Category: General Updates

Commentary on people, places, things, the news, current events, etc.

Typhoon Ondoy Aftermath, More Disaster

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment


(Image via bardagols on Flickr)

The aftermath of Typhoon Ondoy is turning into a huge disaster.  I’ve been hearing bits and pieces of news and I figured I’d try to put it all together here.  It’s very disheartening to say the least.  Of course, you can’t expect a lot of good news in the middle or immediate aftermath of a disaster, but some of the things that are going on are just ridiculous.


One of the biggest problems right now is that there are vacant homes everywhere.  Granted, they have water damage, but there are still valuable items in some of them.  Unscrupulous people are taking advantage of this and there is rampant looting in affected areas.  These families have already sustained massive damages to their homes, and they’re going to be financially crippled for quite some time.  Having their possessions stolen will only make matters worse.  Plus, vandals aren’t going to be using the spare key, so there’ll be additional property damage on top of what was caused by the typhoon.

One thing that’s really bothering me is reports of politicians “branding” the relief packages with their faces and names.  This practice is common in the Philippines.  Every time there is road construction, or some new public facility is being built, politicians waste plenty of citizens’ tax money to put up huge billboards describing the work in progress, the responsible politician’s name, and more often than not that politicians face, or even a family portrait.  Is that really necessary?  Everyone knows who was elected to serve in that region, so it should be plain who backed the roadwork or the new construction.  Putting up all of those billboards is a waste of funds that could be put to better use in a country that is, on a normal day, already struggling to keep afloat economically.  Now, after this huge disaster, when so many people are suffering, the politicians aren’t worried about providing relief.  They’re worried about advertising and branding.  It’s fucking disgusting.  They have no sense of propriety.  This is not the place or time for that sort of thing.  What’s even worse is these packages aren’t being provided by those politicians.  It’s being provided by multiple donations from all around the world.  The politicians are repacking it and putting their name on it, as if they paid for it all themselves.

Many Filipinos are also claiming that relief goods are only being handed out when media is present, and not before, nor after.  It’s as if this whole tragedy has become a platform for politicians to advertise themselves.  How heartless is that?  Rather than focussing on what’s important, they’d rather use it as an opportunity to try to ensure they get reelected.

Here’s a news flash.  It was partially through failure on the part of elected officials that this disaster happened in the first place.  Lack of awareness campaigns to reduce pollution, lack of announcing the impending disaster, lack of rescue personnel and equipment, lack of funds.  Lack of leadership.

This raises the issue of government misuse of public funds, most notably the Philippine president, Gloria Arroyo, and her huge expenditure of approximately 1 million Philippine Pesos in New York City for a dinner.  Personally, I hope that this causes a shift in the right direction in Philippine politics where there is more accountability of where and how money is being spent.

The icing on the cake is that another tyhpoon, named Pepeng in the Philippines and internationally known as Parma , is expected to make landfall tonight Friday night, and only 1/4 of the rainfall produced by Ondoy will be required to recreate flash flood conditions.  Oh, and Pepeng is a stronger typhoon than Ondoy was.

I’ll be keeping the Philippines in my thoughts and prayers tonight.  Good luck guys.

Absurd Toy Depicting Animal Cruelty

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

I’m not a seriously active animal activist… that’s a weird sentence… but I have two cats, and in the future hope to have a dog too. I love my pets and try to take care of them, and the idea of animal cruelty disturbs me. This toy disturbs me as well. I found the image on the internet and I think that’s Japanese, but I’m not sure.

How can we expect people to treat animals humanely, especially pets, when this is what’s being promoted to children?

As you can see from the tags on the image, it’s even been posted to a ‘Humor’ blog, but I don’t see anything humorous about it.

Do you?

Posted via email from Bradley’s Posterous

Heroes of the Typhoon Ondoy Tragedy

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

This is a photo of the Laguna area, roughly 60 km south of Manila. It’s not the exact location where the following events took place, but it’ll give you an idea of what the area looks like. Also, I found the sign in the image to be rather ironic, given the circumstances. Maybe putting up huge billboards describing what you’re doing isn’t such a great idea, politicians.

Typhoon Ondoy brought a lot of tragedy to the Philippines but it has also brought out the best in people in terms of risking themselves to save others.

One inspiring story is that of PFC Venacio Ancheta, who was able to save 20 civilian lives before losing his own to the floodwaters. PFC Ancheta belonged to the 2nd Infantry Division disaster response team, led by Lt. Arnel Marcos. His team was responding to affected residents of Barangay Tunhac, Famy, Laguna when he bravely lost his life.

PFC Venancio Ancheta was just one of seven Philippines Army casualties suffered during rescue operations, but his actions inspired many others to put their lives on the line to save their fellow Filipinos. A quote from the statement issued by the Philippine Army says: “His heroism [serves] as an inspiration for the whole Philippine Army and, in particular, his teammates who continued the mission and rescued another 600 civilians in Famy, Laguna”

Another inspiring story is that of CPL Adriano Regua, who lost his life while trying to save one of the militiamen on his team. The militiaman was drowning and CPL Regua risked himself to save him. Unfortunately, neither made it. This selfless act spoke highly of his dedication to his duty and his team, as well as his quality as a leader. Additionally, under his supervision his rescue team was able to save 200 residents in the area. Perhaps the most telling sign of the quality of his character was that he was putting forth his best effort to perform his duties, despite the fact that his own family was in danger in Tanay, Rizal, which was also hard hit by the storm.

On the other end of the spectrum you have something that initially looks heroic, but doesn’t stand up to reason when you really think about it.

Christina Reyes, a famous young actress in the Philippines, was stranded on top of her house with her family. That’s a situation that was faced by thousands of Filipinos, and yet her case was somehow made special because she is a celebrity. I think this is one of those times when social class and celebrity status shouldn’t make a difference. Everyone’s life is just as valuable.

Richard Gutierrez, fellow actor and co-star of an upcoming movie, somehow appropriated an Army speed boat and made his way through the wreckage of Manila to Reyes’ house to rescue her. Some sites are describing it as a real life scene from a movie that should be hailed and praised. I see it as misuse of government property, shameless self promotion (on Gutierrez’ part) and a gross mockery of the suffering Filipino flood victims are experiencing. Also, I can’t help but wonder how many victims he passed on his way to and from rescuing her.

I found a rather poorly made fan video of the incident, which is embedded below, but what really caught my eye was the sentiment of one of the commenters, included below the video embed.

A YouTube user had this comment to make about the situation:

Don525 (6 hours ago) [[As of 11:04 PM, Tuesday September 29th]]

Whats so special about this BITCH?The whole country is in chaos..hundreds already died,thousands are homeless some are hungry and missing and they are worried about a famous 2 face celeb..?VERY SAD,,very sad indeed,,who gives a shit!!there is more at stakenow help our kabayan..and dont be an asshole like our gov..blame it global warming and bad devlopment and bad dicipline…

I can’t really say that it’s Reyes’ fault, because it’s only natural for someone to appeal for help. I blame Gutierrez, for being selfish in taking an Army speedboat that could have otherwise been used for rescue operations to save just one person.

The Reyes incident aside, PFC Venacio Ancheta and CPL Adriano Regua are heroes. They’re certainly not the only ones, but they’ve become figureheads for the relief efforts in the Manila area.

I sincerely hope that a portion of tax money is used for something noble, the erection of a monument in Manila to honor the heroes and the dead in this tragedy.

Hurricane Ondoy. What the hell happened?

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment
(Image Source: Times Online)

Typhoon Ondoy is one of the worst disasters to hit the Philippines in years.  I believe I also read that this was the worst typhoon in 42 years.  It also raises a lot of questions about why there was so little warning, why there was such a poor response, and what’s going to happen to all of the victims.  It also illustrates the usefulness of social media in spreading information and requesting help during national emergencies.

Click through to Read More.

Why Was There No Warning?

Typhoon Ondoy didn’t just sneak up on the Philippines.  There was plenty of warning.  PAGASA had even issued warnings that there could be flash flooding and landslides and people in low lying areas may be affected.  So, where did communication break down?  Why weren’t people alerted?  How much of this could’ve been avoided had people been properly evacuated in advance?

Some of the news I’ve read on the internet has compared Typhoon Ondoy to Hurricane Katrina in the US.  There was massive destruction and the local population was caught totally unprepared.  I even saw a few Tweets claiming that Ondoy dropped more rain than Katrina, and that the hurricane category was higher.  I don’t know about that for sure, but Ondoy was definitely a monster of a storm!

Why Was There Such A Poor Response?

Filipinos didn’t receive proper warning before the storm, but on top of that they received an inadequate emergency response as well.  The Philippines is in an area that sees multiple typhoons every year, and flooding isn’t a pink elephant, it’s something that should be expected.  So, where were the amphibious vehicles?  Surely the military has some.  The Philippines is an island chain after all.  Where were the boats?  I remember seeing lots of complaints about the lack of boats.

Some blogs and news sites I’ve read concerning the poor government response to Ondoy are calling for a Senate review, similar to what happened in the US after Katrina, to analyze and improve obviously defective emergency response systems and institutions.  That would be a good move in my opinion.  In this day and age, with the technology we have available to us, there should be no reason for people to have to spend days sitting on their roofs waiting for help to arrive.

Social Media, The Unexpected Hero of the Ondoy Catastrophe

My wife and I actually didn’t know anything about Ondoy until the flooding was well underway.  I believe it was late Saturday afternoon when my wife saw an update on her Facebook claiming there was flooding in the Philippines.  So, that’s when we started searching and, like many people, we used social media like Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and YouTube to keep updated on the situation.  In fact, if it weren’t for social media, I don’t think we’d have ever known what was going on.

Many people complained that there wasn’t enough international coverage of such a massive event.  I’d have to agree.  If Ondoy was worse than Katrina, then it should have received more coverage than Katrina, which was in the news everywhere for quite a while.  Is it because of where the storm happened?  The value of a human life is the same, regardless of where that person is from, so I’m a bit disappointed with the traditional media response.

Through social media we saw everything from video of the flooding to calls for help.  That’s right!  People were using Facebook and Twitter to request help, passing along addresses and locations of stranded people.  I don’t know if traditional methods were unavailable, but even if they were they would’ve been overwhelmed.  So, people were using social media to call out to their fellow Filipinos for aid.  It really was inspiring to see, and made me wish I were there to lend a hand as well.

Additionally, people used social media, especially Twitter, to request information about current conditions, and to ask people to check on friends and family.  It was an incredible boon and aid to Filipinos and others with relatives and/or friends in the Philippines.

Social Media is also being used to pass information about where and how to donate to victims of the flood.

I personally spent a lot of time requesting information about where my relatives in the Philippines live, but it’s a rather out of the way spot, so we never did get much in the way of positive information.  In the end, we got through to my wife’s brother when he made it into the town area to get supplies from the grocery store Sunday afternoon around 4 PM.  Luckily, the part of the Antipolo they live in wasn’t too badly affected, which is a relief, considering the news about the majority of Antipolo.

Scandal And Heroism

Like any major event, this tragedy has brought out both the best and the worst in people.  There were scandals like Jaque Bermejo telling the world through Facebook that the victims must have deserved it, as a punishment from God and nature.  Then there was the President’s son leisurely purchasing liquor in Rustans.  Good job, hero.

But, there were stories of bravery and heroism too, where people gave their lives to save their fellow Filipinos.  I really hope that some of the nation’s tax money is used appropriately and a memorial is erected to honor the dead, and especially to honor those that gave their lives saving others.

What Now?

I suppose the biggest question people are asking themselves is, “What do we do now?”  Some people simply have flood damage and need to wait until the waters recede before returning home.  Even that’s no small thing, considering how much of a person’s personal belongings may be totally ruined.  Having to replace furniture is a heavy expense.  Having to replace electronics is even more costly.  Having to replace everything is worse still.  But, at least there’s a structure to call home to return to.

Some people don’t even have that anymore.  Imagine sitting in your only pair of shorts in a refugee camp somewhere, realizing that you no longer have anything to your name at all.  Some people don’t exactly have much in the bank and what was in their home may have been all they had of value.  What will these people do?  Where will they go?  How are they going to rebuild when they have nothing left to build with?

I don’t have a solution for that, but I hope there’s a government committee that does, or it will certainly cause problems later.  When a person has nothing, and has nothing to lose, they’ll almost certainly turn to less than legal means to make sure ends meet.  It’s quite likely that there will be a spike in the crime rate following this storm.

Hopefully, everything is handled well and a solution is found.  It would be an even bigger disaster for the destruction Ondoy left in its wake to be followed by even more tragedy.

Philippine President Arroyo’s Son Boozing It Up While Filipinos Are Dying? #Ondoy

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

While several of our countrymen were waiting to be rescued, Mikey Arroyo, the son of that Malacanang bitch was photographed buying liquor in Rustans in Katipunan. MAGSAMA KAYO NG NANAY MO, KUPAL KA!!!

via Grachelle Bravo

From everything I’ve heard I don’t have much faith in politicians in the Philippines. They’re nothing but a bunch of crooks that steal money from the people to line their own pockets.

First their president spends 1 million Philippine Pesos on a dinner in New York City, and now her son is boozing it up during the middle of a national crisis. Good job, Arroyo and little Arroyo.

Good luck illegally forcing your bill through the congress to have your term extended past its max length.

China Kills Its Own Citizens

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Back in April I wrote a post about China and how it sold poisoned gyoza to the Japanese.  I then went off on a rant about how China is ruining its world image, because here lately everything that comes out of China is poisonous or defective.  If you’re wondering why I’m so pissed off about China doing this stuff, it’s because most of those products wind up on the shelves of United States grocery stores and department stores, just waiting to poison some unsuspecting person or child. Not to mention that it’s just stupid, and I don’t like stupid. China’s economy relies on exports to other countries, and they’re causing people all over the world to not trust and to not want to buy their products. They’re killing off their livelihood, one screw-up at a time.

I’m also kinda pissed off at the US government for not doing better pre-screening on items imported from China.  They have a proven track record of producing bad quality items.  If a man has a record of sexual offenses against children, appropriate measures would be taken to make sure he didn’t do it again right?  So why is it that a country is producing and exporting bad products to the US, some of them potentially lethal, and we just keep on letting them do it?  Can we fine the country as a whole?  Can we do anything to let them know that this behavior isn’t welcome? How about a 1 month embargo on all China-made products? If they won’t listen to common sense, maybe they’ll listen to dollar sense.

On the other hand, what can we really expect from a country that not only poisons the world, but poisons its own citizens as well?  The following video is about Yunnan province, where factories are producing massive amounts of pollution that are causing near lethal levels of lead blood poisoning in the region’s children.

There’s pollution in every country, but within acceptable limits. This is just blatant and damn near disgusting, as it shows a lack of respect for human life. Not to mention that it’s killing children.

Good job China.  Not only do you try to screw over the rest of the world, but you’re stupid enough to shoot yourself in the foot as well.  I guess when you’re citizens have no freedoms and no way to protest or affect change it doesn’t matter, right?

(Image Source: Vegetarian Organic Blog)

Sexism on the Internet?

Bradley Farless7 Comments

Every time I turn around someone is crying discrimination or sexism on the internet, even in situations where it’s blatantly obvious that the original writer’s intent was something else entirely.

People nowadays can’t seem to distinguish between what true sexism is and what’s meant to be taken lightly or meant to be used as an example. At the merest hint of something that seems not completely “Politically Correct” people are up in arms and there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth, as though the world will end.

Get over yourselves. Not everything is sexism and not everything is about you! Sometimes it’s just illustrating a point.

What’s got me going is that a recent article on Mashable was talking about Internet Explorer 6 and the need for people to stop using a legacy browser, as it’s slowing down advances in internet technology.

Here’s a quote from the article with the supposedly offensive text colored in red:

“While it’s great to see companies taking a stand against the broken browser, we can’t help but wonder whether this type of campaign will make any impact, given that many users of IE6 are only using because of work/IT restrictions or are in underdeveloped countries. David, co-founder of Weebly, gave us his thoughts on the matter:

“We think we can have a huge impact: For those users that are just unaware they are using an old browser (mothers, grandmothers), we’d like to encourage them to upgrade and have a better experience using our sites. For those users in corporate environments, we’d like to start putting pressure on the IT department to upgrade — the more users who complain about seeing the prompts (especially if coming from the top), the more pressure the IT department will have to either upgrade IE 6 or install FirefoxFirefox side-by-side with IE 6 for compatibility reasons.””

The real kicker in this case is that actual statistics shows that this particular demographic, as well as corporate users, are in fact the highest demographic of people still using IE6.

Right away though, someone jumped in with this comment:

“It’s pretty dumb and sexist to label “mothers [and] grandmothers” as the people who are ignorant of technology, and to separate mothers and grandmothers from the corporate world. Mothers and grandmothers don’t work? Males don’t use IE6?”

Are you serious? In the same way that IE6 is holding back the internet, this mode of thinking in which everything has to be politically correct is holding back the entire world in terms of self-expression.

Should we go ahead and ban all of our classic literature, because it contains mentions of things that aren’t politically correct?

Get real, and if you’re so damn sensitive that something as innocent as what was mentioned in that article offends you, then maybe the internet isn’t for you!

Here are some amusing images to put this all in perspective:

I’d just like to emphasize one more time that this mode of thinking is ass backwards. I’ve even seen people complain that a person is being sexist just because of their personal preference in women. What? Is a person not allowed to have a preference for what he considers attractive anymore?

This insanity has got to stop.

The “Next Blog” Button is Worthless

Bradley Farless8 Comments

This is just a short break from the series I’m writing to say that the “Next Blog” button located on the Google Blogger toolbar is worthless.

When clicking this thing, you should be taken to a random blog each and every time.  There are hundreds of thousands of blogs, if not more, on the Blogger system.  There’s no reason why I shouldn’t get an unique blog every time I click that “Next Blog” button.  Instead, I’m sent to the same 7 or 8 blogs over and over again.  Half aren’t in English, and the other half aren’t interesting or I wouldn’t keep “Next Blog”ing past them.

I mean, seriously.  If I click “Next Blog” and the blog I see is something I don’t like, and is also a blog that doesn’t have the toolbar, I click the “back” button and then click the “Next Blog” button again.  Why is it that if I do this, I’m taken back to the same blog that I just navigated away from?  Then why does it happen 3 times in a row or more?

Also, why is it that I’m taken to blogs whose written language is in something I couldn’t even guess at?  Blogger incorporates language settings, so why aren’t they being made use of?

The “Next Blog” button has a lot of potential as a content discovery method, but only if the way it’s implemented is greatly improved.  Every few months I give it a whirl, hoping for some improvement, and every few months I’m disappointed.

Google is a giant and the world leader when it comes to search and content discovery, so why are they failing at such a simple implementation of technology?  Is it really that hard to set this thing up so that you get a different blog every time you click it?

A Poor Example of Leadership

Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

When I went through leadership training two of the basic principles we were taught is that you should never ask your subordinate to do something you weren’t willing to do yourself, and you should lead by example.

So, here’s an example of a failure of both of those sound leadership principles.

You ask your employees to work extra hours, without pay, to meet unrealistic goals.  You do this regularly, and your employees, having no choice but to comply for fear of losing their jobs, do it.  Rather than staying behind as well, to ensure that your personnel are getting the job done, and to show that you too are sacrificing for the good of the company, you leave on time every day.  As you go out the door on time every day your subordinates are still slaving away at their stations, becoming more and more filled with resentment at their mistreatment.

The result is that you create a hostile work environment, where the employees resent their jobs and resent you for asking them to stay behind when you’re not willing to do it yourself.  These are major failures in leadership, as you undermine your own authority and cause your employees to stop caring about their work.  Employees will start performing to the minimum, rather than trying to excel, because they have no desire to impress you, as they don’t like you to start with.  Eventually that dislike spreads to dislike for the job and the company as a whole, and employees start biding their time until another opportunity comes along, rather than making plans to invest in their careers with the company.

There are right ways to lead and manage people and they’ve been identified as the right ways to do things because they work.  I wonder at how some people attain managerial positions and yet these basic tenets of management and leadership seem beyond their grasp.

(Image Source)

Damn Flying Pigs…

Bradley Farless4 Comments

This past Friday I was excited about going to the mall to get something nice to eat and then shop around a bit.  My wife and I also had plans to go out and enjoy ourselves over the weekend.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

It was strange, really.  All day I felt fine.  Once I got to the mall though and walked inside I started to feel tired.  Then I realized my muscles all felt like they were aching.  So, I sat down and when I sat down I realized not only how tired I was, but that even my butt cheeks were aching.

We wound up not staying at the mall for very long.  I didn’t eat much either.  My appetite was disappearing.  By the time I got home, I really felt like crap.  In a short two hours I went from feeling fine to feeling like I’d been hit by a bus.

The next morning my wife took my temperature and I was running a fever at 38.4 C.  I wound up sleeping most of the day away.  In fact, I did a lot of sleeping from Friday evening through Monday afternoon.  On Saturday night my fever peaked at 39.4 and then started dropping.  By the end of Sunday it had fallen to 38.4 and then by Monday morning it was at 36.6.  It went up briefly to 38 again on Monday but it returned to normal in about an hour.

It doesn’t sound like much when I put it that way, as just a chronological list of temperatures, but those were some rough days.  Those are the types of fever temperatures that make it hard to sleep and make you think those weird thoughts while you’re laying there. If you’ve ever had a fever and your mind started to wander I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

I never did go to the hospital.  I’ve always been a stubborn idiot like that when it comes to being sick.  I hate hospitals.  I remember one year I was sick and dizzy and was still doing physical training in the morning and going to work because I just had too much to do.  Weird right?  Well, I also didn’t want to be bothered with going to the hospital just to be told that I had a cold or flu or something and I should just rest in bed, drink fluids, and take something for the fever and then get a huge bill for being told something I already knew.  I didn’t really have any clue as to what I had.  I just thought I had a regular cold or flu.

Anyhow, by Monday afternoon the fever was completely gone and I was fuzzy headed and exhausted but fine.  I wound up sleeping most of Monday away and didn’t get out of bed until 4pm.  After all that sleeping my brain was running on overdrive and I was catching up on internet stuff so I wasn’t able to sleep until 6 am or so and then I had to get up again at 9 am to make it to an appointment.  So, I wound up sleeping most of Teusday afternoon and evening away too.  It feels like the last 4 days just sort of slipped away from me.  I don’t even remember most of the days I was sick, since I had a fever or was sleeping the whole time.

So, how did I actually find out it was H1N1?  Well, I passed it off to someone I live with.  They went to the doctor right away and the doctor confirmed what it was.  They complained of the exact same symptoms: sudden muscle ache and fatigue, followed by fever.

Well, at least I don’t have to worry as much about H1N1 anymore.  I already have some antibodies ready for it for a while.  I’m still tired though.  I guess it’ll take a while for me to regain my strength.

(Image source)