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About Iran
Paul Bograd
Random Observations from Manila
Well I guess in the classical sense Iran is part of Asia so I will take the political version of “literary license” and post a couple of quick thoughts about recent events there.
I won’t subject anyone to a long geo-political discourse. I am not an expert on Iran or Islamic politics so I won’t go there; but the past week presented the opportunity for a few observations:
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Posted
6/26/2009 12:45:47 PM |
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Twittering regime change
Michael Alan Hamlin
David Cohen, a former Bush administration official in the Department of the Interior, posted a status update on Facebook Monday morning Manila time urging Twitter users to set their locations to Tehran and their time zones to GMT +3.30. The reason? “Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches,” Cohen wrote. “The more people at this location, the more of a logjam it creates for forces trying to shut Iranians’ access to the Internet down.”
He concluded the post by encouraging his network to, “Cut & paste & pass it on!” I heeded that call, and posted the information on both Facebook and Twitter. And within minutes, a friend in the US reposted the request for his network to see. Another, who writes for huffingtonpost.com, soon followed.
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Posted
6/26/2009 12:03:44 PM |
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Keeping Activism Alive
Orly Mercado
It was a clear sunny morning here in Jakarta. I was on my way to the office, when I received a text message from Manila. Julius Fortuna, a fellow journalist died of a heart attack. Way back in the sixties, we were dyed-in-wool Marxists student leaders. In the 70s we were detained as subversives by the Marcos regime. We could not have known then, that socialism was “the long road from capitalism to capitalism”. I will always remember Julius as an activist. Even as we aged, he always had causes to fight for. I do not have any regrets about that period of my life. It is about the passion that comes with activism that sometimes makes me wonder. How long can one keep it?
Later in the day, I had lunch with Von Hernandez, another activist. As Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia he is a poster boy for environmental activism in the region. Von belongs to another generation of activists. He started out as an environmentalist as a member of my staff. As a senator, I had taken up the issue of environmental protection by pushing for a total ban on logging in the Philippines. It was a tough fight. He reminded me that when I was calling for a log ban, we were fighting to save 18% of the country’s remaining first growth forests. He said that now there is only 3% left.
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Posted
6/23/2009 10:37:21 PM |
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The role of the CEO in building corporate reputation
Michael Alan Hamlin
A March 2009McKinsey Quarterly survey of senior executives around the world revealed that most senior executives believe trust in business (85%) and commitment to free markets (72%) have deteriorated. They are right. “According to the 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer, 62 percent of respondents, across 20 countries, say that they ‘trust corporations less now than they did a year ago.’” The results are hardly a surprise in the wake of the Global Financial crisis which has destroyed vast wealth and jobs worldwide.
However, McKinsey & Company consultants Sheila Bonini, David Court, and Alberto Marchi argue in a recent report, “Rebuilding corporate reputations,” that “today’s reputational challenge” is not just a consequence of the financial crisis and its aftermath. They are also the product of what they describe as “underlying shifts in the reputation environment that have been under way for some time.” They cite the growing importance of Web-based participatory media, the increasing influence of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other influential third parties, and increased cynicism towards advertising.
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Posted
6/17/2009 11:13:31 AM |
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Google creates 1st-ever Google doodle for the Philippines for Independence Day
Michael Alan Hamlin
Philippine flag provides basis for creative design elements of national holiday doodle
What follows is a statement from Google on the Philippines' Independence Day celebration.
To commemorate the country’s 111th anniversary of its declaration of independence, Google announced that it has created the first-ever Google doodle for the Philippines. The unique doodle can be viewed on Google’s Philippine website, www.google.com.ph.
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Posted
6/12/2009 9:26:04 AM |
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Philippines (un)competitiveness
Michael Alan Hamlin
Although much has been said of the Philippines’ economic resiliency in the face of the global economic meltdown, it’s important to view that resiliency in the proper context. First, the Philippine economy contracted at its fastest pace in two decades in the first quarter. Second, the Philippines may not enter recession this year-the Development Bank of the Philippines has forecast barely perceptible growth of 0.5%-but that won’t be due to the inherent strength of the domestic economy.
Even measly growth is not at all certain, and depends on remittances reaching last year’s level of $16.4 billion. The Central Bank believes that will be the case. But if remittances instead contract five percent as a Reuters panel of economists forecast recently, the economy could follow suit. And while the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector-the one truly bright spot in the economy-continues to grow at an impressive rate, the rate of growth is slowing.
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Posted
6/10/2009 12:17:47 PM |
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Jeju's sex and green growth exhibits
Orly Mercado
We were in a van, on our way to the ASEAN-Korea Commemorative Summit venue, in the resort island of Jeju. One of the delegates from the business sector said he had an interesting afternoon the day before. His Korean business contacts brought him to a permanent exhibit in a sex museum. When asked how it was, he said it was huge. The museum, that is. No one picked up the conversation. I surmised that like me, the others were in the category of men, whose testosterone levels were no longer raging.
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Posted
6/6/2009 9:17:59 PM |
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Good visibility
Michael Alan Hamlin
Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference in late April, iQuo president & CEO Vikas Kapoor told delegates, the Philippines is “the premier country in the world in the fast-growing BPO sector.” Kapoor was participating in an expert panel on “The Forecast for Emerging Markets.” The conference was attended by around 3,000 executives and leaders from 60 countries, including “hundreds of CEOs from the world’s top-tier companies, senior elected and appointed foreign and US government officials,” and other global experts in a broad range of industries.
“In the call center business, if I compare performance-whether it’s cost, quality, people, retention, etc.-the Philippines is far ahead of everyone else,” said Kapoor. In a statement issued late last month Kapoor “went on to credit the Philippines’ large population of highly skilled workers, service ethic and strong government support for its superior performance and dramatic growth.”
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Posted
6/3/2009 11:19:37 AM |
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