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Killing me softly
Michael Alan Hamlin
A little support would be helpful...
At first blush, House Bill 1716, entitled Free Open Source Software (FOSS) Act, comes across as just another piece of superfluous legislation in a sea of inconsequential legislative exercises. But it’s not as harmless as it might seem. In fact, it’s dangerous.
The bill is meant to “encourage” the use of open source software in government and the private sector by forcing government agencies to do two things. First, they will be mandated; i.e, forced, to use open source software for 75% of all existing government systems within five years. And all government data must be “in open source format.” While using open source software is often a good thing, arbitrarily dictating how extensively it must be used probably isn’t.
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Posted
9/22/2007 11:18:36 PM |
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Jueteng money and oral sex
Orly Mercado
It's all in the mind...
When he was President, I used to hear Erap Estrada privately get snickers with a wisecrack about US President Clinton. He used to say that the difference between him and his US counterpart was that he got the sex and Clinton got the scandal. This was in obvious reference to Clinton’s problems during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
I have seen both leaders up close to validate the truth that both were great charmers. They were truly likable, if not controversial. But charisma was not enough to get Clinton off the hook, even with his televised assertion, that he did not have sex with Monica. My personal reaction to his statement then, was here is a man who believed he was telling the truth. That was understandable, considering that Clinton believed having oral sex done on you did not constitute sex. Of course, this is not true. As Dr. Phil of American TV fame puts it: “Anything you do with your sex organ constitutes sex.”
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Posted
9/18/2007 5:04:02 PM |
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Bullish investors
Michael Alan Hamlin
Why isn't something profound being done?
Let’s start with the good news. Developing Asia received a record US$212 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2006, an increase of 22% over 2005. Now, the not-so-good news. Regional FDI as a percentage of global FDI was down close to two percent last year from 2005, and growth in FDI is expected to slow sharply this year to just 2.7%.
These findings are provided in World Investment Prospects to 2011: Foreign Direct Investment and the Challenge of Political Risk (WIP), released last week. The report was produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in cooperation with the Columbia Program on International Investment (CPII), and charts FDI trends over the next five years. Among other factors, it is based on a global survey of more than 600 direct investors, according to a statement by CPII.
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Posted
9/12/2007 6:54:32 PM |
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It's all about music
Orly Mercado
Like most of us who at the end the day, want get our minds out of work, I was about to put on a movie in my DVD player. But I cannot help my obsessive-compulsive bent. I had to check the news first. I got stuck in the TV coverage of the funeral service for the famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti.
It was the music that kept me from my movie. Andrea Bocelli capped the service with a song. I could not ignore the comments of the announcer, citing some unnamed critics, who claim that Pavarotti “sold out” as an opera singer and “went into show business.”
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Posted
9/10/2007 7:05:29 AM |
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Smart money
Michael Alan Hamlin
ESG policies and CSR initiatives should be at the center of corporate strategy
In a blurb headlined Smart Money, Newsweek recently reported that a Goldman Sachs report found that socially responsible companies outperformed the MSCI global stock index “by a stunning 25 percent.” Writing in CRO, Margo Alderton elaborated, noting that 72% of leaders in environment, social, and governance (ESG) policies also outperformed industry peers.
Why? Consumer research findings incorporated into the Goldman Sachs report showed that “being socially responsible” is the most likely factor influencing brand loyalty, at 35% compared to the next most important factors, price and availability, at 20% each. More tellingly, “52% of respondents actively seek information on companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) records ‘all of the time’ (6%) or ‘sometimes’ (46%).”
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Posted
9/5/2007 5:37:12 PM |
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