The pain of being away/Dylan and Nathan on the Highway of Hope

GK Highway of Hope/ GK1MB Summit in San Diego

I heard from the grapevine that Fil-Ams in the San Diego area are organizing a massive Fil-Am event during Memorial Day weekend, 24-26 May 2008 in San diego. Objectives are:

1. Culmination of the Highway of Hope, a 65-city speaking blitz of Dylan Wilk, Ana Meloto-Wilk, and others on Gawad Kalinga;
2. GK Bayan Summit to be held in San Diego;
3. Day long activities and convergence of various Fil-Am groups to talk, plan, meet up, strategize on projects, proposals, etc. not only on GK, but other activities concerning the Fil-Am community and the Philippines as well.

Lead organizers include big-time San Diego Fil-Am entrepreneurs Tony Olaes and Robert Sanchez. This hopes to be a very good networking opportunity....

Please check out http://www.ancopusa.org/index_new.php.

Here's their write-up:

2008-02-01

GK1mB "Highway of Hope" Coming Your Way Fredy Guevara, GKOMNews USA 2008-02-01 Dylan Wilk and Nathan Mari will be braving the elements in the next 3 months, crisscrossing the American landscape, and making stops in well over 60 cities. Dylan estimates they will be covering more than 12,000 miles in the course of the trip. Can you imagine driving to the Philippines and back? This is exactly how much they, Dylan and Nathan, will be driving, starting February 2nd. Scheduled to join them at some point is Patricia Esteves, a distinguished columnist from the Philippines, to document parts of the feat and capture the spirit of the brave endeavor. I'm tired already just thinking of the drive. The trip is also a family affair. Joining Dylan throughout the trip is his lovely wife, Anna Meloto-Wilk and their two daughters. What motivates people like Dylan and Nathan to do so is like asking what makes GK think it can rebuild a nation, one family at a time, one community at a time. Many of us have immersed ourselves in the work of GK. And many more here in the US have now heard of GK. GK777 is now on the horizon - launched in 2003, to build 700,000 homes , in 7,000 communities, in 7 years. So you ask, "Is that enough?" Others ask "Can it be done?" I ask you from another point of view, "What if no one bothered?" Dylan makes a distinction of the upcoming road trip themed Highway of Hope, "I don't want to give the impression that Nathan and I are somehow the source of hope because we're clearly not. Neither will the events fulfill the work of themselves and therefore are not the source of hope either. It is important specially that our own teams understand that the "Hope" can only spring from the communities that will be nurtured by them as Nathan and I pass by." What is GK1mB? Where are Dylan and Nathan going? When will they be around your area? Find out more. Click the "Highway of Hope" link on the ANCOP home page.

Questions for civil society

While people are beginning to salivate at the prospects of removing Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo over the mishandling of Jun Lozada and the alleged unmitigated greed and corruption of associates and family members; civil society, the most "credible" and relatively "organized" institution engaging the Arroyo administration, should apprise the Filipino people on:

1. Who are the alternative leaders that will be acceptable, morally and competently, to the people?
2. How government institutions such as COMELEC, DOJ, NEDA, Customs, DOTC, SBMA, DA/DAR, DENR, etc. will be reformed in the short-term, medium-term, and long-term?
3. How will the economic growth momentum that is occurring during the GMA administration be sustained?
4. How will the House of Representatives and Senate be reformed to make them more responsive and responsible?

Can we ask civil society to come up with a framework soonest since the la affaire Lozada might snowball into something uncontrollable?

I ask this because civil society, especially in the Philippine context, were and are active in the democratization process, in advocating for economic and policy reforms, had members who joined government, are vehicles of significant amounts of development aid funds, and have partnered with government in the delivery of numerous services and projects. They also have organizational and geographical breadth across the country. See the works of Dr. Ledevina Cariño and Dr. Gerard Clarke, among others.

Abandoned homes in the U.S.

About 3.5 million or 1% of the population, or 10% of the poor are homeless in the United States in a given year, while at least 335,000 are homeless in any given week.

Yet, in Buffalo, New York, there are 17,000 abandoned homes,due in significant part to the mortgage crisis and economic downturn in the region.

In Providence, Rhode Island, there are over 700 abandoned homes, necessitating drastic action from the Mayor to financially help homeowners spruce up and rehabilitate these homes.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors predicts that 361 metropolitan areas will lose $166 billion in 2008. In the Rust Belt cities, the economic woes linger. Cuyahoga County, which Cleveland is part of, has roughly 17,000 vacant foreclosed properties. Baltimore has 16,000 foreclosed properties, an increase of 3,700 from the year 2000 figures of 12,300.

Along with abandoned homes are abandoned pets.

Some homeless people have noticed the trend and have acted. Anecdotal reports show that the homeless are taking over some of the abandoned homes.

The faltering U.S. economy is the top dinner debate. iTulip.com provides a contrarian and more in-depth assessment of the situation as well as a timeframe of the economic downturn.

States as voyeurs

The US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and the UK-based Privacy International published online (hardcopy can be purchased) in late December 2007 their annual comprehensive survey of global privacy of 70 countries' state of surveillance and privacy protection policies and practices. The 2007 Privacy & Human Rights Report is very disturbing in that powerful countries such as the United States, Russia, China, Australia, and several European countries have either a state of "endemic surveillance" or have "systemic failure to uphold safeguards."

The Philippines ranked better than the United States, but is one of several states with "extensive surveillance". See map below.

figure from Privacy International website

Diversity, Education, and Innovation

Charlie Rose interviewed Dr. Susan Hockfield, 16th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A noted neuroscientist, she has extensive academic managerial experience. There area many gems of wisdom in the interview and it seems that MIT is going to be a leader in alternative energy and biotechnology in the coming years. I like her participatory and inclusive approach to education and her proactive embrace of diversity. She relates an inspiring story of how how one of her political science professors graphically showed how diverse America is.

Pretty obvious, but America's greatness lies in the diversity of its people. This diversity enables the country to bring the best, brightest, most innovative and most creative people on the planet to work on cutting edge science, technology, art, and ideas.

So, xenophobics, listen and take note.

Viral internet and the unfolding ZTE-NBN scandal

Last week I commented on the the Jun Lozada exposé of former NEDA Secretary Romulo Neri's fears in revealing all about ZTE-NBN deal. One of my comments was the rapidly increasing number of webpages devoted to this controversy. Below you will find a crude listing of the number of webpages if one types in some keywords at Google. Note that many of the webpages are irrelevant or not connected to the ZTE-NBN issue. Nevertheless, the first 10-20 page listings are mostly correct/relevant.

Second, the total number of webpages have increased multiple times from last weekend. The GMA administration blundered with their almost criminal handling of Jun Lozada when he arrived from Hongkong. Support for him has likewise gathered momentum in inverse proportion to the disgust at this administration's actions toward him.

Keyword search at Google:

Personalized Results 1 - 10 of about 597,000 for NBN deal. (0.30 seconds)
Personalized Results 1 - 10 of about 11,000 for NBN-ZTE deal. (0.26 seconds)
Personalized Results 1 - 10 of about 5,680 for ZTE-NBN deal. (0.07 seconds)
Personalized Results 1 - 10 of about 166,000 for Jun lozada. (0.23 seconds)
Personalized Results 1 - 10 of about 67,000 for Rodolfo Lozada Jr.. (0.30 seconds)
Personalized Results 21 - 30 of about 50,100 for jun, moderate their greed. (0.08 seconds).

Lastly, this scandal might not only affect the Macapagal and Arroyo clans, but other business families as well as seen in the off-the cuff statement of former NEDA Secretary Neri.



I think when Catholic masses or interfaith prayer rallies are being organized with an intentional focus on the controversy, civil society is beginning to mobilize to directly challenge government- once again.

The next few weeks will be interesting.