Who's poor?

They say that most Filipinos are living in poverty. But I believe that assessment depends of your perspective of poor.

Wikipedia defines poverty as "deprivation of those things that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, but also 'intangibles' such as the opportunity to learn and to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens."

On my way home from a meeting outside of the office, I saw a man watching an afternoon tv show on his free time inside the Quinta Market in Quiapo near the Pasig Ferry terminal. (see separate story in my commuter blog)



His TV set has a 15" screen and he uses a cable television line as an antenna. While he watches free TV broadcasts, his neighbors up ahead have cable TV connection and are watching the Pinoy Box Office channel.

So, if poverty is defined as deprivation of those essentials mentioned above, then I believe this man is not inside the poverty level.

But then again, there is a so called poverty threshold which measures poverty based on income levels.

So who's to say someone is poor?

Low cost computing

My uncle once offered to by me a laptop. It is a Pentium IV gateway laptop that will cost him $600. He told me that he will donate $100 for my cause and just ask me to pay him $500. Based on the exchange rate at that time, it will cost me about 35,000 pesos to pay him back. And I do not have that kind of money at that time.

In the last 10 years, the best pre-Pentium personal computers cost as much as thirty thousand pesos (P30,000) and this is too much for middle class families like ours. Right now, those pre-Pentium PCs are considered obsolete. You can't even buy one for just P500. Some one would probably give it to you with all their heart.

When I bought my AMD Athlon 1800 powered PC, it cost me P17,000. Five years later, a PC with the same processor speed costs only P9,000-P10,000.

A lot of low cost computer stores have been coming out. They sell complete PCs (with monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers) for as low as P3,000.

We would probably think that this is some kind of a gimmick. These PCs must be second hand from other countries. And most indeed are. Some products still have stickers from Japan or Taiwan. But the stores can give you a warranty from 3 months to a year for each product. The one year warranty is the same thing offered by vendors of first hand, first rate, high quality desktops.

Unless you want to show off to your neighbors your cool new branded PC, you can settle for the low cost alternatives they offer.

With a certain degree of discipline even families from the slums can purchase a P-III 500 MHz desktop for this kids. Hell, they can buy a television and cases of beer, why could they not afford a PC?

If only those low income families discipline themselves, we can claim to the world that in the Philippines, we have one PC per family. :)

And we will become the country with the most computer literate people.

U.S.-bound trip fiasco

Many U.S.-bound passengers were not able to leave Manila airports because of an October 30 letter from the U.S. Embassy in Manila to all airlines with flights bound for the U.S.A. The letter instructed the airlines to ask their passengers with green cards that do not bear expiration dates to go to the embassy and get a new one with expiration dates before allowing them to leave. This letter came from an embassy official working under the Department of Homeland Security.

My uncle came home to see my grandmother about two weeks ago. Early morning just this Wednesday, I accompanied him to the airport for his return flight. We gave farewells and went our separate ways at the departure are of the airport.

While I was relaxing at home, he called me up and told me that he was held from leaving because he failed to comply with the aforementioned requirement to get a new green card. He had to carry his luggage back to my aunt's condo in Taguig where we stayed. He went to the embassy that same morning.

When we met again in the evening, he told me that he was not the only one who got held back. There is a long line of unfortunate balik-bayans who were also held back. Some old and have no other place to stay in Manila.

Since October 30, only a few US-based Filipinos knew about the regulation resulting in cancelled or re-booked flights, waste of time and money, and the feeling that you have been let down by the airline.

My uncle pointed out that he gave all available information to the airline from his mobile numbers, our home number in the Province of Iloilo, and his email address. For the last two weeks since the embassy letter, he never received any advise from the airline. Although he was fortunate to be given a booking for the following day and was able to process his papers within the one day, what about those who were not so lucky?

Businesses like the airline business earn income from their clients. No client, no money. Why did they not take care of their clients? Are they comfortable enough that they have other clients elsewhere? Or is this racial in nature?

Racism aside, if you do not take care of your source of income, you will run dry. And when you run dry, to go out of business.

May be they are complacent because they can take the risk of aggravating a minor percentage of their clients. May be it is because their services are better than others that they are sure their clients will come back to them.

This is business, but where is honest business?

Pasig ferry ride

Just today, I once more took a ride in the Pasig Ferry operated by the Nautical Transport Services Incorporated based in Manila, Philippines.

I noticed that the ferry took longer than usual to ply its route. It appears to me that it has been moving at a slower pace that what I have previously experience. What I noticed even more is the gas guzzling made when the ferry docks in and departs a station. At one station, it has to make a 180 degree turn to dock and do a reverse 180 to leave and move on to the next station. In another station, the ferry has to make a 90 degree turn to dock and also make a reverse 90 to leave.

I have heard that the ferry consumes about two thousand five hundred pesos worth of diesel fuel for a complete one way trip. And now I understand why.

Every time the ferry sets its engines to full reverse or use it to maneuver, I hear it rev up and I deduced that this eats up a lot of its diesel supply.

I have thought of the following cost effective means of running that service. I am not sure if it will work as I expect. But no pain, no gain so here it goes:

1. Change the hull from catamaran to a surface effect hull like the m-hull featured by the M Shipping Company located in San Diego, California. This will allow the ferry to increase speed at a shorter period of time and drop speed just as fast. Surface effect hulls "raise" the ship from the water when it increases speed due to its hydrodynamic feature. When the ship cuts power to its propellers, the loss of forward thrust degrades the "lifting" capacity of the hull that lowers it in water. The design of the hull uses the density of water as its brakes. So, let's say a ship can increase speed to 10 knots in 3 seconds, it can stop to 0 in just about the same time with this type of hull.

2. Locate stations away from obstructions like bridges and other docks. This will not require the ferries to maneuver too much. All it has to do is slow down, move to the side, and dock. No more turnings. No more backings. No more twists.

This will make the service more fuel efficient and cover its route much faster.