Posts published during December, 2009
November 08, 2009. After having lunch at Itaewon, Seoul, our tour guide brought us to a “Korean Folk Village” theme park forty minutes away in the city of Yongin in Gyeonggi, South Korea. The folk village is actually an artificial recreation of Korean folk villages that showcase traditional Korean life and culture. It was apparently built partly as a way of preserving, albeit artificially, the traditional way of life in Korea in the midst of its rapid economic growth and modernization. The park is divided into different areas featuring different types of Korean homes and communities, from farm villages, to landlord’s courtyards to traditional marketplaces. The park also features live “actors” playing the role of traditional Korean folk villagers going about “normal” everyday routines, from cooking to farming. To be fair enough, the entire recreation of the folk village was highly realistic.
Some areas also feature shows that showcase traditional Korean ceremonies from weddings to dances. Since it was drizzling that afternoon, the traditional wedding reenactment show was canceled. We were able to witness, on the other hand, a show featuring horsemen doing acrobatics with their horses. It was pretty cool.
Our household has been on SkyBroadband for more than a month now. When we were still thinking about it, I had a difficult time looking for customer feedback on the internet. The only reviews I encountered were hundreds of negative feedback on the comments section of a popular Filipino tech blog. I doubted if the feedbacks were impartial and fair, I actually felt like they were paid trolls from rival ISP’s. I mean, it can’t be that bad for everyone. So here’s my contribution to the pool of reviews.
We are on Sky’s Plan 6mbps. It’s relatively expensive at P3,999 a month, which includes the internet connection, semi-premium cable TV subscription and 100 minutes of free calls to the US and Canada.
Here are the results of my SpeedTest tests. For impartial results, I selected test servers overseas. If you use test servers hosted by SkyBroadband, of course you’ll get impressive results since you’re testing with your own ISP. If you use other test servers in the Philippines, they’ll actually even be slower than overseas servers since they’re your ISP’s competition. Here are my results:
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A cornerstone principle and bedrock of our 1987 Constitution is that the Philippines is a republican and democratic state. One of the hallmarks of democracy is the people’s right to vote, a basic right upon which the fabric of any democracy is founded.
Last October 29, 2009, Kabataan Partylist, together with youth leaders from various organizations, along with prospective first-time voters, went to the Supreme Court to file a petition that, if granted by the Court, would urge the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to resume the registration of voters until January 9, 2010 from its self-imposed deadline of October 31, 2009.
The petition was based on two legal arguments. First, the October 31 deadline of the COMELEC is seventy (70) days short of the deadline prescribed by law under the Voters Registration Act of 1996. Second, for effectively amending the law by setting the deadline prior to the prescribed date, COMELEC usurped the legislative power of Congress.
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November 8, 2009. We were booked on a half-day city tour of Seoul. I used to say I’m not a fan of packaged group tour itineraries. I still do. I dislike the feeling of being limited by a schedule or a route prepared by some other person. To make things a little more unpleasant, it was raining the entire morning in Seoul.
Our first destination was a Buddhist temple in the center of Seoul called Chogyesa. The temple, although relatively new compared to other temples having been built only in 1910, plays a major role in Korean Buddhism. It was the headquarters of Korean Buddhism during the Japanese occupation. Because it is within the city center of Seoul, the temple is more accessible to tourists and devotees than other temples in Korea, although that would also mean it doesn’t offer as serene an atmosphere for genuine meditation perhaps.
Geongbokgung is like the Forbidden City of Beijing, only smaller, but large nonetheless. It’s the grandest among the “five palaces” complex built by Korea’s Joseon Dynasty. It used to house the royal family of Korea. One of Seoul’s most famous tourist destinations, hordes of tourists were still present despite the rain. Visitors are supposed to witness an hourly changing-of-the-guards ceremony but since it was drizzling, the show was canceled. Our trip to Geongbokgung was capped by a visit to the National Folk Museum within the same complex.
One of the things I really dislike about packaged tour itineraries is that they always include a trip to a commercial tourist trap. In places my family has visited like Hong Kong, Beijing and Singapore and I’m sure in many other East Asian cities, these commercial tourist traps are either jewelry stores or herbal medicine shops (which includes tea stores). In Seoul, we were herded to a ginseng complex. And like all other tourist traps like it, the trip was complete with sales people talking you into buying expensive “exclusive” merchandise.
The group tour incuded lunch at a restaurant in Itaewon, still in Seoul. After having another Korean meal, we broke off from the group tour and went to another tour, this time to a Korean folk village theme park around an hour away from the city.
The way the Arroyo administration is stretching the meaning of “rebellion” is utterly absurd. If this is allowed, we’re making possible a bizarre scenario where the Arroyo administration may connive with its many warlord allies across the country to stage any “massing of arms” in order to justify a nationwide declaration of martial law as they near the day they are booted out of office in the 2010 elections. A few days ago, the Defense Secretary came up with an odd press release revealing something we’ve known all along anyway–that there are private armies all over the country. Suddenly, the government claims Ampatuan supporters have arrived in Manila. Then arms and a grenade are discovered near the NBI in Manila. They’re clearly beginning to sow the seeds of justifying a nationwide declaration. All they need is to stage another shocking performance.
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law student, film school graduate, student leader, youth activist, Kabataan Partylist legislative officer