EFN-Asia 6: Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Oct 10-12

The annual Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia conference will start tomorrow in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I will be going there as one of the World Cafe Table Hosts on October 11. I will also see there old friends in the Asian free market movement like Barun Mitra (Liberty Institute, India), Parth Shah (Center for Civil Society, India), Aco Patunru (LPEM, Indonesia), Baagi Shagdar (EBI think tank, Mongolia), Feng Xingyuan (Unirule and CIPA, China), Mr. You (Japanese for Tax Reforms), Wan Saiful Wan Jan (IDEAS, Malaysia), Tom Palmer (Atlas, USA), and a few others.


Here is the announcement at the FNF-Manila website, http://www.fnf.org.ph/
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Competition: Engine for Prosperity

The annual Economic Freedom Network Asia (EFN) Conference is set on October 10-13, 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Around 200 economists from all over the world are expected to attend.

The Philippine Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad will give the keynote speech. The role of government in promoting competition, the benefits of competition in public service delivery, and the enforcement of competition policies will be discussed. A resolution is expected to be formulated after the three-day activity. The Economic Freedom of the World Report will also be launched at the event.

The EFN Conference is jointly organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF), Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) and Center for Public Policy Studies (CPPS).

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This will be the 6th EFN-Asia that I will attend. I have attended the 2004-2006 (HK, Phuket, KL respectively) conferences via Jo Kwong and Atlas when Atlas partnered with FNF in holding a one-day forum prior to the EFN main conference, same hotel.

Then I attended the 2009 (Manila, of course) and 2010 (Jakarta) conference. Last year I was a panel moderator (I thanked Jyoti Sachavirawong for the invite) in Jakarta, and this year, I will be one of the Table Hosts, World Cafe, it's a new form of interactive, face to face discussion, rather fast-paced.


A few weeks ago, I attended the CMFR forum on Competition Policy held at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati City. The main speaker was Atty. Tony Abad, also a friend. Tony has been advocating the legislation of a competition policy for at least two decades now. He wants to have a competition policy AND create a new govt bureaucracy called the Fair Trade (or Anti-Trust) Commission at the same time. 


During the open forum, I spoke and argued that government ruling on what is competitive or anti-competitive is already corrupted. Given many players and firms in a particular industry, if my price is higher than my competitors, I can be accused of price gouging. If my price is almost the same as my competitors, then we can be accused of price collusion or price cartelization. If my price is lower than my competitors, I can be accused of predatory pricing. So whatever pricing I will take, I or any player can be accused and harassed by the government's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) or similar bodies.

I further argued that the best "competition policy" is NO policy on the subject. Government will just deregulate all sectors and sub-sectors and allow as many players and competitors as possible. Unfortunately, the main creator of monopolies or oligopolies is the government itself, through the Constitution (especially the 40% maximum foreign equity for many sectors and utilities, reserving the 60% to 100% equity to Filipino businessmen only, which is an indirect form of cronyism and business protectionism). Then we also have a system called Legislative franchising, utilities will first get a franchise from Congress -- and be subject to possible Congressional extortion -- before they secure various business permits from local and national government agencies.


The other national government agencies also have their own set of business regulations and restrictions. Plus the local governments (Mayors, Governors, their respective city/municipal and provincial councils).


Thus, a good competition policy for me, is the removal of many business restrictions in the Constitution, the removal of the Congressional franchising system for utilities, media and other sectors, and for local governments to have liberal policies that are conducive to business, entrepreneurship (micro to medium to large) and job creation.


In the absence of constitutional change that will lift and remove those restrictive policies, it is important to persuade Congress and local governments to have more liberal and pro-market policies.

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See also:
EFN Asia 1: From HK to Phuket to KL, September 16, 2006
EFN Asia 2: Hayek in Asia, September 20, 2010
EFN Asia 3: Conference in Jakarta, October 06, 2010
EFN Asia 4: Migration and Freedom, Jakarta Conference, October 09, 2010
EFN Asia 5: MG Thinkers Now with EFN, October 19, 2010

PhilHealth Watch 7: Deregulate PhilSick

(Note: Check my previous discussions on the "PhilHealth Watch" series as backgrounder:

Part 1: Claims vs. reimbursement, August 25, 2010
Part 2: Contributions vs. Service, September 24, 2010
Part 3, Market failure vs. Government failure in health insurance, October 13, 2010
Part 4: P110 B excess money, November 04, 2010
Part 5: Healthcare and Civil Society, May 06, 2011
Part 6: Bogus Claims and Robbery, June 15, 2011)

Last Thursday, October 6, there was an interesting forum on the Senate Bill amending the PhilHealth Charter organized by MeTA Philippines, inviting CHAT's NGO leaders. The presenter was Dr. Kenneth Hartigan-Go,  Executive Director, Zuellig Center for Asian Business Transformation, AIM Center for Development Management. and former Secretary of MeTA Philippines. The audience were varied -- from health NGOs, research NGOs (like IBON and MG Thinkers), WHO, PhilHealth, PHAP and a few multinational pharma, and the Phil. Pharmacists Association (PPhA).

Dr. Ken mentioned several issues about PhilHealth and the government-run health insurance system. Among them:

1. Still high out of pocket (OOP) spending,
2. Poor premium collection and poor insurance coverage,
3. Little funds for preventing and primary healthcare,
4. Some effects of devolution of healthcare to LGUs,
5. Accountability of PhilHealth administration
6. High OOP partly due to less essential if not useless health products like cosmetics, vitamins, even unnecessary hospitalization,
7. Possible rise in premium contribution by 3.5 percent or 5 percent for those in the formal sector,
8. Mapping of informal sector by the LGUs.
9. Goal of reducing OOP to 20 percent of total health expenditure (THE) by 2020,
10. Others.

The exchange among participants were rather very spontaneous and lively. I like the term "PhilSick" because one can "enjoy" getting PhilHealth reimbursement only if he/she is already very sick and confined in a hospital. If one is not confined in a hospital, he/she cannot file for claims and reimbursement.

After listening to various exchanges, my time to speak and I focused on the following:

1. We are already double- or triple-taxed on health: (a) income tax and consumption tax (VAT, etc.) to help finance the DOH, its retained hospitals, hospitals and healthcare by LGUs, (b) PhilHealth mandatory contributions, and (c) getting a private health insurance via health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and other schemes.

2. For me personally, the most useless is (b), PhilHealth. I have been working for the past 25 years or so, been contributing to Medicare before (it went bankrupt) now PhilHealth, and I've never been hospitalized all those years. My family members are supposed to be my "dependents" but my wife also has work, so she is also a PhilHealth member. When she gave birth, she was hospitalized of course, she claimed on her membership and the reimbursement was small, something like 1/7 of the total hospital bill.

3. With due respect to the PhilHealth guys in the room, PhilHealth is simply a monster bureaucracy that tends to behave like most bureaucracies - they exist mainly for themselves. See for instance how secretive it is with regards to the perks and bonuses of its Directors, how defensive and jealous it is in limiting membership of the Board to a few, mostly government officials too, people. The regulated sectors and players like the physicians and hospitals, are out of the Board. I also have personal experience in queueing for 2-3 hours just to file for claims, or another 2-3 hours just to get a membership data record (MDR). PhilHealth wants contributions to be sent to them in minutes (one can text his contribution to the bureaucracy) but members have to wait 2 to 3 months or more to get the reimbursement at a smaller amount compared to total hospital bill.

4. Many in the formal sector have to get a private insurance. If I have a persistent fever or bad cough, I cannot just go to any DOH hospital for they are far from my office; I also cannot file for claims with PhilHealth as I don't get hospitalized. I use my HMO card and it's convenient and useful.

5. To attain "universal healthcare" (UHC), it is important that people should have health insurance, whether government-run or private or NGO- or cooperative-managed. Thus, UHC should not mean government health insurance monopoly.

6. Thus, contrary to the advocacy of many in the room asking for bigger but a "reformed" PhilHealth, I think a better alternative is to deregulate the health insurance industry. PhilHealth will not be abolished, it can be retained as a government health insurance corporation but no longer a monopoly and membership to it will no longer be mandatory and by coercion. If PhilHealth sees that they are no longer attracting the public, it will be forced to become efficient and be more sensitive to their contributors and clients.

Personally, I would like to see PhilHealth be privatized and/or abolished, but that's not a realistic scenario. A more realistic one is the deregulation and demonopolization of the health insurance sector. Allow private firms or NGOs to compete among themselves in providing healthcare to the people, both in the formal and informal sectors.

In Switzerland, workers can get a health insurance via their labor union, or the company-sponsored one, or through their village and neighborhood association, etc. So people have many choices in getting healthcare that is tailored for them. There is no PhilHealth-like government insurance monopoly where people are mandated and coerced to become members, even if they are not happy with the amount of forced contribution and its service. See here, Healthcare competition 1: Switzerland, August 28, 2010.

Steve Jobs and innovation

Goodbye, Steve Jobs.

Although I remain poor enough not to purchase any of your products -- not an iPhone, nor an iPad, much less a Mac laptop (well, my wife once gave me an iPod as her Christmas gift to me a few years back) -- I am a great fan of Apple products. I really hope to get one of those stuff in the coming months.

There is one good posting in facebook from the head of the Ayn Rand Institute about the man, I copy-paste below.

‎

"Well done, Steve Jobs"

Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged lionizes the great wealth creators--the men and women whose thought, creativity, and drive has lifted mankind from the cave to the glistening skyscrapers of New York City. As the president of the Ayn Rand Institute, I regularly speak about Atlas and there is one living person who, more than anyone else, I reference as embodying those traits: Steve Jobs. The news that Jobs is no longer with us leaves me truly heartbroken.

What Jobs has always represented to me is someone who devoted his life to creating great values--who pursued his own vision, his own dreams, his own happiness. The results of his life's work are truly astounding: the Apple II, the Macintosh, Pixar, the iPod, iTunes, the iPhone, the iPad, and much, much more. He set out to change the world. He succeeded, and by all accounts took deep joy in his career and his achievements. He deserved it.

Ever since I heard the news that Steve Jobs died, a certain passage from Atlas Shrugged keeps running through my head, although only readers of the novel will understand the full impact of the scene.

Toward the end of the novel, when heroine Dagny Taggart is reunited with several men she had thought she would never see again, she says that the meeting is like a childhood dream "when you think that some day, in heaven, you will see those great departed men whom you had not seen on earth, and you choose, from all the past centuries, the great men you would like to meet."

One of the men replies: "And if you met those great men in heaven…. There's something you'd want to hear from them. [Y]ou'd want them to look at you and to say, 'Well done.' … All right, then. Well done, Dagny!"

If there were a heaven, filled with the great men of history, I have no doubt that they would say, "Well done, Steve Jobs."

Yaron Brook

Meanwhile, ICT and telecom innovation succeeds with little politics. There are debates about the role or mis-role of patents and IPR in the software and computer world, something which I do not follow close enough.

A minor concern on Steve's death is on medicine innovation, finding that revolutionary medicine or vaccine against pancreatic cancer, the disease that killed Mr. Jobs. It seems to be not catching up much in relation to the demand of patients like Steve, due to heavy politics and multiple government regulations in many countries, like IPR-busting policies and drug price control.

At 56, Mr. Jobs should have lived longer. His restless and highly innovative mind is needed by the world more than ever. It is true that he has packed Apple with many bright and equally innovative minds too like his successor, Mr. Cook. But still, the presence of the founder, the father, the icon of Apple innovation, would have been more desirable.

Nonetheless, goodbye again, Mr. Jobs. Well done job on Earth.

Rest in Peace.

Climate stupidity 19: More severe typhoons are due to global warming

(This is my article yesterday in the lobbyist.biz with original title, Climate Change Stupidity)

Climate Change Stupidity

THURSDAY, 06 OCTOBER 2011 06:15

WRITTEN BY NONOY OPLAS

Tags: Less Government

Man-made warming or more technically, anthropogenic global warming (AGW), and its cousin, man-made climate change (MCC), continue as the most parasitic, highly-politicized and even robbery-motivated science fiction in the past and current century.

AGW predicts that there will be less rain, less snow, more drought and drier season and winter. Seeing the variability of warm-cool season, they shifted to MCC and say that global warming will cause less rain and more rain, less snow and more snow, the dry will become drier, the wet will become wetter. Whatever weather, whatever climate, whatever season, that a country or a continent or the planet will have, AGW is to blame. Is this not a stupid and idiotic proposition?

If there are heavy rains and heavy flooding, blame AGW and MCC. If there is less rain and there is “water crisis” in the dams, blame AGW and MCC too. Is this not an idiotic and stupid proposition? And many UN and national governments policies like new carbon taxes, renewable energy subsidies, WB-ADB climate loans, etc. are based on this idiotic and stupid proposition.

At the height of heavy flooding last week and this week in many provinces in Central and Northern Luzon, especially in Bulacan province, a number of alarmist news reports were peddled upon the public.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer made a big banner headline last October 2, Climate change blamed for storms, flooding, drought: An inconvenient truth for Philippines: wetter, drier by Cathy Yamsuan and Kristine Alave. The report quoted DOST UnderSecretary Graciano Yumul saying that “in the next 20 to 50 years, the Philippines would find the dry seasons drier and the wet seasons wetter… With the climate change scenario, we will see more of this as a frequent reality,”

Then BusinessMirror had this headline on October 3, PHL urged to step up fight vs. climate change by Imelda Albano. She quoted Climate Change Commission (CCC) Commissioner Heherson Alvarez saying “the country (need) to scale up early actions to address climate change… What we are seeing is a phenomenon that will affect many provinces and major cities in the country even in the coming years.”

Also on October 3, BusinessWorld carried this news, Local gov’ts told to plan better for climate change. It quoted CCC Secretary Mary Ann Lucille L. Sering saying “It’s no longer just about losing lives; climate change is already beginning to hurt us economically.”

Hogwash and garbage. These are from top government officials indirectly telling us, “send us more tax money and we will fight climate change.”

To those government officials mentioned, to other government officials at the DENR, DOST, OP, etc., to the big environmental NGOs World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and Oxfam, other climate alarmist groups, here are some inconvenient graphs for you. My questions follow.

1. Air and lower troposphere temperature as of end-September 2011, satellite data.

2. Global sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly for all oceans (Pacific, Atlantic, Arctic, Indian, etc.) and seas, as of October 3 this year. Observe the dotted black line showing a cooling trend over the last nine years. Source of this and above graphs, Dr. Roy Spencer.

3. SST anomaly for Pacific Ocean’s Nino Region 4 (region closest to the Philippines and other East Asian countries), as of October 2 this year. Source is Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology

4. Consensus Forecast for Pacific Ocean’s Nino Region 3.4, October 2011 to June 2012. Current La Nina started in May 2010, and looks like it will be longer than the 2007-2008 cooling. Source: WUWT ENSO page

Now to my questions:

1. Are those air and sea surface temperature anomalies (or deviations from the average temperature) showing natural climate cycle of warming-cooling-warming-cooling? Yes or No.

1a. If Yes, do you recognize then that there is no such thing as “unprecedented warming” and “unequivocal or definite warming”?

1b. If No, then what do you call those up-down-up-down in global temperatures?

2. Do you recognize that we are now in the global cooling period as global warming phase has ended in 1998? Yes or No.

2a. If Yes, then what’s the fuss with all those endless reference to AGW and the many public policies to “fight” AGW and MCC?

2b. If No, then more clouds, more rains, more flood, more colder days, are also indicators of global warming? What happened to the earlier predictionsof more drought, less rain?

3. Do you recognize that natural factors are more important than CO2 emission in affecting the planet’s climate? Yes or No.

3a. If Yes, then what’s the fuss with all those regulations, restrictions, taxation and subsidies to “fight” AGW?

3B. If No, then how do you explain that fact that while the number of SUVs, airplanes, malls and shops worldwide keep rising, which means rising CO2 emission, and yet global temperatures are declining?

I will limit my questions to the above. I hope that anyone of the warming leaders can answer those questions with honesty and integrity. I am also willing to face anyone of you to a public debate on climate issues.

Let me share also my observation: I have been writing on the subject for the past three years and has challenged a number of warming leaders in this country to a debate. I only get one standard reply: the sound of silence. My impression is that ALL warming leaders in this country are cowards when challenged to a debate.

I hope I can be disproven in my impression. All these continued AGW and MCC noise are  directed to one single objective: global ecological central planning. Of more government regulations, restrictions, and taxation of energy and economic activities.

I believe that this is nothing but a large-scale rent-seeking and robbery project.

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See also
1. Typhoon Nesat ("Pedring") in Pictures, September 28, 2011
2. Climate stupidity 19: Warming causes more storms and less storms, September 26, 2011
3. Climate stupidity 17: Cooling is caused by warming, August 31, 2011

Pilipinas Forum 14: Math, Infinity and Limit

Here is another mind-twisting thread in pilipinasforum yahoogroups made in early December 2001. There was no political discourse here. And that's my point in posting these exchanges in this blog: We need little or no politics (and government) if we wish to expand our individual imagination and knowledge of math, logic and their applications. So, enjoy the 10-pages long exchanges on the subject.

Related articles in this blog are (1) An ever-expanding universe, June 25, 2011. It's about a lecture by an American cosmologist in UP about the "Accelerated History of the Universe". Also, (2) Pilipinas Forum 12: Origin of Zero, Nothingness, Big Bang..., September 25, 2011
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I was able to meet an old friend and a new friend - both Math professors in UP. My old friend, Fidel Nemenzo got his PhD in Sophia U. in Japan, and his specialization is "number theory", reputedly the purest of all math subjects.

Fidel's friend, Ernie, is really fantastic, academically i.e.: Monbusho scholar (like Fidel), finished MS and PhD Math in 5 years with "A" grades equivalent. At Sohia U, he was among the "wonder kids" by solving difficult math problems whle his Japanese classmates could only shake their heads. Undergrad, he finished BS Math in UP - Summa cum laude, in 3 years! High school, he came from Phil. Science HS; elem. he came from an obscure elem. school in an obscure town in Iloilo province. They're so poor that their house has no floor, that PSHS has to pay for his bus to Iloilo, his plane fare to manila. Yet this guy has no self-pity, nor hatred of the rich. He doesn't even see himself joining the corporate world, just a plain academic for the rest of his career. At 27, he's among the youngest professors in UP Math dept.

Fidel is moving to his friend's house, that of Mark Encarnacion, who took a temporary leave from UP for some stints in the US. Mark is another interesting kid. He got a PhD in "Computer Algebra" (!) from an Austrian university. The last time I talked to Mark in UP, about 4 years ago, he said he's the "only person in this country" who has that degree. Mark's father is UPSE's long-time dean, our dean that time, Dr. Jose Encarnacion. The Dean passed away about 3 years ago; his major works are often published in foreign academic journals, enough to be nominated for a possible Nobel prize in Economics.

OK, why am I sharing this? To show that there are such wonderful people in this country but our media and political and business leaders don't seem to notice. Every year we know who are the topnotchers in the bar exams, who are the valedictorians and salutatorians of the PMA, courtesy of the front page stories in our broadsheets and tabloids. But never has it occurred as far as I can remember, that Phil. broadsheets have given front page treatment to returning Filipino scientist or engineer or mathematician with distinguished PhD degree or astonishing research abroad. Which reflects the values and biases of Philippine media: future Filipino politicians and generals are hoorraayy! Future Filipino Einsteins are nobodies.

Of course I hope I'm wrong in this impression.

-- Nonoy Oplas

Inspired by Nonoy's post a few days back on our very own mathematicians in PilipinasForum, I decided to pick up a book, for leisurely reading, entitled, "A Tour of the Calculus" by David Berlinski. I wanted to be reminded as to why I fell in love with Math at one time in my life...

Math & life... the math of life...

From the book, "Some things were Greek to the Greeks. In the fifth century B.C., Zeno the Eleatic argued that a man could never cross a room to bump his nose into the wall...in order to reach the wall he would have first to cross half the room and then half the remaining distance again, and then half the distance that yet remains...this process...can always be continued and can never be ended..."

In the elevator, I always bump into the chief of another investment bank whose offices are in the same building as ours. He once asked me, "Gina, when do you think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel? You know, that one which is not from another train?" I answered, "Tomorrow!". Everytime I see him, we would look and smile at each other and we would, in perfect duet (seemingly practiced), say, "Tomorrow!"

In another instance, an analyst queried me, "Have we reached the bottom yet? How low can the market get?" Armed with calculus, I said, "We can never reach the bottom. The bottom will be forever unknown."

"...The plain fact is that we are capable of compressing those infinite steps..." and actually bump our noses into the wall. The truth is, for some businesses in the country today, tomorrow may not come. And I, a Trekkie, will uncharacteristically pass, on this voyage of discovery to the bottom of the Philippine markets. So much for infinity and continuity and the harsh concept of the limit.*

In case you have not noticed yet :-), this post has nothing to do with serious Math. I am just having fun with the concepts. May I end with this:

"The integral enables you
To do what you need not do. [ :-) ]
The theorem that will make this plain
Is one designed to spare you pain..."

- Mathematicians' Doggerel (quoted from the same book; the smiley, mine)

-- Gina L.

IPR and Medicines 14: Compulsory Licensing in developing countries

During the 2nd Generics Summit sponsored by the DOH last September 7-8, 2011, compulsory licensing (CL) and other intellectual property rights (IPR)-related topics like exhaustion of rights (parallel importation), Bolar Principle, etc. were discussed. See my earlier notes about the summit, Part 12: Expanding Generics, and Part 13: Improving Generics Quality, posted on September 9 and 13, 2011, respectively.

On Day 1, Mr. Epifanio Evasco of the Bureau of Patents, Intellectual Property Office (IPO) spoke about IPR and medicines. He showed cases of CL and special CL policy in the Philippines via the Cheaper Medicines Law or RA 9502. Then the imposition of CL for 3 molecules for HIV antiretrovirals (ARVs) in Indonesia -- Neviraphine, Larmivudine, and Efavirenz.

Thailand has seven drugs put under CL covering drugs against hypertension, HIV and some types of cancer.

Malaysia put 3 anti-HIV drugs under CL while Taiwan imposed CL only on Tamiflu, I think that was during the SARS epidemics which started in China. I think there were also instances of CL imposition in China and Vietnam, Mr. Evasco did not mention them.

He mentioned also that RA 9502 has provisions for "Exhaustion of rights" (Art 6 of TRIPS) which is directly linked to "parallel importation". Note that this term is different from ordinary importation. Then there is also the "Research exemption" provision in the law, which allows researchers to use a patented invention like a new drug for experimental or educational purpose.

The "Bolar Provision" or "early working" would allow (mostly local) generic manufacturers to develop a patented drug without the consent of the patent holder. Once the molecule patent expires, the generic producers can instantly market and sell their own branded generics.

Mr. Evasco left most, and Ms. Catherina Timmermans of WHO (2nd from right) were the two speakers that day who touched on IPR and medicines.

Ms. Timmerman's presentation was entitled "Priority Medicines, Essential Medicines for Non-Communioable Diseases". That should be a prelude to the big UN and WHO summit in NYC to control NCDs last September 19-21. One may wonder, why would the UN and many national governments impose more "government responsibility" in healthcare when the decision to over-drink, over-smoke, over-eat, over-sit or not, is mainly personal decision and responsibility.

Anyway, it was good that Ms. Timmermans mentioned the contribution of government taxes and fees to expensive medicines.

Also the role of competition among generic producers, but I don't remember that she mentioned competition among innovator companies. And the role of differentiated pricing, which is related to market segmentation and product differentiation.

Here'a long list of developing countries which imposed CL: Zambia and Zimbabwe, Malaysia-Indonesia-Thailand, Brazil and Ecuador, between 2003 to 2010.

This list of course is not complete, There should be instances of CL declaration in other countries like India, Pakistan, Ghana, etc.

Here is an interesting case of CL in Thailand against Clopidogrel molecule (anti-blood clot, anti-vascular diseases; in short, against non-communicable or non-infectious diseases).

With the modernization of food (and beverage, tobacco) production and marketing, modernization in people's lifestyle -- they tend to eat more fatty food, gulp more fatty drinks, socialize with friends with more cigarettes, beer and wine -- the development of non-communicable diseases also rise among the people. But this is on top of rising or longer lifespan. Before, people were dying of hunger and lack of food. Now, many people are dying because of too many food and drinks.

If developers of modern drugs that address NCDs are to be demonized as "hungry multinational capitalists who suck sweat and blood from the patients", then who will develop those new drugs and still escape being demonized as such?

The WHO (and many governments) has that ideological baggage of being a silent or implicit anti-innovation, anti-competitive capitalism bias. This could be the main reason why the WHO is always in the forefront of exaggerating certain diseases (before, they exaggerated the threat of HIV, then SARS, H1N1, now the NCDs) as they get more budget and funding from national governments.

DPWH, Photoshop and Facebook

At first there was this picture in the facebook wall of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), one of the most notorious for corruption agencies in the Philippine government. This was sometime September 27, 2011, about the visit of 3 high DPWH officials of the battered seawall of Roxas Blvd. after typhoon Nesat (or "Pedring" local name) last week.

Then an engineer-blogger, Pierre Albert San Diego made an analysis of the photo in his blog post, DPWH Photoshop Fail because he immediately noticed that there was something wrong with the photo.

The author concluded his paper with this,

Some say this is a very minor issue, but I see this as a nice sample of DPWH’s lack of integrity. If they can fabricate simple things like this, just imagine what these guys can do to progress billings and acceptance of projects. Also, while relatively mild, isn’t this a classic example of “Utak Wangwang?” While unethical and unnecessary, they thought they could get away with fabricating photos so they tried to.

Amen. And since then, the failed photoshop has become sort of "viral". DPWH officials later apologized for misleading the public -- because they were caught. And so the picture of the 3 officials have also gone to different places. These photos I took from various sources.

The three officials also joined Jesus' Last Supper, hahaha!

And they are also part of Stallone's team of The Expendables.

And they are into boxing too! :-)

Jim Ayson posted more photos in his blog post, The Great DPWH Photoshop Meme Kicks Into Overdrive, where many of the photos here were lifted.

The three officials were also seen behind the DPWH's younger sibling, a giant crocodile caught in Agusan province a few weeks ago.

They were also sighted in the ruins somewhere in Europe, and the UP Pep Squad, the champions in the UAAP competition.

My golly, they also joined the Beatles when the band members were still young, hahaha.

A party with Jollibee, and in the shooting of The Inspection.

Wonder when the real photoshop geeks will stop with their funny imagination?

From the caves -- is this in Callao cave in Cagayan, or in Bohol or somewhere else... to the waves -- in Hawaii or Siargao in Surigao del Norte?

Wait, wait, don't disturb... they are meeting the young saviors of the planet :-)

I'm no geek in photoshop, I haven't done even one photo using that software, but I want to join the fray, how?

I only know copy-and-paste in powerpoint and jpg.

Here is a picture of some of our dogs in the farm more than a year ago. Two of my dogs were looking angrily at them... :-)

And still more images from more photoshop geeks :-)

Lots of new photos are cropping up at the fb page, DPWHERE?

Photo lower left is famous, "Find the cat". Clue: it's on the upper right side of the picture...

Also, more hijacked pics at Pop Culture.

This time, the Public Works officials have become crime investigators...

From DPWH officials to boatmen and flood rescuers :-)

And earthlings who joined the mermaids down under.

Or the new explorers of The Ring....

Haayyy buhay. Pag manloloko ka nga naman at nahuli ka, lagot.

Pilipinas Forum 13: On Zero or Minimal Government

These are the exchanges in pilipinasforum yahoogroups in the middle of October 2001 or 10 years ago. Enjoy the 11-pages long exchanges and debates. The pictures and cartoons, I just added them here. Cheers.
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May I ask this question: "What the origin of zero government?"

"State of nature", according to social contract theoreticians Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau.

"Primitive communal" mode of production, according to Karl Marx.

"Invisible hand/perfectly competitive market", according to classical economists like Adam Smith.

"Invisible nature", according to Nonoy Oplas. he he he.

-- Nonoy Oplas

Noy, am interested on zero government. Sat down a few weeks ago with some friends on a single issue: getting rid of government and replacing it with the "market" as a mechanism to provide the social services which many governments, particularly in developing countries, have been remiss with.

One fellow argued eloquently how everything can be privatized: armed forces and defense, education, health, foreign affairs, infrastructure . . .

He argued that in the case of the Philippines, he does not agree with the passage of the 1987 constitution but he it is imposed upon him anyway. He queries if one did not vote, his dissent is ignored. and the budget deficit of the government is imposed upon him.

Inflation, which he describes as the worst kind of taxation is the fault of government. in the private sector, if you make wrong business decisions and the business collapse, you pay for it. but the government despite all its horrible acts does not pay for its mistakes.

I must admit i agree with him. but i argued that because of the political economy we have, the "market" is the first thing we have to establish, while contending with the powerful political forces and interests. unless we recognize the dynamics of forces present, we will get trampled by them. I added that his idea will only work if:

1. there is a limited universe of participants to the market bounded by some common parameters, e.g. all bettors in a cockpit locked inside

2. the market is more or less homogenous, e.g. again all of them sabungeros (cockfight gamblers).

3. penalties are stiff, e.g. you don't want to not pay your bet in the cockpit arena

then we will all have to be sabungeros.

who took the cookie from the cookie jar,

-- Harlequin

I have just survived two days in the pig pen we call the House of Representatives and listened to Congressmen heckle us while they look here, there in the budget for where they can find their swill (CDF). Talk about black holes and nothingness. Looking at them strut and preem reminds of the need for a big bang to shake these pools of primordial soup into some higher life form. They shall pay for making me miss Ally Mcbeal and ER and Survivor 3! Fortunately, I am home in time for Star Trek Voyager on the Hallmark Channel.

I find it amusing that these sanctimonious cretins (are they eligible to be called life forms?) talk about issues like the world depression and the deficit and all they want to know is where is their money??

What is the rationale for these posts? You want to find the origin of zero - of nothingness? Look no farther than there in the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, these black holes are supposed to be the representation of the sovereign will and wisdom(????) of the people.

-- Ricky Sunico