JasperTore

While waiting for my roasted chicken from Chooks-to-go
I tried to observe the people in my surroundings that come and go
Majority of the people in the area have cars
While the others are scarce
I saw a woman in the corner of the waiting shed
Attending her toddler and a baby in the crib
Both are crying for help from their mother
Who is busy earning some coins from the car owner
With her whistle and hand signals in the street
She commands the cars as if it is her fleet
After each negotiation was done in a minute
She checks her siblings a little bit
When the crew give me my roasted chicken
My worried mind was suddenly stricken
As if my conscience is telling me to do something
For the poor woman who has eaten nothing
But then I remember what’s the chicken for that day
And it was a gift for my birthday
I realized I had to make a change for the people
Who were not well off and incapable
I want to see everybody happy
No worries from any family
But what is it that i have to do
To make this world better for me and you
And now I end this little story of mine
God bless us all and I hope everyone is fine!

Guys, let’s vote for Mayor Jesse Robredo as World Mayor. Just click this the link Vote World Mayor and choose Mayor Jesse Robredo in the list. Please post the link of this atricle to your facebook accounts and blogs. Let’s help the new DILG Secretary win. If you are not familiar what World Mayor is, then let me give you some information.

World Mayor, an annual project organised by City Mayors, intends to raise the profile of mayors worldwide, as well as honour those who have served their communities well and who have contributed to the well-being of cities, nationally and internationally. Above all, World Mayor wants to show the world what great mayors can achieve.

The World Mayor project has no connection with any city or organisation and is run on strictly non-commercial lines. Sponsorships, advertising, subscriptions, donations or any other kind of revenue are NOT sought and will be rejected, if offered.

City Mayors, the organiser of World Mayor, international think tank on urban affairs made up of professionals who work together to promote strong and prosperous cities as well as good local government. City Mayors encourages city leaders from across the world to develop innovative solutions to long-standing urban problems such as housing, transport, education and employment. City Mayors also suggests ways to meet the latest environmental, technological, social and security challenges, which affect the well-being of citizens.

Cities and their people are essential drivers of all economies. City Mayors works for a harmonious and fruitful relationship between cities and their economies. City Mayors also analyses the new challenges of urban governance, including migration pressures, community integration, disaster management and resilience against terrorism.

In this century, metropolitan areas, rather than nation states, will shape the world’s social, cultural, technological and economic agendas. This process will lead to increased competition for human, intellectual and material resources but, also, force cities to co-operate with and learn from one another. City Mayors promotes constructive competition and acts as a forum for cooperation and communication between cities.

Successful cities require strong and resourceful leaders and administrations. City Mayors backs demands to give municipal government increased power and authority as well as additional resources.

In April 2003, a group of professionals, including local government consultants, economists and journalists from Europe, The Americas and Asia set up the non-commercial and independent City Mayors project in order to promote strong cities and good local government. During the past 12 months, City Mayors increased its traffic to 4.02 million unique visitors and 7.29 million page requests. City Mayors, together with its World Mayor project, has established itself as the leading independent and non-commercial internet platform dealing with all aspects of urban affairs. Editorially, City Mayors aims not only to address professionals but also to promote good local government and celebrate cities among today’s young and educated internet audience. City Mayors will continue to offer free access to all its features in an advertising-free environment. See World Mayor

I attended my first class in ES13. I was not expecting my professor to be a good one in terms of personality and way of teaching. I was early when I went to the class and I there was still a class in the room. After waiting for several minutes they had been dismissed and I enter the room and find a chair to sit. Then, a middle-aged man, not tall and slightly chubby entered the room with his things on both hands. He introduced himself as Dr. Mark Albert Zarco. His face is not new to me since I met him a couple of times in the corridor of Melchor Hall. He started roll calling our names in his class list to check if all were present. As he run through the names of the students, I was observing his mannerism and how he speak in the class. I never heard his voice so it really took my interest. By the time he finished the roll call, he started right away explaining his class policies and the grading system. He welcomed all the queries of students to clarify things so that there will be no misunderstanding in the coming meetings.

After explaining everything, he entertained the class through his stories about his past and how did he became a professor. Family background of him says that his family is really a true loyalist to the university. He said that his parents are both UP Professors and he also has an uncle who is also a UP Professor. There is really humor in his early years of life. He said that their curfew back then in their house was at 5pm. That was totally surprising to me since my parents never gave me a curfew just a reminder of what time I should be home and the reason why I would be going home late. This professor really amazed me when he told us that he will do everything so that we would pass the subject fair and square. That was the first time that I heard it from a UP professor. From that moment, I felt that he was not ordinary professor that I will have this semester. He recalled his experiences with some of his students. There was a case were the passing rate of ES13 in his class was so high. He recalled that there were only two who failed for not coming to class after the second exam. That was so cool for me because it only means that he is willing to help us pass the course. He explained the reason why he like to help us and that was because he already fulfilled his dream. The dream when he was still in his kindergarten as he was recalling it. Interaction with his student is his stress reliever and that was already entertaining for him. He learned many things from his students which he said he couldn’t learn from someone else. Helping us fulfill our dreams is his goal in teaching UP students even though the salary was low compared when someone work in the industry.

This is related to my post 7.3% growth rate. I read an article in the June 5 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It talked about the significance of GNP over GDP and how much of the GNP growth reached the hungry.

The first thing that came up my mind when I read the article Hunger matters more than GNP by Mahar Mangahas was does the number behind the growth rate really reflects the true condition of the country?

I researched a little bit about GNP and GDP. According to my research, GNP is the total value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a particular year, plus income earned by its citizens (including income of those located abroad), minus income of non-residents located in that country. Basically, GNP measures the value of goods and services that the country’s citizens produced regardless of their location. GNP is one measure of the economic condition of a country, under the assumption that a higher GNP leads to a higher quality of living, all other things being equal.

GDP on the other hand is the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, equal to total consumer, investment and government spending, plus the value of exports, minus the value of imports.

From the definition, we can see that GNP tells more than GDP. But it doesn’t mean that a high GNP reflects a good economy. A good example of this is the Philippines. Many Filipinos are still suffering. The government claimed that we had a increase in GNP in the first quarter of 2010 but the Gainers-Losers Gap of the country seemed to be getting wider. This pattern gives basis to the common saying that “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” In this issue, I think the government should make a decisive response to answer the needs of the hungry mouths. The government should stop fooling the people by declaring that we had an increase in the GNP growth but rather solve the problem by addressing it. In our present time, action speaks louder than word. So I rather insists to them that they do more and talk less to make a change. I know that we are capable of changing the present worst condition of the country to a better one. Everyone of us has his own idea on how to improve the Philippines. It’s just a matter of planning and strategy making.

I also heard that the government produces official statistics only about GNP and not about hunger or poverty. In my opinion. what the government needs to do is to make a statistical study about the hunger and poverty of the country and not about GNP because the people themselves can tell if we are moving forward or backward.

Enlistment had been online in the university but the drawback of manual enrollment is still there. Online enlistment has been a great help by minimizing the number of students who have to do the teacher’s prerogative in the class they wanted to enlist. But because of the manual enrollment, the students could not finish the enrollment within a day. The usual waiting for the form 5A to be pre-advised by the faculty in a department is one of the factors of the delay in the enrollment. Some of the faculties arrive late during enrollment. So even if the student came early to start the enrollment right away he/she could not do it. The long line outside the department become a crowd in the corridor and make it difficult for others to pass by the corridor. Despite the effort of the department representatives to cater all the needs of the students in their departments, it could not be helped that there are still misunderstanding and complains from the students.

The submission of grades is contribute also in the delay of the enrollment. Some students became ineligible because their grades are not yet in the CRS. It had happened already in the past semesters. Many students lined up in the administration office to have their status cleared. Not all of the students who lined up have to be ineligible but they have been because of the teachers fault of not submitting the grades on time.

The registration assistant also play a major role in the enrollment. They were tasked to helped the students who need some assistance. In some cases, the RAs are not well informed about the priority status of some SAs in the university. Best example are the SAs from the Computer Center. These SAs play a vital role during the enrollment. If you haven’t notice, during enrollment the faculty uses the internet to pre-advise, post-advise and validate the subjects enlisted by the students. If an internet connection problem occurs or any related cases the SAs from the Computer Center are the ones assigned to do the troubleshooting and fixing. Yet, these SAs are not given priority in the enrollment. These issue should be settled right away for the good of the many.

The most important thing to do to compensate for the drawback of the manual enlistment is for the faculties, department representatives, registration assistants and students to cooperate to each other to further speed up the enrollment process. Working together is the key to all of the problems during enrollment.

UFC 115: Liddell vs. Franklin is an upcoming mixed martial arts event to be held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on June 12, 2010 at General Motors Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

This may sound corny to all but this was what came out of my mind while I am enjoying the mild cold wind of the afternoon on the rooftop of my apartment.

A Wedding Proposal

You electrified my heart
And now I don’t know how to start
The usual conversation that we had
When I was not yet in love
You made my day so bright
Even in the darkest night
There is nothing that i could wish for
Because your the one that I’ve been looking for
You filled in my emptiness
By removing all of my sadness
Your smile takes my breath away
That I skip the words that I should say
And every time that I get bored
I think about your words
Life is full of mystery
And I wonder how you have come to me
Your a rare beauty to me
That is incomparable to anybody
I hope you answer my question my lovely lady
And that is will you marry me?

Note:
It took me few weeks to finish this poem. I was lying on the rooftop in our apartment when the idea of writing this popped-up in my mind. First, I didn’t know what to write but the ounce of inspiration was enough to drive my mind to think. After brainstorming, I was able to start the first two lines. Not even realizing that I had written a stanza. Now, I want to share this and you are free to make a comment. -Peter Rojas

I read an article in the newspaper(Philippine Daily Inquirer) about the leaked emails that prove the fraud in the recent election. I visited the site provided by the article to check the validity of the claimed emails. Looking at it, I can say that there is truth behind it. For further reading, visit the site RP Cheaters Incorporated.

I happened to read this article in today’s issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It talked about the 7.3% growth rate at the first quarter of 2010. The Malacanang is boasting this 7.3% growth rate and they said that it was because of the good economic policies of the Arroyo administration. But this statement of Malacanang was countered by presumptive president-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, who had Ms Arroyo as an economic teacher at the Ateneo de Manila University. He pointed out that the increase in the gross domestic product was primarily due to campaign spending for the May 10 elections.

“Economic figures are inflated by the campaign spending and hence can’t be claimed as the result of wise economic policies.”, Aquino said.

He also said that the outgoing administration was still on a spending spree despite growing budget deficit.

The statement was similar to that aired by two other senators and the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan(Bayan).

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. found the declared growth “a little unbelievable.” He said that the prosperity of a country should be measured by alleviation of the poverty of the masses, if we are to not able to do that, no matter how high the gross domestic product is, it doesn’t matter.

Sen. Rodolfo Biazon said it is attributed only to election spending and not anything else.

“It’s election spending because councilor all the way up to the president spent money.”

The past experience had shown that the economy bounced back because of spending in an election year.

Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said Ms Arroyo could not claim credit for the 7.3 economic growth because it was spurred by “unsustainable factors” such as election spending and OFW remittances. He cited observations that the past elections appeared to be the most expensive in Philippines history and quoted the electoral advocacy group Pera at Pulitika at saying that campaign advertising alone amounted to some P4.4 billion.

He said that this was not the first time economic growth was driven by national elections: “In 2007, the year of the midterm elections, the first quarter GDP growth was 6.9 percent and was described as ‘stunning’. In 2004, the year of the presidential election, first quarter GDP growth was at 6.4 percent and was also hailed as ‘unprecedented’. Now, in 2010, the 7.3 percent first quarter GDP growth is also being hailed as a spectacular accomplishment by the outgoing regime.”

Reyes added that what the country needs right now is a concrete change in its programs and policies.

“A corruption-free bureaucracy is certainly most welcome, but programs like genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization are factors that create gainful jobs and spur sustainable progress.”

The growth rate I think should not be the basis for the economic growth and development but the standard of living of the people of the country. Even if the growth rate is low in a particular quarter as long as the citizens don’t suffer from any scarcity of resources then it is better than a high growth rate due to a hollow performance of the government. The government should not be satisfied with a high growth rate but rather push itself harder to do better for its people.

The second day of the seminar was shorter than the first day since there are only two lectures to be talked by the resource speakers. First was how do we increase the production of biofuels/bioenergy by Dr. Chang-Ho Park and the last one was Industry Experience and Issues on Biofuels/Bioenergy by Mr. Arcadio Lozada Jr., San Carlos Bioenergy Inc.

Dr. Park started right away his lecture. He has a limited time so he had to be fast. The unutilized potential of Philippine agriculture was first tackled. It talked about that low agricultural productivity, low cereal yield, need more irrigation and fertilizer use, land use and output of different crops, Philippine rice yields, rice yields in Indonesia, India and Thailand and lastly, Philippine exports by commodity group.

The different ways of increasing the production of biofuels/bioenergy are the following:
1. Increase and diversify the production of feedstock in the Philippines
2. Genetic improvement of the microbes
3. Improve bioreactor performance
(1) High cell density culture
(2) Cell immobilization
(3) Simultaneous fermentation and separation
4. Combine biotechnology with chemical (catalytic) processes
5. Attract foreign investment

The conclusion of the talk is about the following:
1. The importance of biofuel industry
high oil price and global warming
2. The philippines is taking an excellent position in feedstock production
Coconut, jatropha, sugarcane, cassava, macro algae, etc.
3. Biofuel production cost
All the processes are claiming ethanol production cost $1/gallon
4. International cooperation is desirable for a synergy of production technology and feedstock supply.
5. A strong commitment of the government to invest in basic research and commercial development.