Soledad's Sister
Just read Butch Dalisay's 2008 novel with the above title in its German translation, "Last Call Manila", published this year. Soledad is the one making her last call, coming home from the Middle East with the identity of her sister Aurora - in a coffin.
Even in translation (it also is available in French and Italian) one feels why the novel deserves international recognition. The last author who could evoke such vivid imagery of people and places in me was the Brazilian master Jorge Amado.
Hope or Temptation?
NAIA. Paez along Luzon's Pacific coast. Rory the KTV bar singer. Walter the cop exiled from Manila. Both driving to Manila to pick up Soli's coffin. Their three lives told in passing, richly with just few words - that paint a portrait of a mess of a country.
A country that lacks, as Joe once wrote, true opportunity for most. Three typical Filipinos holding on to different forms of hope - Soli on to faith, Rory on to stardom and Walter on to family. Soli's migrant story in Hongkong and the Middle East.
Lonely people who have succumbed to temptations in life or are just about to like Rory, who is the least damaged one. She who is Soledad's Sister after all. The end of the novel is open just like the future of many Filipinos, and the country.
Protectors and "Resilience"
Many a Filipino novel has the possible interpretation of women as symbols of the country and the men as oppressors or protectors - sometimes failed protectors like Rizal's Ibarra. Walter and Rory have a very interesting dynamic, by that angle and otherwise.
All in all, a compelling depiction of a society and nation as heavily dependent on money from relatives working abroad as Rory was on her sister Soli. Stories of "resilience" as in not having many choices. A must-read that makes one think, feel and wonder.
Irineo B. R. Salazar
Munich, 2 June 2023
Photo created by Bing using the prompt: Night
view of the Pacific from a KTV bar in Quezon province
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
Interestingly, the book is out of stock in National Bookstore, but the 15-year anniversary edition is available at Lazada. In the USA and UK, it is available as part of “In Flight – Two Novels of the Philippines” but seems not standalone.
Also, it isn’t available as an ebook at all, which is a major weakness nowadays. It is somewhat a pity that these matters aren’t attended to well, similar to Ateneo University Press having great books, even ebooks, but no option for credit card payment, effectively barring overseas sales.
This is in the same line as my old rant to UP Concert Chorus (which got me nervous laughs from the students and blank stares from the important ones) to record their CDs and cassettes in a proper studio as their quality was far behind what the chorus had to offer. Fortunately, the new generation, as in SB19, works differently, with no half-measures. The Pagtatag EP, especially Gento with its viral dance and I Want You with its 90s R&B vibe, will go places.
OT interesting: a black mirror episode in Manila written by ChatGPT:
Ireneo, here’s the Oposa doctrine finally in play over here:
https://twitter.com/mikejopek/status/1668238792401235969
This guy should be a national hero there.
I don’t quite get the connection to the book review or the migration topic.
Well, wasn’t there a Native American tribe that had the principle that elders should consider the next 7 generations when deciding something?
Possibly, that could be the connection that the Philippines fails to consider and thus has created its diaspora purely by itself, though it probably has wrecked its own “Temple” as well.. sorry, I guess too much other stuff on my mind nowadays.
That Filipinos originated a doctrine that I think will soon be case law here, not just clean air clean water regulations but what about the next generation?
as to Rory and Walter, one is a cognate of Lonely and Walter is alter both altar and alter ego. Soledad is solitary. all words or names are discordant.
Past present future thinking is key.
Oposa doctrine is the first legal theory that accounts for future. Past present we can access easily. though history is easily forgotten just needs remembering.
Present is the trickiest cuz you’re always either worried about the future or reliving the past. which is depression and anxiety in the present.
Future more like entropy for us humans. this is the source of discord.
The Oposa doctrine is probably the greatest gift Filipinos gave to the world, and Filipinos don’t even know anything about it.
I have to read about it more. I remember a decade ago when I attended a TEDX event in Malcolm Hall and he was one of the speakers. Things are not given, you nurture and have to make it part of the conversation. One thing that was glaring to me even then was when you have a high incidence of hunger and poverty future thinking is harder. The logical connection between hunger and the environment is clear but needs to be explained. We don’t have stuff like that in school.
“… One thing that was glaring to me even then was when you have a high incidence of hunger and poverty future thinking is harder. …”
A BIG Amen to this, Gian!
hunger is great motivator. our govt has 4Ps to help feed the very poor and now the poor are supposedly to be allocated food stamp/coupons redeemable only on govt approved grocery stores. the program is tightly regimented, the poor reviewed regularly and then after around 4yrs, they are graduated or kicked out of the system. on the supposition that life has gotten better and assistance is no longer needed.
Social welfare is always a quite contested matter in any country.
For instance, here in Germany, social welfare is only given to those unable to get any job. The job office of course tries to make sure the jobless keep applying for vacancies and will even send the jobless vacancy notices while they are receiving jobless money which they get for maximum one year – or two years if you are a bit older – and will try to send the jobless to seminars to improve their skills, and even those receiving the fixed social welfare allowance plus free housing are subject to constant attempts to put them back into the job market.
I wonder how many cases there are here of mothers with children needing social welfare, which is the classic 4Ps case. The requirement of 4Ps that they send their kids to school and subject them to regular medical exams is an important component. Because even here in Germany, there is the criticism that long-term welfare recipients might be the kind that will buy alcohol or worse for themselves first and neglect their kids. In the Philippines, they might even send them working, effectively destroying their future – though our gardener in UP for instance who lived in UP Balara only sent his sons to sell banana Q on days when there was no school. Food coupons also exist here in Germany. Those who are very poor can get certain goods free. In practice, they even get different places in the queue on different days to avoid jostling.
Re California, it recently surprised me to read in a German paper that 30% of US welfare recipients are there. Germany has this system that you can only get welfare in the town where you last worked, that is at least to my knowledge as I fortunately never was in that situation. Somehow I read before that a lot of welfare recipients flocked to New York as it had a generous welfare system, don’t know if that was true, different benefits of course are push/pull factors.
Hard actually to balance a system to keep it humane but avoid it being abused by freeloaders. Even harder to balance society in such a way that places that become sources of unrest don’t grow too much. Having as much jobs as possible for those able to work is best, crowding the poor out via gentrification is more controversial as it puts them at the edges like described in kasambahay’s posting on tall buildings, I think of the -embo places at the edge of BGC or the banlieus of Paris, vast housing projects for the poor outside the city center, nearly “ghettos”. Vienna and Munich have been successful in mixing neighborhoods, seems the poorer folks who live close to middle class people don’t give themselves up as easily as those in “ghettos”. Complicated in detail and certainly controversial in whichever country and political setting.
Food stamps is also propose by BBM.
Always hoping all good programs would work and not be clustefucks.
I am hoping that they are incorporating this with a push for increasing income of farmers.
There is probably a program that can be designed to integrate School Feeding Programs + Kadiwa Stores + Food Stamps.
Problem of demand is partially addressed. as the price will be set by national then the price can be set to something near market prices and transport is minimised since it would serve nearby schools or targeted families. Kadiwa is integrated to address urban hunger and school feeding.
let’s see how dexterous rex gatchalian, the dswd sec is. if he can organise with agri sec and together, coordinate to encompass food stamp with local fresh produce like vegetables and poultry.
i’ts getting unbecoming for govt agencies to be sitting in their own silos when they can all coordinate for the common good. it may just cut out middlemen and their excessive commissions and lessen corruption.
still, govt agencies still have to submit and satisfy audit.
What I cannot forget about this new DOH secretary Herbosa was mocking the community pantry initiated by Angel Locsin by high lighting the one who died while in line waiting for their turn. So cringeworthy.
BBM said one time no one will take the role of Agri sec, now he will just wait for the system to be in place before appointing one. Both scenarios mean that we must not hold our breath.
pbbm was waiting for someone to put their hands up to be agri sec. and we know full well what happen to people who put their hands up!
methink, no one will take on agri role as long as pbbm is officiating for that would be too presumptuous like they can do a better job than him, and his presence is too intimidating, lalo na ngayong he has learned to walk like agent 007 but cannot draw his gun, gracing events and whatnots.
firstly, pbbm would have to vacate and make the position vacant for the process of finding a suitable agri candidate to commence.
waiting for better agri system to be put in place, aba procrastinating yan, lol!
maharlika investment was like lighting strike fast, whereas the much awaited agri system is slow as a sashaying karabaw!
maybe this is related to Mar Roxas. His name has been floated since early this year as DA secretary. Maybe he doesn’t want to volunteer.
Both points from Irineo & LC is an example of “both and …” rather than an “either or …” worthiness of tractability. I feel.
True, as Aurora, Rory’s full name, can also mean dawn.
Though one wonders what kind of dawn – spoilers ahead – as before Walter comes to tell her at the end of her nighttime singing shift that her sister is in a coffin in Manila, she has been intentionally getting drunk, hoping to be invited then seduced by her VIP guest the Vice Mayor. True, she is still a virgin at 21 (possibly her sister sending money made it easier to not fall into having to give extra “serbis” to customers on beach huts after her shift, like some colleagues, and it is hinted one colleague from a very poor neighboring village is “like that”) he is a sportive 38 year old Chinoy bachelor who often invites her for ladies drinks, but her dreams of becoming like many stars married to politicians are naive. Her dream of reaching stardom by taking an offered entertainer job in Saipan is just as naive. It is probably a “japayuki” type perspective.
Spoilers again – re the protector role that Walter has for Rory, it is hinted that he is attracted to her, that he shyly bought her a ladies drink once but she didn’t even remember him, but his being extra cautious is more like PTSD, as an affair with a young lady of the night in Manila managed to destroy his police career and estrange him from his family, it is hinted that the lady was somehow planted by a gang his unit was chasing, PTSD is somehow possible as he decides to take a break to eat with Rory at the same Manila Bay restaurant he went to with the affair of old. It is there where the van with Soledad’s coffin is stolen from the parking lot..
on the national level, there is writ of kalikasan where every filipino is entitled to clean and healthy environment and the right to enjoy sunshine. supposedly, highrises are not allowed to be built that high in a way that block others from enjoying the sun, their houses forever in the shadows of tall buildings. so conglomerates countered by buying up multiple houses and build highrises instead, edging the not so wealthy into outer fringes.
That Oposa doctrine backgrounder
Was sorry to say “using “minors to symbolize opposition to illegal logging.
At the start of Cory regime they totally revamped the government by name. Meaning they replaced only the Ministry then replaced it with departments because we are no longer parliamentary bit same old people old bureaucrats infused with some new ploutsiders and so on.
One name stands out in illegal logging laundered into legit matchmaking literal and figurative and it is ………
Also a name on smuggling and a personification of impunity. He must thank all those stem cell treatments to have lasted this long.
for comments like this squirrel words would be hood karl like alleged. we use our real names so we should be more careful
Thanks for the reminder. Please delete
I can’t forget how the late Edgar characterized my “response profile” as one who has “seed gnosticism” intellectually. That was a cryptic observation, I thought then. Since that time I now realize what he meant.
What LC calls the Oposa doctrine is also a syndrome one detects among members of the Filipino intelligentsia. This happily is shared in abundance in many fields of endeavor among graduates of Philippine schools. I find them in studies by authors, educators & practitioners in Agriculture, Natural & Social Sciences, STEM and Information industries.
Global migration to my mind is the engine that drives the dynamic state of survival and viability in the Filipino population and culture.
The full leverage of these potentials is still to be realized, I think. The key catalyzers lie in difficult areas like governance, arts, bureaucracy and enterprise.
OK I just looked up Oposa doctrine..
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oposa_v._Factoran
we already discussed it here:
and in the mean time the Philippine gov’t wants to mess around with ROTC and militarization,
i don’t have any problem with mandating civic engagement but engage where its important (and necessary), not to buy military uniforms and cheap made in China gear from Napoles!
to connect to Ireneo’s blog, lessen your number of Soledads , Rories and Walters. and make more Annas. and gians.
The below review with spoilers also mentions a certain Filemon Catabay, a Filipino beheaded in the Middle East. His family is mistakenly notified because of a mess-up at the Consulate and comes all the way down from Pangasinan..
http://booktrek.blogspot.com/2012/09/soledads-sister-jose-dalisay.html
“And so it happened that a family of seven had come all the way in a jeepney from Lingayen to meet and to claim the two segments of Filemon Catabay, who had been executed three months earlier. They had learned of his death the way many others did—after it happened, from a routine news report on DZXL, between an involved discussion of a movie star’s rumored abortion and a commercial for a new and more potent livestock dewormer. The man’s mother was gutting fish when her grandson ran in with the news; the fish she was holding trembled in her hand and then leapt out altogether in a final spasm, as though it had come back to life.”
The comedy of errors at the start has the family clamoring and pleading with the officials at the airport who only have Soledad’s coffin, which is labeled as that of Aurora.. well, producing fewer Filemons is definitely a goal as well.
To give an idea of how the trip from Paez to Manila is described, a sample of the author himself reading from his own book:
FWIW, the following reviews contain spoilers of the book I didn’t want to put:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6122574-soledad-s-sister
Powerful article with a powerful picture about a powerful book I must definitely acquire, with some powerful comments bouncing off the article. The inability to configure a future is a serious cultural flaw. I’d say it is not just a function of poverty because legislators lack it, too. It underpins my argument for careers rather than jobs. Build a future into work and you find new inspirations. Then you can build dreams into life outside of work. And you vote better, too.
Thanks Joe. The stuff about defining the future reminds me of Zimbardo’s theory of five different types of time perspective -https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02078/full :
“..past-positive perspective – a tendency to focus on the positively evaluated past; past-negative perspective – a tendency to focus on the negatively evaluated past; future perspective – a tendency to think about the future in terms of goals to be achieved and tasks to be done; present-hedonistic perspective – a tendency to take advantage of pleasure “here and now” at all costs; and present-fatalistic perspective – a tendency to passively exist in the present, stemming from the belief that life is governed by fate..”
Seems most poor Filipinos are caught in a present-fatalistic perspective, the rich most often in a present-hedonistic perspective and the intellectuals either in a past-negative perspective or a past-positive perspective depending on whether bitterness or nostalgia is their main driver.
Maybe a few in the middle class have the future perspective to some extent, and some rich especially old wealth, maybe a few poor who haven’t given up totally. But the lack of future perspective thinking is, I guess, behind this statement of Rory, from the book:
“Who knows why people do what they do? Every day we do things we ourselves don’t understand, although they seemed to make sense when we did them. Why is that? Can you tell me?”
This is true we find a lot of people with short memories and unexamined lives.
you are scary sometimes, Irineo, you’re so widely read much like the rest here! pure intellectuals.
me? I keep my head in the sand and mostly read children’s books intended for early childhood learning (under 5yrs), I am also partial to children’s picture books.
I am already surrounded by misery and toxicity of all sizes and shapes and habitually escaped into children’s books, they’re simpler, happier, freer and kinder to the mind. the book, the hungry, hungry caterpillar, is one of my faves.
It shouldn’t be the job of regular folks to think of everything when it comes to building a future, the leadership of a nation and under that the leaders of towns should shape the conditions where one can map a somewhat sure path.
Re future-oriented, Indonesia certainly is:
1) they BOUGHT their Embassies in Europe back in the 1960s while the Philippines kept paying rent for decades – they do own the Berlin embassy now.
2) they BUILT their own aircraft and naval industry decades before the present crisis, while the Philippines played catch-up buying stuff only recently (2010-)
3) they are MOVING their capital to higher ground as Jakarta is sinking. In Metro Manila, Camanava is clearly sinking already, but there is no reaction yet.
At the very least, the leadership should be future-oriented, but in a democracy a majority need to be a bit future-oriented too, in order to have a proper sense of priorities.
Thanks for that take on perspectives, Irineo.
Among the five perspectives,
1. past-positive perspective
2. past-negative perspective
3. future perspective
4. present-hedonistic perspective
5. present-fatalistic perspective
my reading from your comment about Indonesia is that the leaders somehow took Perspectives 1 and 2 to power and implement Perspective 3: future perspective – a tendency to think about the future in terms of goals to be achieved and tasks to be done.
Indonesia is in the news these days and I feel good for Indonesia — a country with most people very much like Filipinos in appearance and probably some cultural traits (guessing on this latter part; you may have a better knowledge I would like to know, Irineo).
NHerrera, your reading is probably right. A Frenchman on Twitter now in the Philippines but once in Indonesia told me years ago: “Filipinos dream, Indonesians do.”
My feeling is that the present-fatalistic perspective aka “wala tayong magagawa diyan” was very deeply inculcated into Filipinos in 333 years of Spanish rule, too deep for even Filipino nationalism to overcome.
I posted an article by MLQ3 below that sees the start of looking back instead of forward with the 1962 change of Independence Day by Macapagal, thus ending the line of future-oriented leadership from the Revolution all the way to Magsaysay, it seems. Ewan ko lang, maybe.
He also mentions the different programs after 1962 like the New Society, 1972, EDSA 1986, GMA’s Strong Republic, PNoy’s Daang Matuwid and what strikes me is that Indonesia still has exactly one binding state ideology called Pancasila which has been there since Independence.
I am not an expert on Indonesia but exceedingly curious about the parallels and differences.
Possibly the fact that even the Dutch were not powerful enough to fully destroy the old Sultanates, or maybe not as interested in remaking the old structures their way like the Spanish did with Filipino local rulers, may have preserved a certain sense of continuity and can-do.
What is also interesting in Indonesia is that the ethnic group that ruled the last native empire there, Majapahit, has basically ruled the Republic. EVERY Indonesian President so far has been Javanese. Imagine only Tagalogs as Philippine Presidents after Aguinaldo and Quezon.
The cultural and ethnic similarities are quite clear, even unto body language in some things. My point is of course not to say “they are better” but to ask “if they can do it, why can’t we?” as they are basically “cousins”. Maybe their future orientation has deep roots in the past, like a big tree. Modernity that seems to be rootless isn’t a place where people feel at home, that’s my opinion. Micha might add that modernity without social justice is even more rootless and I would agree.
Thanks for that feedback.
I asked ChatGPT the following:
For a former colonizer can we say that the Netherlands is more vibrant and future-oriented than another colonizer Spain, now? The Netherlands colonized Indonesia; Spain, the Philippines. Is the present status of Indonesia as against the Philippines partly attributable to its colonizers?
ChatGPT responded as follows (which, with its current reputation of hallucinating, we have to take with a grain of salt; I am posting it here, nevertheless, for whatever it is worth):
***
Comparing the vibrancy and future-orientation of countries based solely on their colonial history can be a complex and multi-faceted task. While the impact of colonialism can have lasting effects on the social, economic, and political development of former colonies, it is important to consider various factors beyond colonization when evaluating the present status of countries like Indonesia and the Philippines.
The Netherlands and Spain had different approaches and durations of colonial rule, which can contribute to differences in the legacy left behind. The Netherlands colonized Indonesia for nearly three and a half centuries, while Spain’s colonial rule in the Philippines lasted for about three centuries. The varying lengths of colonization can influence the depth of cultural, economic, and institutional influences left by the colonizers.
It is true that historical colonial policies and practices can shape the trajectory of a nation’s development. Colonizers may have imposed social, economic, and political structures that favor certain groups or exploit resources, which can have long-lasting consequences. However, it is crucial to consider other factors that have influenced the present status of Indonesia and the Philippines, such as post-colonial governance, internal political dynamics, natural resources, geopolitical factors, and global economic trends.
Each country’s unique historical, cultural, and geographical context plays a significant role in their present circumstances. The success or challenges faced by a country cannot be solely attributed to its colonial past. It is essential to examine contemporary factors, including governance, education, infrastructure, economic policies, and international relationships, to understand the current state of affairs in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Therefore, while the colonizers’ actions and policies can shape a nation’s development, it is crucial to consider a comprehensive range of factors when assessing the present status of countries and their differing trajectories.
***
I may add that after Spain we, of course, had the US and briefly, the Japanese rulers. With the further caveat that the US brand we got is not the current US brand (thanks for that?). Re the Japanese occupation, we had the birth of that interesting word and its different meaning, “makapili.”
What is true that large parts of what is now Indonesia were only fully conquered by the Dutch in the 19th century and the last bastion, the Sultanate of Aceh, only came under their power with US assistance in the early 1900s.
I tend to think of the Indonesian and Malaysian Sultanates as an already stronger and more organized version of what the Philippines had in Moroland, stronger already because they had to face more rivals, for instance the Mongols/Chinese descending upon the Malay Peninsula and beyond in 1291, and the Tamil Chola attacking the Srivijayans some centuries earlier. The difference between the Celts in Gaul who had already fought Greeks and the Celts in Britain who hadn’t faced any rivals yet also was huge, the former harder to beat than the latter.
Aceh even had support from the faraway Ottoman empire, which was trying to keep an ally in the Spice Trade that they didn’t fully lose all at once to the Portuguese and the Dutch. So it took the more modern weaponry of the 19th and 20th century to subdue them.
I also read somewhere that there was a Plantation period after the Spice Trade died down, similar to the era of sugar, tobacco and abaca plantations in the Philippines, except that in Indonesia it was Sultans and other notables under the Dutch umbrella who owned them.
I do believe, just a guess, that under such circumstances a mentality of can do remained in Indonesia, while a mentality of can’t do emerged in the Philippines as Spanish rule was comparatively more powerful, even as they may never been able to conquer Indonesia at all. One should not underestimate the sheer military power of the VOC, the East India Company which colonized parts of Indonesia the Portuguese never managed to control. But maybe here too, the Indonesians had an efficient template to imitate, not the inefficient Spanish way.
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/indonesian-palm-oil-billionaire-gets-15-years-for-corruption/
I think, phillippines is in good company! there is corruption in indonesia too. we are neighbors after all, lol!
My answer to you slipped to the end of the comments somehow..
China lectures UK and the world about decolonization and sovereignty.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3224866/china-backs-argentinas-falklands-claim-calls-end-colonial-thinking
The lecture is consistent with China’s position on Taiwan. “You colonizers leave us alone!” But, in fact, China is the main colonizer of planet earth, along with Russia.
Yes Joe. Pot calling kettle black.
The article is already a few days old so maybe a link of the summary would not be a spoiler.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6122574-soledad-s-sister
Soledad stealing the identity of her sister I’d another manifestation of the harsh realities and the inconvenient truths of the web of corruption from.the recruiter, of, government agencies and the list goes on.
Rory, a KTV GRO whose identity got stolen.
I think I would like to buy and read the book.
if the author dr jose dalisay is interested in being represented by a literary agent, his book can well be presented in international book fairs visited by book affectionados, book wholesalers, etc.
the arrangement is purely business, the agent takes around 10-20 per cent of the total book sales, and will work harder to expose the book to much wider audience, worldwide.
agents usually take on already published authors and sometimes, beginners that has outstanding potential. and may even negotiate for a movie deal, the book made into movie.
The German translation, I just found out, got some funding from the German Foreign Office. It just came out this year. That is how I found out about the book.
Dalisay has won a number of awards and is well-known but only in literary circles. As we know, most Filipinos are not too fond of books because reading is not taught well over there. Yes, a movie adaptation would be good. It would take a scriptwriter with a feel for the material.
About Filipino Reading Habits
https://worldmissionmagazine.com/archives/november-2019/reading-habits-filipinos
read to kill time, read to unwind and de-stess, read for the pleasure of reading, not like prescribed textbooks at schools where we read for info, to study and to pass with grades good enough to get us to the next year level.
sometimes we draw parallels between our lives and the lives of protagonists in novels and fiction,and may even learn lessons from them, but that’s about it. books may influence us but reality is different and our lives are not scripted.
It seems that a lot of Filipinos relate more closely to teleserye. My theory is because of two things:
1) they are more visual and therefore more directly present than words on paper, just like comics are more direct – and comic culture is not just Pinoy but also Asian (Japan and Korea) and European (France and Belgium).
2) Since teleserye run daily, based on my observation of socmed, a lot of fans seem to develop a nearly “personal” relationship to the characters, as if they were part of the household. Probably novel characters seem too abstract and distant, not relatable, compared to that?
true on both counts. this observation can be blended with what Joe has been advocating for a long time.
01 the visual nature of pinoys mean that official manuals, training, guides, even education require a more visually engaging experience.
02. there must be a sense of progression and also a sense of stability. The career paths of public servants and private employees need to have a clear path so that everyone has an incentive 5o keep the boat floating and not just be in it of themselves.
Well, I could add that visually engaging is not enough, especially in politics:
a) personalistic means the consequences of decisions may have to be shown more directly, for instance, how do you explain that Maharlika fund is bad.
a.i.) it has to be made clear how it can affect them, or even better the entire Filipino people as a collective. Because being lectured to by perceived outsiders can breed resentment..
a.ii.) ..the person being perceived as delivering the message must be perceived as part of the collective. That is the case with Tulfo, but not with Diokno when the masa is concerned.
VP Leni was close to embodying both liberal and democratic ideas as well as the pulse of the people, what made her candidacy fail? I am now wondering about something important:
CAN people who care intensely for those perceived as inside their group – including their imagined community with teleserye stars that I mentioned – be truly conducive to liberal and democratic thinking? IS the concept of the rights of others too abstract for such hive minds?
good question
Maybe a conservative form of democracy more like the early Swiss democracy is a possibility. But for that the careers we talked about are needed.
Early Swiss democracy had the guild system as one of its foundations. Guild members, as I mentioned, fought together and stood up for one another. The late 19th century Philippine working and middle class did the same for a while in the Katipunan. Somehow that solidarity is hard to imagine among modern Filipino professionals. Precisely the lack of proper careers means that most will sacrifice their colleagues if they gain something – my impression. Only some previous bonds like school etc. make it less of a jungle – also my impression.
Always stranger than fiction. (NONFICTION)
There is a reading divide like all the other divides, So divided we fall and if we don’t fall down we fall for whatever trick in the book.
Some people get mass promoted to reach High school without knowing how to read and that is terrible.
MLQ3 asked THIS 4 years ago: https://opinion.inquirer.net/121916/looking-backwards
“..When did we, as a people, start looking backwards instead of forward? This question is important because it marks two things: the end of the phase of nation-building, of a forward trajectory in our collective attitudes to the Philippines and being Filipino, and with it, the adoption of a mindset of failure instead of achievement.
One candidate for the specific moment in time when this occurred is May 12, 1962, when Diosdado Macapagal changed the date of independence from July 4 to June 12, and asked Congress five days later to pass legislation making this change permanent.
Historians looking backwards had been advocating the adoption of June 12 for some years. What was remarkable was Macapagal’s political decision to pivot to the past. It was a harbinger of things to come, afflicting all the major political movements to follow. Marcos may have proclaimed his dictatorship a New Society, but it was fundamentally old in its instincts: Institutionally, it looked back to the Japanese Occupation for models; it went back even further in terms of the Sultan-like rule he established, and the displacement of local governments, the barrios, with a replacement he decreed would be known as barangays.
Edsa, for the political class, was a restoration, a revolution in the sense that England’s “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 was one: a return to limited monarchy in their case, and the premartial law separation of powers in our case. For the public, ironically, at its core was the Marcosian belief that a new society was still a possibility. As for the portion of the population never reconciled with Edsa, they flourished and regained strength due to nostalgia, too: for the good old days of the Apo. Even the Left, after its period of internal purges, looked back to the 1960s and 1970s as it tried to regain momentum in the 1990s.
We had attempts to look forward. There was Philippines 2000 under Ramos, Angat Pinoy 2004 under Estrada, a Strong Republic under Arroyo, and Daang Matuwid under the second Aquino. The first two were content with a short-term peek at tomorrow, the last two were more ambitious but got bogged down under the weight of contemporary realities.
The present dispensation has tried to sell A Comfortable Life for All, but its bourgeois notions of development lacks the fire in the belly — and promise of a reckoning with modernity — that brought it to power.
What was that reckoning with modernity? In the realm of official behavior, it’s that concept we hear, but only vaguely understand, as the “rule of law.” As early as 1953, a Philippines Free Press editorial boiled it down to the difference between where “private conscience drew the line beyond which it would be dishonorable for a public official to go, a line which only an impersonal law should draw.” In other respects, it is the glittering attraction of a globalized world when the reality of globalization is an ill-educated, permanently poor underclass stuck at home, while everyone else without inherited wealth has to settle for the exhausting extortions of life at home or being some sort of servant abroad..”
On to Current events.
Kuwait is throwing out ofws for Kuwaitization, Saudi did Saudization a few years back back now they want OFWs again.
Japan is looking for the best and the brightest from the West but India wants to be big in Japan or turning Japanese into a theme song.
We have caregivers there but some cannot complete training and leave.
Japayukis who are quick studies get to stay.
The West itself ate aging and having overpopulation seems not so bad after all.
Overpop of the third world like PHl
Germany is recruiting nurses from the Philippines, Mexico and Brazil, those are the countries I know of and there are certainly more.
The Filipinas (and Filipinos, often nurse couples apply jointly) sent here often start in nursing homes – because that is where the lack of staff is most pronounced – and try to move to hospitals after some years as that job is not as backbreaking.
More Indian IT migrants here, though there are Filipinos as well.
https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1964089/manila/local-news/private-sector-willing-to-give-board-review-scholarship-grants-to-nursing-graduates
private sectors in pinas are wising up, they’re losing nursing staff to overseas position, and are now offering to pay nurses to upskill and keep them locally employed.
not to be outdone, I hear similar scholarships being offered by foreign countries like canada, germany, austia, etc. nurses being trained here and when they graduate, they fulfill overseas posting as stipulated.
These trends bring back memories of the ’60s: healthcare & ancillary disciplines, STEM training were good bets then; Bureau of Labor Statistics was the obvious go-to periodical to get the reliable information for Demand on what to prepare for. Might still work in today’s labor markets.
Before you migrated how many ears after College was that?
I assume you were 29?
If you left 1969.
You were among the first batch of mass migrants. I guess there were programs before but at least during the Marcos era.
@sonny
Sonny migrated in 1968, which is what I remember, based on having read his account of going all the way to San Francisco via ship. Didn’t forget the year as that was exactly when my parents and 3 year old me came back from Europe.
Jet travel was just BECOMING affordable and still had a lot of stopovers from Europe to the Philippines – even our 1978 and 1981 trips to Germany as well as our return in 1982 were with at least two stopovers for refueling, of course I don’t remember the 1968 trip at all.
I think it was in the 1990s that the first non-stop trip between Europe and Singapore was hailed as a great advancement and the 2000s when the Europe-Sydney route became non-stop. Also, it seems the era of passenger ships from Manila to the USA ended in the early 1970s, meaning that only a few years A.S. (after sonny) jet travel across the Pacific became the norm, I guess still with stops in Guam and Hawaii, I think nowadays LA to Seoul or Tokyo or even Manila or Cebu is normal, but Joe and Lance would know that better, or sonny.
Around the mid-1960s Kennedy opened the USA for non-European migrants, that is what I recall having read, opening the floodgates for two million mostly middle-class Filipinos to leave between 1965 and 1985 – out of a population of around “only” 40 million back then.
First Filipina nurses arrived in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Nurses were recruited from the Philippines – and South Korea, which was still poorer than the Philippines. Most of the South Korean nurses went back home, and a few married and stayed in Germany. Most of the Filipina nurses stayed, brought in their kids and husbands until the early 1980s. Now of course Germany is recruiting again, from the Philippines, Mexico and Brazil as I already mentioned. Old people in homes like the Filipinas as they are known to be particularly nice.
As for the educational system in the Philippines, I have been told there used to be Grade 1-7 in many schools, and 5 years of HS. From Pisay records, I recall one that two of the early batches – it was founded in 1964 – finished the same year as they shortened HS to four years from five. Exactly when and why the system was shortened from effectively 11 or 12 years to 10 I really don’t know and until know I have not found answers. I was told though that salutatorians and valedictorians of state high schools all got automatic UP admission and free tuition in the 50s.
Cum Laudes are encouraged to ve bureaucrats back then maybe they’ve should do that again. Theyvdi bot have to rake Civil Service exams
no need there is a law or regulation that cum laude and up are automatically professional level. they just have to apply for it with CSC
Gian thanks for that. I remember when I took mine sinabi ng proctor baja me cum laude sa inyo di nyo na kailangan mag exam.
https://web.csc.gov.ph/new-updates/2101-honor-graduates-may-apply-for-eligibility-csc.html
“… If you left 1969. …” @Karl
April, 1969 – my best remembrance of start my voyage; admitted as US immigrant at Honolulu first week of May, 1969; college graduate – April, 1967.
“… Sonny migrated in 1968, which is what I remember, based on having read his account of going all the way to San Francisco via ship. …”
@Irineo
1967 Visa Application approval on hold due to health history condition;
Dec, 1968 Hold lifted; travel arrangements made in favor of sea-travel (SS President Wilson – Steerage, $250). Northwest Airlines ticket to Minneapolis/St Paul (approx. $425).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_President_Wilson
In 1969, American Presidents Line (APL) was operating 2 routes between Manila & San Francisco: 1) Manila-Guam-Wake Island-Honolulu-Sn Francisco, 2) Manila-Kobe-Yokohama-Honolulu-Sn Francisco. APL used 2 ships in these routes: SS President Wilson & SS President Cleveland.
#1 route was a 19-day voyage: started w/dinner buffet on-deck at 6pm Manila time; lifted anchor then threaded our way, exiting the islands via Sn Bernardino Strait; eastward towards Guam then on to Wake Island then northeasterly to Honolulu for Immigrant processing then on to Sn Francisco destination /disembarkation.
Sonny, thanks for the detailed clarification. What is interesting is that the ship you took was decommissioned in 1970 due to sinking passenger numbers, which means you were one of the last to take that old-fashioned route.
https://airwaysmag.com/philippine-first-transpacific-service/
Googling also lead me to the first PAL Transpacific sleeper service from 1948 with DC-6 propeller planes that stopped in Guam, Wake and Honolulu, but no longer in Kwajalein like the DC-4 before that and 30 hours not 41 anymore.
https://www.businessinsider.com/do-planes-fly-over-the-pacific-ocean-2020-3#the-first-advances-in-transpacific-flying-came-from-pan-american-world-airways-one-of-the-earliest-leaders-in-aviation-1
Also found this history of Transpacific flights, which states that the 747 made nonstop flights over the Pacific possible. The 747 came out in 1968, and I guess that sealed the fate of the route via ship, as the economies of scale of the 747 made flights even more affordable.
Technological advances in transport and communication have always played a significant role in Philippine history. The Suez canal opening made the trip to Europe affordable for the likes of Rizal, who went to study there, for instance – and shorter compared to before, just one month.
By contrast, the “final frontier” of a direct flight from Australia to Chile might soon be crossed. There were plans to open one before the pandemic, I think. Aircraft range and having sufficiently close emergency landing sites are important criteria for such ultra-long flights. The above history of Transpacific flights of course mentions the boat planes of the 1930s which could emergency land in the sea if necessary, but otherwise had to “hop” over several stops.
From my vantage point:
My High School class of 1959 was the last batch allowed to enter as Freshman college students; Pre-Med from 1959 onwards only required 2 yrs. to enter Medicine-proper; By 1963, Pre-Med 4 yrs was being phased in. At UST, Coll of Medicine exceptional Pre-Med students were allowed with 3 yrs of Pre-Med.
Thanks Unc for the reply.
Most welcome, Karl. The people whose experience I based on are now retired but their productive years justified the good contributions they provided in practice and academia.
A macro view of Filipino migration to the United States:
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/filipino-immigrants-united-states
Thanks.. this passage especially is quite significant:
“..In more recent years, the combination of the removal of national-origin quotas in U.S. immigration law in 1965, on the one hand, and Filipino policies that encouraged labor emigration, on the other, contributed to even higher levels of migration from the Philippines to the United States. The Filipino immigrant population increased fivefold from 105,000 to 501,000 between 1960 and 1980. From there, it nearly tripled to almost 1.4 million by 2000..”
Below that text is a graph showing how it reached 1.8 million by 2018, meaning the tendency is a tapering off of Filipino migration to the US, which jibes with what I heard..
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Filipino_Americans
This Wikipedia entry has a graph showing how many Filipino migrants gained LPR (lawful permanent residency) over the years. It does show around 800K between 1970-1989 as well as over a million between 1990-2009, only around 70K from 1960-1969.
Don’t know where the article I read got the two million Filipino migrants from 1965-1985 stat, but that was obviously inflated, maybe it was Filipinos coming in but not all got LPR, many students for instance returned, or some of the classic H1B visa holders from the IT field too.
Doing a lot of legwork for an unpublished study of Filipino migration to Germany by my father in the 1980s made me appreciate how careful one has to be with stats. Or as a joke over here in Germany says (Yes, NHerrera, there are jokes here but maybe not immediately recognizable as such) “never believe in any statistics except those you faked yourself”. Seriously, one has to be quite clear about sources and their accuracy. LPR stats from US Homeland Security are a clear and accurate number, and they more or less jibe in sum of 1,8 million with the number of immigrants of Filipino origin measured in 2018, so indeed I think these numbers are sound. Even as Mark Twain once said that there are “lies, damned lies and statistics”..
(We have conversed about university rankings and how they may be somewhat warped based on what metrics they use, that topic is of course way more slippery that migration statistics)
I wonder how many identify as Pacific Islanders
Irineo, It’s my thanks to you for having the disciplined eye. to enliven & see through the significance of the data.
Karl, here is a useful chart from Wikipedia that speaks “a thousand words.” It shows graphically the fertility rates of countries. Note that the fertility replacement rate is calculated as about 2.1 — which is the total fertility rate at which women give birth to enough babies to sustain population levels, assuming that mortality rates remain constant and net migration is zero.
Clearly it is a factor going forward for all countries — for those with FR lower than 2.1, finding ways to increase productivity with ageing population will be a challenge. This has implications on how countries will manage their economies. Already countries are brushing up policies about immigration. Technology, including AI, will factor to counter this ageing conundrum with declining fertility.
Australia and Canada have long seen the significance of immigration of relatively young people with skills to power its economy. Although a significant part of the conservative population of the US are for very restrictive immigration policies, it can’t be denied that immigration of skilled people across several sectors is a factor in powering its economy in the past, all the way to the present.
High population growth has advantages and disadvantages. But if Africa is able to balance its policies and priorities, including the matter of education, it will have a future potential for economic growth. The next few decades will probably be Africa’s decade?
Thanks so much NH
They have new Visas for specialist but the income requirements point towards people workjng in high income nations
Muchas Gracias Gian
Review from “Amazonians”
Canada, Australia and some more ae revamping their immigration policies for more skilled expats.
I do not believe in brain drain if everyone had access to education.
We should go for it.
agree Karl we should encourage people maximizing their potential
Thanks
Another buzzword that I am sure Micha would not endorse.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/neo-mercantilist-moment
Just leaving this Spotify podcast by Richard Heydarian here.
It is about the root causes of why the Philippines did not industrialize etc., will have a listen once I find some time for it.
https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/06/15/23/econ-managers-pitch-maharlika-to-singaporean-investors
this should make our mischa happy (kidding!)
money man extraordinaire and economic hack ben diokno is in singapore trying to sell a piggy in a cutesy sack. so passionate.
I hope the singaporeans bite, kasabi-sabi pa naman ng mga singaporeans na ang mga pillipino kuno ay kulang ng pragmatism, entigrity at meritocracy. kaya ito siguro bwe-bweltahan sila ni senyor diokno.
Well, I was told by my former yaya from Cagayan that in the villages they wash the pigs that cannot be sold at the end of the day, pouring water over them.
How often will they wash that pig, I wonder? 🐷
good sense to wash and cool down the pigs after a hot day in the market, stressed and dehydrated pigs often collapse. pigs are happiest if allowed to wallow in soft mud and free range, things that animal rights movement are advocating.
Yes, indeed. It is good to wash pigs of all types if not sold so it looks nice again to sell another day. 🤣
Irineo, you have a sense of humor for a German — must have come from the other part of your genes.
Well, I did grow up in Metro Manila, where even then, the best survival mode was to be able to take stuff for which there was no clear solution with humor.
When faced with problems I can solve, I focus seriously on a solution. 😑 <- bawal tumawa!
Recently, Drilon admonished the Philippine Senate to take stuff more seriously. Does this mean that Drilon is serious, humorless, or that he has solutions? Obviously, Robin Padilla has decided that all that can be done is to wash pigs daily.
ahem, senator padilla is a muslim, was jehovah’s witness previously. and if he squealed like a pi – banshee! ex senator drilon may well be right to be less than optimistic at the changing of the guards at the senate.
I’m still waiting for ‘noisy but serious’ senator padilla to put his snout into biden’s afghan refugee proposal, seeing that padilla is as muslim as most afghans are, and maybe just as compassionate.
meanwhile, inday sara is already hinting at dnd sec gibo’s weakness, mentioning possible gunfight between talibs and afghans as though they are just roaming aimlessly in our streets, looking for trouble and carrying guns.
I watched a discussion on TV5 talking about Bato and Padilla’s behavior in the senate. Maybe this is an end of the statesmanship era and the dawn of the devil may care era. Who’s fault is this? I won’t blame the youth entirely for voting such characters. How will they change the way they vote next elections? I am not even talking about the Dutertes here.
The senate only reflects the greater society. Unfortunately we have fallen far as a nation. We need to learn how to dream again, to recognize the good, the right.
bato admitted his behavior could be better and will amend. that he sometimes think he is still polis chief instead of senator even though he no longer wears polis uniform, and no longer has polis badge. quite nice for bato to admit his recent shortcomings, getting to be altruistic he is.
padilla meanwhile is arrogant (opinyon ko lang) and dont really want to change to be better suited for senate work, sabi electorate voted him in and will stay as his is, warts and all.
padilla seems to be off the radiant and could be mistaken. maybe his electorate wants him to perform at a higher level and voted for him thinking he is adaptable and has transportable skills needed for in dept senate work.
and now, padilla is fast proving he does not have what it takes!
Robinhood won without spending the insane amounts spent by people like Binay, Villar, etc. This creates a mindset that says why fix something when it is not broken.
robin padilla is fixable and changeable as the weather, lol! dati jehovah’s witness siya, then he become a muslim and his muslim name is abdul aziz.
at kung talagang magaling na aktor siya, he can adapt to any given role. his role now is to be senator. it is in his best interest to shine brilliantly as a senator, not a dim lackluster that can barely govern himself, and badly in need of a good script.
Tulfo and to a lesser extent Robinhood habe the enviable position of not owing a lot of people except the voters for their senate seat. Hope they can make the best of their unique position.
Then Robinhood needs more wake up calls, all have rookie mistakes but it is too early to show hints of “air”. Whatever personal issues I may have about the Tulfo brothers’ media style, I still have high hopes for senator Tulfo.
Maybe she would except for the thing on foreign reserves.
“Neomercantilism (also spelt as neo-mercantilism) is a policy regime that encourages exports, discourages imports, controls capital movement, and centralizes currency decisions in the hands of a central government.[1] The objective of neomercantilist policies is to increase the level of foreign reserves held by the government, allowing more effective monetary policy and fiscal policy.”
There is even the novel Korupsi (Corruption) by the Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Tur, the author from Southeast Asia always mentioned among the great global names.
There is also a book by him with an interesting title in Indonesian (“Anak Semua Bangsa”) from 1980: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_of_All_Nations
Hmm, it is the sequel to “This Earth of Mankind” (Bumi Manusia) which I read ages ago, a story of a romance between a Javanese aristocrat and the beautiful Annelies, half-Dutch daughter of the mistress of a Dutch colonial official – shades of Maria Clara at Ibarra and the Noli..
“..This Earth of Mankind tells the story of Minke, a Javanese minor royal who studies at a Hogere Burger School (HBS) in an era when only the descendants of the European colonizers can expect to attain this level of education. Minke is a talented young writer whose works are published in several Dutch-language journals and are widely admired. But as a “native”, Minke is disliked by many of his fellow-students, who all claim some European descent. He is portrayed as being bold in opposing the injustices imposed upon his fellow Javanese as well as challenging aspects of his own culture..”
Except for Brazil and Macau’s Portuguese mark, I guess they wasted more time and resources in this one-upmanship with Spain.
so it seems though the family of Carlos and Felipe got a world record of debt formidable to current standards including inflation.
Portugal left its marks in Malacca, Sri Lanka and Goa as well. Goa has Catholics due to Portugal. Sri Lanka has an interesting group of creoles, some of Dutch origin like Michael Ondaatje (author of The English Patient which was made into a movie starring Ralph Fiennes) very few of Portuguese origin though there is a fiery dance that has survived until today. Malacca has a few mestizos, in fact a Pinay who studied in Germany married a Malaccan mestizo who looked more like a Brazilian football player with long hair than a Malaysian.
Trouble with Portugal is they didn’t have the resources to establish anything but ports/forts, at least in Asia where they had to deal with quite powerful kingdoms. Brazil was easier.
Portugal was basically done for as a major power after losing the Spice Trade to the Dutch.
Thanks for your all around knowledfe and perspective.
Welcome.
One more thing: one look at the Chinese Belt and Road (Indian Ocean part) and you will see that it is the Portuguese road to Asia but backwards..
America has a plan to build railroad in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5074641/user-clip-joe-biden-announces-us-plans-build-railroad-pacific-indian-ocean
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1789146/biden-told-marcos-about-us-proposal-for-temporary-stay-of-afghans-in-ph
joe biden asked our country for temporary housing their afghans until their status are checked and their entry to estados unidos ascertained. and like a hive of ants, hilong talilong ang mga tauhan ni presidente marcos! dont know yet what questions to ask, things that needed clarifying. kamot ulo big time sila!
the brits are having their refugess processed in rwanda, things that brit refugees dont like, they want UK not rwanda.
in australia, their refugees were processed in manus island of papua new guinea.
if america’s afghan refugees are processed in our country, it means jobs for our people. americal will put up or build infras to house the afghans, or rent our already existing facilities. afghans have to be fed and that means sale of our local produce. they would need health care too, boosting what appears like medical tourism. lahat na gastos sagot ni uncle sam.
afghan internment camp will be guarded by american marines if not, fiilpino sekyus. there will be barbed wires o razor wires all over the premise to stop locals from mingling with afghans and vice versa. fraternising between locals and afghans are not encouraged, and visit to internment camp are stricktly by invitation only.
any law and order infringement done by afghans in the camp will have to be negotiated, whether it will falls under american or philippines jurisdiction.
we have a history of welcoming refugees. we should continue this tradition.
@ kb: Thanks for the link. The US is having uncontrolled migration since the start of the Biden Administration plus the Afghanistan withdrawal. If compassion prevails, I think the other issues like security, social and economic cost will be managed fairly.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-immigration-debate-0
Had to google the news text. Pres Biden’s critics were harsh per usual. I am sure it is not the entire length of Indian and Pacific, why would anyone do that?
@ KG, Pres. Biden would like to compete with the Chinese’ Build Road Initiative . This is an almost 30 mins. video, you can check at 12:30 from PBS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFHW2ArSRSE
Thanks ISK still did not pass the 5 minute mark.
I am not sure of the media bias leaning of the Independent but here is the link for that humongous plan.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/joe-biden-indian-ocean-bridge-b2358939.html
=======
as for the media bias of the independent they are lean left per all sides.
The Independent is a news media source with an AllSides Media Bias Rating™ of Lean Left.
What a “Lean Left” Rating Means
Sources with an AllSides Media Bias Rating of Lean Left display media bias in ways that moderately align with liberal, progressive, or left-wing thought and/or policy agendas. A Lean Left bias is a moderately liberal rating on the political spectrum.
* I won’t be doing this media thing often.
infrastructure and the US just doesn’t mix. I am feeling this is another nothingburger
I think so too.
” I am feeling this is another nothingburger”
————
I think the sublime message is … it’s a union job, anything to excite his supporters. Sometimes bureaucratic system messed up great projects. https://www.npr.org/2022/08/03/1114964240/new-battery-technology-china-vanadium
Sometimes is kind, but to be fair, all over the world good projects take decades to come to fruition. It is not only here that have right of way issues, etc.
agree. some people’s rights always conflict with these types of projects and the current stasis is deplorable. we need to have a more workable framework preferably not involving the overburdened courts.
It is an open secret that authoritarian systems can boast more easily of infrastructure as they can shove aside people’s rights. The most spectacular avenue in Munich, the Ludwig/Leopoldstr., was built upon an old city quarter simply razed during royal times. Same thing with the pompous boulevards and huge buildings Ceausescu built in Bucharest, or the main avenue of Paris. Add to that the railway projects of the German Reich in the 19th century – take a ride along the spectacular train line along the Rhine, and you will see villages cut in half by the railway, and certainly they weren’t given much of a choice. A centralistic system with a very powerful executive like France is faster in getting high-speed railways built than NIMBY and federalistic Germany. The modern Munich airport was finished in 1992 and not for the 1972 Olympics as court cases with the landowners dragged for a long time. Well, it isn’t easy to balance the need for fair compensation and other concerns like ecology with progress.
A small anecdote as to why Frankfurt main station has three major areas. When train lines went up, what is now the state of Hesse was three Hessian kingdoms ans the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt, which had its charter thanks to the Holy Roman Empire of long before wanting to protect a major trading junction from the interests of barons. Well, allegedly, the Three Hessian Kings still insisted on each having their own section of the train station. Crazy also: the just one hour trip from Frankfurt to Cologne via Speed Rail has three stops on the way. Limburg and Montabaur were the price – train stops, even if not used in every trip – the German Federal Railways had to pay for passing thru the territory of two states. Siegburg was the price they had to pay for bypassing Bonn, which still had and has a lot of federal offices. Well, at least the line built between Frankfurt and Cologne didn’t have to be able to run freight trains, in my opinion, an absurd requirement that became a fixed idea of German railway management.
I should really be more for the messy way infrastructure is built in a democracy. I just find that a lot of these are premature. We get rich then we distribute.
I haven’t checked if it is already a solved problem. Just joking. How can development be a solved problem right now?
A lot of these safeguards make sense for an already rich society, which we are not. We cannot afford to act as if we are the US or UK. We cannot afford.
The Philippines doesn’t even have the ultra-powerful executive branch the French have, not even something similar to German Baurecht (right to build including ROW) which takes a long process to achieve with hearings and possible contestations, but after that usually no TRO is possible anymore unless the process of getting Baurecht was not properly followed, in that case indeed rinse and repeat. Instead, the Philippines has some additional issues:
1) What Joe correctly called the rat’s nest of land titling in the Philippines
2) a legal system that is unbelievably slow and unpredictable
3) No land use laws to give a clear framework
How many years did it take for the case of who actually owns BGC and the Embo areas, Makati or Taguig, take to resolve and why is a final and executed SC decision it seems still contested. Just an example of how one is NOT on solid legal ground in the Philippines but on quicksand.
and nobody wants to do business with governments like that
Got a chance to read the link. Licensed Manufacturing in China was the old normal when China was the factory of the world.
On a related news re engine trouble if airlines. All airlines using airbus planes are having problems not just PAL and Cebu Pac I think the new engines pace of maintsanance was more frequent than the old once was a factor, pinoy cannibalism of spare parts, pinoy brand of maintenance exacerbated it.
it’s not the airbus its the engines P&T
Thanks but the engine is mostly used by Airbus and not Boeing.Most if not all Cebu Pacs fleet are air bus. PAL’S fleet is mixed.
https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-explaining-pratt-whitneys-durability-problem
Thanks
Thanks ulit. By the way dito ko nakuha yung mga pinagsasabi ko about PaL Cebu Pac, Airbus and Boeing. https://business.inquirer.net/406164/biz-buzz-engine-trouble-for-airlines
Even if the institution is not built on sand, institutional termites or institutional acids can break strongly founded ones.
Gian’s note about hiring outsiders is still enlightening even educationally credentialed bureaucrats who only spent training years for leisure trips is no much for an experienced outsider no matter what line agency.
https://web.csc.gov.ph/new-updates/2101-honor-graduates-may-apply-for-eligibility-csc.html
Thanks Gian
The comment regarding Civil service is somewhere up there.
Sudono Salim used his manufacturing businesses to provide for the Indonesian armed forces in short some sort of Military Industrial complex just after Independence from the Dutch. Fast forward we all know of First Pacific were he became the Chair and richest man in this region.
Comment was supposed to be under the Indonesian topics initiated by Irineo.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Filipinos re stats, the over 4 million Filipinos in the States as of 2018 mentioned here (Source: Inquirer) don’t quite jibe with the 1.8 million immigrants (with legal permanent residency) I mentioned above and confirmed by sonny’s source, I wonder how they got that statistic, how many are on student or other temporary visas, and how large is their guesstimate of walang papel..
Canada with almost a million Filipinos is NOT surprising at all, Japan with around 800K Filipinos is surprising, so is France with nearly 200K possibly surpassing Spain and UK, most certainly Italy. Unlike in the Middle East, most Filipinos living in Europe become permanent.
400K in Australia don’t surprise me either, but 245K in Malaysia do. That they include 30K in Brazil as significant is weird, but it is interesting that there is such a sizable community by now. Not surprising as Moldavia has Filipino migrants, and Tbilisi, Georgia has a Pinoy store.
OT two articles by Winnie Monsod:
https://www.rappler.com/voices/analysis-what-they-dont-tell-you-about-the-rule-of-law-and-corruption-in-ph/
This hard data in contrast to pictures of Metro Manila seemingly flush with money give something of a major disjoint.
But it may well be that the Philippine economy by now is a house built upon the sand.
Hi.
It’s been awhile. Hope everyone is doing alright.
Off topic – I’ve been worrying about the estate tax deadline. The amnesty deadline was June 14, 2023 and I’ve been searching for news about the signing of the bill passed by both houses of Congress extending that deadline to June 14, 2025.
Long time no see MGPG hope all is well with you.
I guess it will lapse into law, but I might be wrong.
Paging caliphman or any lawyer reading.
Mary Grace
If not signed nor vetoed it will lapse into law.
As to retroactiviy, I think there will be no such thing unless stated otherwise.
If the deadline of your situation will lapse before It is signed by the president better ask the BIR
@Sonny, @Irineo: The conversation about transport, schools, and immigration to the US and other countries brings up nostalgic thoughts.
* In 1961 when with a BS degree, I first went to the US, men were invariably in their “amerikana” or coat and tie for the flight. Then, airplane flight was a big deal. Nice meals with choices were served nicely by apparently non-harassed flight attendants — then mostly stewardesses — to nicely behaved passengers.
* But this one is not a happy nostalgic thought. In late autumn 1963, I was driving a second-hand (err, most probably nth-hand Ford) car on my way to a sprawling Stanford Univ campus Computer Center when I heard a news flash on the radio about John F. Kennedy being shot in Dallas, Texas.
When I handed my box of Hollerith cards on which my computer program was written, as part of the research I was doing, to the Computer Center staff for processing, I told him about the news of JFK being shot. To which he retorted: “Don’t joke about this, man!” I replied, No man, I heard it on the car radio coming here. Back then the news on the radio was invariably believed.
*****
N.B. At that time we wrote those programs on Hollerity cards or IBM cards as they were called in the US, punching holes on the cards, one line of program to a card, in a specially built punching machine.
These were then processed by this huge IBM Machine — the speed, RAM, and storage capacity of which is minimal compared to a cheap modern-day smartphone.
Usually, the program takes a box of cards; this is handled by the Computer Center which tells you to come back in some hours or even a day to see the results; which as usually happens comes back to you in a long sheet of printed continuous paper with indications of errors, along with your box of cards; which errors you correct by punching anew the respective cards; etc. A fun way to make a computer program. 🤣
Retroview to IBM computers in 1979:
-IBM Mainframes were virtually the only game in town; Heavy users were the banks and corporate Data Centers; at one time IBM had 80% of the US Data Processing infrastructure; major software were virtually designed to be hosted in IBM Operating Systems; COBOL was lingua franca in business programming, Fortran in scientific computing.
-Data Entry was beginning to be loosened by the advent of Time Sharing Option (TSO) – this eliminated the use of Hollerith cards & data output was written by the programs themselves and stored as files in computer libraries.
-1981 was the birthyear of the programmers and custodians of future computing professionals and software developers of the current digital revolution.
Mid-1980s, when I started to study computer science, was a period of transition..
I recall theoretical lectures on the IBM System 360/370 and its timesharing architecture..
Also, a course where we learned an exotic mainframe language – Simula, a Scandinavian early object-oriented MAINFRAME programming language. Cards were no longer used, but we had to write our programs on text-processing only screens and save them to 8-inch diskettes, take them to a diskette reader, insert them, press a green button and then wait for the printouts on wide-carriage printer paper, and like NHerrera mentioned check for errors and correct them..
5 1/4 inch diskettes as the norm on IBM XT and AT computers using Intel 8088 and 8086..
Studying the declassified detailed design of the Intel 4004 chip (early 1970s) in one course..
In senior high, a computer lab with Z80 based computers. Z80 was by a firm formed by a group of people that had left Intel and formed Zilog. The now forgotten operating system CP/M preceded MS-DOS by Microsoft by a few years. The unforgettable Commodore C64 PC with some very crazy computer games my brother liked to play, a very basic text editor, 40 characters wide per line, noisy needle based printers and even noisier electric typewriters turned into part-time printers as laser printers were something many couldn’t yet afford.
Also, Unix, as the next generation after mainframes and before PCs, its multiprocess architecture, also a topic of an entire course. Android, as used on mobile phones, is basically a form of Linux, the public domain Unix derivative invented by Scandinavia Linus Thorvalds.
Finally, the 4 men who left IBM Germany in 1972 to form their own firm, now known as SAP. Started off as a mainframe-based corporate accounting solution and kept adding new modules, ported to Unix in 1992, but still running much like a mainframe underneath. Irineo comes into the picture in 1996 working on the short-lived NT server version of SAP, learning the ropes of a corporate solution that continues to dominate the global market as it now also has modern front-ends including mobile phones and tablets. And cloud versions. What a ride..
Marketing postscript to IBM & Apple:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3337577/has-apple-become-ibm-in-the-80s.html
OT
Micha must love this about his Orange Man.
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart handling the federal case against Donald Trump, for allegedly mishandling boxes of sensitive government materials, has slapped a new order on the former president and his legal team to keep key documents in the proceedings safe.
In short, the order effectively tells the defense lawyers to treat OM like a child.
The order requires that discovery documents “must be maintained in the custody and control” of Trump’s legal team. As a defendant, Trump is permitted to review the evidence against him, of course. But the judge’s order makes plain that Trump “shall only have access” when he “under the direct supervision” of his legal team, and that any notes he takes must also “be stored securely by Defense Counsel” just like the evidence in the case.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-evidence-safe-boxes-trial-1234774253/
Thanks, Karl.
I just wish the BIR can address this deadline and inform the public.
The Implementing rules come from the line agencies. That means after the law is signed or lapse into law, BIR is supposed to prepare and present the implementing rules to the congress.
sometimes when it is an extension then the dates are changed but the prevailing IRR or in this case probably an RMC will continue with the new dates
kung ako lang, I wont sit and wait to be informed. anyone can visit and check govt websites especially that of the dept of finance. I was there a while back and read about estate tax deadline being extended to 2025. p.s. not everything we read in the internet is true. to be sure, a call to tax commissioner’s office can confirm the extension date.
further, president bong marcos will address estate tax extension deadline in his 2nd sona on july 24, 2023.
I did the search but couldn’t find anything. Just the same news about the HOR voting unanimously on the bill and the Senate doing the same. I rejoiced for my cousins whose father died after the stated coverage (2017) when the approved to expand it to those who died before December 31, 2022. Nothing about whether it was signed or vetoed.
bottom line? it was not vetoed. govt need as much money to feed the money hungry monster that is maharlika. needs all the tax money it can get too, the more the better.
pero out of respect, nobody really wants to pre-empt the announcements and steals the president’s thunder. his grace will make the grand announcement on sona to everyone’s plaudits and applause. we shall all be applauding like crazy, awed and wide eyed, absolutely pretending 1st time narinig namin ang mga balita niya, ever so grateful to be ‘graced’ once more of the president’s mga handog na biyaya, both the tax extension deadline and the maharlika he approves.
sona will be in a month’s time, I’ll be watching it with my fave drink, lol!
Took the words out of my mouth kb.
Veto, SONA and money.
The reason why he vetoed some Duterte leftovers like the Maritime Transport safety is it will sort of steal his thunder so to speak.
on current events relating to the topic of the book review.
Two links on te Flor Contemplacion Syndrome
One by Alex Magno
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2007/12/01/30757/syndrome
and another by Randy David
https://opinion.inquirer.net/4234/the-flor-contemplacion-syndrome
we have to understand that we as a society failed these people and thus we will not turn our backs away from their plight guilty or not
Yes
Filipinos should also monitor Saudization news so they would have no need to consider those that do not welcome them and avoid recruiters that persuade them to.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2280561/business-economy
Look what is happening to Kuwait.
Toots Ople has been a “blogging friend” of mine before becoming an FB friend, I believe she is sincere with the welfare of the OFWS.
I remember her visiting as one of the famous people that visited my blog before I gave up on it entirely, the other one was Lila Shahani whom even told me to keep on writing. I stopped for years and now I am trying to little by little here on TSOH.
this is inevitable as the oil either runs out or the oil becomes less important. the market will adjust the government needs to just help those that will have difficulty in adjusting
Agreed
Dang I was reprimanded by a retired Admiral for dominating a viber forum (Maritime League) old habits die hard. i was just talking to an international law expert about wps who happens to have an opposing view to justice Carpio and Atty batongbacal. But it took too many comment boxes.
I admire your tenacity and passion on issues affecting our country. Don’t be discouraged when others reprimand you. Carry on, my friend.
Thanks friend.
I love that the We have and had IT professionals from many generations here.
We had the late Edgar. NHerrera’s Engineering background required many units of Computing subjects as stated above.
We have Sonny, Irineo and Gian.
In this thread alone, the history of IT and modern computing was documented again.
PS josephivo has also had computing background as consultant for the DENR.
Maybe I was a profiler in another lifetime, no malice meant by the way, I just remember what people share. For good vibes purposes.
“… Maybe I was a profiler in another lifetime, no malice meant by the way, I just remember what people share. For good vibes purposes. …”
1969 – 2023, five decades is as good a time as any to take stock of our national labor resource and come up with some good questions and answers. The Filipino diaspora is complete. Its length, width and depth, consistency are knowable at the very least. Our sociologists, statisticians, economists, entrepreneurs, governing agencies, futurists, etc. are awash with data to analyze our healthcare & other professional strengths that can and should be leveraged for the best utilization by the country.
“… big bruhaha ito about nursing flunkers getting special work license dahil kulang daw tayo ng health workers. …”
Way back 1969, the State of Minnesota and other states were already making use of this situation as part of the social welfare picture to manage their healthcare system by creating licensure and certification for Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN) & Certified Nursing Aides (CNA). The license & certification were visible metrics towards establishing standards of health and their corresponding accountabilities for performance, wages, and career advancement for accomplishments rather than creating or attaching stigmas to necessary needs that must be ameliorated in human care.
Stigmas are evolving even political correctness before it only takes a village to stigmatize someone with the advent of social media, you will feel the whole world is against you.
Hope you are doing well Uncle Sonny, the healthcare system discussion reminded me of our last conversation about your health.
out of topic:
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/06/22/2275642/prc-nursing-flunkers-cant-have-special-work-license-
big bruhaha ito about nursing flunkers getting special work license dahil kulang daw tayo ng health workers.
methink what doh chief herbosa meant is that flunkers be made into assistant nurses lamang, there mainly to free registered nurses from mundane work like feeding patients, giving punas, changing beddings, taking vital signs like blood pressure reading, taking temperature and oxygen saturation reading, and writing them down in patients charts. also to alert registered nurses or doctors of sudden and drastic fluctuations in the readings.
nursing assistant lamang sila and cannot give medication to patients as per doctors order dahil hindi pa pasado. mistakes in medication can easily lead to adverse reaction and sometimes death to patients.
registered (licensed) nurses can give medication as per doctors order though there are times registered nurses see error in the order, and challenged doctors to review their own med order.
to be fully licensed, nurses must have 100 per cent pass in medication in order for them to have safe practice, the theories and the rationale that go with it must be passed as well, hard but doable.
registered nurses ensure that all nursing work are done to satisfaction in all wards, all meds dispensed in a timely, signed and all accounted for. ward policies implemented fairly and squarely.
naturally, pay scale of nursing assistant is lower than that of registered nurses.
Thank you for mentioning that risk. The pa-wais way of aking how to gain experience is aking out loud:” if you would not hire any one without experience then how can they gain experience?” But you have to set boundaries that only licensed RNS can do except when they are all absent or only as a last resort.
Bar flunkers can only be para legals or in tagalog parang abogado lamang. Even if they have been para-legals for five years they must not over step their tasks
I think, bar flunkers as well as nurse flunkers just need to repeat the subject/s where they failed and take exam again. they must retake the subject/s within the prescribed period of 2yrs, or they would have to start from the beginning.
Ah eto namang directive ni Sec Herbosa extended to four years ang deadline for passing. maybe after that back to almost zero.
Yung Bar exam news we see old people passing the bar maybe they just took another special exam before the bar or must have started from scratch.
2yrs is acceptable but 4yrs is a bit too long. medical knowledge is always advancing as newer discoveries and medical breakthroughs are happening at fast pace; similarly and in order to accommodate these change, nursing knowledge base is often updated, reviewed, taught and evaluated, thus giving patients better treatment, better service and better outcomes.
those that cannot update are more or less left behind, their knowledge and practice could well be obsolete and far from ideal; inadvertently resulting in patients not given their due care. and some patients may suffer unnecessarily.
Reality check time for Sec Herbosa.
“They told me, amendment is easy… but they said that the president has to make it urgent,” Herbosa said of his conversation with the Professional Regulation Commission. “That’s the legal side of the problem… I’ll leave it to the lawyers and legislators to help solve the problem,” he added.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1792631/doh-may-shelve-plan-to-hire-unlicensed-nurses
=====
Nursing assistants as KB said will be the course of action.
sec herbosa seems uncertain, leaving things for lawyers to sort out his problem. there are 4,500 unfilled nursing position in doh hospitals and yet, 10,764 passed nursing board exam this year 2023. dyahi naman if none of those that passed cannot meet doh hospitals entry level requirements.
sa bagay, kung nurse pahinantes ang kailangan, nurse academics need not apply.
dapat, herbosa must state what category of nurses is wanted, whether unfilled positions can be filled by skilled, semi skilled or unskilled and fresh from college. nursing is applied science, and if herbosa keeps quiet, his problem wont be solved. as doh sec, herbosa must be active player, not passive and being dictated to by others.
of those positions ilan kaya ang mula sa trainings hospitals ma jumping board to a career sa ibang bansa.
Question (confirmatory) di ba mas malaki ang sahod ng nurses Government hospitals like PGH kesa sa Nurse let us say sa Asian Hospital or Makati Med? Then I am more confused with the original proposal basing on your stats of board passers.
pero Asian hospital nurses are recruited overseas because the big hospitals operate on international standards like JCI.
https://www.jointcommissioninternational.org/who-we-are/accredited-organizations/#q=Philippines&sort=%40aoname%20ascending
Is the shortage artificial? Many are waiting for vacancies in government hospitals, many nurses are working on call centers and other jobs but some or many take double shifts in private hospitals
Relative to other professionals in government Nurses are I believe underpaid. 24 hour shifts with lower starting salaries compared to teachers last time I checked (senador pa si Trillanes)
We are not yet even talking about OFWS.
it’s easy to google nursing stats. now, about nurses pay, methink sa public hospitals nurses are paid around 32K per month, sa private hospitals naman, sahod nila is around 12K. sa public hospitals paminsan paspasan ang trabaho, many patients in a ward, sometimes two to a bed and some are grabe ang sakit, derelicts, homeless at mabaho. maybe not so in private hospitals.
it’s mind boggling sa akin, doh wanting to hire flunkers when there are many board passers who cannot get a job!
is the shortfall artificial? I dont know, I’m too drunk to notice, lol!
I see this in a lot of government institutions especially DepEd. The plantilla positions are kept open because of union CBAs or to have open positions for people. Parsng naka save ang position
maybe nursing flunkers just want a job and not a career, less worry and less responsibility that way.
RNs have bigger responsibilities, they sometimes have to give talks and lectures in nursing schools and colleges about their own field of expertise like infection control, midwifery, etc. they also attend seminars and constantly update their skills, and they can be called to give expert opinion in courts of law. they also have to be member of professional nursing association and pay membership fee. and every year, they have to pay registration and also pay indemnity insurance in case makasuhan sila ng malpractice.
PRC was not receptive to Herbosa’s directive or was it just a proposal? Rep. Daza agrees.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/06/22/2275642/prc-nursing-flunkers-cant-have-special-work-license-
https://mb.com.ph/2023/6/21/solon-echoes-doh-chief-herbosa-s-stand-says-prc-should-relax-its-rules
I hope Rep. Daza is not lowering the bar too low but she is for removing the barriers.
https://malaya.com.ph/news_news/time-to-remove-employment-barriers-review-licensure-exams-rep-daza/
nasa batas naman kasi iyan. either need to be creative with new regulations not contravening the law or, powerful enough to push a new law. otherwise nothing is gonna happen
true, and may I say the bar not be lowered. sorry about the term I’m going to be using: slow pokes will catch up eventually and they’ll be glad they did.
new regulation created out of need; adjunct, and not to dumb down the profession.
Like KB said: True!
OT
The US Coast Guard reports that a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) found evidence that the five-person submersible intended to view the Titanic Wreck imploded; all in the submersible died.
I wonder who among us in TSOH, given the invitation for free to be in that submersible would venture? On my part, I say, no thank you — given my much-degraded motor capability.
I was watching it with interest: the titanic claimed another 5 lives.
Two extreme frontiers of human physical capabilities: Outer space & Inner space. Why do we need to build capabilities to function in either realm? I think we have to have high justifications to point our attention to either direction.
A few days ago, I commented about under sea cities. Perish the thought. Never mind.
As chance had it, I was watching THE COMMAND when the US Coast Guard got underway to give aid to the tourist submersible TITAN. THE COMMAND was a movie about efforts to rescue the potential survivors of the Russian nuclear submarine K141 KursK the flagship that sunk in the Barents Sea in 2000. The TITAN effort brought back also memories of the USS Thresher (sunk 1963, all hands lost) and the Natl Geographic specials covering the voyages of CALYPSO & Jacques Cousteau.
Another nice movie rec. Many thanks Uncle Sonny!
When it rains it pours, Karl. 🙂
Next on the agenda for spy aficionados: AGENT OF INFLUENCE
I watched that western movie you recommended : High noon, plus others. The Bourne Identity with Richard Chamberlain(sp) and Jacklyn Smith,I still recommend if you still have not seen it.
we have to be multi planetary. under water is practice for some planets
That was my thinking too.
We can practice living under water.
But first we have to do SNAFU preventive steps.
Now pundits are blaming lack of tourism regulation for submersible.
Oh well even if failure is not not an option to NASA sh__ still happens.
have too many regulations that cannot be enforced. The regulatory mindset is currently whacked. Same reason why no new nuclear power plants in the US for so very long. I am beginning to think that we are only able to outrun the Malthusian reality because we are effective in searching the solution space for gains. I am not optimistic with what we sre currently doing as a world.
Correct, I do not know why some can still say that this world lacks regulations, when history states otherwise. Even the so-called barbarians have regulations. Implementation is the name of the game. Musk and Branson is trying to outrun Malthus.
In the Philippines, it has been 10 years our submarine tours beginning with Cebu’s Yellow Submarine. In that ten years it had accidents like destroying coral reefs and it is good that no lives were taken. But we do need to review our tourism regulations, with Oceangate as wake-up call.
Some links
https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/281968/yellow-submarine-halted
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/399443/mayor-stops-submarine-tour-off-mactan-after-undersea-vessel-smashes-coral-reef
Some like James Cameron, a submersible expert and Movie Director (Titanic), fault the design of the OceanGate Submersible that imploded. Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate was one of the five in that submersible.
I think, as an engineer, that the submersible aside from being designed to withstand the pressure at the level of about 13,000 feet of the Titanic wreck (and beyond using a safety factor ) would have been tested — such as being put in water inside a cubic steel box with one side pressing on the the water to achieve the approximately 400+ bars of water pressure. Something we still don’t know must have caused the implosion. There is of course the matter of repeated use of the ill-fated submersible — causing materials fatigue as some have expressed.
My opinion [not done after much thought].
Here is a counter-argument to my post above:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65998914
Being a witness to the US/USSR race to conquer Outer Space I can’t help but think of a race to conquer Inner Space. What was obvious about the Space Race was the by-products that were invented as a result of that competition can easily be thought of in a race to gain knowledge and inventions that can be attributed to a similar race in Inner Space.
There are 2 towns in Surigao del Sur, Tandag & Tago. They have similar marine topography: each has a 200 meter depth (600 ft) archipelagic shelf; the similarity continues, the oceanic depths increase uniformly: 2000 meters slope (6000 feet), then increases to 4000 meters (12,000 feet), then to 6000 meters (18,000 feet); at 9144 meters (27, 432 feet), this is the rim of the Philippine Trench; at 10,050 meters (30,150 feet), you’re in pretty deep!
At this point my imagination takes over. The contour of the depth soundings gives a picture somewhat like the Banawe Rice Terraces. Just like a base camp in mountain climbing where one acclimatizes to the rarefied atmosphere and where supplies for sustenance/survival are stored so also a base camp at 6,000 feet depth must be the conditioning required for pushing/determining what are the essential conditions for survival in a hyperbaric.
You sparked my curiosity, sonny. I went to Google maps. The Philippine trench is a monster, tipped at one end by central Luzon, and stretching south all the way past Mindanao to Indonesia’s North Maluku. I would add that most Philippine earthquakes occur along the eastern seaboard. I don’t want to scare anyone, but that’s basically us falling off into that deep trench.
Thanks Uncle Sonny and Joe, we have lots to learn about planet earth and your descriptions of the Philippine trench is very informative, enlightening, and thought provoking.
Most welcome, Neph. Right back at you.
Pretty soon, Joe will have to coin a word to describe the dynamic that pervades TSOH’s environ of information search, slice & dice where the questions and answers are apparently inexhaustible in a pleasurable sort of way. Just click your heels, then Poof, you’re in someone else’s living room or study.
🙂 🙂
Only things missing are the red silk robe, cigar, and glass of whiskey.
Click your heels you will be at the yellow Brick Road then you sing good bye yellow brick road and ride on yellow submarine before going back to Kansas.
*Ride the yellow submarine
Joe, I have tasted whisky (I don’t know whether it was Bourbon or Scotch). Then Gene Hackman mentioned Starka in one of his CIA movies. Quick lookup says Starka is Rye whisky. Now I’m tempted to taste all three and be “educated” more about whisky. Should I even start? 🙂
Yes, small sips, wee small sips, haha!
Starka must be why espresso was invented. I will not forget – small sips is the key. You, the man! As always.
Statistics on oceanic trenches:
From Wikipedia:
The Mariana Trench (near Guam) is about 200 kilometers east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is crescent-shaped and measures about 2,550 km in length and 69 km in width. The maximum known depth is about 36,037 ft.
The Philippine Trench (also called the Philippine Deep, Mindanao Trench, and the Mindanao Deep) is a trench to the east of the Philippines. It has a length of approximately 1,320 kilometers and a width of about 30 km from the center of the Philippine island of Luzon trending southeast to the northern Maluku island of Halmahera in Indonesia. At its deepest point, the trench reaches about 34,580 ft.
NH, the extreme conditions of oceanic trenches continues to add to the notable uniqueness & mystique to our country. The word implosion betrays the reality that Inner Space is the true frontier beyond which human beings cannot go – maybe. Our “conquest” of Outer Space represented by the Webb Telescope did not deter human beings from overcoming the disintegration of the human body in travelling thru Outer Space.
We learn other realities. That’s it!!
Hi Gian sent you an email for a new piece
saw the email. will publish 1PM Monday. Thanks
Nice!
Allow me to share my Maritime Review article in two parts
Part 1
Part 2
thanks @karlgarcia
My pleasure and thanks as well.
Re: Job-skills mismatch by Boo Chanco.
Before it was just a case of overqualification or under qualification then add Chatgpt to the equation.
https://www.philstar.com/business/2023/06/23/2275818/job-skills-mismatch
A few months ago the BPO sector people opined that AI will work to their advantage, but that is not the case.
Customer service reps and chat support agents will have to retrain to another line and it is always easier said than done.
Boo Chanco:
So many real problems in education and our highest officials are focusing on ROTC.
Karl, hindi ba puede, ROTC via AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) na lang?
Ok, I hear you — corny. I agree. 🤣
Hahaha ! You made my day NH.
Corny din naman ako hehehe.
In the age of drones, which our friend Lance is so against and add to that robots, unmanned vessels, and unmanned evreything, one day a real life Tony Stark will lord it over the Miltary Industrial complex / iron triangle. It would not be Elon Musk and Zuckerberg because they are too busy challenging each other in an MMA or prowrestling match on socmed.
An interesting footnote to Filipino migration just popped up in my FB memories. Besides those who went along with the galleon trade and migrated to Mexico – and even further to Louisiana as the so-called “Manila men”, there were also soldiers in Spanish service. I looked this up back then and indeed the French invasion of Da Nang in 1858 had Spanish troops taking part, even as many of these troops, maybe even the majority were Tagalogs..
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0E6Bj1EuLm2Ef24MNjoLALHwCcVqpkN6vaEz6Pnz6rWB5DWN3PsasFQ2eS3Yz5UPLl&id=659673015
“Phnom-Penh. N°28, métis tagal. Annamite, musicien du Roi, né à Saïgon, 29 ans, père Tagal né à Manille, mère annamite de Saïgon (42m/m) / [photogr.] A. S[alles] Salles, André (1860-1929). Photographe.
In other words, this is a musician of the king (i.e., the king of Cambodia, King Norodom, reigned 1860-1904), and he is a metis, or half-caste, his father being a Filipino (Tagal, from Tagalog), and his mother Annamite (Vietnamese). Photographer Andre Salles, from the French National Archives, found on the Gallica site.
The history of the Filipino community in Cambodia and Vietnam would be a fascinating study. It seems to have begun, for the modern era, with the Franco-Spanish invasion and conquest of southern Vietnam from 1858 onward. The Spanish brought Filipino troops over from Manila, and many stayed on after the conquest. In south Vietnam they became household servants and policemen and bandits, and some moved up to Cambodia and became the royal guards for King Norodom. They also became the royal musicians, though I don’t know how that happened – military bandsmen perhaps? they were very loyal to Norodom, intermarried with the Khmers, and their descendants largely melded into the Cambodians.”
There is no end to the Filipino narrative. Recently I came across a historical tidbit: There was a real possibility that the Philippines could’ve ended with a Belgium-Philippines connection (quasi-colonization?).
Wiki entry:
“Connections between Belgium and the Philippines can be traced back in the Colonial era during the reign of Leopold II of Belgium. Leopold II who just ascended the Belgian throne in 1865 lobbied Queen Isabella II of Spain to cede the Philippines, Spain’s sole colony in the Far East, to Belgium in his search to acquire a colony for his country. …”
Well, let’s be happy that didn’t happen, as for example the Belgian Congo as a private colony of the Belgian King was subjected to utmost brutality.
Wheeling and dealing, cooperation and competition between colonial powers was not uncommon. The final stroke of Dutch domination of Indonesia was achieved in Aceh only with the early 20th century assistance of the USA..
Also interesting what parts of the Spanish East Indies were sold to the USA by Spain – basically the Marianas and the Philippines. The Carolines went to Germany via a separate deal. The El Fili features Tano, the son of Kabesang Tales, as a Guardia Civil sent to “pacify” the Carolines..
we dodged a bullet. Leopold was next level evil compared to anything we suffered as a people under colonization.
wow. wish we had history people like prof xiao and people who can fund a book or two about stuff like this.
This is something Fil-Am historian Kirby Arraulo might take up at some point, as Xiao is more interested in Filipino history IN the Philippines.
I can also imagine that Fil-Ams etc. on the heritage trip more than glad to be Patreons of a book project led by the likes of Kirby. Though as Karl has already noted, Sesame street style co-operation isn’t a Filipino strength – YET.
We need to maintain all the cultural (social, political) narratives of the Filipino to make available a storage of experiences that belong to our national psyche; more power to Prof Xiao (Island Filipinos) & Kirby Araullo (diasporic Filipinos). From my vantage view, I have seen 3 generations worth of these experiences.
🙂
Irineo, I appreciate the heads-up on Prof Xiao & Kirby Araullo.
same sentiment irineo
Sonny write for us. You’ve seen 3 generations worth share for the next generation. It’s not an overstatement that you were part of the best scientific pinoy minds of your generation. Add to our nations narrative.
I recall Sonny’s vivid narration of his travelling to San Francisco by boat.. or some convos between Karl, sonny, popoy and I think also NHerrera about the 1950s/60s Philippines..
Below retro hit by SB19 BTW reminds me of those convos in a way, though only those who really knew those times can of course say whether that video qualifies as “walastik”. That term was already slightly dated but still known in the early 1970s when I was growing up..
Butch Dalisay about why we write, why we read.