rePost:: RH Bill Now!!! ::Market Manila – Sausage Casings (a.k.a. Pig’s Intestines) – General
These days, I start off these information sessions with a simple fact — the minimal cost to raise a child from birth to 18 years old in lower middle class conditions that assume just the minimal caloric intake, a roof over their heads, clothing, medical care, schooling, etc. is roughly PHP1 million. ONE MILLION PESOS or roughly PHP60,000 per year in today’s peso value. If you want a more realistic figure, think PHP2-3 million given inflation et al. I know, I know, the hair on the back of some of your necks is rising with indignation, Marketman boiling down the joy of bringing human life onto this planet into pesos and centavos. But it is an irrefutable fact that if you are responsible for making them, you are indeed fully responsible for ensuring that they are fed, housed, clothed, educated, etc. Boiling it down to a peso figure always seems to wake up youngsters listening, as a careless romp now seems like a million peso gamble. To make a long story short, I explain the different types of birth control. The responsibility that comes with parenthood. The myths that seem to overwhelm medical facts. And basically seek to simply educate, with the ultimate responsibility left with each individual how they wish to conduct their own personal affairs. See what the topic of sausage casings can lead to?
via Market Manila – Sausage Casings (a.k.a. Pig’s Intestines) – General.
rePost:: There is now substantial evidence that the health and schooling of children can be raised by empowering women, and this is precisely what Tunisia did when it raised the minimum age for marriage, revoked the colonial ban on imports of contraceptives, instituted the first family planning programme in Africa, legalized abortion, made polygamy illegal, and gave women the right to divorce as well as the right to stand and vote for election. :: Dani Rodrik's weblog: The unsung development miracles of our time
I score this one against the moralist forces in our country. They are basically against what other countries find successful.
What was their secret? Determined policies to expand educational opportunities and access to health along with a willingness to depart from the conventional wisdom of the day and experiment with their own remedies. Even though all three North African countries are Moslem, empowering of women seems to have played an important role as well:
There is now substantial evidence that the health and schooling of children can be raised by empowering women, and this is precisely what Tunisia did when it raised the minimum age for marriage, revoked the colonial ban on imports of contraceptives, instituted the first family planning programme in Africa, legalized abortion, made polygamy illegal, and gave women the right to divorce as well as the right to stand and vote for election.
What is somewhat puzzling, as Rodriguez and Samman also note, is that these countries have not made nearly as much progress in democratization.
These new “facts” substantially enrich our understanding of the development landscape over the last four decades.
via Dani Rodrik’s weblog: The unsung development miracles of our time.
rePost :: Firefighters watch a house burn down over fees… pathetic::Think Progress » Tennessee County’s Subscription-Based Firefighters Watch As Family Home Burns Down
The conservative vision was on full display last week in Obion County, Tennessee. In this rural section of Tennessee, Gene Cranick’s home caught on fire. As the Cranicks fled their home, their neighbors alerted the county’s firefighters, who soon arrived at the scene. Yet when the firefighters arrived, they refused to put out the fire, saying that the family failed to pay the annual subscription fee to the fire department. Because the county’s fire services for rural residences is based on household subscription fees, the firefighters, fully equipped to help the Cranicks, stood by and watched as the home burned to the ground:
Imagine your home catches fire but the local fire department won’t respond, then watches it burn. That’s exactly what happened to a local family tonight. A local neighborhood is furious after firefighters watched as an Obion County, Tennessee, home burned to the ground.
via Think Progress » Tennessee County’s Subscription-Based Firefighters Watch As Family Home Burns Down.
rePost :: :: Joker gives Aquino 'high marks' on his first 100 days
I was beginning to lose hope on Joker, he seemed to have slowly become an apologist for the previous administration and a hindrance to the present administration. I have not changed my mind on Joker being an apologist for GMA. I have started to see Joker Arroyo as a stern headmaster, hard to please but still means well. He may seldom have good words towards President Noynoy, but he means well.
Joker gives Aquino ‘high marks’ on his first 100 days
10/05/2010 | 04:26 PM
KIMBERLY JANE T. TAN, GMANews.TV
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A senator who is a known critic of the current administration has surprisingly praised President Benigno Simeon Aquino III for his supposedly “good” performance in his first 100 days in office.
“Notwithstanding the inadequacies and the unimpressive performance of the President’s ministers, President Aquino unqualifiedly deserves high marks because the enormous trust and faith of the people in him remains steadfast and unwavering,” Senator Joker Arroyo said in an interview.
“That is something. This is, after all, true measure of leadership, this augurs well for the country,” added Arroyo, who served as executive secretary during the early years of the incumbency of Aquino’s late mother, President Corazon Aquino.
via Joker gives Aquino ‘high marks’ on his first 100 days.
rePost:: ::{caffeine_sparks}: "On Carlos Celdran's Arrest" by Mahar Abrera Mangahas
I believe in what Mahar Mangahas is saying. I still believe that God exists, but I also believe that we exist in a democracy where ideas must be allowed to live or die, we just wont have that if the rules are different against Islamic Fundamentalist, Christian Fundamentalist and all the the other types of Fundamentalist. If this is how it is supposed to be lets just redistribute the world between all these groups and see who dies because of collective stupidity,overpopulation, selective belief in science and infighting .
Some have commented that Celdran deserves his punishment because what he did was offensive—that certain places are special and thus should be immune to an individual’s demonstration of his politics. A church, some argue, is not the place where politics should happen. Never mind that it too is very much a public space. (Which, seeing that it’s not taxed, is indirectly subsidized by the government.)
The thing is, what makes a church special? Because we believe it is? Because it was consecrated? Sanctified?
The truth is it’s just a pile of cement which has become special because people just say it’s so. Dangerously, the idea that this space is special has given its occupants more armor against criticism. The Church has shown it is willing to engage in public demonstrations against government—in fact, that’s part of its threat to oppose reproductive health bills—but apparently, for a citizen to show displeasure in a creative manner at a church is forbidden because it just isn’t done.
This is foolish. No edifice should be allowed to isolate and protect people, notably leaders, religious or not, from the very criticism that we deserve and have the right to deliver. Various pulpits across the country have been used as platforms against government, individuals and philosophies present in society. The difference is we are vulnerable to the Church wherever we might state our issues against them, as they are allowed to entreat their followers to harass officials at the gates and shout down public meetings from the rafters. Yet they are the privileged who can retreat to their sacred spaces and continue to deliver the worst of the their messages with relative impunity.
via {caffeine_sparks}: “On Carlos Celdran’s Arrest” by Mahar Abrera Mangahas.
rePost :: f so many of us truly believe _____ is the best candidate to navigate the Philippines through these very tough times and we don't do what we can to make him president. :: Travelife Magazine's Suitcase Tales: Talking Travel with Gilbert Teodoro
The real tragedy lies with us Filipinos: if so many of us truly believe GIBO is the best candidate to navigate the Philippines through these very tough times and we don’t do what we can to make him president. If we believe he’ll make the best president and yet we don’t elect him because other candidates have more money, more machinery, more pedigree or a couple of very powerful media behind them, we’ve basically slammed the door on an opportunity that doesn’t come very often in the history of a country. Truly great presidential material is rare anywhere, but it’s perhaps rarer in countries like ours where real skills and capabilities take the backseat to sentimentalism, showbiz and media perceptions. Don’t we deserve and need the best qualified person as president, especially at this very crucial time for ourselves and the world?
via Travelife Magazine’s Suitcase Tales: Talking Travel with Gilbert Teodoro.
Better Class of Politicians :: Manny does a Floyd (A missed opportunity) | Filipino Voices
Fr. Tito Caluag who is supposed to have signed the report has publicly denounced the hoax by stating to the effect that the document is forged and that he is not even competent to make the evaluation since he is neither a psychologist (nor a psychiatrist).
It was then a perfect opportunity for Villar to be a gentleman politician by condemning the ludicrous fabrication and thereby allowing to mitigate the tone of animosity in the campaign (that is, if the source of the report is not his party or a cabal of rabid partisans). Very unfortunately, Villar did just the exact opposite.
One may recall that during the last US presidential election, a woman from the audience in a town hall meeting stood up and took the microphone to confirm from John McCain if Barack Obama is an Arab (implying maliciously that being an Arab, Obama is either uncivil or a terrorist). McCain defended his rival without any hesitation. “No ma’am,” McCain said to the woman after retaking the microphone from her. “He is a decent family man . . . citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign is all about,” he further stressed earnestly.
Unlike McCain who had had the basic decency to cut off the woman wanting to stoke bigotry, Villar reacted in the other extreme by issuing a statement challenging Aquino to submit to a psychiatric test to determine his rival’s fitness to be a president. In a pretense to appear fair, Villar said he is willing to take the same test or a “comprehensive physical and mental examination in order to ascertain [our] fitness to occupy the highest office of the land.”
via Manny does a Floyd (A missed opportunity) | Filipino Voices.
Better Class of Politicians Please :: Black ops and the nature of the 2010 campaigns – Maria A. Ressa | ABS-CBN News Online Beta
It was the first public denial of a salacious document masquerading as fact. By disclosing our sources without naming names, we gave our viewers a glimpse of what was going on behind the scenes.That is why this story is important. Events are never isolated so context defines the story’s value.Three days earlier, the Nacionalista Party used the word “topak” to describe Aquino.“Ano yung TOPAK ni Noynoy? Ito po yung Trapo, Oportunista at Kamaganak Inc na pumapaligid kay Noynoy Aquino,” said Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, secretary-general of the Nacionalista Party. This statement echoed earlier remarks by Villar spokesman Gilbert Remulla on ANC.The context of this fake document story seems to show an NP campaign to question Sen. Aquino’s mental health, something its standard-bearer, Sen. Manuel Villar publicly did on DZMM on Saturday, April 10.The Nacionalista Party denied they gave the documents to ABS-CBN and challenged us to name our sources. They publicly declared we are biased for Sen. Aquino.Yet, earlier, party representatives thanked us for airing our exclusive video of Baby James Yap saying “Villar” at a campaign rally of about 15,000 people. That video has since been replayed by another network and spread online by Sen. Villar’s supporters. Airing that video ruffled feathers within the Liberal Party and our own network.Nacionalista Party representatives also thanked us for disclosing two weeks ago that sources from the Liberal party gave ABS-CBN the documents questioning Sen. Villar’s ad campaign. Although the documents are authentic, the intent to demolish is the same. The Liberal Party also denied giving those documents to ABS-CBN.Frankly, it’s shocking to see such blatant distortions of the truth. Oh, how I wish we could disclose our sources, but those are the standards we live by.In other nations, news organizations routinely report on demolition teams and black ops as part of the election landscape. Negative advertising is part of the game. When candidates use this, they are transparent and accept the risk that it could backfire against them.In our country, candidates prefer to hide behind – and manipulate – journalists.To the political parties, we do not write stories because we are for or against you. We aim to tell it like it is. After all, how you run your campaigns gives us an idea of how you will run our nation.
via Black ops and the nature of the 2010 campaigns – Maria A. Ressa | ABS-CBN News Online Beta.
WTF :: News Sources ?? :: Manuel L. Quezon III: The Daily Dose
About 83 percent say TV. Less than 10 percent say radio, only 2 percent say the papers.
But here’s the clincher. What then are the top trusted sources of news? Two out of three won’t surprise you: “TV Patrol,” and its rival, “24 Oras.” But the third top trusted source of news is “Wowowee.”
The question then becomes: Is one citizen’s definition of a news source very different from that of others? The figures can apply to radio, where Bombo Radyo and DZRH find themselves as trusted news sources together with Love Radio on FM; or to the broadsheets, where the Inquirer and Manila Bulletin are in the company of the tabloid Bulgar.
via Manuel L. Quezon III: The Daily Dose.