There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.
– Victor Hugo

I HAD the wonderful opportunity to meet and speak with Education Secretary Jesli A. Lapus. Gigi and Pam of the Philippine Embassy in Vietnam invited me and Michelle to the despedida party of Consul-Gen Baisa and Ms Bel. Secretary Lapus was the guest of honor and luckily, Ambassador del Rosario asked me to join them at their table.

We talked about life, family, careers, and of course, CyberEducation! Here are some of the insights I gained from Secretary Lapus and from my own research about CyberEd:

What is Cyber Education?

I’m sure you’ve heard of open and distance education (a.k.a. distance learning). This is a hot topic in our generation because of the availability of fast-paced information and communications technology (ICT), which includes e-mail, the Internet, multimedia resources, etc.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

An Open Letter

To: The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Red alert on possible massive human poisoning and fisheries disaster in the Philippines and Malaysia

This is in relation to the news circulating worldwide that “an official go signal to dump 500 tons of urea into the Sulu Sea near the Philippines for a large scale “carbon sequestration” experiment without an Environmental Impact Assessment. The experimental urea dumping may happen this year (2007). According to press reports a further 1, 000-ton urea dump is planned for Malaysian waters in 2008 and the company is also considering additional ocean sites close to the United Arab Emirates, Chile and possibly Morocco.”

If the Ocean Nourishment Corporation (ONC) of Sydney (?) in collaboration with some academic institutions in the Visayas (?) would really dump urea in the seas between the Philippines and Borneo we could positively expect massive toxic phytoplankton blooms and/or fish kills in the area including the inland waters of the Philippines and Malaysia. If we had experienced thousands of human poisoning from toxic algal blooms in the Philippines in the past we should expect and prevent more from this possible disaster. Please see these news articles circulating all over the world.

http://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.html?pub_id=660

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/05/eapacific105.xml

http://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.html?pub_id=659

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/carbon-offset-c.html

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/11/common-sense-an.html

Rhodora V. Azanza, PhD
Professor and Scientist
Harmful Algal Blooms/Red Tide Laboratory
The Marine Science Institute
UP Diliman

IF we take the Philippines’ political events onto the world stage, it definitely shows that Filipinos are gullible. It seems that they buy into all kinds of lies being peddled, especially by authorities.

Let’s take the “cash gift” as an example. When it was first brought up by Governor Panlilio, nobody wanted to admit that it actually happened. The poor governor looked like he concocted a story to gain media mileage. However, it turned out that many actually received a bagful of money. While nobody was quick to come out and take responsibility for it, now everybody is eager to acknowledge that they are the source. But why only now? Will the people buy these now?

If they do, Filipinos are indeed gullible. If lies are peddled by sidewalk vendors struggling to bring food on the table, it is understandable. But if governors and congressmen, looked upon as trustworthy and transparent, do not tell the truth, what hope do we have as a country? If the things that are happening [took place] in other countries, many of these government officials would have already resigned their post. They value their names and honor more than their positions and the mighty peso.

What else can be done when the heart is already callous? The only thing left to be done is to institute a moral revolution. This should start from the people and not from the present set of elected officials. In the next election, forget the name and the political affiliation. Rather, vote for those who are least in the eyes of men but great in the eyes of God — the honest, the truthful, the ones who are willing to become servants of all, those who treat their office as a position of trust and thus are willing to give it up when accused of irregularities. May God bless the Philippines.

– Teck Uy, Ontario, Canada (via e-mail)

IN SOLIDARITY with Neo-Angono Artists Collective, the artists of TutoK express their indignation at the censorship of the mural on the History of Press Freedom, commissioned by the National Press Club (NPC), and ironically defaced and revised shortly after the same mural was installed and transferred to the NPC’s custody. The mural unveiled on October 26 on the 55th anniversary of the NPC was changed without the artists’ consent.

Our initial reaction was of lament. This act would be deemed unexpected of an institution representing a profession that we hold in high esteem. In the interest of social responsibility, artists, like writers and journalists, are practitioners of creative craft in the service of truth and the pursuit of justice.

As the mural aptly means to depict, the history of the struggle for press freedom is not the struggle of press and media people alone, but the struggle of a nation seeking freedom from imperialist and fascist bondage.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

A SUPPOSEDLY good corporate citizen like Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) was unlikely to do anything that would be a great disservice
to the country. But ALI showed what is under its hood by paying its own so-called experts to contradict the findings of the PNP and volunteer experts from the Australian Federal Police and Israel.

ALI should have picked the proper time and forum to bring its experts out from the closet. As it was, ALI frittered away the fine corporate image it nurtured over many years. It took a foreign dignitary, US Ambassador
Kristie Kenney, to remind everybody, including ALI, that those saying otherwise should realize what a terror attack in Metro Manila would
mean to the country as a whole.

ALI must rethink its hidden suggestion that terrorists or political agitators were behind the Glorietta 2 explosion. The ploy — obviously an advance defense for possible charges of gross negligence resulting in deaths and injuries to persons — is a public relations disaster.

– Armando Batara, Parañaque City, Philippines (via e-mail)

IT strikes me as odd that the University of the Philippines, especially its “militant” community, is quick to point out excesses in government and in the private sector but is slow in taking action in cases of fraternity hazing.

To my mind, there is no clear justification for violence especially for those who only seek a semblance of affiliation and brotherhood in an academic community such as UP. Perhaps university officials should start to crack the whip on these fraternities, if only to show that it can serve justice to victims of hazing in the same way the university community calls for transparency and honest-to-goodness governance.

– Kjell Aboy, Bajada, Davao City, Philippines (via e-mail)