A full-blown currency crisis. That’s one way to describe the situation in Russia, where even the attempted “shock and awe” of a 6.5 percentage point-hike in interest rates failed to halt the rouble’s slide on the foreign exchanges. The other is to say that Russia has been engaged in an economic war with the west – and has just lost.
Put simply, this was Moscow’s Norman Lamont moment. Back in September 1992, the then chancellor said he would defend the pound and keep Britain in the exchange rate mechanism by raising official borrowing costs to 15%, even though the economy was in deep trouble at the time.
Russia is in even worse shape than Britain was in 1992. With a clapped-out manufacturing sector, it is over-reliant on its massive stocks of oil and gas at a time when the price of oil is falling through the floor. A barrel of Brent crude was trading at below $60 a barrel on Tuesday, compared to a recent peak of $115 in the summer.
via Russia has just lost the economic war with the west | Business | The Guardian.
Mar Roxas and the motorcycle slide
Sabi nga nila no good deed goes un punished (for the devil is more vindictive fellow)
My past experiences have often made me a skeptic. But one thing is clear in my mind: for those six days in Eastern Samar, many people were simply trying to do their jobs to the best of their abilities: the mayor who left her hospital bed in Manila to be with her people; the planning officer, in over his head when he was made DRRM officer; the governor who deferred his chemo treatments to stay in the command center; the local and international NGOs and relief volunteers who rushed to help without hesitation; the media men and women who were on the ground reporting responsibly from the start; and many others who did their share.
Like them, Mar Roxas was merely doing his job. He was serving the people.
I know. I was there. – Rappler.com
Rep. Jose Christopher “Kit” Belmote represents the 6th district of Quezon City in the Philippine House of Representatives.
via Mar Roxas and the motorcycle slide.
SC upholds Robredo's orders on good local governance | ABS-CBN News
The memorandum circulars provide, among others, for the full disclosure of the LGUs’ budgets.
Former Camarines Sur Governor Luis Raymond Villafuerte Jr. had questioned the legality of Memorandum Circular 2010-83, Memorandum Circular (MC) 2010-138 and Memorandum Circular 2011-08 for “lack of merit.”
MC 2010-83 pertains to the full disclosure of local budgets and finances and bids and public offering.
MC 2010-138, on the other hand, pertains to the use of the 20 percent component of the annual Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) shares.
MC 2011-08, meanwhile, pertains to the strict adherence by local government units on Section 90 of Republic Act 10147 or the General Appropriations Act of 2011.
Villafuerte claimed Robredo, who died in 2012 in a plane crash, went beyond his supervisory powers. He said the circulars violate local and fiscal autonomy.
The SC dismissed his claims, saying “it is inconceivable, however, how the publication of budgets, expenditures, contracts and loans and procurement plans of local government units required in the assailed issuances could have infringed on the local fiscal autonomy of local government units.”
“The posting requirements are mere transparency measures which do not at all hurt the manner by which local government units decide the utilization and allocation of their funds,” it added.
via SC upholds Robredo’s orders on good local governance | ABS-CBN News.
In Manila, malls aren't passe – they are the city itself | Cities | The Guardian
That, perhaps, comes as more of a surprise than anything to westerners, particularly to an American such as myself, coming as we do from places where big, fully enclosed shopping centres, many of which have already undergone demolition, have become symbols of the increasingly passé, automobile-bound and fear-driven cold war era of urban planning.
In the postwar years, Manila repurposed jeeps, those most utilitarian American vehicles, into an iconic, useful, and flamboyant form of transit. Today, in the same improvisational manner, it has repurposed malls, those most tired of all American structures, not by building them as a substitutes for the city, but by building them as the city itself.
via In Manila, malls aren’t passe – they are the city itself | Cities | The Guardian.
The costs and benefits of Pantawid Pamilya
Wow it would only take about 100 Billion Pesos per year to push up the income and practically eradicate extreme poverty in the Philippines. This makes me hopeful. Please do read the whole article.
Another measure of poverty is the poverty gap index representing the average amount of income required by the poor to reach the poverty line, in relation to the poverty line. APIS 2013 data shows that Pantawid has increased the income of beneficiaries so that they have moved closer to the poverty line: per peso cash grant, the poverty gap has been reduced by 61 centavos.
In 2013, Pantawid beneficiary families received an average of P1,407 of monthly cash grants, if they sent their 3 beneficiary children to school, and received health services for their household members. Without the cash grants, these families had an average per capita income of P13,293, whereas the poverty line per person was P19,262. Thus, the amounts given will not really help them cross the poverty line, but are only truly “Pantawid.” About half of cash grants are used for food, a quarter (25%) on educated-related expenses, while 7% is used on health, and close to nothing is used for recreation or alcohol.
The PSA estimated that in 2012, the “income gap” of the poor, i.e. the total amount required for all poor persons to cross the poverty line (assuming we could identify them and give them just what they needed, without even considering the costs of identifying them) was P136.6 billion, whereas the full CCT budget covered P39.4 billion.
So while the CCT budget is large, when you drill to the beneficiaries, this is still not enough to help them get out of poverty.
via The costs and benefits of Pantawid Pamilya.
Nix Nolledo: 'Xurpas is just the beginning'
Nice!!! Hoping this is the first of many!
To our friends, family, our underwriter, our investors, our partners, the PSE board and management, the SEC, and everyone who helped us through this journey. Good morning.Today is a day for thanksgiving, and a day for celebration. Today, we mark this occasion with humility and joy, knowing that we started with a dream of creating a mobile tomorrow. Today, Xurpas officially enters the Philippine Stock Exchange as “X”, on the backs of our hopes, hard work, and an initial investment of P62,500.I still remember the first Xurpas office, it was my father’s tiny apartment. We brought our computers from home and had no money to spend on new office furniture. We ate canned goods and rice to save our money. Raymond, Andy, and I poured all of our savings into this venture, armed with our skills and our aspirations of building a better future.The future has arrived. With more than 110 million mobile subscriptions in the market, Internet access reaching 40 percent of our population, and smart phone penetration about to hit half of all mobile subscribers, the future could not have looked any brighter. We’ve waited 13 years for this moment.
via Nix Nolledo: ‘Xurpas is just the beginning’.
Chris Rock on Ferguson, Cosby, and Obama — Vulture
A thoughtful interview by Chris Rock!
Let what drop?
Just let the country flatline. Let the auto industry die. Don’t bail anybody out. In sports, that’s what any new GM does. They make sure that the catastrophe is on the old management and then they clean up. They don’t try to save old management’s mistakes.
That’s clever. You let it all go to hell.
Let it all go to hell knowing good and well this is on them. That way you can implement. You hire your own coach. You get your own players. He could have got way more done. You know, we’ve all been on planes that had tremendous turbulence, but we forget all about it. Now, if you live through a plane crash, you’ll never forget that. Maybe Obama should have let the plane crash. You get credit for bringing somebody back from the dead. You don’t really get credit for helping a sick person by administering antibiotics.
One thing that was so exciting to many people, including you and me, when Obama got in was the hope, however delusional, that his election signaled some kind of racial progress in America. When, in fact, I don’t think there’s been much at all.
Grown people, people over 30, they’re not changing. But you’ve got kids growing up.
Your own kids are all girls, right?
All girls. I mean, I almost cry every day. I drop my kids off and watch them in the school with all these mostly white kids, and I got to tell you, I drill them every day: Did anything happen today? Did anybody say anything? They look at me like I am crazy.
And you think this change is generational? That maybe it has nothing to do with Obama?
It’s partly generational, but it’s also my kids grew up not only with a black president but with a black secretary of State, a black joint chief of staff, a black attorney general. My children are going to be the first black children in the history of America to actually have the benefit of the doubt of just being moral, intelligent people.
via Chris Rock on Ferguson, Cosby, and Obama — Vulture.
rePost:Google in Education
Working as a professional programmer from an Electrical Engineering degree from UPD-EEE dept is not as far a jump as say an Electrical Engineering degree from MAPUA. Programming is a form of force multiplier and thus we are well trained to use this for solving EE stuff. That said and EE degree is far from a CS degree and the difference shows the further you go within the field. Hope I can find the time to plug all these holes.
Guide for Technical Development
Having a solid foundation in Computer Science is important in being a successful Software Engineer. This guide is a suggested path for University students to develop their technical skills academically and non-academically through self paced hands-on learning. You may use this guide to determine courses to take but please make sure you are taking courses required for your major or faculty in order to graduate. The online resources provided in this guide are not meant to replace courses available at your University. However, they may help supplement your learnings or provide an introduction to the topic.
Using this guide:
Please use this guide at your discretion
There may be other things you want to learn or do outside of this guide – go for it!
Checking off all items in this guide does not guarantee a job at Google
This guide will evolve or change – check back for updates
Follow our Google for Students +Page to get additional tips, resources, and other students interested in development.
via Google in Education.
Binay does not have to be declared guilty to get thrown from the presidential race | The Society of Honor by Joe America
Jejomar Binay would not be a presidential candidate in America. Period.
He has not been convicted of breaking any laws. But he would be convicted of violating the sense of good behavior that we . . . as informed, thinking voters . . . demand.
Why are so many Filipinos just standing by and waiting for a court conviction? Waiting for the Ombudsman? Waiting for impeachment? Waiting for an official act?
Perhaps because in the space between laws and freedoms, Filipinos have no clarity of conscience themselves. Frankly, I don’t wholly understand why there so little condemnation of Vice President Binay from important people who are SUPPOSED to have good ethical bearing. Leaders concede every benefit to the top crook in the land waiting for an official to tell them what to think. It’s like they are ethically impotent. I have shied away from the term cowardly. But . . . they . . . just . . . can’t . . . speak . . . up.
There are no Rizals among the current crop of leaders, I’d guess.
via Binay does not have to be declared guilty to get thrown from the presidential race | The Society of Honor by Joe America.
Harry Roque's Blog « Thoughts of an activist lawyer
The famous UP lawyer who can’t read between the lines. Vietnam is not a lackey of the US yet is encountering aggressive action by China. Is it too much of a stretch that maybe China is aggressive against US not specifically because of our close ties with the US?
Add blaming the President for the failings of the Judiciary and someone has to say it:
Harry Roque is a hack!
I wish that we eventually get a lawyer of principle who fights for principle instead of his ego.
I answered all of the options except for strengthening our ties with the US since China already views us as a mere lackey of the US, I explained that with the billions of pesos that we have lost in PDAF and DAP, we could already afford the cost of modernizing our navy. I am unsure though until now what Justice Carpio was leading to since he ended his interpellation by observing that China has also been aggressive against Vietnam despite the latter’s staunch independent foreign policy.
via Harry Roque’s Blog « Thoughts of an activist lawyer.