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Trigger Happy Cops

There seems to be something fundamentally wrong with the training of cops (or lack of it) in the Philippines. A few months ago, anti-carnap cops of the Traffic Management Group (TMG) gunned down three alleged carnappers. Now they’re at it again. They shot at the car of a pharmaceutical executive.

Luckily, the guy was able to continue driving and the cops weren’t able to give chase. Had things been different, we probably would be reading in the news about a drug crazed executive (it would be hard to frame him as a carnapper) killed after firing at the cops. Of course, the scene will be complete with a sachet of shabu and a Jericho pistol. Maybe even a wounded cop.

But back to training. There’s the matter of proper flag down procedure. There’s the matter of car recognition. And finally, there’s the matter of the objective of anti-carnap cops being not to just stop carnappers, but also to recover stolen cars. Unless there is a clear and present danger to other people, they should just let the carnappers go if there really is no way of stopping the stolen car but to start shooting. After all, what good is recovering a bullet riddled car?

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UP: University of the Parrot

Few people know that the bird on the seal of the University of the Philippines (UP) is a parrot. Yup, that little bird proudly spreading its wings on the university seal is a parrot. I myself didn’t find out until after several years in UP. Good thing I never encountered it in one of those trivia questions that professors love to give as bonuses in exams. So UP can also stand for University of the Parrot. Isn’t that nifty? :)

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I coup, you coup, we all coup

Just when the economy was riding higher and you get another coup scare. Both the peso and the markets fell sharply upon the rumors of a coup and the subsequent declaration of martial law state of national emergency. Luckily when things sort of stabilized, both also recovered sharply.

Sometimes you wonder if someone is playing around with the government for market manipulation and profiteering purposes. You probably only need to spend just a little to shake up the fragile government a bit. But for sure, such unpredictability cannot be good for the economy in general.

Maybe what we should do is bulldoze down the EDSA Shrine and the People’s Power Monument. Maybe that will make people forget about EDSA 1 (and 2 and 3) and prevent people from exploiting it to promote instability. At the very least that should get rid of the horrible traffic whenever the EDSA 1 anniversary comes around. I mean, what’s been done’s been done. And when you think about it did things really really change?

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Syriana

Most of us had at one time or the other become cynical enough to suspect of the great evil of the mega-corporations and their lap dog, the government. Syriana gives those suspicions visual and aural life. A more watchable Farenheit 911, it is the story of an oil company intent on taking control of an oil field at all costs, a progressive Arab prince intent on doing right, standing on their way, a CIA agent manipulated into something he had no idea of. The stories of these men and more are spun and weaved together into a thought-provoking oil business/political thriller. If you don’t believe the mega-corporations (or at least the oil companies) are evil, this will at least make you think twice. An absolutely great watch!

Rating: 5/5

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War of the Worlds

The no-longer-so-recent brouhaha over some cartoons shows no sign of letting up. If anything, it is spreading. What started off as an event that was pretty insignificant was used by rabble rousers to foment unrest.

In Libya, the police cracked down on the rowdy mob who burned down the Italian consulate, killing several. But the police was later disciplined for engaging in acts “beyond the the duties of the police”. Uh what is the duty of the police? It’s not the police who needed disciplining, it’s the mob!

In Nigeria, mobs burned churches and beating up people, often to death. I wonder, will we be seeing protests from the rest of the world because of these burnings and beatings? Somehow I don’t think so. The rest of the world is just too polite, civilized, and tolerant for burnings, beatings, heck even ethnocide.

All this unrest only brings wider attention to the issue which is taken as an opportunity by more rabble rousers to forment even more unrest. And the vicious cycle goes on. Pretty soon, the original issue would be forgotten and what will be left will be the animosity, a fuse to a bomb just waiting to be lit. And guess who will be lighting it? Definitely not the polite, civilized, and tolerant.