Category: Internet

PNoy resign or stay? FB sizzlers

mcmangahas Leave a comment

A STRING of small, newly minted Facebook pages have sprouted in recent weeks invariably calling for the resignation of President Benigno S. Aquino III.

Fewer still, on the other hand, are the FB pages seeking to marshal support for Aquino.

In recent days, the anti-Aquino accounts have started to peter out, the number of their “new likes” flattening to zero, and their followers engaged in discussion down to half.

But one pro-Aquino accounts have trekked a similar downhill path of late. Curiously, one FB page of this kind lists its website as http://www.president.gov.ph/ as its website.

Launched only last Feb. 26, the “We Support President Noynoy Aquino – #Noynoypar” FB account,submits this proposition: “One of the Best President(sic) The Philippines Ever Had.”

As of today, March 11, 2015, it has drawn1,445 likes, a composite “2,123 people talking about this” but also only “219 new likes” in the last week.

It states: “Ang Facebook Page na ito ay pagpapakita ng pagsuporta sa nahalal na presidente ng bansang pilipinas na si President Noynoy Aquino.”

It exhorts Netizes to “join our Facebook group” and visit the website.

But far more plenty yet much smaller still are the anti-Aquino FB pages of recent birth. These include:

* Noynoy, Give Yourself and this Country a Favor: Resign NOW!, which had:
1,250 likes
24 people talking about this,
12 people new page likes

Its proposition: “di pa man naging president may utang ng DUGO sa manggagawa at magsasaka ng kanyang KAMAG ANAK INC.sa hacienda luista at central azucarera sa Tarlac”

* Noynoy Resign Movement, which had
424 likes
1 talking about this
0 new likes

Its “About” page offers this information:
“Born on August 30, 2010… A Page dedicated to the cause of calling for the Resignation of ma”NOY” Lisa.” It bears a smilar link to the first FB account above.

* Aquino Resign Movement, which had
279 likes
1 person talking about this
0 new page like

It describes itself to be composed of “Citizens’ call for BENIGNO SIMEON AQUINO III to resign for INCOMPETENCE, INSENSITIVENESS and INSTABILITY.”

* Save the Nation Movement, which had
943 likes
12 people talking about this
5 new page likes

A rather extended “About” page described the group thus:

“The Save the Nation movement calls for “Three Urgent Steps”: a new Green Revolution to restore food self-sufficiency; the restoration of the Bataan nuclear plant, and the rapid construction of other nuclear power facilities; and a moratorium on the usurious and illegitimate foreign debt of the nation, freeing resources for development.

Signing the Declaration were the presidents of societies representing such diverse institutions as mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, inventors, radio broadcasters, and journalists, and other organizations.

The concept underlying SANA is the restoration of the historic mission of the Philippines, both for its own people, and as a nation which embraces both Eastern and Western culture, a crucial bridge in creating the alliance of sovereign nations, required to pull the world out of the current descent into a new dark age.”

* President Aquino Resign Alliance , which had
8,814 likes
192 talking about this
16 new page likes

It offered this self-description: “The President Aquino Resign Alliance (PARA) page was put up to express the people’s desire for him to step down and vacate the Office of the President following the rampant corruption, bribery, and plunder exposed by the P10 Billion Pork Barrel Scam.”

* Noynoy Aquino Resign!!! For President , which had
278 likes
4 talking about this
4 new page likes

Which One Are You: 8 Types of People That Request to Become Friends on Facebook

Bob Freking Leave a comment

It’s okay for me to get Facebook notifications and messages – I check them most of the time. But if we’re going to talk about Facebook Friend Requests, it’s the one I usually ignore because it’s full of people we don’t even know. So, who are these people?

fbfriend

1. Your actual friends and relatives

I don’t think this one needs any further explanation. This is the main idea behind Facebook friends: people you actually know!

2. Friends of your friends / relatives that don’t know you personally

They have faces that might seem familiar, pictures with your family and friends, and a last name that you recognize. To top it all off, both of you have a good number of mutual friends. These are friends of your friends or relatives that you don’t know personally, but you might have heard two or more stories about them.

3. People who just want more Facebook friends for the number

More friends = more likes & shares, right? While we’re not sure how true that can be, there are indeed people who just add anyone for the sake of having more Facebook “friends”.

4. Creepers who want to see more of you and your not-so-public posts

Maybe you have a neat looking profile photo or someone stalked you from Tinder, we don’t know. But the objective behind this is really quite obvious especially if you like teasing people in social media with your workout or swimming photos. They just want to see more of you.

5. Same school or industry

People from your high school, from your college, or they’re doctor-engineer-lawyers like you – they’ll add you probably to just widen their network and have you in contact just in case. Some of us will accept most of them anyway cause we don’t really see the wrong in doing so. Besides, we have tons of mutual friends already!

6. Strangers for online friendships

Some do it for connecting with friends, some do it for the number, and some do it for creepy purposes, but some really just do it to make friends. You have the same interests, same likes and all of that, and they’ll just message you in a friendly manner.

7. “Open-minded ka ba?” and other business opportunities

If you know how to spot these people and you accept them, you might be faced with job opportunities!

… Or it’s networking.

8. For sex and other activities

There are a lot of Facebook groups out there full of people who share the same activities and interests. If you’re in one of those groups and active, then don’t be so surprised if people from that group started adding you.

Special Mention: If you’re quite the famous person, people will add you just so they can say they’re “friends” with you. It happens, and we’re sure some of us probably tried adding celebrities and other identities too.

The post Which One Are You: 8 Types of People That Request to Become Friends on Facebook appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Yolanda’s donors: Who, what, why?

mcmangahas Leave a comment

EXACTLY three months after Yolanda struck central Philippines, the government launched a worldwide campaign to thank everyone who had rushed to the country’s aid in the super typhoon’s aftermath.

Print and TV ads, as well as billboards in nine famous cities across the globe – New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Toronto, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, and Sydney – expressed the Filipinos’ gratitude for the hand extended to them by people all over the world.

Indeed, while Filipinos themselves rushed to help their countrymen in need, the global response to the tragedy was overwhelming.

The United Nations itself has monitored, through its Financial Tracking Service (FTS), a total of US$845 million (PhP37 billion) of Yolanda aid being raised and donated to the Philippines in the period between November 2013 and October 2014.

Some 22 percent of this amount came from private individuals and organizations. The rest came from various donor-countries.

The latter includes at least 58 foreign governments and the European Commission alone that, according to donor documents, have already given some PhP29.84 billion or US$667.5 million as of October 2014.

The UN said the donations were coursed through 120 operational relief agencies from within the UN system, the international components of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and some international non-governmental organizations (INGO) and faith-based groups.

To track the trail of aid in cash and in kind for Yolanda’s victims, PCIJ moved 188 letter requests for data and documents to a great majority of these donors. The letters included 117 sent to INGOs, NGOs, and private entities; 59 to donor countries and foreign embassies; and 12 to government agencies.

To be sure, a significant amount of the donations might have been reported twice or thrice; some donor agencies themselves had also served as conduits or channels of the donations.

In a number of cases, pledges were bundled with donations that had already been raised and disbursed.

In yet other cases, donor reports were not specific as to their intended beneficiaries (i.e. towns and cities, number of persons, etc.), or even what the general purposes of the funds mean in terms of actual goods and services (i.e. “child protection” or “Water, Sanitation, and Health Services or WASH”).

The database that PCIJ has organized for all the reported numbers and information is a massive file with 53 columns and 994 rows of 14,310 cells or data entries — for the donors alone.

Meanwhile, the database for the PhP52.06 billion in public funds that the Philippine government said had been disbursed for Yolanda’s victims, a year after the disaster struck, is another matter altogether. This second database consists of 26 columns and 780 rows of 15,629 cells or data entries.

Combined, the two databases come up to 79 columns and 1,774 rows of 29,939 cells or data entires.

Yet still, the PCIJ has launched only a seminal effort at retracing the money trail of Yolanda and other recent disasters. Because such funds could spell relief, rescue, and survival for families and communities, integrity and efficiency in their use and release have become a common concern of citizens, public officials, and donor agencies.

The latest PCIj stories for Disaster Aid: The Money Trail follow:


* Yolanda’s donors: Who, what, why, how much?
* Tacloban: Disaster & politics a bad mix
* Relief protocols and rules

For the full data tables, as well as related video, photos, and documents, check out Diaster Aid: The Money Trail.

Internet Acronyms and Abbreviations You May Not Know The Meaning Of

Bob Freking Leave a comment

Lazada Philippines

I’ve seen a lot of new words and terms in the internet this year (including SMS and other forms of digital communication), and really, I had to Google most of the internet slang or I had to have someone explain it to me. These were the cases when I see someone call another their bae, tweets sepanx or says that they’re bored af.

internet acronyms

To give everyone a refresher on some of the most used in the internet that we’ve encountered, we listed those that might interest you down below with examples beside the difficult ones to put them in better context:

  • AF – as f*ck: “I’m bored af.”
  • BAE- before anyone else: “I miss my bae.” (also danish for poop, FYI)
  • FFTB – fresh from the bathroom
  • FML – f*ck my life
  • FTW – for the win
  • GG – good game
  • ICYMI- in case you missed it: “ICYMI, here’s our review of the Asus ZenFone 5.”
  • IYKWIM – if you know what I mean
  • LMK – let me know
  • Meh – mediocrity: “The food was… meh.”
  • NP – no problem
  • NVM – never mind
  • OTP – one true pair
  • Sepanx – separation anxiety
  • Ship – To endorse a romantic relationship, usually used in fandom context: “I ship Lelouch / C.C.”
  • SNAFU – situation normal, all fucked up
  • TMI – too much information
  • TWD – texting while driving
  • TYVM – thank you very much
  • YOLO – you only live once

There’s obviously more, and we no longer included the very basic ones such as OMG, WTF, ASL, TBH and IMHO. If we missed anything new, recent and hip, feel free to drop it down below!

The post Internet Acronyms and Abbreviations You May Not Know The Meaning Of appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Human rights, media freedom big to-do tasks in Asia — SEAPA

mcmangahas Leave a comment

HUMAN RIGHTS, freedom of expression, and media freedom: these values remain the great unfulfilled demands of the people of Southeast Asia.

Corruption, bad governance, and impunity: these problems remain largely pervasive across the region, however.

On the occasion of two important global events — International Anti-Corruption Day (December 9) and International Human Rights Day (December 10) — 11 independent media organizations that are members of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) issued a vigorous call for governments in the region to protect and respect human rights, freedom of expression, and media freedom.

Gathered for their general assembly in Thailand on dec. 9-10, the SEAPA members averred that, “the fulfillment of human rights, particularly the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the practice of good governance in Southeast Asia, are still a far reality in the region.”

Instead, SEAPA said. “the crackdown on free media and expression is taking place amid a regional trend of concentration towards politicized (state and party-owned) and crony business media ownership – particularly in the broadcast media industry – that makes media more vulnerable to manipulation and censorship.”

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism is a founding member of SEAPA.

The full text of the SEAPA General Assembly’s statement follows:

WORK FOR MEDIA FREEDOM TOWARDS THE FULFILLMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

DECEMBER 10 – We, members of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), gathering in Kanchanaburi, Thailand for our General Assembly, mark International Anti-Corruption Day (December 9) and Human Rights Day (Decemer 10) with the resolve to reorganize and strengthen the alliance to make it more capable to meet regional press freedom and freedom of expression challenges.

These two commemorative days provide a meaningful backdrop to the issues we discussed in our meeting. Also, these point to the bigger contexts of our goals as an alliance of media freedom advocates in our respective countries and in the region as a whole.

The fulfillment of human rights, particularly the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the practice of good governance in Southeast Asia, are still a far reality in the region.

In Cambodia, there is an ongoing continuing crackdown on activists, human rights defenders and opposition party members seeking to express legitimate socio-economic and political issues. We wish to express deep concern not only about the crackdown but also the role of the judiciary in legitimizing these restrictive actions.

In Malaysia, a crackdown on free expression has targeted activists and journalists using the Sedition Act, making the simple act of speaking out a crime against the state. The government has not only reversed an earlier promise to abolish the outdated law, but has even recently pledged to strengthen it.

Impunity for violence against journalists is also a rising problem, not only in the Philippines and Indonesia, but also increasingly in Cambodia and Myanmar. State and non-state actors intimidate and target activists and journalists, who are increasingly becoming targets for exposing human rights abuses and corruption.

Moreover, victims of violent acts are seldom able to receive justice from the state, escpecially in cases involving security officials. New procedures are also being introduced to protect state officials from prosecution.

The crackdown on free media and expression is taking place amid a regional trend of concentration towards politicized (state and party-owned) and crony business media ownership – particularly in the broadcast media industry – that makes media more vulnerable to manipulation and censorship.

New laws regulating mainstream, online and social media are being enacted to extend to criminalize the discussion of ‘sensitive’ topics even for self-expression.

Set against the backdrop of setbacks in democratic accountability caused by political monopolies of entrenched parties and militaries, the spaces for media freedom and free expression have drastically reduced.

We take special note of the situation in Thailand, where the media are under direct orders from the coup makers to refrain from disseminating any criticism of the new regime, including prohibiting interviews of certain sources. These are other restrictions create an atmosphere of repression in Thai society, encouraging self-censorship in the mainstream and social media, and beyond.

We remind governments that the fulfillment of human rights and the practice of transparency and accountability is an obligation to their consituents. Furthermore, the increasing role of ASEAN in member-governments’ common objectives for regional integration makes these goals also a mutual imperative.

In the struggle for human rights and against corruption, the role of free, diverse and vibrant media is crucial.

As journalists and freedom of expression advocates, we are aware of the need to expand the ranks of committed organizations and individuals working to advance our goals.

We affirm the role of online citizens as part of the journalistic community, who have the responsibility to access and disseminate information on behalf of and to articulate positions and analysis with different communities.

As a network, we will advocate, campaign and forge greater solidarity for press freedom, and the rule of law. We will also assert our rights to push the boundaries of press freedom by creating and practicing good and critical journalism.

We challenge our governments, ASEAN and the ranks of media as well to work together towards the fulfillment of human rights and the end of corruption.

SEAPA members:
Aliansi Journalis Independen Indonesia (AJI Indonesia)
Burma News International (BNI)
Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR)
Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM)
Center for Independent Journalism – Malaysia (CIJ Malaysia)
Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility – Philippines (CMFR)
Institut Studi Arus Informasi – Indonesia (ISAI)
Myanmar Journalists Network (MJN)
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ)
Thai Journalists Association (TJA)
Timor Leste Journalists Association (TLJA)