How To Give Up On The Philippines And Other Thoughts

A few months ago I spoke with one of the first people I’ve ever met who had truly given up on the Philippines.

He doesn’t vote, he is convinced nothing good happens in the country, and he is 1000% convinced that every business down to the carinderia has to bribe and cheat in order to get any kind of success. He makes a good living and takes loving care of his family. But outside the border of his family and friends? He couldn’t give a fuck and is itching to leave.

I’m a member of some programming groups on facebook. The other day someone posted a government agency’s request for proposals for online services amounting to P300k+, a service I heavily use myself, declaring how f’d up the Philippines is. Most agreed and the hate was deep. I looked hard at the paper though, and couldn’t tell that anything was wrong with it, and so did a few straggler comments brave enough to go against the grain and who were promptly ‘shouted’ down at. I’ve been dealing with government clients for years and I know A.) P300k is NOTHING – that’s just half a department’s office supplies budget, and B.) most of them talk about COA all day everyday, afraid to lose their pensions should anything be amiss.

Recently someone made a Fuck the Philippines rant and it is what it is – an all out shotgun rant at anything and everything, including I think his own life and presumably everything that’s made him come to where he’s at and his beliefs.

Believe me there’s a part of me that agrees, especially when I was younger, and I would certainly have made that rant myself then. Oddly however, despite my best efforts I’ve actually grown older and wiser, and here’s what I think.

1.) First of all, the enemy is at the top.

Our country’s administration is what it is due to decades and decades of voting corrupts and incompetents into office. There is no way Pharmally or Flood Control can happen without the bigwigs knowing about it. If you were a supervisor you would know if one of your staff was taking bags of money and your choice is either look the other way or take a cut. The fact no one has been charged today even if we all know who the instigators are is proof without doubt that the dirt goes all the way to the top. That’s not to say we should just give up chasing the bottom feeders. They are just as guilty, but if the top people are not made to pay in some way there won’t be an end to this.

2.) Second of all, there’s a theory going around that the reason why the Philippines has no mafia or organized crime is because they’ve all run for office, and I wholeheartedly believe that to be true.

We all live in a society where, except for a few shining exceptions, most officials are performing at the absolute minimum. They’ll keep the streets paved, chase after petty theft and occasionally give bags of sardines and 5kg of rice because that’s what the public sees everyday. But pro – active measures like a walkable city and public parks? Better street and modern traffic design? Modern schools, health care, job opportunities, anti – gambling measures, higher wages, social safety nets, pwd care, welfare for teachers and police? That requires hiring professionals and if there’s anything corrupts dont want its smart people figuring out how bad things are.

Corrupt LGUs will give just enough but never introduce anything that might make people realize they were entitled to these things in the first place. That is why the few performing public officials are relentlessly under attack. Good government officials often expose the corrupt so the corrupt spend their budgets on internet troll farms to attack them rather than actually doing something progressive.

3.) Ok so third of all, and here’s where I’m diving into my own feelings.

I love the Philippines. The Philippines isn’t just my neighborhood, my job, my life and the people around me. It isn’t just the government. It’s not just my LGU and it’s certainly not just Manila. It is a wide expanse of multicultural, multilingual, multi lifestyle environment that is as diverse as the heights of mountain province to the white sand beaches of, well, literally any province that touches the ocean and every lush patch of green in between.

To me, it is THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. And here’s the part where I sit behind a desk sipping coffee with a sign that says ‘PROVE ME WRONG’.

The little I’ve seen of it makes my heart skip, and I’m absolutely positive this is the one unifying thing that all Filipinos can agree about. There’s just no disputing it.

I agree with the Fuck the Philippines guy. For better or for worse, we are born here and we did not choose to be born here. But surely we could have done worse! Imagine if you were born in the desert. Imagine being born in a place where you have to stay indoors snowed in 3 – 6 months a year. Imagine being born in a place you have to work 3 jobs to stay alive or where there’s already so much hatred and bigotry amongst the locals and then having to assimilate yourself into such a society by migrating there. Imagine living in a place where you can be deported or arrested for the flimsiest of reasons, for the color of your skin, not speaking their language or speaking negatively about that government.

Meanwhile, we are living in a literal tropical paradise! Where you can grow nearly any plant you want, allowing us to grow and farm almost any type food in the world. There are millions, billions of people worse off. Countries both rich and poor that are far far far far worse off.

And if you agree with me and I’m sure you do, the next logical thought would be: FUCK ANYONE TRYING TO TAKE IT FROM US.

4.) Now my fourth point – China is trying to take it from us.

Or at least our fish, our oil, our copper and any other thing their resource hungry industries need. I don’t think they want the whole country, just our resources. And China is doing it via its agents, specific Senators and the VP, none of which deserve to breathe the same air and enjoy any of the things we enjoy as Filipinos, all of which deserve none of our respect let alone our vote.

What would I do if I were the Chinese government? I would make sure, via propaganda, that Filipinos see nothing but the worst of their country and countrymen. I would make Edsa traffic seem like the end of the world. I would make the flood control issue appear to be a reflection of all Filipinos. I would convince Filipinos that they are too incompetent to be capable of running their own government, that since we have no bike lanes we are a loser country and should just give up. I would introduce a sense of deep helplessness. 

A metric for success would be 50% for convincing Filipinos that every carinderia has to pay bribes to make any success and making Filipinos so cynical that they would make announcements like ‘FUCK THE PHILIPPINES’ on social media. 

100% success would be to convince Filipinos to not vote because, what’s the point? nothing will change – and that, that is the death of the Philippines right there.

If China propaganda can convince Filipinos it is useless to vote, then they’ve won. Without firing a single shot, just like Sun Tzu said.

5.) What would I do if I were the guy I talked about at the beginning of this post?

I noticed they don’t go to museums, they don’t go around the country, they will always speak ill of it and its literally painful for them to say anything good about it. That can be remedied.

I don’t pretend I have his ear. I doubt he’d listen to me let alone read anything I write especially this long. But it’s important to realize the Philippines is far more than what you can see and touch with your hands. The Philippines just like any country is different things to different people, so while it may seem negative to one it is shining light for someone else. Knowing that wouldn’t you even be curious to know what people like about it? If people find something beautiful in something you find so ugly wouldn’t you be the least bit curious to understand their point of view?

There’s also something that everyone should not forget, and that is this. Just like North Korea and Russia, there are no elections in China.

For all its high speed trains, bleeding edge technology and so called ‘law and order’, the Chinese have no choice who leads China. As a result, similar to what happens in almost all societies throughout history the leadership is composed of old rich men, detached and invulnerable living in luxurious accommodations, with zero idea how it is to live any other way, deciding things like what people should wear how they should speak, how much should they be taxed, what they’re allowed to see and hear. They operate with zero accountability to the people they oppress. The only thing they fear is the endless power grabs within their circles and so that’s the only thing they care about.

The fact we can choose who leads us every few years is a luxury to all oppressed peoples around the world. This is a right that is deprived from countries bigger and smaller than us, one that we take for granted by not using.

There’s no doubt about it though. The Philippines is a no – impact, no effect inconsequential country with complete dependence on others. The perfect result of having officials just working at minimum effort. Our President 

Moving to New Server Thoughts

I spent the last week migrating all my clients to two new servers. One is a reseller server and the other a ‘bare metal’ Virtual Private Server (VPS).

The week before that was spent canvassing my options. I funneled it down to 8 different hosting companies, emailing and chatting trying to get the best deal, reading and re-reading their offers to see through sales – speak and hidden charges only to in the end, end up with what looked like one of my most affordable options without giving up specs I required, but it turns out it had a renewal cost next year that will be nearly twice the sign up cost I just paid. This means if they don’t give a better option before my contract lapses I’ll be doing this again next year.

But I don’t mind you know why?

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Lessons from A Concentration Camp Survivor

Sharing what’s weighing on my mind.

may naponood ako ww2 documentary recently and they interviewed a lady survivor of the concentration camps. She told the story of regular Wehrmacht soldiers separating her from her siblings and parents when she was little and seeing their shoes and luggage beside a pile of burnt bodies later amongst a long list of indescribable atrocities.

When asked if she could share what she learned if any, it was that ‘the only thing cruelty needs is permission.’

It did not impact me at the time but what she was saying was this – the only thing murderers need is to be told it’s ok to kill. This explains why ordinary Germans at the time – Teachers, Farmers, Regular people off the street once enlisted were able to carry out murders on thousands of non militant civilians from babies to elderly with zero guilt. They don’t need to have had childhood trauma. They don’t need to ‘feel empty inside’ or some similar internal pain that would explain bloodlust. They don’t need to have experienced some religious or otherwise spiritual emergence.

All they needed was the top guy to tell them it’s ok. Hence:

Duterte: “Ako ang bahala sa inyo. I will take responsibility for you. Lahat na gawin ninyo sa utos ko, akin iyan, ako ang magpakulong.”

JD Vance: “(you are) protected by absolute immunity. (you) cannot be prosecuted for actions taken during federal duties.”

THIS is why we need laws. THIS is why laws need to be extra and almost excessively discussed and crafted over and over, and THIS is why extra care is needed when implementing them as well.

Because apparently it’s so easy to give people the agency to take another life. Sabihan mo lang na ‘ako bahala sa yo’ ok na yun. Sure there will be ones with the moral voice enough to say no, but I know people personally who will not hesiate to do exactly that if it would have no consequences.

And if you can take a life easily, everything else below that should be easy. Would it make sense if a person is willing to kill but not steal? Of course not. Once you are allowed the worst of crimes you are now open to a vast array of criminal activities that can keep you busy for the rest of your life.

I’ve finally ditched Windows 10 for Ubuntu 24.04. Some notes.

  • As much as I want to say it’s finally the year of the Ubuntu desktop, which has been foretold for decades, it’s definitely not true. I’ve had some problems that only a devotee can fix, and in fact my PC isn’t completely fixed yet (the $&*MF(@# second monitor won’t work). I mean sure I’ll fix it at some point, but can the ordinary person who finds Windows challenging enough fix them? Absolutely no way in ever the forever.
  • If this isn’t the year of Desktop Linux then, what year would it be? It’s absolutely, imo, the year of the MacOS. For the first time in my life, I am suggesting to my wife that she buy a new 14″ Mac Air for her next laptop. Not that I think Apple’s great – it is too cloaked by Mac fanatic devotee opinion to be judged properly, but it’s because I hate Windows and what it has become. I think I’m not the only one that thinks this.
  • Note that I used to love Windows, especially 10. The whole point of an Operating System is to get out of your way so that you can do your work and that is what 7 then 10 used to be. It was absolutely marvelous. I could install, set it up and get productive within the day. It used to be a no brainer.
  • Used to be being the operative words. Win10 started ads, which was a tolerable nuisance. But 11, now with CoPilot, is an absolute nightmare both to work with an as a privacy concern. Whereas once you can use it without making an account, or create an account offline, MS has made it impossible and you are now required to make an MS account whether you want or need one.
  • I was first made aware of Windows 11 ‘Recall’ feature mid last year, which takes snapshots of user activity every few seconds purportedly to train it’s AI to help you ‘do your job better’, notwithstanding the fact that taking pics of your desktop is an outrageous privacy nightmare. They later allowed disabling, but what value is that to a company that invested time and money to make these features in the first place? Clearly they want it on to record you, and they even set up AI Gaming CoPilot that records screenshots, voice and text during gameplay AFTER, in spite of resistance to CoPilot AI and the Recall feature.
  • At this point you’ve got to use your head. It isn’t the fact they allow disabling it or issue a series of Press Releases saying how much they value your privacy etc., it’s about why would they make that in the first place. Wouldn’t a company with any semblance of human dignity, autonomy and personal security even think twice about creating such things?
  • Most recently they’ve disabled enabling Windows over the phone, and insist it only be allowed online. I think that’s the final nail on the coffin which directly attacks pirated copies which take up imo the most number of users out there.
  • Thing is, I can rant and rave but MS couldn’t care less about individual home or small business users. I know several large companies and government offices that will and have already authorized purchasing Win11 updates already well entrenched in their budget a year before. Their IT staff neither has an opinion or if they do have no voice in any decision making as far as Windows is concerned because there is no alternative. Do you think IT will endorse people to start using Ubuntu? Or even Libreoffice as an alternative to MS Office? That just means extra customer support for them and why in the world would they want that.
  • If it sounds like I’m saying that most companies’ including public offices security is at risk because of Windows 11’s heinous privacy issues, you are right because that’s exactly what I’m saying. Most people just want to print their reports and go back to secretly surfing for gambling, showbiz, or nba sites during office hours. They have no idea nor would they care or know what to do if MS is siphoning their data to feed their useless AI.

That’s it for now. I wanted to talk about my issues with Ubuntu but it became a Windows rant instead. I won’t mince words – I miss Windows. I miss the speed and ease of use, they keyboard shortcuts – albeit I’ve learned a bunch of new ones with Ubuntu now, and I miss Photoshop most of all. Yes the Linux faithful will tell me I can make it run on ubuntu but I haven’t been able to as of yet. Like I said I’m confident i can make it work, sure, but the fact I have to spend an hour or two to do so sucks.

Thoughts on Pre and Post Tariff Luxury Goods Prices from China

Now that Chinese manufacturers have gone ahead and exposed how luxury brands post a 90% markup on top of their products, and offer the public a chance to buy the same products directly from the factory at cost, I’ve been thinking a lot how about the repercussions and I’m listing here some of my thoughts:

High street locations – There are locations around cities where people hunt for these things. They are very posh, very nice areas like BGC or Makati, they attract high end restaurants, have lots of human traffic and charge rent by the millions of pesos. If the top brands are exposed to have less value, the market may think twice, sales may go down, shops will close and the glitter of high street get tarnished. Jobs will surely be affected and the local economy around these as well.

The rich and pretentious – Truly moneyed people will see a 150% markup as a better opportunity to flaunt their wealth. Nothing says you’re rich more than buying a bag everyone knows is now thousands of times more expensive after the tariffs. It’s important though that the brands make a POST TARIFF version of their products to distinguish it from the PRE TARIFF models, which would be cheaper. Brand vloggers and their kind who know these things will make content to make sure everyone knows, making the people who lust after these things even more envious, achieving their goal.

The poor and pretentious – The ones who have had to take out mortgages to buy these will truly suffer. Now, none of their friends and relatives at Sunday church are going to be impressed with their pre tariff bags because they’re considered a scam. You will look like a sucker, and worse they can’t afford the post tariff models. They’re going to have to find new ways to gain the respect they’re trying to buy. It truly sucks to be poor.

The quality conscious – These people will gain the most. The video I reference in this image is of the Chinese manufacturer explaining where they source the leather (Germany, France, Italy), the stainless steel (will never tarnish or rust), the glue, the lining, the stitching, the workmanship is all world class, all top notch. You will be hard put to find a better bag, and it is possibly the best most well made, most high quality bag you may ever own, now available to you at less than a tenth of the cost after its branded.

The timing – Obviously the Chinese government instructed these manufacturers to make these videos, which is the only explanation why so many of them, the makers of Nike, Adidas, Ugg, etc. were published almost at the same time. I’m still wondering about the pros and cons of this to their economy, the manufacturers themselves and the global market as a whole.

May be an image of 1 person, money, phone and text that says 'Findrelatedcontent Find related content senbag/TT sen SEISMIK 14 APRIL 2025 38,00 38,000USD USD Situasi US Dan China Makin Tegang, Pembekal Mula Exposed Harga Barangan Mewah US Diperbuat Dari China will cost you'

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Is There Really Hope? My Thoughts on the increasing number of schools joining #Edsa39

I have 2 reasons I feel invigorated about all the schools joining #EDSA39 one by one. First because I was there, and I absolutely feel it was one of the most thrilling, most REAL moments I had ever felt in my life. I was 17 when and I remember walking along Ortigas to VV Soliven and not feeling tired. The elation in the February air was infectuous. News of Generals and whole military divisions breaking ranks and joining the opposition made everybody giddy and excited.

The 2nd reason is just as important. Weaponized social media has done tremendous damage to governments and societies all over the world, one of the most damaging indications of which here is the rise of apologists. Time does enough damage on its own, but fake news and malevolent disinformation has helped it a million times over.

So the fact that schools big and small have decided to take a stand is incredibly refreshing. One of the schools I never thought would join announced they would this morning and I am beyond surprised. I thought they had turned or were at least apathetic. I know for a fact they have something to lose but here they are burning bridges. They have taken a stand and I am shaking my head in amazement.

This to me indicates that weaponizing social media, as evil and effective as it is, is possibly not as powerful as it was especially during the very dark mid 2010 period. I dare not hope, I’ve been burned far too many times. But please, let this be true. And please let the younger people ask why classes were canceled, and hopefully they will look up the reason and learn for themselves why this is important.

2 Thoughts On This Incredible Dramatic Video

This incredibly dramatic almost movie like scene where army soldiers were rescuing pinned down comrades along a narrow street in Marawi was described in great detail in ‘Marawi Siege: Stories from the Front Lines‘, the book i read last January.

So, two thoughts:

Continue reading 2 Thoughts On This Incredible Dramatic Video

RIP Sec. Del Rosario – A True Filipino Hero

Madalas ko marinig yung word na LODI or idol in slang, ginagamit to refer to someone na gusto mong tularan o gayahin. Sa sobrang Dalas nawawalan na to ng bisa kasi kung ano ano na lang ang paggamit. May nabili lang mamahaling gamit o ano man lodi na siya.

I remember thinking paano naman yung mga totoong lodi, yung those truly deserving of being an idol not to just one but to many.
Well today brings that thought to mind again because today nawalan tayo ng totoong LODI. Today Albert del Rosario died, and we have lost someone great. A true hero to the nation, a man that should be an example to all Filipinos. A TRUE ACTUAL LODI if there ever was one.

Here’s an excerpt from a 2013 Businessworld article from when he was DFA secretary in 2012:

‘Mr. del Rosario also showed an incredible bravery in protecting the lives of Filipinos abroad. Barely two days of being sworn into office, Mr. del Rosario traveled to Libya to extricate some 400 overseas Filipinos out of the war-torn city and bring them into the Libyan-Tunisian border. He risked his personal life several times thereafter, leading more repatriations of over 24,000 Filipinos in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Egypt. From 2011 to 2015, the DFA had the chance to extend assistance to over 80,000 overseas Filipinos and members of their families.’

Full article here: https://www.bworldonline.com/features/2018/11/14/198989/the-selfless-servant/

Utang na loob, tiyak di lang hindi maibabalita ang kagalingan at pagka Bayani niya bagamat sisiraan pa siya, kasi aligned siya kay Noynoy, and we all know laganap ang fake news lalo na palapit na naman eleksyon.
Wala nang Mas pang pelikula ang buhay kesa sa kanya. Yung security guard na bumaril sa magnanakaw nagawan ng pelikula siya pa. He literally saved 24,000 lives.

Kung may kahit katiting na natitira ka pang tiwala sa galing ng Pilipino, at umaasa ka pa na kahit papano may matularan at matutunan pa ang mga kabataan, lalo na kung ano talaga ang ibig sabihin ng LODI, well here’s one right here.

YOU CANNOT GET ANY MORE HEROIC THAN SEC del ROSARIO. Please remember him and tell people about him. In this world of 24/7 Fake and Bad news he is truly the only Real and Good news around.

Surely this man rests in peace! No one has done more to deserve it!

S90 Now Full Wave – Can This Finally Be It?

So the fact I had not been writing about the S90 is a give away of how I had been feeling. To be precise, it has been one disaster after another. I won’t mince words when I say the previous guy that tried to do it was a complete waste of time and money. His lone mechanic was working on several projects at the same time. Sure he may had been competent but the fact he could not devote his time to mine just resulted in a half baked effort.

Here’s a video I received this morning. It’s running now, with a ‘full wave’ 12v electrical system. When I asked the mechanic if it was normal now, he said it was ‘perfect’.

But before that, let’s go back with a thorough history.

Continue reading S90 Now Full Wave – Can This Finally Be It?

Tanim Bala Was A Successful Ruse to Paint PNoy Admin As Inept

I just wanted to get this off my chest.

I remember tanim bala years ago. The press and socmed would be literally screaming everyday on how incompetent PNoy’s admin was over NAIA staff placing bullets into luggage to extort tourists. I also remember the incredible traffic and how complaints would be amplified by the thousandfold, almost like shouting into a microphone so they could share how incompetent they thought PNoy was.

As much as I could empathize I could see however that the problems were clearly local. Tanim Bala was a NAIA problem, and as such should be resolved by NAIA authorities. Edsa traffic was an Edsa problem, not even a nationwide problem, and was therefore up to whoever was managing Edsa or the city as a whole. In fact it was clearly because people were buying so many cars as they had more money.

Continue reading Tanim Bala Was A Successful Ruse to Paint PNoy Admin As Inept