Giancarlo Angulo's Blog
India, Mexico and China I can Understand but Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, our country is doing something wrong , or is not doing enough of the right things.
Here is a list of the top 10 Outsource Providing countries in 2009, and their PDI scores.
1. India (77)
2. Thailand (64)
3. Mexico (81)
4. China (80)
5. Indonesia (78)
6. Malaysia (104)
7. Philippines (94)
8. Jordan (no data)
9. Egypt (80)
10. Bulgaria (no data)
via The Real Reason Outsourcing Continues To Fail | Lessons of Failure.
The Real Issue with Outsourcing is Power Difference
If you have a buyer from a lower PDI country and a provider from a higher PDI country, there are already implicit consequences to your interaction that neither party will know about without prior outsourcing experience or natural cultural awareness(1). And even with that experience, it’s not a given that they will understand the reasons behind the challenges of outsourcing. Let me create an example from my own personal experience:
Suppose you had an American company (Buyer) and an Indian company (Provider). The American company contracts with the Indian one to provide offshore outsourced software development at a fixed price per developer. Certain key performance indicators are agreed upon by both parties and the game is afoot. Let’s also assume the Indians agree to a six month project to write a content management system for the Americans.
A typical scenario of engagement might follow like this:(2)
* The first month, everyone hammers out the requirements documents and in a great ball of fury, declares them sound and ready for implementation. The American company at this point would typically reduce the daily oversight on the project to something more reasonable, like weekly updates.
* The second, third and maybe even fourth months pass with little fanfare. The Indian developers are quietly building the specified software and the Americans are receiving updates about it that are all positive and sound great.
* At some point, the American company asks for a demo of the progress to date. The Indians put together something after a bit of negotiation (since the Americans neglected to mention the demo as a deliverable before the end). The Americans see the actual software and fly off the handle. Performance is awful, the screens don’t look anything like what they want, and the software appears to be behind schedule.
* Further code reviews by American developers indicate that the code quality is fairly poor, lacking in comments, unit tests, and filled with copy-paste blocks of duplicate code. The Americans immediately demand the project be put under different management.
* The project falls off of the rails somewhere after this. It will either be canceled, brought back in house, or will be delivered extremely late after extensive modification to the original requirements.
There’s lots to pick on here on both sides of the table. I would like to point out that the fact that I picked on Americans and Indians is actually irrelevant here. You could easily substitute “British” for Americans (3), and “Filipinos” for Indians with the same results. But why are they so interchangeable in this fashion? It’s because of PDI and the inherent cultural communication issues that come with it.
via The Real Reason Outsourcing Continues To Fail | Lessons of Failure.
Based on working as a software developer for the past almost 2 years communication seems to be the number one problem. The second would be that we Filipinos or at least the people I work with (including me) have a tendency to as the article said act as high PDI countries act. Nice article, don’t agree with a lot of what he wrote but it’s still worth reading.
How true are these statements? anybody care to comment?
3. Villar passed measures “to make Pag-IBIG Fund contributions compulsory and to increase housing investments with the SSS.”
“Pag-IBIG is a main source of funding of Speaker Villar’s companies.”
Honesty or corruption?
4. Villar “incorporated in the landmark Comprehensive and Integrated Shelter Finance Act, Republic Act 7835, the recapitalization of the NHMFC, and the amendment to the Agri-Agra Law to include housing investment.”
It “mandates banks to extend to housing loans not utilized for agriculture and agrarian-reform credit. In other words, loanable funds for agriculture and agrarian credit are to be re-channeled to housing, Speaker Villar’s business.”
Honesty or corruption?
5. Villar co-authored House Bill 11005, which “increased the capital of the NHMFC” and is the main source of funding of Speaker Villar’s companies…. President Estrada admitted that the National Home Mortgage and Finance Corp. is at present bankrupt.… Increasing the capitalization of a bankrupt government financial institution benefited Representative Villar’s housing companies.”
Honesty or corruption?
6. “All lands covered by CARP [Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program] cannot be used for residential, agricultural, industrial or other uses unless a clearance, conversion or exemption for a particular property is first issued by DAR [Department of Agrarian Reform].”
“Speaker Villar’s companies are developing or have developed 5,950 hectares or almost 60,000,000 square meters of CARP land into residential subdivisions without the appropriate DAR issuances that would authorize such lands to be used for residential purposes.”
Honesty or corruption?
7. “Manuela Corp. applied for and was granted a loan of P1 billion by the SSS…. Another P2-billion loan would be syndicated with another government financial institution, the GSIS. Total syndicated loan from the two GFIs: P3 billion.
“Manuela Corp., a housing and realty corporation, is owned by the family of the wife of Speaker Villar. An indirect financial accommodation.”
Honesty or corruption?
via Honesty or Corruption? | Filipino Voices.
nice read. napanood na ni noy ang invictus???
We must find a unity that transcends the divisions of today, based on a shared commitment to transforming our country into one that works: One where traffic flows well, garbage is collected efficiently, crimes are solved, justice is served, and our kids are educated properly. It works in the sense that you do not have to flee the country to move up in the world, improve your lot in life, and rise to the highest level your personal merits can achieve.
We are a nation of sacrifice, of diligence, dedication and, idealism, because we are a people imbued with compassion even when we have officials who lie, cheat, and steal. Our faith teaches us that we are our brother’s keeper. Our logic should tell us that in taking care of others, their growth equals our own.
In the movie “Invictus,” Nelson Mandela says, “In order to rebuild our nation, we must exceed our own expectations.” It requires us to insist, always, that we are not a nation of crooks, of thieves, of murderers who get off scot-free and where justice is won by the highest bidder.
In May, you will be asked to make a choice. Will you choose transformation and change or will you choose to uphold the status quo?
We have already made our choice. Ours is a journey towards transformation. I ask you today to join us in this journey now.
via MLQ3 on Tumblr!: A Philippinres That Works: Benigno S. Aquino III.
Millions share his vision because they see, and feel it. Perlas is someone crying out in the wilderness and asking people to come to him and share his vision for the Nation. Perlas wants to unite people and fight against poverty. Perlas wants to eradicate graft and corruption. Perlas will exercise strong political will to fight the forces that weaken the Motherland. And Perlas will see to it that those who have committed grave injustices against the People are put behind bars.There is something terribly wrong when people like Nicanor Perlas who once lived peacefully in their rich hamlets are suddenly seen in the streets, preaching the Gospel of Salvation from poverty and wants. When people who hate politics are suddenly going around town, preaching of “New Politics”, that’s surely a sign that things have turned for the worst.It just means that the exploitation, the degradation, the immorality, the amorality, the misery of the human condition, has seeped into the comfort zones of those who are not of the hungred kind.And I laud Blogwatch.ph and the Vibal Foundation for allowing me to partake of Nicanor Perlas’ vision even for an hour. Meeting him just makes me realize that the end is definitely not near, because there are still a few good men left who will sacrifice everything, just so that others may live better lives.
via Nicanor Perlas and the Dreams of an Ordinary Citizen | Filipino Voices.
This is good news for people who are hoping to do some magic at the polls.
The PPCRV also dismissed NAMFREL-NASSA’s petition to observe and assist in the random manual audit, arguing that such duty is also already the PPCRV’s function.
The PPCRV reminded Comelec that it has already formed a technical working group on the random manual audit with de Villa as chairperson. “Hence, co-petitioners are asking for a duplication of the task that has already been awarded to PPCRV,” it said.
As for NAMFREL-NASSA’s attempt to oversee the activities of non-government organizations (NGOs) and private organizations, the PPCRV argued such should not be delegated to the co-petitioners “because the NGOs should be accountable to the Commission and not to any other entity.”
Formerly partners in ensuring clean and honest elections, NAMFREL and PPCRV went their separate ways in the latter part of 2009 due to an internal conflict among leaders of both watchdogs.
In the early part of 2009, de Villa was named chair of both NAMFREL and PPCRV. But senior leaders of NAMFREL later asked de Villa to resign as NAMFREL chair.
via ‘Silent war’ between PPCRV and NAMFREL worsens | ABS-CBN News Online Beta.
This was an excellent write up of a speech/lecture? Prof Randy David gave. It’s an interesting read!!!
Quest for political stability
David observes that Filipinos are “sick and tired” of politics. In other societies, people are not overburdened with politics. And normally citizens think only about it during elections. The fact the politics consumes much of our national imaginary has both good and bad effects, he says. It is good in that citizens are kept informed. It is bad in that the constant politicking leaves little room to do much of anything else. It is time spent away from thinking about ways to improve education and health, growing businesses and the arts.
He says in the region the Philippines has had the longest experience with elections and yet we cannot seem to get it right. Elections are a good way of making the transition from a ‘traditional’ to a ‘modern’ society.
Here he gives quick yet unerring definitions of these broad concepts. A ‘traditional’ society is one of hierarchies. One might also call them ‘feudal’, ties and associations based on families. He also calls this society ‘limited-access’ in that only certain people enjoy monopolies of power and influence. A ‘modern’ society is ‘open-access’ and allows associations not based on familial or personal ties but through functions. They are ‘functionally differentiated’, allowing for clear divisions between politics and business, politics and religion, politics and other public realms. One might argue that a modern society is also more democratic.
David then makes an astonishing claim, one that many of us will probably instantly recognize but which we have not yet articulated, most of all to ourselves. I know I was struck by it. David claims we cannot seem to make that transition from being a ‘traditional’ (i.e. hierarchical, monopolistic) society to a ‘modern’ (i.e. truly democratic) society. We are stuck somewhere in the middle, exhibiting characteristics of either model. And here is where David makes a crucial point. He asks, why is it important to modernize?
via “A Message of Modern Politics” by Randy David | Filipino Voices.
RP pays it forward to Haiti with medical teams
By Nestor P. Burgos Jr.
MALAY, Aklan, Philippines—Citing the country's own disasters and the outpouring of international assistance when a series of calamities ravaged the country, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday said the Philippines would be sending aid to earthquake-devastated Haiti to help hundreds of thousands of victims.
“I had instructed the (Department of Health) to send medical teams to Haiti to help the earthquake victims there. And I instructed the (Armed Forces) to put our reserve peacekeeping company on standby in case the US asks for additional troops,” the President said in a speech during the launching of the P2.5-billion Caticlan Airport Development Project here.
“Why? Because we are more than ready to give a helping hand as we were victims ourselves (tropical storm) ‘Ondoy,’ and (typhoons) ‘Pepeng’ and ‘Frank’ a few months ago and a year ago,” she said.
“We have also been a recipient of international assistance. Now it is our turn to do that,” she added.
She said that in past, the country's worst typhoons—including Reming, Ondoy and Pepeng—claimed almost a thousand lives each but in the earthquake in Haiti, at least 100,000 were casualties.
“If we suffered that way we can imagine their suffering a hundred times,” Ms Arroyo said.
She said Haiti is “especially close to our hearts” because of the Filipino peacekeeping troops “who are doing a good job there and who have once again risen to the occasion as they (done) here in the Philippines each time.”
via RP pays it forward to Haiti with medical teams – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.
When all countries enjoy an acceptable level of wealth then I will say that Nationalism Is Bunk, till then we must continue to belong to a community of nations, where we have a duty to help our friends in need. These are the few times I wish I was rich enough to help.
Pray they are well.
No contact with Filipino UN peacekeepers in Haiti
INQUIRER.net First Posted 11:01:00 01/13/2010 Filed Under: Diplomacy, Security (general), Americas – Canada
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Mission to the United Nations has received no word from the Philippine contingent in the UN peacekeeping unit in Haiti, which was just hit by a 7.0-intensity earthquake, INQUIRER.net learned Wednesday.
In an exchange of messages, Elmer Cato, first secretary, peacekeeping officer, and press officer of the Philippine Mission based in New York, said the mission is concerned about the safety of Filipino peacekeepers, composed of 157 troops and 22 police officers led by Lieutenant Colonel Lope Dagoy, as well as the estimated 500 Filipino civilian expatriates working there.
But, he said, “Knowing the Filipino peacekeeper, he will be the first to respond in situations like this. Our contingent is surely involved in search and rescue operations in Port-au-Prince right now.”
via No contact with Filipino UN peacekeepers in Haiti – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.
This is what bothers me with most people who want to bring change to the country. A lot seem to believe that it is easy to revise the internal culture of our country, rather than to build on what we are really good at, or have a comparative advantage on. I’m looking at you would be industrialist or technologist. We have an abundance of beautiful places, a naturally happy friendly people.
8. Countries have to start from where they’re at. If you’re constructing policy advice, you can either build on what a country is really good at or you can try to revise the internal culture of the country. If you’re going to do the latter, come out and say so. Most of my policy recommendations are based on the former approach, namely strengthening what (the better-functioning) countries already are good at. I’m not suggesting that countries never change, but getting such changes right by deliberate policy interventions is very hard to do. I wish to stress this point applies to the pro-U.S. as much as the pro-Europe side.
via Marginal Revolution: The Chait-Manzi debate.