Anglicization of the Philippine languages

I know this issue has been discussed many times over, yet I still find it fresh and is worth composing. Here goes: the contemporary culture of the Philippines is very much affected with the American colonization more than the Spanish. Americans were here only since 1898 whereas the Spaniards were here since 1521. With that, Filipinos came to be called “little brown Americans”. With the phrase came the imposition of English throughout the archipelago and we even have our own Philippine English.

We all know how English (or how American) we are. Look at our street and store signs: 99% are in English. Everywhere we go, English is alive. From the songs we fondly sing in our videokes to the blogs we post. The major factor in the development of English is of course it's taught in schools at all levels and is by far the medium of instruction and technology is fueling its popularity. Since there are lots of situations where English rules, I’ll point where in the Filipino life English is not used. Today, the local languages even in these areas are hemorrhaging, gasping for its existence --the spoken vernaculars are peppered liberally with English words making them Taglish, Bislish, etc:

• Speaking/socializing. We use the regional languages (Tagalog, Bisaya, Ilocano, etc). This situation now creates a broken language e.g. Taglish and Bislish among the Pinoy educated elite. Examples: (Tagalog) Fluent me mag-English. (Bisaya) Gi-cramps akong feet. This phenomenon happens also with other regional languages. I just don’t know what will happen to the spoken languages in the country, 50 to 100 years from now. But I pray that the regional languages will still be spoken. As what happens to Spanish in Zamboanga or the French in Haiti, I suspect that a creole language will ultimately rise. We will have lots of varieties of it in the country then, since we have seven major languages. Imagine these seven mutating into an English creole.

• Mass media (>50% Tagalog). Yes it’s around that because broadcast media is broken down into TV broadcast (Tagalog majority), AM broadcast (Tagalog), FM broadcast (English). Local cinema is also in Tagalog. However, the print media (newspapers, magazines) is by far circulated in English.

• Schools, churches, the government and commerce. This is quite tricky since it’s given that printed/written texts are exclusively in English in these institutions, but the vernacular prevails in the speaking arena. In schools for example, even for English classes, the teachers switch to the vernacular when teaching i.e. in explaining the concepts. The churches (Roman Catholic for example) have their service in English or the vernacular. The government does its activities primarily in English, but in the vernacular most often in informal and relaxed situations. The situation in the government is more or less the same with commerce and business. Almost all firms in the country speak the vernacular in their day-to-day activities.

That’s all I can say to the status of our local languages. Give it another 50 years and I'm afraid we will find that speaking in the vernacular as it was, is funny. English is so intertwined with our daily lives.

My kind of (boom) town

This is reposted here from this Inquirer article.

By Conrado R. Banal III
Inquirer
Last updated 02:35am (Mla time) 11/01/2007

MANILA, Philippines--In this guessing game of what can be the next “boom” town, or province, in this country that is playing catch-up with its neighbors, my bet goes to this small province in Mindanao called Sarangani.

“Sarang” what? Okay, the province is part of the grouping known as Socsksargen, made up of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City. Yes, the tuna region!

With its seven municipalities, Sarangani is among our 10 poorest provinces. It is nevertheless rich in culture, natural resources and thus investment opportunities. (Read “culture” as “tourism” please.)

In any poor area, as you know, education is always a big deal. The people know that it is their way out of poverty. And wherever people enslave themselves for education, you can be sure of competent labor force. That’s the biggest ingredient of economic progress.

Still, in my favorite Sarangani, education is like a religion. Students of the Kyumad Elementary School in the town of Maasim, for example, walk for three hours everyday to attend classes. The school has only five classrooms for the 250 or so Grade 1 to Grade 6 pupils, and has only three teachers. At 3,000 feet above sea level, it takes some 10 kilometers of rocky uphill climb to reach the school from the highway. The teachers are never late or absent.

And then you have the agricultural giant Dole Philippines, operating in Mindanao since 1963, to help Sarangani’s education program. Dole regularly sends medical missions to the remotest areas of Sarangani, giving out hygiene kits and providing check-up. Result: lower rate of soil-transmitted disease called helminthes (caused by lukeworms) among the schoolchildren.

To me such an interest of the private sector is always a big factor for things to start looking up in any area. Still, Sarangani is also becoming the front door to the BIMP-EAGA. Let me explain that BIMP stands for Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines; and EAGA, for East ASEAN Growth Area. It is part of a program to create trade and investment linkages between one of our regions and those countries. And Sarangani has an area tailor-made for the program.

It is called the JAGS-CT (or Jose Abad Santos Glan-Sarangani Cooperation Triangle), a cluster of southern towns formed in 2003 to support the BIMP-EAGA. It serves as the vehicle for trade, tourism and investments between Mindanao and the northern provinces of Indonesia.

The area now serves as the model for Mindanao for municipalities to venture into direct trade with other countries near them. Really, it used to be that their trade was done only with Manila.

Fortunately for the Sarangani area, it got investments in road networks, seaports and a special economic zone. Solely run and financed by the local governments of Jose Abad Santos, Glan and Sarangani, the JAGS-CT already completed a P43-million port in the island municipality of Sarangani (Balut Island), while Glan -- which was declared an international port -- is about to refurbish an old trading port.

Interconnecting six of the seven towns of Sarangani are well paved, and may I say well maintained too, road networks that stretch 145 kilometers from end to end, passing through the fast growing port area of General Santos City. Traveling from Glan, which is the easternmost part of the province, to the westernmost tip of Maitum takes just a little under two hours even in leisurely driving. No traffic problem whatsoever!

Let me tell you something else. The provincial government, together with Dole, already turned former bandit lairs and communist movement strongholds in Maasim town into money-making pineapple and strawberry plantations.

Listen to Nolding Lanon, a 32-year-old former rebel turned technician: “Years ago I was with some scores of bandits making trouble in villages here.” Today Nolding is best performing technician of the Polo Samahang Nayon Cooperative, servicing independent pineapple growers in the area.

There are already some 2,000 hectares in the towns of Maasim and Malungon, both former strife-torn, that are planted with pineapple through Dole’s “growership” program. It is working on a 15,000-hectare expansion project running up to 2015.

That town of Maasim, together with two other towns, is being organized into a growth triangle, where an industrial zone will host a P15-billion, 200-megawatt coal-fired power plant, to be built by the Alsons Group. Under its plan, the power plant will be expanded in increments of 200-300 MW, until it reaches a capacity of 900 MW. In short, that’s enough power for a “boom” town.

What then explains the expansion plan for the power plant? Well, I guess it’s the investment record of the area. In the last three years, new investments recorded an annual average growth rate of more than 3.0 percent. The increase in investments in new -- again, NEW -- businesses reached P497.9 million in those years, for an annual average growth of 30 percent, or much higher than the national average of 0.06 percent.

The provincial government also crafted incentives for investments, such as tax holidays of five years. Moreover, the province wrote the incentives down into a “code,” perhaps to cement them well into the future. You know, whoever is in power in the province, the investment code is in force. Something like that.

But just between us girls, here is something different in Sarangani: The local governments are more than willing to provide quick processing of business permits and licenses. It is something rare in Metro Manila, right?

Investment climate is now very excellent, said Sarangani Governor Miguel Rene Dominguez, who is a 30-year-old bachelor. “We have not had any major insurgency or terrorism-related incident since 2004.”

Incidentally, that was the year Dominguez became governor.

Anyway, if you ask bankers, they will tell you that food processing has the biggest potential in the area. More than 7,000 hectares of mango trees dot the province, yielding almost four metric tons last year. Sarangani Bay of course is still an abundant source of seafood. Banana production reached more than 90,000 metric tons last year. The province still leads Central Mindanao in coconut production at 350,000 metric tons last year.

As for tourism, which is considered to be the most promising investment in the country today, Sarangani boasts of white sand beaches in Gumasa town, dive spots in Maasim and Kiamba, and white-water tubing in Maitum. All of those places already attracted investments in new resorts -- not to mention foreign tourists. And of course the job applicants.

The Sarangani Bay Festival, which is staged every May, holds the longest open ocean marathon swimming competition in the country and, most probably, in Asia. The contest is a 15-km swim across the Sarangani Bay.

Okay, do I sound like I am rooting for this poor province to make a go at development? You bet I am. The name itself has a special appeal. Sarangani -- what an exotic name!

Is the Philippines overpopulated?

By : Mong Palatino | YEHEY! In-house Production
25 September 2007

"This entry is from yehey.com, the figures and ranking are changed to bring it to current figures, Mong Palatino's figures for the ranking is outdated."

The Philippines is the 14th (12th) most populous country in the world and third (second) in the Southeast Asian region. Young dependents comprise 34 percent of the population, 62 percent belong to the working-age group and 4 percent are categorized as elderly dependents. Scholars have estimated that the large youth population will continue until the year 2040, but the working-age population and the number of senior citizens will increase much faster.

The Philippines has one of the fastest-growing populations in the world. During the 1980s, the Philippines and Thailand had the same population level of around 55 million. Today, Thailand has 60 million while the Philippines has 88 million. A European diplomat recently noted that 200 years ago there were more Scots (1.7 million) than there were Filipinos (1.6 million). Today, Scotland has a population of only 5 million.

Many economists insist that a high population growth results in lower per capita income and higher poverty incidence. High fertility rates result in poor education access and quality, malnutrition, environmental degradation, resource depletion, a decrease in household resources, limited economic opportunities for women, an increase in maternal and child mortality and abortion rates. In short, as family size increases, there is reduction in investment in human capital.

But there are groups led by the Catholic Church which maintain that a high population growth is not a problem. There is even a respected politician who once asserted that 88 million Filipinos could live in the small island of Bohol. There are scholars who view the young population of the Philippines as the most valuable resource of the country. They remind the public how many governments of developed countries are encouraging their citizens to bear many children to offset the negative consequences of an aging population.

They assert that poverty is not caused by overpopulation. They blame corruption in society, especially in government, which deprives the poor of vital social services. That the income share of the richest 10 percent of the population is more than 20 times the income of the poorest 10 percent proves that inequality, not overpopulation, is the principal problem of the country.

The population policies of the government claim to promote responsible parenthood, respect for life, birth spacing and informed choice. But there is still no comprehensive and well-defined population management program in the country. Politicians are afraid to antagonize the Catholic Church which rejects all artificial methods of family planning. There are many local government officials who removed funding support for reproductive health services, which denied the people their right to choose the appropriate family planning method for their families.

Scholars are appealing to the Catholic Church hierarchy and other religious groups "to take a more tolerant and humane position on the need for a state-supported population policy backed by a responsive family planning program."

Dr. Ernesto M. Pernia, an economist, has a provocative comment on the link between religion and economic growth. He said that religion in terms of belief in afterlife and fear of hell is good for economic growth while mere church attendance has the opposite effect. He compares the Philippines and the Catholic-dominated Latin American societies with East Asian Buddhist countries. He noted that the wealth, economic performance, political instability, boom-and-bust cycles and lavish spending on fiestas in the Philippines and Latin American countries are strikingly similar. Pernia thinks the Philippines is more suited to belong to Latin America than East Asia.

The Philippines' lower economic standing than Latin American countries seems to be the only notable difference. Pernia asks a daring question: Could it be that in the Philippines the Catholic Church hierarchy has been overly conservative and intolerant, while those in Latin American countries are more liberal and tolerant, with respect to population policy and family planning programs?

Politicians should listen to the sentiments of the people rather than blindly obeying the sermons of priests. Recent surveys reveal that more than 90 percent of the population thinks that ability to control fertility and plan a family is important while 89 percent thinks that government should provide budgetary support for modern methods of family planning including the pill, IUD, condoms, tubal ligation and vasectomy.

It is correct to emphasize that the economic problems of the Philippines are not rooted in rapid population growth alone. We can cite corruption, inequity and bad economic policies as major factors why the country has not progressed. But we cannot also deny the link between population and poverty. Slowing down population growth will enable the country to invest more in human capital.

Managing population should not be equated with abortion as some religious leaders claim. Promoting reproductive health rights is a social justice issue. Respecting the family size preference and family planning method of couples affirm the human rights of women.

The Philippines: a small country?

It's not a small country. In one glance, most think that RP is small, that is because the point of comparison are the big countries of the USA, Russia, Canada, China, and Australia. These countries are indeed the largest countries in the world---in land area. Add to that the archipelagic nature of the country which resembles a skeleton of a dinosaur on a map and you get the image that the Philippines is a mini country. You may want to know this---geographers really classify the Philippines, with its land area of 300,000 km2, as a medium-sized country. So there it's not small.

Talking about the population size, which is the other determinant of how big a country is, this time, the Philippines is really among the giants. It's the 12th largest country in population. Socioculturally, population size is more of a determinant of bigness since it is dynamic, unlike land area which is less dynamic over time (land acquisitions is not in vogue now, the UN guards those predatory nations not to go back to their habit of eating chunks of countries). The people determine the fate of a nation, and even market economics see population as buyers, never the land area of a country.

Here's the list of the 15 largest countries with the population figures rounded off (taken from wikipedia):

1. China -1.32B
   
2. India -1.17B
   
3. USA -303M
   
4. Indonesia -232M
   
5. Brazil -187M
   
6. Pakistan -161M
   
7. Bangladesh -159M
   
8. Nigeria -148M
   
9. Russia -142M
   
10. Japan -128M
    
11. Mexico -103
    
12. Philippines -89M
    
13. Vietnam -87M
    
14. Germany -82M
    
15. Ethiopia -77M

A short analysis of the list:
The Philippines can be peered with Vietnam (land area: 332T), Germany (land area: 357T). These three countries can be called the 80/300 (for 80M pop and land area 300T). Before the second half of the 21st century, the Philippines however will have a population same as Japan today (Japan land area: 378M). In Southeast Asia, the Philippines is a long-time 3rd after Indonesia and Vietnam, it surpasses Vietnam in the early 2000's.
The billion-pop countries of India and China, are also the most developing economies. These are indeed large countries both in land area and population. The Indian subcontinent is really the most populous place on Earth (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan). Africa is represented here by Nigeria and Ethiopia.
There are four OECD countries in this list (USA, Japan, Mexico and Germany) and also four members in the G8 (USA, Russia, Japan, Germany). Most would really not expect Germany to be that populous. In case you want to know, Australia is 53rd (pop. 21M) and Canada is 36th (pop. 33M).

Very unconventional dry spell

This is posted from Inquirer.net
08/05/2007

MANILA, Philippines—The dry spell that a large swathe of the country has been experiencing over the past two months is unconventional because it is happening at a time when it is supposed to be the rainy season, according to the weather bureau.

Eight tropical cyclones should have entered the Philippine area of responsibility by this time. So far, only two did and they did not even make landfall. They were too far off to enhance the southwest monsoon or habagat that normally brings heavy rains to the western part of the country.

The intertropical convergence zone, which is characterized by cloud clusters, was also supposed to move from Mindanao to Luzon. It has stayed over Mindanao and the Visayas.

As a result, Luzon is suffering from a summer-like weather.

The dry spell has brought a host of problems such as the low water levels at dams, power outages due to the reduced generating capacity of hydroelectric plants, cutback in the amount of water supplied to farms in Central Luzon and households in Metro Manila, and a series of fires in the metropolis.

Should the dry spell persist this month, a drought will be declared next month. That would mean water rationing, longer power outages, outbreak of red tide and health problems. No wonder, people are praying for rains.

Because of the climate’s highly dynamic nature, a small perturbation or variability may cause an unprecedented impact like the dry spell that is happening now.

For instance, the failure of the monsoons would mean a delay in the planting season in both rain-fed and irrigated areas and result in low productivity. Likewise, deficits in the water levels of dams can lead to reduced capacity in hydropower generation and limited supply for irrigation and household use.

Due to its location, the Philippines is exposed to extreme climate and severe weather events that cause floods and droughts. The country is affected by an average of 19 tropical cyclones annually and by other severe weather systems such as the monsoons, and the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ).

‘Siyam-siyam’

Tropical cyclones bring torrential rains (about 50 percent) and destructive winds in the country. The southwest monsoon or habagat is a weather system that normally brings prolonged rains or siyam-siyam in the western parts of the country during the months of May to September while the northeast monsoon or amihan affects the eastern parts of the country from November to March.

The ITCZ is characterized by the formation of cloud clusters associated with the convergence of equatorial winds blowing from the northeast and southeast. The ITCZ migrates from Mindanao to Luzon and back from March to December.

During this time of the year, the ITCZ is normally over Central and Southern Luzon and the Visayas. In some cases, two weather systems can affect different areas in the country at the same time.

In addition, the intensity, duration and spatial distribution of rainfall can also be influenced by large or planetary scale systems such as the subtropical high pressure area (which is associated with good weather) and pressure perturbations such as the Madden-Julian Oscillation (associated with rainfall occurrence when it is over our area).

What’s happening?

The more appropriate question would be “what is happening to the climate?” because the weather is always changing.

Weather and climate are two different things. Weather is what we experience on a day-to-day basis in terms of rainfall and temperature, cloud cover, wind and so on.

For instance, the weather may be cloudy and rainy today and overcast and humid tomorrow. Except in the equatorial region where most mornings are warm and sunny, cloudy by noon and stormy in the evening, the weather by its very nature is changeable. Other than the equatorial belt, the weather is not so predictable, hence the need for weather forecast.

Climate is the average weather for longer periods, say months and years.

In the second quarter of July, the province of Isabela complained that the planting season in rain-fed areas had been affected by the absence of rains.

Water levels of most major reservoirs in Luzon have persistently fallen below allowable levels necessary to meet the requirements for irrigation, domestic use and power. (See Table 1)

Due to the absence of rain, the energy sector has increased the use of coal and oil to compensate for the limited load from hydroelectric plants. National Power Corp. said that 18.95 percent on the average of the generation mix from 2001 to 2006 came from the hydro plants, peaking last year at 23 percent.

The generation mix is derived from coal, geothermal, hydro, natural gas and oil-based plants.

With the decrease in the capacity of hydroelectric plants to produce power, the slack is now being taken up by coal, oil, natural gas and geothermal energy-fed power plants.

It must be noted that in June and July, our coal and oil power plants should have not been operating because they were due for maintenance.

Fire

Fire incidence has increased in Metro Manila due to warmer weather in June and July.

Although officially, the Philippines is in the rainy season now, in reality, we are now experiencing summer-like weather. This makes the environment conducive to fires.

The unconventional weather is not only being experienced in the Philippines.

China, Europe

China has been hit by a record storm that killed a lot of people. Weather extremes are happening in England and other parts of Europe. There are floods in Australia, Indonesia, China, India and Malaysia. Even Japan has been hit by more cyclones this year.

There are five oceans and regions where tropical cyclones are most likely to occur. The busiest region is the Northwestern Pacific, followed by the Tropical North Atlantic and the Carribean, and the Northeastern Pacific, the Southern Indian Ocean and the Southwestern Pacific.

As per records in July, the Northwestern Pacific is relatively silent. Is it because it has become so tired due to the series of super typhoons it produced last year?

The dry spell we are having now is unconventional. It is happening during the rainy season. Furthermore, unlike the 1997-1998 drought which occurred during an El Niño event, the June-July 2007 dry spell is occurring during a La Niña-like event. There is cooling or a developing La Niña in the Pacific. During this period, the sea surface temperature east of the Philippines is warm. This should result in evaporation and convection and the eventual formation of rain. This is not happening. As will be shown later this is due to the presence of a high pressure area east of Luzon.

What we expected

By the end of July, eight tropical cyclones should have entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR). The weather charts should have shown a southwest wind flow at the surface and upper levels of the atmosphere, which would normally trigger the onset of the rainy season.

The ITCZ would have filled the water capacity of the parched soils in Central and Southern Luzon with its showers and thunderstorms. The country should have experienced the siyam-siyam of the habagat, which has its peak in July and August.

Our farmers would have already planted rice by June because the southwest monsoon would have set in by the end of May or early June. The watersheds of our major reservoirs would have been saturated with the rains in May and June and would have started to rise in July.

Only two cyclones

All of these did not happen. Only two cyclones entered PAR and did not even make landfall. The amount of rain these cyclones generated were not much. Luzon experienced summer-like conditions in June and July. The farmers started having problems with rain-fed fields.

But where are the rains? Are they falling in the right places?

For July, news of the landslides in Compostela Valley and Bukidnon due to heavy and continuous rains were typical in the months of December and January.

July was supposed to be a dry month in Mindanao. Satellite photo shows that last month, the ITCZ was generally over Mindanao and the Visayas as shown in Figure 2. This should not be the case in July, as the ITCZ should already be in Luzon.

The summer-like weather in Luzon, the nonformation of rain, the failure of the southwest monsoon that resulted in less rain and nonmigration of the ITCZ were due to the high pressure area east of Luzon. These weather systems dominated, resulting in the dry spell we are experiencing.

Two tropical cyclones entered the PAR, one in May and the other in July but their paths were off the average tracks occurring during these months.

Cause for alarm

The cyclones were too far to enhance the southwest monsoon that would have brought the much expected rains over the western sections of the country.

Is there a cause for alarm?

Definitely, “yes!” The observed rainfall in June and July 2007 was 40-percent below normal or average rainfall and the outlook for August is still generally dry. (See Figure 3.)

Metro Manila and parts of Northern, Central and Southern Luzon have either been very dry (> 40 percent) or have remained below normal or average rainfall (40 to 80 percent). This is a result of the dry spell.

Some of the signatures of a dry spell and drought include the presence of toxic algae bloom, adverse effects on agriculture, warmer-than-normal air temperature, decreased power supply, low water level, occurrence of bush and urban fires, and health problems related to a weird weather condition.

It is in this regard that the national government is being proactive. We are no longer waiting for the dry spell to turn into a more serious problem. Even before a drought condition is in effect in the country, interventions are being made now to mitigate the adverse effects of this unconventional dry spell.

Based on the weather over the past two months, some areas are now experiencing the impact of a dry spell. But are we heading toward a drought condition? The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) defines drought as three consecutive months of below 50-percent rainfall from the normal or average, hence, meteorologists and climatologists alike are closely monitoring the rainfall pattern in August.

Local climate and meso-scale weather systems such as tropical disturbances, monsoons and ITCZ are usually contributory to the normal rainfall condition this rainy season. However, with the extended dry spell in July, the effects of planetary weather systems appear to be dominant. Globally, the weather is not normal as it used to be.

Three scenarios

Based on the forecasts from different climate prediction centers, three scenarios may develop for the rest of the year:

Transition to a La Niña condition in the last quarter of 2007. Under this scenario, above average rainfall will be experienced in the later part of the year and would normalize the rainfall in Luzon.

The ridge of high pressure area will still prevail over Luzon and cause dry spell and drought until the end of year.

Normal-to-average rainfall in the last quarter similar to the 2004 conditions. Under this scenario, a number of tropical cyclones would hit Luzon and other parts of the country before the end of the year.

There is so much uncertainty in the climate forecast and this is clearly shown by the ensemble of forecasts from the various climate prediction centers. Despite these uncertainties, the Pagasa-Department of Science and Technology (DOST) was vigilant enough in observing the indicators of the impending dry spell and had issued the alarm to the National Disaster Coordinating Council before it was too late to mitigate the damage.

What can de done?

As a result, the national government initiated various intervention measures. What are these measures?

1. Supply side
Immediate
Optimum water allocation and utilization
Water supply distribution
- valving operations
- setting up of stationary and mobile water tanks
-chlorination to ensure water quality
Cloud-seeding operations
Monitoring and evaluation of droughts
Repair of dikes and other impounding infrastructures
Adoption of water impounding projects and shallow tube wells
1.2 Long-term
Rehabilitation of deep wells
Water harvesting

2. Demand side
2.1 Immediate
Water conservation
Use of resistant crops with less water requirement and early maturing varieties
Public awareness and understanding the nature of dry spell and drought and their impact.

2.2 Long-term
Enhancement of irrigation efficiency
Modified cropping calendar
Reduction of water leakage.

The dry spell and the proactive stand that the government and our people are doing show once again the resiliency of the Filipino nation. It is in having this sense of urgency to mitigate the adverse impact of the dry spell that the nation will once again rise to the challenge.

(Graciano P. Yumul Jr. is an undersecretary for Research and Development at the DOST, while Susan R. Espinueva is a senior weather specialist at the Pagasa.)

On elections and (mis)activism

Here it is: I hate the brand of activism happening in Philippine streets, though I love freedom of speech and freedom of organization. It's mainly because of the issues they raise there: protracted information, myopic agenda, and unverifiable cases which in most times results to misinforming the public and making a fool out of them. I believe that before one can really become an activist, he/she must really has done the homeworks, i.e. studied the issues first and start from there.

The Philippine midterm elections of 2007 was chaotic as usual. Now the GO (Genuine Opposition) party is leading the senatorial race with 8 of them currently gaining momentum of the 12 posts. I am not against them of course, most have dignity and leadership that we can trust. The thing is, I hate when people hurl bad things against each other. As we know, the 11th and 12th positions are the most contested. And I expect the candidates involved will really bash each other. Mostly, Filipinos are quite mature politically, for not voting for the most popular personalities (i.e. actors) who have no track record or it can be that simply the people vote for candidates who are vocal against the president or the administration.

As of this afternoon of Friday May 25, the votes from Mindanao (Maguindanao, Davao, and Lanao) have yet to be counted, and knowing that these are Team Unity's bailiwicks, changes for the 10th to 12th places will maybe favor the TU's . So what goes? Well, as I say, lets hear/watch the news.

geography, why oh my

I have been thinking to make this blog for quite some time. As you can see, geography is an interdisciplinary discipline that people don't really care for reasons mostly leaning to "taken for granted" and "that's easy science as NatGeo".
According to wikipedia: Geography is the scientific study of the locational and spatial variation in both physical and human phenomena on Earth. The word derives from the Greek words γη or γεια ("Earth") and γραφειν ("to write," as in "to describe").
See, any phenomena that happens over the surface of the Earth, no matter if it's your house or the entire lithosphere; no matter if it's the rain or a bombing in Iraq---all falls into the science and I say, the art of geography.

The title of this blog, heografix, a wordplay on geographics shows the context of this blog: heo is a Filipino prefix equivalent to geo (Spanish geografia, g pronounced as h, that's why) makes the distinction that this blog is by a Filipino blogger and deals primarily with Philippine geography. The "fix" in heografix is English, I'm afraid. It may serve to fix some of the miseducation and the ignorance of those people who are the "power players" in Philippine society. How lofty! Nah, don't get the impression that this blog is heavy, seriously nerdy stuff. As it aims also to entertain me, ye and them.

All I wish is to express my thoughts on the why's and the "oh my!" of Geography as expressed, as used (or misused), for the time being, in the Philippines. I am from the Philippines, a country that is, I say, lost in space (and time).

No matter how small or insignificant, as few surfers may even stumble upon this Web page, and yea, I bet no power player may even spend his/her time to read this blog, I will try to change the world.

P.S. geographics as a term is almost nonexistent. It's a nightmare if the concept of geography is replaced by this term, as what happened to demography, which is replaced by demographics (browse wikipedia articles, the term is ubiquitous).