Aussie Idol enjoys second-best debut : thewest.com.au

One of my favorite shows when I was doing my studies here in Australia back in 2004 was Australian Idol. It was the second year of the British Franchise here in the Commonwealth and my kids and I enjoyed it. From the talented aspirants to downright hilarious unforgettable wannabes.

This season’s Aussie Idol became the second-best debut for the franchise. My kids loved Sebastian, the 2003 Australian Idol because of his charming voice and good looks and we also enjoyed the competition of Season 2 and the talent of all the 12 finalist and even to the showdown between Casey Donovan and Anthony Callea.

Well, it was indeed exciting for me back in 2004 and hopefully, this year’s Aussie Idol will live up to last night’s and tonight’s episodes, which are a real stress reliever. 🙂

One thing I’ve noticed is they now have four judges here. They were only three back in 2004 in the tradition of Simon, Paula and Randy. Now they have Mark, Marcia, Dicko (who went on leave on 2005 and 2006) and Kyle. From the looks of the candidates for this year’s contest, I think the judges will have a very hard time picking the best as most of the aspiring singers that made it were musician-composers. Now, let’s wait and see. 🙂

Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2007

The results are out. Glad to know that at least one of my nomination was judged as one of the top 10 emerging influential blogs for 2007. 🙂

Fruityoaty made it to the list and also took home at US$100 for blogging about it! How lucky could this blogger get?? The list of the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2007 are as follows: 

1. An Apple a Day
   The Philosophical Bastard
2. The D Spot
3. CokskiBlue
4. Make Money Online with a 13-Year Old
5. Culture Shiok!
   Utakgago
6. Kubiertos
7. FruityOaty
   PinoyBlogero
8. The Dork Factor
   The Anitokid Chronikos
9. Gibbs Cadiz
10. Confessions of a Hopeless Romantic

The following bloggers are US$100 richer. 🙂

1. Maryrose
2. Sofia for BiSEAN
3. J Angelo Racoma
4. Heneroso
5. Fruityoaty
6. Annamanila
7. Webbyman
8. Marie Casas
9. Mira
10. Jehzeel Laurente

As with all successful writing project on the blogosphere, there were suggestions and few observations regarding the blogs nominated and even the bloggers who participated. Shari was complaining a bit on the representation of blogs. She argued that most of the bloggers who participated were Filipinos and most of the blogs were owned by part or full blooded Filipinos.

Actually, when I blogged about it, I was afraid that it will not get much international coverage when it became evident by week 3 that most of the bloggers and even the nominated blogs were Filipinos/Filipino owned. However, if the contest was only dedicated to Filipino Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs, I guess there might be a few choices despite the growing number of Filipino bloggers.

But hey, this is just the first year of this writing project. Who knows what will happen next year? Well, I hope that more bloggers will participate and this will be one of the most “popular” popularity contests on the blogosphere after the bloggy and other award giving “bodies.” 🙂

Australia becoming more Asian — census

That’s exactly what the headline says on Inquirer.net. So, what’s the buzz surrounding this issue? My first thought was that they are afraid, they are very, very afraid. Why? Well, another race is overtaking true-blue Australians.

Forgive my ranting but I’m speaking from experience as a random victim of a “sporadic” racism in beautiful Australia back in 2004. While some might consider the cases that I’ve been through as mere coincidence or as nothing serious, it made me think twice whenever I walk the streets of the very quaint and peaceful Newcastle, Australia.

First case. It happened during my first quarter as a student in this developed country. I checked the mail as I usually do and one flyer caught my eye. It was from a certain political group. The flyer was full of Asian bashing arguements like Asians are taking over our jobs, Asians cannot assimilate in Australian culture among others.

The flyer was distributed at every house in our suburb. The following night, stones were raining on our house that we had to call the police for assistance. We saw some youth running away apparently from where the stones are coming from and identified the house where they sought refuge.

We saw the perpetrators but no arrests were made as the parents of the teenagers claimed that they were fast asleep inside the house during the supposed time of attack. We believe we were targetted as we were the most vulnerable Asian in the neighborhood–our house is in a street corner.

I wrote a number of authorities and attached the flyer that I saw and reported our experience. Among those I wrote was Prime Minister John Howard, the secretary of foreign affairs, University officials including Australian Embassy staff in the Philippines. No action was taken as they deemed it as a simple case of random mischief.

Second case. Simple to others but it was a big deal to me as I was shaken a bit–a group of youth on a car followed me and shouted “go home asian!!” which I did, I went home (to our house, which was nearby anyway). 🙂

This experience had shaken me and I just tried to shurg it off after my first experience in the first case. I was warned that I’ll be treated like that someday anyway.

Amazing how some people can be intolerant of others and they ask why there’s murder, rape and terrorism. Or I’m just being too sensitive??? I might be. enough said.

Hell boy fails to enter Catholic school

A boy surnamed Hell has been banned from an Australian Catholic school according to a report on the Inquirer.net. The ban was imposed apparently because of the boy’s surname. The boy’s father was originally from Austria.

The boy’s parents approached St. Peter Apostle School to enroll him as their son was being bullied in his current school. The school offered the boy a place in the school after the boy’s parents agreed to use the mother’s last name, Wembridge. However, the school backed out of its promise after the parents changed their mind and offered the child another school.

The parents, however, decided to take the child to another school. Hell in Austria means “bright” 🙂

While not related to this news article, this article reminded me of a tourism campaign initiated by Australia sometime in 2004. The accompanying TV ad, however, earned the ire of conservatives in England that it was banned from being aired–WHY?? Because of the hell word plus the adjective of blood–So, where the bloody hell are you?!

 

To some, it seems like an ordinary phrase but if you translate it to American English one might understand it this way–So, where the f*****g hell are you?!, thus, the buzz.

Philippines on watchlist on worst human traffickers

The Philippines is known to be an exporter of skilled and professional manpower, however, it has recently landed on the watchlist of Big Brother US as one of the worst human trafficker countries as reported by CNN.com. In its report on human trafficking, the US spared no one even listing vital friendly states as worst offenders.

New worst human trafficking countries included Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The US also listed Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan and Venezuela among the worst offending countries according to the CNN report.

I believe part of the Philippines reaction to this report and in response to alleged irregularities among immigration employees, the Bureau of Immigration recently dissolved its monitoring and enforcement unit at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Apparently there are still good souls within the Bureau that the unit was dissolved on its alleged connivance with human traffickers.

Worst human trafficer countries have 90 days to clean up their acts or face sanctions. Those in the watchlist, which included 32 other countries including China, the Dominican Repulic, Egypt, Mexico and Russia, are given one year to act on the evaluation or face another assessment and possibly sanctions.

Retired Fil-Am General claims Bush knew about Abu Ghraib

The Fact is… we violated the tenets of the Geneva Convention. We violated our own principles and we violated the core of our military values

As the US forces starts a fresh campaign against insurgents in Iraq, the ghost of Abu Ghraib prison scandal continued to haunt Bush’s war on terror. The scandal was opened up again after the New Yorker magazine reporter Seymour M. Hersh interviewed Retired Major-General Antonio Taguba about his report on the alleged tortures and abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq revealing fresh information and implying that top officials knew about the tortures and abuses, Al Jazeera reported.

The White House has denied that President George W. Bush knew about the Abu Ghraib tortures as implicated by Retired Major-General Taguba. Retired Major-General Taguba also alleged that then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had access to the photos of the alleged torture and abuses but might had refused to see it. Rumsfeld denied having knowledge of the photos and alleged that he only knew about the incident through the media.

Eleven prison guards were subsequently convicted for abusing and torturing Abu Ghraib prisoners, some of whom were beaten to death. Al-Jazeera also reported that Retired Major-General Taguba revealed previously undisclosed information:

Taguba spoke of other, undisclosed material, including descriptions of the sexual humiliation of a father with his son, who were both detainees and “a video of a male American soldier in uniform sodomising a female detainee” that was never made public or mentioned in any court.

Retired Major-General Taguba apparently received a warning from a general that he will be investigated for his report. Nearly three years after the report leaked to the public, the Filipino-American was asked to retire last January 2007 without any reason.

He (Taguba) said he was “ostracised for doing what I was asked to do”.

Related Links:

• Some of the released Abu Ghraib Photos
• The General’s Report
• Complete version of the Taguba Report
• Who is Major-General Antonio Taguba

Blogbastic is a C+ Philippine Traveller

Found out from Yuga about a cool project assessing how well-travelled one is in the Philippines. 

Blogger Eugene Alvin Villar recently launched a beta version of Lakbayan (travelling), which rated a traveller’s coverage of the Philippines. Lakbayan was inspired by the visited countries project, however, Eugene was industrious enough to separate tourist spots to minimize overrating. It was a long form but it was fun. Too fun that I’ve got excited commenting and forgot to edit my comment–me and my fast fingers! (how embarassing and irresponsible!).

I credit my being above average traveller to my former employer–a foreign assisted government project in the Philippines. It got me places and a few rewards flight from Philippine Airlines! 🙂 However, I was a spoiled traveller then as everything was taken care of for me most of the time that when I started travelling on my own–booking a flight, hotel among other things was a little bit challenging. Of course, things changed now.

It feels good to know that I can proudly say that I’ve been to places in the Philippines not only on official business but as a local tourist. The Department of Tourism‘s WOW Philippines Project was one of the reasons that visiting Philippine tourist destinations has become more affordable than usual. 🙂

Oh, ano pa’ng hinihintay ninyo? Tara na! (What are you waiting for? Let’s go!)

My Lakbayan grade is C+!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

Tech-savvy teaching, blog passion and blog path

Back in the days when teachers have to use everything under the sun to make learning an unforgettable experience. I remember having to deal with crudely written lessons on Manila papers, blackboards stained with white chalk, diorama made from newspapers among other things. I’m glad that while I studied in a developing country, I was blessed to have diligent teachers and attended reputable schools.

The internet was just made public and was hardly accessible to most people when I started college. So, when I was given a chance to study in Australia I was very impressed that they used Blackboard a lot, however, this was not your ordinary blackboard–it was a web-based e-learning tool. We posted assignments, downloaded lectures and even had our essays checked for plagiarism. 

So, when Inquirer.net reported that blogs are replacing blackboards in Singapore, it certainly brought back good memories. It was also good to know that the University of the Philippines Los Baños was also eyeing blogs as extensions for distance education, which is a welcome development given that schools in developing countries won’t be able to afford (and will not have any funds) a web-based learning software like Blackboard.

When I first blogged more than a year ago, I never expected that blogging would be a potentially addictive habit more so a versatile tool. Blogs are used as journal, review, education medium, venue for political rants, source of income and lately a blogger pointed out other possibilities that blogs can be of use like a tool against poverty and hunger. It actually did already made this change as with the Red Blog, UN Vietnam among others.

Problogging is slowly spreading so, Philanthroblogging (blogging for a noble cause) is also starting. So, what path do you think you’re going with your blogs–are you going pro or Philanthro or just neutral?

Whatever you choose, live your life, enjoy it and blog about it 😉

 

US Missile Defense Plans puts Russia on Offensive

When the International Herald Tribune reported that U.S. makes its pitch for a missile shield in Europe, it caught the attention of Russia and Germany. Russian President Vladimir Putin had strong words for the President and threatened to aim its nuclear warheads to certain targets in Europe.

Former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev warned that the America’s action could lead to another cold war with the possible arms race between the two countries. Bono also expressed irritation on the word war between the two presidents describing the distraction as a cockfight. He complained that the leaders should focus more on poverty eradication and not on not so important issues.

The proposal from the US was in light of Iran’s claimed nuclear capability but the reason for shielding Europe was not accepted by many. However by the end of the week of the G8 Summit in Berlin, Russia makes a surprise offer to the US. It recommended a collaborative effort to shield Europe but the missile defense would be placed in a Russian appointed country and not to former soviet states as what the US was pushing.

US President George W. Bush welcomed the suggestions and promised to look into it. However, Nato was quick to react and suggested that the Russian proposal should be taken into consideration with caution.

While the US and Russia have yet to act on the issue of the missile defense, Poland, which is one of the cooperating countries for the missile defense, said that negotiations are still on-going. This would mean that unless the US says they will accept the Russian deal, Europe might have to deal with the fact that they would really need the missile defense with the threat of Russia to re-direct its warheads to targets in Europe.

You’ll regret it if we quit!

This is the apparent threat (and not the first time) from Japan as reported on CNN.com to the International Whaling Commission. Japan was reacting to fierce opposition from anti-whaling nations as it was forced to scrap [its] proposal to allow four coastal village[s] to hunt the animals.

It has called the IWC hypocrite as it allowed some whale hunting for three countries except Japan. Japan recently came up with the proposal when the 77-member IWC allowed aboriginal whaling for indigenous people in the United States, Russia and Greenland. Japan contended that whaling was a part of their culture, too (Full story). 

The IWC has allowed Japan to take more than 1,000 whales per year for scientific research but it has yet to publish most of the results. Other member nations and anti-whaling organizations have alleged that most of the whales caught for these scientific research end up in supermarkets.

As a compromise, Japan said it was willing to give up its plan to hunt 50 humpback whales next year in exchange for the endorsement of their proposal to allow their indigenous whale-hunting coastal villages to hunt. However, Australia rebuked Japan for holding the creatures hostage. Greenland abandoned a plan to increase its whaling quota after considering the IWCs objection.

International forums like the IWC or the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) or any inter-governmental organizations for this matter, tend to become an arena for diplomatic showdown between countries (the more powerful, English articulate, richer–wields more favor). While these organizations have served its purpose at some point, some has also became a legitimizing factor to allow the thing it (organizations) was created for (in this case, the IWC was to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry). However, since its creation in 1946, it was only in 1970s that conservation efforts started to be felt after the number of endangered species increased.

There are a number of debates/issues surrounding the conservation of whales, from freedom of choice of protein source; some whale species are in abundance (so why not go for sustainable whaling?) to the motive of transnational NGOs among others. However, the fact remains that the list of endangered whale species, aside from other animal species, is getting longer with time in spite of the existence of these so-called commissions, organizations or agreements meant to protect whales or regulate the industry that’s close to making it extinct (and eventually the industry that these animals have created).

I just hope that these people can just sit down, compromise and focus on the most important thing, i.e, letting future generations enjoy this world as we see it now (or wanted to see it as it was three or four generations ago).