What Christmas is all About

"The Dragon in My Garage" by Carl Sagan

Science: It works

Realpolitik 2

President Aquino today said that the Philippines did not attend the Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremony because it was better for the national interest to go along with China.

"President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III admitted the country did not send a delegate to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring a Chinese democracy activist for the sake of 5 Filipinos on China’s death row.

In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Aquino said “our interest [is] to advance our citizens’ needs first.”"

also

"Aquino also said the country is aiming for a “closure” with China over the August 23 hostage incident, where 8 Hong Kong residents died.

The hostage crisis has caused diplomatic strains between the 2 nations. The Hong Kong government has voiced out its dismay over the “watered down” penalties that those involved have received.

He also said he was concerned for the safety of the Filipinos who may be caught in the tension between North and South Korea.

China earlier offered to mediate between the 2 Korean peninsulas. China is an ally of North Korea."

At least it's not that bullshit about the ambassador not having the time to attend. Personally, I think it was the right decision, it was a shitty decision, but it was the right one when we look at it from the perspective of the Philippine's national interest.

Credibility

The Nashman makes the point that we lost credibility regarding our advocacy with other ASEAN countries on the issue of Human Rights with our non attendance in the Nobel Peace Price awarding.

You should really read his post.

Stupid Excuse

The Philippine Government denies that it did not attend the awarding ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Ambassador (Elizabeth) Buensuceso’s trip to Denmark has long been arranged even before the identity of the recipient for this year‘s Nobel Peace Prize was known,” Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ed Malaya told reporters in Malacañang.

“We do not think there is any connection,” Malaya said.

But if you look at the Philippine Embassy's staff in Oslo, aside from Ambassador Buensuceso, there is also a Minister and Consul General, and a Third Secretary and Vice Consul. The invitations for the awarding ceremony (I assume) is not addressed personally to the ambassador but to the Philippines. If the ambassador cannot make it, then somebody from the embassy can represent the Philippines in her stead. Instead, we turned down the invitation.

I would rather the Philippine government tell us that we would rather not be in China's black list at this point in time rather than trying to feed us this bullshit. At least with the truth, I can be reassured that they are trying to protect the interest of the Philippines.

p.s.

Had this brainwave after finishing the post, maybe this is still realpolitik, the Philippine government does not want to embarrass China by admitting that it bullies weak governments so they are using this blatantly stupid excuse.

Not rejecting god

a comment from reddit

"First, as an atheist, I am not "rejecting something important like god." I am simply not going to entertain stupid ideas.

Second, not entertaining stupid ideas isn't a huge deal for me. I do it all the time."

Realpolitik

"refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than ideological notions or moralistic or ethical premises. In this respect, it shares aspects of its philosophical approach with those of realism and pragmatism." - wikipedia

I voted for President Aquino because I hoped that he will be administer our country with principles. I realize that practical politics will make it hard for him or any president to do such a thing but I am still disappointed when they do it.

Today I learned that the Philippines will not attend the awarding ceremony for the Nobel Peace prize probably because of pressure from China

Beijing has urged diplomats in Oslo to stay away from the event, warning of "consequences" if they go.

Several of those who have turned down invitations are long-term allies or trade partners. The full list comprises Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco.

The sad thing is that the winner, Liu Xiabao, is jailed because of his pro democracy activities. If there is one thing this President should be supporting, is pro-democracy activists. I realize that China is a power that we as a country can ill afford to antagonize, but sometimes principles should stand for something.

Is Your Internet Safe?

Some points to ponder from this guy

Whatever you think of WikiLeaks, the actions by both Amazon Web Services and Tableau Software have revealed that they are willing to withdraw service from a customer without receiving a legal challenge and without investigation or recourse, and to spin it as a "terms of service" issue. It informs us as customers of web services and cloud computing services that we are never safe from intentional outages when the business interests of our host are challenged.

As our business activities (hosted on our behalf) and our software freedoms (mediated through hosted communities) increasingly become dependent on the unassailable business judgement of unseen others, we do well to consider whether we need to take those capabilities away from their single points of failure and instead use peer-to-peer services instead of relying on a centralised provider.

Wikileaks and The Pirate Bay similarly stress the uncomfortable weaknesses in our various democracies. We see legislators denounce the medium, attack the messenger and attempt to legislate against both rather than engaging in the root-and-branch reform necessary for the meshed society of the Internet age. We will doubtless see new laws proposed which, in the name of stopping leaks, remove the freedoms of citizens to engage in the meshed Internet.

Positive Attitude (xkcd)

This is how I feel when I am sick and people keep repeating that positive attitude nonsense.