MaSci to GSI

How Corruption Is Reported In Brunei

2008-07-30T08:32:00.001+08:00

Here's a local news from Brunei lifted from Borneo Bulletin Online.

http://www.brunei-online.com/weekend/news/jul19h11.htm

"Flying letters" tops list of how corruption is reported

by Achong Tanjong
The source of complaints and how individuals make reports to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) were among the topics highlighted by its Acting Director Hj Abd Raub at a presentation during a recent visit by Brunei IV's religious teachers to ACB.

He said that "flying letters" tops the list of corruption tips (sources) received by the bureau from individuals who complain about suspicious activities.

This is followed by telephone calls, official letters from individuals, e-mails, SMS, newspapers, officials letters from ministries and sources from individuals working in the department or those who come to the ACB office.

He said that individuals wishing to make reports on corruption can come forward to ACB or its officers could meet them at other places.

The name of the complainer would be kept top secret, he said, emphasising that it will not be revealed to anyone.

He added that corruption does not just entail money but also any illegal course of action.

The bureau, under the Prime Minister's Office and through it Community Relation and Support Service Section, will continue to conduct educational campaigns by holding talks, forums, seminars and road shows.

It has also published promotional programmes, brochures and other related educational publications towards eradicating corruption in the country.

According to Hj Abd Raub, Brunei is one of the advanced nations that have introduced corruption prevention education at grassroots up to university level.

I Always Wanted To Be A Filipino

2008-07-23T06:07:00.007+08:00

To my parents' disappointment, I am still here in the Philippines! Now, work global-think local justifies the steady exodus of 3,000 Filipinos to seek greener pasture of overseas jobs. Then, they were called OCW, later OFW, and transformed to Global Filipino. This is our country, and I think work local-think local adds value to all of us as Filipinos.

A Filipino, in the Philippines, I remain.

Anybody else WHO WANTS TO BE A FILIPINO?

REGARDING HENRY
By Henrylito D. Tacio

WHO WANTS TO BE A FILIPINO?

After digging to a depth of 100 meters last year, Japanese scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 1,000 years, and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network ten decades ago.

In the weeks that followed, American scientists dug 200 meters and headlines in the American papers read: "US scientists have found traces of 2000 year old optical fibers, and have concluded that their ancestors already had advanced high-tech digital telephone 1000 years earlier than the Japanese."

One week later, a Filipino newspaper reported the following: "After digging as deep as 500 meters, Filipino scientists have found absolutely nothing. They have concluded that 5,000 years ago, their ancestors were already using wireless technology."

Ah, Filipinos, a different kind of breed, indeed. "Filipinos are worth dying for!" declared the late Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino. And they are scattered all over the globe. Wherever I go – whether Australia, Canada, South Africa, United Kingdom, or United States – I usually meet them. Their usual greeting when I see one is "Kabayan, kumusta ka?"

"Are you happy to be here?" a Filipino reporter asked some Filipinos working in Italy. The reply was a sounding "Yes." As follow-up question, the interviewer inquired, "Would you like to go back to the Philippines?" The answer was a big "No." When asked for the reason, they chorused: "We are treated fairly and people really admire us, our way of doing things."

"In Florence," reports Alan C. Robles, a Filipino journalist who travels in and out of Europe, every now and then, "the McDonald's concessionaire wants only Filipinos to staff all the outlets." No wonder, then, why Oscar winner Roberto Benigni said that Italy without Filipinos would be like Italy without spaghetti.

Even in Saudi Arabia, Filipinos are well appreciated. In an e-mail, I got this information: "Muhammad Al-Maghrabi became handicapped and shut down his flower and gifts shop business in Jeddah after his Filipino workers insisted on leaving and returning home."

This was what the owner said, "When they left, I felt as if I had lost my arms. I was so sad that I lost my appetite." So, he decided to fly to Manila to look for two other Filipino workers to replace the ones who had left. When asked why he didn't hire any other nationalities, he replied, "There is no comparison between Filipinos and others."

Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Filipino workers — 1,019,577 — outside the Philippines. In 2006 alone, the Kingdom recruited more than 223,000 workers from the Philippines and their numbers are still increasing.
Even health professionals are joining the bandwagon. Every year, about 2,000 doctors leave the country for good. "The figures came as a shock to me," said Dr. Willie T. Ong, who urged newly graduate doctors to stay and serve the country. He is so concerned that the exodus of doctors -- and nurses, too! -- would leave the country's millions of poor with no one to turn to for medical treatment.

Filipinos, particularly those who are professionals and skilled, who left the country and find job elsewhere is a big "brain drain," to quote the words of experts. The British Royal Society minted the "brain drain" tag in the early 1950s. That described the cascade of highly skilled workers into the United States and Canada.

"Our first overseas Filipino workers left in the early 1970s," reports veteran journalist Juan Mercado. "That torrent continues today. This has whittled down our stock of seamen and health care personnel, from pediatricians to obstetricians and oncologists." And in a recent Baguio meeting, it was noted that the country is now shortage of geologists, pilots, computer specialists, accountants, and air controllers, among others.

All told, 3,000 or so Filipinos migrate to other counties every day. "Educated Filipinos tend to leave the country to serve foreigners at their country's expense," deplored 2004 Chemistry Nobel laureate Aaron Ciechanover.

We cannot blame them for leaving the country. The standard of living here is very low. There are no jobs available. The political situation is unstable. The economy is not doing well. "Until 1972, peso had kept its value of P8 to the one dollar until I finished college," someone observed.
Most Filipinos are poor. "Without land, they cannot build homes or produce food," pointed out Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Antonio Meloto. "Without decent homes, they have no dreams. Without dreams, they have no desire to study or work. It is terribly un-Christian for Filipinos to be squatters in a country where there is so much land in the possession of a few."

So, don't wonder if today the Philippines is famous as the "housemaid" capital of the world. It ranks very high as the "cheapest labor" capital of the world, too. In an e-mail, the letter sender wrote, "We have maids in Hong Kong, laborers in Saudi Arabia, dancers in Japan, migrants and TNTs (for tago ng tago) in Australia and the United States, and all sorts of other 'tricky' jobs in other parts of the globe."

Quo Vadis, Pinoy?"
For comments, write me at henrytacio@gmail.com

A Decade Long Drought in Australia

2008-07-17T11:22:00.003+08:00

As I was searching the internet today on climate change, I came upon this piece of news from MNSBC. The government and private sector must now act to plan how to mitigate of a similar impact of climate change in our country.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25617864/

updated 5:39 a.m. ET July 10, 2008

CANBERRA, Australia - A decade-long drought in Australia’s most important crop-growing region is worsening and there is little hope for relief from either saving rains or a new government conservation plan, officials said Thursday.

The Murray-Darling river system, which produces 40 percent of Australia’s fruit, vegetables and grain, is facing an economic and ecological crisis because of a decade of below-average rainfall.

The Murray-Darling Basin Commission, which monitors water flows in the river catchment, said in a report Thursday that hopes of the cooler months bringing drought-breaking rains had faded.

Portrait Of A Thief

2008-07-03T08:30:00.003+08:00

Here's an excerpt from a article "VENGEANCE IS NOT OURS" written by Henrylito D. Tacio

Looks familiar, I believe.

Revenge or vengeance consists of retaliation against a person in response to perceived wrongdoing. Although many aspects of revenge resemble or echo the concept of making things equal, revenge usually has a more injurious than constructive goal. The vengeful wish to make the other side go through what they went through or make sure they'll never be able to do what they did again.

Actually, revenge is a deceiver – it looks sweet but is most often bitter. Now, let me share you a true story that happened to Hungarian artist Arpad Sebesy. At one time, Elmer Kelen came to his studio and when he saw the portrait, he was very angry. Before leaving, Elmer told Arpad: "That's a rotten portrait and I refuse to pay for it!"

The artist was crushed. He had spent weeks on this painting, and now the 500 pengos (Hungarian currency) that he was going to lose on the deal flashed through his mind. Bitterly, he recalled that the millionaire had only posed three times so that the painting had to be done virtually from memory. Still, he didn't think it was such a bad likeness.

Before the millionaire left his studio, the artist called out, "One minute. Will you sign this letter saying you refused the portrait because it didn't resemble you?" Glad to get off the hook so easily, Kelen agreed.

A few months later, the Society of Hungarian Artists opened its exhibition at the Gallery of Fine Arts in Budapest. Soon afterwards, Kelen's phone began to ring. Within half an hour, he appeared at the art gallery and headed for the wing where a Sebesy painting was on display. It was the one he had rejected.

He glanced at the title and his face turned purple. Storming into the office of the gallery manager, he demanded that the portrait be removed at once. The manager explained quietly that all of the paintings were under contract to remain in the gallery the full six weeks of the exhibit.

Kelen raged. "But it will make me the laughing stock of Budapest. It's libelous! I'll sue!" The manager turned to his desk, drew out the letter Kelen had written at Sebesy's request, and said, "Just a moment. Since you yourself admit that the painting does not resemble you, you have no jurisdiction over its fate."

In desperation, Kelen offered to buy the painting, only to find the price was now ten times that of the original figure. With this reputation at stake, Kelen immediately wrote out a check for 5,000 pengos.

Not only did the artist sell the rejected portrait to the man who had originally commissioned it, he also received ten times the first price and achieved his revenge by exhibiting it with the title: "Portrait of a Thief."

VENGEANCE IS NOT OURS by Henrylito D. Tacio

2008-06-30T13:06:00.004+08:00

I have been in Henry's email list for about four months. Since then I had the luxury of receiving very inspiring and thought provoking articles.

Today, I received this article. Quite interesting as it mentions about "Portrait of a Thief". Please read on.

REGARDING HENRY

By Henrylito D. Tacio

VENGEANCE IS NOT OURS

At a dinner party one evening, there was a heated exchange between British statesman Winston Churchill and a female member of the parliament. At the end of the argument, the lady said scornfully, "Mr. Churchill, you are drunk." Replied Churchill, "And you, madam, are ugly. But I shall be sober tomorrow."

Charles Caleb Colton once said, "Revenge is fever in our own blood, to be cured only by letting the blood of another; but the remedy too often produces a relapse, which is remorse – a malady far more dreadful than the first disease, because it is incurable."

Percy Bysshe Shelley agrees. "Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavor, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned."

English author Samuel Johnson is one person who would get even with those people who would exploit him. When he was completing his dictionary, a London journal published two anonymous "previews" of the book. The articles were favorable but superficial. When he learned that the wealthy Earl of Chesterfield had written them, he was furious.

After all, he had applied to him repeatedly for patronage while writing the dictionary, but the earl had been cheap, giving the poverty-stricken writer no more than ten pounds (about US$250). Now, Johnson felt, he was trying to take credit as a patron. In the dictionary, he defined patron as "commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery."

Irish author George Bernard Shaw had also experienced embarrassing moments. After the premiere of Arms and the Man (1898), he took the stage to make a curtain speech. When the applause subsided, there was a solitary boo from London critic Reginald Golding Bright. Shaw looked directly at Bright and said, "My dear fellow, I quite agree with you, but what are we two against so many?"

Finally, here's another story that should end this piece. A cigar smoker bought several hundred expensive cigars and had them insured against fire. After he'd smoked them all, he filed a claim, pointing out that the cigars had, in fact, been destroyed by fire.

The insurance company refused to pay, and then the man sued. The judge ruled that because the insurance company had agreed to insure the cigars against fire, it was legally responsible.

The company had no choice but to pay the claim. Then, when the man accepted the money, the company had him arrested for arson.

"Don't get mad," Josh Billings suggests. "Get even." But Martin Luther King, Jr. reiterates, "That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing."

"Live well," said Francis Bacon. "It is the greatest revenge."

For comments and feedback, write me at henrytacio@gmail.com

Mariel - A Smart Girl

2008-03-05T20:02:00.010+08:00

When I learned that Mariel was recognized as an excellent orator, I invited her and the mother, Rhoda to our office. What a shame, they were early in the office, I came in from a meeting - late.

They visited us last June 2, 2006. After reciting, O Captain My Captain, her winning poem, we moved around the office and did a lot of photo-shoots.

Myself, Gabriel (my son) and Rhoda milled around my guest. Mariel's father, Romy was in Dubai till now. My brother is an architect engaged in one of the huge construction project.

She loves public speaking and mathematics. Having a happy and intelligent disposition - she will be an excellent leader.

Tatay's Training In Japan

2008-03-05T19:25:00.009+08:00

Thirty fours years ago, my father was sent to Japan by the Insurance Commission on scholarship for a training on insurance business. He should been sent to Switzerland but politics intervened - the slot was given to an "anointed" one.

It was one summer morning when I accompanied Tatay to the airport to catch a JAL flight to Tokyo, Japan.

As soon as he got out of the taxi, he handed to me all his loose coins and went straight to UP Diliman to attend my summer class.

He came back after three months with "pasalubong" - an ELSI MATE 6 EL-121 calculator and a red t-shirt "pasalubong". Plus of course his never ending stories of modern Japan as well as the honest, hardworking, sincere and disciplined Japanese people.

In some engineering calculations, the ELSI replaced my slide rule. I was still wearing the red-shirt in February 14, 1981 while conducting a COBOL AND RPG class.

The ELSI pictures were freshly taken by Glaizza, a GSI staff.

May 24, 2006 at GSI

2008-03-05T17:19:00.011+08:00

Annie Fabre, our Finance Manager planned the gathering for the day that started at 5PM.

There were noodles and chicken from Savory - Annie's favorite dishes. On other occasions, Wilmer prepares lomi or spaghetti.

Thea, at the foreground - my daughter was invited. She was in the office spending her summer vacation. Of course she was not working.

Bess snapped Thea's portrait. Her camera, a lower res Olympus was better than the office's 10Mpixels digital camera.

Some candles were missing, I presume.

Batanguenos From Lemery

2008-03-05T16:29:00.011+08:00

Both my parents are from Aramuhan, Lemery, Batangas.

Travel from Pasay to Lemery was 2 hour ride in a BLTBCo bus coaches where all rows of seats are open on the right side. They were phased out in the 70s to give way to regular and air-con single door buses.

Lemery was originally accessible via Lipa. Now an alternate route through Tagaytay City , then
ride on the top of the ridges around Taal Ridge,
finally descending to the shore area of Lemery via
Payapa.

Last November 2007, I visited Tiya Angeles at her farm in Arumahan. It was harvest time - Wilmer and myself brought home several sacks of buco, banana, native chicken and other vegetables. That is candidate retirement place!

Maps of Lemery are usually available from NAMRIA. Today, they are everywhere - the first map on the upper right was source from wikipedia, the second one below from Google Earth.

20 Things About The Theory Relativity

2008-03-03T06:49:00.004+08:00

http://discovermagazine.com/topics/physics-math

At MaSci, The Special and General Theory of Relativity interested me when I was attending my Science and Physics classes under Ms Jarumayan and Ms Concepcion respectively. Four decades from that relativity theory initiation came an article from the online Discover Magazine.

2.25.2008
20 Things You Didn't Know About... Relativity
Galileo invented it, Einstein understood it, and Eddington saw it.
by Susan Kruglinski

1 Who invented relativity? Bzzzt—wrong. Galileo hit on the idea in 1639, when he showed that a falling object behaves the same way on a moving ship as it does in a motionless building.

2 And Einstein didn’t call it relativity. The word never appears in his original 1905 paper, “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” and he hated the term, preferring “invariance theory” (because the laws of physics look the same to all observers—nothing “relative” about it).

3 Space-time continuum? Nope, that’s not Einstein either. The idea of time as the fourth dimension came from Hermann Minkowski, one of Einstein’s professors, who once called him a “lazy dog.”
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Click here!

4 But Einstein did reformulate Galileo’s relativity to deal with the bizarre things that happen at near-light speed, where time slows down and space gets compressed. That counts for something.

5 Austrian physicist Friedrich Hasenöhrl published the basic equation E = mc2 a year before Einstein did.

6 Never heard of Hasenöhrl? That’s because he failed to connect the equation with the principle of relativity. Verdammt!

7 Einstein’s full-time job at the Swiss patent office meant he had to hash out relativity during hours when nobody was watching. He would cram his notes into his desk when a supervisor came by.

8 Although Einstein was a teetotaler, when he finally completed his theory of relativity, he and his wife, Mileva, drank themselves under the table—the old-fashioned way to mess with the space-time continuum.

9 Affection is relative. “I need my wife, she solves all the mathematical problems for me,” Einstein wrote while completing his theory in 1904. By 1914, he’d ordered her to “renounce all personal relations with me, as far as maintaining them is not absolutely required for social reasons.”

10 Rules are relative too. According to Einstein, nothing travels faster than light, but space itself has no such speed limit; immediately after the Big Bang, the runaway expansion of the universe apparently left light lagging way behind.

11 Oh, and there are two relativities. So far we’ve been talking about special relativity, which applies to objects moving at constant speed. General relativity, which covers accelerating things and explains how gravity works, came a decade later and is regarded as Einstein’s truly unique insight.

12 Pleasure doing business with you, chum(p): When Einstein was stumped by the math of general relativity, he relied on his old college pal Marcel Grossmann, whose notes he had studied after repeatedly cutting class years earlier.

13 Despite that, the early version of general relativity had a major error, a miscalculation of the amount a light beam would bend due to gravity.

14 Fortunately, plans to test the theory during a solar eclipse in 1914 were scuttled by World War I. Had the experiment been conducted then, the error would have been exposed and Einstein would have been proved wrong.

15 The eclipse experiment finally happened in 1919 (you’re looking at it on this very page). Eminent British physicist Arthur Eddington declared general relativity a success, catapulting Einstein into fame and onto coffee mugs.

16 In retrospect, it seems that Eddington fudged the results, throwing out photos that showed the “wrong” outcome.

17 No wonder nobody noticed: At the time of Einstein’s death in 1955, scientists still had almost no evidence of general relativity in action.

18 That changed dramatically in the 1960s, when astronomers began to discover extreme objects—neutron stars and black holes—that put severe dents in the shape of space-time.

19 Today general relativity is so well understood that it is used to weigh galaxies and locate distant planets by the way they bend light.

20 If you still don’t get Einstein’s ideas, try this explanation reportedly from The Man Himself: “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.”

The Drying Up of Lake Mead

2008-03-02T20:13:00.013+08:00

Water is everywhere, it seems.

A transferee from San Andres, Manila to La Paz, Makati, I experienced fetching water from a neighbors hand pumped well. That was difficult when you were only 7 years old.

The same situation in the 60s when I was visiting my father's hometown of Arumahan, Lemery, Batangas. Water in steel container was transported in horseback several kilometers downstream. Now, water is piped in.

I could imagine the dire condition of people from around Lake Mead in the USA when it dries up. They have to fetch water as I did. But fr om where? The area is mostly desert and mountainous.

An article from truthout.org - "Lake Mead Could Be Within Few Years of Going Dry, Study Finds" by Felicity Barringer of The New York Times shows declining water level of the lake.

The full text of the article could be found at
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/021308EC.shtml.

"Tipping Points" of Climate Change

2008-03-02T19:34:00.011+08:00

As I walking to the Church of the Risen Lord in UP Diliman at noontime in March 7, 1995, rain drenched the onset of summer. It stopped till the next moonsoon and rainy season. The previous months was the cool weather usually experienced duirng and after the Christmas Season.

In 2006, we missed the cool days and nights of the Holiday Season - thanks to mega electric fans and occasional service of the aircon - we slept well.

Last year, the cool months of December and January are back but with a flavor - rains! The eastern part of the country is devastated with floods and landslides due continuous rain brought by La Nina. Now, PAGASA predicted a wet summer.

Analyzing a climate climate news from Truthout.org and relating it to my observations - are we experiencing the "tipping point" of climate change?

Scientist Identify "Tipping Points" of Climate Change
By Steve Connor
The Independent UK
Tuesday 05 February 2008

Nine ways in which the Earth could be tipped into a potentially dangerous state that could last for many centuries have been identified by scientists investigating how quickly global warming could run out of control.

A major international investigation by dozens of leading climate scientists has found that the "tipping points" for all nine scenarios - such as the melting of the Arctic sea ice or the disappearance of the Amazon rainforest - could occur within the next 100 years.

The scientists warn that climate change is likely to result in sudden and dramatic changes to some of the major geophysical elements of the Earth if global average temperatures continue to rise as a result of the predicted increase in emissions of man-made greenhouse gases.

Most and probably all of the nine scenarios are likely to be irreversible on a human timescale once they pass a certain threshold of change, and the widespread effects of the transition to the new state will be felt for generations to come, the scientists said.

The full text of the news item is at http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020508EA.shtml.

Iraq War And The Slowdown Of The US Economy

2008-03-02T19:24:00.014+08:00

from : http://www.fotos.geschichtsthemen.de/iraq-war/iraq.htm

I have seen several DVDs, videos and pictures showing the destruction of Irag. Now, I chanced upon a news item from Truthout.org on the negative impact of the Iraq war to the US economy and perhaps including our country.

Here's an excerpt and the link on an Iraq war news article :

Sourced from http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022908T.shtml

Iraq War "Caused Slowdown in the US"
By Peter Wilson
The Australian

Thursday 28 February 2008

The Iraq war has cost the US 50-60 times more than the Bush administration predicted and was a central cause of the sub-prime banking crisis threatening the world economy, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

The former World Bank vice-president yesterday said the war had, so far, cost the US something like $US 3 trillion ($3.3 trillion) compared with the $US 50-$US 60 billion predicted in 2003 ....

Professor Stiglitz told the Chatham House think tank in London that the Bush White House was currently estimating the cost of the war at about $US 500 billion, but that figure massively understated things such as the medical and welfare costs of US military servicemen.

The war was now the second-most expensive in US history after World War II and the second-longest after Vietnam, he said.

The spending on Iraq was a hidden cause of the current credit crunch because the US central bank responded to the massive financial drain of the war by flooding the American economy with cheap credit ....

Gabs, Thea and Jobo

2008-02-26T00:45:00.004+08:00

My kids, from left to right - Gabs, Thea and Jobo. The picture was taken in my parents house in Makati on December 1995. At that time they are 11, 3, and 9 years old respectively.

A Birthday Greeting Card From Jobo

2008-02-26T00:15:00.007+08:00

Jobo was born in Panaga Hospital, in Seria, Brunei 0n 21 October 1986.

My second son's full name is Jose Bonifacio. His name should have been Andres Bonifacio if not for the violent reaction from our friends.

While at elementary school, Jobo enrolled at Yamaha to study drums. Now, he can also play the guitar. He drew those instruments on a birthday card he gave me.

He is taking up Industrial Engineering at UP Los Banos. An active student leader, he is an executive vice-president of UP Pi Omicron fraternity.

Driving In Brunei with A Proper License

2008-02-25T23:56:00.009+08:00

Armed with an International Driving License, I drove my fist car - a second brown Honda Civic hatchback. The car was loaned by Brunei Shell Petroleum the next Monday after I arrived in Brunei on Thursday, 28 July 1981.

A month after, I got my Brunei driving license. That was well before I got my Philippine Driving License.

GIS - Then and Now

2008-02-25T23:17:00.004+08:00

This was a article I cut out from the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 19 Feb 1995. A few months after this article was published, I visited the Port of Singapore's Geographic Information System Office. As the GIS Consultant for Infoman, I was tasked to evaluate the CARIS and Silicon Graphics installation used to produce Electronic Navigation Charts (ENC). Eventually, NAMRIA bought similar HW and SW as well other IT equipment to modernize its mapping capability.

Then, our GIS is at par with that of Singapore and Malaysia. I have observed that while distributing Silicon Graphics GIS workstation in the Philippines and Brunei and attending SGI's training and business meetings at Science Park in Singapore and KL in Malaysia.

Now, GIS has not moved forward as far as our neighboring countries have reached. One particular reason could be the lack of leadership from the government to pump prime acquisition of new digital maps to build GIS solutions. Vietnam, whose infrastructures were devastated by wars with the French and American are well ahead in the deployment of GIS. Their leaders are well trained. I met the head of the GIS/survey department in Korea in November 2006 and he has a PhD from Bulgarian University.

Tomorrow, we will realize we missed a lot of opportunities and probably some of our sovereign territory due to antiquated GIS and Geomatics infrastructures. But we must act. Now.

BSRC Photography Club in 1986

2008-02-25T22:40:00.009+08:00

The Brunei Shell Recreation Club (BSRC) was formed in mid-80s. The creation of this club started my life-long friendship with one of its founding officers, Pg Redzuan Bin Pg Hj Abbas. I was the first president and Pg Redzuan, the first vice-president.

On summer of 1986, some Filipino members, including Bruneians went out on a photo session at Lumut. I was at the far right wearing a photovest and at the far left is Mike Basubas, the godfather of my eldest son. Gabriel. Mike used a Canon F1 and a Nikon F3HP for me. I had fixed lenses consisting of Nikkor 24mm, 180mm tele, 105mm and 55mm macro. On my right is Marlon Ordonez who until now loves Olympus. We were then both members of the Professional Professional Association of the Philippines.

Indeed, it was very active club with monthly competitions, photo sessions, contributions to Salam and exhibits.

Being a member of the club and creating "street photos" was a realization of a childhood dream.

The Legend Has Begun

2008-02-25T21:56:00.005+08:00

Thirteen years ago, On February 21, 1995, I saw the movie "The Legends Of The Fall" at Galeria. The movie has an endearing impact on me that the images kept being replayed in my mind for about three days.

Watching a movie is not my interest. However, it was family gathering when my parents would would bring me along to watch Tagalog movies at Gay Theater in Paco, Manila. Those movies featured Fernando Poe Jr, Nida Blanca, Susan Roces, Amalia Fuentes, to name a few. The last time that I saw a movie with parents was when watched a rerun of the "Sound Of Music" at Ideal Theater in Rizal Avenue in Manila.

Movie theater visits stopped when I went to Brunei - there was no decent movie house. Then movies were delivered to our living and bed rooms when Betamax and VHS players replaced the silver screens.

Out of the blue, the "The Legends Of The Fall" came and for over a decade, I kept the ticket stab of the premiere showing of that movie. The legend has begun.

eGov Through The Eye Of A Photographer

2008-02-25T21:25:00.003+08:00

Indeed, I was looking forward to share my "street ph0tography" of the IT and eGov projects in our country.

On February 27, I was given a space to "exhibit my photos" at a Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) General Membership Meeting to exhibit my portfolio of images spanning ten years of capturing fleeting moments of IT and eGov activities.

PHOTO NUMBER 1 - a collage of pictures will be described as:

I believe that MOST IF NOT ALL the eGov projects were outsourced to the private sector. It may not be visible because some of the IT companies do not want to work for the gov't.

Some eGov projects are not successful. And causes are the following :

1. dysfunctional procurement process
2. lack of PROJECT MANAGEMENT mindset in the gov't
3. absence of SCOPE MANAGEMENT
4. lack of incentive in the gov't employees to buy-in to eGov projects
5. lack of staff with required IT skills set
6. lack of Service and Maintenance plan

Those have been my experiences doing eGov projects with the government since I started GSI 10 years ago.

Moving one step forward and being proactive, I am suggesting that the following should also be discussed :

1. technology transfer of the private sectors' IT best practices and project management to the gov't (similar to Singapore & Korea)

2. institutionalization of a functional procurement process (like a selection criteria different from road and building construction)

3. for the government to create a National Enterprise Architecture as well as the NGA Enterprise Architectures. This is to rationalize technology choices, portalization, SOA,interfacing, etc. The eGov projects need these architectures.

4. a creation of PSIA-Private Sector eGov Watchdog to address issues and concerns in the IT procurement process, project development, qualification of IT consultants. ( take note that some fly-by-night developers and consultants are not members of PSIA.)

There are many more of these "pictures" that I will share with you soon.

"An Unjust Law is No Law at All"

2008-02-05T13:34:00.003+08:00

Yes, many months of inaction on my blog. Well do not blame climate change, appreciating peso, oil at $100 per barrel nor the ZTE controversy.

I was just too occupied steering a ship battered by waves bearing unjust law. "An unjust law is no law at all", said St Augustine. This provides the foundation of civil disobedience movements across the globe. If a particular law is not really a law at all, it is argued, one has a right and even a duty to break it. The late Martin Luther King articulated this view in his Letter from Birmingham Jail: "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws".

Not writing is my form of civil disobedience. I was utilizing all my energies to focus on "communal action" and divine intervention to seek the truth. And we all saw and heard the truth. Some delivered the truth in a silver platter - a miracle.

Now that I have found some ray of justice, I am back!

Rice and Chips - A New Mindset for Filipino Entrepreneurs

2007-06-29T11:24:00.001+08:00

Entrepreneur's Pains

The "Great Disconnect". That is how I describe the relationship between technology entrepreneurs like us and the capital market. Entrepreneurs engaged in value creations are left to sweating in the sun compared to those businessmen involved in quick profit and instant wealth (but less value according to me) enterprises such as real estate and construction, trading and gaming, etc.

The technology entrepreneurs are at the bottom of the pecking order and frowned upon their visionary business ideas. Inspite of that fact, those entrepreneurs continuously maintain their businesses even if lead to postponing the roll-out of their innovative business creations.

Cultural Bias

Because of the cultural bias against the risky business proposals of technology entrepereneurs, most of them tap the capital market in USA. And they made good. What is left is for the Philippines is the backdoor business process components, giving away the intellectual property creations of brilliant Filipinos to foreign countries. One example is the Filipino initiated Gluecode which was developed in the Philippines, funded and IPed in US and later sold to IBM .

Silicon Valley

But it is not so in so far as Silicon Valley is concerned. The Silicon Valley's business model is to develop and nurture technology startups. Still in its pioneering stage in the Philippines, Dennis Posadas, Filipino wrote a book about it.

Enter "Rice and Chips".

The book explains how Asian countries are using the Silicon Valley model to develop technology startups. Dennis enumerates the unwritten rules of innovation that have worked in Silicon Valley since the 1930s based on the works of scholars and other seminal works on technology entrepreneurship. Using these concepts as a benchmark. Dennis points out similarities and differences between Silicon Valley and Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, Singapore and Korea. He discusses concepts like proximity, Schumpeter's creative destruction, intellectual property, the importance of universities, publications and patents, and the role of stock markets in encouraging venture capital.

Dennis, The Author

Dennis Posadas, has worked as chip equipment development engineer, technology/business analyst and venture capital scout with one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world. Dennis received his BS Electrical Engineering degree from the University of the Philippines in 1991, was a sponsored Fellow of the Advanced Study Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Advanced Educational Services. He is presently a consultant to the UP-Ayala TechnoPark Business Incubation in UP Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.

A much sought speaker on technology entrepreneurship, Dennis' schedule is quite full sharing his insights to students, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists.

(Source : Rice and Chips : Technopreneurship and Innovation in Asia, Dennis Posadas
http://ricebowlandchips.blogspot.com)

Creative Visualization For Entrepreneurs

2007-06-28T19:13:00.000+08:00

Starting a business from scratch was not an easy job, really! Having been employed for almost two decades, thinking of running my own business was cool, but not it implementing it. Amidst all the internal resistance to move forward of becoming an entrepreneur, suddenly it happened - GSI was created! Creativity, an unseen force intervened.

Lacking a formal education and absence of a mentor to become an entrepreneur, I read "Entrepreneurship : A Contemporary Approach" by Donald F. Kuratko and Richard M. Hodgetts. The book was written to structure and illustrate the discipline of entrepreneurship in a manner that is unique and creative as entrepreneurship itself. In table from the book showed that in 1934, Schumpeter described an entrepreneur :"Innovation; Initiative". Then in 1978, Timmons' described them as : "drive/self confidence; goal oriented; moderate risk taker; focus of control; creativity/innovation".

The book profiles entrepreneurs as being creative and innovative. Creativity was thought to be as an exclusively inherited trait. However an expanding school of thought believes that creativity can be learned. In new ventures there often is a collective creativity that emerges from the joint efforts of the founders and team members and produces unique goods and services.

Long before entrepreneurship option was considered, I bought a book in Singapore entitled "Creative Visualization" by Shakti Gawain. It has been my textbook in learning how to visualize an image hours before a photo session and later the discipline of creative visualization was applied in conceptualizing business models for GSI.

Visualization, or creative visualization as it is sometimes referred to,
uses mental imagery to obtain an objective. The snapshot or a vivid mental picture of the desired thing is held firmly focused in the mind as if it had already happened.

The technique has been widely used in various fields such as the arts, sports, business, alternative medicine, religious practices, psychotherapy, psychical research, the mystical and occult arts, and self-improvement.

Creative visualization also is known by other terms such as "positive thinking," "positive imagery," "dynamic imaging," "creating imaging," "imaging," and so on.

The author, Shakti Gawain has been pioneering the field of personal development for over twenty-five years, she has been a best-selling author and internationally renowned teacher of consciousness. Shakti has facilitated thousands of individuals in developing greater awareness, balance and wholeness in their lives.

The book, which helped launch a movement, has been successfully used in the fields of health, education, business, sports, and creative arts for many years. Shakti explains how to use mental imagery and affirmations to produce positive changes in one’s life. The book contains meditations and exercises that are aimed at helping the reader or practitioner channel energies in good directions, strengthen self-esteem, improve overall health, and experience deep relaxation.

Creative visualization is the technique of using your imagination to create what you want in your life. There is nothing at all new, strange, or unusual about creative visualization. You are already using it every day, every minute in fact. It is your natural power of imagination, the basic creative energy of the universe, which you use constantly, whether or not you are aware of it.

In the past, many of us have used our power of creative visualization in a relatively unconscious way. Because of our own deep-seated negative concepts about life, we have automatically and unconsciously expected and imagined lack, limitation, difficulties, and problems to be our lot in life. To one degree or another that is what we have created for ourselves. And that has to change thorugh creative visualization.

Next week, our innovation team at GSI will be undergoing internal training on creative visualization to prepare them to a new business model of the company. With some advice from Dennis Posadas and insights from his book "Rice and Chips" our innovation driven team, QUbTEk Labs, will be launched today and is on the road for a journey to global technopreneurship.

Finally, Oprah Winfrey shares the positive result of visualization - “I do believe, and I have seen in my own life, that Creative Visualization works.”

(Source :http://www.shaktigawain.com/index.php)

On Resignations - Times are Changing

2007-06-27T23:01:00.000+08:00

Wikipedia wrote of Bob Dylan " (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, musician, and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of Dylan's most recognized work dates from the 1960s, when he became an informal documentarian and a reluctant figurehead of American unrest. A number of his songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became anthems of the anti-war and civil rights movements. "

Raising concern about the proliferation of unprofessional IT workers, I am singing "The Times They Are a-Changin" :

The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

About two decades ago, Information Technology (IT) or Electronic or Data Processing (EDP) as it was called before, were composed of computer experts very dedicated to deliver a completed and quality program or system.

Then, an entry level programmer has to undergo a battery of test which include the dreaded Programmers Aptitude Test (PAT) aside from the usual IQ and Psychological exams. This rigorous selection process resulted to getting the cream of the crop. Therefore, their dedication to work.

Now, for such flaky reasons such as better opportunities, further study , etc. - IT staff resign. And what do they make of their tasks, projects and deliverables? Well, they just don't care if the project/s they left behind turned to chaos.

Why would some suddenly resign? More often than not, the real reasons behind (irrevocable!!!) resignations are : audit of failing programs, missing documentations, and misrepresentations of project progress and losing face with their peers due to non-performance.

And what happens to the project? Of course, the company has to do a lot of fire fighting, debugging and damage control. What about the resigned staff? Oh, very easily they have moved to next job. (Most companies do not even require that the staff they hired are cleared from the previous company.)

So, what made it very easy to get a new job? During our era, everybody in the EDP industry knows everybody. From Cobol, RPG, Fortran shops, the industry knew who were the top guns and the tweets as well. Today, the industry only knows what they read in the submitted resume or CV - and not the person.

But, some resigned staff are not so lucky. One government employee moonlighted as a programmer in an IT company, then went AWOL, leaving an important foreign funded project hanging in the air. Today, the long arm of the law has caught up with him. He is found guilty of reneging his contract and now being ask to pay damages. Poor guy, he is blaming his lawyer for the misfortune. He should have realized some lawyers are law twisters and breakers. I know that for sure. Another IT worker who has been a certified trouble maker is still lucky - but maybe not for long. She is now with another private IT firm and given this worker's IT record - for sure she will end up in jail sooner than she thought - as disclosed by her former co-workers.

So, how do we put a stop to this mayhem? Simple. The industry associations such as PCS and PSIA lobby for the professionalism of the IT practice in the Philippines. Assuming that the applicants are technically capable, hiring companies must conduct due diligence on their attitude for work, respect for team members, integrity and honesty.

Meanwhile, I would rather continue singing "The Times They Are a-Changin" :

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

(picture from Wikipedia)

Page One of Discipline to Learn (D2L)

2007-06-19T00:27:00.000+08:00

Albert Einstein, Time Magazine's Man of the Century and a German born American Physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity said, "I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.”

Well, school year 2007-2008 has just started. Some kids are lucky to have attended the first day of school with all fees fully paid, new uniforms, signature bags and fat allowance.

Some are not as lucky. They are either attending the classes on promissory notes or totally shut out from school. They became the out of school youth.

Soon, assignments become a daily activity and exams, too. Students will surely have a tough time focusing on their school work because of the many distractions inside and outside of the school. There are many of them - cell phones, Nintendo, online games (aka computer activity), TV ( as usual) and junk food.

It is therefore a challenge now on how to create a proper environment for the kids to study and learn.

What must parents like us do to ensure that our children are able to make the most of their school work? Or, how do we make the out of school youth productive in our homes and communities?

With this scenario, there is a compelling reason for me to start writing and sharing my own experiences in making kids like school and indulge in creative activities.

Today, I have written the first of the many pages or posts of "Discipline To Learn" which I may shorten to D2L . This blog are for parents, teachers, tutors, guardians and concerned Pinoys who may wish to develop a program of creating an environment to read and learn.

The D2L is not just a destination for success but a journey towards a fulfilled life for our kids. D2L is not a text book of information but importantly my own practical experiences, interviews from academically successful persons and observations from a helicopter view on how kids "love to learn".

D2L is the roadmap for the journey. It ensures kids are fit to learn.

I hope that this D2L initiative be a starting community for learning. I am encouraging readers to share your insights and experiences on this subject matter.

(Discipline To Learn (D2L) 2007 is a copyright of E. Ricalde)

Rice Eaten by Somebody Else

2007-06-07T19:53:00.000+08:00

Incredible! I got from Google a very famous Pilipino quotation aired very often over a late afternoon program on a local radio station in the 60s.

I am not sure about the history of the quotation, but it became the lyrics of a Pilipino song. The quotation goes like this :

"Ako ang nagtanim, ang nagbayo at nagsaing, saka nang maluto'y iba ang kumain." (Pilipino version)

"I planted, pounded with a pestle, cooked the rice but was eaten by somebody else" (English version)

This quotation reminded me of a tragedy - "we conceptualized, presented, designed, developed" - but was snatched in broad daylight - just like that!

Yes, equally incredible. Only in the Philippines.

(picture from DAS0054 Corbis Royalty Free Photograph)

My First Day At Brunei Shell Petroleum

2007-06-07T18:56:00.002+08:00

Indeed, it was a long process of saying goodbye to each other. Living together in one roof for twenty seven years with my parents and siblings and seeing our relatives during fiestas and Christmas season every year, - parting was a very difficult situation to manage. We are all gathered at our gate for a longer time before we finally drove to the airport. With me were Tiyo Garding driving the car, Tatay, Nanay and Jaime.

On board an old Philippine Airlines BAC One-Eleven flight to Bandar Seri Begawan Airport in Brunei, I left Manila as an OCW (Overseas Contract Worker) on that fateful Wednesday, July 29, 1981 - and have been an OCW for eight years till 1988.

Last night, I reminisced that day while I watching the movie "The Queen". There was a flashback of Lady Diana's wedding day which reminded me of a night at Brunei Shell Guest House near Panaga Club. Being my first day at Brunei Shell, I was welcomed by Lucio Cruz and Bobby Gonzales (Filipino FIC22 officemates), Conal Higgo (FIC Head), and Hubert Bol (Fic22 Head). Our animated discussions were interrupted by the TV coverage of royal wedding.

BBC News published this wedding day of 29 July 1981:

Charles and Diana marry

Crowds of 600,000 people filled the streets of London to catch a glimpse of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on their wedding day.

The couple were married at St Paul's Cathedral before an invited congregation of 3,500 and an estimated global TV audience of 750 million - making it the most popular programme ever broadcast.

Conal gave me a pot of flowering cactus plant and apologized for his dirty hands because he was busy during the day spray painting his son's bicycle.

Oh, I could still remember the smell of Brunei as we disembarked from the plane, the aircon at the Panaga Guest house and the plant Conal gave me.

A strange place .... strange people and to top it off .... a strange wedding - made my first day in Brunei.

("The Queen" from Wikipedia, "The Wedding" from BBC News)

Not So Cold December - Blame Climate Change

2007-06-06T22:00:00.000+08:00

Last December, we experienced a warm holiday season after many centuries of cold northeast breeze. We went to bed without the thick blankets but with the electric fans whirling at top speed to provide cool air in our bedrooms. Well, blame it to climate change. And blame USA for causing climate change being the biggest contributor of CO2 and other green-house gas in the atmosphere.

Fifteen years ago, Makati to UP Diliman was a very cold place to travel during the months of December to early February. I had to wear a thick jacket while traveling in a red JD bus from Buendia to UP. And at 6PM, I have to wear the jacket again.

The classrooms did not have electric fans nor aircon. The northeast wind brings the smell of holiday season and some students doning turtle neck shirts.

Summer of this year was unusually hot. My indoor plants which has been very healthy since I bought them three years ago were wittled due to very hot weather.

Now, this unusual hot climate is a global phenomenon. In an article at truthout.org, United Nations Environment Protection warned over global ice loss. The summary of the findings showed:

"Hundreds of millions of livelihoods will be affected by declining snow and ice cover as a result of global warming,

The risks facing people included losing access to drinking water, and rising sea levels,

Melting glaciers in Asia's mountains could affect an estimated 40% of the world's population, who rely on ice melt for crop irrigation and drinking water."

UN Warning Over Global Ice Loss
BBC News

Monday 04 June 2007

Hundreds of millions of livelihoods will be affected by declining snow and ice cover as a result of global warming, a UN report has warned.

The risks facing people included losing access to drinking water, and rising sea levels, the study concluded.

The findings were published by the UN's Environment Programme (Unep).

Unep chief Achim Steiner said the report showed that time was running out for political leaders to reach a global agreement on curbing emissions.

Mr Steiner made his call for action at the launch of the UN Global Outlook for Ice and Snow report, which was being held in Tromso, Norway.

"The report underlines that the fate of the world's snowy and icy places in a climatically challenged world should be cause for concern in every ministry, boardroom and living room across the world," he said.

"The missing link is universal political action. Today's report should empower the public to take their leaders to task [and] should empower them to ask how much hotter it has to get before we act."

"Feedback" Fears

The study warns of a range of threats that could destabilise ecosystems around the world, with potentially devastating consequences for hundreds of millions of people.

Melting glaciers in Asia's mountains could affect an estimated 40% of the world's population, who rely on ice melt for crop irrigation and drinking water.

It added that rising temperatures were already resulting in the thawing of permafrost in places such as Siberia. This was leading to the release into the atmosphere of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

The fate of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, which hold almost all of the planet's freshwater ice, needed to be better understood, the UN publication urged.

It said that if emissions of greenhouse gases continued unabated, the massive ice sheets were likely to become unstable as the world continued to warm.

Without taking measures to mitigate sea level rise, an estimated 145 million people, primarily in Asia, would be exposed to the risk of flooding.

The UN said that the International Polar Year, a 24-month global scientific study of the polar regions, would help shed light on how climate change is altering the ice dynamics in these regions.

The authors also warned that less ice and snow cover was leading to more of the Sun's energy being absorbed by the land and the sea, rather than being reflected back into space.

They said this "positive feedback" could accelerate global warming and result in more abrupt shifts in the climate.

Norway's Environment Minister, Helen Bjoernoey, said the comprehensive study into the state of the world's snow and ice presented a bleak prognosis.

"To me, it is particularly alarming to realise climate change can be a reinforcing process - global warming results in further global warming," the minister observed.

"As documented in the report, melting of snow and ice will in itself have severe consequences on nature and society."

Source: http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/060507EB.shtml,

The Sky Is Blue - Lessons from GE 202

2007-06-04T18:39:00.000+08:00

On a clear day, the sky is blue.

Every afternoon, it was customary that we would report the weather as we observed the sky from the window of our Grade V Section 1 classroom of the the Rafael Palma Elementary School, located at the corner of Vito Cruz and Zobel Roxas.

In 1965, we have a clear view of the western sky from the vantage point of our room at the second floor. So, we had reports on the type of clouds, direction of wind, temperature and breezy or humid. For the whole school year June to April, we were able to report cirrus and towering cumulus clouds during summer, dark skies with threatening nimbo-cumulus clouds during early June and July and totally dark skies during the storm season months of August to September. And of course, the overcast skies of December and cool weather of the Christmas Season that extended well up to Valentines day.

But we never explained why the sky was blue on a cloudless day. It was just blue, that's it. Almost three decades later, an answer arrived when I went back to school for graduate study.

At our MS Remote Sensing class in July 1994 , GE 202 - Introduction to Remote Sensing, conducted by Professor Ping Lopez of the Department of Geodetic Engineering at UP Diliman, he explained just as why on a clear day the sky is blue. From there on I liked the subject because it was so close to of one of my favorite activities - Photography. Only it discussed the science of light, reflection, absorption and dispersion among other subject matters. Obviously there was no composition.

The sky is blue due to Rayleigh Scattering. This occurs for atmospheric particles that are 0.1 times smaller than the radiation wavelength. Mathematically, scattering is inversely proportional to the wavelength raised to the 4th power. So, the sky is BLUE because the blue wavelength are scattered more than the longer wavelength of red.

I got that correct in my exam! The blue book showed it all.

A Retreat Turned to Poetry Writing

2007-06-04T13:23:00.000+08:00

Upon the invitation of Noel and Angge Soriano, I attended the retreat at Eliazo Hall, Ateneo de Manila University during the Holy Week of April 1995. While some of the participants stayed in, I did not.

Instead, I passed by UP Diliman, visited the Chapel of the Risen Lord and meditated near the Main Library. An excellent place to reflect, UP campus then was almost deserted except for some Ikot jeepneys.

In effect, it was two retreats in one. On the last day of the retreat, a Saturday April 15, 1995, while meditating and preparing for the evening mass at Eliazo Hall, I wrote a poem. My first.

To God, My Father

In silence
I turned to my inner self
There was nothing but emptiness;
I looked deeper still
And saw nothing but darkness.

But as I continued gazing
At the void
I saw myself mirrored
In stillness.
Before me was a child
In a frightening wilderness.

And lo, a ball of fire
Appeared in blinding brightness
That seared me with the
Truth of consciousness.

It was then that I
Communed with you, my Divine Highness,
My Highest Self
Reverberating in peacefulness.
At last, in this silence
My quest for everlasting life begins.

Songs Turn Oldies but Goldies, IT to Faded Glories

2007-05-31T20:06:00.000+08:00

Twenty seven years ago, the number one hit tune was You Shook Me All Night Long - AC-DC . Developing my RPG programs will not be completed without the piped-in music like Another One Bites the Dust - Queen, Fame - Irene Cara, The Rose - Better Midler, Lady - Kenny Rogers.

Previous years to that, the most popular songs were My Sharona - The Knack, Ring My Bell - Anita Ward, Honesty - Billy Joel, Reunited - Peaches & Herb. Top 1,2,3 were London Calling - The Clash, Dance the Night Away - Van Halen, and Highway to Hell - AC/DC, respectively.

Today, those songs turned to oldies but definitely goldies.

In 1980, I attended a month long S/34 courses at IBM Philippines at Paseo de Roxas. These courses are GS Systems Analysis Techniques, S/34 Systems Design and Implementation, S/34 Workstation Coding, and S/34 Workstation Programming Workshop. The course was offered for P8000 inclusive of 2 snacks, lunch, materials and lab exercises.

Manuals were thick and that was the only thing
that I remembered about the course. I even brought with me some of the manuals to Brunei hoping that it maybe of use.

Now, with Java, OSS, and new IBM SW technologies, the S/34 is certainly obsolete. High tech then was made to "Faded Glories".

And forgotten, but not in my blog. Never.

Al Gore's Book : "The Assault on Reason"

2007-05-31T16:34:00.000+08:00

The astronomical increase in revenue of the major TV stations weeks before the election were contributed by the massive political advertisement. Excluding talks shows, it was very noticeable that the political fora at Plaza Miranda were replaced by 20 to 30 second commercials allegedly paid by the friends of the candidates.

Here's an article published at Time Magazine on Al Gore's book "The Assult on Reason". We see parallel local political realities, over-indulgence in TV and transformation of "well-informed citizentry" to "well-amused citizenry". Here's some excerpts from the 16 May 207 issue of Time Magazine :

Not long before our nation launched the invasion of Iraq, our longest-serving Senator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, stood on the Senate floor and said: "This chamber is, for the most part, silent - ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no
attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing. We stand passively mute in the United States Senate."

Why was the Senate silent?

In describing the empty chamber the way he did, Byrd invited a specific version of the same general question millions of us have been asking: "Why do reason, logic and truth seem to play a sharply diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions?" The persistent and sustained reliance on falsehoods as the basis of policy, even in the face of massive and well-understood evidence to the contrary, seems to many Americans to have reached levels that were previously unimaginable.

A large and growing number of Americans are asking out loud: "What has happened to our country?" People are trying to figure out what has gone wrong in our democracy, and how we can fix it.

Those of us who have served in the U.S. Senate and watched it change over time could volunteer a response to Senator Byrd's incisive description of the Senate prior to the invasion: The chamber was empty because the Senators were somewhere else. Many of them were at fund-raising events they now feel compelled to attend almost constantly in order to collect money - much of it from special interests - to buy 30-second TV commercials for their next re-election campaign.

The Senate was silent because Senators don't feel that what they say on the floor of the Senate really matters that much anymore - not to the other Senators, who are almost never present when their colleagues speak, and certainly not to the voters, because the news media seldom report on Senate speeches anymore.

Radio, the Internet, movies, cell phones, iPods, computers, instant messaging, video games and personal digital assistants all now vie for our attention - but it is television that still dominates the flow of information. According to an authoritative global study, Americans now watch television an average of 4 hours and 35 minutes every day - 90 minutes more than the world average. When you assume eight hours of work a day, six to eight hours of sleep and a couple of hours to bathe, dress, eat and commute, that is almost three-quarters of all the discretionary time the average American has.

In the world of television, the massive flows of information are largely in only one direction, which makes it virtually impossible for individuals to take part in what passes for a national conversation. Individuals receive, but they cannot send. They hear, but they do not speak. The "well-informed citizenry" is in danger of becoming the "well-amused audience." Moreover, the high capital investment required for the ownership and operation of a television station and the centralized nature of broadcast, cable and satellite networks have led to the increasing concentration of ownership by an ever smaller number of larger corporations that now effectively control the majority of television programming in America.

In practice, what television's dominance has come to mean is that the inherent value of political propositions put forward by candidates is now largely irrelevant compared with the image-based ad campaigns they use to shape the perceptions of voters. The high cost of these commercials has radically increased the role of money in politics - and the influence of those who contribute it.

That is why campaign finance reform, however well drafted, often misses the main point: so long as the dominant means of engaging in political dialogue is through purchasing expensive television advertising, money will continue in one way or another to dominate American politics. And as a result, ideas will continue to play a diminished role. That is also why the House and Senate campaign committees in both parties now search for candidates who are multimillionaires and can buy the ads with their own personal resources.

Tennis Tournament at Brunei Shell

2007-05-31T15:37:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I was looking for some document of the early meetings of the MaSci Foundation when I chanced upon old pictures and clippings from Salam, the official publication of Brunei Shell. Below, in one of the tournaments, I partnered with Mando and finished runner up.

Tennis games in Brunei started immediately after office at 4PM and ended at about 9PM, if it didn't rain. We usually played at Brunei Shell Recreation Club at the back of the head office in Seria. Sometimes, I also played at the Panaga Club, about 5 blocks aways from the HQ. By the way, tennis was a seven day a week sports activity!

My first tennis instructor was Jess Belamide, a Cebuano working at SES department. Oh, we played till 11PM even if was drizzling. He was so patient to teach tennis though it was not really the scientific way of hitting forehand and backhand. He sliced the ball most of the time.

As soon as I picked-up the game, we joined tournaments in both clubs. Jess was not really keen to join the tournaments, that I partnered with a very good friend , Mike Basubas (now the president of furniture manufacturers' association in Cebu) and later on with Mando Oteyza as shown in the photo.

Playing at Makati Sports Club last week, upon the invitation of Rotarians Mong, Bert and Andy reminded me of the hard court surfaces in Brunei. Tennis is the same everywhere - warm people, happy heart, lots of water, raucous laughter, missed shots, could-not-forget winners and disappointed loser.

Tennis is best for you than badminton - call me at 0918 844 7024.

Love 40!

Business Advice from Ernie Del Rosario

2007-05-31T13:14:00.000+08:00

The first month of the year is when we usually scout around for colleagues and partners to review and comment our business plan.

Since 1999, GSI has been working closely with UNISYS on a GIS project and had been interfacing with their key account managers and technology experts. Ernie Del Rosario, one of the technical experts of UNISYS, was our focal point person and had been advising us on how to move forward with the newly signed contract.

A day before January 4, 2000, I called Ernie requesting for his insights on the GSI's business plan for new millennium. The next day, he replied with the following heavyweight punches:

1. Starting resource positions are very poor predictors of future industry leadership (So don't worry if GeoSpatial does not now have the mountains of cash or command legions of talented people. These should not hamper its ability to win a preeminent position in the Spatial Intelligence industry)

2. Too often competitors are judged in terms of resources than resourcefulness (For GeoSpatial to get into the future first is more of a function of its resourcefulness that resources. Resourcefulness stems not from an elegantly structured strategic architecture , but from a deeply felt sense of purpose, a broadly shared dream, a truly seductive view of tomorrow's opportunity. Maybe you should first do a scan of the GIS battlefield and find a niche where to put your dreams on - a sweet spot of the SI (Spatial Intelligence) industry in the foreseeable future.) Who was Bill Gates in the late sixties vs who was IBM then? Only the the dead dream not.

3. Most companies are over-managed and under-led. You should not fall into this trap. Beware of overbearing controllers and HR heads. Remember once I reminded you to develop leaders than managers? Leaders you develop (and let freely fly), managers you hire (and put in a corner). Leaders know which forest to hack through, managers know which machete to employ, how many machete-wielders to deploy and how sharp the machetes should be to efficiently hack through the possibly wrong (managers don't care) forest.

These three strategic key points became GSI's development and governance pillars to effectively develop and deploy project and solutions.

Eight years has passed, I have yet to invite Ernie Del Rosario from his post in COMELEC for coffee. We hope GSI can once again snatch his valuable time to have a look at the company he steered towards leadership in ICT/GIS and institutionalized good governance. Ernie, GSI has been calling you.

Windows (The Bill Gates' Software) In Filipino

2007-05-30T21:58:00.000+08:00

Out of the many JPGs I received, the Windows Filipino version is the most interesting and amusing. Unfortunately, I could not anymore track down the source of the images.

The translation reminded me of my ES11 class under Dr. Pacheco of College of Engineering, UP Diliman. Well, he conducted our class in Filipino.

So, a traditional mechanics book describes an object in equilibrium as :

"Summation of vertical forces is equal to the summation of horizontal forces".

Then he described that state of equilibrium in Filipino as :

"Ang suma ng mga pwersang pababa ay katumbas ng suma ng mga pwersang pahalang".

Who says Filipino is not an effective language to develop the nation's competitiveness!

And what about those who read Liwayway, Kislap, Ang Taliba, and Bulaklak, took Speech 1 in Filipino...?

Well, I am sure they are not contact center agents.

Developing a Strategic Mindset

2007-05-30T07:29:00.001+08:00

My second tour of duty in Brunei ended on a Friday, an ominous day of 13 June 1997. Like a soldier returning home, I must move on and stay in the country to recirculate, be with my kids and create an enterprise.

Business 101 in Brunei providing ground zero experience in marketing, selling and basic finance were good enough to start camping out and plan to execute a business.

Planning was easy. More coffee even make it easier. Hmm, how to execute was the huge wall to tear down to get the business going.

One of sisters, Joy was doing her MBA at Ateneo and reading a lot of books and case materials to prepare for her thesis. And I got hold of her book on strategic management. For the next six months, I was reading the book and helped Joy write her thesis. The thesis should have been titled "Constructing the Launch Pad of GSI".

The strategic mindset is key to starting up an enterprise. It separates boys from men and determines the winners of daily skirmishes in corporate battlefield. Strategic management maintains the entrepreneur's "eyes" focused on a wide angle view of the enterprise to telephoto view of specific components of the business.

But that's my own internalization of the strategic management. What I learned from SBEP at UAP is best described in Wikipedia :

Strategic management is the process of specifying an organization's objectives, developing policies and plans to achieve these objectives, and allocating resources to implement the policies and plans to achieve the organization's objectives.

It is the highest level of managerial activity, usually formulated and by the Board of Directors and performed by an organization's Chief Executive Office (CEO) and executive team. Strategic management provides overall direction to the enterprise.

“Strategic management is an ongoing process that assesses the business and the industries in which the company is involved; assesses its competitors and sets goals and strategies to meet all existing and potential competitors; and then reassesses each strategy annually or quarterly [i.e. regularly] to determine how it has been implemented and whether it has succeeded or needs replacement by a new strategy to meet changed circumstances, new technology, new competitors, a new economic environment., or a new social, financial, or political environment.” (Lamb, 1984:ix)^[1]

Strategies after strategies, charts to many more charts - GSI slowly emerged from several McDonald's, Jollibee and UP campus meetings in January 1998. Its first name was a mouthful - Geomatics and Environmental Management Consulting (GEMC). Several of my classmates and graduate students of MS Remote Sensing of the UP College of Engineering participated. One of those who attended the initial brainstorming meetings was Abigail Ramos now with WWF.

Making GSI's strategic framework rock solid for my colleaguesto execute, there could be a third tour of duty in Brunei - being a diplomat.

Another dream to dream about.

Extinction Benchmark - Three Species Every Hour

2007-05-28T17:24:00.001+08:00

Since, Saturday I had lined up three articles for posting. Until now they are still queued for publishing awaiting some JPGs for insertion. Suddenly I remembered an article I read at truthout.org on the speed by which species extinction is occurring. Therefore, this post.

Last week, I attended the forum on "Biodiversity and Climate Change" held at the auditorium of the National Institute of Geological Sciences. It was conducted on the occasion of the 2007 International Day for Biodiversity. To protect biodiversity, mitigation measures were propose which include reforestation of denuded lands, protection of the 20,000 sq km coral reefs, restore 500,000 has of mangrove forests and protection of remaining forests.

How fast must we put our acts together before it's past tipping point?

Indeed, it was a shocking news from http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/052307EA.shtml that the earth is fast losing its species. Here's a copy of the article :

UN Urges World to Slow Extinctions: Three Each Hour
By Alister Doyle
Reuters

Wednesday 23 May 2007

Oslo - Human activities are wiping out three animal or plant species every hour and the world must do more to slow the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs by 2010, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Scientists and environmentalists issued reports about threats to creatures and plants including right whales, Iberian lynxes, wild potatoes and peanuts on May 22, the International Day for Biological Diversity.

"Biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. Global warming is adding to threats such as land clearance for farms or cities, pollution and rising human populations.

"The global response to these challenges needs to move much more rapidly, and with more determination at all levels - global, national and local," he said.

Many experts reckon the world will fail to meet the goal set by world leaders at an Earth Summit in 2002 of a "significant reduction" by 2010 in the rate of species losses. "We are indeed experiencing the greatest wave of extinctions since the disappearance of the dinosaurs," said Ahmed Djoghlaf, head of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago, perhaps after a meteorite struck.

"Extinction rates are rising by a factor of up to 1,000 above natural rates. Every hour, three species disappear. Every day, up to 150 species are lost. Every year, between 18,000 and 55,000 species become extinct," he said.

"The cause: human activities."

Dodo

A "Red List" of endangered species, however, lists only 784 species driven to extinction since 1500 - ranging from the dodo bird of Mauritius to the golden toad of Costa Rica.

Craig Hilton-Taylor, manager of the list compiled by the World Conservation Union grouping 83 governments as well as scientists and environmental organisations, said the hugely varying figures might both be right, in their way.

"The UN figures are based on loss of habitats, estimates of how many species lived there and so will have been lost," he told Reuters. "Ours are more empirical - those species we knew were there but cannot find."

UN climate experts say global warming, blamed mainly on human use of fossil fuels, will wreck habitats by drying out the Amazon rainforest, for instance, or by melting polar ice.

The World Conservation Union also said that one in every six land mammals in Europe was under threat of extinction, including the Iberian lynx, Arctic fox and the Mediterranean monk seal.

"The results of the report highlight the challenge we currently face to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010," European Commissioner Stavros Dimas said.

Europe's goal is to halt biodiversity loss by 2010, tougher than the global target of slowing losses.

Another report by a group of farm researchers said that global warming may drive many wild varieties of plants such as potatoes and peanuts to extinction by mid-century, wiping out traits that might help modern crops resist pests or disease.

The WWF conservation group and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said that whales, dolphins and porpoises were "facing increasing threats from climate change" because of factors such as rising sea temperatures.

A survey in Britain said climate change might actually help some of the nation's rare wildlife and plants - such as the greater horseshoe bat and the turtle dove - to spread to new areas even as others faced threats to their survival.

Project Apollo 13 - Getting Out Of Crisis

2007-05-24T19:58:00.000+08:00

Built on rock solid business model and innovative strategies, GSI has survived several corporate crises. The first crisis sparked off from a non payment of about P4M by a partner was resolved on a day-to-day basis. That was easy, we moved on and contained the business ills.

The second one was rather too punishing caused from a very poor cash flow from government projects. That was almost a point of no return. But, GSI must not fail.

Night after night I was watching war movies to learn how platoon leaders and generals were able to turn around a defeat to a victory. One of the Vietnam War movies, "We Were Soldiers" caught my attention as it showed great leadership and precise decision making process. Based from Wikipedia -

"We Were Soldiers is a 2002 war film that dramatized the Battle of Ia Drang which took place in November 1965, the first major engagement of American troops in the Vietnam War. It was directed by Randall Wallace and stars Mel Gibson. It is based on the book ‘We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young’” by Lieutenant General (Ret) Hal Moore and reporter Joseph Galloway, who were at the battle."

DVD after DVD, I have consumed most of the most war films. What about other crisis situations than war? Then I remembered a failed lunar landing - the Apollo 13. A 1995 movie of the same title was shown but I never had a chance to watch it. I prefer to play tennis, read and play the guitar than to watch a movie.

So, I got hold of the DVD, and watched it four times, almost memorizing the sequences of events leading to a "successful failure". With insights on averting disastrous failure, I wrote the strategic framework "Apollo 13 - Turning Around GSI" in May 4, 2002.

The crisis led to a lot of confusion and dissertion that made so many information buried in mud.

As in "Houston, we've had a problem", our team accepted the fact that we are in the middle of a ferocious storm - waiting to be wiped out by the shear force of Category 5 wind. We defined the problem - financial.

Setting up the roadmap and action schedules to hit the ground, a mind set of "Failure is Not an Option" permeated the company.

We looked back and analyzed why we must NOT fail. We quantified the values GSI has generated and the goodwill it has contributed to the society .

It was interesting to note that GSI trived in crisis and chaotic business environment because it was formed in the middle of the Asian Economic Flu of 1997.

Therefore, GSI has been resilient at very start.

Next step we hurdled was to make an inventory of "What Good Things Have We Got". And we found many. Those were
good enough to set things moving and confront the crisis.

Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, months to years - grinding slowly at the start in mitigating the crisis until speed was achieved to comfortable do business with confidence.

Looking back, it was GSI's clear vision of the future as well its adherence towards honesty, integrity and hardwork that saved us from the black hole of failed business. Our clients, suppliers and partners did not turned their back on us.

As of today, GSI is still owned by us. No external fund was infused by banks, investors or financial insitutions.

Without COO/EVP Gemma Pelagio, CFO Annie Fabre, COB Hermes Dorado, Ambassador Encomienda, Engr Tato, and SBCorp "Failure is Not An Option" would have been rewinded to "Houston, We've Got a Problem".

To my fellow entrepreneurs and the SME space, I am looking forward to share with all you the details of this blog to assist you mitigate and adapt to business concerns and crisis.

Derecho Classical Guitar

2007-05-24T15:59:00.000+08:00

The ukelele was the earliest stringed instrument I ever played. I was influenced by my late uncle, Tito Ariste who played the harmonica as well the ukelele.

My love for the instruments grew during our visits to Arumahan, Lemery, Batangas in 1960s and 1970s. The magic of music is often heard from a neighbor and a relative across the street who played the banduria and guitar to the tunes of rondalla music.

At Manila Science, my parents bought a nylon stringed guitar (approximates that of a classical guitar) at Raon Street in Avenida Rizal. It played good music till my sophomore year at UP Diliman, later it was replaced by a good looking classical guitar.

Then in Brunei, I got a brand new Made in Japan Yamaha classical guitar from a local shop in Kuala Belait. It became a permanent member of the Kuala Belait Catholic Church choir. So every Sunday from 1981 to 1988, I played the guitar either for church choir, Filipino Community Cultural Presentation for the Sultan's Birthday - playing and singing "Anak" and jamming with Alan Smith who was an office mate at Brunei Shell.

The better guitar came into being when an expatriate from Brunei Shell sold his Aria Classical Guitar - that was a beautiful and sweet sounding guitar. My ignorance of guitar during that time made me miss to identify its specification like type of wood used. Sadly, I lost the guitar in Brunei in 1996 to a dishonest Filipino after sequestering it. At his most recent visit last April, Pg Redzuan planned to assist me locate the Filipino who is now working at Brunei Shell to recover the guitar.

So, for many years I missed playing a classical guitar until GSI bought one at Yamaha store in SM Megamall in 2001. Used by the member of GeoMinstrels, the GSI band, the classical guitar proved to be a reliable instrument. With some polishing and varnish work, it will easily beat those that are on display at JB Music store.

Searching for a quality classical guitar was my pre-occupation that started in the first quarter of 2005. While attending an IBM Forum in May 2005, I tested several guitars from Spain, Japan, Mexico and US at the Yamaha store at Plaza Singapura on Orchard Road, Singapore. Prices ranging from US$500 to $2000, I was not convinced of its value considering that the sound was exceptionally good.

One summer afternoon when I was searching for a classical guitar instructor at UP College of Music, I was introduced to Tabo Derecho, a luthier or guitar maker. He played his Derecho Guitar made in 2003 and I was impressed of its clear tone and presence. A week after, I met Tabo at my office and played his guitar. I owned it the next day and has been an occupant in my GSI office. With a new teacher, Eugene Apa, a son of a luthier, I have been discovering innovative ways to produce better tones and music.

For two years, my Derecho guitar has been continuously producing quality classical guitar music!

Programming The IBM 360

2007-05-23T19:46:00.000+08:00

On my junior year at UP College of Engineering at Diliman, one afternoon after collecting the book allowance from GE Scholarship fund at UP Admin building, I took a DM bus in front of the Oblation, got off at Raon and walked towards Claro M. Recto. There, on the strip between Avenida Rizal and FEU are second books for high and college students.

From a pile of second hand books mostly medicine titles, I chanced upon an easy to recognize title - it hase "IBM 360" on its spine. Excited, I pulled it out and browsed through its contents. Jackpot, it was one its kind in the Philippines - "Programming the IBM 360" by Clarence B. Germain, copyright 1967 and published by Prentice-Hall.

Lifting from the Preface, the books contains "As far as practical, the coverages of PL/I, COBOL, and Assembly Language are independent of each other so that the reader may omit topics at will. The book is written for 360 Models 25, 30, 40, 50, 65, 75 and 85."

Its maiden journey in the academic world was at my ES26 (Fortran Programming) class at UP Engg. The machine problems solution in Fortran IV are punched on 80-column IBM cards and processed on an IBM 360/40 of the UP Computer Center beside the chapel.

After which it has gone a long way. After UP, I used it to assemble lessons in teaching Basic Computer Systems (BCS) at Data Center in Avenida and also computer school of Vince Vargas and Dr. Paul Aquino. Teddy Tiu, my former champion at IBM now with AutoCad was one of my COBOL students at a special computer class from Dr. Aquino's office.

During an interview in January 1981 for a designer/programmer post at Brunei Shell, the book was an excellent material for the Programmer Aptitude Exam. Then in July 29, 1981 it was in a check-in box full of books on a PAL flight to Brunei Darussalam. For eight straight years, it stayed with we in several company houses in Panaga, Seria and W51/2, W21 Kuala Belait.

Today and forever, the book will now be part of the digital world - in my blog.

Biodiversity and Climate Change

2007-05-23T16:18:00.000+08:00

Today, I attended a Forum on "Biodiversity and Climate Change" held at the auditorium of the National Institute of Geological Sciences. It was conducted on the occasion of the 2007 International Day for Biodiversity. With me was Hermes Dorado, our Chairman of the Board.

We attended the forum as coping with climate change is one of GSI's corporate social responsibility pillars and a component of the company's Strategic Program named "Modernizing the Philippine Archipelagic State 2015".

Dr Ed Listanco, Director of NIGS opened the forum by situating climate change based on geological perspective and the anthropogenic cause of climate change.

A paper on "Climate Change and Biodiversity" written by Dr A.C. Alcala of SUAKCREM, Siliman University was distributed. The highlights of the paper are :

1. Climate Change is not a new Phenomenon

at the peak of the ice age 20,000 years ago, the sea levels was 100-120 meters lower than what it is now as large as volumes of water were held in ice
The earth slowly warmed resulting to rise of sea level. The present sea level was reached 6,000 years ago
The carbon dioxide concentrations fluctuated in past but the trend in rise has been dramatic during the period of 1900 to 2000 AD.

2. Natural Causes of Climate Change

continental drift
volcanic eruption
earth's tilt
comets and meteorites
ocean currents

2. Human-induced causes

use of fossil fuels
deforestation
human activities that increase production of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases

In less than 300 years since the industrial revolution, humans have burned a
large amount of oil, gas, and coal as source of energy. According to the
conclusion of climatologist, the primary reason for rapid changes in
temperature, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is human use of fossil
fuels.

3. Effects/Manifestations of Climate Change

Trapped heat from the sun and increased temperatures on ground and oceans
Heavy rainfalls in some areas and droughts in others
Glaciers melts and spring comes earlier
Rise in ocean levels and salt water intrusion into land
Changes in ocean circulation
Permanent stratification of ocean waters
Changes in weather patterns

4. Quantitative Measurements of Changes

Total global temperature change since 19th century is 0.6 degree C
CO2 concentration in atmosphere before industrial era (1750) was 280 ppm +/- ppm
CO2 concentration was 367 ppm in 1999, 377 ppm in 2004
280 ppm was exceeded during the past 420,000 yrs and not within the past 20 million years
Oceans absorb about 1/3 of human-induced CO2, uptake declines with absorption

5. Experts' Predictions/Conclusions

Possible rise in global temperature could be from 1.4 degrees C to 5.8 degrees C by 2100
Large climate related impacts predicted, for example, hurricanes and typhoons would increase in severity
End of Ice Age, the disappearance of Glacial Ice in the North Pole
It will take centuries for CO2 level to come down to the pre-industrial level of 280 ppm from the 377 ppm today
With more CO2 absorbed by oceans, efficiency of building calcium carbonate skeletons by marine organisms is lessened/prevented, thus could lead to extinctions

6. What are we to do?

Change energy consumption patterns
Increase sequestration of CO2 already in the atmosphere by implementing Kyoto Protocol, reforestation of denuded lands, protection of the 20,000 sq km coral reefs, restore 500,000 has of mangrove forests
Protect remaining forests
Adopt measures to increase soil storage of rain water
Conserve natural marshes
Avoid reclamation in coastal areas and building structures on reclaimed areas which are vulnerable to rising sea levels
Strenthen foundations of buildings in reclaimed areas to decrease risk to sea level rise and coastal erosion
I have attached a program showing the list of other speakers.
A plenary discussion followed and I asked two questions
1) Is CDM a priority strategy considering that the Philippines is not a major contributor to CO2 emission? Should we be more focused on adaptive measures to sea level rise?
2.) Considering that Philippines is an archipelago, should we now make an inventory of our islands before they are drowned by the sea level rise? Indonesia is doing it now before it is too late. Hermes mentioned the strategic importance of island inventory as it is the basis of the country's boundary lines.
Finally, a 14-point Forum Resolution was formulated which will be posted on pvpnetwork.net for comments. I look forward that we will all read the resolution and submit our own reviews and recommendations.

A Blog to More Blogs

2007-05-21T22:35:00.000+08:00

Last week, I finally reorganized my home blog MaSci to GSI to include those activities, issues and creative efforts I wish to share. Ryan, our Web designer, enhanced the home page and it is ready to go.

Dropping some of my interests such as carpentry, gift wrapping, frame making, etc, a final list was made:

1. TENNIS - Oh, without tennis my life as an entrepreneur would have been spent most of the time taking pills and resting in the hospital. Hitting a ball either cross-court forehand or inside out forehand is executed properly and consistently during practice. And it follows naturally during games.

There is something I wish to share with you - tennis sharpened my skill to make my competitor irrelevant and discipline to hit a winner!

2. PHOTOGRAPHY - Good photographs are made not taken. I am not referring to the use of image processing tools to create excellent shots nor making artists out of PhotoShop operators. Photography made by an artist needs creativity not software tools, imagination not experimentation and a great deal of abstraction not manipulation on PCs.

Visualization and photography assembles various components of a event effortlessly creating myriads of opportunities to arrive at a unique picture. It is similar to shooting a winning photo by capturing a fleeting moment.

3. POEMS. My users at Brunei Shell commented that I can paint a picture to describe a solution while my parents used to advice me to be more direct to explain something. That's how I learned to write poems - explaining in words to basic minimum. Hmm, that does not compute!

4. eGOVERNMENT - Developing several information technology solutions for the government gave me an opportunity to explain why the Philippines missed the boat unlike IT leaders such as India, Singapore and Vietnam who are now riding high.

Moving forward, let us have leaders and champions to act as conductors, enterprise architecture not information strategic systems plan to serve as music sheet, knowledge experts not bureaucrats to perform as musicians and we have a symphony called eGovernment.

If and only if (the usual Geometry iff) a harmonious, normalized, and focused egovernment team rides the boat (no lawyers, zero kibitzers and politicians), "this nation can be great again".

5. THE DISCIPLINE TO LEARN - Bad news - fewer people are reading, students are not performing well is aptitude exams. Good news - lesser TV viewing, more reading, minimize computer games and Nintendo, more creative efforts to make your own toys than plastic Toy Kingdom stuffs, engage in competitive sports, play a musical instruments are the ingredients for success as a student and entrepreneur.

The Discipline To Learn are for parents, brother and sisters, tutors, house helps, teachers, DepED, guardians, principals, out of school youth, school administrators, UPCAT reviewers, board examinees... and many more.

Eleonor Roosevelt said, "The world belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." Dream that we will build a community of happy students and entrepreneurs.

Finally, we will say to each other, "Success belongs to those who are disciplined to learn."

The Great Leap For IBM

2007-05-21T22:07:00.000+08:00

As a company, our second most important innovation was a major shift to IBM technology, ie, the five pillars and Linux. The "creative destruction" happened in a blink. And the following blog item described how a brave maneuver was executed.

A Comment To Buell Duncan's Blog

Trackback URL: http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/trackback/Buell/Weblog/vb_developers_embrace_linux_say

Dear Buell,

As the leader of GeoSpatial Solutions, Inc or GSI (www.gsi.com.ph), I have a wonderful experience to share about Java and Linux.

Prior to joining the IBM ISV program in September 2003, GSI is a 100% Microsoft shop for six years. Our SI projects were developed primarily in VB and .Net. In that that period of time our company did not grow.

Overnight, upon signing the ISVA contract, GSI was transformed to a 100% IBM based solutions provider. But there were many challenges in that shift. These were: fear of the transition to a new platform, lack of confidence to market and sell IBM based solution, and uncertainty of generating business.

With those mother of all challenges, GSI got over the hill. How - IBM assisted GSI. It changed the GSI business model, i.e., from delivering SI solutions to deploying repeatable solutions, introduced the SSM to monitor opportunities and sales, provided joint sales and marketing initiatives, and joined in solutions architecting activities.

Now,we have strategic wins and created many applications using IBM technology, Java and open source. GSI is deploying PRC LERIS, eMindanao Portal, eCREBA Portal, and eNTC Portal. All those applications are developed using the IBM Five SW Brands, eServer, Java and Linux.

From zero growth during the 6-year Microsoft era, GSI grew 5x in one year and 10 months of being an IBM partner.And still growing. Out of the eCREBA portal, a fulfillment company is formed - CGI (CREBA-GSI Inc). CGI is 50% owned by GSI. (For your information, GSI is NOT anymore a partner to CGI.)

GSI is completing a MOA with a major bank in the Philippines. The partnership aims at providing an On Demand GIS service, a component of eCREBA. For 2005, GSI envisions to start portal and GIS projects for the energy, environment and banking sectors.

After attending the IBM PartnerWorld Conference at Las Vegas last February 2005, I bought an interesting frame in New York which says : "JAVA - Give me enough coffee and I will rule the world". It seems that's a lot of IT leaders drinking coffee!

Regards,

Efren E.S. Ricalde
President/CEOGeoSpatial Solutions, Inc
www.gsi.com.ph
Posted by eericalde on Aug 18 2005, 05:19:00 AM EDT

Reply from Buell Duncan

efren, thanks so much for taking the time to share your experience. our goal is straightforward...ensure this mutual success between geospatial and ibm continues to grow and for the long term!! you are a great example of taking advantage of real shifts in the market and what can be accomplished when we work together.
Posted by Buell Duncan on Aug 19 2005, 10:48:00 AM EDT

http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/Buell?entry=vb_developers_embrace_linux_say

Tennis Then and Now

2007-05-15T16:25:00.000+08:00

On the playground of the MaSci (Manila Science High School) is where I had the first glimpse of tennis right on the courts of Philippine Columbian.

Thirty-nine years ago, I wouldn't miss tennis at MaSci. The usual 7AM flag ceremony is conducted on the playground beside the tennis courts. So as we were singing the national anthem, the tennis match was suspended as players at the other side of the fence stood still to finish the anthem. Never did I dream that I would be involved in the sports of tennis.

Four years later, our IV-Einstein senior class homeroom was located at the second floor of the Bordner Building. That time I had a vantage view of the tennis courts. After my bag is settled on my designated seat, the window on the northern part of the room was the usual hangout to watch tennis. Players were all in white attire and used wooden rackets. Sometimes a ball or two flew over the fence to the grassy patch of the playground. Those became marked balls and were used for softball games if the sports equipment room was locked.

Volleyball and pingpong were the popular sports in MaSci. Occasionally there were softball and basketball. Rizal Memorial Stadium, a jeepney ride away from the school not tennis was a usual hang-out to watch softball games, not tennis.

In May 1971, MaSci was slowly fading away after graduation so was tennis.

Then I bought Shine, my first tennis racket at a Raon sports shop. Head, Wilson and other brands were quite expensive. During Saturdays, An office mate, Ed Mateo and myself had our Tennis 101 drills at the rooftop of EEI building at E. Rodriguez Ave now C5. In 1979, I finally landed on a tennis court at Rizal Racket Club in Pasig using a red Head racket. Occupying the 12 to 1pm slot, we literally owned the courts.

Serious tennis started in Brunei in August 1981, my first month in Brunei Shell Petroleum. Oh, I had the luxury to play in two clubs, BSRC (Brunei Shell Recreation Club) and Panaga Club. My gear consisted of a Spalding racket and Puma rubber shoes. Game schedules were 5PM to 9pm almost everyday including weekends. With the absence of a professional trainor, our ground strokes, volleys and serves were not polished. But game after game of tennis made my stay in Brunei most enjoyable.

Going back to the Philippines, Meralco Tennis Club, became my home court. Jimmy Ledesma, a class A player with excellent ground strokes, was my first professional trainor. Since 1994 I have been playing tennis with Jimmy. And tennis I did learn.

Since 2003, Onay Cruz has been my trainor. A faulty forehand and weak backhand were corrected and improved. Now, I enjoyed every stroke and every game of tennis.

Playing tennis was not about a mighty forehand nor a powerful serve. The game is built around the players's ability to focus, patience to practice, quick mind to make decisions and anticipation to hit the ball early.

Tennis being a great sport, built my resilience to deal with very demanding and stressful business environment.

Here's a challenge, play tennis and learn to focus. Enjoy!

Ali Baba And The Six Thieves

2007-05-11T19:08:00.000+08:00

Speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil. In grade one was where I learned that quotation from my teacher and former principal, Miss Honesta Cruz of Rafael Palma Elementary school.

Forty three years later, though I did not speak evil, however I heared evil and saw evil. And the evil was a of bunch of thieves right inside our office. With apologies to Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves for the thirty four unaccounted thieves.

That in broad daylight, these gift bearing thieves in business suit and barong tagalog attacked by gaining our trust and confidence with sweet tounge, little intelligence and slight of a hand.

With a swift scoop, they stole a lot! Our savings, work, allowance for our children, money for a new car, vision, our sweat, early retirement, a white "genius" elephant and our dreams were lost drying our eyes of its tears and tearing our hearts apart.

But before that happened, I had warned my folks that "I thought I saw a thief" and I named them all. If it were not for the two knights in shining armour in rescue, the thieves would have cleaned everything including our honesty and integrity. What a sigh of relief when a fortress and moat was built by the knight in golden armor and a phalanx of spears from the knight in platinum armour were mounted. We are secured.

But thieves beware.

Sometime in1983, a bully neighbor turned thief was knifed dead on a basketball court two decades after he stole my wooden gun toys. That time, being so poor my parents could not afford to buy a toy so I have to make one out of scrap wood. He got my toys but not justice even though the killing was witnessed by everybody watching the game.

Working in Brunei at about mid-1996, a similar bunch of thieves attacked me and my close friend, Pg Redzuan. Months later, the car bearing the thieves met a horrific road accident. The car was total wreck as it was sliced into two. A tragedy struck the thieves like a lightning bolt felling a tree in two pieces.

And what would probably happen now that we lost a million times that of Brunei? Well, maybe a bunch of thieves turned to a heap of dust on a basketbal court or ionized in the middle of the road.

De ja vu?

A Man Of Exceptional Intelligence and Integrity

2007-05-11T11:47:00.000+08:00

We could not imagine what GSI is today without the opportunity given to us by Gabriel Leiva because GSI could have been a vanishing dot on a radar screen just like a crashing jet plane.

Sometime in the first quarter of 1999, as we were in middle of a negotiation for the PhP 22M contract to develop a computer system, I was called by Gabriel in his office. Without hesitation, he asked, "Do you have any enemies in the industry?". "No!", was my immediate reply and explained that GSI was just 10 months in existence and we are not even known in the industry.

He was referring to an email sent by a company engaged in... (my lips are sealed). As quickly as he retrieved the email, its content was read to me. It seemed that the sky has fallen flat on my head when I heard the company was advising Gabriel not to sign the contract with GSI. He continued to read the email, "(Efren) will sell the company, not finish the project and ran away with the money".

Seeing that the color of my face changed from red to pale white and outspoken to speechless, Gabriel stood up and exclaimed, "Do you think I will not sign the contract. Don't I trust you?" Still motionless from the shock of the email, I replied, "Please, give us this opportunity and we will deliver".

Knowing the email sender, I was scared to death that they will strike again to win a contract fraudulently. The persons mentioned in the email were known in the industry to rig bids and corrupt public officials. But common good prevailed. The dark clouds of greed and deception were all wiped out by Gabriel's single stroke of honesty and integrity.

All negotiations were done at UNISYS office in Makati. Several technical discussions with key UNISYS guys, Vic Monroy and Ernie Del Rosario, were conducted professionally. Prior to any technical proposal evaluation and contract negotiation, we never had coffee, lunch or dinner with any UNISYS officer or staff. Maybe, GSI then has no budget for marketing!

After probably about 20 revisions of the contract , a final agreement was reached and a version for signature was circulated. That was the big break that made GSI.

Looking back it was the triumph good over evil, prayer brigades over corrupt corporate giants and David over Goliath.

Since the project contract was signed, deliverables completed and GSI fully paid, I can tell the whole world that Gabriel, during his entire stay at UNISYS, was such a man of honesty and integrity. Even in my next lives, I would not probably be able to pay back the value that he has created for GSI and for our country.

A straight "A" Peruvian/Canadian student with PhD in naval engineering from Germany, Gabriel Leiva is best remembered when said "The fun has just begun." each time I shared with him a successful milestone. So, for each passing year, it was "Not good enough", so he said. During his stay in the Philippines, I had several tennis games with his beautiful and intelligent wife Jocelene, a French with MA in Germany. She was an excellent singles player.

After his tour of duty at UNISYS Philippines, he moved to UNISYS Mexico and now settled back in Canada.

Viva Gabriel! Mabuhay ka!

(Years later, the same company influenced and manipulated the result of a bidding conducted by a government agency. With letters and meetings protesting the outcome of the bid, the agency declared a failed bid. But the company managed to do the job indirectly with another government agency. Hmm, the usual birds of the same feathers corrupt together.)

Wanted - Public Servant

2007-05-08T13:42:00.000+08:00

Found, a public servant. My father, Ric (as he was called by his office mates, I call him Tatay) was a public servant. For over 30 years years, he served the government.

While studying to earn a degree in accountancy at FEU, Tatay worked briefly at the Bureau of Lands as a rod man, moved on and stayed until retirement at the Insurance Commission. IC was previously at Escolta. On several visits to the office, Tatay allowed me to walk the floors. There were no aircons but ceiling electric fans, no PCs (obviously) but massive typewriters.

Tatay's payday was on a Friday. So, at around 5:30PM our brother and sisters were all sitting outside the house waiting for him to walk from the bus stop at Camagong Street, just 2 blocks across our house. We all jumped with joy whenever we saw a small manila paper bag as we eagerly welcomed him by the small bridge across the three foot open canal. Soon, we were feasting on pansit (noodles) bought from Plaza Miranda or bibingka from UN Avenue.

While serving the government, Tatay lived a simple life and sustained the family financial needs of 8 children with his salary and Nanay's (mother) income from her small sari-sari store.

Today, some of those who occupied similar position as my Tatay have several houses and cars. Some were even suspended and investigated of corruption by the Ombudsman. He retired from IC without experiencing the benefit of owning a car even an owner type jeep. He built a house in Makati using the proceeds from the sale of a property in Better Living subdivision. Food on the table was not plentiful during the construction period. The house was finished in 10 years after five phases of construction.

Developing IT systems for the government since 1999, I encountered government servants like my father. Some were not.

A proud son of a government employee, I detest corruption and all forms of dishonesty because I knew that hard work and integrity spell success and happiness.

Wanted : Public Servant. Any more taker? Me!

Victor Arellano, The Victor

2007-05-07T19:06:00.000+08:00

Lolo Tibo, my grandfather from mother side came from As-is, Bauan, Batangas. The Batanguenos from As-is were known for hard work, honesty and entrepreneurship.

Most of the sidewalk vendors selling eyeglasses and other stuff on collapsible shelves along the stretch of Rizal Avenue, particularly the span between Carriedo and Raon streets, were from As-is. As I walked along Avenida Rizal to buy science pocket books from Alemars Bookstore in the late 60's, I often passed by Ka Juaning, one of the vendors.

Victor Arellano, one of Lolo Tibo's nieces, exemplified not only an ideal "ala-e" but a very successful professional of As-Is. His father, Lolo Tino, was a puto-kutsinta vendor and a stevedore at the Manila pier. When we were in living San Andres St, I remembered buying puto from Lolo Tino. His booming voice signalled his presence in our duplex house at La Paz, Makati. And hours and hours of listening to his stories of hard work and love for his children consumed most of my day when he was around.

While Lolo Tino was working in Manila, his son Victor was a very conscientious student studying in Batangas to become a teacher. And he became one. The last time I visited him, he was completing his PhD.

Victor visited our house each time he was in Manila. No matter what the schedule was, he ensured to have a session with my father, Ka Iking. He confided to me that Ka Iking was his advisor. That explained their lengthy meetings as I sat beside them during my elementary and high school years.

Today, Victor is a manager of the Port Services Division, Philippine Port Authority, PMO Batangas at Port of Batangas. A victor serving the government is a man of intelligence, honesty and hard work. A Victor to many victors. Our country needs more Lolo Tino and Victor!

Spatial Intelligence for Competitive Advantage

2007-05-07T15:32:00.000+08:00

Frederick the Great, a renowned Prussian general, cited the importance of foreknowledge in his quotation - "It is pardonable to be defeated than to be surprised". With the ubiquitous information and communication technology solutions, it is easier to gather intelligence and leverage intelligence for better performance and global competitiveness.

Technology affects competitive advantage if it has a significant role in determining relative cost position or differentiation. In his book “Competitive Advantage”, Porter identifies that a “firm than can discover better technology for performing an activity than its competitor thus gains competitive advantage.”

Geographic Information System or GIS is one of the technologies. GIS is a computerized database management system for capturing, storing, analysis, and displaying of spatial (locationally defined) data. Its primary function is to store, access, analyse and visualize spatial data thereby creating information to spatial intelligence.

Spatial intelligence provides direct benefits to businesses as a result of improved use of data for operational, management, and planning functions as well as synergy effects resulting from improved data integration, both for data internal and external to the enterprise itself.

Changing our paradigm to maintain competitive advantage in providing quality solutions to our customers is a logical stage in this business transformation process.

Good Governance and Computerization Go Together

2007-05-04T18:59:00.000+08:00

In October 2006, I visited Korea to attend "e-Covernment Experience & G2G Collaborative Program" forum sponsored by the Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency (KIPA).

Aside from technical presentations, we also visited the City of Gangnam where its e-government solutions were shown to the participants. Seeing almost a paperless transaction processing of city services through information kiosks, I was awed by the city government's commitment to serve its constituencies.

Looking back in January 2001, I talk about "Transforming LGU to eLGU" in a conference on Best Practices on Local Governance at the University of Asia and the Pacific at Pasig City. Six years has passed and the transformation has barely moved forward. Citing the e-government brochure of Gangnam, "A Progressive City Making the Dream Come True", our eLGU roadmap needs to be revisited to come up with an architecture and deployment strategy based on best practices from our ASEAN neighbors.

Moving on and working with new partners from USA, Japan and Korea, GSI aims to pursue the development of eLGU solutions immediately after the May 14 election.

Thus, we are looking forward to write a sequel to an article published in the The Nation Today about a conference on "Best Practices On Local Governance" :

“Good Governance and Computerization Go Together”

In this computer age, many offices, even in the local government units (LGU’s), are trying to have their operations computerized not only to speed up their operations, but also to organize and to bring in more revenues.

However, bringing in technology to the LGUs in the “new economy” is not enough. The LGUs must have a “solutions framework” to be successful e-LGU ( electronic LGU), said Efren Ricalde, chief operating officer of GeoSpatial Solutions, in his speech” Transforming LGU to e-LGU” in the forum on “ Best Practices on local Governance” held recently at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) in Pasig city. The forum was sponsored by Geospatial, a geographic information system, and the UA&P.

He stressed that among the most important aspects of computerization is educating the employees. ‘If the people concerned, or the LGU employees, are not given education on the merits of computerization, they will not see the need in implementing the project, and render it a failure,” he told TODAY.

He said that an employee can just pull the plug of a computer being used for the issuance of licenses and continue with graft practices if the employee is not enlightened on the need for computerization.
At the same time, Ricalde said that computerization aids in good governance because the LGU can efficiently deliver its services to the people.

He stressed that the benefits the LGUs can derive from computerization are endless, among which are increased operation efficiency, higher customer service level, and the capability to rapidly, deploy new technologies, services and business.

The LGU functions from the regional to provincial down to the barangay level can be accessed electronically by the residents. These include the revenue generating functions such as the treasury, business permit and licensing, real property and tax administration, public transport and public market administration.

The regulatory systems can also be linked electronically, such as the tax mapping and zoning , police and crime information, and engineering operations. The same with the administrative support, such as the health services and civil registry, and resource management. (The Nation Today, March 21, 2001, L.Resureccion)

Visualization in Alpha State

2007-05-04T18:04:00.001+08:00

In January 1989, I was one of the students of Jimmy Licauco in "Silva Mind Control". Doing a lot of photography in Brunei, I got interested in Silva Mind Control because it was about creativity and visualization. Two of my classmates were Mike Relon Makiling and Maryo De Los Reyes.

Our final "exam" was to vizualize three events, places or people which were sensed from three of our classmates. Going back from aplha state after a long process, my classmates read their notes of what I described during the visualization process. They were all very excited when I vividly described three subjects :

A relative suffering from epilepsy. I described him falling to ground in several places
A relative staying Australia. The documented description showed the row houses and the cold temperature where the relative stayed
A squatter house. I vividly described a very cramped room with one incandescent lamp located in a chaotic neighborhood

With the 3 out of 3 hits, I was elected president of the class.

Towards the end the class, I met Tito de Jesus, a dream analyst and a radio boradcaster ,was one of our facilitators. One hot summer day, I got a call asking for an assistance to locate a church worker, Julius Caesar Falcone, gone missing after sailing out to the sea. T

The next day, Tito with two nuns who worked in the parish as Julius helped me go aplha state to processed the scene. And they documented what I "saw" during the visualization process. Here's what they wrote:

Transcriptions from the conversations with Tito de Jesus as related to him by Efren Ricalde while in alpha state on April 11, 1990, between 4:00 p.m to 6:00 p.m.

The following scenarios are not in sequence:

Julius is seen wearing a bracelet, flesh colored.
His silver-steel watch records on his arms at 9:00 a.m time. He wears a blue t-shirt with apiece of cloth tied to a part of his body.
A small banca is floating with an old blue rope tied at its tail . A small island is seen with a statue, and this statue grows bigger and bigger.
In a small island, seated on a rock are two men, one holding a black bag, looks like Julius. Somewhere in the island there is small house burning.
A recurring scene is Julius bubbling water with head alternating up and down, for quite sometime.
Efren felt a great pain in the chest, and then a pain in the throat. This was the most difficult part of the process. He was feeling very weak and Tito had to energize Efren to continue with his journey.
A white object is seen floating on the sea. This scene appeared earlier in the process. Efren mentioned he could not bear to look straight into this object. However, this scene replayed again. During the sharing, when Tito asked Efren could it be that this white object is Julius and that’s why he could not look at it straight, Efren answered yes, but he was afraid to look at it.
Efren sees himself together with Tito looking up to the sky and sees a hole, a small one. Suddenly Julius’ face with smiles peeps through this hole. Then he disappears. The hole becomes bigger and bigger, showing a very beautiful scenery that Efren could not describe and wish to take a picture of it, and names it “paradise”. After some time, Efren looks up and sees the sky and the clouds.
A high white wall. On it is written with Julius’ own handwriting this word “Goodbye!” , underlined, in a slanting position with a blue color. This scene of Goodbye appears twice.
Consistently, a hand was seen with a rosary extended over to Efren, this was seen many times. Efren had to go to Quiapo church to locate at a certain place where a rosary similar to what was seen could be found. The scene in Church was detailed. The rosary was colored green with silver, inside a whole bundle of rosaries on the right side of the altar, with novena prayer books below it, flowers beside, and a woman nearby.
The floating white object was seen in the Cebu-Manila navigation line in the open seas. (cf. marks on drawing)
Julius wearing a cassock, is preaching in a small chapel, where there are many children, in the island.
There is a small chapel with a cross on top of it. There are six rows of chairs, on the far right Julius is seated.
Seemingly strange as Efren expressed, is the alternating position of Julius being on and down the water surface

The nuns confirmed the existence of steel watch, bracelet, small banca, small island, and the church. They shared with me a chilling revelation that when I got out of the alpha state our dogs were suddenly howling in fright. It was the first that I felt very exhausted after a visualization.

Since then, I never did a similar process.

Relevant Quotations for Election 2007 at PSIA

2007-05-04T16:55:00.000+08:00

During the 2nd General Membership Meeting (GMM) of the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA), held last April 24, 2007 at the Philippine Intercontinental Hotel in Makati, Dina Salonga, chairperson of the Membership Committee assigned me as the programme emcee.

It was a really a challenge to be the emcee on that day as the keynote speaker was Prof. Winnie Monsod. Mareng Winnie, is a renowned economist and media personality. With the coming election in May 14, she talked about the economy, polity and a bright future ahead of us.

For an ice-breaker, I opened the session in saying that it is a unique GMM because software business will not be discussed but politics. So, I said -

Tonight we will discuss about Plato who described everyone of us. He said, "Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber."

Towards the end of reading Prof Monsod's resume, I finally called on her. I said -

Fellow officers and members of PSIA, let me quote Charles De Gaulle : "I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians." Allow me please to call on Prof. Winnie Monsod, the best person to talk about politics than any politician.

Here are the other quotations I ad-libed in the meeting :

"The problem with political jokes is they get elected." Henry Cate VII
"Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity." Albert Einstein
"Nothing is so admirable in politics as as short memory." John Kenneth Galbraith

So on the next PSIA GMM on May 21, we will see more jesters elected and brilliant minds punished.

A Business Quotation from Thomas Watson, Sr

2007-05-04T15:36:00.000+08:00

Returning back to the Philippines from an eight-year stay at Brunei Shell Petroleum in August 1988, there was an immediate need to acclimatize myself to the new business environment and establish a network. Reading an advertisement from a local newspaper of a seminar at Meralco Foundation, I immediately visited its office to get and submit an application form.

The seminar, "Problem Analysis and Decision Making" was held on September 13 - 17, 1988 at Green Valley Country Club, Baguio City. Exposed mainly on software and hardware subjects, the training gave me a new insight in looking at new knowledge and opportunities especially in business.

On the very first day of the seminar, I was surprised that a former classmate from UP College of Engineering in Diliman, Gilbert Azagra, was one of the trainors! He put me on the spot when he introduced my name and said : "my classmate and seatmate at UP Engg whom I ask some help during exams." Gilbert, still with Meralco, took Industrial Engineering while I did Geodetic Engineering.

As the seminar materials where distributed by Gilbert, he opened up the session by sharing a quotation of Thomas Watson, Sr. - "You cannot be a success in business without believing that it is the greatest business in the world. You have to put your heart in the business and business in your heart."

Since then the quotation stayed in my heart. Ten years later, I read it again to myself, and put it into use when GeoSpatial Solutions hit the road as a start-up company.

Life of Science - Speech at MaSci 40th Graduation Rites

2007-04-27T18:01:00.001+08:00

Kabataang Manileno, Kaisa
40th Commencement Exercises
Manila Science High School
April 8, 2003

LIFE OF SCIENCE

Efren E.S. Ricalde, Batch '71
President/CEO,
GeoSpatial Solutions Inc.

So much water has passed under the bridge since the day I was privileged to wear the MaSci graduation cap. But time has not dulled my memory of that special day. And that is how it should be.

Listening to another graduation speaker many years ago, I felt privileged and proud. Privileged because I was educated in a special school and proud because such an education was made possible despite my humble background, intellect and hard work. Since that special day, I have been back to MaSci many times and have reminisced with my classmates about our happy days here.

I hope that you too will have fond memories of your days here in our Alma Mater. I was therefore touched when I was invited to deliver the commencement speech with the theme “Sa Matatag sa Republika, Kabataang Manileño, Kaisa.” I want to connect this theme to “The Life of Science” and I hope that the Matatag na Republika will be based, not on the Filipino culture, but on the culture of science.

What is the life of science? The physicist Lise Meitner wrote in old age, looking back: “I believe all young people think about how they would like their lives to develop; when I did so I always arrived at the conclusion that life need not be easy, provided only that it was not empty. And this wish I have been granted.”

I wholeheartedly embrace this view. The life of science is not easy but it is also not empty. Meitner had to flee from her native Austria and from the Nazis so as to remain free as a human and as a physicist. But as always, freedom has a price; for Meitner, the price was probably the Nobel Prize. In the Philippines and other Third World nations, students of science scientists also have to flee -- not from a totalitarian regime but from a culture that is indifferent to science.

Filipino culture and the culture of science are incompatible. Filipino cultural values - puwede na, bahala na, ningas-kugon, palakasan, palusot, “who you know and not what you know,” transparency and corruption are the antithesis of the cultural values of science-accuracy and precision, patience, persistence, fairness, transparency and integrity. Sadly, Filipino culture is a culture of mediocrity and science is a culture of excellence. In the Filipinos’ hierarchy of values, trapo and trapos which embody the Filipino culture of mediocrity is at the top while science and scientists which embody the scientific culture of excellence is near the bottom.

Notwithstanding this bleak reality, I remain optimistic. I have faith in the positive resilience of the Filipino youth. By resilience, I do not mean the negative kind - that of the pliant bamboo permanently and forever bowing before the wind. Conventional Filipino thinking interprets the resilience of the bamboo as a positive and commendable Filipino trait but in fact such negative resilience is defeatist and fatalistic and is part of the Filipino culture of mediocrity. By resilience, I learn the positive kind -- the resilience to stand tall and steadfast and to transcend the limitations of Filipino culture. It is the resilience necessary to endure and then to overcome the Filipino cultural obstacles of puwede na, bahala na, ningas-kugon, manana habit, palusot and other negative traits.

This then is my question and challenge to you as you look forward to your career and to the future: Do you have what it takes to live a full life and to transcend the limitations of Filipino culture?

This question and challenge is of fundamental and profound importance to me. I am convinced that Filipinos exist in a cultural prison. All the fundamental and destabilizing problems that the Philippines face today can be traced to an intrinsically wrong set of cultural values. As one prominent writer said: “Filipino culture is a damaged culture.”

In contrast to my bleak cultural assessment, I am utterly convinced that if the basis is only intellect, then the Philippines’ future is bright and promising. I believe that the Filipino youth is intellectual, able and talented and you the graduating class is a tangible proof of this.

Having looked and examined the intertwined issues of science, culture and intellect - what can we conclude that is meaningful and relevant to you, the graduating class and to our nation?

It is this: we Filipinos have allowed our dysfunctional culture to dominate our innate intellectual talents. This has resulted in severe fundamental problems for the Philippines and in a climate and environment that is indifferent and not conducive to science and intellectual pursuits. Filipinos are forced to leave the country in order to exercise their intellectual talents in more conducive and hospitable environments. Trapos, probably is the group that find the current situation in the Philippines most attractive.

So what is it that we must do to make a difference to our country and to our individual selves? We must individually and collectively end the domination by culture of the intellect and science and then reverse the process. Intellect and science must dominate Filipino culture. Trapo is an easy and empty life. Science is a hard and full life. And as Einstein said: Politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.

Class of 2003 of the Manila Science High School, I wish you full lives.
Congratulations and Thank you.

The MaSci Students : Agents of Change

2007-04-27T15:29:00.000+08:00

MSHS 38th Recognition Day Speech
22 March 2001
Theme : “ Manileño : Onward to a Meaningful Transformation”

Manila Science High School
Padre Faura Corner Taft Avenue

The MaSci Students : Agents of Change

Efren E.S Ricalde, '71
GeoSpatial Solutions
President/CEO

Introduction

Thirty years ago, when I was a graduating senior student, we were fans of the Beatles. We danced to the rock and roll music of the fabled ‘70s. Taft Avenue was dotted with trees; we played softball, volleyball and the banduria. Coke was 15 centavos and Sarsi, 10 centavos. Needing a new attire for the graduation, I sold my book “College Physics” by Weber, Maning and White at Recto to buy a Hickok belt. Being one of the poor students, my parents can not afford to buy a new one.

Since freshman, I was Einstein’s avid follower. What coincidence that at my senior year, I belonged to IV-Einstein, the honor section. I bought books on relativity and attended Professor Joe Valenzuela’s lectures at UP Diliman. One limerick I recalled was about time dilation in a relativistic travel :

“There was a lady named Bright who traveled much faster that light. One day she left out of sight and came back the previous night”.

Reading mostly Einstein’s contribution to science, I didn’t realize Einstein’s profound influence not only to theoretical physics but more important to our day-to-day experience as science students and alumni when I read the following quotations:

“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love”:
“If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.”

And there is humor in his definition of relativity:

“A man sits with a pretty girl for an hour and it seems shorter than a minute. But tell that same man to sit on a hot stove for a minute, it is longer than any hour. That’s relativity.”

Finally, Einstein couched us :

“Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and the profit of the community to which you later work belongs.”

Enough with Einstein, allow we then to share with you my experience in relation to our theme tonight “Manileño: Onward to a Meaningful Transformation”. On which I would like to suggest a sub-theme “MaSci Students – Agents of Change”.

Transformation to the New Economy

The wind of change is howling vigorously. The ubiquitous Web and Internet technologies tremendously transformed the way we do our daily activities, school works and businesses too. Indeed, this change created a paradigm shift – the transformation from the Old Economy characterized by industrialization to the New Economy of knowledge based industries.

Those who resisted by ignoring the pervasiveness of the Web and customer empowered Internet systems were “amazooned” and doomed to fail. In this paradigm shift, the science and technology entrepreneurs played a major role in the creation of an enterprise, and emerged winners.

Who are the winners? “The battle for supremacy in personal computers is over, and few will survive,” published in BusinessWeek in 1983. “The winner is IBM”. Computer guru Esther Dyson advised entrepreneurs of small computer companies to go instead to the restaurant business. However, a young Texan, named Michael Dell, a college student at the University of Texas in Austin, didn’t know enough to be frightened off. With his $1000 savings, he started selling computers out of his college dorm at the age of 18.

Ten years later, in 1993, IBM lost $4.97 billion, the biggest loss in American corporate history. Job eliminations rose to 100,000 in December 1993.

Who were the wild dogs that brought down the poor, old, arthritic, and misshapen IBM? Dell Computer for one. Dell has learned how to talk to its customers, while IBM talked to itself. With July 2000 revenue of $15B, Dell is still leading the pack.

What did we learn as a MaSci student?

Albert Einstein, Time Magazine Man of the Century said, “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”.

As MaSci students, that is exactly what we learned – being keen in identifying opportunities in our classrooms, homes and communities. Without us knowing it, we all developed the sense of science and technology entrepreneurship. We have sharpened our saws to have competitive advantage from among the high school students being recognized in the Philippines for the year 2001.

So, you are the science and technology entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur is best described by Kent, Sexton and Vesper in the Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship:

They said that “Humanity’s progress from caves to campuses has been explained in numerous ways. But central to virtually to all of these theories has been the role of the ‘agent of change’ the force that initiates and implements material progress. Today, we recognize that the agent of change in human history has been and most likely will continue to be entrepreneur.”

What is our success cookbook?

As science and technology entrepreneurs and agents of change, what is our success cookbook? Oliver Clayton, in his book “Planning a Career as a Business Owner”, wrote that an entrepreneur should be aggressive, competitive, goal-oriented, confident, decisive, an achiever very early in life, a loner in your final decision, persistent, an optimist (to an extreme), hyperactive mentally, a dreamer, a calculated risk-taker, a perfectionist and intuitive.

And where do we go from here?

We have the best domain knowledge derived at MaSci. So are our academic values and competitive culture. We are ready to go.

But how we do sustain the goals, dreams and aspirations in a transformed environment? What barriers shall we construct to arrest the marauding forces of fierce competition and globalization? What walls do we build to protect us from exploitation, environmental degradation, commercialization and social decadence?

There is no better effort than reinventing our mind set :

Being a leader is one. “Leadership is the ability to get other people to do what they want to do, and like it.” said Harry Truman. In the New Economy the first comer succeeds. They eventually became leaders. These leaders are trustworthy, honest and competent.

Being a creative student is another. Julia Cameron said “Leap and the net will appear”. As students and science and technology entrepreneurs, we must now see beyond the walls of our building. I challenge all you to make a big stride and leap to your dreams. That’s creativity.

Being a believer of the Divine Creator is paramount. With God, everything is possible.

Finally, we will always win

And that is because of the MaSci students’ passion to create and innovate. Beyond our academic undertakings and successes are us – The Science and Technology Entrepreneurs. We may start small but dream big. According to Demosthenes, “we see small opportunities that are often the beginning of great enterprise.”

To our beloved teachers, school administrators and staff who crafted this sea of brilliant MaSci graduates, we thank you all for giving me the opportunity to share with that wonderful experience of being a proud MaSci alumni.

With all due respect, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my teacher Mrs. Concepcion for believing in my dreams.

Mabuhay Kayong Lahat!

Thank you.

Allan M. Wood - An Extraordinary Supervisor

2006-10-04T15:25:00.000+08:00

AMW, a Scot, always reported for work earlier than me. If it could have been a tennis tournment, he would have gotten all the Grand Slam.

At 10 minutes before seven in the morning, I was seated on my desk almost infront of AMW who was busy scribbling on his notepad. Having an open space arrangement, we have a 360 degrees view of the department as the staff of FIC/7 reported for work one by one.

A notepad supervisor, that is how I would describe him. Every morning, sensing that I am seated, he would raise his face from a stationery position and smile at me. With his notepad marked AMW FIC7 on his right hand, he walked to my desk and sat on my visitor's chair.

Business as usual, he started recalling the activities we had yesterday with the users from Petroleum Geology (DPG)and scribbled my things to do for the day. With about three bullet points of things to do, he demonstrated his exceptional skill of remembering user requirements by discussing the details of the tasks.

A very inspiring supervisor with happy disposition, I was motivated to excel in my work.

The notepad worked, the following year I got the maximum increment of six percent. Without wasting any minute, I was on the phone talking to my father at his office at the Insurance Commission informing him that I was one of the top performer at FIC7.

Work at Brunei Shell ended at 4PM. With Panaga Club and Brunei Shell Recreation Club, most of my officemates played golf, tennis, squash to name a few sports and activities. Before a game of tennis, a two-kilometer of jogging along the beach fron of Panaga kept me ready for my opponent usually a British or Dutch guy.

With a dog leash and not a notepad on his hand, AMW and his wife was also running along the beach. Aside from running, golf and squash were what kept him very fit.

Then, a FIC memo was circulated. A few minutes before the end of work, I stood in front of his desk and inquired about the contents of the memo. Without referring directly to the memo, he said that it is about time for him face other challenges.

Most mornings, the notepad session went on and on until he was finally posted to Shell UK.

A few days before AMW left Brunei, he shared a piece of advice on how to prepare for life after Brunei Shell. Vividly I could remember when he said -"be very flexible and be a generalist".

About two decades have passed since we last shook our hands together. After unsuccessful attempts to obtain his email address from web searches, I hope this blog could reach him soonest.

Oh, 'soonest' is one of his favorite words.

The Day Gabs Was Born

2006-10-04T05:53:00.000+08:00

Gabriel or Gabs, my eldest child was born in August 24,1984 at the United Doctors Medical Center near the Welcome Rotonda at the boundary of Manila and Quezon City.

While we were waiting for Gabs' arrival, a huge and agitated crowd has gathered around the rotonda. From the hospital window, I saw a sea of protestors with red and yellow streamers and banners. Shouting in unison, they were demanding for the ouster of the Marcos regime.

The red banners belong to the progressive groups like KMU. Not as many as the progressives, the yellow banner group on the other hand belongs to the moderate August Twenty One Movement or ATOM. As they were maneuvering to cut through the phalanx of the anti-riot law enforcers, slowly all the group of protestors with red banners were massing in front as the yellow banner holders and followers moving to the rear position.

Then, we heard the news, Gabs was born. Four hours laters, I was with the protestors marching towards Mendiola. As I was on my annual one month leave from the office, I left the Philippines after two weeks. Just before December of the same year, Gabs was with me in Brunei.
As he was growing in a Brunei Shell company house at G9/36 Panaga, I noticed that Gabriel was different. He has an intense focus to learn, a passion for only one type of toy - many kinds of fan, enjoys listening to music especially Abba, identifying the A or B side of a cassette tape,

At 3 years old, his lady pediatrician at the Panaga Hospital was astonished when she was assesing Gabs' ability to identify objects. Asked to identify an object in a picture book, without hesitation he said "uniform". At an early age he can differentiate a dress from a uniform.

As all of us were amused with Gabs' attentiveness and with an advance tip that he can read, the doctor went further to check if Gabs can recognize not just letters but words. Word after word, Gabs read the words like book,tea, cup, glass, tatay, nanay, and many nore. Finally, the pediatrician wrote on the baby book - 'A gifted boy'.

All For the Love of Albert Einstein

2006-10-04T04:44:00.000+08:00

My first encounter with Einstein was when I bought a second hand white colored book College Physics by R. L. Weber, M. W. White, and K. V. Manning. There I saw a chapter on relativity glowing as beautiful as the sunrise!

Then, came the second encounter when I bought a pocket book Relativity for the Million by Martin Gardner. Out my daily savings, I got the book from Alemars at Avenida Rizal as there were no National Bookstore at that time. Neither were there Mercury Drug as there were Botica Boei.

A group of Earth Science Students under Ms Nelly Ramos Rana visited Professor Jose Villanueva at the Physics Department of UP Diliman. There, we had some lectures on relativity theory of Einstein. After the lecture we played softball at the back of the Main Library. That was my third encounter and at the same time my first visit to UP Diliman, my university alma mater.

The fourth encounter came on the last day of my junior year and closing of the MaSci school year 1969-70. As I got my school card, I read : "promoted to IV-Einstein". With 35 of 68 incoming senior students in IV-Einstein, it was a huge challenge being in the honor section.

Much later, a day before our graduation day on May 1, 1971, the the book went back to one of the bookstores at Claro M Recto. It was sold so I can buy a Hickok belt at Good Earth Emporium for my new black graduation pants.

Now, Albert Einstein is in my office permanently. Hanging on the wall in front of my office table is a 2.5' by 2' framed picture with a caption - "I M A G I N A T I O N - "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Albert Einstein.

Dream come true.

Batteries, the Sony Transistor Radio and the Rainy Season.

2006-10-03T12:32:00.000+08:00

In the early 60s, the batteries, radio and rainy season always go in a team. Intense moonsoon rains led to flooding or brown-outs that classes were suspended. Staying at home, the Sony transistor radio was my companion almost the whole day.

The radio did not use AC electric power but DC power from batteries. In no time, the batteries were dead and so was the radio. That started my curiosity about the batteries.

With the radio dead, I was missing the daily radio broadcasts of Kumander Fidela and Ito Po Ang Inyong Tiya Dely (This is your Auntie Dely) - very popular soap operas aired in the afternoon. The day was not complete without listening to Beinte Kwatro Oras (24 Hours)in the evening. With the exception of Tiya Dely Magpayo, all the radio stars were either retired or dead. Tiya Dely airs a daily evening program at DZRH.

One battery after another, they were opened up to the core to retrieve the black solid cylinder in the middle of the battery. Slowly the zinc casing was ripped off, then the pasty black substance or the potassium hydroxide electrolyte was removed around the cylinder.

That was the start of several experiments using the worn out batteries.

Milenyo is Gone

2006-09-29T06:57:00.000+08:00

At around lunch time, Metro Manila experienced the fury of Typhoon Milenyo. It has center wind of 135kph with gustiness of 160kph. Two hours later, I can see clear sky over Laguna de Bay from our office at 12th floor Philippine Stock Exchange Building in Ortigas. It has moved to China Sea.

Milenyo is not so strong a typhoon compared to Typhoon Dading that hit Metro Manila in October 1964. With center wind of 180 kph it tore a lot roofs and uprooted trees in our neighborhood at La Paz, Makati. Most of the streets of our barangay was inundated by knee deep flood water. Together with my Uncle Carding, we constructed floaters made of banana trunks. We went around the streets of Hawaii, FLeurdelis and Guam. During that time flood water was relatively clean.

Then came Typhoon Yoling in November 1970. With its 200 kph center wind and 240 kph gustiness, one whole roof of a three story apartment at Archimedes St, La Paz came off and landed a few meters away. We had a long school break at MaSci after Yoling. The monicker "niyoling" became a buzz word to describe any devastation like failed exam!

MaSci to GSI

2006-09-28T07:24:00.000+08:00

MaSci to GSI is a documentation of what I longed to share with human history. This blog stores snapshots of things I remembered that makes me today.

MaSci to GSI is not a history book nor an autobiography but links and networks of events, people and ideas as far as I can remember when I was a kid in our home in San Andres street near Singalong Church.

MaSci or Manila Science High School is a key milestone in my life. MaSci to GSI is a spectrum of experiences, knowledge and creative insights.

Before, I only know about my parents home. It crafted my integrity, resiliency and flexibilty. MaSci trained me to become a competitor - an honest and hardworking gladiator.

At UP, I became a First Quarter Stormer! UP my beloved gave my parents a beautiful dream.

Brunei Shell Petroleum made me a photographer, book worm, tennis player, Singapore tourist, and a family man. It changed my technology mindset. GSI or GeoSpatial Solutions, Inc shaped by entrepreneurship and dreams.

GSI, paves my vision for common good, entrepreneuship and nationalism.

This time, I may be able to answer questions, observations and eccentricities such as why I like photography, classical guitar, tennis, physics, poetry and dreams; that as a kid at 9 years old I would stand beside Nanay's sari-sari store in the evening and scan the sky using my home made telescope almost everyday.

Why I can feel and smell the weather. Why I can visualize the photo I going to take the night before a photo contest? Why I went to MaSci, UP, GSI and IBM? What made me an entrepreneur like my Nanay, who is a sari-sari store owner for 40 years! Why are my parents successful in discplining their eight children - including me.

Why I love my parents, kids, teachers,colleagues and soul-mate so much. Why do I dream of making people close to me successful?

Why do I dislike thieves who stole in the middle of the day? My relatives, officemates, honest Filipinos, and God know all of them!

Why I like Ms Cruz of RPES, Mr Valbuena of UP Geology, Ms Suzette Badon of UP Geography, Ms Nelly Ramos Rana & Ms Concepcion of MaSci, Prof Hernandez & Prof Vila of UP Geodetic Eng'g, Engr Bert Tato of GEP, Consul Hermes Dorado & his wife Susan of GSI, Gabriel and Jocelyne Leiva of UNISYS, Mr Jimmy Ledesma of Meralco, Ms Lynette Lim of Zenshin, Mr Jajo Quintos, Peter Laud, Loke Peng Yuen, Tesa Abaya of IBM.

Why I admired IBM.

This is dedicated to my Tatay (father), Enrique and my Nanay (mother), Virginia who are now in peace with God. They are my heroes!

Plato said - "the beginning is the most important part of the work."

This blog starts today, a very important part of my life.