Your Sexy Brazilian Name Is

Rafael Carvalho

What's Your Sexy Brazilian Name?

have been feeling under the weather the past week and i've been getting quite irritable. hot rainy weather and strong airconditioning don't mix. i just want it to rain and rain and rain. yung sobrang lakas, siguro tapos mag-brobrownout at sobrang hangin.

Magic of Film

All great forms of art make you want to be a better person afterwards. Something to this effect is what Oprah once said.

I find that if I want to quote a source that will have 'authority' over other family members like my mom, Oprah ranks pretty high on the authority list, along with Rushdie & Nelson Mandela.

Here's an interesting article today on Marilouz Diaz-Abaya. She says encouraging things about the Filipino film industry, and the opportunities that are there to be grasped. Story linked here

teaching development economics

Jeffrey Sachs makes an interesting comment about how economics is taught to students. This is an excerpt from a recent interview found
here

Emphasis added in the article is mine.

The End of Poverty: An Interview with Jeffrey Sachs
Interviewed By Onnesha Roychoudhuri

MJ: Now you suggest in your book that we need to assess ailing economies just as doctors assess patients. You call it "clinical economics." Does the current academic curriculum for development economics provide a sufficient framework for educating people to ensure that the MDGs will be achieved by future economists?

JS: No it doesn't. I realized 10 or 15 years ago that the students in economics departments write dissertations about countries that they never stepped foot in because their advisor gives them a database from Nigeria or Kenya or some place else, and they do their thesis that way. That's like becoming a doctor without ever seeing a patient. We don't do case studies. We don't train students to understand the differences across countries. There are a tremendous number of loose generalizations made all the time

Similarly, people aren't trained in the practical experiences of being operational. Sometimes people say, "We teach academic things, we don't teach operational things." But, frankly, to do development right, you have to do something that's more like going through medical school and having a clinical hospital where you actually learn about different cases, and do case analyses. When something goes wrong, you study it. There are what are called "M&M rounds" in hospitals—morbidity and mortality rounds. When something doesn't work, when a patient dies or doesn't get better, the doctors get together to discuss the case. We don't do that in academic economics. For me, the field is not properly organized right now to really take on these challenges adequately and I'm hoping that the field will become more like a clinical science.

Fake Feedback

Here's an e-mail I wrote to Inq7.net

Dear Editor,

I just want to bring to your attention the misuse of the term target
in your article, "Finance sees budget gap below target with new VAT
law".

You quote Finance Secretary Purisma as saying:=20

"I'm confident that with this measure, we're going to beat the target
and come up with a lower deficit (this year)."

In the context of the article, the main point being communicated is
that the VAT law may cause the deficit to be below the ceiling amount
that government has set.

Strictly speaking one doesn't aim to "beat the target", because a
target represents the ideal value, more or less of which would be less
than ideal. A target is like the center of a dartboard. Whether or not
you hit above or below the bullseye, it still isn't as good as if the
center had been hit in the first place.

One can exceed expectations, surpass goals, but one doesn't beat targets.

Thus, your article title more appropriately should read as, "Finance
see budget gap beneath ceiling with new VAT law." In its present form,
one can interpret the headline as a negative development, one being
'below target', which is the opposite of what is expressed in the
article.

- Fabian Mangahas

* * *

I e-mailed this to money@inq7.net which is the posted e-mail address for writing the editor. Guess what I got in return not 5 seconds after e-mailing? This:

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at inq7interactive.net.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

:
Sorry, no mailbox here by that name. (#5.1.1)

--- Below this line is a copy of the message.

This might be part of the reason why the quality of writing on their site is such.

i took a test. is this true? hmm

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.

In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored.

You'd like to your lover to think you are optimistic and happy.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic.

Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.

Your risk of cheating is 100%. You are not suited for a monogamous relationship.

You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.

In this moment, you think of love as something you can get or discard anytime. You're feeling self centered.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

gym adventures

wait a minute, that title sounded like something off a porn story. but why should i change it right? today, after a 2 day hiatus i went back to lovely Fitness World down the road (5 min walk away). Everybody there greets me and smiles so I always get a good vibe when I'm there.

I did the usual 24 min cardio (rotating between the 8.5 and 10 pace, gym ppl you know what im talking about), and resistance training bit, and decided to try this (old) class, Body Combat.

Body Combat. I was laughing inside for the first 5 mins. I guess I should be thankful of the training I got last year for a few weeks under the tutelage of Jun Delmo, who revamped our mountaineering workouts and gave us some 'kick, punch jab kick' body combat style training. The funny part was seeing ur awkward self in the mirrors but also images of Elmer 'eulogio' complaining and insisting on his lack of coordination. I don't have much gumption yet to shout 'HA' during the workouts though. But it got better as the class went on. Spinning is still more intense.

i'm half-way through Jeffrey Sachs book Ending Poverty. His case studies on Bolivia, Poland, Russia,Africa etc. contain some interesting bits that one use when considering a 'clinical diagnosis' of the state of the Philippine economy.

Gica is getting her hair colored!

Bangkok - Day 20

my routine here is to work out and read, and so far it's turned out pretty well. i've been enjoying some yoga sessions and also completed Chabon's Kavalier & Clay book, that I've been wanting to finish for ages. I think I will look back at this summer as one that is idyllic, at least on the surface. Once one approaches a certain age, a sense of idyll is forever lost, that is, if you want to remain human. I think my seventeenth summer was the last real one. i have a pile of books to read and i'll have to take them home. my suitcase is gonna be bulging.

so today we went to world trade center to do a little book shopping, which is a good thing, since I've been making it a project to get mom to buy me Ishiguro's latest offering (success, he he). Also managed to get Kel the Marketing and Music book that he wanted. Wow, Kel is wanting to buy books now. *Change* We went to Asia Books and Kinokuniya.

I had a sweet Lassi yoghurt drink before heading home. do you know how much sugar they put into those things? damn. never realized THAT much no wonder it's so goood.

funny coincidence today. the cab we took home from central world plaza was the EXACT same driver who took me home at 2 in the morning from Silom last week. he knew me, and i thought it was funny. he insisted for 5 minutes though that we don't use the meter to which i kept on saying: if u dont put on the meter, we're getting down. i was damn firm. ha ha. anyway, he relented. this driver was so frigging un-Thai (ok, am i gonna start Thai bashing again? I'm not! Anyway, I've met so many nice Thai people lately). Why was he so un-Thai? Coz he was so chummy and 'familiar'. I realize that I hate people who try to be familiar with me when I'm not in the mood. Ok, I don't like scammers to be chummy. He didn't have to tap me on the side before I got down the cab. Yo. MY PERSONAL SPACE brotha. "See you next week." Is what I said in my most ironic tone. It didn't translate of course.

i have about 10 days left here. Gica is homesick for Manila already. Means that I better finish my shopping soon. I'm already making a neat pile of things that I'm gonna have to bring home. I'm gonna be bringing home some sharp STEAK KNIVES to carve up our meat well.

Mahar, we got ur into the woods DVD ;)