MARSO 27 - ABRIL 2, 2009
Mabuhay
LINGGUHANG PILIPINO MULA PA NOONG 1980
3
Depthnews
J
UAN
L. M
ERCADO
Full-time navel gazing
Regarding Henry
H
ENRYLITO
D. T
ACIO
Cebu Calling
F
R
. R
OY
C
IMAGALA
Media responsibility
“IN the beginning was the Word…” the Holy Bible states. “Wordsdon’t come easy to me,” so goes a line of a song.So, let’s talk about words. If you fancy yourself becoming a speaker, writer or a journalist, you ought to have a lot of words,which they call vocabulary. If yourun out of words, what will yousay or write?The Philippines is supposedto be the third largest English-speaking country in the world.But I am not sure if they speakor write
well
. During a jeepneyride, I saw this sign for all pas-sengers to see: “Before pay,please tell where the get in be-fore the get off.” Correctly, itshould be written this way: “Be-fore paying, please tell where yougot in and where you get off.” When I was still in highschool, one of our teachers wasfond of saying, “Each and everyone of us.” That’s redundancy. You can always say, “Each of us”or “Every one of us”. Likewise, you don’t tell, “I have seen theincident with my two eyes.”That’s given. Almost all peoplehave two eyes.In like manner, you don’t say,“For a while” to someone whocalls you on the phone. How long is “a while?” Perhaps, you cansay, “Just wait for a minuteplease” or something to that ef-fect. At one time, an Americanfriend asked me why there wasa line of people while waiting fortheir turn. I pointed out the sign:“Please fall in line.” He replied,“Yes, that’s what I was wonder-ing: why fall in line? Do we havecollapse in unison — as in fall-ing down? Or should the sign say,“Please form a line.”The correct term is queue.Heard mostly in the UnitedKingdom, the British Common-wealth and former British colo-nies (the Philippines is not partof it!), the word queue, whichmeans a line of people, stands atthe end of an etymological queuestretching from the Latin word
cauda
(tail).By the way,
queue
is one of thetwo five-letter English words, inwhich if you drop the four let-ters, the pronunciation is stillthe same. The other word I knowis
aitch
(you have to find themeaning in the dictionary, if youwant).The thought of your sentencechanges when you put one word.So be sure to put the word in itsproper place. Take the case of theword “only.” Here’s a variation:“ONLY I drink milk in the morn-ing.” “I ONLY drink milk in themorning.” “I drink ONLY milkin the morning.” “I drink milkin the morning ONLY.” Can younotice the difference?More often than not, we uselong words to impress people.But my English teacher told meonce: “Never use a long wordwhere a short one will do aswell.” Examples: josh, fudge,tryst, rend, rapt, snipe, quash,fey, and waif.In some instances, we explainthe situation instead of using theword.
Naninghawak
is a Visayanterm for someone putting herright and left arm on her hips.The English word for that, if youcare to know, is akimbo (as in“stand akimbo”). If you seesomeone who talks to himself (
nagsulti’g inusara
), the word tobe used is soliloquy.Ever heard of spoonerism?Named after 19th century Oxfordacademic Dr. William Spooner, itrefers to the linguistic flip-flopsthat turn “a well-oiled bicycle”into “a well-boiled icicle” andother ludicrous ways that speak-ers of English get their mix alltalked up. At one time, he said,
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MANY of our “leaders” cavort asfull-time “navel gazers”. Presi-dentiables to highwaymen in lo-cal governments jockey for politi-cal advantage, cash or power 24hours a day.Their antics make for politi-cal pornography. But they alsoblind us to issues that impact ourlives, as individuals and as a na-tion.That sightlessness is under-scored in a new study:
Paradoxand Promise in the Philippines.
The European Union Commis-sion, Asian Development Bankand five other agencies commis-sioned this analysis. It focuses onwomen’s role in nation-building.In the process, it provides a broadsweep of national problems.The Philippines has crafted a favorable policy environment, itpoints out. “Implementation ispatchy and slow … The policyframework has not delivered in-tended benefits … as extensivelyand effectively as hoped for. Thisis one of the many paradoxesamid promise in the country.”Consider a few critical sectors:maternal deaths, nutrition,school dropouts, to migrants andtrafficking of women. “These oc-cur in areas so invisible that re-sponding to them is particularlydifficult,” the study notes. Butdeferring response invites disas-ter.“The proportion of Filipinosdying without medical attentionhas risen to 70 percent — a fig-ure not seen in the country sincethe mid-1970s,” a
Washington Post
report notes. “A health carebrain drain is strangling (public)hospitals across the Philippines.” You don’t see 68 out of every100 Filipino doctors. They prac-tice abroad. Equally invisible areover 164,000 nurses who mi-grated over the last four decades.“A perverse consequence is ‘de-skilling’. That’s where doctorstrain to become nurses to wanglea visa.”Eight women die daily frompregnancy and child birth-relatedcauses. Abortion is invisible too.But abortions now exceed700,000 a year now. Often, abor-tion is used as a substitute forhard-to-come-by family planning.Thus, we’ll probably fall shortof Millennium Development GoalNo. 5: to slash, by three-fourths,the number of maternal deathsby 2015. In contrast, Malaysia and other countries, probably,will meet this target. We take for granted the inac-tion that leads to these prevent-able deaths. They don’t makeheadlines, unlike today’s frenzyover the Dacer-Corbito murders.This is a nation where promise isbetrayed by indifference.That applies to malnutrition.Out of every 100 pregnant andbreast-feeding mothers, 42 areanemic. Do we “see” them? Wealso overlook underweight chil-dren, the largest cluster of whichare in Bicol. The resulting neglectmeans “it’ll take 50 years beforethe country can eradicate malnu-trition,” says the Food & Nutri-tion Research Institute.Filipinos see schooling as theescape hatch from poverty. Para-doxically, “education indicatorsare worsening.” Only six out of every 1,000 grade 1 entrants willgraduate from grade 6 with a passing score in English, mathand science.” Also unseen are thedropouts. Out of every 100 enroll-ees, 38 will have quit when
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AN interesting study has justbeen reported in an Americanpaper about the effects of media on children.Distilled from some 173 re-searches done over the past 30 years, the report said there’sstrong and disturbing correlationbetween children spending a lotof time with TV, video games,Internet, etc. and a variety of negative health effects.“In a clear majority of thosestudies, more time with televi-sion, films, video games, maga-zines, music and the Internet waslinked to rises in childhood obe-sity, tobacco use and sexual be-havior,” it said.“A majority also showed strong correlations — what the research-ers deemed statistically significantassociations — with drug and al-cohol use and low academicachievement,” it continued.The report is expectedly donein a language considered as po-litically correct at the moment. When it said that children’s over-exposure to media can affect theirbrain development, I think theymean it can deform their con-sciences. When it said such expo-sure leads children to risky sexualbehavior, I think they mean im-moral, that is, sinful sexual prac-tices. But, ok, I understand.Those behind the study vowedto continue monitoring andstudying the developments inthis area of concern. One of themwas surprised to find an absenceof research into the impact of newtechnologies.He said, “Media has evolved ata dizzying pace, but there’s al-most no research about Facebook,MySpace, cellphones, etc.” It’sgood that such concern is nowbeing raised. Our challenge ishow to identify dangerous trendsin things that offer many practi-cal advantages. And of course,what to do with it.Pertinent to this observation,I have seen adults, not just chil-dren, badly affected by these newgadgets. They show signs of ob-session and addiction, as they for-get even to eat, lose sleep, andneglect other duties to their fami-lies, not to mention the spiritualones, like prayer.In short, many have becomecouch potatoes, glued to theirseats for hours, completely domi-nated by what’s before them onthe screen, disoriented and prac-tically dead to the outside worldand even their immediate sur-rounding. They live virtual lives.I myself am having difficultiesin this area. I am now temptedto declare for myself some emailbankruptcy, since I receive somany of them everyday, mostlyspam, that just to erase them notonly wastes my time, but alsoraises my blood pressure.It’s about time that we takeserious steps to know more aboutthis trend and to do something,even something drastic, about it.Our future is at stake. Our dan-ger is not only from wars and ter-rorism. It can come right fromour own homes. These technolo-gies are notoriously treacherous.This is, of course, the respon-sibility of everyone. Parents havethe primary and most direct roleto play. Then the teachers andother elders. But the governmentand also the media should dotheir part.
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Fair & Square
I
KE
S
EÑERES
Computerized cheating
Forward to Basics
F
R
. F
RANCIS
B. O
NGKINGCO
DJs on the err
THE Optical Mark Reader(OMR) uses a paper ballot thatis printed on security paper. Theballot as it is printed containsmarks that are invisible to thehuman eye, meaning that onlyan optical eye can read it. Sincethese marks are not visible tohuman eyes, it is possible forcheaters to include invisible in-structions as the ballots are be-ing printed, in effect instructing the OMR to read only the shadedmarks that are favorable tothem. Conversely, the invisiblemarks could instruct the OMRnot to read the shaded marksthat are not favorable to them.The OMR ballots will beprinted either by the NationalPrinting Office (NPO) or thewinning supplier of the OMRmachines. Either way, the man-agers of the printing facilitycould be pressured to print ex-tra ballots using the same au-thentic security paper. Theseextra ballots could be “pre-shaded” with the marks of can-didates that are aligned with thecheaters. As far as the OMRmachines are concerned, theseare genuine ballots.The OMR machines will notread ballots that are “damaged”in one way or the other. It is veryeasy to “damage” a ballot using water, moisture, powders, pencilmarks, indentations, etc. It ispossible for cheaters to give“damaged” ballots to voters whoare identified with their oppo-nents. For that matter, cheaterscould give out fake ballots thatlook like the real thing, but arenot readable by the OMR ma-chines.One of two possibilities couldhappen. Either the OMR ma-chines will have Microsoft Win-dows as their operating systems(O/S) or the data from the OMRmachines will be transferred topersonal computers that are us-ing Microsoft Windows as theirO/S, for purposes of transmissionfrom the precinct level to themunicipal level.If the OMR machines willhave Windows O/S, it is possibleto inject or embed maliciouscodes into the O/S or into thehard drive, codes that will in-struct the OMR machines to al-ter the data as these are being tabulated or transmitted.If the cheaters will choose notto alter the data by using theOMR machines, they have theoption to inject or embed mali-cious codes in the personal com-puters that will be used to trans-mit the data to the next level. While it is possible that theencryption in the OMR machinesor in the personal computers willprotect the data from hostile
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TRAFFIC is getting worse everyday! As soon as you leave thehouse or condo a light of glowing red taillights and frowning bumpers greet you at the firstturn. Gradually, you become partof a massive slow moving metal-lic road slug inching its waythrough hot cloacal streetsstreaked with the dark quasi-liv-ing grime of dust, trash and en-gine oil.Luckily, our cars are likesmaller extensions of our homes. We make sure the windows areproperly tinted for some privacyas well as protection from thesun, the air conditioning unithumming away and the airfreshener transporting us tosome imaginary pastoral scene.Car sweet car! Inside, one is safeand at home. But, perhaps, notanymore!Today the intimacy of a car,like our homes, is also being in-vaded by tons of moral pollutionthrough the radio. Tune in to al-most any FM station and you willbe bombarded with topics on dat-ing, breaking up, coping withone’s sex life, where and how tofrivolously spend one’s weekend,and many more unsolicited ad-vice. As radio stations desperatelycomb the air for a wider audiencemarket, DJs and theirscriptwriters resort to the oldesttrick in marketing their station:tune into sex! They inject this bydiscussing “serious issues” withdouble meanings and conversa-tions mixed with green jokes.They invite spicy celebrities tocatch more listeners and offersolutions to callers’ love-life orprofessional hang-ups.Unfortunately, many DJsdon’t really offer any clear andserious advice for their callers’dilemmas. It’s a pity that simplyspeaking with an “Americantwang” seems to give one author-ity to talk almost about any-thing. Unfortunately, they don’treally have the intention of of-fering serious answers. They arethere to entertain their mortifiedlisteners stuck in traffic. So theyare ready to make a joke out of everything and everyone. Whatabout the answer to their call-ers? It’s quite simple, perhapsbeing “on the air” makes themimpartial to issues, they literallyleave many issues dangling forthe entertained public to decide.People involved in the differ-ent forms of communicationmust realize that entertaining the public doesn’t mean having to harm and degrade values re-lated to the family, work and re-
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Some words about words
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