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Hoarding
is a dastardly act that benefits only the capitalist and
displaces thousands of consumers. The capitalist has the
money and the motive to amass stocks in order to
manipulate prices to take in enormous profits, to the
detriment and disadvantage of the consumer who shoulders
the gluttony of the capitalist for more and more
profits.
In effect, this is economic sabotage,
creating an artificial shortage in order to manipulate
the demand-and-supply ratio. The framers of our laws
were right in criminalizing this act, a crime of great
proportion, by imposing on the guilty a life sentence.
There was no shortage of rice except for
the seasonal see-saw of supply and demand, but the media
hype that attended the issue drove prices sky-high,
compounded by the rice supply-and-harvest situation in
neighboring countries.
And then, suddenly, there was talk of
hoarding, with no less than the President catching a
warehouse red-handed having so much stock without
documents, and the owners nowhere to be found.
The citizens of this country are the
victims of rice hoarders, and this is a good chance to
do your duty by ensuring that no rice is being hoarded
in your neighborhood warehouse. We are all victims, but
this time, we can do something about it.
n n n
A problem of miscommunication created a
snafu at the international airport when airport
personnel insisted on frisking and treating a visiting
head of state like a terrorist suspect.
I am glad that President Arroyo quickly
salvaged the situation by offering a chartered private
plane to ferry the president of
Palau
and his party back home.
What is most disconcerting about the
affair is that despite all the shouting about how good
we are with our vaunted hospitality and tourism
manners, our people at the frontlines manning the
airports don’t have the advance training on how to treat
VIPs appropriately, that is, with dignity and decorum
befitting their stature.
To treat visitors, especially VIPs, with
respect is real hospitality, a truthful offering of
friendship, and this is protocol. Let’s do better
always.
n n n
In April 1973 Martin Cooper made the
first call on a wireless telephone on a busy corner in
New York, and 10 years later, the less bulky cellular
phones became popular with some 300,000 users. Now,
cell-phone users number more than 3 billion around the
globe.
Cooper, who invented the cellular phone,
has visions beyond the wireless phones and other
communications gadgets. He foresees embedded wireless
devices in our bodies to make possible the instant
diagnosis of illnesses and make cure an instant
possibility.
And the most outstanding of all is that
these devices, the communication device and the
diagnostic gadgets, can be powered by our very own power
generator—the human body.
n n n
Good news to our blue-collar work-ers:
the world’s fourth-largest shipyard is now rising in
Misamis Oriental and is going to hire some 45,000
workers like engineers, fabricators, welders and ad-ministrative
personnel within three years as soon as the facility
goes operational.
A South Korean project, the $2-billion
facility is run by Hanjin Heavy Industries and
Construction Co. Ltd.
Believe me, this did not just happen.
The negotiation for this project was brokered for the
most part by Phividec officials guided by the President.
This is a leap forward by our industrial capability as
the fourth country with such a large shipbuilding
operation after
Japan,
China and South Korea.
n n n
So many good things are happening in the
country which promises to generate a lot of jobs for our
people.
A $15-billion casino complex is rising
by the
Manila Bay
that will give Las Vegas a run for its money. The
rippling effect will be enormous, with tourism getting
the largest share of the blessings. Just imagine the
small-scale industries that can grow beside such a
facility or in relation to it—restaurants, transport,
hotels and inns, services, commercial establishments,
money changers and many more.
This is a bonanza that we deserve. The
future is ours. |
