Audio/Video

AUDIO

A tip o’ the beret to LaTtEX for this ‘un. Gary Granada takes on GMA Kapuso Foundation for using his revisions to their lyrics (for a jingle he was commissioned to compose) without attribution – and here’s the kicker – using an audio-cast! Pure public relations genius, that! On one level, you’d think that the choice of medium – new media – was prolly a no-brainer. Granada was talking about music and lyrical composition after all, and it packs a helluva lot more punch to have the audience actually hear the claimed IP klepto-ing than to just say “I wuz robbed!” But on a PR level, Granada got his side out first, and did it in a way that puts GMA on the defensive in a really bad way. For one thing, Granada’s tone was calm and even throughout – not hysterical in the slightest. That alone clues you in that this is serious. But not so serious that he doesn’t joke a little. The touch of humor tells you that he isn’t desperate for sympathy – and by extension, that he’s not desperate for allies and is not out to raise a jihad. Like a general closely following Sun-Tzu’s play, Granada has chosen his battleground, and has clearly chosen it well. GMA is now on a slippery slope that it will, perforce, have to try to defend using legalese. In a country positively exhausted with the concept of “legally-right even if morally-questionable,” good luck with that

!

SIDEBAR: My quick and dirty analysis of the situation: Granada isn’t claiming that GMA used his music. What he claims is that GMA used his revisions of the lyrics – original copy was given to him and he tweaked it to fit the music he wrote – and set it to someone else’s music. According to Granada, the industry practice is that if the client isn’t happy with the work and decides to give it to someone else, then the client ought to give the new artist the original copy and let that new guy tweak it himself. GMA, according to Granada didn’t do that. Instead, GMA gave the new artist the lyrics as tweaked by Granada. Granada in effect says that the tweaking he did constitutes intellectual property, and that the use of his tweaked lyrics sans attribution is, at the very least, objectionable. I haven’t read GMA’s reply, but from what Granada himself quoted, it seems that GMA’s tack has been to claim that the tweaking of the lyrics was a ‘group effort.’ Granada admits that at least some of the changes were made during a pow-wow with GMA’s creatives – where presumably he suggested a few changes that the creatives agreed with. But he takes exception that that made it a group effort. At this point in the audiocast, Granada attempts to distinguish a song-writer from a copy-writer. Listen to the ‘cast and come to your own conclusions of course, but Granada’s distinctions seemed logical if a bit fuzzy. He basically says that adapting written copy – essentially a kind of poetic prose – to fit a song is something that only a song-writer can do; and that even if a song-writer does the tweaking in the company of a group of copy-writers who eventually agree, that still cannot qualify as group-writing. Group-writing to me implies that there was cooperative give and take; that it wasn’t Granada alone who made the changes but that some of the changes were proposed by the copyists. GMA may be implying that this is exactly how it went down, and Granda himself does not clearly refute this. He only sez that it’s ridiculous to call it a group effort. Like I said, fuzzy. Also: It is important to note that GMA has already telegraphed it’s potential defense that Granda’s tweaking was too minor to transform the original lyrics – copyright owned by GMA obviously – into a new work whose copyright belongs to Granada. But then again, even if the tweaks were major enough to create a new work out of the old, looking at the situation from an IP p-o-v, it is fairly safe to say that even tho’ the person who commissions the work does not necessarily own the copyright, he will usually have the right to use the work for the purpose for which the work was commissioned. And if GMA actually paid Granada for his work, you can imagine that it’ll be even easier to assume that GMA did have the right to use the work for their ad. On the other hand, the creator – Granada (assuming that the tweaked lyrics can be considered a new original) – also has the moral right to attribution. Now he can take action if the work is attributed to someone else, but does he have an actionable right if there was no attribution at all? Again, with only Granada’s ‘cast to go by, still pretty fuzzy. You can bet everything you own that this will be GMA’s playground if this tiff with Granada gets any bigger.

Over-all, even if GMA does prove that it owes Granada nothing, it will still come off as the bad-guy in this story. And for that, Granada has to be thankful to the power of new media. Me, I’m inclined to go with the moral aspect – the moral obligation of GMA to attribute at least some of the work to Granada. Besides, having Granada’s name attached to the project can only bring greater goodwill. Ironic that GMA apparently ignored that truth. VIDEO Hat tip to TSD for this one: Apparently, some people are starting to grumble about this ad, complaining about how it portrays Filipinos as ‘hungry’ and prone to violence. The prone to violence aspect is obvious. As for the ‘hungry,’ that can only make sense in the original tagalog idiom: patay-gutom. A better translation for that would be ‘greedy’ I guess. Or ‘greedy-guts.’ Whatevs. You get the point. Course, I would be happier if the guy who broke the mirror weren’t Filipino. But since he is, I have to wonder: so the fuck what? On another note, doesn’t the Skittles guy look familiar?

Filed under: Filipino, blogging, international, pop-culture , gary granada, gma kapuso foundation, new media, skittles

Red Cross

Filed under: crime, international, law and order, news , kidnapping, Red Cross

Can it happen here?

The Warrior Lawyer gives an excellent overview of the burning of Mumbai and posts the question:

Can it happen in Manila ?

Funny thing that, because just this morning, one of the people here in the office offered up the opinion that such a thing could never happen in Manila. The Warrior Lawyer believes otherwise, but sees the Mumbai attacks as a model for other terrorists to follow; a perverse kind of best practices thing.

And this may serve as a template for other terrorist attacks in other areas of the world, wherein a relatively small number of determined killers, estimated at a mere two dozen, could hold an entire country hostage. Our anti-terrorism forces, such as they are, should consider this as a wake-up call.

I guess Sonny Trillanes has pretty much mooted the question. Admittedly, he took over the Oakwood and the Manila Pen with a largely benign game-plan, but the fundamentals of a sudden attack, a protracted seige, and a bloody end-game were all in place. If he had wanted to turn malignant, he could have easily managed it. 

So it can be done. That shouldn’t be a question anymore. The thing to ask now is who – in the Philippines – would be able to do such a thing? And the answer to that is prolly gonna keep me up nights.

Who can do it? Practically anyone.

The most suited, of course, would be the military. Rogue elements – like Trillanes was – have access to everything they need to make it work: guns, ammo, explosives, vehicles, and warm bodies. The trick is not to expose themselves as rogues prematurely. Oh and – this is where Trillanes screwed up – not to do the deed with a political goal in mind. 

Political goals muddle operations effectivity. There should be a desire to win, above all else, regardless of the cost, without regard for tomorrow. Let politics – and considerations of whether you will be received as a hero or as a murderer when the dust settles – enervates the attack and leaves it vulnerable to defusing. 

After the military, the best suited would be radicals. Based on what limited knowledge I get as a fly on the wall, I would say that Islamic radicals have the upper hand on ideological radicals in this arena. Islamic radicals, it is said in official circles, have not cut off logistic support to their various cells scattered throughout the country despite the continuing engagements in Mindanao. In theory, therefore, when the call comes through, these groups can mobilize with significant rapidity – certainly enough to overwhelm our complacent, under-equipped, and under-manned police force.

After the military, after the radicals, who else can do this sort of thing? Practically anyone – although prolly not on a similar scale, much lesswith the same kind of coordination. But just think of all the crazies that have given our newspapers and politicians hard-ons over the years, and you’ll see what I mean. Remember that loon with the bus? Or the motorcycle bomb at the House of Representatives? Or the various bus bombs in the south?

The thing is, whoever gets it into his head that terrorism is the thing to do doesn’t only have the advantage of surprise, he can also capitalize on our society’s strident distrust for the government and its instrumentalities – particularly those instrumentalities that pack heat and have the ability  to pry into our private lives. 

Obviously, the distrust is well-earned, but even assuming that it isn’t – taking for the sake of argument that we can trust the government – a major part of our society would be up in arms the minute we see more uniformed men on the streets or we feel that we are being inconvenienced by new procedures that objectively help diminish the possibility of a surprise attack.

The goal of most human societies is to live in peace, and for the most part, we have been pretty successful. Unfortunately, we have also become the victims of our own success. In moving towards peaceful co-existence as a paradigm for human society, we have also practically bred out tolerance for the dirty work that is needed to keep the surface of things placid. We hold the peace in high esteem, but we honor our peacekeepers only when they appear genteel and polished. But when we are forced to confront them while they are doing their job – with their dirty faces and bloody hands – we shiver in disgust and we call them animals. It’s kinda like those old houses where you enjoy the food you are served until you see the dirty kitchen where the food was prepared. 

Mumbai, far from being a wake-up call to just our anti-terrorist forces, should be a wake up call to US as well. We should never forget that these things can happen, and that there are people out there who hate our way of life so much that they will suffer their own death simply to ensure that they take us to ours. Along with that acknowledgement, there must also be the willingness to give those who we expect to protect us the benefit of the doubt that they are doing everything necessary to do their job right.

Filed under: international, law and order, society , extremism, Islamic radicalism, Mumbai, terrorism

BBC hearts Filipinas

I’m not even going to pretend that I understand the context of this clip from the BBC. I’ve no idea what ‘mating the filipina maid with the northener’ means, except that it seems to be a dig at this northener for not being able to get interested in a sexy girl ‘presenting her rear’ (which is zoologist talk for the kind of sexual body language that features giving prominence to the rump). This interpretation – which again is arrived at without the benefit of context – seems to be borne out by the fact that the angry man’s friend seems only too eager to get with the filipina at the end of the clip. Apparently, he was turned on.

SO now the question is, was this clip particularly degrading to Filipinos?

I suppose if you consider the overt sexuality of the french maid stereotype as offensive to French women, this BBC sketch could be offensive.

Ah, but then we don’t worry about portraying the Chinese as drooling and devious cheats in our sitcoms, do we? Good god. Can you imagine what would happen if the Chinese were to suddenly take offense?

And what about portraying Indians as smelly usurers? Or Muslims as traders in ridiculously shitty products (like the wristwatch that’s so water proof that when the water gets in there, it never gets out).

Apparently, our sensitivities run only one way, and our sense of irony is as dead as a doornail. Classic pikon, as they say in the playgrounds. Can’t take as good as we can dish out.

Mesself, I’m seeing another dimension in all this: a victim-mentality. The predisposition to see everything as potentially victimizing us; the belief that we are in a constant struggle to prove our worth, and that the abuses visited upon our nationals are unique to us – that other nationals are not subjected to the same kinds of abuse. Want to talk about Filipinas being considered whores? Let’s talk about Russian mail-order brides and exported prostitutes. Let’s talk about the Chinese whores brought into this country by the boatload to work in brothels in Manila. 

The point being that we are not being singled out by the universe for abuse. It’s just the inferiorty complex talking.

So get a grip, Riza.

Filed under: international, society , BBC, exploitation, Filipina, French Maid, Harry & Paul, maid, OFWs, sexual abuse

Cold War 2.0

The war on terror. Listening to Obama and McCain campaign, you’d think that those four words summed up all that’s important in American foreign policy. But, as important to American interests the war on terror is, the fact is that what goes on in Washington DC can be a game-changer throughout the world. And when the game changes, it isn’t always for the good.

Take for instance the situation in South America.

The US just expelled the Venezuelan ambassador, apparently in retaliation for the US ambassador to Venezuela getting the boot as well. Hugo Chavez, of course, is saying that he recalled the Venezuelan ambassador. Who did what first doesn’t really matter though. What matters is that this tit-for-tat only deepens the divide between the US and Chavez – who happens to be quite a popular figure in South American politics. A popularity he obviously wants to bolster; he says he expelled the American ambassador in solidarity with Bolivia.

And its not just South Americans that gravitate towards Chavez. Now the Russians are getting cozy with him too, setting up joint military exercises in the Caribbean. Remember Russia?

After the Cold War, many Russia experts advocated reaching out to Russia with an open hand. Instead, the American government insisted on cultivating an atmosphere of distrust, to the point of actively moving to expand NATO right up to Russia’s doorstep. 

Now the Bear has always been paranoid about being encircled by unfriendlies – which was exactly what America was doing. This doctrine of containment may have worked well in the Cold War, but after the collapse of the USSR, all it did was make the Kremlin feel that it wasn’t being welcomed by the west. 

But now, that containment strategy has been shown to be more bark than bite. When Russian tanks rolled into Georgia – a key US ally – all the Americans could do was issue denouncements. It was like breaking the four-minute mile; all of a sudden, American superiority wasn’t so scary anymore. 

So here’s the situation: Chavez in South America, and Russia – neither one feeling warm and fuzzy towards the US, beginning to cozy up to each other. There’s a lot for them to agree on, but principally, one suspects that they really just want to challenge the perceived American hegemony. And with both being major oil producers, that challenge – perhaps nascent for now – can sure shape up to be a major headache for the US. It’s just not as obvious yet as the war on terror; but when it becomes Cold War 2.0, well this is where it started folks.

So shouldn’t the candidates be talking about that? Maybe they are, but I just haven’t read anything about it. 

And then there’s the perennial problem with North Korea. First off, they build nuclear launch sites; then there’s this rumor that Dear Leader isn’t recovering well from his stroke – leading to fears about internal instability. Of course, if Kim were to croak without leaving a successor, there’s also the probability of his successor opening up the Hermit Kingdom and dropping the saber they’ve been rattling for almost two generations. But then again that that’s all North Korea really has – the threat of nuclear conflagration. Without that threat, it loses the billions of dollars of bribe aid money it receives in exchange for not causing trouble. So it’s also perfectly plausible for Kim’s successor to keep on rattling the saber – thereby prolonging the uncertainty in that region – or to go James Bond villain and just launch the damned missiles. 

I’m sure the candidates are talking about that too. I’m just not hearing it over the din of the potshots being taken at Obama for being a community organizer and at Palin for being an empty-headed campaign ornament.

So why is this relevant for the Philippines (a question that’s recently been asked over at FV, btw)?

Well, for one thing, everyone knows that when the US sneezes, damn near the whole world catches a cold, and we develop pneumonia. For another, Filipinos are one of the largest ethnic groups in the US today. But the bottom line is, US foreign policy is determined by its President. And US foreign policy affects the world. We become collateral damage if the US screws up. For instance, the invasion of Iraq contributed heavily to the sky-rocketing of the cost of oil and so does the US’ antagonizing of Chavez, and we all know what expensive oil does to economies – including our own.

US foreign policy also dictates US actions on foreign soil. I know its all apocrypha, but its been said often enough that the US meddles in local affairs. Chavez says a coup was being planned in Venezuela that had American blessings, for example. Closer to home, it’s been suggested that the MOA-AD was part of a greater American plan to ’spread democracy.’ Look what that brought us.

All in all, it’s not just Americans who have a stake in the outcome of the presidential elections in November. And as people who stand to be affected by that vote, we need to have an opinion too; even if our opinion stands a snowball’s chance in hell of shaping the American decision.

Filed under: international, politics , American politics, Barack Obama, Hugo Chavez, John McCain, Russia, South America

Guess what KL stands for?

 

Malaysia’s top anti-government blogger arrested under law allowing detention without trial

By SEAN YOONG | Associated Press Writer

3:26 AM CDT, September 12, 2008

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) _ Police arrested Malaysia’s top anti-government blogger Friday under a law allowing indefinite detention without trial in a move likely to face public reproach.

 

I felt sad that I had no shoes, until I met a man with no feet.

Filed under: blogging, international , Malaysia, Raja Petra Kamarudin

Pirates of Metrowalk

PHILIPPINES

The Philippines will remain on the Watch List in 2008. The United States is concerned about U.S. industry reports of an apparent increase in piracy in the Philippines, particularly in the areas of book piracy, illegal downloads using mobile devices, piracy on the Internet, and the illegal camcording of films in theaters. The United States urges the Philippines to take steps to reverse these trends and strengthen its enforcement regime against piracy and counterfeiting.
Specifically, the Philippines should pursue final determinations in outstanding IPR cases, including those related to cable piracy, with imposition and implementation of deterrent-level penalties. The Philippines also should strengthen the Optical Media Board and provide it with adequate resources to expand and improve the effectiveness of its activities; strengthen the Customs IP unit; ensure that its patent regime complies with the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights; enforce copyright protection of printed material; and seek to obtain amendments to the Copyright Act to implement the WIPO Internet treaties. The United States will continue to work with the Philippine Government under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement to strengthen the Philippines IPR regime.

This made me laugh. “The Philippines should strengthen the Optical Media Board”? LOL!

Ever wonder why it’s so hard to find local movies and porn in Metrowalk? I did. I was out looking for a DVD of Sarah Geronimo’s latest movie – after having read the jester’s blog post about it … no, really! LOL. – and the lady at this legit video store told me they didn’t have it and that I should go to Metrowalk. So, off I went, and within minutes, it was obvious that nobody carried tagalog movies.

I asked one of the stall minders and she helpfully told me that they didn’t stock tagalog movies or porn. I was like, whut?! As it turns out, this decision is not because of the market – God knows even the rich and perfumed trip on gang-bang videos and Sarah Geronimo; it’s because they’ve has entered into a gentleman’s agreement with some guy: they don’t sell porn or tagalog movies, he doesn’t bust their asses.

Now, I can’t vouch for what the stall minder told me, but there it is. You decide. Mesself, I’ve stopped wondering why Metrowalk actually got a special mention in the 2008 Report of the US Trade Representative:

Neighborhood of Quiapo (Manila, Philippines). Street stalls in this neighborhood are notorious for selling counterfeit and pirated merchandise. Other notorious markets in Manila include Binondo, Greenhills, Makati Cinema Square, and Metrowalk.

Isn’t it funny, though, that out of five ‘notorious’ markets for pirated stuff, three are arguably high-brow? Does that make the argument that the best customers of these pirates are the more well-off members of society? If so, what does that make ay about us? I’d say that paints a picture of Manila’s well-heeled as a bunch of posing bastards, strutting about town with designer stuff that are actually fakes. LOL! Apparently, Brian was right and the Gucci Gang has more members than even they know.

And if it is true that there is this cozy deal with the pirates of Metrowalk, who knows what other deals he might have with them. The stall minder who told me about ther deal also told me that they were obliged to cluster three operations per stall instead of the usual one operator-one stall set-up. This made it easier to bust them, and it turned them into spies against each other. Kinda like a pirates’ Nash equilibrium.

In fact, if this deal exists with the pirates of Metrowalk, what’s to prevent there being similar  deals with other pirate havens?

Filed under: international, society, vacuity , Binondo, DVD, Greenhills, Intellectual property, Makati Cinema Square, Metrowalk, optical media, optical media board, piracy, Quiapo, Sarah Geronimo

Anyone surprised?

We got bupkiss in the Beijing Olympics. But seriously, is anyone surprised?

Now, we’ve got a politician promising to give a privilege speech on the subject. Again, is anyone surprised?

And the athletes who will come back empty-handed won’t really be asked to account for themselves. We will instead welcome them home and praise them to high-heavens for trying their best. Anyone surprised?

In the meantime, what’s happened to Tibet? We seem to have forgotten all about that, haven’t we? That ain’t no surprise.

Filed under: international, sports , medal haul, Olympics, Philippines, Tibet

Paranoia

Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean no one’s after you.

Seems like the US Department of Homeland Security has a new policy: they can take anyone’s laptop, iPod, flash drives, cellphones – basically any personal electronics – without any suspicion of wrong doing, take it away (as in out of the airport even), for any length of time. And once they have your gadget, they can ransack it for information – like files and pictures and things – and then share that information with anyone they want.

The policies state that officers may “detain” laptops “for a reasonable period of time” to “review and analyze information.” This may take place “absent individualized suspicion.”

The policies cover “any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form,” including hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover “all papers and other written documentation,” including books, pamphlets and “written materials commonly referred to as ‘pocket trash’ or ‘pocket litter.’

I mean, wow. What’s next? Spectographic analysis of lint?

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wrote in an opinion piece published last month in USA Today that “the most dangerous contraband is often contained in laptop computers or other electronic devices.” Searches have uncovered “violent jihadist materials” as well as images of child pornography, he wrote.

Well yeah, that sounds about right. But to be empowered to seize personal electronics even without any indication that the possessor has done anything wrong seems a tad extreme. What about the presumption of innocence, then?

As expected, civil libertarians and business-types are up in arms over these policies. Myself, while I totally get the civil liberties point of view, I’m writing about this because I’m surgically grafted to my cellphone, my iPod, and my laptop; all my key chains are flash drives, each one containing pictures, music, and my notes on a lot of things; 60% of my purse-space is taken up by powerbricks and chargers. You can just imagine how hellish it would be for me to go to the States now. Sure, I understand why some people might feel that it is better to err on the side of caution – inconvenient ideas about human rights be damned! – but as a person who would never do those things with my electronics, I find myself horrified that I might have to suffer having my stuff ransacked even when I’m totally innocent. Worse, with my pictures and videos looked at by people who might get it into their heads to post some of my more private moments on the internet, there’s a better than likely chance that I might wake up one morning to find myself publicly humiliated.

So, unless someone comes to their senses, this means that the next time I go to the States, I will have to go without my electronics. Hope they don’t start taking my Georgia O’Keefe. Now that would be embarrassing.

Filed under: international , electronics, Homeland Security, terrorism

Angry

I understand why people should be infuriated over the rising cost of gasoline and diesel. And I can understand the anger directed at these big oil companies. But I can’t understand why we should stew in our own anger.

The rise in pump prices in inevitable. They go up and they go down, and there’s really nothing anyone can do about that unless they have their fingers on the oil spigot – like OPEC does. During the dictatorship, the public very rarely felt these fluctuations because of the oil Price Stabilization Fund (OPSF) which ’stabilized oil prices’ by subsidizing the fluctuations. The stability, in other words, was an illusion, still paid for by taxes. It was just that with the OPSF, people weren’t really conscious of the fact that they were still paying, albeit indirectly, for increase.

Regulation is not the answer. On one level, the concept of regulation is a throw-back to our deep seated desire to have someone else take care of our problems for us. On a more pragmatic plane, I’d remind de-regulationists that under the old regulated regime, the major players were practically guaranteed returns on their investments – the entry of new players was severely hampered, creating a virtually captive market for the big boys. With de-regulation, the entry of new players makes lower prices possible since – in theory anyway – consumers will choose the brand with the best cost-benefit ratio. I say in theory because – and this is prolly the reason why de-regulation seems futile – Filipino consumers are so friggin’ brand conscious. I know people who refuse to patronize outfits like SeaOil or Flying V simply because they were unrecognizable brands. This defeats the purpose of allowing new competitors.

So if de-regulation is such a good thing, why are pump prices rising like crazy? The answer is very simple: the pump prices rise because the cost of the raw material – crude oil – continues to skyrocket. So, even if de-regulation acts to bring gas prices down, the mere fact that crude oil gets more expensive by the minute guarantees that you won’t see any noticeable dip in pump prices the way you would if crude were not constantly getting costlier. Oh, and do I even have to mention that we have no control over the cost of crude except perhaps to drive it higher?

Even if the industry were regulated, the cost of crude would still be on the rise, and government would have to keep up with that cost anyway. Increasing the cost of raw materials necessarily increases the cost of the final product. Sure the pump price can prolly be pegged, but behind the peg is the need for government to pay for the difference between the pegged cost and the actual cost. And where will government get the money for that, I wonder?

One could argue that a pegged price will be better for the poor. Sure, it would – but only in terms of buying gas. The money to subsidize the cost has to come from somewhere, and when it does, other important things get under-funded. The annual budget represents, after all, a finite amount of money. If you put money aside for subsidies, other equally important budget items must take cuts.

At this point in the argument, agitprop shifts to its endgame by trotting out the tried-and-tested argument: corruption increases the cost of government. Cut corruption and you’ll generate enough savings to cover the subsidies. True enough, but the negative effects of pegging pump prices are immediate – money gets diverted from defense, education, health, and so on. Whereas the war against corruption is a long-term thing; and the benefits to be derived from it do not accrue in the immediate term either. So, your left with the situation where the disease is already killing you while the super-medicine you’re pinning your hopes on still hasn’t even arrived in the building.

Oil companies are under no obligation to cut their profits for the sake of the Filipino. Does that hurt?

Well, suck it up, bitch.

Despite their press releases and media manipulation and gala charity nights to the contrary, oil companies do not actually feel any moral obligation to sacrifice their margins for the good of the host country. Neither should they. Its a business, for cryin’ out loud, not a charity.

Ultimately, the best weapon we have for forcing oil companies to bring down their prices is to patronize the smaller players who, because of de-regulation, are able sell gas at lower rates. Boycott the big three, for instance, and they will certainly lower their prices to lure customers back. It’s actually as simple as that. Think of it as a restaurant competing against a small canteen.

Jeepney drivers, f’rinstance, will always eat at the cheaper canteen. If the market were all jeepney drivers, the big restaurant will go out of business unless it brings its prices down to compete with the teeny carinderia. That’s common sense. So why do jeepney drivers still line up at the Big Three’s rigs? All the while that they grumble about being victimized, these jeepney drivers actually feed their predators, thereby perpetuating their state of victimization.

Why try to spread anger?

So, the question is, if we’re not doing anything to help ourselves – like maybe choosing to patronize cheaper gas from smaller rigs – what call do we have to try to spread anger? It’s not like getting angry at the Big Three will make them roll back their prices. Hell, what do they care if a handful of Quixotes hurl paint or even shit at their walls when, at the end of the day, these same people buy gas from them anyway. Better by far to just teach people to stay away from these giants and work towards developing a more practical mentality about the whole problem.

Filed under: education, international, news, society , crisis, gasoline prices, Oil