No to FDIs Providing Better Utility Services, Yes to High Speed Data Transfer Gossip

PC Worth Facebook Page, CTTO

Here's a meme that's most likely just free domain from Facebook. I was running out of ideas until I found this funny meme on Facebook. There's the term MARITES which means Masters in Arts in Relaying Information Through Exaggerated Storytelling. It's a shame to any decent woman named Marites that the name has a negative connotation. There's even the use of Ken and Karen as a negative name for a reason. I keep reading through stupid comments on Facebook that say that having FDIs provide the Philippines with telecommunications is an automatic breach of security. Even worse, they still use the China scare as if China's the only place in the world that can provide the Philippines other services. Some idiot even said that maybe Elon Musk might steal information from Globe and PLDT. What would Musk get if he steals information from there? Musk is already a well-known international businessman unlike those of Globe and PLDT!

People keep complaining about how the speed of the Internet is slow. It takes real common sense. I don't need to earn an IT degree or be a Computer Engineer to understand some simple concepts. Sure, I need to have expertise in IT or hardware development to make good programs or a better operating system. However, I don't need to understand basic facts such as the Philippines is an archipelago with 7,107 registered islands, therefore the use of underwater cables isn't easy. If you only have two telecommuncation companies--can they truly serve all 7,107 islands? It's a supply and demand question that helps explain why the Philippines has slow expensive Internet. In operations management, it's a bottleneck.

The Philippines has something that's way faster than its Internet speed. It's called the High Speed Data Transfer (HSDT) gossip. In spite of the Philippines having slower, more expensive Internet, just think of how the Philippines has HSDT gossip. The slow Internet speed hasn't slowed down gossip from spreading whether it's from the mysterious Merkado CTTO (read here) or it's on Facebook. You have Facebook pages such as Bayan Muna, IBON Foundation, Kabataan Partylist, Migrante International, League of Filipino Students, Philippine Anti-Fascist League (ran by a group of bitter youths) and We Are Millennials, to name a few. They're spreading gossip against constitutional reform. These are what I'd call social media gossipers.

Yesterday, gossip at the merkado (market) spreads fast. I could still remember my Chinese language teacher angrily asking if we were selling eggs or fish. I was even scolded and asked in Hokkien, "Are you selling vegetables?" It was because I refused to keep quiet. Going to the marketplace in the present, it's very easy to hear juicy gossip. The advent of social media then gives even nobodies a chance in fame. They start posting whatever juicy gossip they hear. The dawn of the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and more WiFi even makes the HSDT gossip move faster. Even before that, gossip already spreads like wildfire leading to miscarriages of justice.

In the late 1990s, I could remember dial-up modems provided very slow Internet. Yet, that didn't stop the HSDT gossip from moving. There was the Vizconde Massacre case and the Chiong Sisters Case. As a Cebuano, the Chiong Sisters case can bring a chill to my spine. I still believe the body found in the ravine was really Marijoy Jimenea Chiong and that Jacqueline Jimenea Chiong is a victim of a no body found murder case. Gossip really spread fast because a film based on the Vizconde Massacre was made. Later on, the Calvento Files presented a short film based on the narrative of Davidson Rusia. The Calvento Files episode was aired during the trial. What happened was that people soon got outraged from the dramatization. A scene where two of the seven suspects throwing Marijoy down the cliff caused outrage. The people were more than convinced, even without accesible Internet at that time, that Francisco Juan "Paco" G. Larrañaga was already guilty. The evidence that proved Paco was innocent such as the log books, attendance sheets, and photos that were not examined by the judge were ignored. Common sense was ignored. Paco could travel to Cebu in just one hour but there would be flight records that were also ignored. The HSDT gossip already beat the DSL since it's got a much longeer history, even before the Philippines became a republic on June 12, 1898, and became independent of the USA on July 4, 1946.

Juicy gossip is much more appealing than the offer for faster Internet. It's ironic how juicy gossip can override the frustrations of slow, unreliable Internet. I could talk all I want about how the Public Services Act of 2022 will help Filipinos better. However, any false gossip about FDIs are bound to get there. Before I could finish discussing, they will say things like that the Philippines is being sold to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that doing so will be an automatic breach in security (as if there are no rules to regulate that), that only FDIs will get rich when you let them invest here (read rebuttal here), that FDIs will steal jobs away from Filipinos (read rebuttal here), that FDIs means accumulating more debt (wow, I really had to write this to refute it), and that FDIs are invaders while OFWs means we're taking over the world (read here). The gossip overrode the facts that opening up public services to FDIs would help provide better services. Ironically, such gossip is on Facebook and Twitter, two companies ran by MNCs. How ironic and how hypocritical can that be?

Some people spreading their HDST gossip are either stubborn boomers or highly sensitive Generation Z people. In the case of Kabataan Partylist and League of Filipino Students, they're misguided youth with misguided ideals. In the case of other people I ran into online, some of them are Baby Boomers (1946-1964) as evidenced by their not being so old yet. A certain old man who blocked me already has been arrogantly displaying his doctorate toga. What good is a doctorate degree if common sense is thrown out of the window? I used to feel high and mighty taking MBA until I realized Warren Edward Buffett's basic investment strategy can be learned by anyone. True, you can't believe everything on the Internet since anybody with software engineering language can create a fake website and make it look credible. However, we can certainly upload new information on the Internet. Academic institutions can now be online. Some people may even offer a copy of certain studies either for free or for a justifiable fee. One can also read Kishore Mahbubani's website online. 

With the search engine Google, I was able to find out more about the late Lee Kuan Yew or the public policy expert, Mahbubani. It was there I learned about the book From Third World to First. It was there where I was able to learn more about why the 1973 Constitution of the Philippines wasn't a real parliamentary. Information about the Philippines' past that required one to travel from one place to another has been made available. Sure, I may need to go to places to get actual data. However, people who got actual data can upload their studies online. As mentioned earlier, you may find academic institutions that publish certain articles online while one can get a digital copy of the study for a certain fee. 

It's time to really get things straight. HSDT gossip may be juicy but the prospect of better public services should be juicier. Who wouldn't want faster and more affordable Internet? Who wouldn't want more affordable electricity and water? I feel that HDST gossip is excessive sugar for people to forget their problems. I did write how Filipinos tend to ruin themselves with the just add sugar if it's bitter mindset. I could also view HSDT gossip to be like excess sugar. Slow Internet? Expensive electricity? No worries, just add sugar, right? Engaging in useless gossip can be like that aside from attending fiestas when you have a lot of problems. I also call it the opium of the Filipino masses to forget their problems. It might not be literal opium but it's still bad for the mind. 

HSDT gossip will never improve the poor services of the Philippines. How can the Philippines not have expensive utility services if there's a short supply and high demand? Common sense really. Then again since when did HSDT gossip ever care about facts?