Philippines is still Perceived as a Corrupt Nation

Corruption Index, 2005-Image from NYtimes.com ( Index from 1 to 10)

Yesterday's news from the Philippine Inquirer reported that the Philippines is still perceived as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. This news really saddened me. The survey was conducted by Transparency International (TI) . The Philippines was given a score of 34 on a scale of 1 to 100 with 100 being the least corrupt country.

The good news is that the Philippines scored better than the neighboring countries of Indonesia ( scored 32), Vietnam( scored 31) and Bangladesh scoring 26. The numbers are called Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

The top five countries perceived to be very clean were Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden and Singapore, while the five viewed as very corrupt were Somalia, North Korea, Afghanistan, Sudan and Myanmar.

One of the actions that has improved the Philippine image as a less corrupt country is the passage of the freedom of information bill according to the news report.. Other actions by the Aquino Administration that helped change the public perception were the impeachment trial, the declaration of the statements of assets, liabilities and net worth, the transparent process of replacing dismissed Chief Justice Renato Corona, and the general openness of the administration in its quest for a transparent government. .

Huguette Labelle, Chairperson of TI said that based on the 2012 CPI, corruption still continues to ravage many societies. According to him governments need to integrate anti-corruption actions into all public decision-making. Their priorities should include better rules on lobbying and political financing, making public spending and contracting more transparent, and making public bodies more accountable to people..

The news did not report the United States CPI score, but I have a feeling it is very close to 100, even though it did not make the top five least corrupt countries in the list above.

I hope that next year the Philippines will receive a higher score. As the saying goes, one can only hope for the best. Remember this is just a perception not the reality. In my mind the Philippines in reality has probably a score of 50 if not higher. What do you think? Comments?

Have You Heard of Alfie Boe?

Alfred Giovanni Roncalli Boe, known professionally initially as Alf or Alfred Boe and now as Alfie Boe, was born in September, 1973. He is one of my favorite tenors today.

Alfie's first public performance, aged 14, was at Fleetwood's Marine Hall in a "Songs from the Shows" presentation organised by inspirational local singing teacher Lottie Dawson. He states that although he sang only a couple of lines he was extremely nervous.

At the age of 17, Boe became an apprentice mechanic at the TVR factory in Bispham, Blackpool. He enjoyed entertaining his colleagues by singing opera arias while he polished the cars, and one day was overheard by a client with connections in the music industry who was so impressed, he suggested Boe should go to London and audition for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. His audition was a success and he gave up polishing cars to embark on a singing career.[4] Boe has never been able to trace the customer who suggested he go for the audition, having lost the man's business card.

Boe moved to London and studied singing at the Royal College of Music, the National Opera Studio and the Royal Opera House's Vilar Young Artists Programme. In 1999 and 2000, he was featured as the "opera dude" on albums by The Clint Boon Experience, led by the former organist of the Inspiral Carpets. In 1999 he sang Ernesto for Scottish Opera in their Opera-Go-Round production of Don Pasquale, touring widely throughout Scotland.

Boe toured the United Kingdom with the Fron Male Voice Choir in February 2007 and took part in the first Classic FM webcast concert with soprano Natasha Marsh in March. The same month he was appointed as an ambassador of The Prince of Wales Arts & Kids Foundation, a British educational charity working to inspire and educate children by introducing them to the arts. Boe's role being to bring music, and opera in particular for those children involved.

He also performed alongside Michael Ball in the English National Opera production of Kismet. His live performance of the song "Stranger in Paradise" from Kismet on the Michael Parkinson show was released as a digital download single on June 25, 2007. In August he realised an ambition to record an album of Neopolitan songs which was released in November under the title La Passione. On August 24, 2007 he performed at the Arundel Festival alongside Natasha Marsh. On October 19, 2007 he performed at Canterbury Cathedral during the Canterbury Festival. He also performed at the annual Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on November 10, 2007.

On October 3, 2010 Boe took on the role of Jean Valjean in a concert performance of the musical Les Misérables at the O2 Arena in London to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the show, released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. The concert encore performance of "Bring Him Home", credited as "The Valjean Quartet" — Boe alongside Colm Wilkinson, John Owen-Jones and Simon Bowman (each of whom has portrayed Valjean in various theatrical productions) — was re-recorded at the Abbey Road Studios and released as a charity CD single and digital download on December 13, 2010. On December 16, 2010, Boe once again performed as Valjean in the Royal Variety Performance (in front of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall) singing "What Have I Done?", and also "Bring Him Home" again alongside Wilkinson, Owen-Jones and Bowman.

In January 2011, Boe performed for English National Opera in La bohème and The Mikado. Boe later performed concerts in Idaho, U.S.A. in March. In April, Boe appeared in The Great British Musical - The Famous and the Future at the Criterion Theatre and the St George's Day celebration concert in Trafalgar Square. In May, Boe went on to perform at the Classical BRIT Awards ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall, in the Isle of Man, and then headlined the Hampton Court Palace Festival finale on June 18, 2011.

He appeared as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables at the Queen's Theatre, London, from June 23, 2011 to November 26, 2011. During his run as Valjean, Boe appeared in the "Les Misérables v Lend Me a Tenor Battle of the Tenors" at Soho's Winnett St, London on July 13, 2011. In August, Boe performed with the National Symphony Orchestra at Beau Sejour and Gloucester Hall.

In October 2011 Boe announced that he would be appearing in the Lytham Proms Festival Weekend on August 4, 2012. Tickets went on sale on October 14, 2011. The Festival is held in the town of Lytham St Annes close to his home town of Fleetwood. The local newspaper Blackpool Gazette describes his concert as a 'homecoming' using the title 'Bring HIM Home'.

On June 4, 2012, Boe performed at the Diamond Jubilee Concert for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. He sang "’O sole mio" leading into Elvis Presley's "It's Now Or Never". He also sang, with the American soprano Renee Fleming, "Somewhere" from West Side Story, this performance taking place on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. He appeared on The One Show on August 30, 2012.

Reference: Wikipedia.com

My Ten Favorites Quotes about Love

Image from favimages.com

There are over ten thousand quotes about love and loving in the Web. But the following ten are my favorites. I have a feeling you have your own favorites. I will be glad to hear from you.

1. “There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

2. “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.”
― Alfred Tennyson

3. “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

4. “A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

5. “Love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow complete you.”
― Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby

6. “The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

7. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
― Anonymous, Holy Bible: New International Version

8. “Where there is love there is life.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

9. “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
― Mother Teresa

10. “This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Reference: www.goodreads.com

My Personal Tips for Effective Blogging

So You want to Blog? Here's my personal tips for successful blogging based on my blogging experiences.

When I was in graduate school two decades ago, I attended a two day seminar in how to write effectively. The most important information that I learned from that seminar was to write simply. Another useful information was to make short sentences. The last useful item I learned was try to use the active voice instead of the passive voice when you can. The above three basic information you should follow, if you want to write effectively and be a successful blogger.

I was always wondering whose original ideas were the above. Today,I found it was a quote from George Orwell as follows:

“Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon
word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.”


If you plan on writing a blog, remember that majority of your readers just scan on the information, unless your topic is really interesting. Most readers like to read simple and concise articles, poems or short stories.

Another tip is to check your grammar and spelling. Most readers are turn off on misspellings and glaring errors in grammar. I also learned from my blogging
experiences (I have been blogging since 2008) that articles that deals with sex, politics and religion attract the most page views.

The use of headings, bullets and lists are good and useful. Your list however should not be too long.

When I was still writing for the ViewsHound writing site ( became defunct in December, 2011), I won only two awards out of the sixty articles that I wrote.
The articles that won the awards were my personal experiences ($50-gold award-Childhood experiences during the Japanese-American War in the Philippines) and my wife's personal experiences ($15-bronze award- Extrasensory Perception and Clairvoyance). My two-award winning articles showed that writing informally about your personal experiences, in a conversational style is good and effective.

My other advice to would be bloggers is to write not only to inform but also to entertain. A little humor to your postings will not hurt. Moreover, you should get to the point quickly. Do not write an article that exceeds more than one page if at all possible. After one page, most readers are tired, so unless your article is extremely exciting and controversial, your readers will lost interest.

Last but not least, always try to have an attention getting title to your post. Finally, if you write from the heart, nothing can go wrong! I wish you a Happy Blogging experience!

Marinduque Beloved-An Acrostic Poem

Mt Malindig and Poctoy White Beach

My first attempt to write an acrostic and free style poem about our second home- Marinduque-Beloved. I hope you like it.

M ajestic Mount Malinding and its sulfur springs,
A bundance of fresh sea foods, fruits and vegetables;
R eknowned for its hospitable residents and the Putong
I sland of my dreams and my beloved second home.
N eglected sometimes by its leaders and balikbayans,
D evelopment of its natural resources sometimes butchered.
U nder the guise of political scheming, its residents suffer,
Q uite silence from majority of its residents.
U nity needed, but not attained due to crab mentality,
E manates apathy, indifference retards progress to my Island.

B eyond its borders, former residents are concerned
E very thing in this island paradise I treasured;
L et my dreams of the place be a tourist mecca,
O vershadowed sometimes by enmity and jealousy.
V erdant hills, white sands beaches, panoramic views,
E lixir of my life, my beloved Marinduque,
D reams and goals of my life be a reality soon!

I never claimed to be a poet, so if this poem stinks, I will understand.
The last time I wrote a poem was during my high school days in the 1950's.
Comments, anyone?

Kalutang Playing in Marinduque

Kalutang Ensemble


If you are not from Marinduque, you probably have not heard of the word "Kalutang".
Each of the school children as seen in the video above holds in each hand the end of specially chosen branch of the kwatingan tree found on the island, carefully cut to a specifications.

The banging together of the identical pair of wood on selected points along their length and at specific striking angles produces notes of definite pitches and of tonal quality that remotely resembles a cross between an unsustained marimba and castanets.

Thus, the kalutang belongs to the class of musical instrument that is generally classified as concussion idiophones. These instruments range in size from about ten inches in length and an inch in diameter for the soprano section to 4 feet and a diameter of 6 inches for the bass.

Due to the method used to produce sound, the kalutang bands of Marinduque never uses any additional percussion instruments. The percussion and rhythm have been integrated naturally in the manner and style these peculiar instruments are played according to an article published in the provincial website, www.marinduque.gov.ph