Exam Scandals

File Photo: Fireman

It happens in other countries, too.

In Springfield, NJ, two firefighters are suing for annual salaries lost when their entrance exams were rigged to favor other applicants. The two are claiming for the amount that they would have earned if the exam was not rigged plus attorneys fees and damages.

The story in this link.

Obama and Philippine Outsourcing

While reading fat burner reviews, I cannot help but feel lucky that I am not as fat as some of the people that I see in the gym. I call that “counting my blessings”. On a serious note, I am glad to see that the young and newly employed graduates from our call center industry are still employed. All these news about Obama discouraging outsourcing to offshore destinations scared a lot of people. I hope that he will fail on that one, if ever he really intends to crack down on this business. Outsourcing has made life a little better for the talent rich but relatively poor countries. Policies aimed at reversing the offshoring trend may seem to be palatable to American voters’ ears but in reality, it is not. Offshoring creates high valued jobs in the US. That is the whole damn truth to it.

Education Officials here and there

Errors are a dime a dozen and near disasters happen all the time.

Even in my office, despite all the precautions that we have installed, disasters always find ways of slipping through.

To me, what matters is how people handle it.

Let us examine the education department.

In the US, whenever errors are committed, officials admit to it and immediately rectifies the mistake. Take for example the story when a student found a misspelling in a state exam that made a question somewhat strange. The examiner alerted his supervisors, who in turn alerted state officials. The education officials were red in embarrassment but they acted fast and rectified the error.

In this country, somebody alerted education officials to huge and scandalous errors in our textbooks. The officials have the temerity to deny FOR YEARS the existence of the mistakes. At this point they have only admitted very minor errors and they claim that there were mistakes in the past because their previous textbooks went through ONLY THREE SCREENINGS.

Three screenings and so many big mistakes still slipped through.

What kind of educators do we have?

You all know the answer to that.

Happy Valentines Day!

For some, the the best diet pill is moderate food intake and exercise but to most of us, that is not workable. Never mind the fat and dirty politicians all over the world. They don’t need to lose weight at all. They can get fat and sick and dead for all the people care. But for most of us, ordinary beings in this world, we need a combination of food discipline, exercise and some supplements. Of course, consult a doctor, just to make sure. Stay healthy and fit. Happy Valentines!

Never Ending Traffic

The huge traffic jam along EDSA and most of Manila’s thoroughfares had my dinner appointment starting late for two hours according to the new set of new Nooka watches that I brought with me last night. Monstrous jams are not the way to go for a country that is heavily dependent on imported fuel and I hope that the government will seriously implement permanent remedies. Problems are a way of life for all of us but doing nothing about is goes against the natural flow of nature. The traffic problem has been in Metro Manila for decades and it seems that solutions being implemented are way below the minimum required.

Shooting the Innocent

Citing testimonies of witnesses, the police said six men were spotted at a “gotohan" (rice soup eatery) near the crime scene past 5 a.m. The gunmen then riddled the vehicle with bullets at 7:15 a.m. when it passed at the corner of Balagtas and Juan Luna streets.

Upon seeing that Esquivel’s son was hit, the suspects were heard as saying "Di ito ang ating target [This is not our target]." But witnesses said the suspects finished the driver off deliberately. - GMA news

a leaflet apparently left behind by the attackers near the crime scene indicated that the elder Esquivel was the target of the ambush by a group that identified itself was the Armadong Operatiba ng Partidong Marxista-Leninista ng Pilipinas (Armed Operatives of the Marxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines). - Inquirer

There is an old age saying, “Why shoot the messenger?” In this case, a lowly driver, who had nothing to do with the issue, was purposely gunned down. After the hitmen fired at the vehicle, the grabbed the head of the driver and pumped a .45 caliber bullet into his head. The supposed target of the assassination was nowhere near the scene. The gunmen who are supposed to be fighting for the rights of the poor, has deliberately killed somebody so poor.