24 October 2012

Does Obama's socialism work?


From an anonymous post viralled via FB...


An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan" All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

23 October 2012

Were the 2010 automated elections really a success?

Here's a special issue of the Impact Magazine on the May 2010 elections.

http://impactmagazine.net/pdf/IMPACT%20vol46%20n10.pdf

Symbols

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2012/10/23/symbols/


By Jojo Robles
Manila Standard Today
Posted on Oct. 23, 2012 at 12:01am

Appearances can be deceiving, they say. And sometimes, when loaded political statements are constantly being made, appearances are truly meant to deceive.

Still, regardless of the supposed diplomatic awkwardness they caused, I wouldn’t read too much into the photographs showing President Noynoy Aquino greeting Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Fu Ying with one hand in his pocket. At worst, Aquino merely proved once again that he is a rube and a hillbilly in matters of protocol when he met the Chinese minister in his usual wanna-be-a-kanto boy style; I am forced to agree with Lady Gaga, Aquino’s spokeswoman, that the “no harm, no foul” rule is in effect here.

But since we’re on the subject of symbolic gestures, I am more concerned about Aquino’s continued wearing of the logo of his family’s franchise, the yellow ribbon. Aquino did not only display the symbol of his undying partisanship when Fu visited him—he was also sporting the yellow ribbon when he met the visiting French prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, over the weekend.

Fu, who was once Chinese ambassador to Manila, may understand the President’s refusal to wear a flag pin like his predecessors. She may have inwardly raised an eyebrow and disapproved, but she would have at least understood the context of Aquino’s symbol of divisiveness.

Ayrault, on the other hand, may have been confused by the decoration of the Philippine President’s chest. Because the super-patriotic French are really particular about such things, he may have even inquired as to the yellow ribbon’s political meaning —and wondered why a head of state could be so pettily partisan.

(Since we’re on the subject of revealing photographs, as well, it was truly painful to see pictures of Ayrault bowing to the Philippine flag as he trooped the line with Aquino wearing his family’s de facto seal. Now that is a statesmanlike gesture to a true national symbol, something that Aquino could learn from.)

I’ve said it before: Until Aquino realizes that he is President of all Filipinos and stops wearing his family’s divisive political badge, he will not win any more adherents to his cause outside of his captive base. The undeniable fact remains that, regardless of how many voted for Aquino in the 2010 elections, still more voters chose other candidates for President.

These people do not take kindly to Aquino’s continued display of factionalism and division. And they would appreciate a more inclusive, conciliatory symbol, like the flag that all Filipinos – starting with their President – should display and respect.

That said, and given his control of Congress, perhaps Aquino should just have a law passed replacing the old tricolor with a yellow ribbon flag. Then he can wear his family’s symbol all he wants—and hear no more quibbling about the matter from me.

* * *

Saint Rosario Arroyo and the saintly Cory Aquino

http://www.tribuneonline.org/index.php/commentary/item/5938-saint-rosario-arroyo-and-the-saintly-cory-aquino


Written by  Charlie V. Manalo
The Daily Tribune
Tuesday, 23 October 2012 00:00

Barring any hitches, another Filipina is bound for sainthood. According to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, the process for the cause of canonization of Mother Rosario Arroyo, founder of the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary in Molo, Iloilo, has now reached Rome following the conclusion of a diocesan inquiry on the matter.

Born to a rich family, Mother Rosario could have lived the life of a princess but she abandoned all these and chose to live a simple life. When she became an heiress, she reportedly donated her inheritance to the congregation she founded.

Despite her wealthy upbringing, Mother Rosario devoted her life with her ministry to the poor. She became a nun in the Dominican Order. And with the help of two other Dominican nuns, she founded the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary.

Anyway, when I say barring any hitches, I am referring to whatever efforts avid Noynoy followers may do just to block the canonization of Mother Rosario Arroyo. For born Maria Beatriz del Rosario Arroyo, the Filipina candidate for sainthood is the grand aunt of the most vilified man in Philippine history just next to the Marcoses, former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.

Born to Don Ignacio Arroyo and Maria Pidal-Arroyo, Mother Rosario, had two brothers, Jose Pidal Arroyo, who would later became senator, and Mariano Pidal Arroyo.

The late senator was the paternal grandfather of Jose Miguel Arroyo, husband of former President, now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal -Arroyo.

While the former First Gentleman could not emulate the saintly deeds of his grand aunt, stories abound of his generosity especially for those who are in dire need. One of these involves my friend, also a former media practitioner, Carlo, whose daughter then was terminally ill. When Big Mike learned of his situation, even if did not even know Carlo personally, the former First Gentleman extended help for the cost of the hospitalization of Carlo’s daughter. Unfortunately, Carlo’s daughter did not survive. But even then, Big Mike extended help to cover the funeral expenses of his daughter.

Same goes with his wife, the former president. During her first state of the nation address, the former president presented three boys, who were dubbed as the bangkang papel boys, poor boys yet rich in dreams. That time, every one accused the former president of exploiting the poor boys just to earn pogi points. It was only later that we learned Mrs. Arroyo indeed helped those boys, seeing to it that they get their education all the way to their college degrees.

And those are just some of the stories of generosity linked to the former First Couple but have never been publicized. And would they be? If you are sincere in helping other people, you don’t need publicity.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, a group identified with President Aquino are campaigning really hard to have the president’s mother, the late Cory Aquino, beatified.

Referring to Cory as “the housewife who led a revolution” and “the mother of Philippine democracy,” the claim the first Edsa uprising was a miracle attributed to the late former President.

But Cory never led a revolution. She simply benefitted from a failed coup launched by then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and then Army Col. Gringo Honasan. How could have she led a revolution when she was more than a thousand miles away from Edsa, hiding in a convent in Cebu?

People trooped to Edsa because they were fed up with the Marcos dictatorship. And it did not happen overnight. It was the culmination of decades of struggle of anti-Marcos activists.

Mother of democracy? Cory failed to dismantle the vestiges of the Marcos dictatorship. She did not only repeal the repressive Presidential Decree 1866, which is often used to charge activists for “illegal possession of firearms,” but she herself issued repressive measures including Executive Order 272 that extended the period required to bring arrested persons to court and EO 264 creating the Citizens Armed Force Geographical Units, which had been blamed for many of the atrocities during Cory’s time.

Barely a year in power, Cory’s military, on Jan. 22, 1987, opened fire on hundreds of farmers, many of them coming from the Cojuangco-Aquino family-owned Hacienda Luisita, who were protesting her failure to implement genuine land reform, right at the very gates of MalacaƱang.

The incident, infamously known as the “Mendiola Massacre,” resulted in the death of 13 farmers and injury to scores of other marchers.

A month later, on Feb. 10, 1987, another massacre took place. Seventeen civilians, including six children and two elderly were killed by government troops in Sitio Padlao, barangay Namulandayan, Lupao, in Nueva Ecija province.

Ironically, all those involved in the two massacres, were acquitted.

Declaring total war, against the people’s movement, Cory tolerated the abuses of her military and sponsored the formation para-military groups.

Patterned after the United States low intensity conflict, a major component of Cory’s total war is the formation of vigilante groups or anti-communist civilian militias in both urban and rural areas.
More vicious than the uniformed personnel in terms of interrogating suspected terrorists, these vigilante groups but also tortured, maimed, mutilated and killed suspected symphatizers of the New People’s Army (NPA). Before Cory ended her term ended in 1992, it was reported that some 50 right-wing vigilante groups backed by the military were formed all over the country.

According to Bulatlat.com, under Cory’s six-year term, there were 816 cases of enforced disappearances more than 1.2 million victims of dislocations due to military operations, 135 cases of massacres, 1,064 victims of summary executions, and 20,523 victims of illegal arrest and detention.
Cory also betrayed the Filipino people in a lot of ways. For one, she mothballed the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant without instituting alternative power program, resulting to daily 12-hour power outages.
But even before she assumed office, she was also set to betray the people when she signed in December of 1984, a covenant calling for the abrogation of the US Military Bases Agreement. But when she assumed office, she batted for its extension, even marching all the way to the Senate just to convince the senators to heed her demand. Fortunately, the Senators, including then Sen. Joseph “Erap” Estrada, chose to side with the people.

So, from a high net approval rating of plus 72 in October 1986, Cory’s net approval rating was down to just plus seven percent  by the end of her term.

And this is the Cory Aquino Noynoy’s men want beatified.

Her offspring? They could also be as generous as the Arroyos. Didn’t Noynoy shoulder the bail bond of an accused grafter? But more than that, Noynoy is now also playing god, deciding on who’s guilty and who’s not.

Cory up for sainthood? I hope not. For that to happen will signal the beginning of the fulfillment of prophecies of the Apocalypse

05 October 2012

Yellow fever

Hi Netizen,
This article from Wikipedia is a medical article, and not a political article. Mosquitoes are small flies that include bloodsucking species, and are arguably the most dangerous animals on earth. Primates are mammals that include monkeys and apes. Any allusion to Philippine politics is co-incidental.
Cheers,
DK

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_fever

YELLOW FEVER ... is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease.

The yellow fever VIRUS is TRANSMITTED by the bite of FEMALE MOSQUITOES (the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, and other species) and is found in tropical and subtropical areas... The only KNOWN HOSTS of the VIRUS are PRIMATES and several species of MOSQUITO... In the 19th century, yellow fever was deemed one of the most dangerous infectious diseases.

Yellow fever presents in most cases with fever, nausea, and pain, and it generally subsides after several days. In some patients, a toxic phase follows, in which liver damage with JAUNDICE (inspiring the NAME of the DISEASE) can occur and lead to death. Because of the increased bleeding tendency (bleeding diathesis), yellow fever belongs to the group of hemorrhagic fevers. The WHO estimates that yellow fever causes 200,000 illnesses and 30,000 deaths every year in unvaccinated populations...

A safe and effective vaccine against yellow fever has existed since the middle of the 20th century, and some countries require vaccinations for travelers. Since NO THERAPY is KNOWN, vaccination programs are of great importance in affected areas, along with measures to prevent bites and reduce the population of the transmitting mosquito. Since the 1980s, the number of cases of yellow fever has been increasing, making it a re-emerging disease... (emphasis supplied)