Ombudsman Sues Arroyo, Abalos Over NBN Deal | Inquirer News

The Office of the Ombudsman on Dec. 28 filed a graft case at the Sandiganbayan against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in connection with the scuttled National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China, Philippine Daily Inquirer sources said. Read the rest here:

Ombudsman sues Arroyo, Abalos over NBN deal | Inquirer News:

Atlas Fugged: Why Ayn Rand Is Making Me Boycott Lululemon

Excerpts from a lovely blog find; read the rest of it here: Atlas Fugged: Why Ayn Rand Is Making Me Boycott Lululemon

“Earlier this month, pricey yoga pant and cheesy sentiment pushers Lululemon started putting the phrase “Who is John Galt?” on their bags.

Then they posted a blisteringly insipid entry on their blog to explain how a quote from Ayn Rand’s epic heap of political science excrement, Atlas Shrugged, had become the new “drink eight glasses of water each day.”

Lululemon founder, Chip Wilson, an intellect who usually spends his time contemplating the deep philosophies of the Landmark cult apparently first read Atlas Shrugged when he was 18 and was recently inspired to dig into the greater meaning of the book. (This Ayn Rand Appreciation Trajectory, I would like to point out, is the exact opposite of any rational person’s.)

“Only later, looking back, did he realize the impact the book’s ideology had on his quest to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness (it is not coincidental that this is Lululemon’s company vision)” writes lulu blogger Alexis (emphasis hers, sadly

Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinov’yevna Rosenbaum, February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1905 – March 6, 1982) was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism.

enough).”

http://riskyfuel.com/2011/11/14/atlas-fugged-a-tribute-to-lululemon-and-ayn-rand/#wpl-likebox

How to Apply for a NASA Summer Internship

“I’ve had a lot of questions from students regarding the application process for NASA’s summer internships. To answer most of your questions, NASA has prepared the following instructions for students. These instructions apply to any opportunities you may find on the NASA One Stop Shopping/ SOLAR website at intern.nasa.gov. Remember, most applications must be received no later than February 1, 2012… so apply today!

If you are interested in applying for a NASA internship during 2012, please follow the detailed instructions here:

How to Apply for a NASA Summer Internship.

A Brand New Queen Size Bed for a Plunderer!

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, extra-judicial killin...

Image via Wikipedia

MANILA, Philippines – A brand-new queen-size bed awaits former President now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at the presidential suite of the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC), where she will be detained pending her trial for electoral sabotage.

Arroyo will also have a newly-renovated bathroom with a new tub and water closet, and with wall-railings for her safety since she is suffering from a bone disease, VMMC director Nona Legaspi said on Thursday.Legaspi said the suite was ready for Arroyo, who is expected to transfer to VMMC from St Luke’s Medical Center in TYaguig City on Friday, as ordered by Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay City regional trial.

Read the rest here:

A look into Arroyo’s suite at VMMC | Inquirer News

Personally, I think this is almost criminal, since millions of poor Filipino families have yet to experience equal access to quality health care services.
The National Health Insurance Program covers only about half of Filipinos (52%). In fact, 60% of the P200 billion spent by Filipinos for health care comes out of their own pockets!
Most public hospitals still suffer from inadequate staff and facilities leading to the provision of low-quality care.
Filipinos have long practiced a do-it-yourself healthcare, and here we are granting so many comforts to GMA that so many Filipinos don’t ever experience in their lives (who owns a queen size bed?), and allowing her to dictate the terms of her detention.

Saudi Gazette: She Called Me Mama the First Time She Ever Spoke–Filipina Nanny

Amy, a Filipino nanny, says that when she worked for a family in Riyadh she fell in love with their little girl. “I was so attached to her. She called me mama the first time she ever spoke but I wished her mother took a little better care of her. We nannies come and go, but a child’s parent is for ever” she said.

Read the rest here:

Mistreated Filipina Maid Stabs Kuwaiti Youth Several Times in Revenge

“Police have arrested a Filipina housemaid for stabbing a Kuwaiti youth several times inside her sponsor’s home in Jaber Al-Ali, reports Al-Shahed daily.”

The youth has been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital in the area. His condition has been described as critical.

During interrogation the maid admitted to stabbing the youth, reports said. She said she wanted to take revenge because the family was maltreating her.

Murder charges have been filed against the maid and she has been handed over to the public prosecutor’s office.

Read the original here:
Mistreated Filipino maid stabs Kuwaiti youth several times in revenge:
‘via Blog this’

Great Living Filipino Thinkers, In Their Own Words 5: In Memory of Chit Estella

Here’s the fifth installment in a series that, taken together, make up what I like to call Great Living Filipino Thinkers, In Their Own Words.

Today’s excerpts are from Filomeno Santa Ana III, an economist and coordinator for the Manila-based Action for Economic Reforms.

AER is a policy advocacy group that promotes a development strategy for the country based on sustainable and equitable growth. Since its founding in 1996, AER has pushed for national tax reforms in order to mobilize domestic resources to finance development (and lessen dependence on foreign debt, an issue that cripples the country’s economic development ). Today, it is at the forefront of the advocacy to reform the excise tax on tobacco and alcohol products, as a critical first step to increase the tax effort significantly.

Men, as his colleagues and friends call him, is typically low-key, often relinquishing the limelight in favor of his many protégés. He is, after all and at his core, a mentor—and the country is truly a better place today because of the staunch nationalist activists and thinkers that he has, over the past 30 years, helped mold.

Men is a brilliant economist and communicator, and has been published in several volumes and journals.

finance or penance for the poor pdf
Found at ebookbrowse.com

Many of his writings published in the column, The Yellow Pad, illuminate the pressing issues of the day and use everyday language to make the rarefied field of economics understandable to ordinary Filipinos like you and me—the way economics should truly be. You can find many of these discussions here.

But for this blog, I am passing up Men’s more intellectual pieces for a heartfelt one that reveals his true genius both as a mentor and as a dispassionate analytical thinker able to identify workable solutions to issues, even in the middle of tragic circumstances:

In Memory of Chit Estella

“Friday the 13th is but a normal day for me. I do not believe in superstitions. In fact the 13th of May 2011 should have been a happy day for me. It was my youngest sister’s birthday, and we had a lively family affair and delightful dinner at Chef’s Table.”

“Then, in the course of the dinner, I received the tragic news through a text message from a journalist friend. The short message said: Chit Estella died in a vehicular accident near Philcoa.”

“A speeding bus hit the taxi that Chit boarded. At Chit’s wake I learned that two buses, outracing each other, were involved in the manslaughter. The first bus sideswiped the taxi, and in a trice, the second bus rammed the taxi’s body.”

“Chit’s death was senseless. Chit could have likewise died from an assassin’s bullet that befell many Filipino journalists. In her early life, she could have met a more heroic death.”

“Chit joined the revolutionary anti-dictatorship movement at the height of martial law repression. In doing so, she was ready to die for the cause. The Marcos regime had no compunction in jailing, torturing, and “salvaging” activists, especially during the early years of martial law. Chit belonged to that risk-taking, fiercely independent, and assertive band of young women journalists just out of college, the likes of Sheila Coronel, Malou Mangahas, Rochit Tañedo, Chuchay Molina, Yvonne Chua, et al., whose mighty pens pierced the dictatorship and contributed to its downfall.”

****

“An unforgettable funny story during her college days is worth recalling. It was an incident in a party of the Philippine Collegian staff, involving Chit and Ronald Simbulan. Chit and Roland (they would later become husband and wife) felt ill during the gathering. Roland surmised that a Marcos agent could have poisoned the food that they ate. It turned out though that it was not a case of the food poisoning. What happened was that the party’s host baked brownies that he laced with marijuana.”

“Of course, Roland’s fear was not without basis. Marcos’s agents were known to use dirty tricks to silence enemies. Marcos and the military wanted to crush the Collegian. Marcos jailed its two previous chief editors, namely Diwa Guinigundo (current Deputy Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) and Ditto Sarmiento (a martyr). Protected by academic freedom, the Philippine Collegian, the official student newspaper of the University of the Philippines was then the only legal publication that consistently denounced the Marcos dictatorship.”

****

“The death of a brave and committed woman, a hero of our times, should not be in vain. We hope that she and the many faceless passengers who encountered the same death will obtain justice. This is not just about offering a reward of PhP100,000 for information that will lead to the arrest of the bus driver involved in the manslaughter. It is not simply about the order to “go after reckless drivers.”

It is high time authorities scrapped the “boundary system.” The “boundary system” requires the driver to give the vehicle owner a daily quota.The driver and his party earn the residual amount; that is, what is over and above the minimum quota. This is the kind of incentive that encourages bad driving habits.”

****

Even as we grieve over Chit’s death, we hope that her death will result in the prevention of similar deaths, which are a normal occurrence on the streets of Metro Manila. Changing the rules—specifically by removing the boundary system and replacing it with a wage system—will be the key.

Read the full piece here.