Philippine typhoon victims - despised by own president

It was a routine morning check on http://www.inquirer.net/ when suddenly a title says "...long line irk Arroyo."

What the??? That is some BULL indeed. The very last thing I will expect from a leader voted by the majority (oh...I am not so sure with this though, romurs say she only grabbed that much coveted power) especially right after a calamity. A very devastating calamity. My dad used to say that when someone's house get burned down, it is far worse than being robbed. Going through Ondoy, in my opinion, is far worse than having a house burned down. At least on the previous, I am warm and not subject to other external threats like getting drowned.

For these victims to have a president annoyed of seeing them in her palace is just too much a triple whammy. For goodness sake, is it only the Le Cirque dinner and the series of international flights to vanity that matters for this five-foot president from the land of ewoks?

This surely will hurt the populace more than the typhoon did.

Link to the said article: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090930-227597/Palace-to-do-repacking-only-long-lines-irk-Arroyo

SmartBroken

At last, my contract with them had ended and I may shift to any ISP I prefer.

It has been a year-long agony of unsatisfactory service I had from SmartBro. I can not even browse properly over sites like inquirer.net or bpiexpressonline.com due to a very unstable internet connection, but guess what? If I go to sites to test my internet connection, all systems will appear to be just as how they were advertised. They surely have set all their systems to show good results when subjected to tests. But even this does not help them fully. You subscribe 384 Kbps from them and they will only give you 175 Kbps on average.

You call their service hotline and the only thing you got to reward your inquiry is the most common and lame alibi from their call center agents - "We apologize for the inconvenience dear subscriber, but currently we are doing system enhancements in your area." Oh really, guess what - we call with two day intervals and the answers are ALL the same - the whole duration of the contract. Do they really think we are dumb and stupid? Come on SmartBro!

I certainly do not believe you do system enhancements everyday for the entire year. If that is so damn true, you better just quit.

It has become clear to me that indeed Smart is cheating to their subscribers, even on the boradband service. I threw away my smart sim long ago when they took away my user credits worth Php 750.00 back in the the year 2002 without explanation. Quite a lot of people have been shifting to the competing network for the same reasons as well. I am not alone.

I hope SmartBro will be enlightened of their misdeeds by the most tragic manner. Given a chance I will volunteer to bomb their towers and destroy their equipments. Instigate a fire on their cell sites or eliminate all their lousy call center agents who are receiving pay for doing nothing but sit and lie for Smart Telecom.

If I am to rate SmartBro and it's service from 1 to 10? I will give it a 1 for their presence in the market. All the rest of their systems suck like a leech. If you are planning to have an internet connection with a choice of ISPs, certainly never choose SmartBro, it will only break your heart.

Zhao's Journey

August 24 - It was around 2:00a.m. Manila time, my 11 month old Motorola buzzed. On its screen appeared a good friend’s name – Zhao Liang. The message says (paraphrased) “Dear brother, today is my last day here in Aussie.” My good brother, Zhao Liang, is finally going back to China, to his motherland. A place where his mother and father awaits with excitement.

It has been quite a while since I knew my brother Zhao. He is called Jimmy in Aussie. And he is a brilliant person. And not to mention, a brave one. He went to Australia after earning his engineering degree from China, took up accountancy and passed. He faced the real world almost alone in the extremes of Australia. A country with a different culture from where he came – if not contrasting. By the time when I first knew him, he was already in Sydney, or was it New South Wales. It was in a forum, in one of the vast communities of the digital realm. Who would have thought, that simple exchange of ideas led to a friendship where no boundaries can stop.

I was still in the middle of establishing the least of all things in my life back then. Brother Zhao was there, always encouraging me to go through the trials that lie ahead. Indeed, there have been quite a number. In one of the lowest points of my life, he and a handful of other friends were there. Later, it would be their chance to face fate.

As months and years passed, communication with my good brother became a problem, I was frequently on a travel and change my addresses. It was hard reaching me through mail – physical or digital. Luckily enough, the line wasn’t completely cut off. Then later I took a peek on my brother’s blog and found about his adventurous in job hunting. He had hurdles, had times when it was clear he felt so low. It is good to have known by now that he was offered a good opportunity in China.

The world we are in, especially the corporate - is a vicious world. One time you find yourself good, on the next, you’ll find yourself accused. This is a fact in life that all of us must always be prepared of. It is somewhat certain that we’ve been through it in some point of our life at a certain degree. But a tougher situation will always await us.

After receiving the notice that he will be leaving soon, I had to stop what I was doing with my “office works” and spend time exchanging messages with my good friend. It was only five hours before he is to board the plane to take him home. Assuring him that the best awaits for him China is all I can do for my good brother, and I am very certain that it is.

It is a tough decision to leave one’s shore to cross oceans and discover the continents on the other side, and the world out there is likewise tough against those who have the courage to dare doing so. Nonetheless, no matter how tough this world against us, we will always be tougher.