Business & Economics Perspective Blogger

Chinoy TV This is a viral Facebook post right now. Zhang Yingfei, who was dubbed as "Linda Walker "in a micro-drama  The Heiress Who Won With Brains . Sure, there are tensions right now between the Chinese government and ASEAN countries. Back then, I remember I was "outstanding" in the Chinese class, in the sense of being disconnected from the Chinese language classes and getting bad grades . It's because the classes were taught in Hokkien , where your only reward was actually passing; the siansi (teacher) didn't spank you with a ruler or do any absurd punishment for compliance, and the foundations were built on dead repetition . Thankfully, the Chinese School Association shied away from the mandatory Hokkien to the  open-house approach . It's because the open-house approach would mean, "You learn Mandarin in the language you already know. Let's teach Mandarin using English or your local dialect." It's like one of our Chinese siansis a...

This is an interesting drawing I found on Facebook. It's often used to portray people who look at the removal of the unnecessarily restrictive 60-40 shares ownership policy as, "The current president's gift to China." The same was done during former Philippine president Atty. Rodrigo R. Duterte. The same was also done with Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. It makes me think of stupid comments written by idiots on Facebook. It would be ironic if a lot of anti-FDI and anti-American rants were made not only on Facebook but also were typed using Apple gadgets of all things! They may be quick to use whatever irrational reasons. Some reasons can range from foreigners "unfairly" owning the means to produce equipment (read here ) and that they're simply forced to participate in the capitalist economy model to survive (read here ). However, I must ask if these guys were forced to use the luxury brands they're using (read here ). As the map shows, s...

Whoever made this meme is laughable! It's really laughable at the extent people will defend the Filipino First Policy. Some people even make the late Carlos P. Garcia some kind of hero (and he's buried at the Libigan Ng Mga Bayani, translated as Heroes' Graveyard). Eventually, the late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. was laid beside him in that same graveyard. Not exactly ironic if you think that Marcos Sr. himself used economic protectionism as part of his policies.  The  UP School of Economics   states that the first Marcos Administration was heavily protectionist . Under the second Marcos Administration under Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.--the talk for economic charter change is there. It gets clouded with talks about how economic charter change means giving the Philippines to China (and the same gossip is said to federalism, and China is a unitary state ), doing Ad Hominem attacks on Senator Robinhood Padilla (read here ), and saying that it will just allow POGO, Chinese spies, and...

I can't be sure if Alice Leal Guo (if that's ever her real name) is either a spy for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or a criminal hiding from Chinese justice. As much as I'm now wary of the Philippines doing business with the CCP-- I believe that the POGO operations are actually run by Chinese criminals hiding from the CCP. The CCP isn't just notorious for its brutal policies on its citizens but also for crime . Do drug dealing in China and you may face the same fate as the three Filipino drug mules last 2011 . In my own speculation , Alice is actually an illegal migrant hiding from the long arms of the CCP. Either way, she's getting very suspicious. My stand will always be if a Filipino does wrong abroad--the law of that country will deal with that Filipino. The same applies to any foreigner who breaks the law in the Philippines--the Philippine law will deal with that foreigner.  However, it's no surprise some people take advantage of the Alice Leal Guo issu...

I advocate for helping others. I believe in helping others but there were times I overdid it. One time, I gave up so much that I had to be stopped. I was told, "If you gave everything now, how can you help others later?" I would donate some sums here and there, without thinking much. I'm not going to write them all. Some of them left me good while others left a bad taste (and a bad record) for me to endure. Sure, I want to help people but I tend to overlook the consequences. Some of the bad habits I had in the name of helping others are like: Being too generous with buying with credit. Eventually, I lost a lot of money which was never recovered . Some seasoned entrepreneurs may admit their own falls including the credit trap pitfall. Being too willing to give a discount without thinking about how it'd affect profits. Sure, a cheap price can draw people near. However, there are times when the prices of goods and services need to be raised to keep a business running. I ...

ResearchGate August 22 is the birthday of the great economic reformer, the late Deng Xiaoping. Previously, I wrote about how the Philippines will never get richer by blaming its richer ASEAN neighbors . I decided to write this piece since some SJWs who associate with Communism tend to blame the rich . He was also the author of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. Instead of rich-shaming, he said what might be a very difficult pill to swallow by SJWs, "Poverty isn't socialism. To be rich is glorious."  It's very easy to blame others, right? One of the follow-ups I wrote was how blaming the rich will never improve your situation . It's very easy to keep saying, "It's the fault of the rich that we are poor." It's the kind of reaction that I got in college after I told them something stinging like, "Your financial habits make you poor." I also said, "Do you ever wonder why, we, as a country don't improve?" Back then, I was ...

I wanted to write more about Chinese education. I did write about the constraints that hit Chinese education . I had problems with how too much memorization became the focus. With Chinese, there's also the world of reversible words which change in meaning . In English, we can compare that to the anagram where switching letters change the meaning . For example, evil and vile may be synonymous but live and evil aren't. In Chinese, we can have two characters getting swapped which may either change the meaning entirely or change to a related meaning. Remember that they may be related but they don't have the same meaning. I could remember how the Hokkien calls visitors lang ke and while we called the customer ke lang. Both are people but both have a different purpose. I got into the LTL Mandarin School website and found reversible Chinese words. I won't tackle it all here because 164 words would mean I'll have to write an entire lecture. I think one of the biggest probl...

I wrote about how I believe pinyin will bridge the gap in Mandarin learning  and how pinyin helped secure business permits . I think a new challenge that some may face is learning pinyin through the 23 consonants and 24 vowels method. Back in college, I took Mandarin as my required foreign language (FOLA) elective. It was my attempt to find out what went wrong with Chinese language classes in Chinese schools. Zhuyin was used for too long (read here )   and isn't the ideal bridge between Mandarin and non-Mandarin speakers. Meanwhile, romanizing on your own without learning the pinyin gives the wrong reading. It's like how nobody should Sh in the place of X. I could talk about learning using the 23 vowels and 24 consonants method. The early stages of teaching pinyin followed the bopomofo method. The Chinese language teacher in college didn't use the 23 consonants-24 vowels method. Instead, we had the pinyin arranged using the bopomofo method. It was simply to translate all th...

As summer hits, it's normal for me to want a cup of cold tea. One of the many things that could revive interest in Mandarin learning is not just Mandarin shows resurging on paid digital subscriptions. It's the rise of Taiwanese MNCs around the world. In my case, as a coffee and tea person, Taiwanese tea shops are practically my alternative to coffee shops, even if both tend to cost just as much (read why here ). After Chatime, I'm going to use Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea. You can see the use of Pinyin, English, and Chinese calligraphy. Taiwan may still teach zhuyin as part of its tradition. However, I believe that Pinyin is truly the bridge between Chinese speakers and non-Chinese speakers in this Asian century (read here ). I may have my criticism about the lack of tones in the Yi Fang. However, I could really appreciate how the use of Pinyin makes it easier to get a business permit. I find it stupid how we were still using zhuyin over pinyin to learn phonetics. These days, I...

The Epoch Times As talks about the need for more economic freedom in the Philippines is on, some people are still saying that, "No, we need 60-40!" Well, one might need to view the film Mao's Last Dancer (or read the book written by the author himself, Li Cunxin) to understand a Chinese man's travel to the United States of America (USA). Li himself was the sixth son of a family of seven. Having been born in 1961, he would've passed through the harsh regime of Mao Zedong. Mao ruled China until his death in 1976 which soon paved for Deng Xiaoping's takeover. Before Deng took over, Mao was succeeded by Hua Guofeng who was soon replaced by Deng. Deng understood economics upon his trip to America. The focus of the film (and the book) is Li, a dancer, who was selected at a very young age. Communism likes starting their cadets young, right? They were selected by the ruthless Madame Mao, Mao's final wife before he finally succumbed to death. Madame Mao's recor...

I just read from the Inquirer that House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan wants to encourage the learning of Mandarin . Sadly, the article also says the following regarding Libanan's aim of wanting to learn Mandarin: “ If we are going to continue to rely on the export of labor to help drive our economic growth, we might as well equip our future workers with Mandarin and other foreign language skills to further build up their competitiveness, ” Libanan said on Sunday. Libanan, the representative of Pagtibayin at Palaguin ang Pangkabuhayang Pilipino (4Ps) party list, noted: “In foreign labor markets, we already have the edge because our workers can speak English. We should now aspire to double that advantage by encouraging more Filipinos to learn Mandarin at an early age.” This reminds me what we can't keep relying on what I call the labor export policy. I even wrote an article addressing the destructive obsession with OFW remittances . Sadly, the lawmaker may still be focused o...