Which is why we cannot understand why you had to fake the circumstances of Danny’s unfortunate illness and eventual demise and therein lie to the people.

Your father did obtain a loan from the GSIS, for 16,000 pesos to build the house, which was not a small amount in those days. He bought a 560-square meter lot in San Rafael which at the time, cost 30 pesos per square meter, or 16.800. Who were your neighbours? Well, the following big names in Philippine industry lived in that vicinity: the late Yao Eng Hue, once president of the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, at the time owner of Manhattan Rubber, which produced rubber slippers; Robin Sy, also a former president of FFCCCI; Dante Go, who used to own Sugarland and sold it in 1999 to Ramon Ang for a cool billion; even the family of Wilson and William Tieng of Solar Films and Solar TV. Their father was one of the biggest glassware and kitchen equipment dealers in Echague, Quiapo, in league with the late Leonardo Ty of Hitachi and Ajinomoto. Even William Gatchalian had property in the vicinity. My own grand-uncle used to have a clothing factory nearby, called La Navotena at the foot of the bridge along North Balut. The area is beside what is now Westminster High School, a Chinese-Filipino school.

Just so the young will understand how big an amount 16,800 pesos was (30 x 560 sq. m.), the minimum wage at the time was 120 pesos per month, or 4 pesos per day.

Villar also said that the subdivision they lived in was beside Smoky Mountain, and the stench assailed their nostrils. Again that is a lie. Because there was no Smoky Mountain at the time (the 60’s). It was only in the 80’s when population pressures, inward migration and grinding poverty made foraging the city’s detritus become the anomaly that it was. San Rafael subdivision is close, but not adjacent to the area used as a mountain of dump, which Tita Cory and later FVR converted into tenement housing for real squatters, developed by Reghis Romero, now one of Villar’s and GMA’s most ardent supporters. Young Manny did not smell the stench of garbage, but the smell of soap produced by Procter and Gamble PMC at the back of San Rafael.

You want the Liberals and your main political opponent to “apologize” for what they did to your reputation. Firstly, it was neither the Liberals nor Noynoy who told the truth surrounding the death of your brother which you yourself brought to public attention through expensive advertisements. It was the collective work of columnists whose responsibility it is to tell the truth, and shared their information with each other, especially since it concerns someone who wants to be president.

via Business Insight Malaya | LITO BANAYO.

I’ve praised PGMA for the cash transfers to the poor because of the significant level or research done on the effects of CCT in improving lives in Africa, South America and Asia.  This is controversial for most, especially the libertarian leaning people but I am of the helping each other leaning type. Praise to Noy for knowing stuff like this. In a way Gordon, G1BO  and even Jamby have promising insightful projects lined up. So Praise to them too.

To strengthen Noynoy’s pro-poor position, his campaign must persistently explain the link between corruption and poverty. It must flesh out Noynoy’s statement that corruption “deprives the poor of the services they badly need.”

The campaign has to highlight the elements of Noynoy’s pro-poor platform that have not been widely publicized. An example is the program to sustain and expand the conditional cash transfer (CCT) to the poor. The program provides cash subsidy for the poor, conditional on sending their children to school and availing themselves of public health services. A CCT administered by a transparent and honest administration will do away with the patronage that characterizes traditional politics. The CCT has a double dividend — it provides immediate relief to the poor and paves the way for long-term poverty eradication.

Further, to solidify the support in rural areas, Noynoy can follow up his promise to subject Hacienda Luisita to land distribution.

The second task is to strengthen the mass movement component of the electoral campaign. Amplifying Noynoy’s pro-poor platform also serves the purpose of energizing the mass movement.

via BusinessWorld Online: Till victory.

Click through to read the new report being criticized.

Most news content that isn’t simply the reporting of fact is an attempt to find – or manufacture – deeper meaning in events. This isn’t trivial work, of course, because there often is deeper meaning. But the inability to recognize coincidence or understand how patterns are established means that the habit of drawing conclusions from like events can look, well, stupid.

What struck me about this as interesting, though, is that MSNBC’s headline is perfectly accurate, and conveys precisely the right amount of fear and worry-making, about precisely the wrong thing. That is, nature is out of control. In a fundamental way, that’s the definition of climate change – nature gone wildly out of control, destabilized and with all that implies. We know this is happening because it is already happening – we can document that natural disasters related to climate change are happening more often. The mainstream media is trying to whip up fear about something that is actually occurring – but when it comes to climate change, the mainstream media mostly publishes “he said, she said” articles that lend wait to the denialists, implying that there was an equally credible case on both sides. We know that there is every reason to be afraid that more and more people will endure floods, droughts, wildfires, famines, heatwaves, storms…. – and we’re trying to find meaning in coincidence.

via Of Course Nature is Out of Control – Duh! : Casaubon’s Book.

People want news that confirms their world view. The few people who wants news to inform their worldviews is in the minority, or if not in the minority they are the silent (read not that media consuming) majority. And as Edmund Burke has said “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”

What sells the news?

Paul Krugman gives his view of what sells the news.  It is a view that fits the vision of the Gray Lady quite well: a clear distinction between news pages and editorial pages, facts supported by data etc.  That is also how I want my news presented.  However the evidence that that sells the news is quite thin.  Whatever Rupert did to the WSJ Journal (that which Felix Salmon and Brad Delong rail against) appears to be working.

More generally opinion dressed up as news, especially when it panders to the prejudice of your readers or viewers works seems to sell really well.  A while back I gave a quarterly series of operating profits (in millions) for Fox Cable Networks – a business dominated by Fox News.  Here they are again: 197, 262, 211,194, 249, 275, 282, 284, 289, 337, 330, 313, 379, 428, 429, 434, 495.

There are few businesses with growth in operating profits without substantial capital expenditure that look anything like that.  Well Fox News gets even better (at least from the perspective of a News Corp shareholder).  The latest number is was $604 million operating profit for the quarter ended 30 December 2009.

via Bronte Capital: In which Paul Krugman proves he is an academic snob who argues from his prejudice rather than the data.

In a discussion of insurance market reforms, President Obama asks Republican Senator John Kyl to move away from talking points and focus on finding common areas of agreement. The President responds to Kyl: “Any time the question is phrased as ‘Does Washington know better?’ I think we’re kind of tipping the scales a little bit there, since we all know that everybody is angry at Washington right now it’s a good talking point, but it doesn’t actually answer the underlying question, which is do we want to make sure that people have a baseline of protection?’”

angol here: I believe that what’s mostly said in Presidential forums can be classified as ”

“It’s a good talking point, but it doesn’t actually answer the underlying question”

“

I can guess that we probably have a high coverage rate in the Philippines. This is because unlike the US in the Philippines if you have work you have PhilHealth,SSS and GSIS. This leaves two groups of people out. The rich people who don’t “work” (own business , etc), and the very poor who can’t but it. Of the rich, they obviously have cash to burn but I suspect if in the USA one of the major causes of bankruptcy is medical emergency/conditions then the rich of the Philippines may not have it any much better. The poorest of the poor have healthcare if they live in Makati and Muntinlupa and during elections government officials such as the soon to be former president distribute PhilHealth Cards.

What I’m trying to say is that during the happy moments that my mind wanders towards the Philippine Government I see PhilHealth, SSS and GSIS, without the same kind of fight that the US encountered in trying to enact them. What I see is a Davao where I saw less people smoking because of too many restrictions (that I agree with). What I see is a Makati where Jejomar Binay is showing the Philippines what can be done by the local government for it’s constituents. What I see is a President (GMA) who has shown just how powerful the presidency can be with the right incentives.  We have a people whose trying to learn about the candidates.  We have the BIR harrassing Shell which shows we aren’t as controlled by corporations as the US (Although I don’t agree with what they are doing, this is almost extortion).

There is hope. The Philippines is not that far away from where it could be!!!

pointer from here: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/2010/02/25/what-you-see-is-what-they-buy/

this is nice , hope we advance enough to be able to do this!! Manny Villar (Vista Land) ,  Noynoy Aquino (ABS-CBN, Ayala Group of Companies), Gilbert Teodoro  (Government???), Eddie Villanueva ( His followers?) , Jamby (Meron ba?)

The challenges facing the Philippines are many, with solutions conflicting. This necessitates a lot of sacrifice from all sectors of society. This is Noynoy’s second weakness, his lack of great oratorical gifts. His first being his unproven mettle for leadership.  I pray he finds his voice because if if he doesn’t her lineage may not be enough to counter the power of GMA2 or the one who must not be named. If people do not understand why they are sacrificing, sacrifice becomes a bitter medicine, hard to swallow. If we cannot embolden people, help them find the courage to stare down corruption, report the erring officials, being vigilant against opportunist in and outside the administration, Noy may win the election but lose the war.

Please anyone but GMA2.

He answered, as with his previous answers, in that circuitous manner. The core message is lost in the minor crests and dips. His words traveled from his lips to my ears and my brain discerned that his answer, in brief, was that he could not miss the opportunity to create change. I sat back, unmoved. I did not get the answer I wanted. I was no closer to getting a better sense of his motivations for running as I had before sharing breathing space with the good senator.

But what did I expect? Noynoy does not have the gravitas of men and women who command loyalty by simply being. He has not the charm of his father nor a revolution brewing in his favor as his mother. All he has are his shoulders frail. Here is a man who had indeed chosen to pick up the biggest rock in sight and to willingly strike it on his head. And he does it not for naked quest for power. Megalomania is to Noynoy as sweet is to brick. These properties do not compute.

These days, his noticeably thinner body seems to bow under the weight of his assumed burden, this man who has had no great aspirations to power, this man who has had no messianic pretensions. In running for the highest office in the land at a time of great crisis, perhaps Noynoy only wishes to honor the memory of his mother and father, and in doing so resurrect in all of us what was was great and proud in the Filipino.

via Noynoy and Great Expectations | Filipino Voices.

Is this a direct quote? I believe this should read, “ever since I held posts in government, I have stopped engaging in business pursuits.” or something to that effect.

“I have been a businessman for a long time and ever since I held posts in government

, I have never been a businessman,” said Villar in Filipino.

via Villar defends anew poverty roots – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.

Read the whole thing. Interesting thought, even if a product doesn’t work, advertising does. This is why we need to force the candidates that we like to advertise more. If your for Gibo, for Noy, for Gordon, for Villanueva, we can’t let the Villar (aka Arroyo 2) to win.

Btw1: except for the Ampatuan misstep Gibo’s brand of campaigning is really good, though not good enough. I especially like the way they highlighted the aviator credentials (Believe this is good for the girls). Gibo has the hottest wife they need to get her to do more shows/commercials. Although Gibo’s interview highlights his intelligence I believe as the GMA2′s popularity boost has shown its about virality, Last Song Syndrome etc.

Btw2: Noy’s advertisements are dull and kind of self centered. I fail to get “Di Ka Nag Iisa”. Campaigns should be about the candidate showing us he/she is worth voting. Di ka nag iisa was made as if you want us to convince you to run. Come on, fix your message/Public Relations team, they seem to be too full of themselves.

Bt3: I’ve written about this before but Gordon should be highlighting his nickname. We need a more fun campaign.

Bt4: I believe that Eddie should just point his followers to any of the three other candidates (Gibo/Gordon/Noy). Religion and Government should not mix.

Btw5: I think that in the next Presidential Forum the other candidates should gang up on GMA2(Just love that GMA2 is like 7ABS hehehe) in the passive aggressive way we Filipinos excel at. Everyone should keep saying. Hindi ako magnanakaw, di ko gagamitin ang pera ng gobyerno para sa pansarili kong kapakanan, etc etc. Though I fear only Bro Eddie can say this because he is a relatively new politician, and all politicians are liars (well not all but close enough).

The 10:23 campaign against homeopathy raises a question: given that homeopathy doesn’t work, why is there such strong demand for it? A new paper by Werner Troesken (ungated draft pdf) sheds some interesting light on this.

He studies not homeopathy but US patent medicines in the 19th century. Despite being practically useless, these enjoyed spectacular long-run growth – Professor Troesken estimates that spending on them grew 22 times faster than US GDP between 1810 and 1939. Why?

The answer, he says, is that demand for them was inelastic with respect to failure – people kept buying them even though they didn’t work. This was because the medicines offered enormous consumer surplus; the products were cheap, but the benefits they offered were huge; there’s an analogy here with Pascal’s wager. As a result, when a product failed to work, consumers downgraded the probability that patent medicines generally would work, but still saw a positive expected gain from buying them; the small chance of a big improvement in one’s health is worth paying for.

via Stumbling and Mumbling: The demand for quacks.