Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Smaller and Smaller Circles: Filipino Detective Novel
I'm recently able to finish F.H. Batacan's Palanca-award winning novel, Smaller and Smaller Circles. It's a wonderful story revolving around two Jesuits, one a forensic anthropologist and the other is a clinical psychologist. They are off to solve the mystery of serial killings in the Payatas dumpsite area.
The novel is close to my heart (therefore I bought it) since the main characters are Jesuits, my favorite clerical order and the setting is close to home (dorm that is). It is also a refreshing idea that there is a Filipino detective novel.
In addition to being a mystery-suspense novel, I liked the dramatic angle. It is able to capture even for brief moments the slices of the lives of those who live in Payatas.
Although the novel is quite short and I was able to finish it in two days, it's definitely worth my buck.
@ 
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Can't Sleep
Sleep has become elusive once again. After a round of Counterstrike with Marlo, Hypnos has set to cast his spell on me. Yet I need not look for sleep to solace me from my loneliness. I have bundles and bundles to read. I have tons of environmental news to read, there's also this piece about fast food, and I also want to finish that excellent detective novel by F.H. Batacan.
Sleep is what I need, yet I resent the momentary shutting down of my senses, at a time when I feel so defenseless. I want to do a lot of things yet the flesh has its limits. I wish that man need not to sleep, so that instead of dreaming his dreams, he would live them and make them realities. But maybe man was meant to slip a third of his life 'cause it doesn't take a whole lifetime to fulfill his greatest fantasies.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Chilly Days and FVR on ASEAN Charter
It's very surprising how chilly and windy it can get during daytime here in Quezon City. The winds blow as if it's a December afternoon. A clear indicator of the low temperature is my midday lunch. I had the usual CPA (chicken-pork adobo) double rice from the caf and my 500mL C2 Apple. As usual, the CPA was steaming hot. I voraciously devoured my meal, as usual. At the end of my meal, I was surprise to see that I wasn't able to finish my drink. It was very surprising since most of the time, a bottle would be insufficient for my huge thirst. This phenomenon, I think, is not greatly affected by the fact that I am inside an air-conditioned room, rather, I would attribute it to the chilly weather we are currently experiencing.
Other manifestations of this strange weather pattern is the noticeable chill during the night-time which I think exceeds the chill factor of the December 2006. Even the morning bath is colder than usual. This is very strange especially since 2007 is an El Niño year. But upon further reflection, I think that the chilly weather may in fact be consistent with the El Niño. Oftentimes, chilly weather means dry air. This accounts for the chapping of lips during December when the winds are cold. Thus, with less precipitation in the atmosphere, there would be less chances of rain. Therefore, El Niño.
A couple of hours ago, I was able to attend a talk by ex-president Fidel V. Ramos on the ASEAN Charter. FVR is a member of the Eminent Persons Group. The group was responsible for forging the high principles of the soon-to-be ASEAN Charter whose sole purpose is to be the guiding bylaws of a unified ASEAN bloc.
The former president's speech mainly tackled how the EPG envisions a charter that rests on the three pillars of politics and security, economic prosperity, and socio-cultural development. He then goes on to paint a vague picture of the would-be ASEAN charter. All in all, what he said were the obvious, broad principles behind the charter. This would be expected of a diplomat such as FVR. Come the Q&A part, I was further disappointed since he was quick to dismiss the pressing problems of having a unified ASEAN bloc such as the long-standing non-interventionism of the ASEAN. He said that issues such as the political instability in Burma and Thailand are not the concerns of the EPG, rather, of the national leaders of the ASEAN who will be the principal authors of the ASEAN charter. He also quickly shrugged of the issue of cultural diversity and geographical complications as roadblocks to a united ASEAN bloc.
I think that having a unified ASEAN bloc has its pros and cons. One of the biggest pros is that it would serve as a leverage for the Philippines when it comes to dealing with the G8 countries who dictate on major international policies. On the other hand, I see the unification problematic especially since China and India want to join in. I see that their intent to join is motivated by economic reasons specifically the need to expand their markets. Thus, I think we should be very critical regarding this issue. What worked for the EU may not necessarily work for us,
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Death By Design
Here are pictures from Ateneo de Manila's Patay Tayo 'Jan: Death by Design Exhibit. The exhibit showcases the various theses of the B.F.A. Information Design Majors under Sir Ali Figueroa.
The stickers and shirts are available at the Fine Arts Lab at the Second floor of the Gonzaga Building.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Should We Accept Foreign Aid?
I am currently reading Jeff Sachs' The End of Poverty. It's basically about poverty eradication through foreign aid. I'm still not finished with the book so I still can't delve deeper into it. But there are many criticisms on Jeff Sachs' economic analysis of foreign aid and poverty such those by William Easterly who wrote the book The White Man's Burden as a critique of Sachs' book.
Jeff Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute. He is also the Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. In short, he's the Tom Cruise of the economics world.
On other fronts, such as the one on Gregory Manchiw's (the economics textbook author) blog, economists debate upon this topic of foreign aid and its effects on a nation. One of the effects is explored in The Becker-Posner Blog. They call it the substitution effect. Learn more about it by reading their post.
If you (especially Paulo Mutuc), want more info on economics and the like, visit the Free exchange (The Economists' blog) and GlobalIssues.org.
I found a journalist who strongly criticizes the works of many people from the West such as the likes of Bono and Tony Blair. Andrew Mwenda is an Ugandan journalist who believes that foreign aid does nothing but worsen the situation in Africa and that it only fuels corruption in the continent. I see Mwenda's point and I definitely believe that foreign aid and debt cancellation is not the answer to poverty. A deep structural reform of the political and economic system is needed. In addition to this, a better understanding of the culture and values of a race must also be put into consideration.
The Philippines is receiving numerous foreign aid from countries such as Australia and Japan. Unfortunately, I still can't find much data regarding these grants. It would be pretty interesting where do these millions of dollars go. Perhaps the Japanese grant is used to build roads and bridges in the same fashion that the Katipunan fly-over was made. According to my professor, the fly-over is a product of Japanese foreign aid. Japanese money was used to buy the construction materials from Japan and hire Japanese engineers to build the fly-over. The obvious result - a great fly-over that withstood a fire and made road life easier for many of us. The not so obvious result - increase in Japanese GNP. What about other aid? Most of them is going to Mindanao. What is it doing there? You tell me.
On another note: do visit the Pardo de Tavera room in the Ateneo de Manila University's Rizal Library. There is an exhibit by the Information Design majors. The center piece on fashion centered on Philippine heroes is cool (I may upload pictures soon). There are also other exhibits such as a campaign for public transport and for the use of the janitor fish leather. The works that are in display are the theses of the graduating class of B.F.A. Information Design students.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Weakened Weekend Body
This morning me and my Intact block went to the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong. It was our second exposure trip. The first one was last December 9, 2006. We had a boat is sinking game and the class made their tokens for their partner inmates. I appreciate how most of them really gave an effort to make great tokens for their partners. I also think that bringing a plain wooden box, a few brushes, and some bottles of poster/acrylic paint is a great idea.
I had a good time. Unfortunately, I felt sleepy during the time that they were making the tokens. My head was occasionally painful. I really wanted to sleep then and there but I couldn't. My throat still felt sore and it didn't make things better. Nonetheless, I was able to endure until lunch time wherein the class said their goodbyes to their partners. I hope that the class learned a lot from the experience.
If you are bored like me, click on the following links:
Borat in 30 seconds but by bunnies
Classic SNL skit (PG is recommended)
Pictures drawn using words. Kyool!
Sore Throat
A sore throat is not the best way to start your morning. The pain sears with much intensity. Coughing it out didn't work. Gargling anti-bac solutions didn't work either. Drinking cold water only offered momentary relief
A sore throat is not the only ailment I've been experiencing lately. I'm also suffering bouts of pain in the side of my left ribs. I'm also suffering sporadic pains in my elbows. It's really weird. I think the stresses of academic work, org work, and ALTP are taking their tolls on me.
Got a few hundred bucks to spare and you don't know where to spend them on? Go and look at my Book Wishlist and donate a book to me. Hehehehe!
I really like this new network site Eskwela.com". It's a local site, which by my opinion, is better that Friendster.
The site's emphasis is on school (thus the name) relations, specifically batch mates and course mates. So if you are still wondering whatever happened to your highschool crush you haven't seen for a long time, try checking out Eskwela.com". But here's a disclaimer though, it's still in the alpha-stage. You may encounter problems related to the search engine. Plus, it's invite-only.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Another Day Ends
Doc J gave another quiz about science news. It was about botnets and Internet crime. I got a perfect score. I aim at getting perfect scores at all of my science news quizzes since I missed one quiz. I need to scrape all the points I can scrape if I want to fulfill my revenge.
All day long, I have been wrestling with the question on whether our country can afford to undervalue its currency. Today, I was able to ask my economics professor and some of my learned friends. All of them found the idea strange and new. No one was really able to give me a clear cut answer to my question. This makes me more interested on the perspective. I like its freshness and its novelty. But of course, novelty is just a small chunk of the picture. I'm trying my best to learn whether the exchange rate thesis by Mr. Angeles can be a good guideline for effective monetary policies. As of now, I'm still much in the dark.
Tomorrow, well later, is our presentation to OSA regarding the repositioning of ASLA. I'm a bit confident that the OSA Goddess would reposition us where we can retain our identity as ASLA. I know that a lot of people who are into orgs have lack of faith on the Ateneo's systems and beaurocracy. I believe that the people in the offices are good intentioned. I do believe that they are doing their best to uphold their idea of whatever Ignatian values are for them. Nonetheless, beaurocracy is beaurocracy, and there's not much we can do about it.
Our economy is run by oligopolies. It's hard to think of a product with 5 producers (different) who each has a significant share of the market. Therefore, what I'm currently learning in Eco102 is senseless. I'm wasting 3 hours of my life every week. Gloria is an economist. No wonder. Maybe I should study economics as a post-graduate course.
Puyat na naman ako!
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Ateneo Comelec and Undervaluing the Peso
A lot has been happening for the past few months, weeks, days. Recently, I am busy as part of the Ateneo COMELEC. The Sanggunian General Elections is already on February 15, that means we have a few weeks to prepare everything before poll days. Today, we have just finished interviewing the representatives for the two battling parties - Partido Agila and Partido Ignacio. The presence of these two parties running side by side would surely add flavor to this year's elections. But the deeper, more pressing question is, will rivalry be only skin deep?
I have just recently finished reading Rey Angeles' The Peso Exchange Rate: Why are We so Poor?, an excellent book that explains how the peso-dollar exchange rate has affected our economy since the 1940's. The Fuschia Book, as it is referred to in a news article, explains that the exchange is more than just a consequence of the prevailing economic conditions of a country, rather it has the capacity to mold it. In the concrete, the book explains how the Bell Trade Act of 1946 which fixed the peso at an overvalued rate of 1 dollar = 2 pesos affected our industries.
Mr. Angeles offers a fresh (in my POV, which is quite limited) explanation for the economic problems that we are currently facing. He uses empirical data not only within the country but also of other Asian countries.
I am recently in correspondence with Mr. Angeles and I'm very glad that he expresses much interest on my initial e-mail. I see this as a perfect learning opportunity. I strongly recommend that people, specially students who are into economics, business, and even other fields to get a copy of the book (very cheap!). It's quite short and very readable, and is able to give a fresh insight into the dynamics of Philippine economy.