Tag Archives: elections

Making information accessible to all

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Today’s broadcast. Kimchi in the background sleeping so I had to blur my background LOL!

The interview went well and my mom (who watched) said I was able to explain the concepts clearly. I told her it is how I taught my students in UP when I was still teaching that’s why I was able to break it down well. The point is, fact-checking is a good initiative but it doesn’t reach the masses, especially the rural poor. The D and E markets make up the bulk of the Philippine electorate and most of them do not have access to the Internet and so they do not have means to pay for data, or even a smart phone. Fact-checking only happens online and it has yet to reach the TV and radio—still the most accessible form of mass media in the Philippines.

As I said, media literacy teaches consumers of media messages how to be critical of the information fed by these entities and be conscious of the political economy involved there. Media ownership and their biases affect the delivery of the message and the content.

A tabloid owned by the Romualdezes.

Like for example this tabloid; it is owned by the Romualdezes and everyone knows they are relatives of the Marcoses since Imelda is a Romualdez. It’s not surprising all the contents are anti-Leni Robredo and pro-Duterte. It features fake news (“hakot [crowd] for hire”) and all negative news about her campign/party.

Meanwhile, Manila Bulletin (which is known to support the establishment) tweeted an erroneous news because it echoed what Marcos’ team claimed. People on Twitter fact-checked the newspaper and said Las Pinas only has 600,000 citizens and how can half a million people—almost all of its citizens be at the rally?

Meanwhile, ABS-CBN published a third-party estimate of the number of people who actually attended the rally in Las Pinas, which in truth only reached 5,000

This is what I’m talking about why there is a need for media literacy. People should not be just mindless consumers of media. Misinformation and propaganda abound in traditional media and social media. Knowing how to be critical is important given democracy is at stake.

However, another hurdle to the critical thinking of consumers of mass media is the “echo chamber” effect that social media have on people, especially those who follow groups and “influencers/bloggers” who espouse disinformation and other lies (i.e. Thinking Pinoy, Mocha Uson, etc but of course I didn’t mention these names on air). I told the hosts this morning the challenge now is how to penetrate these echo chambers so the cycle of misinformation and propaganda can be broken. One of the things I said that could work are the methods employed in social marketing, especially the grassroots approach. I noted that this is one of the methods that the volunteers of one of the presidential candidates have been implementing such as door-to-door engagement of people on the ground, employing community participation in their information dissemination and marketing. Of course I cannot say it on air but we all understood each other that what I’m talking about was Leni. I told them about the AKAP principle (Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice) and which form of communication could be more effective in this kind of social marketing that people must do during the campaign season and to fight misinformation and propaganda.

There were many points that I was able to share with them but it’s too long to write it down here.

This was shown live on the local cable TV channel and on FB Live.

Tomorrow I will be driving to Manila to attend an event and then probably work in Makati after. On Wednesday I would be having a call also with one of our Eastern European evacuee-reporter who will be put under my watch as they relocated to Southeast Asia. This would be challenging because of language barriers and the kind of market that he would be covering in the interim. This week is full of conferences and press briefings and I don’t know how I would be able to do much drawing in between.

Tonight I tried sketching cherry blossoms and a stray yellow bell or a similar flower to practice botanical watercoloring. It helps me control my brush and my heavy-handedness when it comes to coloring. Chinese botanical paintings are delicate so I need to do more of these. Drawing and painting tiny cherry blossoms are hard especially that I only devoted 5×8 inches of area in this watercolor paper.

Initial pencil sketch. Art and Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Art and Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I can do an entire series of this and give it to my mom. I put the one I did yesterday in one of my extra Ikea frames, so it would look neater to cover the watercolor smudges around the image. Hah. I can give this to my mom and the one on top when I go home maybe before Holy Week.

Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

I should buy more frames. Hmmmm…

Stress

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The lawsuit threat was still being dealt with until this morning and I was a bit stressed by it but it’s mostly the fault of the PR for talking too much. But still we need to be careful in these markets that do not have free press because they think reporters can just be pushed around. They don’t know how to deal with independent media.

Ah Kimchi, keeping me from working again this afternoon. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

To add to my stress, my HSBC credit card was hacked and some dude in the US used my card to order from GoPuff—a grocery delivery service in the US—which clearly I do not have any use for. I had HSBC cancel my credit card to be replaced and I filed a dispute, showing proof that I used the same credit card on the same day to physically buy something here in Makati. I hope the bank can prove to the merchant that it was an unauthorized transaction since it was almost PHP 7,000. Whoever that bastard is may he fall on the sidewalk and break his ankle. I just received an email this afternoon that the HSBC held the amount until the dispute is resolved.

To relieve me of stress, I finished this watercolor sketch.

Panglao, Bohol., October 2019. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

And I began a new one.

Rough sketch. Angono, Rizal. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
First layer. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

This is just the first layer. I need to do three layers of this because this scene is supposed to be very dark. I cannot do wet-on-wet coloring because this would come out muddy. Mixing colors and doing wet-on-wet painting is a disaster for me. Only professionals can do that.

I need to buy more brushes because it seems like small nylon brushes for fine lining cannot do the work for me. They do not absorb water enough. My other brushes are ok since I don’t do large formats yet.

Maybe I should do this, no?

Image from Pinterest

I’ve been studying several styles of sketching and these days I just do either ink and watercolor or pure watercolor. I should explore this type of sketching.

Photo from Pinterest

I need to practice and practice everyday.

Tomorrow I will bring the girls to UP Town to play at Timezone while I practice urban sketching again. I also want to look at brushes and more watercolor paper (at least 300 gsm) because I am heavy on washes.

I wanted to return to walking in UP but Twin I said their dad does that everyday and I don’t want to encounter him there. So I guess we’ll just do our walkathon or biking at BGC on Sunday and then have breakfast there??? Until we transfer to my hometown, our only choices for such activities would be UP and BGC.

Speaking of going out, next week Kr and I would attending separate press conferences and we’ll just meet in Ayala Center again. Now I’m thinking of having that co-working membership and have a Manila office. At least I won’t be a floating entity here as I am not based in Singapore even if I would be head of the regional bureau. Let’s see how fast these face-to-face events would come back. I don’t know what’s more convenient for us: to have a co-working space membership or we just plop down in coffee shops since we have irregular hours anyway.

Meanwhile, all the political rallies of Leni Robredo had been blockbusters. Each province is trying to outdo one another, even if hurdles were put in place by the local government units allied with Bongbong Marcos, people still find ways to join them. The image here below is from Bacolod City.

Photo from Facebook

That’s why Marcos’ camp has been showering LGU heads with bribe money so that they can help in cheating in May. This kind of people turnout happened in Bulacan, Iloilo and Cavite.

This gives me hope.

None of the Marcos-Duterte rallies had this kind of response. And most of the attendees were given incentives to attend (cash or goods) whereas Robredo’s followers are all volunteers. It has been documented.

The surveys by SWS and Pulse Asia are skewed as they are commissioned by political parties. They have not even shown their methodologies—which is why the UP School of Statistics called out those surveys. They’re mind-conditioning strategies.

Goodbye, Philippines Part 2

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This is so fucked up. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

This is really making me consider going to Canada. Apply for a graduate school scholarship there (but it’s fucking cold), go with my kids (free basic education) and kapoof! Or to New Zealand but I may just end up milking cows because they don’t need my skills there. They have enough of my type there.

Anyway, it’s not an option right now since my passport is going to expire next month and I still couldn’t get an appointment with the Dept of Foreign Affairs. WHY IS IT SO HARD to get a simple government service??? I need to fly to Singapore in May and June.

Meanwhile, this other table shows that the bigger the N=, the smaller the gap between Marcos and other candidates. So there might be some *hope* there.

The other surveys’ sample sizes are 1,500-3,000 vs RP MDF’s which had an N=10,000

Also in 2016, Leni trailed in the surveys but she won in unlikely places.

Praying for a miracle right now.

I’m on alprazolam right now but it’s not doing me any good. I slept at 3 am today and woke up at 5 am. what kind of sleep is that???

Melatonin good for a month. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My psych said I can take melatonin because of my sleeping issues. She can’t just jack up my dosage of alprazolam–that would really mess me up. This was also prescribed to Covid patients who have trouble fixing their body clocks. Why it’s only now I asked about melatonin from my doctor, I don’t know. Maybe I was scared if it has any conflict with alprazolam. Or maybe I was afraid of no longer waking up. If I didn’t have kids, yeah, why not? But I have kids and I love them so I can’t risk dying.

But this sleeping problem is really affecting my productivity.

My friend, B, has booked herself a one-month stay in Boracay and she asked me if I want to join her for our own version of “Eat, Love, Pray” hiatus from the world. I said, why not? I’m about to send my girls to their grandma to attend an entrance exam review school for the summer and I can work remotely in a resort with B. I said I can join her after the girls’ birthday. She and I will be kite boarding every morning before we go to work.

My older sister also said the same thing; she wanted to book a month’s stay in some seaside resort. I said Anilao will be good since she doesn’t have to fly and she is a certified scuba diver so she has something to do. So I need to find a place for her so I can join her from time to time.

I told B about my solo Palawan trip and she said she could tag along. We could do El Nido; I’ll see how long we can stay there.

I just need to get rid of this toxicity that surrounded me since Friday. It doesn’t help that the girls kept looking at the girl whom J cheated me with on Facebook and kept watching her vlogs. “Mommy, she kept on talking about ‘Do you want to earn extra money?’ but she only shows her boobs!'” I told Twin A to stop it because I don’t want to know! My girls call her bakla because they said she looked like a gay man cross-dresser. It was cruel, I know. Maybe they are that angry with J. They refuse to refer to him as tito anymore. It was my friend, Jo, who lives in the same condo who told me about her. She always sees the girl walking along the riverside. “Yeah, she’s the type who wants a quick ticket to live abroad. Many of them in this condo who are with foreigners are like that. You know the type,” she said. Yeah. Many of them love to hang out in Poblacion, Makati. In the red light district, feeling like it’s the coolest place to be. That’s why I always beg K not to book dinners there (being a gay man, yeah, he likes it there).

I remember working in a Starbucks branch there with J because we were meeting with a startup guy. We saw an old Korean uncle with his very young plaything. J commented, “Very typical of these old uncles.” Little did he know that he has become an old uncle himself who got his own maldita hija de puta.

Jo said, “I can’t believe that he also chased M*** at the same time!”

I said, “Ah yeah, you were also there in that E*** awards party, right?”

Ugh. The world is really, really small.

So yeah, I think two weeks or just a week in Boracay will do wonders. Kite boarding in the morning. B and I can have our breakfast along Bulabog beach. Then work. She cooks and I also cook. Run along the beach for exercise until sunset. I can take a week off in May or June for Palawan–if I’m not flying to Singapore or Thailand. B just came back from the US and I haven’t asked her yet regarding her status with her guy in MD. But we have all the time in the world to talk about that in April. She just needs to go to Masbate after April or in March to visit some family properties.

It would be nice to get away from all these. I’m getting tired of the city but I really don’t want to be near family. What to do???

The world seems bigger than both of us

Yet it seems so small when I begin to cry

– Splender –

Ah, truer words have never been spoken.

Coward

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Bongbong Marcos won’t attend forum for presidential bets, says KBP prexy

FILE PHOTO: Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. INQUIRER FILES

He has never participated in any public forum that is not scripted or not assured that he would be coddled. Because he is a stupid coward who does not have anything to say. Because he is an empty, drug-addled vessel.

And his social media trolls will just demonize media and blame us for our biases.

How do we battle these devils of disinformation and lies? How do we convince voters that he shouldn’t lead us? How how how how???

I want to raze the Philippines to the ground if he wins. OMG that would be a nightmare.

Meanwhile, my doctor said we will be going back to once every three nights of alprazolam because of my sleeping issues. She says a lot of her patients who had Covid still have sleep problems, too. I can take melatonin in-between to help me get my sleeping hours back to normal again. It is really affecting my productivity.

I told her it feels like I’m operating in a different timezone.

She was alarmed when I told her that I always get awakened at 3 am or 5 am despite sleeping at 2 am and that time a week or two ago when I slept at 7 am because I was really struggling with falling asleep even without triggers. I told her I don’t understand why I have this problem when I no longer feel the same kind of J-triggered anxiety like before or I don’t have anxiety like I used to. Despite what I wrote yesterday, I slept undisturbed until 7:30 am last night until this morning because I was on alprazolam. I wasn’t triggered. Before, my sleep was very disturbed even after taking alprazolam because/whenever I got triggered. So this is an improvement.

So there you go, I’m still on tranquilizers when I’m supposed to be off it by now and only the antidepressant escitalopram is supposed to remain. *sigh* So the whole of February is trying to be normal and hopefully by March I’m back on Singapore/Manila timezone (GMT 8+).

Here are my colleagues who are with me during my zombie moments:

Cat and Chonky cat. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Speaking of colleagues, I chatted with my outgoing APAC boss (who is supposed to be on terminal leave since yesterday) and told me she already submitted to the global head the promotions and raises for colleagues I recommended, and for mine as well.

Then the incoming APAC boss told me that I don’t have to be in Singapore. Yey. So I just have to wait for the call from the global office about my appointment and my manager’s reassignment to HQ. Once these become official, I will start planning trips to markets where there are no quarantine requirements (Thailand comes to mind). I have yet to wait for Singapore to welcome tourists from Manila. I really have no idea how our new office looks like as I was told we have transferred to a new building, several train stations away from our last office, ergo, different zip code.

We have also transferred buildings in Hong Kong. With the way things are in HK right now (zero-covid policy), I doubt if I would be flying there in the next 24 months.

Our old HK office. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The ampao that my former APAC boss gave my girls for 2019 Lunar New Year. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

To cap this unproductive day, here’s Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine. If God would grant me a great voice, I would ask Him for Florence’s or Anne Wilson’s of Heart.

Hopefully the dog days are over.

Halved

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close up shot of white smoke
Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Pexels.com

I’m in this very weird state since the middle of January where I feel like my soul is torn in half and one half lives in a different time zone. I still can’t get my body clock fixed so I only fall asleep when there’s already daylight peeking through my curtains. I work in weird time shifts. I know it’s impolite but I only get to reply to emails at night. I start editing in the afternoon; I catch on sleep at daytime. And I don’t even have caffeinated drinks at all.

This is utterly weird.

I don’t know if I’m keeping Mumbai or London time. Sometimes it’s worse, it’s like US Eastern time. This always makes me feel tired and unproductive.

Where is my other half wandering? I need to pull it back and keep myself whole.

And I’m also in this confusing stage right now where I suddenly want to postpone building my flat to stay here in Quezon City longer. I want to stay away from family. I don’t know why I’m in this funk. It’s like I’m missing something.

But things are changing. My girl, Twin I, is already a lady. She had her first menstrual period last week. Her way of thinking is also has matured and it’s like I’m already talking to an adult mini-me. I have to move so that my girls can have more independence without sacrificing their safety.

I don’t know, I’m really confused. I really have to get my other half back from wandering around so I can make logical decisions and not half-assed ones based on feelings. Screw feelings.

This entire weekend was stressful due to politics. I should refrain from opening my Facebook and Twitter accounts to avoid these stressors.

Because this coward, according to my industry grapevine, demanded advance questions before agreeing to a panel interview. All other presidential aspirants (except for Ka Leody de Guzman, who was not invited) were ok with the interview without knowing what questions would be asked. This ball-less coward wanted a codigo (cheat sheet) because he is stupid. He doesn’t even have a platform. And he would look doubly stupid on national TV for stammering his way out of an interview asking him about his platforms, issues thrown by detractors, and questions of how is he going to solve pressing issues once he becomes president.

Of course, this journo wouldn’t agree to such arrangement. Even I would have thrown a fit at such demand.

As expected social media exploded with this issue; Marcos trolls went on overdrive and they went tearing down Leni. It was so stressful.

As every one knows, Marcos has an army of social media trolls working to prop him up and erase history since 2014.

Twitter Removes Hundreds of Accounts Linked to Philippines’ Marcos Jr.

The Diplomat

I keep up with news through Twitter, FB for community news. Dang, I have to avoid them. I should just keep to my Nikkei subscription, and probably Financial Times and The Economist.

33,000 and counting

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I received this from my Zennya app two days ago. This is how terrible the situation is right now. The DOH reported 33k new cases today, and this does not include those who just used antigen tests and those who chose not to test at all because of the lack of test kits or testing labs still operating at capacity. My nephew tested positive for Covid via antigen test after exhibiting symptoms (he’s still unvaccinated because vaccination for kids 5-11 years old have not started yet). He has fever, colds, cough, vomiting, headaches…Of course my mom’s entire household may be infected too, it’s just that they’ve already had their booster shots so the symptoms are not that bad or no symptoms at all. They need to isolate again for 10 days.

My sister says she suspects that the carrier is their bi-weekly cleaner who refuses to be vaccinated.

One of my high school classmates who’s a nurse said there is an unusual surge of people now wanting to be vaccinated. I told him, who wouldn’t want to be vaccinated in this situation?

Even though there’s no strict lockdown now, people are just too afraid to go out. Yesterday only a few like me dared to go out because of vaccination. A reporter posted on Facebook that she was the only customer in a restaurant in Greenbelt today. Greenbelt is deserted.

Meanwhile, Comelec’s database was hacked again ahead of the national elections. The hack in 2016 was the biggest data breach, topping that of Turkey, that same month.

Comelec is denying Manila Bulletin’s story but I’d rather believe Art Samaniego (who broke the story about BDO Unibank’s security breach that led to funds of 700 depositors being siphoned off) than a government agency that has been told by the National Privacy Commission that it is guilty of violating the Data Privacy Act for the 2016 hacking incident.

To help me balance these WTF news, I just turn to my cats. They’re my stress relievers. They’re so lovely to squish.

Kimchi is a cow. I need to exercise her. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Our laser pointer got broken. I need to buy a new one to exercise the cats.

I still feel like crap today because of the after effects of the booster shot but I had back to back calls today. No rest for the weary. My head was pounding and I felt feverish at times so I had to lie down in between calls. Finally at around 4 pm I took a nap and woke up at 5 pm and I no longer felt uploading one story on our CMS.

My boss told me our global head is going to call me in the coming weeks regarding my promotion and the alternative to moving to Singapore. I am adamant that I will not move to Singapore.

Look, if these companies in Forbes’ list can grant remote working, why can’t my company too? I mean there is little reason for them to plant me there when all the admin stuff is already concentrated in London. Client meetings and such can be scheduled when I fly in there.

It was different when J was still here. I would have worked my way into transferring to Singapore if he chose to do so for his career. But things are different now.