Sunday, July 20, 2008

Look Ma, Some Changes!

As you've noticed, I've already implemented some changes in the layout of my Blogger and Multiply sites. You can give comments about the said changes or suggest things on how I can improve the layouts.

Also, I plan to have a separate blog specifically for discussing anything anime... I already made one but decided to hold the publishing of the blog since I'm not yet satisfied and confident about the layout and other stuff. But I'll definitely post it in the coming days. For the mean time, I'll brush up on basic HTML coding and study basic CSS to kill time.

Friday, July 18, 2008

The Changes Start: Online Changes

I remember mentioning about the changes that will happen to me this semester. Part of those changes will be on my online "identities": my Blogger blog and Multiply account.

Because of so much free time this semester, I might try to make some more major changes in both my Multiply site and my Blogger account. It has been a while since I posted on this blog and made some changes in my Multiply site. I also want to give some updates about my status in life after the sudden changes and adjustments after May 31, so I will post some entries from time to time. I will also update myself about the happenings in and out of UP through my former colleagues' Multiply blogs.

As for the changes I made in my Blogger account, I changed my profile a bit, including my picture, plus added more details such as favorite movies and books (which I just copied from my Friendster account). I'll try to use another template and background if my free time and little money still permits (I still rent because I don't have my own internet connection). Also, as an added income-generating scheme, I subscribed to Google AdSense, so you'll see an ad at the bottom of my blog. Just in case you're curious about the ad, please click on it so that I can have some moolah ^__^.

Well, so much for the information. After this I'll still tweak on my accounts a bit before doing what I do all the time: downloading anime :p

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Poor Thing: UP Closed to Brightest of the Poor

This letter by Dr. Noli Reyes of the Institute of the Mathematics in UP Diliman was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on June 20, 2008, and in turn posted by Tina Bargo on her Multiply site (the title link of this post). I was really alarmed and troubled about the situation in UP so I decided to post the letter.

To all UP students and alumni, please read this and be concerned....

UP closed to brightest of poor

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:46:00 06/20/2008


On the third day of classes in the hundredth year of the University ofthe Philippines (UP), a freshman from Cotabato province, a Chemistry major at UP in Diliman, Quezon City, had to drop out. Together with his father, the brokenhearted young man went to see each of his instructors to have his subjects invalidated.

While his Math 17 instructor was deleting his name from the class list,I could see the poverty, desperation, anger and sense of resignation intheir faces. It was not the disappointment of winning the lottery andbeing denied the prize later. The young man is a member of a minority group in Mindanao. Without any connections and in the absence of anysocialized admission policy, he qualified as a freshman in the Collegeof Science of UP Diliman, a distinction he earned through intelligence,pure hard work and perseverance amid poverty. But in a few days, father and son are going back to Mindanao for good.

The father explained they could not afford the "socialized"tuition at P600 per unit for students in Bracket C, families whoseannual incomes range from P135,001 to P500,000 per annum. The father andson expected to be in Bracket D, families with annual incomes ranging from P80,001 to P135,000. Students in bracket D pay P300 per unit.

UP president Emerlinda Roman seems to be disconnected from reality, orshe must be fooling herself by insisting that the new Socialized Tuitionand Financial Assistance Program (STFAP) is fair and proper for an"iskolar ng bayan" [scholar of the nation]. Her family shouldtry living on P6,666.75 a month (which when multiplied by 12—the number of months in a year—equals P80,001, the lower bound ofBracket D incomes).

UP, no longer conscious of its role in society, chooses to ignore the long-term impact of offering greater genuine educational opportunities to the brightest among the poor, who are getting poorer amid the reported economic gains of the country. Socialized admission and tuition fee schemes do not lower academic standards. I've had countless students from public schools and far-flung provinces. They come to UP not as well prepared as their counterparts from the best schools in Metro Manila. But many later outshine the sometimes overconfident Manila-raised kids.

After the new STFAP took effect last year, UP is no longer an option forthe brightest among the poor. I agree with the cab driver whose daughter qualified for UP Diliman, as narrated in Youngblood (Inquirer, 3/24/08) by Mariel Kierulf Asiddao, a UP Mass Communication student. The cab driver insisted it was ESTIFAK and not STFAP.

NOLI N. REYES, professor, Institute of Mathematics, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City