Broadband Over Power Line (BPL)

Broadband over power line (BPL), the technology that allows a channel of data to flow alongside the electrical feed into homes and businesses will be the hot item this year.

In north America, almost every company will try to exploit this new technology; and it has already started. I am sure our local electric coops in the Philippines will take advantage of this technology, and join the prey towards delivering internet connections to homes apart from electricity. So the government should hold on selling the Power Transmission Company in the country…at least for year, so that they can get a better return, o diba?

Prediction

By midnext year, I predict Samsung or whoever comes first in the market, will market a monitor cum telephone/tv i.e., you can call and see who you are talking to...as one channel on your TV – this will be the next landline I guess – but passing through the power line and no longer the telephone line. Neat diba?

Another is internet connection will drop more next year by around 40%. With DSL, Cable, Wifi, Wimax, and BPL as options to connect to the internet. And a bill would be filed in Philippines Congress to regulate BPL. Yan….ay kong hindi tayo ba bagal bagal hehehe.

Its not just me

In my earlier post, I predicted 35 to 40 pesos to the dollar by December 2006. Its not just me, although others are predicting 47 to 48. Well, we will find out 8 months from now.

Here, again, let me quote a news from PDI.

Top traders see peso strengthening to 48 to $1
Posted: 1:22 AM Apr. 20, 2006

Doris C. Dumlao
Inquirer

Excerpts are:

Jose Emmanuel Hilado, president of the Philippine chapter of ACI, a Paris-based association of currency traders from 65 countries, said that when the "political circus" had been settled and constitutional reforms set in motion, the peso could rise further to 48-49 to the dollar.

"We used to be called the 'Argentina of Asia' because we were following Argentina's pre-default debt path," said Hilado, who is treasurer of Banco de Oro Universal Bank. "Now, we have shaken that tag off and emerged as the new darling of the global financial market. Everybody is very upbeat on the Philippines."

Self fulfilling

While discussing with a friend, we touched some issues about national culture and pysche. He said, one thing that is self fulfilling is the fact that, although we (Filipinos) value education so much, the end that we expect from that education is somehow twisted i.e., we send our children to school, expect good performance from them, so that when they graduate it would be easy for them to find employment, so that they would perform in their work well, get promoted and earn a better salary. Note: employment, performance, promotion and salary.

On the other hand, some culture like the Chinese, they send their children to school, expect good performance from them, so that when they graduate, it would be easy for them to become good employers, to become businessmen, and to be rich.

I think, the self fulfilling goal, my friend is talking about, is obvious.

We strive hard to become....good employees, while....

The Chinese, strive hard to become good employers!

Something must be done.......DepEd....should do something about this, I think, if indeed, this true.

I told my friend, he may right, but we also have many successful Filipino businessmen, to which he agreed, but said this is the prevalent view in many Filipinos. Me? I think...the prevalent view is to be rich, hehehe, whether as an employer or an employee.

Paradise, indeed

I actually have written off Conrado de Quiros column as a read for the past several months, but the title of his column today caught my eyes; and let me quote some things from his column today that reminds me of my farm and province in the Visayas, hehehe:

I’ve tasted a variety of mangoes from all over the world, and I can say with reasonable certainty that none of them compares to ours. Our mangoes are the absolute best.

The idea of buying fruits was inconceivable then. Fruits were not something you bought, they were something you picked.

Yup, when I was young, actually, until today, we dont pay, we just picked and asked, at least in my farm and village; fruits like lanzones, balimbing, indian mango, kalamansi, sometimes buko, among others.

Beer and good company help to make the sand sparkle in the night. In any case, I don’t much like dipping into the water, I just like walking on beaches.

Yup, beaches and beers, and folk music...and.....while many parts of the world are draped in snow....well.... let get that fiesta going.

We have an almost daily fiesta, somewhere else, in my province. Summer is always the best of times....it is the time we live a life...I mean living a life, hehehe.

Update on my trades

Well, trading is sometimes difficult.

The long GBP/YEN at 207.825, TP 208.413, no stop loss hit the TP much earlier, and so I entered again for the same amount, and it hit the TP again. I entered again another long GBP/YEN, and now on its way to hit its TP, hopefully, hehehe.

The long US/YEN at 118.685, TP 119.120, no stop loss, I decided to reverse this trade after it reach 20 pips on the red, and it just hit its TP recently.

The short AUD/Yen at 86.38, TP 83.15, no stop, I also decided to reverse trade this after it reach 20 pips on the red, and it just hit its TP recently.

Yesterday and today was not a bad day to trade, the trend was clear - a dollar sell off.

Trading tips

Well, if you are into game account, here is my trading tips for April 17 until the 30th. Although, I will trade this on real money account on a low leverage.

Long GBP/YEN at 207.825, TP 208.413, no stop loss (low leverage kasi)
Long US/YEN at 118.685, TP 119.120, no stop loss (low leverage din)
Short AUD/Yen at 86.38, TP 83.15, no stop loss (low leverage din, and a hedge to both yen shorts with GBP and US).

Now, let say, My capital is 5K at 1:30 leverage, which will have a tradeable amount of 140 K. I will trade it like this.

30 K Long GBP/YEN
30 K Long US/YEN
80K Short AUD/YEN

ON April 30, let's calculate how much profit and loss will get, OK?

Warning: If you trade this on real account, do not blame me, hehehe. I am not a professional forex trader. OK?

Don't mention HER name..

Again, I will post a news here. Things that don't matter to us such as mentioning our mother's name in public, may mean the world to some people in this side of the world. I realize that cultural sensitivity, indeed, in many cases, is important whatever that means. OK, here is the news, taken from Saudi Gazette. I have changed the title to: Dont mention HER name from Tribal Scores Settled At Schools.

By Maha Sami Aboulola

The Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH. What 16-year-old Motaz Arafat went through was like an action movie, but it happened in real life.

Motaz had six stitches in his hand after he had a fight with some of his friends for mentioning his mother's name in the school.

In some tribes in Saudi Arabia, it is not acceptable to mention the name of a female relative in public. It is considered an offense. Motaz could not stay in the same school any more after his friend came to know the name of his mother and started calling him by his mother's name.

Telling his story to The Saudi Gazette, Moataz said the insult did not stop at the level of calling his mother's name publicly but went as far as giving him names and teasing him for being non-Saudi despite the fact that his mother is Saudi and belongs to a well-known tribe in the Kingdom. But his father is a Palestinian.

"The boys at school kept insulting me for being the son of a woman who was married to non-Saudi against her tribe's wishes," he said. The fight started when Abdur Rahman, one of the students, narrated to his friends in the school how Motaz's mother got married to his father. Motaz could not control his rage. He walked up to Abdur Rahman and hit him in the face. To his utter surprise, Abdur Rahaman took out a dagger and struck him. The dagger cut his hand. "It all happened in seconds", Motaz said. "I did not even feel it till I saw the blood on my clothes and the boys who were watching the fight started screaming."

Comparing the costs – Pinas pa rin ako!

I cannot do away with comparing the costs of various services here in Saudi, with my city in the Visayas.

My internet connection at the house I am staying in Al Khobar which I use on Thursdays, Fridays, and evenings of Saturdays till Wednesdays is costing me too much. DSL = 100, and telephone time is 300, which all in all runs to 400 SAR a month. This is equivalent to 5,500 pesos a month, and it’s not even a 24 hour connection, limited lang po to around 2 to 4 hours a day. In my city in the Visayas, you can have a Smart Wifi for only 800 pesos a month, 24-7 connection, kalas.

That’s 800 vs 5,500 (limited pa!). Kaya Pinas pa rin ako.

My telephone line in the Visayas costs me a flat rate of 400+ a month, and you can make local calls as many/long as you want for free. Here, you have to pay per minute costs of 0.03 SAR. See the difference – kaya Pinas pa rin ako. My montly bill here is 300 SAR which is 4500 pesos.

That’s 400 vs 4,500 (limited pa yan!). Kaya Pinas pa rin ako.

TV, my cable connection in the Visayas is a flat rate of 3,300 pesos a year, and you can surf all the channels that you want from HBO, CNN, to ANC etc. Dito? Well the pseudo Indian channel that we subscribed costs as 40 SAR a month, with only 2 to 3 useful channels (English), whose connection is so bad it not worth the money we pay – pero hayaan muna kasi alang iba eh. And our TFC, limited to ABSCBN channels costs us 76 SAR a month. All in all, 116 SAR which is equivalent to 1600 pesos a month, which translates to almost 20,000 pesos a year!

That’s 3,300 vs 20,000 (lalong limited pa yan!). Kaya Pinas pa rin ako.

Ikaw ba?

Do I need to say more?

In my earlier post, I said:

Actually, I am starting to believe that the root cause of poverty in the country is too much politics. Di kaya?

Day by day, I am starting to be convinced that this is so. Trapos is one of the primary root causes why the country is poor. What should we do with them?

In my earlier post, I predicted 35 to 40 pesos to the dollar. And in another post I quoted International Herald Tribune news saying:

Asian Development Bank sounds alarm on dollar: Asian countries need to prepare for a possible sharp fall in the dollar and should allow their currencies to appreciate collectively if that happens, a senior Asian Development Bank official said Tuesday.

And today, let me quote another news, these time from UBS as reported in the Philippine Star:

Swiss investment bank: Political noise stunting peso growth: One of the world’s top investment banks has warned that persistent political uncertainty in the Philippines is hampering private investment spending and further appreciation of the peso. Switzerland-based UBS, in its Asian Economic Monitor for April, said that political ‘noise’ is likely to keep appreciation pressure in check, in particular as we approach July when renewed impeachment proceedings against President Arroyo could be launched," UBS said in its report.

Hay.....our politicians talaga.

=============

It's April 7, and May 1 is just a few days away. So what should we expect?

I expect the start of bad news, agitation of the poor culminating in May 1.

I expect a series of protest to, with intention to have themselves dispersed, so as to portray chaos, and to create a bad image of the police.

I expect exposes, not grounded on facts "dirty politics", in connivance with the media outlets that have business interests.

Simply....agitation, "agit" in the coming weeks, as a form of pre-mobilization, and pre-emotionalization of the poor in the metro.

==============

What do we expect from dirty politics and trapos?

Maawa naman kayo sa poor.....the poor pinoys, hay....hehehe.

News

I will copy a news, in its entirety because is just a few words; hoping that Pinoys who would want to work here, would have a glimpse of the discipline/life most people would encounter working here in Saudi Arabia. This news being typical or not, is not my point, but as we are all aware - Pinoys' are very creative of how we do it. Ano ba pinagsasabi ko? Ewan, hehehe. Anyway, here it is (taken from Saudi Gazette):

35 Lashes For Dating

Monday, 03 April 2006
NAJRAN

A BANGLADESHI national was sentenced to 35 lashes after he was found guilty of dating one of his female compatriots, reported Okaz newspaper.

Both of them worked in the same clinic. One night, the man sneaked into the clinic, after his working hours, in order to spend some time with the woman.

In the meantime, authorities received a tip-off and upon reaching the site found the man had already left. They managed to arrest him the next morning - SG.

Warning: Read the Signs

I worked as a community organizer in many communities in the Philippines. I helped set-up around 5 marine protected areas (also called marine parks, marine sanctuaries, seascapes etc.). I have been SCUBA diving since 1993 and I have seen many parts of the underwater world of the Philippines. I have observed the first bleaching of reefs in 1999 in the Visayas. Underwater communities are colorful and alive, and one day... the corals turned white...then weeks later gray ....and weeks later were covered with algae. That's what bleaching is all about. Death of coral reefs.

Most of the carbon in the air are fixed by green organisms such as trees, and of course, by corals reefs which are made of calcium carbonates; among other organisms. When trees dies, and when corals dies, organims that are capable of fixing the carbon in the air are reduced. More carbon in the air, will make the earth warmer, changing climates, melting polar caps etc. In short, the devastation of Mother Earth as we know it. And the extinction of many organims, communities, and eventually, probably.. humans.

In today's , CNN let me quote the news:

Caribbean coral suffers record die-off
World's coral reef loss 'an underwater holocaust'

Friday, March 31, 2006; Posted: 10:17 a.m. EST (15:17 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A one-two punch of bleaching from record hot water followed by disease has killed ancient and delicate coral in the biggest loss of reefs scientists have ever seen in Caribbean waters.

Researchers from around the globe are scrambling to figure out the extent of the loss. Early conservative estimates from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands find that about one-third of the coral in official monitoring sites has recently died.

"It's an unprecedented die-off," said National Park Service fisheries biologist Jeff Miller, who last week checked 40 stations in the Virgin Islands.

"The mortality that we're seeing now is of the extremely slow-growing reef-building corals. These are corals that are the foundation of the reef ... We're talking colonies that were here when Columbus came by have died in the past three to four months."

Some of the devastated coral can never be replaced because it only grows the width of one dime a year, Miller said. Coral reefs are the basis for a multibillion-dollar tourism and commercial fishing economy in the Caribbean. Key fish species use coral as habitat and feeding grounds. Reefs limit the damage from hurricanes and tsunamis. More recently they are being touted as possible sources for new medicines.

If coral reefs die "you lose the goose with golden eggs" that are key parts of small island economies, said Edwin Hernandez-Delgado, a University of Puerto Rico biology researcher.
On Sunday, Hernandez-Delgado found a colony of 800-year-old star coral -- more than 13 feet high -- that had just died in the waters off Puerto Rico.

"We did lose entire colonies," he said. "This is something we have never seen before."

I don't know what to say....OK guys, lets get busy with politics.