IT rantings from the Philippines.
Melvin G. Calimag is currently the executive editor of an IT news website in the Philippines. Melvin has been covering the local IT beat for the last 13 years. He is currently a board member at the IT Journalists Association of the Philippines (CyberPress), and also serves as a charter member with the Philippine Science Journalists Association.
The sun's out here in Metro Manila, but the northern part of the Philippines is currently pounded by "stationary" typhoon Pepeng (also internationally known as Parma), bringing unprecedented flooding similar to what happened in the city about two weeks back.As everyday life in Metro Manila springs back to normal, it's hard to imagine that roads, cars, and houses were submerged in waters spawned by typhoon Ondoy (aka Ketsana) just a few days ago.
As I write this blog post, a large swathe of Metro Manila is still submerged in flood waters. In other areas of the metropolis, power lines and Internet connections are still down.
Dominant carrier PLDT, as well as its high-profile chief executive Manny V. Pangilinan, have been in the news lately because of an allegation from a senator that former Pres.
The pitiful battle between pension firm GSIS and tech giant IBM is nothing short of tragic. But, it's something that could have been easily averted if only the two camps exerted more patience and effort in resolving the issue.
The week is not over yet but it seems I've already exceeded my quota of interviews with IT executives. Most of them are mobile officials who came over to the country to attend the recently concluded IMMAP (Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines) conference.
It was on a plane trip back home from Singapore that I was able to grab a copy of a magazine (I can’t remember if it was Newsweek or The Economist) which featured a guy named Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize laureate for economics in 2001.
Like most people I know, I had no idea what a click farm was. So when someone from the BBC sent an e-mail to me a few days ago inquiring about the existence of a click farm in the Philippines, the first thing I did was to look up for the meaning of the term.
I think it was Anthony Spaeth, correspondent of Time magazine during the 1986 Philippine revolution, who said Filipinos love freedom so much that they preferred it over a fuller rice bowl.Such is the virtue, as well as the misfortune, of the Philippines that has struggled economically, despite ending years of despotic rule by former president Ferdinand Marcos.
As I watched the State of the Nation Address (Sona) of Pres. Gloria Arroyo last Monday, I noticed that she peppered her speech with rosy economic figures to hit back at critics who have said her administration has done nothing but plunder the nation's coffers.
Before I proceed to my chosen topic, let me fire off a quick broadside at the recent ruling of the NTC (National Telecommunications Communications) to ban mobile spam and extend the shelf life of the cellphone load of prepaid customers. While I applaud the agency's action, my question is: Why only now?