Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

Some time ago, I wrote an article using @successpictures to portray a toxic view of menial labor . As November is about to end, I was looking at some good and bad things that happened this 2023. I'm not going to spill them out, to respect the privacy of the people involved. I was also looking at the toxic positivity common in the Philippines. One of these involves the attitude where people say, "If it's bitter, just add sugar." (read here ). The illustration that I just got may actually be funny but it can be annoying. You have a wise old man selling his invention of the wheel. Unfortunately, two idiots are too "busy" dragging their cargo with a square wheel . The idea may sound funny because one might remember some cartoon shows they watched. Maybe, it was a gag show in the 1990s for all the 1990s children, out there like myself.  I faced some people on Facebook who are too stubborn about system change. I try to ask for their sources and they can only give

As I try to criticize the old way of teaching Chinese, I also recall why I didn't like studying it. I had an interest in learning the language but the approach was too much memorization. One of the many problems was turning children into robots and parrots . Eventually, I lost learning because getting a high grade was the end of it all. I compare that to the arcade experience where a game never ends. If you've played many arcade games   in the 1980s--you may realize that the games are only focused on getting a high score rather than learning a curve. It would be different if people started talking about what they learned in studying the ethnic Chinese language (華語, read as Huáyǔ). What interest was there anyway if we only compared scores? I had a lot of what's called boi seng in Amoy (failing mark) because I didn't like to study because of extreme memorization .  I found this basic conversation on how Boi Toi (termed as question or 問題, read as Wèntí in Mandarin) should&

Back in my day, I remember we kept memorizing what was called bon toi (written as 问题, Wèntí in Mandarin) without understanding them. I hated memorizing those. I guess another reason was to parrot what one can't understand. We had the biak diam too which is Hokkien for oral recitation. Memorizing the question and answer (written as 问题和答案, Wèntí hé dá'àn in Mandarin) would actually not be so tedious if Chinese was taught as a second language. My bizarre idea is to think about having only one bon toi but there are five answers to memorize.  Memorizing (and understanding) why some don't want to learn Chinese These five reasons (above) have to be memorized in both Chinese and English. The teacher (老师, Lǎoshī) would say the question,  "不学中文的最大借口是什么？" (Bù xué zhōngwén de zuìdà jièkǒu shì shénme?). The question can't be answered  until  the student actually translated it as, "What are the top excuses not to learn Chinese?"  The student will evaluate them fro

Faculty of Medicine Some time ago, I wrote about the problem of grades over learning education . It's a good thing that someone I knew who graduated summa cum laude from a very difficult course, did remain humble. It's unlike Rep. Raoul Abellar Manuel who shouted he was a cum laude in a middle of an argument. The same person posted on his wall talking about the thoughts of why students cheat. I could remember the whole statement that teachers would make, "Your grades will determine your future! If your grades in math and science suck, just take HRM!" Such statements show the Philippines' bad education system (read here ). Why the statement "A good grade is a sign of good character." may often be misunderstood I'm going to stress out my frustrations. I guess it's easy to take what educator Jonathan Gochuico said about not romanticizing bad grades, saying character is better. Maybe, he could be partly wrong but I believe that a good grade (which sh

I wrote my review of Phat Pho a few months ago . I tasted their delicious beef pho and some of that Vietnamese halo-halo. I tried their spicy beef soup (which has some pork and beef) called Bun Bo Hue. I was hesitant to try it. It's because the video I saw on YouTube added some crab and looked rather rich. Instead, I got a lighter soup which may not compromise in my quest for more weight loss.  It was served with basil leaves, mint leaves, and mung bean sprouts. That's really a lot of vegetables before eating the meat . It was a good thing there was some service water. I didn't have to add any chili because the soup was rather spicy. It used the same kind of Vietnamese noodles the pho. In my own opinion, it tastes better than the pho that I ordered. For me, this is a soup for those who love spicy food. As a person who goes to eat at Indian and Middle Eastern restaurants, I sure love it. 

I was browsing the CoRRECT Movement's website and found an article titled " Why Do So Many Filipinos Misunderstand System Change? " by Orion Perez Dumdum. I feel that this article needs to be written as I'm seeing lots of ignorant comments on Facebook about foreign direct investment (FDI). There are so many ignorant comments on ironically, Facebook pages, about what FDI is all about. I find them on Facebook pages like Bayan Muna, Kabataan Partylist, League of Filipino Students, Migrante International, and the Philippine Anti-Fascist League, to name a few.  Why I emphasized Facebook is because Facebook is because it's an American platform . They're supposedly anti-imperialist, anti-American, whatever, but they're using it. When the hypocrisy or self-contradiction is addressed, they mention they only criticize capitalism because they're simply "forced" to participate in it to survive. Capitalism should remain open to criticism. It's to imp

There's always that irritating habit among Filipinos called the mañana habit. It's typical to think about how events tend to start one hour late, people who always show up late for work, and you know the drill. As Christmas draws near, I can expect heavy traffic from last-minute shoppers. There can be various reasons why there's no money for Christmas. Be it the payday blowout problem (read here ) or there are various other dumb ways to drain the salary (read here ). I would also like to blame the incredibly bad habit of procrastination on paying bills. I don't care what the reasons are but procrastination keeps people poor. Sure, it's typical for teenagers to procrastinate but shouldn't that be outgrown as an adult?  Some people procrastinate to pay bills because they're reluctant to part with their money Some people can be so stingy it's borderline unreasonable (read here ). A thrifty person spends money wisely. Stingy people are  very reluctant to par

Rural Rising Philippines' Facebook Page It's no secret that I'm a fan of Mexican food. Years ago, I remember a disgusting photo featuring corn fungus. It's called corn smut and smut isn't a pleasant word. What really was a surprise (or not) was that corn fungus is actually edible. It's called  Huitlacoche and it's highly prized in Mexico . So far, no Mexican food outlet in the Philippines offers it, sad to say. I even talked to some people about it. They were surprised that it could be eaten. Both the Philippines and Mexico used to be Spanish colonies. I ordered a few dish items from Puesto Restaurant in Cebu City. One of the beef meat dishes was called barbacoa . I'm not surprised at some similar names because the Spanish people did occupy a good portion of the Philippines for nearly 300 years. A dish I ate called el polo loco literally means crazy chicken . Loco means crazy and Filipino language uses loko as crazy. Sadly, none of the Mexican restaurant