Kanoy

This happened a long time ago, it started in late 1995 to be exact, and our friendship lasted for three years, in the sense that three years later I left the island where he was living. I blogged before that I worked for an environmental NGO in the Visayas and I was assigned in one of the islands in the central Philippines, and this is where I met him. Kanoy is his real name, and if you have a friend that lives on one of the islands near Cebu – asked them and the likelihood that they know a Kanoy is possible.

I first meet him, while I was sitting on a bench by the sea, watching the waves, and the fishermen boats docking, and hauling their catch for the day. He sat beside me and asked me; do you drink tuba? I said yes, and so he left me for a minute and came back carrying a half gallon of tuba and coke and some peanuts. While we were drinking I was aware that he had an agenda, being a community worker, I am fast at sensing these kinds of approaches. He asked me if I can help him go to Manila to find work in a factory, and I told him I don’t think it is a good idea. Life in Manila is harsh and difficult for people like him.

Kanoy (17 yrs old in 1995) is the second child in a family of 8, I think. His family used to live in a 3 meter by 4 meter hut, whose floor was made of bamboo, and the wall and roof was made of nipa. His father was a fisherman, and so was he. When I met him, he had a 3 meter long paddled canoe and a "pana" to spear fish. His daily income in good days reaches 120 pesos, and in bad days, nothing but fish good for a single meal. Although he only reaches grade 2 and finds it difficult to write his name, he could count money so well, and fast.

I told him; just stay here in the island and go into business, since self employment and business is the reason why most people are rich, wag ka nang lumayo pa hehehe. And so, one day he approached me again and suggested that I provide him with a capital because he was planning to buy and sell abalone shells. Well…you guessed it right, I provided him with 1000 pesos as a capital. But three days later he returned giving me 300 pesos as my share of the profit, and 300 more three days later, and another 300, 3 to 4 days later. From this partnership, I received 300 pesos every three to four days over a period of several months! Hehehe. Just fantastic, the capital was returned to me probably 10 times over hehehe. And one day, I told him, he can keep the capital and business to himself, since he has paid me enough already. Nakonsensya din ako, hehehe.

His abalone buy and sell business was enough to feed him and his family, but Kanoy decided to expand his business and he approached me again, this time for a bigger capital. He planned to go into groupers (lapu lapu) fattening business in fish cages. And so, I provided him the 15T capital he needed; and four months later he gave me 30T as my share of the profit. The cages become two, then three… and the money just flowed to his pocket and mine, hehe.

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One sunny day I heard he was panicking because the plastic bag he buried inside their house was missing. So, I questioned him what was in the plastic bag that made him panic. He confided it was his savings for the past several months, hehehe. I told him to put it in a bank, and he said he does not know how to deposit the money, and he has forgotten how to write his name. So I ended up teaching him how to write his name, I brought him to the rural bank and showed him how to deposit his money, and how to make a withdrawal.

I sold my share of the cages to him when I left the island in1999 to work somewhere else.

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Five years later, in October 2004, I went to Cebu for some errands, and I meet an acquaintance from the island and he told me that Kanoy has a cell phone. A cellphone? Now that's something from a poor grade 2 fisherman, hehehe. I got the number and called him.

He wanted to see me, and so I told him that I am in Cebu, and if he wanted to see me, he should bring me a crate of cooked and preserved crabs, so as to discourage him from meeting me. This was because I was in a hurry of going home. But several hours later, he appeared in the hotel where I was staying with a cartoon of crabs, hehehe. And he invited me to visit the island, which I refused. But he insisted, telling me that he won't take no for an answer, and he would go with me where ever I am going (lakas ng loob, mukhang may pamasahe kasi) until I go with him; and so I relented.

After about half a day of sea travel we arrived in the island. I realized why he was insisting for my visit, after I saw his grandiose two floor mansion, complete with tiled floors, and an underground/basement. He even has a varnished nipa hut for his guests. He also constructed a bungalow for his parents, and he has now two children from a teacher who has an MS degree. And of course, he has now more businesses and a few motorized boats. He evolved into a fish buyer/capitalist in the island. The reason why he insisted for my visit was probably to show me his success. The seed planted was now fully grown.

All I can say to myself was…wow!

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

In honor of my visit, he grilled a two foot long lapulapu from one of his cages, so I can taste the fruit of his labors, hehehe. Syempre kasama na beer doon at pagkain. I can tell the man was very proud of me, and was very happy to see me. His wife, whom I met for the first time during this visit, already knows me well, hehehe. All his family was there to greet me.

During this visit, I walked around the island to see if there had been many changes and to meet some of my old acquaintances, and along the way I met Elvie, an officer of a village association, and I told her, "datu naman lagi si Kanoy" and she quickly replied "tungod nimo". Me? I don’t know.

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

Kanoy told me that he learned many things from me, such as the value of hard work, honesty, courage, integrity, and planning. At kong ano ano pa, I was not aware that he would learn these things from me, hindi ko naman sya tinuruan intentionally at hindi naman ako teacher. I realized that it was possible for him to learn these things from our frequent conversation on various things, and from my actions/character, and from our inuman while and when, I was living in the island.

The truth is; I don’t know if Kanoy became rich because of me, he was hard working and he had a very ambitious personality. All I did was believe in him. He would have been rich with or without me, even though, probably, the whole village in the island, I was told, believed otherwise, and so does Kanoy.


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PS: I planted many Mahogany trees at the back of the village school at malalaki na sila during my visit. Also, Kanoy followed my advice (among the many advices) to marry a teacher to compensate for his lack of education, hehehe, as he told me.

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

Good luck Kanoy.

35 to 40 pesos to the dollar

Let me quote a part of my March 20 post:

In my earlier post I predicted a 35 to 40 pesos to the dollar rate by end of 2006. This is due to various reasons, primarily because the dollars will weaken due to George poor management of the US economy, and because of GMA's good fiscal approach to the country's economy. Well, this situation will probably translate to a higher purchasing power to the general populace, alleviating poverty in masse to our people. Prices of commodities with imported content will cheapen, including gasoline; theoretically, diba?

Am I still, predicting the same range of exchange rate by end of 2006? Well..yes, again provided, no distability happens that is worse than the Bonifacio stand-off, and provided the political noise calms down, and provided GMA stays in power.

The fact is, no less than ADB today gave out a warning, published in the International Herald Tribune, and let me quote it.

Asian Development Bank sounds alarm on dollar

ReutersTUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2006

TOKYO 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.

"Any shock hitting the U.S. economy or the global market may change investors' perceptions, given the existing global current account imbalance," Masahiro Kawai, the bank's head of regional economic integration, said at a news conference.

"Our suggestion to Asian countries is, don't take this continuous financing of the U.S. current account deficit as given. If something happens, then East Asian economies have to be prepared." Kawai said the chances of a rapid fall in the dollar were still small, but it could cause a significant turmoil in Asia if it happened.

"If the U.S. dollar goes down in the future, it would be best for East Asian countries to allow appreciation collectively," so that the costs of adjustment could be divided among them, he said. "I don't think the possibility is high," Kawai said of a dollar plunge, "but it is like avian flu: the possibility of avian flu spreading all over Asia or the world is limited, but once it spreads, it would have tremendous impact."

Kawai said that by East Asia, he meant emerging East Asian markets, excluding Japan. Kawai said the Manila-based development bank's planned establishment of an Asian currency unit, made up of a basket of Asian currencies, would help monitor the collective path of regional currencies in relation to the dollar.

Well, kong makikinig lang sana ang mga politiko natin na mamahinga muna sa pamumulitika even just for one year - palagay ko, it will have more impact on our lives than any policy, or anything supposedly for the good of out people. Actually, I am startin to believe that the root cause of poverty in the country is too much politics. Di kaya?

Joel

I have been touched by one of the comments posted in this blog. I realized, may nagbabasa pala sa blog na ito, hehehe. I am therefore encouraged to share more of my experiences. My succeeding posts will be titled 1) Joel; 2) Jenny, 3) Kanoy and 4) J-Island. People that will, probably, find it hard to forget me.

Joel

This event happened around two years ago in my City in the Visayas. After my first 9 month stint here in Saudi, I went home and spent 200T on various things such as inuman, beerhouse, barkada etc.

One day, I went to visit a friend and when I reach their house he was not there, except his two sons (13 and 14 years old) and Joel, the house help, who was 16 years old. The mother of the kids was not there also because she was in Australia studying. Anyway, I stayed for a minute in their house and I saw Joel carrying a plastic bag with his clothes on it about to get out of the house, when I asked, “what’s happening, why is he carrying a plastic bag with clothes?” and one of the boy’s answered me with “masakit daw ang tyan, uuwi sa kanila”.

Ako, palibhasa pakialamero paminsan minsan,hehehe, asked Joel, ano ba sakit mo? What part of you stomach is aching? He showed me his stomach, and pointed to his appendix region. And so I pressed it, and he shouted in pain. Somebody told me before, that in that region is the appendix, and once it erupts the person could get poisoned and die.

So, I asked Joel, why go home, since your home is 30 to 40 kilometers away from a hospital. His home is a barrio located in the interior part of the island. Why don’t you go to a hospital? His answer was, “ala akong pera eh”, and besides how would a 16 year old boy that did not finish elementary school and without money dare go to a hospital. And so I asked one of the boys, “where’s your father?” because I was planning to report the situation to him and urge him to bring Joel to the hospital, but they told me, they don’t know where their father was.

So, I told Joel not to go home, instead I brought him to the hospital, thinking that I will just dumped him there, and inform my friend about the situation later. Because if I let him go home, who knows what would happen…I might feel guilty afterwards, at ayokong dalhin ng konsensya ko, ano man yun. When we reach the hospital, I brought him to the emergency room, and the Doctor, after some test, told me that he will be operated on, right away. I shelled out the money for the tests thinking that I will ask my friend, the Boss of Joel, to reimburse me later.

The doctor gave me a list of various medicine/things to purchase for his operation, and I was becoming perplexed (lito) because my plan was just to dumped him in the hospital, and inform my friend about the situation. I told myself, what is this!!, hello….he is not my relative, he is not my brother or anything, he is the house help of my friend, why is it now, that I am the one spending the money, time and effort, to have him operated!

So I called my driver, gave him the money and the lists, and told him, bring me home, afterwards, purchase this list, watch him in the hospital, and tomorrow morning go to his village and inform his family.

And my driver asked me: Who is he?

I was actually tempted to reply, “I don’t know!” But I answered; he is the house help of my friend. I am just helping him.

Today, not a cent of my expenses was reimbursed. But I don’t care. It was not a big amount anyway….an amount equivalent to maybe three or four visits to the beerhouse.

Well…truth be told, that 200T was not entirely spent on inuman and beerhouse.

I wonder where he is now.

Masaya ako after I helped him. It was proud of myself - tao pala ako, hehehe, may puso, konsensya, at damdamin.

(itutuloy, next is Kanoy)

Grammar

This blog started because I wanted to post a comment in one of the blogs that I've read, and posting a comment required me to login. So, I opened an account in Blogger, since I don’t have a login name and password. Kaya, ayon…Pinoy sa KSA was born.

Whenever I read my entries, I can spot a horrible number of grammatical errors, lapses in tenses, wrong choice of words, etc. I am tempted to edit them – pero sabi ko blog lang ito, nobody knows me, and besides, I am too busy. Kaya hayaan mo na. My rule in writing is that, if it is clear, and I understood what I have written, pwede na yon.

I know there are many perfectionist out there, kaya pasensya na lang kayo.hehehehe.

What I have learned from blogging is that I have observed the limitations of my writing skills (mediocre, that's how my friend and myself would describe it) and how it improves over time. Another is, it makes me laugh at times not only because of my grammatical errors, but also of my naivety on some issues, and sometimes, because of the emotions expressed in my entries, hehehe.

Also, because it’s the first time that I have a record of the events that’s happening in my life, and it is somehow gratifying.

Gratification is more than enough for me to continue blogging, adsense is a bonus.

American friend

I blogged before about our American friend. The update is: he just arrived today and called me. He already told his employer that there might be some "part time guys" from the other side of Dharan that are interested to help him in whatever kind of work there is in his office.

Goodness, I have plans of going home...and more oppurtunities are coming. What should I do? Would I be tempted to stay longer - for a much higher return?

I dont know. But one thing is sure, life is not about money. Money is just a spice of life. So?

I don't know.

What if a part time income becomes available at 5K? Well....

I still dont know....I really want to go home...for good.

Office guys

When 3:45 pm sets in, three people from SRACO would start coming in to my room at the office. The first one would come in carrying a plastic bag to replace the trash can - plastic in my room. After a few minutes, another guy would come, with a perfumed pamunas - he would punas my table, the computer, and whatever thats inside the room. The third one is the vacuum guy....if I am still in my room and this vacuum guy comes in, I would force myself to get out of my room and go to a veranda for a smoke. Actually, I seldom see this guys doing their work because I start jumping out from my table to go home when 3:45 sets in.

Pero minsan nakaka-awa, I imagine myself, siguro kong hindi rin ako nag-aral, I would possibly be having a job similar to theirs. Mabuti na lang.

Ano ba to..maka alis na nga, andito na ang vacuum guy. hehehe

Updates from home

I called my mother yesterday for updates.

In my previous entries I blogged about my investments, the lands I bought, my coprahan, and the loans I extended to the farmers near my farm. The loans I provided to the farmers require them to pay me 8 sacks of palay per ten thousand pesos loan every cropping which is twice a year, meaning they have to pay me an interest of 16 sacks per year. Since it is harvest time now, from March to May, the payments are coming in; I have received 30 sacks of palay as of today. I told my mother to tell my katiwala in the farm to give me a rough schedule of the harvest date of all the farmers that have payables to me – para alam ko what's going on, and so I can track my wealth back home! All in all I am expecting around 200 sacks of palay including the proceeds from my own farm. Hehehe.

Also, the copra harvesting proceeded smoothly, I did not asked how much is the price per kilo is when they sold the copra, so I have no idea how much was the proceeds. And my transportation business, all the permits and renewals had been done. I told my mother, and my scholars back home to send me the end of the month statement soon; and please deposit all the money to my account, hehehe. Earning here, and earning there at the same time.

One of my scholars has asked for an increase of her daily allowance, so I doubled it. I got the means….so might as well make her happy and comfortable. One of my drivers which is a relative requested that his boundary be reduced since he is the one taking charge of the washing and maintenance, so I said, OK.

One of my nephews is graduating from Philippine Science this March, so I told my mother to put a fortune in an enveloped and pass it to him. He is going to UPLB for his college – I forgot to ask if he got an scholarship. My other nephew that is studying in PMA will be having his vacation next week – so I must never forget to make that phone call home, just to say hi…..kiddo, how's life in Baguio? Another nephew is also going to Baguio – kaya dalawa na sila doon. All I can say to them – good luck. I am glad they are not experiencing the poverty we experienced before.

Headaches

I granted one of my brothers' friends a big loan, for his sons' education. Six months later not a single payment had been made. My poor mother is getting upset, and I told her not to worry – its just money, I will collect it myself when I get back home.

Also, a friend of my mother obtained a big loan from me, and today not a single payment was made. Again, I told my mother not to worry about it. Hay….ano ba to, kong nangungutang, ang galing mangako, kong bayaran na, nagtatago, hehehe.

My mothers' advice to me: keep your money and do not extend loan again to people.

Me? Ewan ko, I have been helping people kasi as far as I can remember.

Habang meron ako, ako ay tutulong. Magbabayad din yan pagnakaluwag.

Philippines: Hiring overseas workers?

I read in PDI the following:

About 500 Indian doctors want to work in RP First posted 08:42pm (Mla time) Mar 22, 2006 Agence France-Presse

ABOUT 500 Indian doctors have applied to work in the Philippines to ease a chronic shortage but cannot be given jobs because the constitution forbids it, the health secretary said Wednesday.

Francisco Duque said the Indian doctors were awaiting Manila's approval to start work but a provision in the Constitution bars foreign doctors from working in government hospitals. "I have 500 applicants from India but I cannot hire them because our Constitution doesn't allow that," he said in a speech to a medical group.

He said the Indian doctors could otherwise have filled the vacant posts at various government hospitals due to the large number of Filipino medical professionals who seek work abroad.

Well, I have blogged a warning about this a few days ago, and let me quote it here again (actually just about 3-4 days ago) :

Brain drain..well you sure you want the millions of Pinoys to go home? Can we provide the jobs and the pay they want? My answer to this is, train our people. Drain of medical doctors? Setup regional medical schools, cheapen the education cost/tuition, and provide a massive numbers of scholarships. For every doctor that goes abroad, train/graduate two doctors. Guys, it’s a race against time; we should do it now, before it's too late. Because if not, while we export our doctors, we might import Indian or Bangladeshi doctors to treat our people – kayo, este tayo rin.

Now...our dear politicians....what are we waiting for? It's your jobs diba? Do you want more pork? Then do your job.

Trading Gold and Silver

I got good news. I can now trade commodities particularly gold and silver on my trading flatform; this is an excellent addition, I believe. Well, these commodities are good for hedging in times of crisis, don't you think?

I tried it on the game, but the spread is just too big: 50 pips.

I'll stick to currencies for now...until a need for hedging (my few halalas) in gold or silver arises, hehehe.

Departure date

I received a reply from my Boss re my planned departure on May 15. It seems there will be a glitch on this schedule due to some "deliverables" to our clients that needs my attention. Anyway, I will try to bargain again, next week. If May 15 is not possible, then a future date will do, I just want it set; so I can make my planning accordingly, whatever. Hay... (sigh).

That's all for now...got bc, again.

Competitive advantage

We can succeed if we harness our competitive advantage, as a people. For example, in boxing, Pacman succeeded because he has a natural strong punch – that is his competitive advantage. Another is Fanny Serrano, he has a competitive advantage on parlor business, if you know what I mean. So simple, so? Yup, so simple but sometimes we blind ourselves or we refuse to see, or recognize our competitive advantage.

Overseas jobs

In terms of ratio to population, no country beats the Philippines on overseas workers. Fact is, we are the trend setter. China, Vietnam, Indonesia has a lot of catching up to do. The Chinese are recent arrivals in Saudi, trying to compete and probably out do us, but I am doubtful if they can, maybe in a hundred years. Well, actually they can, if we fail to train our people with proper skills, and if we fail to make sure that our people are well trained and continuously competitive, in nowadays, competitive international labor market. Our overseas workers remittances year on year is rising, 12 billion this year, and probably 50 billion 10 years from now, and 120 billion 20 years from now, and cumulatively trillion of dollars over the years. Diba? The government should have a long term; I mean foresight how to put these massive resources to good use. Steps have to be taken to ensure our competitiveness in the long term.

Brain drain..well you sure you want the millions of Pinoys to go home? Can we provide the jobs and the pay they want? My answer to this is, train our people. Drain of medical doctors? Setup regional medical schools, cheapen the education cost/tuition, and provide a massive numbers of scholarships. For every doctor that goes abroad, train/graduate two doctors. Guys, it’s a race against time; we should do it now, before it's too late. Because if not, while we export our doctors, we might import Indian or Bangladeshi doctors to treat our people – kayo, este tayo rin.

Currency

I am a little bit confused, when the peso weakens, people complain that "wala ng halaga pera natin"; when the peso strengthens, people complain its not good for export business. Ano ba talaga? Well, in my opinion, its like this, about two years ago we had a chronic massive budget deficit. Experts were speculating default, and the country's credit ratings were very low, which translates into higher interest rates whenever our government seeks loan abroad, compounding the country's massive debts. So? No default is good for the country, good credit rating is good for the country, and strong peso is good for the country. In my earlier post I predicted a 35 to 40 pesos to the dollar rate by end of 2006. This is due to various reasons, primarily because the dollars will weaken due to George poor management of the US economy, and because of GMA's good fiscal approach to the country's economy. Well, this situation will probably translate to a higher purchasing power to the general populace, alleviating poverty in masse to our people. Prices of commodities with imported content will cheapen, including gasoline; theoretically, diba? Let's extend this theoretical thing…what if the peso strengthens more reaching 2 pesos to the dollar? Well, hehehe, then we will be reading in the statistics economic description of our poor as, people living in less than 100 dollars a day, since 1 dollar today is 50 pesos, o…diba? Strong peso is good to the general populace, but bad to some uncompetitive exporters.

Export Manufacturing

What manufacturing sector of the country can compete with China, or Thailand? Electronics, so let focus on it. Those sector that we can't compete, let the Chinese manufacture them for us, anyway, we got the dollars to pay for them, diba? What happens when we compete and we do not have the competitive advantage? What will happen to Pacman if he try to compete with Fanny, or to Fanny if he compete with Pacman in the ring? Tell me. Competitive advantage po. Let go.

Tourism

These we have lots…and lots…of potential, massive advantage. Let us harness this industry, promote, promote, promote. I dare say, let the Chinese manufacture those toys, and lets welcome their rich into our beaches, resorts and casinos. Let our singers serenade them, and let them come here and empty their pockets, so we can have the Yuan's to pay for their toys, diba?

Services

Do I need to say more? Ala ka pa ngang sinasabi eh, hehe. Well, who beats the Philippines in call center business in South East Asia? None. That's because we have the competitive advantage of language and skills, thus far. To the government, protect and harness this advantage. Education po; and lets support the expansion of this emerging service industry.

Entertainment

Well, for me, Pinoys are the best singers in Asia. So why don’t we export our music to our neighboring countries, the way the Americans are exporting their music all over the world?

(itutuloy, got busy with something)

May kwento ako (2)

To continue

I never had the same luxury as other people had when I was young. The same with my brothers and sisters. ..we were victims of pure poverty. I remember my first shoes – Converse…my parents bought me a pair of shoes, the first time, when I graduated in elementary. I had to keep the shoes well taken cared of…washed and dry all the time so it would last. My parents bought me a new pair of shoes, three years later – one shoes every three years! They got no choice because my toes were already coming out from the worn out Converse, hehehe. The same thing with pants, I mean long pants. I wore short pants (shorts), from grade 1 to grade six…until my graduation day, when my parents tried their best to buy me long pants. At first they tried borrowing from neighbors for my graduation, but it seemed that nobody would lend me/them….so off to ukay ukay they went…(pero ala pa yatang ukay ukay noon).

I had a younger sister….I remember we asked our dear father for a lapis…he bought one, cut it in two, he gave the other half with the eraser to my sister, and the other half to me…. saying here son…take this…for you’re eraser just cut from an unused tsinelas, or just borrow from your friends. Beat that!

My father was a very ambitious man, when my eldest brother graduated in High School; he tried his best to send him to College…to the chagrin and shocked of our neighbors. Reactions vary from: ambisyoso…hindi mo kaya yan,… saan ka kukuha ng pera sa pagpapa-aral sa mga anak mo? He took our neighbors comments as a challenge…off he goes to the pier every time the ship comes from Manila. Karga dito…karga doon.

Because, they really wanted us to finish our studies, my good mother…also…off she goes to a neighboring subdivision everyday to work as “labandera”. She told us, she would cry every time she washes other people’s clothes….and got a bad mouthing from whoever was kind enough to give her “labahan”. Drama! Hehe.

What about food? Coffee and a piece of pandesal in the morning, egg was a luxury, mostly lugaw for lunch, and lugaw for dinner….the food of the poor, what do you expect? Bagoong, tuyo and asin was familiar in the dining table.

To complement our parents efforts; I worked in High School, so was my brothers and sisters. I worked as a houseboy when I was 10, a student janitor in high school, and a fish vendor on weekends. My brothers helped my father push “kariton” in the pier. We worked…on anything, on everything, on any decent job…and we survived!

Yes, we survived. I obtained a scholarship in college, so was my sister. Both of my brothers passed the board exams without doing a review because my parents cannot afford it. My father rule was: you got one chance, no review, pass it or fail it. Kalas.

Well this story/drama happened over twenty years ago. All of my brothers and sisters are now college graduates and working, our eldest brother even obtained a PhD, some of my nieces and nephews are now in college and in high school (scholars mostly).

Me? Twenty years later, after this dramatic and challenging life, I was in Paris visiting the Louvre, and in Las Vegas in Monte Carlo trying my luck at the roulette tables, and in Grand Canyons telling my self how fascinating the sights are, or how cold it is in Montreal, and how beautiful the flowers of Kukeenhuf (spell check) of Netherlands are.

I had a great journey, not just around the world, but in life.

All we/I owe to a “Kargador sa Pier”. Thanks Tatay!

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PS: That is the reason why I am very-very generous to kargadors whenever I travel.hehehehe.

May kwento ako (1)

I have read in the - Rebels without Because - postings about poverty. All the posts were very interesting, and so I am encouraged to share my experiences, only that I will post it here.

I am a son of a “Kargador sa Pier”, actually whenever anyone asked what his job was, my father would proudly tell the person, “I am a Porter”. My mother was a housewife. And we were seven children in the family, so literally, my father was feeding, all in all, 9 mouths. You can just imagine what sort of life that was….it would have been better if my father could “karga” everyday, but the ship that was docking in our port in the Visayas would only arrive from Manila, twice a week which means my father got work only twice a week. And in these two days that he got work, he would haggle with passengers, payment for every baggage that he would carry for them, which means that there are days that are not kind enough for his kind of job, if you understand what I mean.

We had ..none..nothing that can be called an appliance, except a kalan were to cook food, hehehe. When I was about 6 years old, I was fond of listening to a radio drama of the DZRH, “Cimatar”. To listen to the drama, I had to walk three houses away and squat close to our neighbors’ wall/stairs/house to listen. This was because we didn’t had a radio at home. That’s how poor we were. When our neighbors’ radio was not on, I had to go around the community to look for a radio that was on. That’s how an addict I was on the drama “Cimatar”. Imagine that.

TV…what do you expect? We did not had a TV; TV was a luxury beyond our imagination at that time. Well, I had a glimpse of the black and white TV in a wooden box of our neighbor, theirs had a TV cloth cover, and a wooden door – the sort that closes and opens. Hehehe. When our neighbors’ kid realizes that we were looking at their TV through the window, he would rush and close their window….depriving us, poor kids, the luxury of watching Sesame Street even just for a minute or two.

(Itutuloy, got busy with something urgent).

Peso to the US dollar

Although I am not an economist, I have been dipping my hand into currencies and forex for the past few months and years; however, this is no way in saying that I am an expert. Fact is, I barely know something about currencies than a guy in the street.

In trading currencies, I mostly rely on technical analysis in the short term, and the fundamentals, what ever that is, in the long term. When I buy or sell currencies, I consider technicals 80% of the time, and just 20% for fundamental reasons. Technicals mean, how the chart looks like, the immediate history of the currency, what my fib line is telling me, the moving averages etc.; in others words, my indicators.

So?

Well…let me make my bold prediction on the Peso dollar exchange rate for the year 2006.

I say….provided GMA stay in power, and provided no events worse than Fort Bonifacio stand-off happens before December 31, 2006; and most importantly, provided the confidence to the economy remains stable during these period, then the Peso, could go up to 35 or 40 pesos to the US dollar by December 31, 2006.

Yes, you read me right… 35 to 40 pesos per US dollar by December 31, 2006.

Why? This is because of numerous reasons, primary of which is the humongous trade deficit of the USA economy, and because of two major events happening in the near future:

1. the Iranian decision of opening the first oil bourse priced in Euros on March 20th, 2006 in Teheran, which could cascade and start the downtrend of the US dollar to the pits.

2. the decision of the American Federal Reserve to stop publishing M3 figures (the most reliable indicator on the amount of dollars circulating in the world) from March 23, 2006 onward. This probably indicates that the US money printing presses will hum to produce large amounts of money this year.

These two primary events coupled with massive debts of the US economy to the tune of several trillion dollars, and the massive trade deficit with China, Japan and other Asian economies, will perhaps, create something, changing the landscape of the world economy, what ever, it will be.

However, there's a glitch here somewhere. Remember, a few months back, I blogged about a massive trade in weapons in 2006 for economic reasons? Well let me quote Congressman RON PAUL OF TEXAS of Texas:

Our whole economic system depends on continuing the current monetary arrangement, which means recycling the dollar is crucial. Currently, we borrow over $700 billion every year from our gracious benefactors, who work hard and take our paper for their goods. Then we borrow all the money we need to secure the empire (DOD budget $450 billion) plus more. The military might we enjoy becomes the “backing” of our currency. There are no other countries that can challenge our military superiority, and therefore they have little choice but to accept the dollars we declare are today’s “gold.” This is why countries that challenge the system-- like Iraq, Iran and Venezuela-- become targets of our plans for regime change.

To read his whole speech, check this site: http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2006/cr021506.htm

And to read more about the impending crisis of the US dollar, read this:

http://newropeans-magazine.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3463&Itemid=85

So?

Well….as a forex trader, I got no choice but to short the dollar in the coming months, as if my few halala's of capital would matter! Hehehe.

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My trades last Friday's NFP was great. First I went long US/Yen and catch most of the pips, then I moved buying EUR/US to catch the recovery after the spike – as I predicted. I realized that when there is a strong 50 - 75 pips move on a Friday – a good chance of it recovering is pretty good, an hour or two before the week closes. I rely on three primary methods in trading (1) reading the price trends using candle sticks, (2) my ema, sma, and macd, (3) my fib lines. These three tools are enough for me - to generate hundreds of pips a week.

I have decided to be a fulltime trader – wish me luck! To realize this plan, I have sent an email to my Boss yesterday, informing him of my plan to shorten my work contract here until May 15, 2006, instead of September 15, 2006. I also talked with our accountant to inform him to calculate whatever money that I will receive on May 15. Writing that letter made me feel – I got big balls - throwing a good paying job – and taking the risk of being jobless in Pinas! What am I thinking?

Drastic decisions?

Well no… I have been planning to do this for quite sometime now. And I am fairly confident that I would be able to earn a living out of trading currencies. Besides, I don’t want to get stuck here for another year…life is short, so I got to get moving. I got to enjoy life, while I am young. And I have to reach my dreams. I have to do this if I have to earn millions a year! Hehehehe! Dream on….dream on….well dream is cheap, might as well dream big.

Wish me luck guys.

An internet post changed my life.

Napanood ko sa TFC, many graduates are finding it hard to find a job in the Philippines. For those finding it hard to find a job... I want to share my story....baka my mapulot sila/kayo.

Way back in 1997-98, I was jobless, everyday I was waiting for something… a letter….a call.. but nobody was writing or calling. I applied in almost 20 companies and government agencies in my province in the Visayas but nobody wanted to hire me! I was desperate!

I told myself – subukan mo kahit ano! Mag metro-aide ka, mag waiter..mag babysitter….whatever. I needed a job to feed myself. I needed a job, so I can buy my beers and cigarettes. And one day…after many days of sending job applications – I come across a scholarships posting in the internet. I sent my application – ala namang mawawala eh. After a week of sending the application, I have forgotten it, thinking that it would be like the dozens of applications I sent out which I haven’t gotten a reply.

Then – one day, several months after I sent my application, in September 1998, when I was feeling hopeless of finding a job… when self pity was about to set in – I received an email, a letter by post, and a fax telling me to go to the Belgian Embassy to get my VISA! I also received a contract telling me about my benefits, my monthly allowance (5x of my expected salary if ever I got hired in one of those jobs I applied). I got the VISA, I flew to Frankfurt, and stayed in Europe for two years….studying for free! The rest was history. Apart from being able to tour Europe, visiting the Louvre, and the streets, and flowers of Amsterdam among other places….I have now the guts to leave a job paying me 75K a month.

Now….I realized that the reason I was never hired in one of those jobs I applied in my province, was because something was in store for me! Something 100x better.

Now I am a believer of……believe! Hope! Things happen for a reason. When a door closes, another opens. ...whatever that means.