Impulses
Hodge podge
Yes, it's me again. After about two years of hibernation from mainstream journalism, I am risen anew just like a phoenix straight from the ashes of dormancy.
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Working for six years in the local media with a short stint in the Manila Times, I find it difficult to separate myself from the craft that I have learned to embrace. It started as a must-do job then it suddenly metamorphosed into a lifelong fixation, to say the least.
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Your humble columnist is now a physics teacher in a Jesuit school, Ateneo de Iloilo. But never did I sleep at night without peeping into newspapers and eavesdropping into radio stations almost literally from dusk ‘til dawn. I think I am now suffering from news-craze opinion-laden syndrome. And the space that The News Today has given me is my penicillin.
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Hodgepodge is the name of my game. I give the news, then my views, text approach. This way, all the possible things are covered in laconic phrases with terse, sometimes droll, comments.
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I'm sure you will taste some sense from the mishmashes that I will pepper in this column. The secret: Read between the lines--for sarcasm is the name of my sport and shaggy dog stories are my hobbies. I also inform, more so espouse peculiar thoughts, if necessary.
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What makes politicians and diapers alike? My friend says, for they must be changed regularly for the same obvious reasons! No to extension of political terms!
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Southern Command shall be split as part of GMA's insurgency campaign. That's the people-must-believe press release. For me, this is more of an anti-army adventurism campaign; for the more the military is divided, the more Ate Glo controls the status quo.
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Call stations are migrating to Bacolod due to fluctuating power supply in the Iloilo metropolis. What a waste of investment. That's the price of monopoly, otherwise known as PECO's totalitarian rule (without respect to good and decent service). That, too, is the price of complacency, otherwise known as the lack of local economy projection of the LGU concerned.
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Gringo is still hiding from justice: A step backward. I'm excited with his two steps forward. Is it a coup, a junta, an assassination, a string of bombings, a call for civil disobedience, a nationwide rally, an extreme left-extreme right blood compact, a peaceful takeover, a backdoor negotiation? The element of surprise lingers. The art of war and of compromise are in the works.
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DepEd has told teachers and students not to join SONA protesters. Then what? Be contented with the crumbs that the government is giving them? I thought education aims to teach people to be critical, self-determining, and vigilant?
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Nursing schools here have made a clear statement as far as the result of the board exams is concerned: That Iloilo is the bedrock of medical courses in the country. I hope Iloilo will get more piece of the topnotch pie in the next exams to come. Congratulations new Ilonggo nurses! The dollars, dinars and sterlings are waiting for you overseas.
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I really like the editorial cartoon of the Daily Inquirer last July 22. It showed Guyito asking, "Is this the state of the nation?!" At the background are uniformed personnel in a closed firing squad formation guarding Batasang Pambansa in time of Gloria's SONA. The cartoonist's stern opinion is depicted graphically, almost perfectly... a strong work of art indeed.
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Diwal in Roxas City is in near-death situation. It's killing the market due to the scarcity of the popular aphrodisiac that is also known as the "chicken of the sea." Last year, according to reports, it cost P100 per kilo, now it skyrocketed to P300 at the least. Somebody must take a look at this, or else.
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Less than 70% of the Negros Capitol employees participate in the flag rites every Monday. We need to check the other offices, too. Theirs might even be worse. By the way, do congressmen also have flag rites during Mondays? Better check their attendance, too. Your guess is as good as mine.
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In her SONA, GMA urged her opponents to join her and stop demanding her ouster (an attempt that, for her, is a lost cause). The guts she has! Imagine this, a disputed president who has nothing to show but her penchant in manipulating people and laws for her interests, asking for a truce while insulting the other side of the political fence.
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There must be better ways to do politics, says GMA. Like what, her way? Like siphoning money from the national coffers, Jose Pidal style?
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Some of Arroyo's last SONA words: "After three years, eleven months, and six days, I shall relinquish the Presidency..." Sounds like her famous Rizal Day pronouncement "I will not run for President."
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Proof of the dismal state of our educational system according to Freedom from Debt Coalition:
1 in 10 Filipinos has never gone to school (6.8 million)
1 in 6 Filipinos is not functionally literate (9.6 million)
4.1 million are illiterate
11.6 million youth are out-of-school
More than half (51 percent) of Filipinos had at most elementary education
Out of 1000 Grade 1 pupils, only 688 will finish their elementary education and only 7 will acquire the required competency skills
Of 100 students that enroll in Grade 1, only 13 will finish college.
The Philippines has one of the most crowded classrooms in Asia. Class size is, at least, 55 to 56 students per classroom.
Classroom shortage is more than 44,000 despite Mrs. Arroyo's recent pronouncement that there is no classroom shortage.
Textbook shortage is pegged at 25 million.
Public school teacher shortage is close to 50,000.
8.5 percent of schoolchildren are malnourished. Public schools are lacking in a comprehensive school-based, institutionalized child nutrition program.
Need I say more?
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Furthermore, these are what the statistics say:
Using the Old Definition, an additional 3.836 million workers entered the labor force from 33.621 million in April 2001 to 37.457 million in April 2006.
Using the New Definition, however, labor force participation fell from 37.457 million to 35.954 million or a difference of 1.503 million workers who were delisted from the Labor Force Survey. (They were those without jobs but have lost interest in looking for jobs for at least six months).
Only a total of 2.939 million jobs were generated from April 2001 to April 2006 or an average of 489,833 a year.
Even the agricultural sector, which was identified as one that would generate more jobs, was only able to create an additional 167,000 new jobs from 11.253 million in 2001 to 11.420 in April 2006.
The number of unemployed persons fell from 4.461 million in April 2001 to 2.930 million in April 2006. But this was mainly because of the introduction of the new definition where more than a million (1.503 million) unemployed persons were removed from the list beginning April 2005. Using the old definition, the unemployment rate today is at 11.8% rather that 8.2%.
Underemployment rate rose dramatically from 17.5% in 2001 to 25.4 in 2006 which is reflective of the kind of jobs that were generated over the period of time.
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Moreover, if we compare this achievement to that of the Ramos and Estrada administrations, we will see that Mrs. Arroyo is no better and is in fact far slower than her predecessors in terms of creating new and permanent jobs. Between 1995 and 1998, Ramos was able to create 2.1 million jobs or a yearly average of 700,000, while the short stint of Erap has averaged 530,000.
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Rep. Escudero to GMA: "To dream costs nothing and there is nothing wrong with that. I hope her dreams come true because it is a bigger sin to let people hope on nothing." Guilty as charged.
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The PIA 6 Basic Journalism Seminar-Workshop is now going on at Fine Rock Hotel, Iloilo City. About 200 writers in the metropolis participated in the yearly event with workaholic Mrs. Elsa Subong as the prime organizer. I just hope that more affairs like this will be given to our less-privileged but talented students in the barangay schools. Long live campus journalism!
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That's it for now. I will be back next week.
(Engr. Herman Lagon may be reached through h_lagon@yahoo.com.)