Category: personal AnGoL

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rePost::Echoes of the Long Walk – TrueHoop Blog – ESPN

Can anybody lend me a copy?
Need to read something inspiring now!
This was an excellent post with a nice anecdote featuring Jerry West and Bill Russell.

I read Nelson Mandela’s book “Long Walk to Freedom” several years ago.
On the cover, there’s a quote from the Boston Globe, saying the book “should be read by every person alive.”
That’s an absurdly big statement, but I could not agree more. Twenty years to the day after Mandela’s release from prison, it’s a good day to pick up that book again.
It’s an amazing story, for a number of reasons, but to me the lasting message is that, in the face of dreadful, pervasive, overwhelming, demeaning and dehumanizing opposition, and without all that much reason to believe he’d succeed, Mandela did four things:

  • He would not accept the status quo.
  • He would not be quiet.
  • He would maintain his own dignity.
  • He would not quit.

He was released. He led his nation. Everything did not work out tidily. His story is not one a dream having come perfectly true. But in broad strokes, he and his colleagues changed the world and ended apartheid.
via Echoes of the Long Walk – TrueHoop Blog – ESPN.

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rePost::The accommodating point « Paulo Coelho’s Blog

Wow, this was an interesting read. I’m not anit love or something like that. It just seems that a lot of people are like the character in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, They just want to think about something else. Life is such a beautiful thing that I cannot subscribe to the belief that the complex solution to finding happines is actually the simple narrative “find someone to love.” Note the someone, I believe I can be convinced with the validity of the statement “Find love” because it can mean, “Find ….. you love”, substitute … with the host of things we can love. I am moved by the suspicion that Paulo Coelho’s personal legend has a very big grain of truth about it. You must keep on searching and finding then searching again for your personal legend.
PS: you can think of this as a pre valentine rant. Read the whole thing (linked article).

The journalist asks whether the only way a human being can become happy is to find their beloved. The woman says no:
“Love changes, and nobody understands that. The idea that love leads to happiness is a modern invention, dating from the late 17th century. From that time on, people have learned to believe that love should last for ever and that marriage is the best way to exercise love. In the past there was not so much optimism about the longevity of passion.

via The accommodating point « Paulo Coelho’s Blog.

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rePost::The Big Lie About the 'Life of the Mind' – Advice – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Nice read, If you loved “Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go,” (linked to this) you would love this.

The myth of the academic meritocracy powerfully affects students from families that believe in education, that may or may not have attained a few undergraduate degrees, but do not have a lot of experience with how access to the professions is controlled. Their daughter goes to graduate school, earns a doctorate in comparative literature from an Ivy League university, everyone is proud of her, and then they are shocked when she struggles for years to earn more than the minimum wage. (Meanwhile, her brother—who was never very good at school—makes a decent living fixing HVAC systems with a six-month certificate from a for-profit school near the Interstate.)
Unable even to consider that something might be wrong with higher education, mom and dad begin to think there is something wrong with their daughter, and she begins to internalize that feeling.
Everyone has told her that “there are always places for good people in academe.” She begins to obsess about the possibility of some kind of fatal personal shortcoming. She goes through multiple mock interviews, and takes business classes, learning to present herself for nonacademic positions. But again and again, she is passed over in favor of undergraduates who are no different from people she has taught for years. Maybe, she wonders, there's something about me that makes me unfit for any kind of job.
via The Big Lie About the ‘Life of the Mind’ – Advice – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

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rePost:: The final failure of the Meiji right-wing ideology … Japan fades into the future with a walking stick…::Bronte Capital

This is very nice for the Philippines. Filipinos will undoubtedly grab this opportunity if it was presented to them. It is really sad that we may lose more of the cultural diversity in the world. Globalization has almost made sure that there is a world culture developing.  When I think about this more I realize that the Philippines if it doesn’t get it’s act together will surely see a lot of its culture forgotten. In this respect when ( it is not an if, an if means Japanese culture has not died) Japan takes the immigration plunge their great effort in recording and preserving their culture will not go into waste. I hope we are not too poor to not be able to save most of the cultural capital our beautiful country has.

Japan will have a median age of about 55. This means that the vast bulk of the Japanese population (or more precisely Japanese women) will be well beyond child-bearing age and given low fertility rates anyway (below 2.0 per woman) the population will crash. That is more-or-less baked in. Simple equation – most the women past child-bearing age and very low fertility amongst those who bear children anyway.
There is a solution – immigration. There are an endless supply of well educated and skilled young people (mostly) from the subcontinent who would happily move to a developed country. There are more than a few from China too. Australia will import them. Ampontan rhetorically asked where I expected them all to fit into Japan? Well that is easy – with a demographic like that I expect them to fit into the slots left by the dying warriors of Japanese industrialization.
If Japan does not do it then aging and death is inevitable. The working population will be stuck looking after and funding the huge numbers of retired. Japan’s industrial growth – now anemic – will collapse entirely with its population. The great Japanese industrialization experiment will walk slowly into the setting sun aided by a walking stick.
There is of course an alternative which is modest levels of immigration. New immigrants will – like it or not – be Asian – mostly from the subcontinent. Over time they will also include many Muslims. The Japanese will have to accept – as Australians have accepted – that their children will breed with these people. As a white Australian I have fully accepted that it is likely as not that my grandchildren will arrive as little brown babies. I do not have a problem with that.
But Japan is a country where they won’t let their hookers sleep with foreigners because – well they are foreigners. (It was that story in this post that got Ampontan all upset with me.) But it does not have to be that way. There can eventually be an Asian co-prosperity zone in Japan – it will be with Japanese children and other Asian children and eventually their joint grandchildren. The Meiji racist ideology does not have to end with a walking stick – it can end in a truly multicultural society that will lead Japan onto greater things than the original modern revolutionaries of the Meiji era could ever have imagined.
via Bronte Capital: The final failure of the Meiji right-wing ideology … Japan fades into the future with a walking stick….

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rePost:Are you looking for a job that allows you to spend time with family and friends? Maybe this is for you!!!!:SuperFreakonomics Book Club: Allie the Escort Answers Your Questions – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com

What if I suggested this to a stranger (obviously beautiful) who wanted more time with family and friends? Think I’d get slapped in the face?

Q.
What do you like best about your job and what do you like least about it? – lost_fan
A.
I loved the free time that the job allowed me. I was able to travel and spend time with friends and family. I disliked the dishonesty and secrecy.
via SuperFreakonomics Book Club: Allie the Escort Answers Your Questions – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com.

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Better Class Of Politicians:: The new cabinet in Chile::Marginal Revolution

This makes me a bit envious, hope the next president can have a cabinet of people with intellectual, depth and curiosity, partnered with actual success in management of large institutions.

The new cabinet in Chile
E. Barandiaran notes in the comments:
You may want to know about the qualification of the new cabinet of 22 secretaries. There are 6 economists with graduate studies in the best US universities: Felipe Larraín will the secretary of the Treasury (Felipe is well known as the co-author with J. Sachs of a macro textbook and also got his Ph.D. from Harvard), two a Ph.D. from Minnesota and three a Master from Chicago. There is only one laywer but with training in law and econ in Harvard. A few others have degrees in public policy or MBA, and most of the others are engineers, all with graduate studies abroad. Most have been related as students, professors, and deans with Universidad Católica. Thus, Sebastián Edwards knows well the six economists (they studied there in the 1970s and were my students and/or assistants). Most have already long, successful careers in private enterprises and close relations with important NGOs. Quite a cabinet.
via Marginal Revolution: The new cabinet in Chile.

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rePost::How Mona Lisa Died – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

I used to not care that much about the “Population Scare” this is because especially for our country we have tax rates that rival that of the more successful countries and countries that have substantially better social safety net. For me the Philippines problem was the money going into the coffers of the government is not used in a way that would help increase Investment and Capital, money/pork barrel/ira allotments were used for projects that were less helpful to the economic engine of the Philippines.I even defended in a blog post Sen. Manny Villar’s stance that population is not the problem, opportunity is. I believe this because we are doing so little to help people achieve what they can achieve.
What has changed since then to convince me of the importance of RH bill?
Two things:

  • The increasing likelihood that there would be an HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Philippines
  • Studying/Reading the lecture notes of Brad Delong on Industrial Revolution and Malthusian Economics etc.

I’m basically convinced that the Black Death/Wars/Spanish Influenza has helped in increasing the household wealth of Europe. This allowed consumption to rise and thus there was money for what industry produced.This started a virtuous cycle that has produced the stellar growth of world wealth that we enjoy today.
What this means is that I’ve basically given up on any help from the government to increase investment in useful industries and hope that the virtuous cycle of investment, and growth can be jump started by increasing the household wealth available to Filipino households and by creating pressure to increase wages because of a smaller population.
What this means is that people who oppose the RH bill are in essence ok with the status quo.
Anti RH Bill people are ok with double digit unemployment rates.
Anti RH Bill people are ok with us being an OFW nation. (The effects of which are still not truly apparent)
Anti RH Bill people are ok with people getting HIV/AIDS.
The problem is the asymmetry of the supporters. The Pro RH bill people must be heard. They must make themselves heard or the bullying few will get their way!!!

When the House reassembled on January 18, however, RH had disappeared from the Speaker of the House’s list of priority bills. Inquiries by proponents of the bill produced evasive replies from the House leadership. When the House adjourned for the elections on Feb 3, RH was dead. The reason, however, was painfully obvious.
In December, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) instructed the electorate not to vote for candidates who espoused RH. Alongside this decree had unfolded a massive campaign that involved systematic disinformation about the bill. Among the malicious allegations that were spread was that the bill imposes penalties on parents who do not allow their children to have premarital sex. Another was that the bill promotes the use of abortifacients or methods of contraception that induce abortion.
via How Mona Lisa Died – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.

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Better Political System Please::How to Get Our Democracy Back

Written for USA but still a nice read.  My sanrky side wants to say that: We already have a citizen funded election in the Philippines,  politicians use citizen’s fund in the form of taxes. hehehehe

What would the reform the Congress needs be? At its core, a change that restores institutional integrity. A change that rekindles a reason for America to believe in the central institution of its democracy by removing the dependency that now defines the Fundraising Congress. Two changes would make that removal complete. Achieving just one would have made Obama the most important president in a hundred years.
That one–and first–would be to enact an idea proposed by a Republican (Teddy Roosevelt) a century ago: citizen-funded elections. America won't believe in Congress, and Congress won't deliver on reform, whether from the right or the left, until Congress is no longer dependent upon conservative-with-a-small-c interests–meaning those in the hire of the status quo, keen to protect the status quo against change. So long as the norms support a system in which members sell out for the purpose of raising funds to get re-elected, citizens will continue to believe that money buys results in Congress. So long as citizens believe that, it will.
Citizen-funded elections could come in a number of forms. The most likely is the current bill sponsored in the House by Democrat John Larson and Republican Walter Jones, in the Senate by Democrats Dick Durbin and Arlen Specter. That bill is a hybrid between traditional public funding and small-dollar donations. Under this Fair Elections Now Act (which, by the way, is just about the dumbest moniker for the statute possible, at least if the sponsors hope to avoid Supreme Court invalidation), candidates could opt in to a system that would give them, after clearing certain hurdles, substantial resources to run a campaign. Candidates would also be free to raise as much money as they want in contributions maxed at $100 per citizen.
via How to Get Our Democracy Back.

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rePost:: Against awards::Stumbling and Mumbling

No sooner have I ignored the Orwell awards than I am invited to nominate myself for a Wincott award. Which invokes the same response – I’m not interested.
For one thing, the criteria for both awards is absurd. The Orwell asks for a sample of 10 pieces, the Wincott for five. For any active blogger, this is just 2-4% of one year’s content. Handing out awards on the basis of such a tiny sample would be like basing Oscars on one scene per movie, or Grammys on a single bar of music.
Which brings me to my bigger gripe. Why should I give a damn about the opinion of people who are prepared to make such absurd judgments? One of the main reasons I blog is precisely as a reaction against the empty suits who think their opinion matters. Anyone who’s read this blog for any time will have gotten bored of me pointing out that the “judgment” of people in authority – or who aspire to authority – is flawed. So why should I want an award from such folk?
via Stumbling and Mumbling: Against awards.

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rePost::Noynoy and Great Expectations | Filipino Voices

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.