Monday, April 6, 2009

Measures and meaningfulness

Someone had the grand idea of making a photo collage with Gloria Arroyo's face on it. The photo is reportedly to be proposed as a Guinness book entry on being the largest photo collage. What Napoleonic complex. Oh, but then we also note how the President reportedly lambasted government offices that used taxpayers money to publish birthday ads for her in newspapers. Perhaps the photo collage idea wasn't hers. Still, thousands of pesos wasted.

Imelda is One of the Greediest Persons in the world. What an understatement.

It was reported that when one Supreme Court justice retired last January, he left 1,159 unresolved cases. A month later, another judge retired and left 1,008 cases hanging. This as 1,310 new lawyers troop to the Court led by their Number One — the Bar Topnotcher, with an exam rating of 87.50%. Vice Prexy Noli has called on them to serve the poor. We wonder how many of them prayed to pass so that they can SERVE the PEOPLE.

The country has been blacklisted for being an uncooperative tax haven. Taxation is another numbers game.

By the way, who among you have ever been given by your lawyers an official receipt for their services? So, how does government know how to tax them for their “professional” service? Just asking.

Numbers, numbers, numbers. Measures, measures, measures. Science is built on measurement. Objectively verifiable measurement requires the concept of numbers.

Many Filipinos are very good at numbers. We need to develop this. This is where we start to create a more scientific culture. But science and measurement, or quantification, are not enough. It is even more important to ask, what should we quantify and why? For whom? For what purpose? What is the meaning of all these numbers?

Is it any good that we have the largest photo collage of our supposed leader? So what if someone even gets 100% in the bar exams? In the end, the question is: Who benefits from all these measures and measurements?

In the final analysis, the measure that must matter most in a democracy are the people in their numbers.

6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Once again people waste their money on something that has no sense. Making a big collage of the president wont do anything but waste our money so what if she has a big collage? Are the services she have done for our country as big as her collage?

    Jacqueline Shi Ong [DLSU CBE POLISCI C33]

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  4. Another waste of money and time. Making a collage of the leader is quite a show. It makes so significant sense to the country. It is just a beautification of the leader. Why don't she try to beautify the country instead? There are thousands of people dying of hunger and stuggling due to poverty. Why don't you start making helping them out first before making a collage of the president?

    Da Eun K. Lee (CBE)
    C33 POLISCI(DLSU)

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  5. yeah, i say it's another waste of OUR money. we pay them to make our country a better place to live in. but what do we have in return? pagpapasikat ng pangalang GLORIA sa buong bansa and worse sa buong mundo? she could have been a great artist! pretending to be someone kind and someone who is concerned for the good of our country. a great actress indeed. we have a lot of problems that would have used the money instead of making this collage. why won't she just focus on people who have no shelter? people who's very tired working for their families but still suffer the consequences of being poor? why won't she implement rules that would concern the mass? why wouldn't she consider the status of the people before she take 10%-20% of the people's money? why, why, why? people working for her should think twice.

    Darlene Co POLISCI C33

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  6. EXACTLY!!!

    ALL the good has gone BAD shall I say ?

    What are the purposes of these shows if there are no benefits...

    Aine Therese Ong Tambalque
    MMG
    C37

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