Confessions of an FB-shunning geek (The Brunei Times)

Published in the June 22, 2011 issue of The Brunei Times

Jennee Grace U Rubrico

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

MY COUNTRY has once been called the social networking capital of the world.

A study released last March and quoted by Yahoo! News reveals that 95 per cent of the people in the Philippines who have access to the Internet are on social networking sites.Mark Zuckerberg, should he choose to do so, can undoubtedly rule the land. The same survey shows that of those who have Internet access, 93.9 per cent have a Facebook account, making the Philippines the market with the highest penetration for the Harvard dropout's online Frankenstein.
This means that as of March, more than nine out of 10 people with Internet access in the Philippines had a Facebook account. It also means that had I been living there, I would have been one of the six people in every 100 who didn't have one.
I had known that there were only a handful of us who have fought the pressure to open a Facebook account. Every member of my family has one, and so does every single one of my friends and colleagues. Over the years, I've gotten hundreds of invitations to join Facebook from friends, family, co-workers, and long-forgotten people I might have met at one time or another.
I just didn't think there were this few of us in the resistance movement. My refusal to join the social networking site is not due to being an anti-social netizen. I created my little nook in cyberspace before it became as pervasive as it is now. I had an email address at Rocketmail before Yahoo! bought it over to kill it and a decade before Gmail was rolled. I was a chatter when usernames were called handles, when BBS (bulletin board systems) still existed, Telnet chat was the rage, and mIRC was just starting. I had an instant messaging account with ICQ on the year it was rolled out, and my handle was an eight-digit number.
I was talking to friends and relatives who were oceans away through the Internet before Skype had come into existence.
I think that my online persona has better social skills than the real me.
At various times, I've owned an account on Friendster, Multiply, Blogger, Livejournal and Shelfari. When Twitter and Tumblr came along, I've opened accounts in those too. I am aware that Facebook has been used as a catalyst for change. And I have, on a number of occasions, wished that I had an account so I could check on family, particularly when calamities strike and telephone lines are down.
But five years after the social network was opened to the world, I have managed to remain a Facebook virgin. I have come to regard this as a lifestyle choice.
Privacy issues make opting out the easy choice. My chief deterrent was Facebook's refusal to expunge personal data of people who create an account and later decide to deactivate it.
Why the company wants to keep the data of ex-users is open to speculation. Facebook has said that while deactivating the account does not erase the users' profile information in the social network's servers, deleting it would erase all information. But to remove all information, users must manually delete content such as wall posts, friends, and groups.
More issues were raised as the social network gained popularity, and they served as my justification for staying out of it. Photo tagging, in particular, is a constant bleep on my radar of paranoia, as it opens users to the inconvenience of being easily identifiable to both strangers and the bad elements.
It's not always easy to resist the advances of Facebook. That everyone is on it is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the bandwagon's call can be quite persistent. On the other, the hype can be a turnoff.
The tide appears to be turning against the social network, though. In a June 13 report, the AFP stated that Facebook's growth is slowing and that the social network has lost users in the US and Canada.
In the US, six million users deactivated their accounts in May, falling from 155.2 million at the start of May to 149.4 million at the end of it. In Canada, meanwhile, users fell 1.52 million to 16.6 million during the month.
Even in the so-called social networking capital of the world, Facebook appears to be losing its shine. A June 6 report by the Philippine Star puts Facebook penetration in the Philippines at 82.49 per cent in May - lower than the 93.9 per cent reported in March. Whether this means that Facebook lost users or that Internet penetration in the country has gone up faster than Facebook subscription has, it doesn't bode well for the social networking site, which depends on eyeballs to generate earnings.
I'm neither happy nor sad that Facebook is losing users - people dearest to me would clobber me if they thought that I was gloating that the connectivity that the social network offers is being threatened. But maybe, the mammoth that it has become could use a little shakeup. And maybe, this loss of users would make Facebook rethink the liberties it has been taking with users' privacy.
The views are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Brunei Times.
The Brunei Times

Quo vadis, landline? (The Brunei Times)

Published in the March 29, 2011 issue of The Brunei Times

Jennee Grace U Rubrico
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

 Tuesday, March 29, 2011

WITH telecommunications rapidly evolving thanks to technology, I could not help but wonder about one thing. That is, what will the world do with all the landlines that are fast approaching obsolescence? Laugh if you must, but everyone must realise by now that the only future fixed lines have in this new world order, where the Internet has taken over lives and smartphones that can do everything but the laundry are the communication tools of choice, is the museum or the junkyard.
I have a soft spot for landlines. I am part of that generation that believed having an extension line installed in one's room was a privilege that one aspired to. I am part of that generation that stayed up late to burn the lines talking with friends about high school crushes, homework and everything in between. In those days, not being able to use the stationary telephone was a form of grounding.
Fixed lines became essential when I started working. As a reporter, there had been times when I would work two phones simultaneously to complete an article. I also had a pager (for those who are too young to know what that was, let's say it was a more cumbersome version of text messaging, because one needed a fixed line to send a message. Alas, the life of the pager was curtailed far too early, as is the fate of gadgets that are found to be of little use).
I remember when there were only two types of telephones: the private lines, which were installed in homes and establishments, and the payphones, which were located in phone booths that were sprinkled around public places.
While payphones are now on the verge of extinction, the landline is unlikely to disappear by tomorrow. Not yet. It has so far managed to find a niche. It is still a staple in the newsroom; it is still the weapon of choice of pollsters; and my family still has one at home (we use it to call for delivery). In some countries, the landline is still the only way to call emergency numbers. But its increasing impracticability is obvious, not only to those who still use them — and to those who don't — but also to those that offer the service.
Last month, Nielsenwire released findings of a study it conducted in Indonesia which revealed that mobile phone penetration in the world's fourth most populated country tripled in just five years to 54 per cent of the population, while the number of landlines dropped to 11 per cent from 25 per cent in 2005.
"Consumers in Indonesia have mostly headed straight to mobile phones as their communication tool," said Viraj Juthani, director for the Telecom Practice Group, The Nielsen Company, Indonesia.
Financial statements of telecommunications companies in the region attest to the dwindling interest in landlines — a complete reversal of the trend seen just 20 years ago, when in the Philippines, particularly, people had to wait between six months and several years just to have one installed.
In its latest financial report, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, the Philippines' largest telecommunications carrier, revealed that its landline business saw revenues declining by four per cent in the nine months ending September 30, 2010 to 37.043 billion pesos from 38.388 billion pesos in the same period the prior year.
The carrier said this was "due to decrease in revenues from our national long distance, international long distance and local exchange services", adding that the sluggish performance was already "partially offset by the increase in revenues from our data and other network services".
That the carriers are adapting to changing times by establishing their own mobile phone service providers and bundling up landline subscriptions with other services such as cable television and broadband Internet shows that they are not holding out hope that fixed lines will in the future reclaim their glorious past.
An article which came out in The Economist two years ago quoted telecom operators in the US as saying that customers had been abandoning landlines at a rate of 700,000 per month in favour of mobile phones. It also quoted figures from America's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which had noted that in 2009, 20.2 per cent of the country's households became mobile-only homes, compared to only 7.3 per cent in 2005.
"If the decline of the landline continues at its current rate, the last cord will be cut sometime in 2025," the article stated.
I concede, grudgingly, that sometime soon, the landline will have no place in this cyberspace-dominated world. But I hope that however way it disappears, it would still somehow make its presence felt.
I would like to tell my children about those days when chatting involved not computers but phones with rotating dials and corded receivers. And when they look at me with disbelieving eyes and gaping mouths, I would like to be able to take them to a place where I could show them the instrument that had been an integral part of my childhood and professional life.
The views of the writer are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Brunei Times.
The Brunei Times

Booming budget airlines in SE Asia (The Brunei Times)

Published in the February 15, 2011 issue of The Brunei Times

Jennee Grace U Rubrico
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

 Tuesday, February 15, 2011

THESE days, I've been getting notices on promotional fares from Philippine budget airline Cebu Pacific almost every week. I am subscribed to the carrier's promo service, which informs me by email of 50% discounts on air tickets, reduced fares, and even seats that sell for only one peso (a little over 3 Bruneian cents), excluding taxes. I used to get one of these advisories every two months. But since December, the frequency of the promotional fares has reached a rate that has just been boggling my mind. Every event has become an excuse to slash air fares including Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year, which is not a public holiday in the Philippines. I am almost certain that in a few days, a promotional fare notice celebrating school graduation will find its way to my inbox.
Tough competition
I suppose that a lot of the aggressive marketing has to do with increased competition. AirAsia, the region's biggest budget carrier, has announced plans to put up a Philippine subsidiary through a joint venture with Filipino businessman Antonio Cojuangco. The Malaysian airline, which is comfortably ensconced on the top spot in the ranking for budget carriers in the region, has grown, and fast. With Tony Fernandes bringing the dog fight to Cebu Pacific's turf, the Philippine flag carrier has to respond to the challenge.
On the home front, Cebu Pacific has also been facing rising competition from legacy airline and fellow flag carrier Philippine Airlines which started Air Philippines specifically to regain a share of the low-cost market and Zest Air, which has recently announced plans to field international flights.
It's easy to see the draw of the Philippines to budget carriers.
Lucrative market
With over one million Filipinos leaving the country every year to work abroad, airlines have a captive market.
Cebu Pacific alone flew 10.5 million passengers from January to December 2010, driven by a 38 per cent increase in international passengers. The carrier, which flew 2.23 million passengers to and from international destinations last year, disclosed that its Hong Kong and Singapore markets grew by 15 per cent and 45 per cent respectively. There are 140,000 Filipinos working in Hong Kong, and 150,000 in Singapore.
Add to this the Filipinos in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Brunei and really, everywhere else in the world who make it a point to visit the country at least once a year, and airlines that service the route have an even bigger market.
International tourism
And let's not forget the holiday-makers of the archipelago that 90 million people call home, or the foreign tourists, 3.52 million of whom stepped on Philippine shores last year.
I rub my palms together in glee at the cut-throat competition among airlines that results in a cheaper way to travel. While I enjoy the comforts of travelling in a legacy carrier as much as the next commuter, I find that for short trips, at least, I can dispense with movies on demand, the in-flight blanket, and yes, the much-maligned plane food if it means being able to save on air fare, which, in theory, redounds to being able to travel more frequently.
Looming fuel surcharge
I do not know how long the price-slashing exercise of airlines would last. Turbulence looms constantly over the horizon AirAsia has said that it would apply a fuel surcharge on air fares if oil hits US$100 per barrel in the world market. That level has been hit, although not sustained. If oil continues to rise, Cebu Pacific, which tacks on the surcharge to its fares, may also be hard put to keep fares at current levels.
Volatile economy
There is also the matter of the economy, which can still go either north or south, particularly with inflation once again rearing its insidious head and giving state policymakers cause for concern. For the aviation industry, economic downturns mean companies and individuals cutting back on leisure and business travels.
Moreover, a competitive environment adheres to the principle of survival of the fittest.
And as weaker airlines fall by the wayside and stronger ones are left unchallenged, air fares may rise again.
But while the rates are low, I should be booking tickets for my trips this year. So excuse me while I open my email and read through that latest promotional fare advisory again.
Destinations are a-waving.
The views of the author are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Brunei Times.
The Brunei Times

When money comes, shopping too follows (The Brunei Times)

Published in the December 30, 2010 issue of The Brunei Times

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Jennee Grace U Rubrico

Thursday, December 30, 2010

WHEN people start going back to buying luxurious little pleasure items, one can safely conclude that the worst is over for the economy. While the stock market is officially the weathervane of a mature economy, the movement of discretionary items like branded bags and electronic gadgets in the retail sector is, arguably, the better indicator of economic health.At the first sign of an economic slowdown Jimmy Choo and Tiffany are among the first names to be taken out of the shopping list, ceding their slots to more wallet-friendly brands; when purse strings are loosened, austerity fatigue somehow finds its way into the household and items that feel good but are not vital for survival are reinstated in the budget.
Given the way people in this part of the world have been spending of late, the region doesn't seem to be worried about the eurozone debt crisis at all.
In its 2011 outlook for the Retail and Consumer Products in Asia, PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts the region will outperform all other markets in terms of retail sales over the next four years.
Figures from the Economist Intelligence Unit quoted by PwC estimate Asia-Pacific's retail sales volume to grow 6.5 per cent in 2010, from 5.6 per cent in 2009. Between 2011 and 2014, growth will be between 6 per cent and 6.6 per cent. In contrast, other markets in the world are expected to grow -0.5 per cent to 5.2 per cent in 2010; 0.2 per cent to 4.5 per cent in 2011; 0.8 per cent to 5.2 per cent in 2012; 1.1 per cent to 5.8 per cent in 2013; and 1 per cent to 6.6 per cent in 2014. Western Europe is expected to consistently lag all the other regions.
"Asian markets proved remarkably resilient through the economic downturn and continued healthy growth over the next five years looks almost certain," says PwC.
It adds that while China and India will continue to drive growth in the region, "across most of Asia, the forecast is for steady growth in the mid-single digits". Shoppers and mall operators in Brunei, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and other cities in the region which saw shopping centres bursting at the seams during the Christmas season would be hard-put to argue.
Food and fast moving consumer goods always do well regardless of the economic condition, since they are necessary expenses.
But to get a better sense of the economic vitality of the region and the public's propensity to trade up in good times, it is necessary to turn to retail subsectors that are dependent on spare money: luxury goods, durables and electronics.
The segments have been growing in leaps and bounds. Spending on luxury goods is "back in a big way" this year, says PwC. Watch maker Swatch, which also owns the Blancpain and Breguet brands, saw a 22 per cent increase in first half sales, PwC notes.
Sales in Hermes International also saw a 27 per cent jump in the second quarter and a whopping 57 per cent increase sales in Asia, excluding Japan.
"LVMH, the world's biggest luxury goods group, said its profits soared by 53 per cent in the first half of 2010", while Richemont, which owns the Cartier and Montblanc brands "saw its sales in Asia rise 51 per cent year-on-year from March to August", PwC states.
Durables and electronics are also seeing a jump in sales volume in the region - to 5.5 per cent in 2010, from 2.7 per cent in 2009. The segment is also expected to grow 5.8 per cent in 2011, 6 per cent in 2012, 6.4 per cent in 2013, and 6.6 per cent in 2014.
By all indications, Asians are poised to shop their way to economic health. But economics is hardly an exact science, and at the back of policymakers' minds is the question: Will Asia continue to be insulated from the European debt crisis?
Studies claim this is a likely scenario. Realistically, people are still drawing up shopping lists and keeping to budgets, albeit much bigger ones.
As long as the good times roll, however, shoppers will continue to kick off the flea market shoes, don the Havaianas, and hit the high-end stores to make big-ticket purchases.
Because when money comes, shopping is never too far behind.
(The views of the author are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Brunei Times).
The Brunei Times

Philippines enjoys post-poll pick-up (Asia Times Online)

Written for and published by Asia Times Online on September 14, 2010. Click here for original article.

Philippines enjoys post-poll pick-up
By Jennee Grace U Rubrico

MANILA - Business sentiment is rising in the Philippines, buoyed by the May election of President Benigno Aquino and the rising tide of global economic recovery. Whether Aquino can sustain the economic good times amid signs of a slowing global rebound will depend largely on his ability to enact quickly badly needed reforms.
The latest quarterly Business Expectation Survey, conducted by the central bank between July 1 and August 10, showed that business confidence touched 45%, its highest level in two years and a dramatic improvement on the 18.4% recorded over the same period last year.
Indeed, there are reasons to be cheerful. The stock market jumped almost 5% in the first week of September to hit a 32-month high, while the Philippine peso continued to strengthen against the US dollar in line with several other currencies in the region.
Election-related spending, including on advertising and other recreational campaign activities, gave the economy a big first-half boost. After growing an anemic 1.1% in 2009, Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7.8% in the first quarter this year and 7.9% in the second.
The World Bank noted that first-quarter growth was "far faster than expected", but in line with equally strong regional country recoveries, including 15.5% in Singapore, 12% in Thailand, 10.1% in Malaysia, 5.8% in Vietnam and 5.7% in Indonesia.
After contracting by 5.7% in 2009, investment grew by 24.3% in the first quarter. Remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), meanwhile, hit US$9.1 billion in the first half, a 6.9% jump over the same period last year, according to official statistics.
Before Aquino's election, sovereign analysts had raised concerns about the country's deteriorating fiscal position, which was aggravated by aggressive pump-priming to offset the negative impact of the global crisis. Fitch Ratings places the Philippines on the second-lowest tier of its bank systemic risk matrix, on par with Hungary, Sri Lanka and Ecuador.
Some analysts had earlier wondered whether the Philippines would follow in the footsteps of Vietnam, whose credit rating was downgraded in August due to a sharp deterioration in its external finances. Although still in surplus, the Philippine balance of payments weakened year-on-year in the first quarter, falling to 3.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) from 4.8% in 2009.
Aquino's strong reform message appears to have given the country at least a temporary reprieve. "The new administration of President Benigno Aquino III, who took office on June 30, has set the tone for accountability and transparency, reviving programs aimed at improving tax collections and emphasizing budgetary restraint," United States-based credit rating agency Moody's wrote in its most recent credit opinion on the Philippines.
"The departments of Finance and Justice have aggressively pursued legal means to deter tax evasion, while the president has outlined a 'zero-based budgeting' approach to expenditure outlays going forward," the Moody's report said.
The government has penciled in projects worth 180 billion (US$4 billion) to 200 billion pesos under the zero-based budgeting scheme, which would allow it to implement projects without state capital outlays through partnerships with the private sector. The plan aims to allow the government to implement crucial infrastructure projects without putting pressure on its fiscal position.
Aquino's early push to rationalize fiscal incentives has sent a positive signal to the business community, according to Donald Dee, vice chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries, the country's biggest business organization.
"It's our belief that people invest in the country not just because of the incentives, but because they see value in the Philippines," Dee told Asia Times Online.
Benjamin Diokno, a former budget secretary, doubts that the recent rapid economic growth clip is sustainable and predicted the government's 7%-8% GDP growth target for next year would be "tough" to meet.
"Many growth drivers that were present in the first half of the year will be missed in the second half of the year," including election spending, front-loading of public infrastructure outlays and above normal government spending, he wrote in his blog.
"The decision of the Aquino administration to pursue a conservative fiscal policy and to calibrate spending as resources materialize could seriously slow the contribution of the public sector to stronger growth," he added, warning that the global economy was at risk of a double-dip recession.
"Perhaps they want to be conservative, or they realize that there are looming dark clouds in the horizon," Diokno wrote.
One potential cloud is a high budget deficit. Finance Department figures show that the deficit-to-GDP ratio reached 4.9% in the first half of the year, exceeding the 3.9% ceiling set for all of 2010. For the seven-month period ending in July, the national government posted a budget deficit of 229.4 billion pesos, comprising 70.6% of this year's ceiling.
Moody's, which has assigned a Ba3 rating with a "stable" outlook for Philippine sovereign bonds, says that pressure to revise the rating downwards "would arise from an inability to improve government finances or a structural weakening in the balance of payments".
Some economists believe the government still has room to maneuver. "Domestic interest rates remain low historically, suggesting there may be room to move around to finance the deficit," says University of Asia and the Pacific economist Peter Lee U.
"The deficit is manageable - the counterweight to that is the amount of liquidity in the system," said Roberto Juanchito Dispo, executive vice president of First Metro Investment Corporation. "The [government's recent bond] issue was well received by the market, and this acts as a buffer to the deficit."
Dee stressed that local businesses were not looking for a quick fix to the fiscal gap. "As long as we keep the deficit to 3%-3.5% of GDP next year, business will consider this as managing the deficit." He said that while the government's belt tightening measures were laudable, there was still a need to raise tax revenues, a perennial problem in the Philippines.
Aquino ran on the campaign promise that he would not raise taxes, but he has backtracked slightly since taking office. He has said his administrations would impose new taxes only as a "last resort" to address budgetary gaps.
Jennee Grace U Rubrico has been a journalist for over 10 years.
(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

A quick introduction to Malaysia through Muzium Negara (BusinessWorld)

Published in the August 05, 2010 issue of BusinessWorld
TEXT and PHOTOS BY JENNEE GRACE U. RUBRICO

A quick introduction to Malaysia through Muzium Negara

I surveyed what must have been the fifth log coffin that I saw in the span of two hours. It was closed, and in the glass case. It really just looked like a log that was cut in half and hollowed out.

A TRADITIONAL vessel

What made it eerie was the burial drum beside it, so identified by the text written on a stand outside the glass case, and a reconstructed burial site. It didn’t help that skeletons of prehistoric men, said to have been found in different parts of Malaysia, were lined up in open graves just behind these, or that burial jars -- one of them broken at the bottom with a skeletal hand protruding from the gap -- were in the next glass casket.
In another building at the compound, I had earlier seen similar coffins -- smaller ones that looked like wooden containers with fancy lids -- as well as a chair for dead women which, I was surprised to find out, is an invention of the folks of Kalinga in northern Philippines. The chair, made of rattan, stood in front of a poster that not only explained how the chair was used but also had an illustration of the process. (I was quite taken aback that I would come to know about this burial practice overseas, but I consoled myself with the fact that I come from the southernmost part of the country, which, of course, is no excuse for my ignorance).

A
 wedding banquet tableau

Muzium Negara is a must-visit for tourists who want to get a snapshot of Malaysia’s old culture and young political history

Also that morning, I had seen tomb markers made of batu Aceh, a type of gravestone which were said to have been carved by Acehnese between the 15^th and 19^th centuries. The tombstones, a note beside them stated, "deserve to be regarded as a prominent heritage of Malay civilization."
I felt my stomach turn after spending the better part of the morning looking at death and the dead. Luckily, I hadn’t had time for breakfast that day.
My nauseous state, however, was no indication of the kind of day I was having; despite feeling that I had seen more than enough representations of death for the short term, I was enjoying my visit to Malaysia’s national museum, the Muzium Negara.

A dining room

Located in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, the national museum opened on Aug. 31, 1963. It stands on the grounds of what used to be the Selangor Museum, built in 1906. The right wing of that museum was bombed by the Allied Forces in 1945, and after World War II the entire place was demolished to make way for a new museum.
Designed by Ho Kok Hoe, the national museum is said to be inspired by "the Malay royal palaces and vernacular Malay architecture." Probably the first thing that would grab the visitor’s attention is a mural made of Italian glass mosaic on the faéade of the building. The museum explains that the mural depicts important historical events and crafts in Malaysia.
The museum is a must-visit for tourists who want to get a snapshot of Malaysia’s old culture and young political history. It houses four galleries, the first of which showcases Malaysia’s early history, covering the Permian, prehistory and proto-history eras. In this section, the finds in prehistoric archeological sites in Malaysia are showcased, and replicas of the finds -- including Perak Man, a 10,000 year old skeleton and Malaysia’s oldest inhabitant -- are displayed. Also on display are the burial jars and other remains of death; moulds of skulls of ancient men and their ancestors, soil samples, and prehistoric tools. A highlight in this section is a cave with a transparent LCD that depicts the life of prehistoric people.

The Malaysian version of sungka

Across from this gallery is the Malay Kingdoms section. Covered in this gallery are early trade routes; the early Malay Kingdoms; a section on Malacca, the center of the spice trade and the cradle of Malaysian civilization; and the contemporary Malay kingdoms. The imposing wall and 120-year-old door of the palace of the Malay state of Setul, which was ruled by the Sultanate of Kedah from 1843 to its cessation to Thailand in 1909, welcome visitors in this section. The wall and door are made of teak and carved with leaves and flowers -the symbol of the state.
On the second floor are two more galleries: the Colonial Era gallery and the modern Malaysia gallery.

Burial jars

The Colonial Era Gallery gives visitors a glimpse of Malaysia’s 446 years of foreign rule following the fall of the Malaccan Empire in 1511. The influence of four different colonizers -- the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British and the Japanese -- are tackled in this section. A model of the A Famosa fortress, which is found in Malacca, as well as a scale model of the Portuguese ship Flor De La Mar are found in this section. Also on display are various types of kris (a sword), body armor, shields, and the bunga mas, or the gold flower, which the Malay sultanates used to give to the Kingdom of Siam as a symbol of friendship.
The most politically charged gallery is the "Malaysia Today" section, which chronicles the country’s move towards independence from British rule. The unification of the Malays, Chinese and Indian locals in Malaysia against foreign rule and the leadership of Tunku Abdul Rahman, the country’s first prime minister, in attaining self-rule are the themes of this section.
Highlighted are the importance of Islam and education, as well as the role played by the press, in the move towards independence. A video presentation on Merdeka (independence) betrays the national stance that Malays are superior over their Chinese and Tamil counterparts -- in the film, an old man explains to his grandchildren that the Malaysian fight for independence was the Malays’ under Tunku Abdul Rahman, with the help of "Chinese and Indian friends."

A coffin with a decorated lid

The section also has a wall dedicated to highlighting the country’s achievements over the past 50 years. Coming from a century-old country that still struggles with poverty, massive brain drain and a lackluster economy, I could only be amazed at how fast Malaysia, which is just about half as old as the Philippines, has propelled itself to progress.
Besides the Muzium Negara, other galleries that complement its collection are housed in the compound. The Malay World Gallery, which showcases the other prehistoric coffins and the death chair of the Kalinga, also tackles wedding traditions and the different techniques used in batik making.
A house made of cengcal wood, called Istana Satu, which follows Trengganu Malay architecture, gives visitors a glimpse of the layout of old Malay houses, which is quite similar to old houses in the Philippines -- down to the banig (woven mat) and the sungka (a game) board.
Also on display at the museum grounds are different types of rick-shaws from different Malaysian states, and the first Proton car.
MUZIUM NEGARA is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. For an entrance fee of RM2 (around P30), visitors gain access to the four galleries of the museum. The other galleries can be accessed for free.

Sex vs God in the Philippines (Asia Times Online)

Written for and published by Asia Times Online on July 21, 2010. Click here for the original article
Sex vs God in the Philippines 
By Jennee Grace U Rubrico

MANILA - Armin Luistro is embroiled in a fierce debate between church and state. As the Philippines education secretary, it's his job to steer government plans to introduce sex education into elementary and high schools in the predominantly Catholic nation.
Since announcing last month that he planned to review the program, Luistro, a member of the De La Salle Brothers - a group of full-time religious educators who are not priests - has sought to distance himself from a longstanding issue that is putting politically powerful church leaders at loggerheads with the government for the second time in five years, saying it is not his priority.
As in a similar tie-up between the department and the United Nations Population Fund in 2005 - which was suspended at its pilot stage - the government again finds itself at odds with the politically powerful Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), which wields enormous influence, including the formulation of national policies. While Luistro has yet to decide on the future of the program, he has met with church leaders, whose stance on the issue is clear.
"The position of the CBCP even before is that it [sex education] should be left to parents, especially if we are talking about children who are underage," CBCP spokesman Pedro Quitorio III said.
Spearheaded by the Education Department, the government's initiative aims to teach students about health, wellness, values and character development through modules that include discussions on the human reproductive system, parts of the body and puberty. As planned by the previous Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration, sex education is to be integrated in subjects including geography, history and civics and mathematics, with the church's position on pre-marital sex included alongside data on pre-marital sex, teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
In a memorandum detailing the focus of the earlier program, the Education Department stressed the need for sex education by pointing out that 71.1% of young females and 35.7% of young males reported contracting genital diseases. It had also noted a 5% rise in early unprotected sex between 1994 and 2002, as well as a lack of adequate knowledge among adolescents to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
To address those matters, the Education Department had pushed for "more specific and focused topics", including safe motherhood, fertility awareness, misconceptions and myths on family planning methods, and adolescent reproductive health, and for parent-child counseling. The revived program was scheduled to be pilot tested this year in 79 public secondary schools and eight elementary schools across the country.
The church is not without its backers since about 82% of country's 90 million people are Roman Catholic. The Education Department now faces a lawsuit filed on behalf of 30 parents who oppose the sex education plan for allegedly promoting “contraceptive imperialism” that assaults Christian sensibilities and values.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a political force that claims to be fighting for the right of Muslims in the Philippines, has also joined the fray. "This is like preparing the child to be competitive for the next world of sex," said Sheikh Muhammad Muntassir, head of the MILF Da'wah committee, who also added that the policy was "hastily designed" and did not consider child psychology.
The Education Department has for the last month been firefighting, giving out interviews and issuing press statements to defend the program. In an attempt to manage the backlash, former education secretary Mona Valisno clarified that "classroom discussions on sex education [are] not about the sex act but on the science of reproduction, physical care and hygiene, correct values and the norms of inter-personal relationships to avoid pre-marital sex and teenage pregnancy.
"Our role here is to educate our young people on issues that directly affect them and empower them to make informed choices and decisions," Valisno said, adding the modules were prepared by psychologists "to ensure that specific topics for discussions will be made in the appropriate year levels".
She admitted, however, that it would be up to the new administration to decide on the implementation or scrapping of the contested project. Many take a pragmatic stance, citing the dismal results of the country's population control drive to argue their point. Now the twelfth-most populous country in the world, the Philippines has a population that grows at a rate of 1.96% per year.
Of its 90 million people, 40% are aged 14 years old and below. East Timor is the only Southeast Asian country that has a faster population growth rate, at 2.03%. Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous country, has a population growth rate of 1.14% per year, while China and India, the two most populous countries in the world, see their population grow yearly by 0.66% and 1.55% respectively.
"Personally, this is not a moral issue. Whether we should follow the church's teaching, I don't agree. The situation is that the country needs to manage its population," said Donald Dee, vice chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the country's largest business organization. "But when and how sex education should be taught is something that we leave to the child psychology experts."
Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute of Political and Electoral Reform, notes that population growth control is paramount, as a runaway population puts the country at risk of running out of resources.
"Having a big population has some advantages, like having a big labor pool, but there's a possibility that we would run out of food to feed our people," he said.
He raised the possibility that the name - the Adolescent Reproductive Health program - and approach of the initiative may have contributed to the conflict between the church and government. While acknowledging that the church as an institution was not likely to change its position, Casiple said he still believed that the program had a good chance of survival.
Luistro's move to review the program, he said, would open up discussion and debate. He added that even within the church, the sex education initiative enjoyed some support.
"The beauty of having a cabinet [in government] is that issues can be discussed and resolved by consensus. The country needs to manage its population, and most likely, the [government's position] will be leaning towards reproductive health, including sex education," he said.
Jennee Grace U Rubrico has been a journalist for over 10 years.