SOUNDING BOARD is an outlet for opinions on good and crazy things going on at home (wherever I may be). All are welcome. You are not expected to bring anything except your common sense & sense of humor.
'If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get one million miles to the gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.'
-Robert X. Cringely (from geek wisdom)
SOUNDING BOARD
Friday, April 30, 2004
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Day 10: Found a big mall and a night full of insects (turn off the lights!!!)
Eureka! They have a mall after all (God bless Cambodia!!). It's not your Glorietta or Shangri-la type of malls but hey, they have one. With 35C during evenings, it is indeed a timely discovery. It has a big sony center on the topmost floor (yipeeee!!), a big supermarket downstairs, lots of European RTWs, and a whole bunch of cheap RTWs - ala MBK in Bangkok. One big mall is better than nothing.
During that night when we had a brownout (previous post), I experienced the first rainfall (people here said it has been some time since the last one). So as a result, last night, all sorts of small insects flocked to every single source of light in the area. It's not the usual 'gamu-gamo' but I hate insects nevertheless. So I had to turn off the lights and lock myself inside my room. I have screens but these things keep crawling under my door and every other bit of small space that they could fit themselves into.
I had a chance to have lunch with some Cambodian friends who also attended the March 2003 training-workshop on using statistics for gender-responsive policy analysis and advocacy in Bangkok. It was a very happy get-together courtesy of Elaine (who generously shares her office with us). We were about to order when the Minister for Women's and Veterans' Affairs walked in with her daughter. Then after a while Lorraine (the person who requested me to join this team) called Elaine. She talked to Elaine, the Minister and me. She was very delighted to know we were having that lunch get-together. She was after all part of the training team in Bangkok.
posted by Allan at 6:54 PM (GMT+8)
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SOUNDING BOARD
Thursday, April 29, 2004
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Day 9: First night at my new place (who turned off the lights?!!)
So I moved in. My Cambodian friend and former colleague in graduate school helped me, by taking me to my place through his car. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant nearby and dropped me off in front of my place. My excitement was gone as soon as a realized that there was a brownout in some of the blocks including where my apartment is. So there goes first night at my place, I thought. I hope it wasn't an omen or something. It was after an hour or so that I got a good look at my place. The good news is that brownouts are not common here. It's summer, and everybody must have been using electric appliances to the max, maybe.
posted by Allan at 3:13 PM (GMT+8)
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SOUNDING BOARD
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
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Day 8: Moving from hotel to my new place
In a few hours, I will be moving to my new place. It's an apartment on the second floor of a building near my hotel. It has a balcony overlooking the usually populated bars and restaurants within the vicinity. I have my own kitchen, a big living room, a nice bed room with my own restroom, and I dunno what for, but I have another restroom in the kitchen area hehehee.
I hope it doesn't take a long time for the phone company to install my phone so I can connect to the internet from my place.
One of the biggest challenges to my work here is the language barrier. It's a good thing the daughther of the apartment owner knows a bit of english (she's studying english language), otherwise I would have dragged my cambodian friends for a simple apartment hunting. But not all people here speaks english. At work, whenever we have meetings, we find it often necessary to translate a couple of times to enable some of our partners to understand what we are saying. Nevertheless, that is not their fault. We at the project team, need to adjust to this situation and build their capacities.
posted by Allan at 1:17 PM (GMT+8)
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SOUNDING BOARD
Monday, April 26, 2004
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Day 6: Going deeper into my work in the ministry
Work has really started. K and I are the only 2 full time members of the team. We will soon be joined by two people from the ministry who will be involved in the project on a part time basis. On paper, they are supposed to be working with us on full time capacity but because of the low wages here, we were told not to expect them to work full time for us. Even on their job in the ministry, that is the case. The reason is that most of these public servants have second jobs to cope up. I was told that at times, people leave work early to go and work on their second or even third jobs. And therefore, K and I will be sharing most of the work of the team.
Basically, the work of the team focuses around 2 things: (1) pilot test an approach on how to integrate results-based gender-responsive budgeting to mainstream budgeting; and (2) build capacity of the ministry and women's organizations... it's amazing how my work can be captured by 2 numbers when in fact there are a lot of sub-clauses, if you will, under each item. Anyway, because there is so much flexibilty and also because there is not much to build on, the work is so exciting.
I seem to be getting comfortable riding the motodup now. I now have regular drivers and they're quite nice and friendly (as most people here are).
I hope I won't forget to check out some apartments nearby tomorrow. I should have done that earlier. Argh.
SOUNDING BOARD
Friday, April 23, 2004
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Phnom Phen Day 1-3: Totally unexpected (ride my 2-wheeled taxi city boy)
It must have been all those getting used to Manila and other Asian cities that shook me a bit when I arrived here at Phnom Phen 2 days ago. I imagine it will take a while before I really get used to living here.
From the plane, I saw large tracks of brown land and a few small packets of greens with little settlements. When I arrived, I wasn't greeted with a heavy traffic from the airport to my hotel as what any Asian city would have. It was extremely humid, probably a few degrees warmer than Manila. Oh no.
I didn't have to change my dollars to riel. I was planning to change some, but because I was so tired from the sleepless night I had in Bangkok (had a meeting/briefing there, vaccination the day before going to Phnom Phen), I totally forgot to pass by those banks in the airport. No worries. Almost all establishments accept US dollars, from supermarkets to internet cafes, etc...
What really shook my senses was the fact that there aren't any taxi cabs, as in the usual taxis. What they have here are the so-called motordup (hope I got that right). It's a small motorcycle and you gotta hop in at the back... that's it. That's taxi for you city boy, I said to myself. It's gonna take a while before I get used to this. And I'm gonna have my hair cut really short so that I won't have to arrive at the office like some scared animal or something.
No "malls" either. What they have are supermarkets and some shops that may have been the predecessor of the so-called malls.
Don't ever try to go around looking for starbucks either.
SOUNDING BOARD
Monday, April 12, 2004
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The holidays are over...
It's 8:00 am. I just woke up and still feeling sleepy. Actually, I was staring at my pc's screen a couple of minutes ago. Anyway, my brainwaves still seem to be on a holiday so I just wish everyone (who can relate to the commemoration of lent all the way to easter) had a good one recently. I can't believe it has taken me so long to write such a short entry. Argh.
posted by Allan at 7:13 AM (GMT+8)
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SOUNDING BOARD
Monday, April 05, 2004
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On holiday economics
It will be a special non-working holiday on Wednesday, 7 April 2004, in observance of lent and in addition to the annual holidays during Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
Call me 'KJ' but I really think we have a lot of non-working holidays. The government justifies this by invoking 'holiday economics', where supposedly, people would be spending during these times and this consumer spending will help fuel the economy. I hope they did their homework on this one because beginning to doubt whether or not people are indeed spending during the additional non-working holidays given the state of the country's economy.
My spending, for one, is not affected at all whether today is a non-working holiday or not. In fact, I spend more during work-days. However, I've always considered myself an 'outlier' in more ways than one.
Maybe some students should work on this topic for their thesis. How much change in consumer spending can be attributed to the increased holidays? Of course, we're assuming that consumer spending indeed has a significant effect on the economy. Then maybe balance it with the corrollary question: do the benefits of holiday economics more than offset the loss in productivity?
Hawkish election disqualification tactic vs alleged CPP front organizations
INQ7.net reports, 'WHILE THE government wants the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to lay down its arms in favor of electoral struggle, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales is seeking the disqualification from the May 10 elections of six party-list groups he considers CPP front organizations' (INQ7.net, 5 April 2004).
Gonzales specifically identified the party-list groups as Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anakpawis, Anak ng Bayan, Migrante and Suara Bangsamoro. In the 2 April 2004 meeting of the National Security Council, Gonzales mentioned he has strong suspicion that 'the Countrywide Development Fund (CDF) amounting to more than 500 million pesos was used to aid and abet the armed struggle of the NPA (New People's Army, the armed wing of the CPP)'.
Here is where an honest to goodness government audit comes in (and should also include other pork barrel funds!). If Mr. Gonzales has evidences supporting his 'suspicion', by all means disqualify them. Evidences please, but even if these political parties are 'CPP front organizations' CPP is not an illegal organization. We're not going to get anywhere if we base it in mere suspision.
However, this may just be a mere political strategy to send a message that 'NSC will be watching you'. And in times when the campaign fever is currently afflicting both the administration and the opposition, 'suspicions' will never run out. Give the people solid evidences and you'll be doing us a great public service rather than venting suspicions to the media.
posted by Allan at 11:37 AM (GMT+8)
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