Politics

Government and big businesses need to think differently to find a way out of persistent problems. Let's think backwards and sidewards -- a technique that Edward de Bono called Lateral Thinking.

What if instead of spending lots of money on policemen and NBI to raid vendors of fake software and DVD movies, businesses instead collected money from the vendors?

I am a very average citizen, but sometimes, things just go haywire and I snap. I turn from a timid Pinoy to a blood-thirsty Roman waving his thumbs-down sign on a dying gladiator. After venting off my rage by writing, I revert into an average guy again.

Metro Manila is a place where there are many reasons to snap. And if you snap many times, then reverting back to normal becomes more difficult. I've recently snapped in favor of BITAG -- a television show that I once hated, but I now watch with pleasure and even encouragement.

Dear Congressmen (and other abusive government officials),

One of you got shot in front of a church and another was allegedly bombed (although the reasons and evidences cited so far look flimsy).

Found this clever piece from Philip Greenspun's site, one of my heroes from the software world.

Should the government be suing Microsoft for violating antitrust laws? Perhaps. But doesn't it seem kind of odd for government lawyers to be typing Microsoft Word documents about how bad Microsoft is?

I couldn't agree more. Greenspun wrote this at the height of government suing Microsoft for unfair monopolistic practices. I think this is as relevant as ever, since the Philippine government has also recently passed an Open Source Law, which ironically was drafted and distributed for review in MS Word .doc format!

The issue of Filipino-American friendship always brings out difficult questions like “What is friendship?” and “Do you believe in long engagements?” Describing it can be likened to the answers you once wrote on those high school slum notes: serious to the point of madrama. They gave you pride at the time you scribbled them. And then you grew up they became embarrassments.

If you were to ask me how to sum up Filipino-American relations since they imposed themselves upon us some 100 years ago, I can do in two words: Virgin Forest. By this, I don’t intend to evoke poetic imagery connoting “unexplored” or “rich with wealth” or whatever. I simply mean the award-winning 1982 movie that was directed by Peque Gallaga and written by Uro dela Cruz from a story by T.E. Pagaspas. This film sums up the saga of Fil-Am friendship: it begins with wide-eyed, open-armed hospitality that leaves us beaming with pride. Then it degenerates into treachery and deception, much to our collective chagrin and shame.

Damn you, Guy Kawasaki!

You kept me up till 2 AM because I couldn't put down your book about evangelism. You've rekindled something in me which I forgot I always had. You've set me off to open new and old doors and probably now spend more sleepless nights!

Now I know more about the stages of evangelism: sowing, cultivating and harvesting. Now I know better how to recruit, train and let loose an army of evangelists. Now I know why evangelism works better than plain vanilla marketing.