Media trends in Australia, Philippines and Thailand

Just a quick observation of the general media trends in the three countries that I’ve been based in. I can say that as to balanced programming, by and large, Australia might be on the right track but this is just a quick assessment. 🙂 So, here’s what to expect with media outlets in each country.

Philippines
I might not be an authority on this now but as far as I can remember news tend to be “crowded” with entertainment news. First thing in the morning, there might be morning shows on TV, this will be followed by talk shows with topics ranging from personal development to showbiz. A noon time show will follow then followed by either a soap opera TV or showbiz talk show. A children’s show might follow, then news then movies or another three to four hours of soap program again. Before coming to Thailand, I remember news programs being relegated from prime time to almost late night (or the cheap time slots, which is close to midnight).

Print media, as most of my Filipino readers know, tend to be mainly politics if not crime focused (well, that’s news in the country anyway). By and large, most of the print media tend to be entertainment focused as with tabloids.

Thailand
News and current affairs in Thailand tend to be “sporty.”After a morning show, which is basically much like a radio talk show on TV, programs that follow will be news and entertainment. There are some noon time shows, which are almost like the Bubble Gang show in the Philippines, then these will be followed by sports news again (mostly football/soccer). Then usually news are on by 6pm. They also have soap operas here but mostly are fantasy in topic, although it differs from season to season (themes might be country to family drama). One thing I like in Thai media are the good funny commercials they have, pretty good! 🙂

Australia
Just like Thailand, most of the programming on Australian TV are sports news (football/rugby or cricket). There is a morning show, which is followed by children’s show, then talk shows from the US and then an Australian soap opera then children’s show. Programs on prime time include US TV series (CSI, NCIS, Californication, Heroes, Australian Idol among others) and Australian talk shows.

The World at Risk

The UN recently reported that there is a dire need to act on the world’s global warming. Their message, simply put, is we can do something with climate change (without having to dive into the inconvenient truth) if, and only if, everyone takes the cudgels for the environment and invest towards a more sustainable management of the environment and global warming.

The Carbon Monitoring for Action website, which hosts a wealth of information on global warming placed Australians as the worst producer of CO2. The CNN.com reports that Australia “produce(s) 11 tons of CO2 for each of its people from their power plants — the highest anywhere — compared to 9 tons per person in the United States and 2 tons per person in China.” However, the US tops the worst CO2 producing country in the world with China nearly overtaking it.

A former colleague in the UN once told me that developed countries, including Australia, are holding back on the Kyoto Protocol as they have forwarded a number of reasons from job loss to economic slow down. There is double talk from the side of developed countries as they want developing countries to achieve “developed” status, however, would not want to compromise on climate change issues.

Let me explain my point, economic development is almost reciprocal to CO2 emission, i.e., if one country has to develop, it has to increase production of goods, which developed countries would not want to compromise. If there are countries that have the ability to address climate change, it is developed countries. Developing countries are basically telling developed countries, you’ve had your chance to develop, why not give us a chance and it was “them” who have (mainly) caused global warming (industrial period to present).

Global warming is one of the big issues here in Australia. There is a big chance that Australia’s position might change if Kevin Rudd wins the election (although recent blunder by the party’s supposed environment minister is quite worrying, I’m still hoping that it will definitely ratify the Kyoto Protocol). As to the rest of the world, it seems that it’s just like taking drugs, one knows the dire consequence but are still willing to take “the plunge” and suffer any consequence, even if it means taking its own life. God help us all.

Melbourne

There are a lot of news here Down Under, however, I’m off to a conference in Melbourne. The hotel internet cost is outrageously high, so I’m writing this in one of the internet cafes here in St. Kilda. Melbourne is a nice cool (literally, it’s about 19 degrees now) city.

It’s a pity, I wasn’t able to catch up with Alma (wasn’t able to inform her anyway). Well, it’s been a busy five days for me here. Off to Perth this Friday evening.

Now, here’s the twin tower for your indulgence. 🙂 Just shaved my hair last Saturday to save money for my three years stay here.

CSR

So, what’s with the acronym?

It doesn’t stand for customer service representative or corporate social responsibility but it stands for a visual impairment, central serous chorioretinopathy also called central serous retinopathy. This is usually temporary albeit for a few months. According to contributors of Wikipedia, it affects males 20 to 50. The disorder is further described as

Going blind… (on one eye)

Well, God willing, it will be only temporary albeit for a few months.

I recently consulted a General Physician due to some black spots that I’ve been seeing for about a week now. Apparently, I got it while driving without my sunnies on. The after image was gone about after five minutes right after I unintentionally looked at the sun’s reflection in another car. The following day, the after image appeared again and I was having a hard time reading or writing as my vision is impaired. So, I consulted the GP, who referred me to an ophthalmologist after finding no apparent abnormality.

The ophthalmologist’s examined my right eye and said that I have a Central serous retinopathy (CSR), also known as central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC). Everybody has it for no reason at all, the doctor said. But as I’ve read, it only happens with male aged between 20 to 50 and likely with “type A personality.” The usual attributed causes of CSR is stress.

Indeed, I’m in a bit of stress these past few days trying to catch up with various writing deadlines that I’ve almost slipped out of my regular “stress-relieving activity”–blogging. Anyway, I still hope that this will only be temporary but one thing is certain now, driving at night will be harder than usual. Although, one way I manage my CSR is by winking more often so to freshen up my right eye–though I don’t do it while walking lest I get a slap from women or men that I come across. 🙂

By the way, fruityoaty‘s back and she’s made it in the semi-finals round of this year’s Philippine Web Awards, blog category along with other heavy weights-Yuga, etc. :). So, register and nominate her or Yuga if you will 🙂

Quick to the terror, slow to the accident

Philippine National Police Chief Avelino Razon recently confirmed that their American and Australian counterparts ruled out bomb blast in the Glorietta 2 blast this October.

I didn’t blog about the event but I do feel for all those who were directly and indirectly affected by this accident. However, the careless comments from various Philippine authorities led to a number of confusion, which led the media to a roller coaster ride–one time the headline said that it was confirmed that it was a terrorist attack, another time it was possibly an accident and so on. This happened after the bribery of several local government executives and before the eventual pardon and release of Erap. So, was this incident intentional and that there was a big deal of motive for the government to sponsor it?

Only in the Philippines

Barely two months since Joseph Estrada was convicted of plunder, elements of the government moved swiftly to work out an easy way out for the disgraced leader. There were still some pride from Erap and his lawyers but apparently the overwhelming evidence or their belief that Philippine justice is just inefficient–changed their mind and they opted to forward a plea for pardon.

My Workplace (Another Tag Game)

Got tagged by Chuckie a few weeks ago (pasensya na Chuckie). Took me a while to answer back as I keep forgetting my my camera. Well, as most of you have read in Chuck’s entry, this tag game is quite simple, just post a photo of your work place and that’s it. However, for me it took me a while, as aside from the forgetfulness alibi, I still don’t have a permanent work place at the Uni.

So, in short, not only did I need to address our being NPAs but I also have to settle my permanent work place. Anyway, here are photos of my work place, the trailer trash!

In the service of the Filipino

I was surprised to see that Blogbastic stats for today shot up more than 10 folds and I haven’t updated regularly!??? When I inspected, I thought, what’s with the day? It turns out that it was the Pacquiao-Barrera fight. Most Filipinos who don’t have access of live video feed tried to rely on live radio feed to be updated by the fight.

Salamat po sa pagbisita.

Glad to be of service,

Blogbastic!

Reminiscent of Mendiola

I have yet to hear from my friend from Myanmar. He was supposed to return last night. I saw a video clip of what happened in Yangon over Mizzima News. When I saw it, it reminded me of Mendiola Massacre–I just couldn’t take the brutality of the situation.

A friend of mine was in the front line of the protesting peasant farmers. Her colleague was hit by a bullet in the face. She survived and so did her colleague. I saw the event on TV and it became one of historical events on TV that I’ll never forget aside from the assassination of Ninoy.

It was reported that the Military Junta had cut off the internet connection in the country to avoid any leakage of any documentation of the military action against the protesters and hold a clip on the nation’s blogger informants. The military had previously cracked down on protesters in 1988 when thousands were killed. They are still defiant again despite increasing international pressure including from its strongest ally, China. If they continue their defiance at this stage, will they have the guts to annihilate more than 10,000 people at one go? Will the international community, again, just watch and contribute to the rhetoric of diplomatic scolding and spanking (economic sanction) of this country? It’s everybody’s guess and I hope that the video clip at Missima News will be the last image of that kind that I will see from Yangon.