“O’ Rise Ye Land of Happy Fools”
Analysis and Opinion
By Joe America
This blog has always been for the Philippines. The basic distinction between here and elsewhere is a choice between building or whining. We choose to build. To build ideas. To build understandings. To build solutions to problems.
As the principal writer here, I’m starting to focus on the 2028 election because the choice of Philippine president establishes the nation’s primary direction for six years. It’s a big deal.
That said, the strength of this blog is not my articles. It is the discussion section. The robust discussion is truly unique within the Filipino blogosphere. I’d like to try to outline how I think the discussion can be returned to the days of yesteryear when Edgar Lores anchored us to moral integrity, order, and insight.
Here’s what I am asking members of our society to do over the next three years as you provide the content that makes this blog worth reading..
- Focus on the Philippines.
- Criticize if you must, but always remember to build.
- Remain civil, be logical. Temper emotionality, the bane of social media these days. Facts, not conspiracy theories.
- Use words, not memes and videos as content, except as punctuation.. We are a discussion blog, not Instagram. Original thoughts are rare these days, and hard. Memes are too easy. You Tube links are spam in my book. View the video yourself and give us the pith.
- This is a lightly moderated forum, not a free forum. It works best if contributors moderate themselves. Teach don’t preach. Don’t dominate discussions. Respect others. Be civil.
- The target audience is not “us”. It is Philippine presidents, senators, agency heads, and influencers. Consider that the President has asked you for your insights. Let that frame your contributions, and your attitude. Don’t tell him or her to go watch a video. Provide some fresh thinking.
- Push Society of Honor blog articles and discussion links to the other social media channels you inhabit. Invite people to join the discussion.
- Fire off an article yourself now and then. Variety is refreshing. We can do an article daily if we are cookin’. If you do an article, kindly take a lead role in orchestrating the discussion.
- Enjoy yourself.
Simple enough, eh?
Thanks, as always, for joining to our discussion club. A fine cigar and tip of the brandy glass to ye! Or an asparagus smoothie for those who intend to live longer.
____________________
Comments
85 Responses to ““O’ Rise Ye Land of Happy Fools””Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying...-
[…] “O’ Rise Ye Land of Happy Fools” Categoriespersonal AnGoL […]
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
❤️
Love these pointers Joem, your blog give us the opportunity to participate in the discussion once in a while. Do you think Riza Hontiveros is ripe enough to be our next president? She is the only one among all our present senators who is brave enough in exposing what is happening in our country. I like Vico Sotto but he is still too young.
Thank you, Arlene. I’m always pleased to see you here.
I pray that many who love or truly care about the country will here engage in edifying discussions.
some of those that truly love our country are in jail and their freedom is summat curtailed. that’s the price they paid for being upright. once freed, will they be here for some democratic aperitif?
we can always give them support in their hours of need. our deed says a lot about us, and who knows? once freed, they’ll give back a hundred times more and find us here. people being humans seek their own community.
To spread ideas. To be read and debated by the powers that be. That is a nice goal.
Thank you. Yes. The challenge is to get contributors to see and participate in the “editorial” direction. Otherwise we are just people chattering.
“To spread ideas. To be read and debated by the powers that be. That is a nice goal.”
I second this.
Good to know. Onward!
Well, it did start off as a blog by someone trying to make sense of his new country of residence. I came in at some point, trying to make sense of what the country I grew up in had become. We all managed to spread some insights we gained in the process.
We never were preachy like some other blogs. The adherence to the Socratic principle of “I know that I know nothing” as opposed to the “when you know you know” of many Filipino one hundred percenters, a term that Joe coined here. As part of the Humpty Dumpty dictionary.
Bettering the Philippines is a truly noble goal. Giving the movers and the shakers impulses and even being a devil’s advocate at times, but within bounds. The latter is meant as a tip to LCPL_X, who is a great devil’s advocate but does get lost in stuff at times just as I do. 😈
Yes, Youtube links should not be the rule, links without a gist neither. In fact, I saw how too many YT links made my music article of last year inaccessible to me.
This is a great mission statement, and these are great guidelines. Let’s get going. 😃
P.S. I see the role of those not on the ground like LCPL_X and myself, those with less skin in the game, as more in helping show other perspectives that those caught up over there might not see. But always be aware of our limitations.
Yes, I agree an outside view can have value. That’s basically where I started oh so long ago, and sometimes the lessons were hard.
Just fair warning I’m gonna be Inday Sara’s knight here.
What is your opinion of her not attending the SONA which is akin to the State of the Union and declaring her self as the designated Survivor.
In my book that is a bomb threat.
Its a good move only if she follows it up with something big and memorable , karl. but she’s setting up for 2028. so she needs to deliver from here til then. i expect Chinese money to start going her way, so she’ll be delivering for sure. what exactly i don’t know. but expect her to make money moves from here on out.
ps. over here the VP has to attend cuz VP is tied to the President. over there VP is independent of the President. so why expect her to show for the President she’s rifting with. she just needs to focus on 2028 now. hence the deliverables.
These are excellent insights, and welcome.
The way the Chinese money is being used in the recent past, I think she will deliver not the goods, but the “bads”.
The quality of her “goods” remains to be seen, karl. but I think she’ll definitely have the quantity guaranteed, just not the quality. it could be “bads” but I think unlike last cycle, she’s now serious about being president, she’s now realizing what her dad realized long ago, that you have to rule with an iron fist— but because Inday Sara is smarter than her dad, she’ll do this portion her own way. maybe a velvet covered iron fist. that too remains to be seen, karl.
Definitely we both have different preconceived notions about her. You say iron fist is good, and I disagree. I had violent reactions on your pro EJK views even your I am rooting for Covid views. That is quite sick to me, sorry to bring it up but it is on record.
But having said that, I am not sold.
And if the way you defend your views will be like in the past, even if everything remains to be seen, I am still lowering my expectations that you would do differently. You gave your fair warning. Consider me warned.
karlG, you are correct about the chinese money, lol! dabaw is proving to be hub of fake birth certificates for sale. it’s mostly chinese buying them. 300K per fake birth certificates.
it’s probly blessing in disguise, sara not attending sona. she is fast aliening ilocos votes and the votes of pbbm’s supporters. if she wants to lose them, fine! her 2028 votes will be a lot less.
Plus the Pogo rentals in alabang alone was tempting to many empty nesters because they give 2 years in advance. Then, the empty nesters just buy a condo and move there.
Another Chinese money scandal is this Navy officer who unknowingly became the incorporator and or director of 193 companies because her relative borrowed her tax account ID.
karl, if you wanna defeat my beloved Inday Sara you’ll have to keep an eye on Chinese money. maybe Russian too. but I gotta feeling most Filipinos won’t care what kinda money it is. money’s money after all.
I appreciate your comments along this line, totally within the guidelines, and very valuable to the target audience. Keep it up and I’ll have to transfer you from Chief Troll to Chief of Counterbalance. Or somesuch.
I hope the navy officer learned her lesson, but she maybe fined for breaching navy act, tax account ID is supposedly sacrosanct and to be guarded with care, and not passed from one person to another.
pogo chinese are scurrying like rats! their hubs raided, their assets frozen and their nefarious activities curtailed. it was thought at first pogo will fund election 2028, pogo favored candidates sure run away winners.
but the way things are going, looks like pogo fund will be inaccessible, pogo assisted candidates woefully neutered!
pagcor stipulated if totally banned, pogo will go underground. thanks for the tip! already government officials have asked telcos to provide data of places that are heavy internet users, electricity use and water use too. even if underground, pogo will still be heavy users of essentials and highly reliant on them too. they cannot be like moles that can live in the dark! without electricity, without water and without connectivity to the world they scammed, banking specially. all that transactions going at lightning speed! coming to an end.
If your arguments are sincere and share insights, they will welcomed. If you troll to have fun, they will not be. This is a serious undertaking, not a game.
It should be open to satire and parodies and some dirty jokes though, Joe.
Satire and parodies can certainly be insightful.
There are several levels of control available to Word Press publishers. They can restrict comments to private or authorized users, or let them be open to the public. They can block commenters, or put them into moderation for approval at the editor’s convenience, or they can edit the comments. When a comment is inappropriate, it can be dumped to trash or labeled as spam, the spam designation affecting the commenter’s reception across the internet. I’ve started putting Chempo’s comments into spam because he’s been sneaky and used fake accounts to try to get his anti-Biden comments in. Commenters can also offend the Word Press computers by spreading multiple link comments across different media, or by having strange content that triggers a spam designation. i7sharp gets in trouble with the algorithms a lot. I have no control over those algorithms. I think they may also dislike people pushing a lot of comments and a lot of links. A bit of a mystery to me, but it is helpful because it picks off a LOT of real spammers.
The way I look at it, LCPLX: You are NOT a Criston to Rhaenyra but a Jorah to Daenerys. Your Queen’s true color is slowly being revealed as in Season 8 of GoT.
Ooooooh, that’s a good point i’d not thought of yet, JP. the Khaleesi I thought was good thru out, means justifying the end (EJK, iron fist, Covid…). I’m definitely a proponent of this. what karl has taken offense to. meaning there was consistency with Daenerys which I enjoyed like when she lined up the roads with slavers bodies (her true color was consistent, JP, there was really no revelation). Rhaenyra reached out to Alicent to avert a war to learn about the story of Daenerys and that her dad’s last words were that giving her more reason to wage said war. so my thing is, having not read the book, we’ll see if she ends up another Daenerys, but we already know the end. Will the means justify is the question. i hope Joe allows more Game of Thrones references as they are pop culture and seeing that popular in the Philippines will be instructional. I for one think my beloved Inday Sara are both Daenerys & Rhaenyra, with good heart, as well as great strength, but will she balance both. i dunno. but i hope everyone on here agrees that the job requires strength more than just a good heart. to clarify what karl said about Covid, JP, cuz i don’t think you were around for that. I said my position re covid was like thanos , there’s 8 billion people and the world is warming up, covid taking out more I’m gonna be for not against, so if you don’t wanna wear mask or vaccinate, then fine was what i said i hope more people don’t so that 8 billion gets lowered. i’m sure i said more but that was my over arching point. means and end. EJK i still havent changed my opinion, so karl again is correct, i hear crime is going up again over there cuz no fear, where addicts and criminals were volunteering literally knocking on the doors to go to prisons under DU30, so Filipinos still remember that. that is the Iron fist I ‘m talking about. i do hope my beloved Inday Sara becomes LKY. she needs to scare Filipinos as well as inspire them. her father didn’t inspire really just scare but he scared a specific populace that needed scaring, according to polls Filipinos resoundingly agreed to this scare tactic on top of the EJKs. it quieted streets. where DU30 was a broad sword, I hope Inday Sara can be more a scalpel. means justify end.
My view of jutifying end with any means, where end is the correct path is consistent with this, JP. i can quibble with what entails “correct”, but means I’ll justify based on how it proceeds to said correct path or direction. or destination. Prince Daemon’s dilemma isn’t the end but the means. we’ll see if he readjusts.
The cold rationality becomes insensitive if it fails to grasp that real people here may have had real loved ones killed by covid. Real people inhabit this blog. It is not fiction. It is not desensitized authoritarian coldness. I think that’s the distinction. Over-population can be dealt with compassionately. The grand shortcoming of human intelligence is that too many global leaders think as you do.
Game of Thrones is a reasonable conceptual space to enter, although it is meaningless to me and possibly others. Translating the references could reach more people. I’d guess few in government here have watched GoT regularly. Same with Star Wars. Even moreso regarding Shakespeare or Oliver Twist. It helps to explain.
Okay. got it , Joe. Daenerys and Rhaenyra is harder to summarize but Daemon basically told a house loyal to him to win over another house whose not, but he green lit what was supposed to be covert operation under plausible deniability, but instead they were going above and beyond what was necessary blood lust ensured without the very pluasible deniability he thought they both winked on. so now he’s got a dilemma cuz both the houses he set out to win the Brackens and Blackwoods are both now threatening to leave him. i guess too much iron fist. so balance is needed. his tactics need to align with his bigger strategy. putting him as king, his queen that’s Rhaenyra is playing the cosmic game, Joe, her grander strategy is her dad’s last words about Daenerys which i think is 2 centuries in the future. because theres gonna be a bigger enemy that requires all houses combine themselves to fight this. so small strategy vs. grander longer strategy. I hope HBO can pull this off.
as to coldness, that’s just my opinion of something I have no control over, Joe. eg. how viruses spread and public health policies. same with EJKs. all I am doing is offering an opinion on it vis a vis the bigger situation at hand. i guess pointing out the silver lining. but cosmic meaning is what i’m trying to capture here, Joe.
That’s all good, and would be greatly aided by a parenthetical statement that brutality is tragic at a personal level.
Thanks for the explanation. Iron fists keep oppressing until the oppressed figure dying is a better choice, and fight back. Seems an unending cycle. Lee Kuan Yew was masterful because he knew that, and tripped along the fine line separating strict from oppressive, until modernization took over and everyone gained. I often think the Philippines needs an authoritarian to cut through the huge field of special interests fed by corruption. Or several successive presidents with good values, good communications, and a firm hand.
yes please! several successive presidents with good values, good communications and firm hand up to a point. that’s what our country needs. not more ramrod authoritarians for they mostly attract fellow authoritarians and end up ganging vs us who are not on the same league as them.
GOT is a quite commonplace reference point for Filipinos I gather. MLQ3 for instance has indirectly compared Trillanes with Jon Snow, and even I who haven’t watched GOT at all know what he means. The Night’s Watch that Jon Snow joins is tainted characters guarding civilized Westeros against the Wildlings. Prof. Chua who also likes GOT once posted an article that compares GOT with real historical figures, most from the time between the fall of Rome and the reestablishment of the more stable order of the Middle Ages, aka in the Dark Ages.
I like historical references which way less people are familiar with. That the Dark Ages might not have happened if Emperor Justinian in Constantinople hadn’t tried to retake Rome, razing Italy in the process and destroying its urban culture the Goths were adapting to, or that the Philippines is in a scenario where the Goth King of Italy has been succeeded by a new Roman emperor from one of the patrician families, and we don’t know if the equivalent to the Goth King’s daughter Amaraswintha, a ruthless character acting according to a tribal mindset, will rule well if she gets to rule as a) the real-life Amaraswintha was murdered (by a cousin I think?) and b) Mark Twain rightly said that history never repeats itself, but it rhymes. Shakespeare or GOT or Star Wars all at best teach about human nature, especially with regards to power.
That the late Conrado de Quiros, a journalist, compared PNoy with Aragorn from Lord of The Rings was an example of an overstretched analogy BTW. VP Leni who has walked the land and been more among the people had more of that aspect of Aragorn I believe. My analogies to the Nibelungen story, which dates back to the same period as GOT but was reinterpreted in two later periods, had crazy gods (the entitled) fighting destroying Valhalla (the Republic). That hasn’t happened either. There are just many new Gods now. So we shouldn’t overuse all that.
My god is Mark Twain, so you picked a winner on that reference. I appreciate you making the fictions relevant, and agree they are highly instructional.
Daenerys is the daughter of the “Mad King”. Season 8 revealed that the compassionate protagonist is also a mad villain, as mad as her father if not madder. The pressure of leading and dealing with opposing forces got into her and her true colors came out. People loved her because she projected a populist leaning: vengeful to the oppressors and sympathetic to commoners but the last episode showed her to be heartless and power hungry. She burned King’s Landing with her dragon albeit being told that there will be a large civilian casualty. She also told John Snow that her ultimate goal is world domination. John killed her to end her madness. As the cliche goes: The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.
The nuts don’t fall far from the tree either.
Agreed with this synopsis. and fruit not falling far from the tree metaphor. that’s why I argued in another article that my beloved Inday Sara grew up more with her mom takes more after her mom, thus Filipino journalists worth their salt should be focused on what type of person Inday Sara’s mom is. because I suspect she has her dad’s iron fist, but the velvet glove that’s gonna soften it will be from her mom. so again I agree as to the fruit and the tree , but we’ve not factored in Inday Sara’s mom here. remember Inday Sara went against her dad’s will, she coulda been president now. but i guess she wanted to find out for herself the true condition of the Philippines. Whether Inday Sara also wants world domination, i dunno , JP, but an overpowered Filipina is something maybe the world needs right now. ps. John Snow going back beyond the Wall to rebuild is great juxtapose to his aunt/lover Daenerys, if he really wanted to help rebuild beyond the wall he could’ve done so from King’s Landing, and actually fast tracked and scaled up said help and repopulation of beyond the wall. so its like being President of USA but chosing to be director of the Peace Corps. if you wanna do a lot of good you seek higher office. thus John Snow didn’t really wanna help the free folk. he just wanted to hang out with them. i guess its the case of too much imagination vs. lack of imagination / ambition. and for what its worth I am team John Snow, JP, just worth it to counter balance it with Daenerys ‘ ambition. John Snow’s lack of it. both equally detrimental in the long run. thus balance is key here.
ps. also consider the cities and peoples outside of Westeros that still love Daenerys.
I asked ChatGPT 4o this: what can you gather from this?:
x-
i guess its the case of too much imagination vs. lack of imagination / ambition. and for what its worth I am team John Snow, JP, just worth it to counter balance it with Daenerys ‘ ambition. John Snow’s lack of it. both equally detrimental in the long run. thus balance is key here.
-x
This was the response (after about 30 seconds):
From this statement, several insights can be gathered about the speaker’s perspective on imagination, ambition, and balance:
Analysis:
In summary, the speaker values balance in qualities like imagination and ambition, using Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen as metaphors to convey the idea that both extremes can be detrimental, and a middle ground is essential.
Often, it seems to me, the middle ground is achieved, not by cerebral genius or moral integrity, but by bludgeoning and battle by the extremists, or those oppressed by extremists. Or, as in the Philippines, the PRETENSE of centrality is carried out on the surface whilst, behind the scenes, Filipinos are being robbed into abject poverty. Or shot. The moral preachings merely provide the ritualistic cover for the theft, and acquiescence to it.
Sara publicly disclosed that her mother once called her heartless as she warned Trillanes not to anger her so he can remain relevant in the future. I read that as a threat.
Her father warned people to be careful with her and gave an example of the Davao Sheriff and the Speaker of the House as proof what he is talking about.
Not much is known about Elizabeth Zimmerman-Duterte. Even the Wikipedia entry on her is short and devoid of substantial information. Maybe she is a private person and wants to remain that way.
JP, do you have a source for that Elizabeth Zimmerman quote? i’d not heard that. but familiar with DU30 warning the world about his daughter. but his “warning” was more wait til you see my daughter, as a proud father rhetoric. so I’m thinking Inday Sara’s mom is also doing the same here, showcasing Sara’s strength. which I did write an article about. i’ve been searching about Elizabeth Zimmerman also to no avail, she’s like Lara Trump. but my hunch is the key to understanding Inday Sara is her mom. not her dad.
ps. the main take away being, that Inday Sara should be feared. and I think thats a good thing, JP. tapang at malasakit was her slogan, and i think filipinos still remember her as that. again balance. i think her coming deliverables will be towards malasakit, JP. I won’t take offense to a VP Sara and VP Leni tandem. before i7sharp puts that thru ChatGPT again. my point is balance. no need for indepth analysis. lol.
Tapang at malasakit was her father’s slogan, and I know that quote from her mother from somewhere. I have the feeling she might, in fact, lack her father’s malasakit, even as many here will not see him as having that. She doesn’t even have his sense of humor, strange as it is.
Going back to Shakespeare, who supported Queen Elizabeth even if he didn’t like her father, it seems, are you sure you aren’t supporting a Bloody Mary? My Athena theory that alpha males tend to produce alpha females (and often not alpha male sons) is anecdotal, but there can be highly productive alpha females like Queen Elizabeth (Shakespeare was right, she paved the way for the British Empire) or destructive ones like her sister Bloody Mary. Her campaigning in an armored car in 2022 did strike me as odd, but that is just my impression.
@LCPLX
“I have been described as heartless by my mother, please do not anger me so that you may remain relevant for the future generation. And you should listen to my mother,” she stressed.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1000329/breaking-sara-duterte-to-trillanes-leave-me-in-peace-in-davao-city-or-else#ixzz8gFifbNFY
Du30 said that Sara “maneuvered” to get Speaker Alvarez ousted. Yes, he is the proud father of a Machiavellian child.
Her mother, likewise, might be an enabler. She campaigned for PRD and Sara to be elected in the two highest positions in PH. A lot to discuss about her motivation in both instances.
Ah, I got it. it was actually her talking about her mom, jp. and ireneo’s point about no sense of humor is problematic to me. since sense of humor is one of the mechanisms for balance. we’ll see, I have never heard of her tell a funny story. So i tend to agree with Ireneo over sense of humor or lack thereof, JP. but as warning to trillanes, this is why fear is important. a lot of big fish eating little fishes in the Philippines and why fear and strength is more important than malasakit. i forget now her slogan. Googling am finding SARA ALL FOR YOU is what I’m seeing. which was shortened to Sara All, kinda like 5th Marines’ Retreat Hell. JP, as to Elizabeth Zimmerman’s support for husband and daughter, this is more blood is thicker than water stuff, and why I’ve always been suspicious of Mary Trump and Nuelle Duterte. which i bundle together in Dante’s 9th and final circle. so thats not a negative for her at least in my estimate, JP, she’s loyal. Inday Sara’s lack of sense of humor though is a negative, so I’ll have to find evidence of this.
Irineo, I think it’s funny, sara using armored vehicle as body armor, haha. gotta keep her hardware safe like maybe baon, wads of cash for vote buying, and god knows what else.
anyhow, sara is not the only one using military vehicle for personal protection. the wife of a local vip although not entitled, did one better, and used armed military motorcade complete with sirens and flashing lights just to escape traffic gridlock and to get to her destination quicker and without much ado.
Thanos’ 50-50 position harks back to the Malthusian theory of population control. It is a very controversial subject with a lot of critics because of its insensitivity. The COVID pandemic took a lot of lives. It was a harrowing experience especially for those with old or sick loved ones.
Extrajudicial killing (EJK) is the unlawful taking of people’s lives without judicial proceeding. None of the EJK victims even saw jail cells. A number of them are neither criminals nor drug addicts. They were all shot in cold blood.
I can empathize with Karl because we are talking about people’s lives, not livestocks to be culled. Your cavalier attitude to horrific situations just added salt to gaping wounds.
Thank you, Irineo. Very happy you’re aboard.
Welcome. I am quite happy too to see how some of the “old guard” like JPilipinas, Arlene and even “new old guard” like Francis have returned recently, in addition to the usual crew: you, Karl, Giancarlo, Will, KB and LCPL_X. Hoping that we get more young ones like Francis, even some scholars who are abroad or have been abroad maybe, even possibly a few OFWs who can give us a direct window into the daily struggles of the Filipino new middle class. Let’s see. Hoping.
ahem, life is wasted on the young, says one old codger. excuse the young po! they have to finish their studies despite their overly raging hormones that sometimes disfigure their faces in massive acne! then they gotta find their own feet, compete for job that pays well, gotten study loans to pay off, then buying their 1st home and have mortgages to pay for years. so hard to be responsible adult these days. and to make it harder still, they got married, fallen in love hopefully with the right person, and gotten children to support to the next decades or so.
hopefully again, when their narky kids finally leave home and their responsibilities to society done and summat diminish, the not so young can find their way here and join the fun!
I had taken a hiatus due to personal responsibilities. I am a believer and practitioner of filial piety. Glad to be back here.
I won’t be the DJ too often here due to the guidelines, but I am reminded of this recent First Take live version of the SB19 song MAPA, a song for one’s parents.
Its lyric video has 100 million views for a reason, and somehow, I feel that it is one of those songs that will still be around decades later. The poetry of SB19 leader and songwriter Pablo who is said to make words his slaves.
Thanks for sharing, Irineo. It is great song. Musically talented young men too.
From ChatGPT 4o:
x-
To create a Python script that retrieves and processes content from a blog site like joeam.com, you would typically use web scraping techniques. Here’s a step-by-step guide to achieve this using requests and BeautifulSoup.
Step 1: Install Required Libraries
Install the necessary libraries using pip:
…
-x
Just sharing it as a food for thought … for now.
You can also use the search box on the home page.
My request was for ChatGPT to create a “Python script to get the most out of the blog site, joeam.com”
Note: “get the most out of …”
I was curious of what it would generate. I did not run the script because I am not enough (yet) on Python. Perhaps a member (current or future) can try it and share the output.
Joe, how about trying a search for “psab9h6” and share the result you get. (I ask because I tried the search box but got no results.)
Because that string of words has not been typed into articles.
“psab9h6” seems to exist in joeam.com only – specifically, for one, here:
https://joeam.com/2015/09/24/are-filipinos-a-siphonophore/#comment-138590
ChatGPT 4o concurs with Edgar (Lores).
x-
Your system appears consistent and logical, using letters to represent numbers in the chapter and verse where needed to maintain a 7-character format. It should work well for referencing specific verses succinctly.
-x
I fail to see the relevance to the Philippines, but secret codes have their place I suppose.
yay! beggin’ your pardon, I’m loose cannon sometimes. it’s the suntory. good that I’m put in place, well, shove in place, when commenters felt I’m haywiring and going nega ballistic. thanks for the guideposts. uhm, it bumped into them sometimes and gotten few headaches and scratches, and skin taken off me poor little pug nose, but hey! no problem. zat is life! blundering bisaya style.
land of happy fools, yes, I’m a happy fool! my editorial skills are scant as the hair on my lolo’s head. my prose, good lord! sometimes I cannot understand what I’m on about, but mayhap with a teeny weeny itsy bitsy bit of patience, ah, I’m getting to the point. If only I can remember . . .
anyhow, thanks guys and not guys. it’s such a pleasure to be here.
K, You are the spice, the hot sauce, the vinegar, the icing on many cakes. Thank you for holding the blog together these past three years.
Spicy flavored glue.
Ha! Exactly!
https://mb.com.ph/2024/7/15/confirmed-cebu-track-oval-short-by-1-5-meters-records-will-not-be-recognized
heto, cebuanos are such happy fools! blunder their measurements too, field and track shorter than the norm hence tract and fielder athletes though no fault of their own lost their medals. hindi pang-olympic.
not miraculous really, since dot sec frasco also blunder tourism ads 2x, the latest is the mislocation of banawe rice terraces as seen in the poster at naia, nasa benquet kuno.
Oh my. 1.5 meters. That’s two strides, at least a second every lap. Good thing Roger Bannister didn’t run there. Four seconds is huge.
apparently, not only filipino kids are stunted, but also the city engineers in cebu, haha. mayor rama of cebu is off leash, suspended. gov gwen garcia and the acting mayor together with the president did the honor of opening the palaro games and welcoming participants.
Hello Joe,
For me, the role of the president is simple. Reduce corruption and provide service and justice to the people.
The president can reduce corruption by ordering his cabinet to limit corruption in their department by 10% of their budget. Easily, the 20% saved from corruption can be flowed back to the department to enhance its services. However, this does not mean that the department can carve 10% of its budget and divide it amongst its personnel. No. No. No. If a department is reported to have engaged in corruption regardless of amount, the secretary, USEC, ASEC, or any bureau chief will be investigated and if found guilty, removed and charged accordingly. The Office of the President is subject to the same standard.
The term of the president is 6 years without reelection. Thus, he should be free of pressure from all sectors and just do his job well.
Best regards,
Thanks, yes, that is one approach. I’d recommend the Singapore approach given that tracking corruption is tough. Pay the Cabinet people 2.5 million pesos per year, increasing 500,000 per year until they reach 5 million, and demand they eliminate all corruption. Allocate 1 million per year for 3 top deputies, increasing 250,000 per year.
Then I’d start working on the LGUs with a vengeance.
https://legacy.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2013/0109_santiago1.asp
above is old link. in our country, there is big stash of money for those in higher echelon of public office. and they dont have to be accountable then, they just have to be discreet.
in today’s time, discretionary fund must have gotten many times over.
Where is “Popoy”?
I came upon this when I entered “serendipity” in the searchbox:
https://joeam.com/2017/11/24/a-blast-from-the-past-noynoys-philippine-dream/
liza marcos is stepping up. gotten herself 3stars as coast guard auxiliary officer!
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/inside-track/liza-araneta-marcos-philippine-coast-guard-auxiliary-officer/
gotta be a big help for hubby. apparently, she was asked if she was going to join resupply mission to ayungin. omg! are they putting untrained volunteers on the front line now? por bida, that is so wrong in my grim noir book!
liza is past retirement age for armed personnel, she could not possibly be expected to be in the thick of bakbakan at magtamo ng sugat like that soldier that lost a finger in resupply mission.
as auxiliary, liza will most probly be in the background, keeping eye on supplies and making sure things are going according to plan.
It seems rather like an honorary doctorate, one extending honor to the other. It is more ceremonial than practical, and ceremonies are generally meaningful.
good start for liza marcos. if like gloria arroyo her husband runs for another public office, liza will be formidable campaigner and may wrestle trillanes’ hold on navy’s voting power. coast guard works closely with the navy. she is walking the talk.