| Letter from London
By Antonio C. Abaya Written on Oct. 16, 2008 For the Standard Today Whenever I visit a foreign city, the first response of my body comes in the form of a minor stomach upset as it copes with a new set of bacteria that has invaded it from the new and unfamiliar food and drink that I have to consume. It lasts for about three or four days, after which my metabolism returns to normal. The same can be said about the new media environment that I find myself in, especially in a major news-generating city like London. The serviced apartment in Kensington that I am billeted in has a limited cable TV menu. It has BBC-1 and BBC-2, which are anemic cousins of BBC World that I had become addicted to in Manila. But it has no CNN, a major shortcoming considering the accelerating momentum of the presidential elections in the US, as the global economy spirals out of control. BBC-1 and BBC-2 are just not up to it. Even less so is something called Sky News, which purports to give the latest news every 15 minutes. But repeating basically the same news reports every 15 minutes during the day is not the same as delivering in-depth analysis and detailed reportage, which CNN and BBC World perform with seamless efficiency and professionalism. I frankly found the radio a more satisfying medium here. I found myself spending more time with LBC � which I presume stands for London Broadcasting Corporation � and BBC Radio 4, than with the TV channels. I was fortunate to catch a discussion on radio on "Islam and Islamism." A 22-year old Muslim from, if memory serves, Pakistan was recently detained by police after he tried to blow himself up and 55 other customers in a family restaurant in Exeter. He had locked himself up in the loo (British for toilet) where he assembled his 500-nail bomb, but, fortunately for the other diners, he could not unlock the door to sow the intended carnage on the restaurant floor, which forced him to instead explode the bomb harmlessly in the loo, wounding only himself. The focus of the discussion was the would-be bomber's defiant statement that "I want to be a Muslim martyr and I want to kill other people!" A newspaper journalist who had covered the incident said he had never heard any Roman Catholic say "I want to be a Roman Catholic martyr and I want to kill other people!" Or any Jew say "I want to be a Jewish martyr and I want to kill other people!" Or any Sikh say "I want to be a Sikh martyr and I want to kill other people!" His point was that there is something in Islam that motivates some Muslims to want to kill other people for the sake of their religion, and he blames this on aspects of the Quran that incite hatred against non-Muslims and that convinces Muslims that they have a mission to convert the rest of the world to Islam or, failing that, to kill those who refuse to be converted. A caller from an Islamic foundation admitted as much, but said that one must make a distinction between Islam as a religion and Islamism as a political movement, as if such a distinction would have served any useful purpose to the 55 intended victims as their body parts were collected, if the would-be martyr had succeeded. Another Muslim caller rather incoherently argued that half a million Muslims had been killed, presumably in Iraq, which seemed to justify to him the killing of 55 diners in a British family restaurant. But he also argued that Christians also kill other people for their religion, but he did not cite any specific example. Certainly Christians have killed other people for the sake of their religion, starting from the slaughter of the Cathar "heretics" in southern France, the Spanish Inquisition that hunted down Jews, Muslims and heretical Christians, the crusades against the Muslims in the Holy Land, and the mutual carnage between Catholics and Protestants in the religious wars of the 16th ad 17th centuries in Europe. But it has not happened in the modern era, except perhaps the assassination by anti-abortion activists of doctors who performed abortions and the bombing of abortion clinics, both in the US in the past decade or two. No mention was made in the radio discussion of the possible connection between martyrdom in the Islamic context and sexual repression in most Muslim societies. Among the major religions of the world, Islam is the most sexually repressive, requiring women to cover themselves completely, from head to toe, when they are in public; forbidding men and women to swim in the same swimming pool or even the same beach; restricting women from appearing in public with males who are not their relatives; separating women from men during services in mosques, etc On the other hand, the reward for martyrdom, for killing infidels and dying for their faith in the process, is expressed in sexual and sensuous terms: a direct path to Heaven, to which the martyr or sayeed is welcomed by 72 virgins with green pillows and sweet dates. Why this dichotomy, I honestly would like to know. How London will welcome the athletes and millions of visitors who will converge for the 2012 Olympics is anybody's guess. Heathrow Airport, in its present state, does not look like the gateway to a modern metropolis, road traffic is badly snarled in the downtown areas, and the Tube or Underground looks like it hasn't had a make-over since the 1960s. The physical closeness of London to hundreds of millions of prosperous Europeans, plus millions of other even more prosperous petro-tourists from the Middle East and North Africa, means that the British Isles could figuratively sink from an overload of visitors in 2012. I'm definitely staying away then.. But I would like to come back in 2010 or 2011, if I can, when the British Museum holds a special exhibition on my favorite historical figure, Alexander the Great, who at age 20, instead of representing Macedonia at the Olympic Games then, as he was eminently qualified for, set out on an epic journey of punitive conquest against the mighty Persian Empire that took him as far away as Kabul in what is now Afghanistan, Amritsar in India and what is now Karachi in Pakistan, only to die in Babylon, at age 33, without ever reaching his homeland again. I am a museum person, but not a theatre person. I have spent several hours in the British Museum and the Imperial War Museum, but I have not been to any of the current shows in London. Ever since I started building a library of VHSs and, later, DVDs, I have become partial to watching films, concerts and musicals in my shorts, in the privacy and comfort of my bedroom, with my feet up on my bed, while I sipped tea or wine or munched on peanuts Which I cannot do in a theatre or a movie house. The last film I ever watched in a cinema was "Saving Private Ryan" in the early 1990s The last play I ever watched in a theatre was Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus" in New York decades ago. The jazzed up film version, "Titus," by Julie Taymor, with Anthony Hopkins in the lead role, was a more engrossing experience since its range of settings was not limited to the stage, and the film director could zoom in for a dramatic close-up or zoom out for a panoramic view, which the stage director clearly could not. Even Leonard Bernstein's musical "West Side Story" was/is more entertaining on film than on stage. Hello again, London, in 2010 or 2011. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in acabaya.blogspot.com. Tony on YouTube in www.tapatt.org. To subscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Subscribe. To unsubscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Unsubscribe. . OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to "Letter from London" 'Why are Jews so powerful' 'Zipped by Zpdee' More Reactions to "Gloria and the Lilliputs" More Reactions to "Pax Americana" More Reactions to "US Capitalism Implodes" 'No to Derivatives' Dear Mr Abaya --- Wonderful to hear about your trip to London, but I wonder why you said BBC TV hasn't been up to CNN's coverage of the present political news from the US. Here in Hong Kong where we get 24-hour coverage by BBC TV, the Washington-based team of Matt Fry and Katty Kay, as well as the BBC bus that's been traveling from coast to coast, have produced extremely balanced and wonderfully objective (often humorous) reports from their various US-based correspondents. Justin Webb, who seems to have taken on the mantle of the late Alistair Cooke, is one of the best of the presenters, particularly on radio. His book that's just come out, "Have a Nice Day: Giving America Another Chance" has received rave reviews. Perhaps you've already bought it. Like you, I find the BBC World Service on radio much more satisfying (perhaps you catch it on radio in Manila, or via the internet). Even in these visual times, I find listening to radio makes one think better and appreciate details that one doesn't always retain from the sound-byes given on TV. I hope you'll be giving your readers more about your travels in the UK (and elsewhere). Your commentary that asks why Islam is a religion so full of rage is very timely indeed. All of which make the books "The God Myth" by Richard Dawkins and "God is not Great" by Christopher Hitchens even more relevant for sane thinking people today. Isabel Escoda, (by email), Hong Kong, Oct. 18, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww As an Englishman living in Manila I read your article with great interest. I am surprised you could not get CNN or BBC World; most decent hotels in London have those channels and I agree that the other BBC channels seem lame compared to them. I noticed that during my visit to England last year. But I did enjoy watching Prime Minister's Question Time live on the BBC's Parliament channel. I hope you watched Newsnight sometimes, with guests carved up by Jeremy Paxman's astute, incisive questioning. I used to listen to John Humphries doing the same on R4 while I drove to work. Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament all went under the same knife. True democracy at work. If there were such channels in the Philippines not many politicians or civil servants would last long in their posts, including Presidents. Anthony Lee, (by email), Oct. 18, 2008 (It was our serviced apartment in Kensington that did not have BBC World in its cable menu. Don't ask me why. My son Hochi, who was studying in London for one year did not have any problem getting the BBC World and CNN on his TV set. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Thanks Tony for your article which I enjoyed reading. I feel honored whenever I get an email from you. I don't know if you still remember me. I used to work with Miriam Santiago in CID. Sad to say, I don't anymore agree with her ideas and beliefs, particularly for supporting an incorrigible president like Gloria. Almost every week, a scandal or a blunder is the headline of our news, all committed by this administration. Our poor country is fast sinking into this web of corruption. Were it not for writers like you, people would not be aware of what's happening here. Chol, your sister-in-law, and a close friend of mine, was my classmate in STC. We have been seeing each other on a monthly basis, just to revive our happy days in high school. Here's more power to you, as you have always been one of my favorite writers. Please accept my sincere gratitude and appreciation for your continuing fight against corruption. Regards. Ditas Villa-Real, (by email), Oct. 18, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. This article is very enlightening. Still the problem is facing us. If the extremist Islamist is going to hijack Islam towards political supremacy then we will be caught in a vicious battle in all fronts. Division in society will be exacerbated. Thus, there could be a 9/11 part two, or it is raging right now. Jose Leonidas, (by email), Oct. 18, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww 72 virgins? But according to some scholars, there's a mistranslation on this. What awaits the 'martyrs' are not virgins but 'raisins of crystal clarity'. Better to eat Sun-maid than kill innocent lives. Jun Valenzuela, (by email), Naga City, Oct. 18, 2008 (I do not speak or read Arabic, but I find it incomprehensible how '72 virgins' can be mistaken for 'raisins of crystal clarity.' One of these days I may gather enough gumption and consult my bi-lingual copy of the Holy Quran. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Thank you for sharing your experience in London, Mr.Abaya! By the way I am a good friend of your son-in-law Sergie and a college friend of Carla =) ...I saw your pictures at Windsor Castle and Stonehenge ! Fantastic views !! More power and perfect health Joemar Carlos, (by email), Oct. 18, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Please see attached j-peg entitled virgins. John Long, (by email), Seattle, WA, Oct.19, 2008 TANSTAAFL To do is to be. (Descartes) To be is to do. (Voltaire) Do be do be do. (Sinatra) virgins.jpg 39K View Download wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Tony, You are in Kensington. You must walk the KPG where High Street Kensington is connected to Nottinghill on the other side. You must have seen the pond where the (12) different types of ducks can be seen including those tribes who fly away together towards the other side near Buckingham or Knightsbridge. You must have known that KPG is the street not for the ordinary billionnaires but for those choice ones like the person of Prince Charles and Princess Dianne, Mittal, Bolkiah and so forth. OUR PHILIPPINE EMBASSY IS NO LONGER THERE. I heard it was transferred to an area near Trafalgar Square. I know the Philippine Embassy well enough because I have lived there when I was a Fellow of the London School of Economics, Asia Research Centre. There is where I have learned much about the KPG or Kensington Palace Green. Are you aware that the Royal Garden Hotel on the side of KPG is where some of the GMA officials have stayed somewhere in 2004 or 2005, and paid a total of 400 pounds per night per person which is roughly during those times equivalent to P40,000 per person per night. Anyway this is a common knowledge already to even an ordinary Filipino. Government officials no less than the Police Generals have the guts to carry a total of P5M as contingencies in their foreign travels. Tsk, tsk, tsk. If you are still there, this is the best time to ask, the Philippine Embassy was once a neighbor to Mittal, Bolkiah and Prince Charles' Princess Diane. More so, please ask why they have forgone the Philippine Embassy Mansion which is being rented to the Crown Corporation of UK. Regards, Ernesto Gonzales, (by email), Oct. 19, 2008 Chair Economics, National Research Council of the Philippines 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded to Tapatt by Auggie Surtida) You have some very good writers there. Rebecca Thompson, (by email), Christchurch, New Zealand, Oct. 18, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Ka Tony, Feeling happy to read you are enjoying your London sojourn. Wishing for more news from you. Irineo Perez Goce, (by email), Lipa City, Oct. 19, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Interesting article. Freudian Fernandez, (by email), Virginia Beach, VA, Oct. 18, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded to Tapatt by Freudian Fernandez) Interesting article, indeed, particularly since the fiercely anti-Muslim Mr Antonio Abaya removed me from his mailing list. :-( But what is the point of the article? If Mr Abaya is saying that we can never really trust a deranged Pakistani, I agree. :-) He should put me back in his mailing list. Doesn't he want to hear from me? :-/ Willy Calinawan, (by email), Pasig City, Oct. 18, 2008 (I am not "fiercely anti-Muslim" and I did not remove you from our mailing list. Blame it on the person or persons who sabotaged our zpdee account, including our mailing list last July, causing hundreds of email addresses to disappear. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, I have been in Leiden University as visiting professor since September 1, 2008 and will be here until mid November. As you likely know, most Dutch adults are fluent in English, a surprise when I first came eight years ago. To my second surprise, I asked my Dutch friends, "How come you speak like me (American accent), rather than the King's English spoken only a river (i.e., English Channel) away?" Their response: "Have you watched our TV?" My reply: "OK, the same thing happened to you as with the Canadians, i.e., overwhelmed by American culture on television." My wife and I are blessed with TV that includes not only the melliflous BBC-1 and BBC-2 but also the insightful CNN and EuroNews in English. More than half the time, the Dutch do not dub their English language movies into Dutch. They just supply subtitles in Dutch. When I was guesting as professor in Cologne for six months, we were so frustruated because all the cowboys and Indians, all the teenyboppers, cops and bandits spoke German. Best regards, Joe Faustino, (by email), Leiden, The Netherlands, Oct. 20, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, Just to divert from the sensitive issue of religion, how will you relate to classic-sounding piano pieces by Scott Davis like in his album Rockfluence that includes Sweet Child o' Mine and Unforgiven? I don't know if you can really call it "classical" but I think it may be one way of connecting younger generations to the real classics. By the way, please check your purse as you might accidentally put there excess Euros. Regards from Manila, Edel Anit, (by email), Oct. 23, 2008 (Pardon my ignorance, but I am not familiar with the music of Scott Davis. And I had no problem with some Euros accidentally remaining in my wallet. Paris and London (especially London) cleaned me out. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, If you are still in England, can you do me a favor? Can you please go to BBC and ask why it looks at Filipinos very lowly? Since according to you, you always watch BBC news, have you noticed that BBC news flash the weather condition in almost all Asian cities (including minor ones) like Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, etc. but it does not say anything about Manila, much less minor cities here. Then the "Desparate Housewives" incident and followed by "the Pinoy DH thing". Maybe the Pakistani Muslim suicide bomber has a soft heart for Filipinos. Jun Corpus, (by email), Oct. 31, 2008 (I understand the BBC has apologized. "Desperate Housewives" was an American, not a BBC, production. I do not know anything about "the Pinoy DH thing." ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded to Tapatt by Gil Santos) Why are Jews so powerful�and Muslims so powerless By: Dr Farrukh Saleem The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance columnist Why are Jews so powerful? There are only 14 million Jews in the world; seven million in the Americas, five million in Asia, two million in Europe and 100,000 in Africa. For every single Jew in the world there are 100 Muslims. Yet, Jews are more than a hundred times more powerful than all the Muslims put together. Ever wondered why? Jesus of Nazareth was Jewish. Albert Einstein, the most influential scientist of all time and TIME magazine's 'Person of the Century', was a Jew. Sigmund Freud -- id, ego, and superego -- the father of psychoanalysis was a Jew. So were Karl Marx, Paul Samuelson and Milton Friedman. Here are a few other Jews whose intellectual output has enriched the whole humanity: Benjamin Rubin gave humanity the vaccinating needle. Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccine. Alert Sabin developed the improved live polio vaccine. Gertrude Elion gave us a leukaemia fighting drug. Baruch Blumberg developed the vaccination for Hepatitis B. Paul Ehrlich discovered a treatment for syphilis (a sexually transmitted disease). Elie Metchnikoff won a Nobel Prize in infectious diseases. Bernard Katz won a Nobel Prize in neuromuscular transmission. Andrew Schally won a Nobel in endocrinology (disorders of the endocrine system; diabetes, hyperthyroidism) ... Aaron Beck founded Cognitive Therapy (psychotherapy to treat mental disorders, depression and phobias). Gregory Pincus developed the first oral contraceptive pill. George Wald won a Nobel for furthering our understanding of the human eye. Stanley Cohen won a Nobel in embryology (study of embryos and their development) . Willem Kolff came up with the kidney dialysis machine. Over the past 105 years, 14 million Jews have won 15-dozen Nobel Prizes while only three Nobel Prizes have been won by 1.4 billion Muslims (other than Peace Prizes). Why are Jews so powerful? Stanley Mezor invented the first micro-processing chip. Leo Szilard developed the first nuclear chain reactor. Peter Schultz, optical fibre cable; Charles Adler, traffic lights; Benno Strauss, Stainless steel; Isador Kisee, sound movies; Emile Berliner, telephone microphone and Charles Ginsburg, videotape recorder. Famous financiers in the business world who belong to Jewish faith include Ralph Lauren (Polo), Levis Strauss (Levi's Jeans), Howard Schultz (Starbuck's) , Sergey Brin (Google), Michael Dell (Dell Computers), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Donna Karan (DKNY), Irv Robbins (Baskin & Robbins) and Bill Rosenberg (Dunkin Donuts). Richard Levin, President of Yale University, is a Jew. So are Henry Kissinger (American secretary of state), Alan Greenspan (fed chairman under Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush), Joseph Lieberman, Madeleine Albright (American secretary of state), Maxim Litvinov (USSR foreign Minister), David Marshal (Singapore's first chief minister), Isaac Isaacs (governor-general of Australia), Benjamin Disraeli (British statesman and author), Yevgeny Primakov (Russian PM), Jorge Sampaio (president of Portugal), Herb Gray (Canadian deputy PM), Pierre Mendes France (French PM), Michael Howard (British home secretary), Bruno Kreisky (chancellor of Austria) and Robert Rubin (former American secretary of treasury). In the media, famous Jews include Wolf Blitzer (CNN), Barbara Walters (ABC News), Eugene Meyer (Washington Post), Henry Grunwald (editor-in-chief Time), Katherine Graham (publisher of The Washington Post), Joseph Lelyyeld (Executive editor, The New York Times), and Max Frankel (New York Times). Can you name the most beneficent philanthropist in the history of the world? The name is George Soros, a Jew, who has so far donated a colossal $4 billion most of which has gone as aid to scientists and universities around the world. Second to George Soros is Walter Annenberg, another Jew, who has built a hundred libraries by donating an estimated $2 billion. At the Olympics, Mark Spitz set a record of sorts by winning seven gold medals. Lenny Krayzelburg is a three- time Olympic gold medallist. Spitz, Krayzelburg and Boris Becker are all Jewish. Did you know that Harrison Ford, George Burns, Tony Curtis, Charles Bronson, Sandra Bullock, Billy Crystal, Woody Allen, Paul Newman, Peter Sellers, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Douglas, Ben Kingsley, Kirk Douglas, William Shatner, Jerry Lewis and Peter Falk are all Jewish? As a matter of fact, Hollywood itself was founded by a Jew. Among directors and producers, Steven Spielberg, Mel Brooks, Oliver Stone, Aaron Spelling (Beverly Hills 90210), Neil Simon (The Odd Couple), Andrew Vaina (Rambo 1/2/3), Michael Man (Starsky and Hutch), Milos Forman (One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest), Douglas Fairbanks (The thief of Baghdad) and Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) are all Jewish. To be certain, Washington is the capital that matters and in Washington the lobby that matters is The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. Washington knows that if PM Ehud Olmert were to discover that the earth is flat, AIPAC will make the 109th Congress pass a resolution congratulating Olmert on his discovery. William James Sidis, with an IQ of 250-300, is the brightest human who ever existed. Guess what faith did he belong to? So, why are Jews so powerful? Answer: Education. Why are Muslims so powerless? There are an estimated 1,476,233,470 Muslims on the face of the planet: one billion in Asia, 400 million in Africa, 44 million in Europe and six million in the Americas. Every fifth human being is a Muslim; for every single Hindu there are two Muslims, for every Buddhist there are two Muslims and for every Jew there are one hundred Muslims. Ever wondered why Muslims are so powerless? Here is why: There are 57 member-countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), and all of them put together have around 500 universities; one university for every three million Muslims. The United States has 5,758 universities and India has 8,407. In 2004, Shanghai Jiao Tong University compiled an 'Academic Ranking of World Universities' , and intriguingly, not one university from Muslim-majority states was in the top-500. As per data collected by the UNDP, literacy in the Christian world stands at nearly 90 per cent and 15 Christian- majority states have a literacy rate of 100 per cent. A Muslim-majority state, as a sharp contrast, has an average literacy rate of around 40 per cent and there is no Muslim-majority state with a literacy rate of 100 per cent. Some 98 per cent of the 'literates' in the Christian world had completed primary school, while less than 50 per cent of the 'literates' in the Muslim world did the same. Around 40 per cent of the 'literates' in the Christian world attended university while no more than two per cent of the 'literate s' in the Muslim world did the same. Muslim-majority countries have 230 scientists per one million Muslims. The US has 4,000 scientists per million and Japan has 5,000 per million. In the entire Arab world, the total number of full-time researchers is 35,000 and there are only 50 technicians per one million Arabs (in the Christian world there are up to 1,000 technicians per one million). Furthermore, the Muslim world spends 0.2 per cent of its GDP on research and development, while the Christian world spends around five per cent of its GDP. Conclusion: The Muslim world lacks the capacity to produce knowledge. Daily newspapers per 1,000 people and number of book titles per million are two indicators of whether knowledge is being diffused in a society. In Pakistan, there are 23 daily newspapers per 1,000 Pakistanis while the same ratio in Singapore is 360. In the UK, the number of book titles per million stands at 2,000 while the same in Egypt is 20. Conclusion: The Muslim world is failing to diffuse knowledge. Exports of high technology products as a percentage of total exports are an important indicator of knowledge application. Pakistan's exports of high technology products as a percentage of total exports stands at one per cent. The same for Saudi Arabia is 0.3 per cent; Kuwait, Morocco, and Algeria are all at 0.3 per cent while Singapore is at 58 per cent. Conclusion: The Muslim world is failing to apply knowledge. Why are Muslims powerless? Because we aren't producing knowledge. Why are Muslims powerless? Because we aren't diffusing knowledge. Why are Muslims powerless? Because we aren't applying knowledge. And, the future belongs to knowledge-based societies. Interestingly, the combined annual GDP of 57 OIC-countries is under $2 trillion. America, just by herself, produces goods and services worth $12 trillion; China $8 trillion, Japan $3.8 trillion and Germany $2.4 trillion (purchasing power parity basis). Oil rich Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar collectively produce goods and services (mostly oil) worth $500 billion; Spain alone produces goods and services worth over $1 trillion, Catholic Poland $489 billion and Buddhist Thailand $545 billion. (Muslim GDP as a percentage of world GDP is fast declining). So, why are Muslims so powerless? Answer: Lack of education! All we do is shout to Allah whole day and blame everyone else for our multiple failures..!.***** ... wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww For your information, Mr. Abaya. Warm regards. Rey O. Arcilla, (by email), Oct. 23, 2008 Columnist, Malaya ZIPPED BY ZPDEE? (Skycable ZPDEE.NET should thoroughly investigate.) Like fellow-columnist Antonio Abaya of another newspaper, parties unknown have begun fiddling with or blocking my emails transmitting my weekly MALAYA column to friends and acquaintances here and abroad. It happened to Mr. Abaya when he was still using Skycable's ZPDEE.NET as I am now. For about two years, I have been emailing my column to as much as 150 recipients in one go through ZPDEE. Then recently, ZPDEE reduced the number to 30. Any number beyond that was not delivered and returned to me with the notation "Too many recipients". Last week, ZPDEE stopped delivery altogether of said emails transmitting my MALAYA column (even those with only one recipient) with the notation from "POSTMASTER" that they were "CONSIDERED UNSOLICITED BULK MAIL". (My other "bulk" emails go through as long as they do not contain my column.) I asked Skycable what happened. They gave me all kinds of mumbo-jumbo � from "we will check it out" to "we are upgrading the system". In the meantime, I found out that Skycable ZPDEE uses INFOCOM.PH as the server for the emails of their subscribers, both incoming and outgoing. It doesn't matter if you use YAHOO, HOTMAIL, GMAIL, etc. If you are a ZPDEE user, all your outgoing and incoming emails will go through INFOCOM.PH. I have no idea if INFOCOM.PH is the culprit or if my server Skycable ZPDEE is involved in blocking my emails transmitting my weekly column, but I feel it is the latter's duty to me and to their other customers to thoroughly investigate the matter. ***** wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww More Reactions to "Gloria and the Lilliputs" (Oct. 02, 2008) Tony, I have been surfing the net and encountered your webpage comments on GMA and Lilliputians. I thought it should have been GMA and co-Lilliputians. Nothing about her height but more of the culture of importance . As Gulliver found out, the Lilliputians were very sensitive and keen on grabbing credits and platitudes and if irked ready to settle things in the battle field. While the public might have been confused of GMA's gaffe on the World Bank/IMF funding, for us who have worked in international organizations it was just a question of time when the embarrassment will hit the highest official of the country. High officials of the Philippine government are noted to leak everything to the newspapers in order to grab credit or lick the boots of their superiors by letting their superiors grab the credit. In most instances it is to the embarrassment of the officials in international organizations. As a procedure, officials of international organizations conduct a confidential discussions with their counterparts on potential initiatives to sound out the government interests. The government officials are supposed to brief their superiors of the discussions and get feedbacks. The officials at the international organization does the same thing. They carry out consultation with senior management. If there is mutual interest, an official meeting is held and most likely memorandum of understanding is agreed and signed by both parties. At this stage some news maybe release but the MOU always have a caveat-- the understandings are subject to concurrence by high officials of the government and the international organization. This starts the official process. If the reports were correct the World Bank and IMF held talks with other senior officials from ASEAN countries. The other countries honored the confidentiality of the discussions except the Philippines who wanted grab or generate the impressions that they are the leaders among leaders, they are at the center of the discussion, they are the main actor while the rest of the ASEAN were merely towing their line, and they are ones that made things happen. In fact, if the discussion had come to a stage wherein a memorandum of understanding was signed, the current ASEAN chair which Thailand should have been the one who will make the announcement in behalf of the members. The World Bank officials may have been pissed off to publicly denounce the inaccuracy, breached of protocol, confidentiality and trust. Normally the position taken by the international organization is to remain silent and let the issue die down. Or a similar approach taken by IMF, they admit are ready to provide the funds when approached and subject to its normal procedure of placing policy conditions before any money is released. The IMF statement if translated to non-diplomatic lingo simply states GMA and the Philippine officialdom should not have made those public statement as it is premature, incorrect and a breach of protocol . I could understand the frustration of the World Bank officials in being more blunt. As a Filipino, I refused to deal with Filipino officialdom for confidential consultation after three similar incidents. The last one was in 2001 when the Chief of Environment and Social Development and the Manager for Environment sent me to an informal consultation to discuss potential and rapid disbursement of funds to address the solid wastes problem in Metro Manila. This was the month when Erap was thrown out of office and garbage was all around Manila. I emphasized the need for confidentiality when the meeting started and again before the meeting broke up. I went to the office to prepare my report and before I could submit it the next day, the carpet was pulled under me. It was all over the newspapers, "ADB commits $50 million funding for Metro Manila solid wastes" . I have to spend the whole day explaining my side to senior management. Anyway I realized they pulled the carpet under me for procedural reasons as I feel almost all my interrogators knew this is typical for Filipino officialdom to twist facts, grab credits and call a press conference. The organization did not issue any press release confirming or contradicting the news item. They just let it die down. Sec Teves, Recto and GMA have a problem behaving like the Lilliputians. Ely Ouano, (by email), Oct. 18, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww More Reactions to "Pax Americana II" (Sept. 16, 2008) Dear Tony, A well written historical account of American economic-political ambition that serves mostly, if not purely, American interests in the guise of many things that are pleasing to the many gullible as well as intelligent but selfish peoples of foreign lands. I wish your continued success. God bless. Jerry Quibilan, (by email), Sept. 16, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I vaguely remember your "Pax Americana II" but from that superficial reading, I gather that the US has designs in Mindanao and is aligning itself with the Moro's independent movement, having given up on GMA or for that matter, the Philippine Government. If I am wrong then I stand corrected. It is comical to read a slew of self proclaimed experts theorizing, sometimes proclaiming as gospel truth the "Imperialistic Vision" of the US. It is regrettable that the world opinion sadly reflects the views expressed in the reactions to your article. Having been in the US now for over 44 years, more than being in the Philippines, I think I have some perspective of the American sentiments than most of the writers below. It is ironic that the "most hated country in the world" is also the most sought after nation for immigrants who want to prosper, and enjoy freedom. They leave their own beloved country risking their own lives just to be a part of this Scorned, Imperialistic Bully. Revising history to reflect one's beliefs sometimes is the norm. Judging from the sources of forwarded articles to your columns, there is a preponderance of left wing and Anti-American bias. For all the "well wishers" of the USA, suffer no more. The only "super power" left in this world might just decide to keep all it marbles and refuse to play anymore and retreat to Fortress America. With the Billions if not Trillions of dollars wasted to project the American influence, militarily and monetarily, the day of reckoning is coming. Uncle Sam's hand has been bitten so often, that it might just stay in its own pocket for a while. Leave the world's affairs to the Chinese, the Russians, the Islamisists, maybe the Germans and the French. They certainly are always looking for a harmonious world. With Obama's international appeal and with the obvious fascination by the media elite, the deed will be done in less than 2 months. With the growing budget crunch and the pacifist sentiments in the country fanned by the left and championed by "The Chosen One" there will be nothing left but a few creaking tanks by the time the Hungry Russian Bear or the Chinese Tiger bares its teeth. Japan's Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere seems such a long time ago. The Philippines certainly was a beneficiary of that union. Come to think of it, Japanese to some people might be easier to learn than English. I wonder how the next catastrophic victims of natural disasters, or wars of "liberation" will react when Uncle Sam politely declines, and say "sorry I can't help you". How many countries came over to offer help in the recent catastrophic hurricanes which devastated the Southern States of the US, and is still slogging through? NIL!! For all the countries that the US has helped and are themselves guilty of piling on, Caesar's last words resonates, Et Tu Brutus! H.M. Cruz, MD, (by email), Sept. 23, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww More Reactions to "US Capitalism Implodes" (Sept. 23, 2008) The financial troubles in the US that required a US$700 billion bailout by the US government is easily explained away by experts as the result of the subprime mortgages that went sour (naturally) and grew into a multifaceted dragon that threatens to eat up giant banks, including some big, old and respected financial institutions in the US. The US government hopes that the infusion would work to stabilize the financial system. It is interesting to know the details of what and why it happened but to an ordinary layman the situation today is like that of a person who had cancer at the toes, which had gone up to his leg and threatened to spread to his entire body. Any country doctor would cut the leg off fast. That's what the US government did when Lehman Brothers, a New York investment company, collapsed. It was allowed it to die a natural death � to prevent the disease from spreading to the rest of body politic. But when the same cancer threatened to upturn other investment banks and an insurance conglomerate, the US government perceived that as a threat to the entire American people and rushed a proposal to bail out the troubled institutions with taxpayers' money. That is the point of these rambling thoughts. The stockholders and clients of Lehman Bros. lost money because of their bad business decisions and they bore their own losses. But when the other investment institutions failed or were on the brink of failing, why did the US government not just allow them to die like Lehman Bros. instead of proposing to pour $700 billion to bail them out? Of course, letting them die would adversely affect probably a few million depositors and investors (read-risk takers), including foreign financial institutions and dollar-rich Arab oil moguls. But why should the US government save them at the expense of the other hundreds of million of innocent taxpayers? The principle here is: the risk takers knew what they were getting into and have only themselves to blame. Why must the innocent taxpayers be made to pay for their misfortune? Because the big institutions in Wall Street are owned or controlled by a few people who are influential in the corridors of power in Washington. And, with national elections being due in two months, these people dictated what the US government needed to do to save themselves. It was a case of the tail wagging the dog. And what would the US government get for the bail out? A bodega-full of worthless, "toxic" assets which it hopes to sell in the future at a profit. The great American dream! In the Philippine context, it would be like a group of influential Chinese businessmen dictating to the government to use taxpayers' money to bail out Chinese owned or controlled banks in trouble. Not impossible, I think, when elections loom in 2010 and politicians seek to win the group's support. Our copycat government has already announced it would also bail out, for a start, Quedancor (Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corporation) with P475 million of taxpayers' money to pay off loans it made to various private debtors who could not be located or were fictitious, plus P3.5 billion to pay what it borrowed to lend the loans. Instead of prosecuting the people responsible for the mess, the government plans to just allow Quedancor to die and retire scot-free its officers and employees with Napocor-like benefits amounting to P100 million from the P475 million infusion. If small time operators can make the government do this, think how easily some powerful people can wag the dog come election time, because they are influential in the stinking house by the stinking river. Remember the NB-ZTE deal? I thought bail outs are for people supposed to be in jail. Amado F. Cabaero, (by email), Cebu City, Oct.01, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, I read the email of Ms. EDELYN BADILLO who said the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the creation of the Clinton Administration. I read or hear somwhere that Fannie Mae was chartered by the US Congress in 1938. Congress did the same for Freddie Mac in 1970 to give Fannie Mae some competition. Well, a web search later will determine if she is right or wrong. Ric Ramos, (by email) Santa Rosa, Laguna, Sept. 30, 2008 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww No to Derivatives 1. During my stint as President /CEO of the Philippine Stock Exchange, there were moves to create a Futures and Derivatives market. I did not agree and I still believe that allowing trades in Derivatives and Futures along with Short selling, should never be allowed. This simply feeds speculation and gambling, and creates an unreal value of the underlying assets, and does not contribute to the creation of any real wealth unlike an IPO issuance. These Derivative trades only create commissions for the brokers and profits or losses for the gamblers, but it eventually will implode especially if participants play with borrowed money and the game becomes extensive with lots of people participating and several levels of Bubble Derivatives are created that are sold to keep the game going. Eventually, a Bank or Investment House may end up buying the same Derivaties it sold first, but now packaged differently. 2. In today's world, the only way to really calculate and appreciate the value of a basic real asset is to have 4 figures: (a).the cost of the initial purchase, (b).mark to market, (c) replacement cost to produce the asset or build the house today, and if the asset is mortgaged or has a flow of cash flows-the total value of those cash flows discounted. Now, imagine calculating to get these 4 figures for Derivatives or Futures! Unless we go back to the Basics, expect these booms and bust to continue, regardless of a bailout or not. This is the scourge game that man has created for himself. Nonoy Yulo, (by email), Oct. 03, 2008 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO To subscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Subscribe To unsubscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Unsubscribe. |
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