The current global financial crisis is sending waves of panic even to those who, in theory, should be the least affected from it.  While this all started with the fall of Northern Rock and the food price crisis late last year, there wasn’t a big cause for concern among us at the time.  With the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the US government’s bailout of AIG this month, the faltering global economy cannot be denied any longer.  This week, the NYSE plunged over 700 points, and sent shockwaves all throughout the world, following Congress rejecting the Paulson plan.

If this is not a sign of crisis, I don’t know what is.  But let’s situate this whole thing, since we’re not Americans: if the crisis goes unabated and unresolved, we just might be the generation most affected from the 2008 global financial crisis: we just might be the first generation to experience massive lay-offs and unemployment since the Great Depression.

I’m not a very good prophet of doom; if all is gloomy with the global economy, then why are call centers and BPOs still popping out everywhere?  Why are job postings still being circulated all over e-mails and Internet forums?  These are all too good to last – in fact they should, lest we all lose our jobs – especially since anyone who works for the outsourcing industry is, for all intents and purposes, a “worker of the world.”

Sure, “slavery” for a BPO worker is a good metaphor, but there are a few caveats that should be raised about your average Makati/Ortigas/Eastwood wage slave:

• They are highly educated (many of which are pursuing their master’s degrees or advanced studies, like Medicine or Law)
• They are very skilled workers (adept at English, computer applications, troubleshooting, customer relations)
• The means of production now involves a whole new different form of capital (information, which is a non-material resource)

Outsourcing is a very unstable economic and business paradigm that’s difficult to sustain.  Employees, as well as entire companies, come and go.  Its foundations are shifting, transient, and inchoate.  The basic principle of process outsourcing and employee off-shoring is very coherent, and is consistent with capitalism: cheap and optimized labor, minimum costs, and maximum profit.  It’s exploitative and even oppressive, but the fact remains that this business model works.  The question remains: for how long will this model work so cleanly and efficiently?  When will this iteration of the capitalist machine break down?

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For preliminaries: this is a response to two paragraphs of former Sen. Kit Tatad’s response against the Reproductive Health Bill.  I have already posted my view on RH - baby-murdering Sodomite that I am (kidding) - although this statement of Sen. Tatad sort of got into me.  I quote, in full:

4. Oppressive of religious belief

The bill seeks to tell the Catholic majority not to listen to the Church and to listen to anti-Catholic politicians instead. It seeks to establish a program which Catholic taxpayers will fund in order to attack a doctrine of their faith. Is there a worse despotism? Would the same people do the same thing to the followers of Islam or some politically active religious pressure group?

The pro-RH lobby claims surveys have shown that most Catholic women want to use contraception, regardless of what the Church says about it. It is a desperate attempt to show that right or wrong can now be reduced to what you like or dislike. The truth is never the result of surveys. Contraception is wrong not because the Church has banned it; the Church has banned it because it is wrong. No amount of surveys can change that.

- from “No place for RH bill in our law,”
Former Sen. Francisco S. Tatad
8/16/08

Here we go!

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Before I outline my stand on reproductive health, let me give you a good idea of where I stand on the issue of sex and RH in general:

1. I am for responsible, prudent sex, but sex should be enjoyed to its fullest.
2. I write “Roman Catholic” on legal forms for purposes of filling out those forms.  I was born, raised, and educated as a Roman Catholic, but I am - for all intents and purposes - an atheist.  There are, however, times that I go to Church out of duress, or a kind of desperation that makes me a temporary God-believer.

Let me get to my points…

Point #1. I am pro-abortion on two counts:

1. If pregnancy and/or childbirth directly threatens the survival of mother and child.
2. Unwanted pregnancies under exceptionally meritorious circumstances (i.e., the complete inability to raise the child, or if the pregnancy and childbirth gravely threatens the social standing of an unwed or underaged mother).

Point #2. I am for contraception on two counts:

1. I’d rather have a 95% effective condom protecting me and my schlong than the extreme Catholic view of 0% protection.
2. The problem of overpopulation in the Philippines is a serious one, and if it takes condoms and other contraceptives to at least partially address the issues, then the measure is welcome.

Let’s talk about the Catholic concept of Hell for a bit.  I’m sure that pious, Church-going Catholics and/or Christians are legitimately afraid of burning sulfur and oceans of flame, but there’s also hell in hunger and poverty.

Just because I am for abortion doesn’t mean that I’m a baby-killer, and I advocate infanticide, or we should “decriminalize” abortion.  There are situations that pregnancy or childbirth can threaten the survival of both the mother and the child.  There are some situations that an unwanted pregnancy can bring so much shame, hunger, and other extreme compromises that I’m sure women - and their children - should not endure.

As someone who believes in the merits of abortion, I do not advocate dilation and curettage done with a wire-hanger.  There should be a legal clause that allows for medically-supervised abortion, one done with the proper instruments, technique, and under exceptionally meritorious circumstances.

Oooh, boldface.

I am aware that abortion is NOT legal under HB 16, it violates the Constitution, and it violates the sensibilities of right-thinking, decent people.  RH is not an endorsement of abortion, and HB 16 is NOT A PRO-ABORTION BILL.

So just because there are pro-choice advocates like myself doesn’t mean that the RH bill is automatically a triumph for abortion.  HB 16 is a triumph of our laws addressing the pressing problems of society.  Do we favor existing norms and beliefs in society and ignore the need for something to address overpopulation?  Heck no; reproductive health is a public issue.

As Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel pointed out in her privilege speech, RH is a secular issue debated as a form of public policy.  I may be an atheist, but I don’t think that God will smite the godless condom-wearing Sodomites of the Philippines with pillars of fire and turn us all into pillars of salt because of an RH bill.  The RH bill seeks to prevent and address the problem of overpopulation and encourage safe sex practices, not to enforce the wearing of a condom.

Besides, there’s already solid proof that condoms are a good way to help prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted illnesses, not to mention sperm cells.  If you don’t trust the liberal anti-Christian stuff found on the World Wide Intarnets, then go see your doctor.

HB 16 is a rare instance that I actually agree with the Government (OK, shoot me now).  Let’s deal with issues of corruption, much less Hell, later on, and judge this bill on the basis of it being a public policy. To say that we should maintain a “Christian” or “Catholic” perspective is to spit at the very foundations of free expression: not to merely say that not every Filipino is a Christian, but also to say that 40% of Filipino Catholics believe in the merits of an RH bill.  Let us take this bill as a means to address overpopulation because of a long-overdue means to manage our growing population.

All ideas, no matter how wrong they sound, should always be tested in the crucible of debate.  In a democracy, there is room for all sorts of ideas and all opposition.  So don’t pray for my soul; enlighten me with ideas - a sound opposition - to why an RH bill should not be passed in the Philippines.

(Between blog award controversies and breasts… I’ll take the titties, thank you.)

More from oddball Yahoo! News reports: the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are asking the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory to use human breast milk in their products, instead of cow’s milk.  None-too-surprising news, considering the latest scandal involving tainted milk products from China.  According to the report, there are three benefits to the use of mother’s milk in ice cream as opposed to conventional dairy sources:

1. Dairy products are linked to diseases like juvenile diabetes, allergies, and obesity.
2. The milking process is cruel to mother cows and calves.
3. Ice cream made from breast milk is a healthier product.

PETA does concede that the idea is implausible, although Ashley Byrne, a PETA campaign coordinator, has this to say:

“We’re aware this idea is somewhat absurd, and that putting it into practice is a stretch.  At the time same, it’s pretty absurd for us to be drinking the milk of cows.”

Absurd, huh?  I stopped drinking milk ever since I watched “The Dog of Flanders” as a kid.  I became lactose intolerant after watching poor Nelo and his dog Patrasche deliver milk all over the town, while they only had potato soup for dinner.  Then they both froze to death in the Church because Nelo lost that damn painting contest.  It took me a while before I could eat french fries again, but I swore off milk altogether.

Anyway, ice cream made of human breast milk borders between the dystopian and the erotic.  For one, you can imagine lactating mothers herded into the milk factory, and connected to milking machines.  While that could be erotic in itself, you can imagine the sight of lactating women hunched over giant vats, milking themselves for the millions of people who are in need of ice cream.

Which begs me to ask about why soymilk or peanut milk was not considered by my favorite animal rights activists is beyond me.  I guess the idea of lactating MILFs is a better than drinking tainted milk.

To go or not to go to the Philippine Blog Awards tomorrow… yours truly is a sort-of-finalist in the “Best Personal Blog” category, where I won’t win anyway given the stiff competition (now just because I wrote “stiff” doesn’t mean that I’m responsible for the corruption of Filipino moral fiber).  Anyway, I’ll just go there to see if I can get free stuff.  One of the sponsors of PBA 2 (blog awards, not basketball conference) is Havaianas… which brings me to a rather interesting story… nah (i.e., if you’re from UP Baguio, you probably already know).  But I won’t dwell on that.

The Warrior Lawyer (I have an “it’s-a-small-world-after-all” syndrome with Atty. Butch) has an interesting post about the panic of 2008, where he outlines some of the interesting signs of a global economic rupture… or Rapture… whichever comes first:

• The collapse of Lehman Brothers
• The sale of Merill Lynch to Bank of America
• The American International Group (parent company of PhilAm Life) being bailed out by the US Federal Reserve
• The rapid decline and sluggish recovery of the Philippine economy (just this week, the peso fell to a 16-month low against the US dollar, closing at P47.20 to the dollar)
• The global credit crunch, and the possibility of overseas Filipino workers’ remittances not being enough to cope with an international financial crisis.

If the President is to be believed, Filipinos are a lot like boxers… or drunkards in an English pub.  In the words of Chumbawumba: “I get knocked down, but I get up again, you’re never gonna keep me down.”

News of crisis, especially economic crisis, can get very worrisome; for all intents and purposes of a doomsday prophecy, if the US continues its economic downward spiral and does not figure out a way to arrest it, the lot of us will be out of work.  Yet it begs the question: are we seeing the collapse of the globalist imperialist-dominated economy?

Over at Tonyo Cruz’s blog, there’s an interesting statement written by the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS).  Then again, as much as I’m “progressive” (I don’t like labels), I have to disagree with the prophecy of collapse.  What we’re seeing and reading in the news right now, IMO, is the Great Depression 2.0 (some may say XP, but I’d rather call it Great Depression Vista).  Accelerating economic deterioration?  Yes, but like Filipinos, capitalism is a fighter.

I don’t subscribe to capitalism’s Facebook fan profile or its Friendster account (I don’t have Multiply), but capitalism is more robust and more adaptive than it was during Karl Marx’s time.  To me, the response to the global financial crisis is a wake-up call to the failure of this capitalist model.  I don’t know what changes will take place in the theory and practice of capitalism, but the current global (OK, maybe American) financial crisis is just a historical cycle.  One day it’s down, the next day it’s up.  We’ll never know.

Allow me to dwell on the word “moron” for a bit: when you cede sovereign territory to violent insurgents that you don’t trust, realize an error in judgment and take back the agreement, and then expect that these insurgents will go back to the negotiating table ready to break bread and make peace… well, you get the picture.

That, at least to me, is a perfectly good definition of the word “moron.”

Let me dwell again: when you’re invited by a moron to break bread and make peace, you instead choose to go on a bloodthirsty rampage at a rural hamlet, literally hacking away at the lives of innocent civilians, and then say you’re innocent of the atrocities and say you have nothing to do with it… again, you get the picture.

That, at least to me, is another perfectly good definition of the word “moron.”

So let’s clarify: only morons would give up inalienable possessions and territories, and only morons will take the lives of people who have nothing to do with moronic events.  In effect, the atrocities and offensives – the war – down south, is caused by morons.

Moronic; definition: an unconstitutional memorandum of agreement passed and taken back by the Government to the MILF.

The sad state of affairs is that a moron would not take responsibilities for an act he or she caused, because you really can’t pin the blame on morons.  Morons, being devoid of conscience, act on impulse.  If the Memorandum of Agreement was not an impulsive action, if the dozens of victims in Lanao were not hacked to death out of impulse, then the negotiating panel from both sides must be geniuses.

After all, it’s nothing short of genius to compromise something as basic as the lives of people, isn’t it?

*    *    *

I have to disagree with Cocoy’s comment on an opinion piece I made for Filipino Voices, that war is the crucible by which our relationship with the Bangsamoro peoples and/or the MILF insurgents will be tested.  The crucible was supposed to be the peace talks: when you have peace talks, war becomes the last remote possible option to resolve the conflict once and for all.  You have peace talks to avoid every possibility and suggestion of war.

Protracted as it may seem, the MILF peace talks were supposed to be that avenue for the peace process; if, after years of conflict and struggle, we can come to a win-win solution:

• One, the peace talks were supposed to serve the imperative of preserving Philippine sovereignty.
• Two, the peace talks were supposed to serve the imperative of granting Muslim Mindanao the right to self-determination.
• Three, the peace talks were supposed to serve the imperative for peace in conflict-torn Mindanao.

This sounds weird, but I have to agree with Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen (yes, that very Digs who shrieked, “Shut up, freedom of expression, Your Honor!” back in the Estrada impeachment trials) when he said that suspending the peace talks spells danger for Mindanao.  It’s not that anyone is begging for a bloodless solution – the rationale behind peace talks is to stem bloodshed, not prevent it – but people were begging for a long-term, permanent compromise - a win-win solution - to this matter.

Yes, it’s definitely a pipe dream.  It could have been done if nobody drafted that MOA and took it back.

Yet you can’t do much about the consequences of morons: I cannot blame the Senate if they vote to suspend the Mindanao peace talks indefinitely, because there’s really nothing much you could do about the seething frustrations of a moronic band of terrorists who were baited with an unconstitutional MoA by morons in the GRP negotiating panel.

War is definitely not a crucible here, but an unintended consequence, an oversight that could have easily been avoided if only each side of the negotiating table possessed an iota of intelligence, a modicum of sincerity, and a smidgen of competence.

Yet an iota, a modicum, and a smidgen are too much to ask for, especially when you’re dealing with, well, morons.

The word for it is schadenfreude.

As much as I despise the President, I do wish her the best of luck after last week’s stomach upset episode.  Apparently, GMA had some indigestion following a meal of bilo-bilo (sticky rice balls) and dinuguan (blood stew).  I wonder if she had that upset stomach following that “borjer” episode, but that’s just me.

I know all about upset stomachs myself, and I kind of sympathize with her on this one.  After all, Sec. Cerge Remonde - consistent with his public image as a stooge - also suffered from an upset stomach.  This was following the wake of Sec. Leandro Mendoza’s mother.  I can’t blame them, but I follow a simple rule during funerals: stick with the biscuits.

Like I said, the word is schadenfreude; what I find amusing about all of this is that there is some sort of obsession with Presidential shitting (I’m sorry, but I just had to say it).  While more than one person would decry that the President is full of shit, we’re the only country I know that would cover even executive toilet behavior.  In-depth analysis, so to speak; if my memory serves me right, The Media also covered Erap’s colonoscopy.  Erap wouldn’t be Erap without the orange wristband, the barong, the leather slippers, and the rectal polyps.

Schadenfreude has a lot to do with my own preferences towards dinuguan; I don’t eat bilo-bilo. Back in Baguio, the prejudiced bigot in me would head off to one of the many eateries at the Slaughter Compound right by Magsaysay Road, and eat in full view of the Iglesia ni Cristo church right across the street.  I just don’t know another place in Baguio that serves better dinuguan, and the counters and seats are just positioned in such a way that you’d face INC anyway.

At the very least, whatever the President was served succeeded in giving her the kind of upset stomach many could only dream of.  Although I have to give it up to the Prez: she has great taste in food.

I don’t want to know what kind of diarrhea she expelled.

Back in Filipino Voices, I made a small proposal for the public transport sector to just jack up fares as much as what could be justified with statistics over the medium-term.  I’d rather have the sampal-sa-mukha big kahuna fare increase than suffer from pitik-sa-tenga incremental fare increases.

A very recent Inquirer.net update has the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON) seeking another P1.50 fare increase and a government ban on all price hikes.  I can understand a government moratorium against price hikes, but another incremental fare increase?  Let’s weigh in PISTON’s reasons for the fare increase:

• The latest increase to the minimum jeepney fare is “useless” because of the rising costs of diesel.
• The IBON Foundation released a report that oil companies have been overpricing their fuel products by as much as P12 a liter.

I think that I couldn’t be blamed if the public transport sector is behaving with the same cartel-like qualities of the big oil companies.  I find it odd, if not intriguing, that the transport sector did not anticipate this and call for a P10 minimum fare for jeepneys, instead of settling for P8.50.  Had the transport sector banked on the need for a set fare - no matter how expensive it is - to mitigate the rising prices of fuel in the world market, there would be no need for more transport hikes.

If the anticipated cost of fare given the trends in the market would cost, say, a P25 minimum, then I think that the transport sector should just say so.  We commuters can’t do anything about it anyway; we are helpless and privy to the one-up game played by oil companies and the transport sector.  Economic burdens, unlike economic benefits, don’t trickle down.  Let’s go over it:

• The transport sector should anticipate and extrapolate the trend of fuel price increases for the medium term.
• Have one big fare hike that mitigates and anticipates the highest calculable peak of this trend.
• Call the media and say that classic punchline, “Sana maintindihan kami ng mga tao.”

I think that it’s necessary for the transport sector to stop this hullaballoo about regular incremental fare hikes and just go for broke.  I’d rather have the sampal-sa-mukha fare increase than these weekly pitik-sa-tenga increases.  Although I really have the hunch that the public transport sector is turning into a social services cartel.

Truthiness is “What I say is right, and nothing anyone else says could possibly be true.” It’s not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true. There’s not only an emotional quality, but there’s a selfish quality.

- Stephen Colbert

Empirical reality is overrated. Santa Claus exists, because kids feel him on Christmas Eve. Elvis didn’t die, because we feel his presence. It’s not knowing, but feeling. Thank you, Stephen Colbert.

The talk of the Philippine entertainment blogosphere these days is the “Wilyonaryo scam:” in a YouTube video, it seems that the wheel in “Wilyonaryo” has two numbers in it. Which means two things, if you asked me:

• It seems that Willie Revillame cheats his contestants, and;

• It seems that this particular video is the most-watched YouTube video in the Philippines today.

Of course, Joey de Leon is pointing to YouTube to be the source of all truth and the font of all knowledge, as far as the “Wilyonaryo scam” is concerned. As it seems, you can - if not should - believe everything you see in the Internet. After all, if it’s in YouTube, it must be true.

There’s nothing wrong with this picture, ladies and gentlemen. You don’t have to actually know the truth: following the doctrine of truthiness, you need only to feel the truth. If it seems to be true, then it must be true. The question here is not a question of being, but a question of seeming. Seeming is believing, guys.

Now because it seems that you can’t edit a video and post it on YouTube, everything about “Wilyonaryo” - or cats playing piano - must hold true. Yes, Willie cheats, and all cats play piano. If you see it on YouTube - and if Joey de Leon refers to that on TV - then it must be true. It doesn’t have to be true, either: it only needs to be truthy.

Because everything is truthiness, we only need to feel the truth about things, regardless of whether or not they are true. Like, if I feel that Gloria Arroyo cheated or if Erap Estrada plundered the public coffers, it has to be true. The Senate need not launch full-blown investigations on whether or not Willie Revillame cheated in “Wilyonaryo” because it seems like he cheated. Seeming is believing.

Yup, it’s all about one thing: truthiness. It only has to feel like cheating.

   A recent Pulse Asia survey shows that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the most corrupt President in the Philippines, followed by Ferdinand Marcos in the #2 slot and Joseph Estrada in the #3 position.  This is no survey that you would like to jockey a top spot for.

   But wait: should we make a big deal about statistics in the first place?  After all, Benjamin Disraeli wrote that infamous quote: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

   Whenever I do social science, I wouldn’t rely on statistics for two reasons.  One, I’m not a good statistician (I took my Statistics course twice).  Second - and perhaps the most important - is that statistical data is all-too-often misread and misinterpreted.  Numbers show something, all right, but the numbers rarely ever tell the story.  To me, the story behind the numbers is perhaps more important than the story the numbers tell by themselves: numbers beg the question of sampling method, statistical tests, and so on and so forth.  As such, any statistical presentation of anything is itself a source of doubt.  Which is a good thing and a bad thing at the same time.

   I’m not an Arroyo supporter - for heaven’s sake I’m an Arroyo critic - and I must say that while I agree that Arroyo is corrupt beyond reasonable doubt, there’s just no way in hell an unbiased and objective survey would point to her being second only to Marcos, or even Estrada.  Had Marcos been a non-factor, she would definitely top the list of the most corrupt Presidents post-Marcos.

   Here’s why: every corrupt excess Marcos had in two decades of iron-handed rule is the absolute benchmark of corruption (I hope) in the Philippines.  You can throw every shred of evidence of corruption against Macoy and you wouldn’t be hard-pressed to back them up: from the billions plundered and coursed through Swiss bank accounts to Imelda’s shoe collection when Malacañang was raided post-EDSA I.  Surely, Arroyo wouldn’t make the same mistake in being far more corrupt than Marcos to incite the anger and revulsion of the Filipino people in being “more corrupt than Marcos.”

   As far as Erap is concerned, say what you will about the Sandiganbayan verdict, but the verdict just goes to show that if we cannot indict the former President fairly and justly for plunder, we might as well indict him for a thinly-disguised charge of incompetence.  The evidence against Erap, as the prosecution panel said, can fill up a room.  If it did, then what more for Gloria?

   Here’s the thing: I’m not downplaying the negative effects of surveys against the President, but once the survey’s findings becomes questionable, then it is possible to downplay the whole idea of the survey.  Especially when the survey is supposed to corroborate something obvious.

   Not too long ago, I was talking to an instructor-friend of mine: like me, he has no love lost for Arroyo.  But he brings up a rather interesting point: aren’t the allegations against GMA completely circumstancial, like connect-the-dots painting-by-numbers things?  If anything, my general impression of the Arroyo Presidency is that it has proven to be a scapegoat for everything wrong with this country: if you can’t blame anyone else, blame Arroyo.  This goes for everything from the ULTRA Stampede to the death of Marrianet Amper.  Giving her the title of “Most Corrupt” only serves to add to the long list of “circumstancial crimes” we can pinpoint to GMA.

   Anyway, here’s what I think: statistics only tell half the story.  The other half still remains as speculation.