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.
rePost::'Silent war' between PPCRV and NAMFREL worsens | ABS-CBN News Online Beta
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.
rePost::ABC The Drum Unleashed – Prioritising life
When will we get our priorities right, and learn how useless the free market is in dealing with tsunamis, earthquakes, Aboriginal health, African AIDS, Middle Eastern pogroms, Chinese tyranny and the sort of shameful poverty that breeds terrorists everywhere and sends them walking in explosive underpants out of universities into airline waiting rooms? When will we understand that twenty dollars a week is better spent on tax-funded air ambulances and Elvises and hot rocks and wind power and stem cells and solar cars than on oil magnates who are killing the planet as we speak?
…..
Why don’t we get our priorities right? Why don’t we do our sums? We could spend five billion dollars on aid that civilises East Timor and ten billion dollars buying up Indonesia’s forests and a billion buying eighty Elvises over three years and the cost per week per taxpayer would be nine dollars fifty, the price of an hour’s parking or two Toblerones. Why don’t we do this?
via ABC The Drum Unleashed – Prioritising life.
rePost::“A Message of Modern Politics” by Randy David | Filipino Voices
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.
rePost::Orson Welles on Privacy, the Passport and Personal Rights | The Januarist
Orson Welles continues to be one of the really interesting actors of any generation. I have to lament a certain affinity towards his sentiment towards how little dignity the way our world works allows us. I hope that charter cities or seasteading takes of, I’d probably join one of these places if the chance comes.
I’d like it very much if somebody would make a great big international organization for the protection of the individual. That way, there could be offices at every frontier. And whenever we’re presented with something unpleasant, that we don’t want to fill one of these idiotic questionnaires, we could say “Oh no, I’m sorry, it’s against the rules of our organization to fill out that questionnaire.” And they’d say “Ah, but it’s the regulations,” and we’d say, “Very well, see our lawyer,” because if there were enough of us, our dues would pay for the best lawyers in all the countries of the world. And we could bring to court these invasions of our privacy, and test them under law. It would nice to have that sort of organization, be nice to have that sort of card. I see the card as fitting into the passport, a little larger than the passport, with a border around it, in bright colors, so that it would catch the eye of the police. And they’d know who they were dealing with … The card itself should look rather like a union card, I should think, a card of an automobile club. And since its purpose is to impress and control officialdom, well, obviously, it should be as official looking as possible. With a lot of seals and things like that on it. And it might read something as follows:
This is to certify that the bearer is a member of the human race. All relevant information is to be found in his passport. And except when there is good reason for suspecting him of some crime, he will refuse to submit to police interrogation, on the grounds that any such interrogation is an intolerable nuisance. And life being as short as it is, a waste of time. Any infringement on his privacy, or interference with his liberty, any assault, however petty, against his dignity as a human being, will be rigorously prosecuted by the undersigned …
via Orson Welles on Privacy, the Passport and Personal Rights | The Januarist.
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rePost::Marginal Revolution: The Chait-Manzi debate
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.
rePost::Pagbabago and what it really means to us, Pinoys | Filipino Voices
Aquino and Villar do not offer “pagbabago”–they offer an “exchange” or only “palitan”—from an administration dominated by one elite group to another. They want their elite groups to transpose the existing one.
Worst, are the two remaining presidentiables, namely Teodoro and Gordon who offer the worst form of “pagbabago”. There is nothing transformative about Gordon’s “transformative politics”, read his platform—there’s no “transformative ideas” there–only motherhood statements.
Gordon wants to barter and what’s worst, he will be bartering our very futures when he becomes president. What Gordon offers is what we call “cosmetic change”–he wants nothing more than changes in the exterior aspect of our life.
Teodoro offers new leadership only, the kind which we have been accustomed to since nine years ago. Nothing about pagbabago as we want or aspire for—more of “transactional” change. In fact, Teodoro wants Gloria to be on his side when he wins and that is so evident in his public statements. Teodoro represents grossly traditional or G.T. politics.
Who, then, holds the right interpretation of “pagbabago” ? Is Erap Estrada, who did not attend the forum, offers us the “pagbabago” which we so desperately seek?
No. Estrada just wants to continue what he failed to finish. He offers nothing new, except perhaps, a new face?
Who, then, holds the right interpretation of “pagbabago”?
via Pagbabago and what it really means to us, Pinoys | Filipino Voices.
rePost::The theory of optimal fines
The theory of optimal fines
A Swiss court has slapped a wealthy speeder with a chalet-sized fine — a full $290,000.
Judges at the cantonal court in St. Gallen, in eastern Switzerland, based the record-breaking fine on the speeder's estimated wealth of over $20 million.
A statement on the court's Web site says the driver — a repeat offender — drove up to 35 miles an hour (57 kilometers an hour) faster than the 50-mile-an-hour (80-kilometer-an-hour) limit.
Here is the full article and I thank Daniel Lippman for the pointer.
via Marginal Revolution: The theory of optimal fines.
This one is for ….. We need a law for this. We need to base the fines/court fees/other applicable fees of a person dependent on his/her ability to pay, with a minimum amount for people who can’t pay of course. But just think about it. how often do we see the rich and powerful doing things that we ordinary mortals dare not do. Although this would probably be just another cash cow for the unscrupulous and corrupt. We could dream.
rePost::Kilalanin! A presidential forum moderated by Mike Enriquez on dzBB – Nation – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News
I’m beginning to think that all these presidential forums etc are only really helping the news organizations to drive viewers to their show. Why? Because if history has anything to tell us; People who vie for the presidency would lie,cheat,steal to get it. We have no way of holding them accountable. Even in an advance democracy we have Barack Obama lying about campaigning for the public option, what can we expect from our more gullible and manipulated media. I’m not saying that knowing your candidates views on stuff isn’t important. What I’m saying is that; what we should be doing is looking at what they earlier promised when they ran for public office and how they followed through with their promises.
Kilalanin! A presidential forum moderated by Mike Enriquez on dzBB
01/09/2010 | 05:35 PM
Listen to an audio recording of Kilalanin! – a presidential forum with four candidates in Alabang on Sunday, January 9, moderated by Mike Enriquez and broadcast on dzBB. The four featured candidates:
* Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III
* Richard “Dick” Gordon
* Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro
* Manuel “Manny” Villar
via Kilalanin! A presidential forum moderated by Mike Enriquez on dzBB – Nation – GMANews.TV – Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs – Latest Philippine News.
rePost::The Rich *Are* Different | Angry Bear
This is an intersting read. What could this bracket be for the Philippines?? Can we even make a similar graph from data BIR has? NSO ?
Sometimes wish a day has 2400 hours.(not too often)
That said, there is an interesting qualitative change in the structure of income that starts to happen around this cutoff for the “rich” which actually suggests that taxpayers above that threshold are rich in most important ways. The most recent (2007) tax stats from the IRS now reflect the peak of the late bubble and show that the $100K-$200K AGI bucket is the last one that more-or-less resembles middle-income categories in their dependence on labor as the all-but exclusive source of income. (Think of pensions and proceeds of retirement accounts as representing deferred wages or salaries.) This graph shows the shares of AGI from some major income sources, and the average incomes for various brackets. (*)
Sources of Individual Income, 2007 SOI Tax Stats
(May be embiggened by clicking here.)
Starting with the $200-500K category, the share of earnings from labor begins a marked decline. By the time you hit mid-six figures, average earnings from income, dividends, and capital gains become high enough to provide middle-class or better incomes without (necessarily) working. Tax returns in the upper-six-figure bucket, on average, show more income from other sources collectively than from salaries, and at the top of the income scale even interest and dividend income exceeds wages and salaries. (**) I suggest that if you can provide yourself with a better-than-average living without working, a very rare luxury indeed, you are in fact rich.
(Revised and slightly expanded.)
via The Rich *Are* Different | Angry Bear.