My Disagio

Perhaps the closest in my language to “disagio” is “di ako mapalagay”. That would be “bugging uneasiness” or a “lingering discontent”.

There are a whole lot of things that create or give me cause to feel “bugging uneasiness”. While I am writing away (and I am on an Emirates flight from Dubai to Washington, DC.) I feel this uneasiness — that I could not yet identify my disagio! Maybe by writing about it it will pop out like a brilliant idea, which should not be.

So I scribbled. Elections. That’s where I do most work in since the 80s. Of course it did not occupy most of my young life, but only until I got older and adopted it as a profession did it. So what about elections? I actually do not work on elections elections. But I work with groups that are nonpartisan that observe the election process. Process, if rules are regulations were followed during the campaign, in the voting and counting of ballots, etc. — regardless of who wins or loses. So where am I going with this?

Disagio in the elections, especially in developing countries are many.  From contestants not conforming to rules and are just willing to game the system in order to win, to electoral commissions that are not exactly committed to the work that they are supposed to do. Candidates, in their campaigning accost everyone with noisy tirades and untruths. Reporting on electoral financing is so flimsy that we could not really tell how much money they spend and from whom the money came. What we know for sure is that no matter the amount received by and spent on the campaign, what is reported is a drop in the bucket and that bucket is kept hidden by design. I don’t know if I can find a disagio there. Let me see....

Then I moved to the personal. I looked at people, processes, systems, and where within those might lie a disagio. Nothing worth noting there. I fear. If people like me at the stage of my life cannot identify a disagio, how could we help improve the world? How could we be inventing things and processes if we do not see uneasiness.



Or, taking this to another perspective, discomfiture?



So (note to self) help! (I’m still on-board the Emirates flight. About two hours before landing. I’ll come back to this when I am at Union Station...some hours there before I board the MARC train to see my wife in Maryland. But for now, I’ll return to my scribbling.

Three hours later...once the train left Union Station, I went back scribbling. I think I found my disagio!

Apps update! Many of us take this for granted because of the affordable mobile internet subscriptions. Some app developers brandish updates as a normal thing and they say that they do this weekly to make sure that we (users) get the latest, blah blah. I had a bit of programming background and I think that some codes in the apps could be inefficient and OTA (over the air) updates just keeps them inefficient because there is no cost to push them. 

June 2, 2019 FB App update on iOS 

May 23, 2019 Google Docs App update on iOS

What’s my beef?! If any of you have been to or have worked in East Timor, Papua New Guinea or in Afghanistan — where I have worked in the past five years, you will know why. Data is there is expensive! Each update from say, Facebook, Google Suites (arghh!) is are over a hundred MBs (each time!). It is H-E-A-V-Y!

In this day and age, updates are unavoidable and are here to stay. But I hope they are not because of inefficient coding/programming (or whimsical!)

Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s Digital Minister, along with many other voices in the world (mine included) are advocating for internet access to be a human right. I admire her when she said to her constituents that if your internet speed is slow, blame it on me. She owns up to the responsibility that every citizen in Taiwan should have broadband speeds.

Now back to my point, should I blame it on bad code? Yes, partly, because OTA as a delivery channel is convenient for both the developer and user. Security patches are not exceptions, as is in many cases, which are cited by developers as a reason to update. When bugs are detected a new version containing the correction could be deployed quickly. But to some, if not to many users, these constant and ‘regular’ updates are costly.

Therefore, I appeal to Apple and Android (am I supposed to go this far in the disagio exercise?!...oh well....) to instill standards on their app developers or apps that go on their platform. They must adhere to efficient coding standards, and far-in-between updates. But the larger appeal perhaps is for both platforms to talk to all mobile data providers to make any and all apps updates free of charge to all!

How tubá is made

Tubá is coconut wine, a delicacy of Cebuanos. It is extracted from a sapling that is about to bear coconuts. According to my dad, once there is a sprout, it will have to be slowly bent — over a few days — to bow so gravity will cause the sap to drip down.

The ‘trained’ sap will then be sharply sliced, revealing the veins from which each would have grown into a full fruits.

Twice a day, mornings and evenings, the sapling will have to be finely sliced to remove the dried out veins and reinvigorate the flow. The sap will be sweet and a delight to drink. During the world war, my cousin lost her mother and was fed liná, or what the sap is locally referred to — a mother’s milk substitute.

The cloudy sap is what the coconut tree would feed to fruit into young coconuts. After a day, the sap would turn a little sour hinting fermentation.

My mom loved the taste, flavor and the sweetness, especially the portion that she keeps cold in the fridge. But she could not explain — despite the medical doctor training in her — why she is wobbly after a glassful.

The sap will remain delightful for two to three days and then it would really sour into vinegar. The rusty color of tubá is derived from mixing powdered bark of mangrove, tungog, which makes the brew taste characteristically bitter.

Spot the wrong...

This photo appears to be not out of the ordinary, does it? It is the cashier station of the SM Appliance Store at the SM Seaside Mall just south of Cebu city.

But look closely. There is something very wrong the in they way they do business. Can you tell what it is? What could be the reasons for this? Please post in the comments section.

Imagine...

Imagine: This guy and his close circle, just before the elections, must have already a good idea that they will win. They had a huge war chest from friends, and money from China some of which could have been channeled through his family. They had an army of online trolls supported by Russia and backed by firm know-how from years of sowing mind-manipulating and norm-challenging “information” that eventually distorted the Philippine, and the US elections.

When he won the election, imagine what he and his friends thought about what could be possible with the power and the legitimacy.

What could China want in return, Russia? What could explain his numerous trips to Russia, many of which are under raps and probably would never be reported in the media.

For him, fame and fortune lang yata yan — at 72, or so it seems. What has he got to prove? Perhaps a lot? That Davao is not a one-off, and that he could experiment with a much larger territory. How could he show-off a Davao?

Imagine: He is probinsyano (no discrimination intended) and know only a few people. So classmates were an easy reach? Dahil wala masadong kakilala kaya maraming pwedeng makikisawsaw; pwede nga kanya-kanya, baga.

With a year-and-half into the presidency, this guy surely is not acting alone. The interests of his friends and that of the two foreign powers could already be firmly in place. His only worry is that he needs to cover his backside as there is a relentless interest on the death squads, his undeclared wealth, the huge shabu shipment pointing to his network, and others.

Some of his friends could be hedging if and when we will not last the full-term. The largest investors probably by now have already staked their claim so that even if his term is short-lived, his successor would be left with no other choice except to pony up.

Opposition to the planned revolutionary government

Via email: publicaffairs.dnd@gmail.com


November 13, 2017




The Honorable
Delfin N. Lorenzana
Secretary
Department of National Defense
DND Building, Segundo Ave.
Camp Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, Quezon City

Re: Opposition to the revolutionary government initiated by president Duterte

Dear Secretary Lorenzana,

I express in the strongest possible terms the plan by president Duterte and his administration to declare a revolutionary government. This would be unconstitutional.

The president took this oath, “I,... do solemnly swear that I will faithfully and conscientiously fulfill my duties as President of the Philippines, preserve and defend its Constitution, execute its laws, do justice to every man, and consecrate myself to the service of the Nation. So help me God.”

If and when he declares a revolutionary government, he would have violated this solemn oath. He would have also disregarded the electoral process that had brought him to his current position.

We appeal to your office and to the Armed Forces of the Philippines to stay committed to defend the Constitution, and defend the nation from the rogue plans of this government.

Very respectfully yours,



(SIGNED)
Telibert Laoc
Mandaluyong City
telibert@namfrel.com.ph