a $6.44 million settlement with Déjà Vu Consulting in Michigan.
Thereafter, the parties reached a global settlement in the San Francisco and San Diego cases, consolidating the cases for settlement purposes and approving the settlement preliminarily.
Overall, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler found the $6.5 million settlement to be fair and reasonable, as it recovers about 14% of the “claimed best-case damages scenario of $45.8 million” and accounts for the amount of work performed and wages received by settlement class members.
Litigation and recovery risks were relevant to the court’s fairness analysis of the settlement. The court found that since nightclubs were exempt from CARES Act relief and forced to close during the pandemic — one defendant recently declared bankruptcy while five other clubs even closed permanently — the nightclubs’ ability to absorb a larger judgment was questionable.
Unions here seem to be tagged as communists and harassed. There is no mature understanding of the advantages to have labor represented as an offset to unbridled corporate power. Basically workers here are powerless which is why career paths are not in the lexicon. Huge reason corruption is the model for self-enrichment.
I have a lawyer acquaintance who educated me on local unions.
It seems there are two type of unions maybe three.
01. Unions who are there to recruit for the left
02. Unions sponsored by the companies to prevent number 01.
03. Unions bottom up. (These are rarer as these require workers who have the capacity to do it).
Used to be that 1) were called “red” unions in Germany (still the Reich back then) and 2) were called “yellow” unions in a derogatory sense by those in 1). Those in 3) partly came from older traditions of solidarity such as medieval guilds.
Worker’s councils in every larger company in Germany mandated by law have made RESPONSIBLE worker’s representation (neither 1 nor 2) normal over here. And worker’s councils having at least one member on the supervisory board of corporations even more.
Stuff like workplace health and safety, compliance with maximum working hour laws, etc. etc. may seem mundane to those who want “class war” but they make working life easier and in fact may even increase productivity and loyalty to the company.
Ah, thanks for the perspective.
SM Gaisano and they were basically moonlighting as prostitutes…
Before I accuse of you of mysogyny once again, apparently from Aparri to Jolo people were asking for it.
@LCX before Wowowie gyrations there was Eat Bulaga. Just google translate.
https://www.rappler.com/voices/editorials/thousand-and-one-cuts-eat-bulaga-tito-vic-joey/
Some try to be their own bosses by becoming entrepreneurs, but it is still the connections to.make one last. If the bank is your only source of loans then the ones with a network of monied people has an edge.
there are a number of uber poor people made rich! nora aunor was one, she got the talent, and then, it went seemingly south.
manny villar was poor once, ang pamilya started small, nagtitinda lang ng isda sa palengke, then went on to own supermarket, and the rest is history, bilyonaryo na ang mga villars ngayon. I dont need to mention manny pacquiao and how he went from cents to millions.
maybe, it has something to do with work ethics, having ambition helps too, as well as the longevity to persevere and having good money sense.
Outliers
Joe, this article attests that you are not an AI Chabot.
The reference to space and its many types used creatively in this short blog is a very useful and exciting way of connecting the critical elements needed for a country such as PH — to move out of the rot.
Spaces:
– Time space
– Ambition space >>> Future Space
– Employer space
– Employee/ Employment space
– Private Sector space
– Government Sector Space
– Government Policy space
– Salary space
– Education space
What we need is to connect — in a problem-solving and optimizing way — these “spaces” dots to take us out of the perennial rot we are in, in tandem with shrinking to zero the Bribery Space and Corruption Space. You have offered valuable suggestions.
Thanks for the read.
You’re welcome, and you’re right. Conceptualize how to build the employee space and other spaces grow, too. Kind of a big bang theory to national enrichment.
I could not find the article if I did not see the comments notification, I would not be aware of Joe’s article. Am I the only one?
I think passing the blog to Giancarlo reset some of the defaults, I’m not sure.
Perhaps Joe. Thanks
Those are good insights about the Filipino. Our identity albeit is enshrined with the famous lyrics to a song that is meant to drone in one’s headspace as the farthest we have gone into our own self-understanding: “Ako ay Pilipino, ang Pilipino ay ako.”
We do need leadership with a vision of who we could be and not just sentimentality around what we have been through. We have not been trained to reach for an ambition even if we saw one.
As an example, Lee Quan Yu’s three pillars ( MPH) : Meritocracy, Pragmatism and Honesty was what he used as formula to realize what Singapore now is today. We can surely adopt their template provided we are inspired enough to have our own ambitions.
Yes, indeed, Vicente. All it takes is vision and a pragmatic translator.
ahem, as regards meritocracy, ex pres noy has plenty of it and look what it gained him? heckled and ridiculed, his family lost their hacienda to land reform and up until now, the aquinos have not been compensated.
as for pragmatism, gloria arroyo has tons of it, and she is still very much around though, lame but.
as for honesty, the law found senator bong revilla honest and acquitted him from pork barrel fiasco. and because he was acquitted, napoles got similarly acquitted, her 16 pork barrel charges dropped.
meritocracy, pragmatism, honesty, filipinos have them all, lol!
grass roots filipinos do have vision and ambition, they often aim high and hit low, the environment hostile and has odd way of bringing home the message: ambition is mostly the domain of the haves.
competing for space with the haves – nah, grass rooters knew it’s counter productive. so they aim lower and dream less, lesser disappointments that way, less hurt too, and pain is bearable.
oh yes, so many sectors are power thirsty, want to empower the disenfranchised, thus harnessing them to do battle, sacrificing their lives and shedding their blood for an ounce of ideology, makes for enjoyable scenario too. but there is the army now, let armed personnel serve their politicians and their country.
“ambition is mostly the domain of the haves.”
————
True, but everybody can dream. To some, there are too many to hurdle but hard work produces good result. I believe in meritocracy , the ladder is there, hoping that opportunity opens to all in pursuit of a comfortable life .
Yes, agree. But practically speaking, careers and ambition are most easily built into government agencies and large corporations. They have the ability to put in place stepwise increases in pay and responsibility. At the bank I worked at, there was a ladder. One teller made executive vice president in 15 years. Smart lady who worked hard. I listened to a part of new Defense Secretary Teodoro’s press conference today. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard a government official talk about his intention to build careers within the department. He gets it.
impressive! gibo’s foray into dnd, making the right noise he did. task he is with reforming pension of military and uniformed personnel, their rank bloated due to sara’s dad promoting so many generals, their pension higher than most. no wonder sara failed to get dnd chair, lol!
obviously, gibo just need to watch his venerable ambition to build careers within dnd gets the approval of the president, or it’s gibo’s head on the platter. gibo can only do as much as he can as the president allows him. it’s a good start though, gibo voicing opinion early on.
So far, President Marcos has been in the awkward position of moving toward the US by himself. Obviously, that is what the military wants, but not Duterte and Arroyo. Now he has a Secretary who can both hold strong and do the diplomatic dance. A partner to take the weight off him. I particularly liked Teodoro’s statement yesterday directed at China. Something like “We don’t think it’s right to comment on your military decisions, nor should you be commenting on ours.”
There is a part on Gibo. The rest is very valuable info.
https://opinion.inquirer.net/163818/prelude-to-the-mid-term-kickoff
“We don’t think it’s right to comment on your military decisions, nor should you be commenting on ours.”
The first part of the statement is the necessary diplomatic language. The second delivers the message with a punch — an uppercut and a hook.
The message reminds me of Teddy Boy.
Would Inday S be capable of delivering such a message?
yes, everybody can dream. poor farmers in negros dreamed of being land owners and put their hands up for land reform. attended land reforms meeting too, showing sincerity and willingness to meet obligations. and they ended up dead on the field, killed with gun shot wounds, their murder unresolved last I know.
anyone else for land reform, raise you hand!
That’s quite sad indeed.
may the dead rest in peace.
If this was not the exact case then this case is one too many.
https://pids.gov.ph/details/new-massacre-highlights-failures-of-philippine-land-reform
Thanks KarlG for the link. I think owning and tilling a parcel of land from a vast estate is not that productive (eg: Irrigation, road access, mechanized farming). There must be other alternative to this sharing program .
I think they thought tat they can replicate Taiwan. But it became a debt trap for one. And with inheritance here the land will be subdivided further.
maybe leasehold is okay. after 40yrs lease, the land goes back to the rightful owner, unless farmers renegotiated lease anew. farms remain intact and dont need to be subsided among children of farmers. some of farmers children are not that interested in farming, seeing how backbreaking farming is, and for less to no gain.
as for irrigation, there are existing irrigation already, same with roads, though some are not sealed, the infras are already in place but could be made better.
I think I might have mentioned this already, but here it goes again just in case: West Germany, with its relatively small agricultural lands, underwent a consolidation to bigger lands in the 1960s. Made mechanization more efficient.
East Germany had turned former feudal estates (history went differently there) into collectivized agriculture. Turning back Soviet occupation era (1945-1949) expropriation of large landowners was prohibited by the German Unity Treaty. The result was that these former “kolchos” farms became heavily mechanized privatized farms, also easier because the lands east of the Elbe River are mostly flat compared to the more hilly areas between Rhine and Elbe.
Only the EU agricultural subsidy keeps small and medium-sized farms alive over here. One point of the subsidy is ecological conservation of land against overbuilding. Another is food security. Still, being a farmer is unappealing for a lot of young people.
The relatively wealthy farmers of Bavaria often give their kids a BMW or Audi for their 18th birthday or high school or university graduation, but I know some who are IT colleagues now. Also, encroachment of industrial zones or new housing projects on former fields is a process I have seen with my own eyes in villages that suburbanized around Munich, in spite of zoning. One village actually required half of the houses in a new zone to be for locals only and cheaper, probably in exchange for allowing the new development, but this is another topic already. There are former farming families in the outer parts of Munich, still agricultural in the 1960s, that own blocks of apartments where their fields used to be and most probably live well off them. But that is only possible because of a political and legal system that didn’t let them down and an infrastructure of banks, builders and artisans that made it possible to repurpose their capital and take part in the postwar boomtown instead of being left behind by it.
I also read that in Dingolfing, Lower Bavaria, the first shift of the BMW plant is quite early to allow small farmers among the workers to work their fields in the afternoon. But all that proves is that the land hardly makes them enough money to support them, the factory job does.
Re: Taiwan
https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=10&post=15716
the planting of dragon fruit is what sandro marcos has borrowed from taiwan. apparently pinoys farmers are soon to be harvesting them.
Originally from Central America maybe the Galleon trade gave us our share of the fruit.
https://agri-en.kcg.gov.tw/cp.aspx?n=4D251A4EEB1E5C88
My point was Land Reform worked in Taiwan but not here
Career executives in the civil service/bureaucracy vs the so called trusted men of the president.
The civil servant work their butts off all their lives just not to be Cabinet secretaries all because of the right of a president to work with someone they trust. Look at what that lead too. Everytime you get a know it all who actually knows nothing. Some do not even pretend they know what they are doing . They undermine those that actually do know.
ahem, know nothing can always hire consultants, cost a pretty damn penny too, and no know nothing dont need to take responsibility for the consultants actions. so many consultants hired drain the kaban ng bayan.
Right.
I feel that this is less true of the more profitable fields. In the case of those fields the bureaucrats are really less knowledgeable of most things compared to the outsiders.
Thanks for the valuable insight Gian.
That is true even here in Germany. For instance, the government has issues getting good IT people at times. Though to run things well, they don’t really have to be brilliant, just conscientious. It does become an issue, I guess, if things have to be digitalized. That is where people with vision AND with an understanding of the legal needs as well as old processes are needed. Even consultants or vendors that can bridge that gap are rare, so I gather.
Decades of being at the digitalization front for corporate have taught me how hard it is to change mindsets even there. Often, it takes as long as the retirement of the old guard, the new guard advancing into middle management or higher, and digital natives entering the workforce.
The level of Minister (like Secretary) and even that or Parliamentary State Secretary (like ASec) is usually political here in Germany, leaving the job of ensuring operational continuity and briefing the political superiors to the State Secretaries (like Usecs or some Asecs) who supervise the purely career Division Chiefs. At best a good Minister is like a good CEO, those people also take over firms doing business they have little knowledge of, but they know how to listen to those who brief them and get the summary of what counts. The latter is probably what isn’t happening with arrogant “Big Birds” in the Philippines, even as the Gibo Teodoro’s will probably do their homework and have a healthy dynamic with those filling them in on details.
Germany is still a place where you can’t afford not to do your homework. And if you copied it, at least make it sound as if you know what you’re talking about when called to recite. If that is interpreted as lacking humor, I prefer that to how funny Bato and Robin Padilla are.
With the clusterfucks over here, I suspect they happen when everyone in charge copied their homework and nobody is competent or brave enough to say the Emperor has no clothes. Though I know too little of such matters.
In fairness to Bato he is a PHD.
Well, Persida Acosta also had top ranking scores during the bar exam. As for Bato’s Ph.D., I wonder where he got it and what for. At least Persida did study law and probably is good at memorizing even without understanding.
after 3 takes if I remember correctly
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_dela_Rosa
His PhD is from the University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City and there is no mention as to where he got his Master of Public Administration.
He completed his Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Doctorate Degree in Development Administration from the University of Southeastern Philippines, Davao City in 1998 and 2006, respectively. He is also a member of the illustrious Philippine Military Academy’s Sinagtala Class of 1986.
(Senate)
https://issuances-library.senate.gov.ph/node/88946
Recently our threads were filled with chatgpt threads.
Before our problem is our Luddite bureaucracy who hated job killing automation.
Customs could have moved onward with efficiency because of automation but no, most of the time import permits still get faked and still done manually because fake documents are made of paper stolen from government print shops or warehouse and that goes for other documents that have security. Plus the usual red tape.
Every admin we get a new vendor and that necessitates untimely migration of databases and computer systems and more reason to delay stuff.
Fast pace of planned obsolescence by big tech and mix that with our procurement law is a recipe for disaster I.e the DEPED laptops.
I must be on another planet, hearing procurement has gone digital. apparently it has save the govt millions of money for they dont need to advertise in televisions and newspapers. now, procurement is faster kuno, and approval just as fast. decide in haste and repent in leisure and we end up with dodgy products.
E-bidding makes corruption faster. Favors get granted faster. It can make rigging faster.
It the basis always the lowest cost you will get lowest quality.
The overpricing claims by the losing bidder (s) will still be silenced by an everybody happy amount.
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/02/20/23/deped-confirms-sale-of-laptops-in-cebu-surplus-store
deped laptops ended up in surplus store, overpriced at halos useless pa, barely able to meet both teachers and students computing need.
I thought, neda and dict would be able to upgrade the software system of said laptops, thus salvaging them. there are IT personnel in both neda and dict who are able to do conversion job. sayang naman if those laptops are left on the shelves, to rot and added to landfill.
Bright side: may nakinabang. Dark side: may nakinabang.
Talk about space [this blog topic’s keyword] — it seems that the Corruption Space is the biggest of them all. And the practitioners are adept and creative. 🤣
I hope that the Venn Diagram of the Policy Space which contains the Maharlika Wealth Fund approved by the Senate does not intersect the Corruption Space. Sorry, for putting this in mathematical terms of sets — one [mathematical] track mind, I am. 🙂
If mismanagement is already corruption then it is bound to intersect.
it is bound to intersect for corruption sadly is part of human nature, even vatican city has corruption issue. sa akin lang po, I’d be a lot happier if corruption is kept to the barest minimum and perpetrators know when to stop.
now, about jailing those caught not doing the maharlika way, they would have to be caught 1st and made to account.
the punishment of 10 – 20yrs jailing is no brainer if the one to be jailed followed teves’ example and go on the merry run. catch me if you can!
Moderate the greed, ika nga.
Some say that corruption in the Philippines has its leaders, those who learned crookery at the University of the Philippines.
I wonder in what college that can be learned in case that is real.
college of law! must be. Imee marcos got her law degree at UP.
Dont forget the senior marcos and enrile and binay and cayetano and angara, sino pa ba mga prominent alumni ng Malcolm Hall?
Drilon, Miriam
Wait, were we talking of lawyers of the Enrile kind? I got confused because the initial list included Angara Sr.
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/06/10/23/pimentel-urges-marcos-to-heed-economists-warnings-on-maharlika-fund
UP do have economists that dont see what the president sees in maharlika fund and calling for the president to exercise lots of caution.
unlike eager beaver economists at top current position, enamored of maharlika and looking forward to play dice with other peoples’ money.
The above blog article seems to summarize Maharlika Fund pretty well.
Yes, good article that sees the fund as a sign of Marcos power with more to come. Thanks for the good read.
as far as I know, maharlika investment fund has not yet passed last and final hurdle. pbbm has not yet signed to it truly executory. I have not seen fireworks yet, celebration and dancing on the streets, champagne being uncorked. the fat lady is yet to sing.
BTW NH. One tweet I liked and shares about chatgpt acting as shrinks got flagged by a community of readers as misinfo. i would not be surprised if most are psychologists and psychiatrists.
Interesting, Karl.
Interesting too is OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who with the release of the company’s ChatGPT — causing a sensation about the potential and dangers of further development of Generative AI — deliberately sought the spotlight by urging lawmakers to regulate AI, while Meta’s Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Bezos, and Google’s Pichai had to be subpoenaed earlier to appear before the lawmakers. It is possible Altman may have multiple motives, but urging regulation of AI is an admirable one.
OT: the dance moves of the new SB19 hit Gento are going viral on Tiktok, and the song itself (as well as the new EP Pagtatag just out on Spotify) is trending..
The song has some of the rapper or go-getter mentality LCPL_X has been recommending to Filipinos, it does have the old Filipino struggling mentality as well but there is a new sense of possibility. Don’t know what to make of it yet.
My range of interests does not include this, but the video must require considerable effort, resources, and time to do this 4-minute gig. Nice. Thanks, Irineo.
Welcome. In fact, someone who knows a bit about stuff like this told me that the videos of SB19 are movie quality.
The new EP (extended play) by SB19 is topping a lot of Internet charts these days. They may well be in for a global breakthrough if this continues. They even had a Times Square ad about a week ago.
OT
Former President Donald Trump and an associate, Walt Nauta, were indicted in the classified documents probe.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/09/politics/read-trump-indictment-document/index.html
Just for the record here, if I may, here is CNN’s 2-1/2 minute video clip on why the indictment is a big deal.
Presidential historian explains why the indictment on the document case is ‘a seismic moment:’
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/06/09/trump-indictment-tim-naftali-historian-analysis-ldn-vpx.cnn
It’s a nothingburger. The Florida judge on the case from what I’ve gathered is a Trump appointee who previously made favorable rulings on her benefactor. Like the Manhattan indictment, what this will do is merely give more oxygen to Trump’s campaign as he will be crying persecution from the evil Democrats and the deep state.
Nonetheless, maybe the deep state could pull off some tricks or legal mumbo jumbo and be able to lock up the old orange fraud to jail.
maybe there are outside forces happy to see estados unidos brought down on her knees, have no love for the country and made it their lifelong mission to see the country lose its status and eroded further down. have fed and supported far right movement, offered unlimited funds, incentives and whatnots, fattened the enemy within. as well, fielded and funded self serving candidates with questionable ethics and moral, the country thus destroyed.
Well of course, in the great power rivalry, the intention of both Russia and China are clear enough. A hegemon like the US being destroyed from within has of course its precedent. The rise of plutocracy in the Roman empire has catalyzed its internal decay and there is that same decadence going on in the US today – gated enclaves of the super rich are contrasted by homelessness and poverty everywhere. Richest country in the world but there are men women and children going hungry and sleeping on the streets.
Most Trump supporters are white folks living with precarious lives and broken dreams. They thus direct their ire on the different other, people of color and immigrants and of course China, the one who stole their good paying jobs.
“…he will be crying persecution from the evil Democrats and the deep state.”
————–
He is no longer a victim here. He did it to himself.
In which case they will be coming on to him ruthlessly as they did to Edward Snowden and Julian Assange or else they will be caught in their own systemic contradictions and lack of integrity.
If there’s any damage done due to Mr. Trump espionage conduct, then prosecuting him is justified. His followers will be singing “The Spy Who Loves Me”. I think we should end the discussion here. Thanks for the reply.
Presidential spy.
In other news, planet Earth is currently hosting the 6th mass extinction event as several species of birds, bees, bats, and beetles have gone kaput for good. Ditto with some plant species.
We’ve already breached the 1.5 centigrade warming from the 1900 level. With unabated extraction and use of fossil fuel we’re apace to jack it up at 2 degrees in a little while which makes us literally frogs in a boiling cauldron.
Wind and ocean currents are shifting, volcanoes are rumbling, polar ice caps are melting, and dry forested land is burning. It’s been a hell of a ride for life on earth. Humans could of course hasten the extinction process by unleashing their nuclear weapons which they very well could do in the current east-west standoff.
Happy weekend everyone.
After citing those statistics and painting a dire scenario you bid us a happy weekend, Micha?
I suppose a weekend practicing survival skills and our best stab at humor will help. Practicing being a stoic, or learning it now may help. The thought of your favorite Orange Man put into some discomfort may help too. (He is changing his top lawyer again, for the nth time.) Whatever.
Have a happy weekend. But don’t go traveling to the US Northeast where you will be forced to use your face mask again, assuming your plane can land — due to the climate-change-enhanced wildfires from Canada — Quebec, I believe.
Planetary life is entering fragile phase. Enjoy it while we still can because there’s still no clear answer to its teleology.
who knows? maybe chatbots will end it all for us. occupy our mind, convince us and make us believe our time has well and truly come, how better off we shall be to start the exodus and kindly go where no humans are heard again, seen again.
Meanwhile,
now at age 93, imelda has time on her hands, to mull the past and her largess, how she came to within inches of bankrupting a nation and the role she played. or maybe, she’s hanging on and having too much fun, unwilling to forego all that accoutrements, the materials and the stash of hoard she has amassed illegally in exchange for a much too simpler life on the other side.
Stem Cells worked on Erap Enrile and Imelda, they must start endorsing it.
the 1st lady, lisa marcos, seems to be defying stem cell trend and is letting her jowls show. when she smiles, there is barely tight pull of her facial muscles, her smiles wider, her laughter synergistically spontaneous and unguarded.
pbbm on the other hand, seemed to have retoke, his jowls tightened giving him sumat youthful and smoother appearance. and his facial muscles seem to resist frowning, like they have fillers.
this is probably the most important news this week. though it happened on May 1 (a month plus now).
The main take away is that there are alien species 10 ft tall. with some sort of cloaking device for their ship.
here’s the 911 caller– him, his brother , his dad and mom are the ones seen in the video then talking to police. NH, if you see a UFO land in your back yard, don’t approach it. don’t be a hero. just report it to AARO their twitter is
@DoD_AARO for All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office
Why go to Mars or the Moon?
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/7-things-you-should-know-about-the-future-of-underwater-cities
We must first master water pressure and the works before any colonization of Mars.
So many undiscovered species underwater notwithstanding the mass extinction possibilities.
branson and musk are racing in outer space, sending rockets with civilians onboard paying tons of money for the privilege to be weightless. outer space is still frontier, open to all.
whereas underwater, anyone trying to colonize underwater will have china’s ire, lol! china has laid so many cables underwater, charted nearly all western submarine routes too, and maybe also mined international seabed for minerals. so far, western countries can only watch and observe china oceanic activities as it is done just outside their eez.
OT
The strange case of the Prisoner’s Dilemma game being played by the Republican candidates for the 2024 Presidential Nomination:
– when all except for Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson labeled the classified documents indictment process including the role of DOJ and the FBI as reckless without qualification;
– now they are walking back — that if the evidence is true, the indictment is serious, while still assailing the DOJ and FBI for the process (a case of baking the cake and eating it too).
Surely even the Generative AI in its enhanced version will not be able to make heads or tails about it — sorry, I can’t solve this human problem, it will say. 🤣