Tuesday, June 28, 2005

rant

The past few weeks have been hectic, work-wise, but at least things have begun to settle down in this little corner of the world. Over hear, its either been raining like mad, or its really sunny, that people just can't stand it. Politics here in this former Crown Colony is riveted by the new Chief Executive, who was recently "elected", although by whom and how, remains a point of contention. The newspapers are all saying that the July 1 rally might not push through due to some technical snafu, but am sure it will resolve itself somehow. You can always count on the HK people to make a statement no matter what.

Every Filipino I've talked to in the course of the past few days have all been agog about them tapes. I haven't heard them actually, save for the "edited" transcripts that I was able to download from the Inq7.net website sometime ago, and all those Hello Garci ringtones which I have heard from my fellow filipino co-workers. For me, the President should make a statement on this issue as soon as possible. She will lose the momentum on the issue, and she can seriously lose control of events. So far, she has dictated what the government should focus on, economic reforms, peace process, etc. but if your news is drowned out by all this "political noise" the message you want to convey may be lost. This reminds me of all those Communication Theory classes I took back in College where I sucessfully explained to my professor that the sender-receiver theory is applicable to current political/economic reporting of events. If your message isn't strong enough, then you and what you say will get lost in the noise.

I've heard that the President will be making a statement at 7:00 PM Manila time. I wonder what she has to say...

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Lost in all those tapes...

With the recent whirl of scandals and sensational stories emanating from Manila was the recent celebration of Independence Day here in Hong Kong.

The big event was on Sunday itself when the Philippine Consulate in HK, along with some Filipino companies (SMART, Solar Resources, etc.) held a big whole day program for the Filipino community in Chater Garden, in the heart of Central. The program started with a parade of the various Community Organizations in their native/regional costumes, followed by a cultural program of the various dances/songs in the various regions in the Philippines, followed by entertainment from the UST Action Singers Alumni Ensemble (which is pretty much a mouthful) giving some Pinoy songs, Broadway Hits and some Jazz, then ending with a local Filipina singer. But what would a Fiesta like day be without raffle prizes? Even if the sun was hot, and the weather was really stiffling, it was nice to forget the problems besetting your country even for one day, just to celebrate and remember the ideals of our forebears 107 years ago.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Just gets my juices raging...

I got a text message from my real estate agent saying that the bank hasn't gotten the amount that I sent to them yet... yet another reason why I don't like banks very much.