Unless you have a brain more shutoff from the outside world than a North Korean prisoner, you might have heard of the not so recent news of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. After several unsuccessful attempts at trying to plug the leaking oil fountain, responsible party British Petroleum (BP) has pretty much run out of ideas and is basically saying "it'll run out anyway so fuck it". Now, the threat is spreading, threatening to enroach the coastal cities of the US and turning them into desolate wastelands. For the first time in years, people are worrying about something other than illegal immigrants, which is good for the immigrants, but bad for the immigrants coming in by sea.
(more)
Reports say that the US government's EPA has gone so far as asking James Cameron for ideas on how to seal the well off, in a bizarre case of life immitating South Park. (see Imaginationland episode) This kinda marks a new level of desperation. It's almost a crazy movie plot in the making - "Guy who made blockbuster movie about humans drilling for minerals in an alien planet is asked to help humans drilling for oil on earth." As for credentials, James Cameron has made disaster films before, and as for handling really terrible things, he has worked with Kate Winslet.
Anyway, I think this is one of the few occassions that we, the underdog Filipinos might be the solution they are looking for. Fuck James Cameron, PINOY PRIDE REPRESENT!
Here are three ways to make things disappear in this country:
1. Clean it up.
Oil is hard to clean up. Even if people say we are a nation of maids, let's face it, we're not exactly the best in cleaning bodies of water. We CAN'T even make our tap water clean enough to drink. Drinking tap nowadays has become an extreme sport 10x deadlier than skydiving. (at least in skydiving, if you screw up, you won't end up shitting yourself inside out over the course of 2 weeks. Death will be short and swift) We put POTA in potable.
2. Bury it
While this works for political scenarios and Ping Lacson in general, oil isn't exactly something you can salvage and bury somewhere in Laguna, never to be found until the next Presidential Administration. This is not the way to go.
3. Tell one Filipino it's free.
Bingo.
We don't even need a large budget for it. Just tell one Juan Pedro that there's free crude oil in the middle of the gulf and maybe even put a signage floating in the middle of the fucking ocean and just wait for it. News will spread faster than Hayden Kho scandal videos. We're Filipinos. Free shit is what drives us. You wait three months and we'd practically have built a new floating country on top of the "free oil" complete with a logistics networks that will enable Flips to send the damn oil to their kabayans 13,000 kilometers away using nothing but balikbayan boxes and pedicabs configured for water transportation. A few days later and we'd have suck the shit out of that well. We may be third world, but when it comes to exploiting freebies, every Filipino turns into a rocket scientist.
Problem f'ing solved.
Now we just have to wait for their call.
What Went Wrong
Thursday, June 03, 2010
I'd like to restart this blog by putting a closure on the most recent chapter of my life. Visitors of this site may have noticed that for the last few months (or better part of this year anyway) I really haven't been putting any real effort in updating regularly. That's because I simply did not have either the time or energy to put anything worth reading here. I've always looked at my blog as a place where I can practice my writing by putting my best ideas up in published form so I can read up on them again after I've forgotten what I've written about.
In other words, the primary audience of the blog is me, six months later. If I feel that I'm in no condition to write anything that will be worth reading by my standards, I will not write anything, on the grounds that the future me will cease to be impressed and throw a time travelling chokeslam at me that will render me unable to read my own writing. (See Wikipedia: Chokeslam Paradox; the effects of)
Anyway, here's a short account of what happened with my previous work:
August 2009, my immediate supervisor, Ryan was removed from his position without being given due process. We protested as a team, and was largely ignored. Upper management asked if I wanted to take on his position and if I could. I told them sure, but it's going to be tough. I was assured of a title adjustment and a salary adjustment starting September. I wanted to become a manager and have been training for it, but admittedly, this happened too soon. Hoping to learn on the job, I agreed. Seriously, who doesn't want a bitchin' Section Manager title? So far, so good. (as a note though, even though the adjustment didn't become effective at once, my overtime perk was canceled on the spot. In other words, my salary actually dropped)
Before Ryan left, we did a review of our team for the appraisals. We did our best to create a symmetric bell curve distribution with average and above/below average performers. We gave these results to the team and they were largely happy with the results.
September 2009, The final copy of the ratings was reviewed by HR and upper management. The scores provided by Ryan and me were translated into another scoring system that basically ranked everybody down. In the end, despite our team being one of the most profitable in the company, we got the lowest average score. I personally got an F from a scale of A-H, with A being the highest. And my result is already above average. During the HR review, people were given verbal notices of lack of performance, sometimes exaggerated, sometimes unsubstantiated, and generally depressing. Those lucky enough to get any adjustment got paltry sums not even higher than 1000 pesos per month. (I got 300 peso increase. That's 15 pesos a day. I call it MRT subsidy. Everybody calls it bullshit.)
I talk to management and tell them the team has been demoralized. I explained the error in computing the results. Management admits their mistake, but tells me it's all a done deal so nothing can be done, and that they'll do better next year. (hint: as of writing there isn't even a plan for appraisals yet, which should start this month) I tell them people will leave the company if it does not get corrected. Management replies by promising the realignment/promotion that will come AFTER the appraisals. A comment was made that for those who don't like how things are done, they are free to leave. Seeing that we're not exactly the most overstaffed team in the world, I found the idea ridiculous.
November 2009, nothing happens. I now directly report to the Department Manager Christine, with whom I share inherited tasks from Ryan. More work comes from the client, and requests for additional staff to replace our losses from Ryan's departure are turned down, because we could not maximize staff utilization. (I can explain long and hard here why the utilization metrics is just as flawed, but just take my word for it: it's stupid, and our management actually agreed to it at the beginning of our contract with our client)
December 2009, Management decides to boot Christine from the team as well, to be replaced by Jun, some newcomer who already got rejected by the other team. He promises to turn around our low utilization metrics and upper management falls in love immediately. Once again, we beg that Christine be retained for her familiarity with the client. The protest falls into deaf ears. (at this point, you get the pattern. I won't mention protests as much as possible as I kinda did those every bloody step of the way anyway). I've long suspected that upper management has intended to clean the team of the original management to reduce resistance to their administration so this may be yet another sign. With Christine gone, my last semblance of upper authority vanished.
Personally, I regard Jun as the typical clueless management who will have to be babysitted by those under him since he practically knows nothing about how we do our work. To be fair with him, no matter who they placed in lieu of Christine, I'd have the same opinion.
Before the end of the month, Cristian, one of our best developers, finally resigns on grounds of a really bad appraisal coupled with allegations of negative client reviews, despite the fact that we've had very positive feedback from the client about him (hint: upper management lied, and as far as our theory goes, it's to justify the abysmal salary increases)
January 2010, Jun finally enters the picture. I tell him I have no reason to trust him unless he proves himself useful by fixing the demoralized staff and the billing system. Kenneth, my VB counterpart also resigns, citing the same reasons as Cristian. Jun's recommendation pushes our requests for new staff through, although he later recants the request on the idea that he wants to conduct lateral hiring first to tap into the resources of the other team which until then was not earning as a unit. Two developers are added from the other team, Will and Antz. We also get one developer trainee, Jared. Antz was immediately attached to a special project so we only have Will to replace the manpower lost so far. (mostly from my drop in throughput in development due to management tasks) These additional people had to be trained by the existing, already overloaded staff.
On top of my tasks, I am now burdened with supporting Jun's need to know about the operations, and the tasks Christine used to perform were passed on to me because Jun will also be handling Malaysia and Thailand operations on top of ours.
To recap, upper management took off two of my superiors, demoralized my team, and gave me a manager that I have to "train".
The adjustment/promotion promised sometime last august never materializes, except for the release of the org chart. My title as section manager is adjusted to team leader, which to my understanding is the equivalent of Lead Analyst from our old chart. My responsibilities have not only stayed the same, it also grew since I still could not abandon my Lead Analyst roles on top of my new Section Manager roles. I start dialogues regarding my job description and the promised salary adjustment, although I put priority in the former. I was given the description of the Team Lead role, and it had nothing about project management, which is the bulk of my responsibilities. I ask for a description of the Project Manager role, wich is the role higher than my current. HR replies that it is not yet ready.
Jun "fixes" the billing by moving the job titles of the people "up" but only for billing purposes. Developers are billed as senior developers, without any promotion on the employee's side. Meanwhile, the client starts expecting the developers to act like seniors, putting more pressure to the staff for zero motivation. Still, I call this acceptable and say that I'll be more cooperative from that point on.
February 2010, Bryan resigns from the team, bringing the total number of VB developers in our group down to 1 compared to 5 last year (including Ryan). It's interesting that sometime late last year, upper management threatened to nuke the entire team if they performed badly (they never did). More restrictions are put into place.
March 2010, Alvin and Rhen, two of our Java developers signal that the resignations are now affecting the Java subgroup as well. I implore Jun and upper management to attempt to reverse their decisions, which the two say are still open for negotiations. I make an ultimatum that if the two leave, we will have reached Peak Loading for the team, and any new staff can no longer be trained as replacement due to the heavy loads of existing teams. Jun simply says that hiring is slower than expected and there's nothing we can do about it.
Marock, another developer, also files for resignation. With Rhen, Marock and Alvin resigning, the only staff left for one of our more specialized project groups is reduced from four to one in a matter of weeks.
No new hires could be given in time for transferring the knowledge of the three to new people. Meanwhile, upper management considers the drop in efficiency of the team as unexpected and unacceptable. Management dictates that the team is now required to fill out laborious effort reports every day on top of their duties, to make sure everybody is productive. Irony abound.
Gnet, one of our seniors is asked by Jun to go to the client site to become an embedded analyst. No replacements can be found for her roles. The plan pushes through anyway.
Management finally hears my complaints out after I start sending more demanding emails. They give me an adjustment, about 25% of the expected amount. The retropayment starting August never comes, and I was told I now owe the company a favor for it because they don't usually do that sort of thing (hint: they do). No other teammates get adjustments. My roles are still not on paper and my job description remains unchanged. Upon talking to Jun, he proposes to give me a special "team lead" classification that will contain project management roles, and it will be on paper, although the paper can't be used for public purposes. (in other words, we'll play a game of pretend-you're-a-manager)
April 2010, the entire QA department is dissolved in exchange for a smaller group, and a QC subteam is formed in our team comprising of the former QA members. I become their immediate superior as well. I plan for the QC team to help in analyst work on the grounds that they will no longer serve as QC for outsourced projects from other vendors. That will let developers do what they do best. The client agrees, but reverses the decision afterwards. (so in effect, no effort can be obtained from the new members, and I have more responsibilities now) I request for the addition of the former lead into the team to prevent the further ballooning of my roles, but the QA head does not approve and retains the lead in the new independent QA team.
Jun, probably scared that I am already holding too much responsibility to fail, answers my calls for new staff by proposing to add a new project manager to the team. I will be the technical lead and the new PM will handle the management roles, directly against what I agreed upon with upper management. I disagree to this and ask if the new PM can perform as a senior dev instead. Request declined. I raise the possibility of promoting the senior staff instead. Once again, declined.
By April, the critical load scenario happens. Staff resign without achieving the required 80% knowledge transfer completion. Knowledge transfer eats up productivity and the QC team reintegration further hampers progress. Some projects are dropped wholesale. Management still refuses to acknowledge the bleeding of the team and is furious at the drop of billable hours.
This is the point that I decide that there simply is nothing I can hope for in the company.
1. I am no longer getting promoted. It is already clear that the Project Manager role is reserved to some other person by Jun (who turns out to be the guy responsible for fixing/breaking job descriptions). The threat of demotion is not only demoralizing, it is also a clear sign that I basically have no future in the company despite my overall cooperativeness and significance.
2. Sustaining the team is impossible at this point. The bleeding of the staff has gone beyond the point where it is still possible to conserve team knowledge by transferring information from the leaving employees to new and exsiting ones. In the long run, the operation is bound to collapse and I simply did not want to stay long enough to see 5 years of my work ruined by really bad management calls.
3. My role is already overloaded. Adding a new manager on top of me will simply add more responsibility as secretary of the manager specially since it is impossible to find a manager who is already familiar to the process and whoever is added will have to be groomed by no one other than myself. (I asked Ryan if he could return. He declined ardently) Why would I keep on working for an ever increasing load when I am not getting paid or promoted for it?
4. The company gave its word and blatantly disregarded it. Over and over again with no expression of regret or remorse. I simply cannot work for a company I cannot trust. Not when there are alternatives are available.
Ironically, the day I resigned, Jun claimed that he has the updated job description ready. I kinda waited for more than half a year for that, and quite frankly, I don't really believe it will be anything satisfying. Meanwhile, policies continue to be more draconian every passing day. Just before I left, cameras were installed all over the office, internet was cut off, and the management tracking reports just got more comprehensive.
For the duration of my last 30 days, upper management ceases communication with me. Not a single effort is made in attempting to retain me. The only time management actually talked about it was when I was happy drinking the night away during the outing, and a drunk manager talked to me about it. Of the record. Talk about buzzkill. On the other hand, the client was kind enough to make certain incentives for me to stay, which I simply could not accept given the nature of the proposal. Meanwhile, every person resigning on the other team gets a counter offer, regardless of tenure. Personally I find that insulting.
Hazel, the next most knowledgeable person in a lot of projects, resigned three weeks after I did. The client thinks it's because I resigned. If ever that's the case, given what happened, it's definitely not only the reason.
A lot of the finer details were not mentioned in this account, and suffice to say this account should not be taken as bible truth. It is heavily biased on my perspective, which may be missing or misrepresenting some details. If ever, these mistakes are not done intentionally and I tried to keep the account as objective as possible.
As for my overall opinion of what happened, it's simply heartbreaking that I had to abandon a work that I thought would be my work for a very long time. Pragmatically speaking, however, the cost benefit of staying simply is no longer worth it. I do not have "Saint" before my name and I have no plans of having one added anytime soon, so I ditched the martyr 's role. Work is still business, and I will hold no grudge on anybody anymore. If ever there's something people can bank on when dealing with my personality, I have a bad memory when it comes to transgression and I'm really bad in keeping ill will alive for a long time.
I think what happened is just a case of management simply losing a real perspective of what's going on under them. I won't say that things would've changed if this and that didn't or did happen, because realistically speaking, it takes years to form the judgment of a manager, which will be used to determine how they react to things. To ask a manager to change the call that he made would be to ask him to change his entire thinking paradigm. So what happened simply happened because they did. Best case scenario, management learns from the experience, the company survives, and the team can be rebuilt into a more robust architecture.
Worst case scenario will always be what happens to things that cannot evolve: extinction
All this is behind me now, save for a few calls from the team for technical assistance. I have new work, a new project, and a lot of things to do (like updating this blog) and hopefully with a bit more knowledge on what should and should not be part of sound management practices.
Whew. Now that that's done, ON WITH THE SHOW.
In other words, the primary audience of the blog is me, six months later. If I feel that I'm in no condition to write anything that will be worth reading by my standards, I will not write anything, on the grounds that the future me will cease to be impressed and throw a time travelling chokeslam at me that will render me unable to read my own writing. (See Wikipedia: Chokeslam Paradox; the effects of)
Anyway, here's a short account of what happened with my previous work:
August 2009, my immediate supervisor, Ryan was removed from his position without being given due process. We protested as a team, and was largely ignored. Upper management asked if I wanted to take on his position and if I could. I told them sure, but it's going to be tough. I was assured of a title adjustment and a salary adjustment starting September. I wanted to become a manager and have been training for it, but admittedly, this happened too soon. Hoping to learn on the job, I agreed. Seriously, who doesn't want a bitchin' Section Manager title? So far, so good. (as a note though, even though the adjustment didn't become effective at once, my overtime perk was canceled on the spot. In other words, my salary actually dropped)
Before Ryan left, we did a review of our team for the appraisals. We did our best to create a symmetric bell curve distribution with average and above/below average performers. We gave these results to the team and they were largely happy with the results.
September 2009, The final copy of the ratings was reviewed by HR and upper management. The scores provided by Ryan and me were translated into another scoring system that basically ranked everybody down. In the end, despite our team being one of the most profitable in the company, we got the lowest average score. I personally got an F from a scale of A-H, with A being the highest. And my result is already above average. During the HR review, people were given verbal notices of lack of performance, sometimes exaggerated, sometimes unsubstantiated, and generally depressing. Those lucky enough to get any adjustment got paltry sums not even higher than 1000 pesos per month. (I got 300 peso increase. That's 15 pesos a day. I call it MRT subsidy. Everybody calls it bullshit.)
I talk to management and tell them the team has been demoralized. I explained the error in computing the results. Management admits their mistake, but tells me it's all a done deal so nothing can be done, and that they'll do better next year. (hint: as of writing there isn't even a plan for appraisals yet, which should start this month) I tell them people will leave the company if it does not get corrected. Management replies by promising the realignment/promotion that will come AFTER the appraisals. A comment was made that for those who don't like how things are done, they are free to leave. Seeing that we're not exactly the most overstaffed team in the world, I found the idea ridiculous.
November 2009, nothing happens. I now directly report to the Department Manager Christine, with whom I share inherited tasks from Ryan. More work comes from the client, and requests for additional staff to replace our losses from Ryan's departure are turned down, because we could not maximize staff utilization. (I can explain long and hard here why the utilization metrics is just as flawed, but just take my word for it: it's stupid, and our management actually agreed to it at the beginning of our contract with our client)
December 2009, Management decides to boot Christine from the team as well, to be replaced by Jun, some newcomer who already got rejected by the other team. He promises to turn around our low utilization metrics and upper management falls in love immediately. Once again, we beg that Christine be retained for her familiarity with the client. The protest falls into deaf ears. (at this point, you get the pattern. I won't mention protests as much as possible as I kinda did those every bloody step of the way anyway). I've long suspected that upper management has intended to clean the team of the original management to reduce resistance to their administration so this may be yet another sign. With Christine gone, my last semblance of upper authority vanished.
Personally, I regard Jun as the typical clueless management who will have to be babysitted by those under him since he practically knows nothing about how we do our work. To be fair with him, no matter who they placed in lieu of Christine, I'd have the same opinion.
Before the end of the month, Cristian, one of our best developers, finally resigns on grounds of a really bad appraisal coupled with allegations of negative client reviews, despite the fact that we've had very positive feedback from the client about him (hint: upper management lied, and as far as our theory goes, it's to justify the abysmal salary increases)
January 2010, Jun finally enters the picture. I tell him I have no reason to trust him unless he proves himself useful by fixing the demoralized staff and the billing system. Kenneth, my VB counterpart also resigns, citing the same reasons as Cristian. Jun's recommendation pushes our requests for new staff through, although he later recants the request on the idea that he wants to conduct lateral hiring first to tap into the resources of the other team which until then was not earning as a unit. Two developers are added from the other team, Will and Antz. We also get one developer trainee, Jared. Antz was immediately attached to a special project so we only have Will to replace the manpower lost so far. (mostly from my drop in throughput in development due to management tasks) These additional people had to be trained by the existing, already overloaded staff.
On top of my tasks, I am now burdened with supporting Jun's need to know about the operations, and the tasks Christine used to perform were passed on to me because Jun will also be handling Malaysia and Thailand operations on top of ours.
To recap, upper management took off two of my superiors, demoralized my team, and gave me a manager that I have to "train".
The adjustment/promotion promised sometime last august never materializes, except for the release of the org chart. My title as section manager is adjusted to team leader, which to my understanding is the equivalent of Lead Analyst from our old chart. My responsibilities have not only stayed the same, it also grew since I still could not abandon my Lead Analyst roles on top of my new Section Manager roles. I start dialogues regarding my job description and the promised salary adjustment, although I put priority in the former. I was given the description of the Team Lead role, and it had nothing about project management, which is the bulk of my responsibilities. I ask for a description of the Project Manager role, wich is the role higher than my current. HR replies that it is not yet ready.
Jun "fixes" the billing by moving the job titles of the people "up" but only for billing purposes. Developers are billed as senior developers, without any promotion on the employee's side. Meanwhile, the client starts expecting the developers to act like seniors, putting more pressure to the staff for zero motivation. Still, I call this acceptable and say that I'll be more cooperative from that point on.
February 2010, Bryan resigns from the team, bringing the total number of VB developers in our group down to 1 compared to 5 last year (including Ryan). It's interesting that sometime late last year, upper management threatened to nuke the entire team if they performed badly (they never did). More restrictions are put into place.
March 2010, Alvin and Rhen, two of our Java developers signal that the resignations are now affecting the Java subgroup as well. I implore Jun and upper management to attempt to reverse their decisions, which the two say are still open for negotiations. I make an ultimatum that if the two leave, we will have reached Peak Loading for the team, and any new staff can no longer be trained as replacement due to the heavy loads of existing teams. Jun simply says that hiring is slower than expected and there's nothing we can do about it.
Marock, another developer, also files for resignation. With Rhen, Marock and Alvin resigning, the only staff left for one of our more specialized project groups is reduced from four to one in a matter of weeks.
No new hires could be given in time for transferring the knowledge of the three to new people. Meanwhile, upper management considers the drop in efficiency of the team as unexpected and unacceptable. Management dictates that the team is now required to fill out laborious effort reports every day on top of their duties, to make sure everybody is productive. Irony abound.
Gnet, one of our seniors is asked by Jun to go to the client site to become an embedded analyst. No replacements can be found for her roles. The plan pushes through anyway.
Management finally hears my complaints out after I start sending more demanding emails. They give me an adjustment, about 25% of the expected amount. The retropayment starting August never comes, and I was told I now owe the company a favor for it because they don't usually do that sort of thing (hint: they do). No other teammates get adjustments. My roles are still not on paper and my job description remains unchanged. Upon talking to Jun, he proposes to give me a special "team lead" classification that will contain project management roles, and it will be on paper, although the paper can't be used for public purposes. (in other words, we'll play a game of pretend-you're-a-manager)
April 2010, the entire QA department is dissolved in exchange for a smaller group, and a QC subteam is formed in our team comprising of the former QA members. I become their immediate superior as well. I plan for the QC team to help in analyst work on the grounds that they will no longer serve as QC for outsourced projects from other vendors. That will let developers do what they do best. The client agrees, but reverses the decision afterwards. (so in effect, no effort can be obtained from the new members, and I have more responsibilities now) I request for the addition of the former lead into the team to prevent the further ballooning of my roles, but the QA head does not approve and retains the lead in the new independent QA team.
Jun, probably scared that I am already holding too much responsibility to fail, answers my calls for new staff by proposing to add a new project manager to the team. I will be the technical lead and the new PM will handle the management roles, directly against what I agreed upon with upper management. I disagree to this and ask if the new PM can perform as a senior dev instead. Request declined. I raise the possibility of promoting the senior staff instead. Once again, declined.
By April, the critical load scenario happens. Staff resign without achieving the required 80% knowledge transfer completion. Knowledge transfer eats up productivity and the QC team reintegration further hampers progress. Some projects are dropped wholesale. Management still refuses to acknowledge the bleeding of the team and is furious at the drop of billable hours.
This is the point that I decide that there simply is nothing I can hope for in the company.
1. I am no longer getting promoted. It is already clear that the Project Manager role is reserved to some other person by Jun (who turns out to be the guy responsible for fixing/breaking job descriptions). The threat of demotion is not only demoralizing, it is also a clear sign that I basically have no future in the company despite my overall cooperativeness and significance.
2. Sustaining the team is impossible at this point. The bleeding of the staff has gone beyond the point where it is still possible to conserve team knowledge by transferring information from the leaving employees to new and exsiting ones. In the long run, the operation is bound to collapse and I simply did not want to stay long enough to see 5 years of my work ruined by really bad management calls.
3. My role is already overloaded. Adding a new manager on top of me will simply add more responsibility as secretary of the manager specially since it is impossible to find a manager who is already familiar to the process and whoever is added will have to be groomed by no one other than myself. (I asked Ryan if he could return. He declined ardently) Why would I keep on working for an ever increasing load when I am not getting paid or promoted for it?
4. The company gave its word and blatantly disregarded it. Over and over again with no expression of regret or remorse. I simply cannot work for a company I cannot trust. Not when there are alternatives are available.
Ironically, the day I resigned, Jun claimed that he has the updated job description ready. I kinda waited for more than half a year for that, and quite frankly, I don't really believe it will be anything satisfying. Meanwhile, policies continue to be more draconian every passing day. Just before I left, cameras were installed all over the office, internet was cut off, and the management tracking reports just got more comprehensive.
For the duration of my last 30 days, upper management ceases communication with me. Not a single effort is made in attempting to retain me. The only time management actually talked about it was when I was happy drinking the night away during the outing, and a drunk manager talked to me about it. Of the record. Talk about buzzkill. On the other hand, the client was kind enough to make certain incentives for me to stay, which I simply could not accept given the nature of the proposal. Meanwhile, every person resigning on the other team gets a counter offer, regardless of tenure. Personally I find that insulting.
Hazel, the next most knowledgeable person in a lot of projects, resigned three weeks after I did. The client thinks it's because I resigned. If ever that's the case, given what happened, it's definitely not only the reason.
A lot of the finer details were not mentioned in this account, and suffice to say this account should not be taken as bible truth. It is heavily biased on my perspective, which may be missing or misrepresenting some details. If ever, these mistakes are not done intentionally and I tried to keep the account as objective as possible.
As for my overall opinion of what happened, it's simply heartbreaking that I had to abandon a work that I thought would be my work for a very long time. Pragmatically speaking, however, the cost benefit of staying simply is no longer worth it. I do not have "Saint" before my name and I have no plans of having one added anytime soon, so I ditched the martyr 's role. Work is still business, and I will hold no grudge on anybody anymore. If ever there's something people can bank on when dealing with my personality, I have a bad memory when it comes to transgression and I'm really bad in keeping ill will alive for a long time.
I think what happened is just a case of management simply losing a real perspective of what's going on under them. I won't say that things would've changed if this and that didn't or did happen, because realistically speaking, it takes years to form the judgment of a manager, which will be used to determine how they react to things. To ask a manager to change the call that he made would be to ask him to change his entire thinking paradigm. So what happened simply happened because they did. Best case scenario, management learns from the experience, the company survives, and the team can be rebuilt into a more robust architecture.
Worst case scenario will always be what happens to things that cannot evolve: extinction
All this is behind me now, save for a few calls from the team for technical assistance. I have new work, a new project, and a lot of things to do (like updating this blog) and hopefully with a bit more knowledge on what should and should not be part of sound management practices.
Whew. Now that that's done, ON WITH THE SHOW.
The Party List System Is A Waste Of Money
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The Party list system was originally conceived as a way to represent minority groups in the congress. The basic idea is that the system is a way of ensuring that those special-interest groups that genuinely require a say, but aren't really localized to a certain region to finally get a chance to have their voice in the congress.
Of course, that's on paper, without taking into account that Filipinos are one of the most politically devious creatures to walk the earth. If it can be exploited, it's all fair game.
Just think about it. Where are the Mangyans Aetas and other minority tribes in the party lists? They're not there. On the other hand, the current roster is filled party lists with ever ambiguous constituents, and easily neither minority nor critically important as far as representation is concerned. Here are a few examples:
Buhay Hayaan Yumabong - BUHAY, A party List representing Life. And while in the history of the Philippines it's understandable that there are more dead Filipinos than those that are currently alive, I don't think the dead people will ever care about the current issues, on account that they are in fact dead and buried somewhere underground.
Gabriela Women's Party - Party List representing Women, a sector representing pretty much 50% of the ENTIRE POPULATION, which is to say anything but minority. The only way this can be justified if we had a Men's Party, and if we call them the Mamamayang Against Corrupt Habang Opisyal (MACHO)
Citizen's Against Corruption - Yet another party list stemming from a religious group, claiming to represent citizens who are against corruption, which to my knowledge, should be about 95% of taxpayers, and pretty much anybody who understands the fact that stealing from the citizens is wrong. Minority? I don't think so buddy.
Bayan Muna - Represents the poor, the masses, the women, and the children. I really don't know about you, but I think the whole "We represent everybody" defeats the idea of representation in the first place. And unless the representatives are poor little girls who happen to be farmers, this party is just mooching off tax money.
Those are just a few. Admittedly there are in fact other parties that have genuine representations. But still.
In the upcoming elections, an even more numerous amount of party lists have joined in, in true spirit of the Filipino "Oh WOW THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT. WE SHOULD TOO" tradition. Even more useless, purposeless, and shady parties have entered the fray, and I won't even go to the whole backdoor Arroyo invasion plan issue here. As a result, we have a ballot that looks a papyrus scroll of the dead, and we have to do a lot more shading than what God would have expected us to.
And here's yet another more annoying fact: Since the list is alphabetically arranged, in true "Wais" fashion, almost all party lists are now named with a letter A at the start, or for 1-Utaks case, even a number. I dread to see the day one of our congress representatives will have a name that starts with an asterisk. Those that couldnt find a good word that starts with A contented themselves with adding the prefix ANG. If we can't even trust these fuckers to fall in line properly, how can we trust them to work for us?
Bottomline? The Party List System is not working, it never worked and it will never work. I say scrap it and let's waste the surplus tax we get in free beers for everybody.
Of course, that's on paper, without taking into account that Filipinos are one of the most politically devious creatures to walk the earth. If it can be exploited, it's all fair game.
Just think about it. Where are the Mangyans Aetas and other minority tribes in the party lists? They're not there. On the other hand, the current roster is filled party lists with ever ambiguous constituents, and easily neither minority nor critically important as far as representation is concerned. Here are a few examples:
Buhay Hayaan Yumabong - BUHAY, A party List representing Life. And while in the history of the Philippines it's understandable that there are more dead Filipinos than those that are currently alive, I don't think the dead people will ever care about the current issues, on account that they are in fact dead and buried somewhere underground.
Gabriela Women's Party - Party List representing Women, a sector representing pretty much 50% of the ENTIRE POPULATION, which is to say anything but minority. The only way this can be justified if we had a Men's Party, and if we call them the Mamamayang Against Corrupt Habang Opisyal (MACHO)
Citizen's Against Corruption - Yet another party list stemming from a religious group, claiming to represent citizens who are against corruption, which to my knowledge, should be about 95% of taxpayers, and pretty much anybody who understands the fact that stealing from the citizens is wrong. Minority? I don't think so buddy.
Bayan Muna - Represents the poor, the masses, the women, and the children. I really don't know about you, but I think the whole "We represent everybody" defeats the idea of representation in the first place. And unless the representatives are poor little girls who happen to be farmers, this party is just mooching off tax money.
Those are just a few. Admittedly there are in fact other parties that have genuine representations. But still.
In the upcoming elections, an even more numerous amount of party lists have joined in, in true spirit of the Filipino "Oh WOW THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT. WE SHOULD TOO" tradition. Even more useless, purposeless, and shady parties have entered the fray, and I won't even go to the whole backdoor Arroyo invasion plan issue here. As a result, we have a ballot that looks a papyrus scroll of the dead, and we have to do a lot more shading than what God would have expected us to.
And here's yet another more annoying fact: Since the list is alphabetically arranged, in true "Wais" fashion, almost all party lists are now named with a letter A at the start, or for 1-Utaks case, even a number. I dread to see the day one of our congress representatives will have a name that starts with an asterisk. Those that couldnt find a good word that starts with A contented themselves with adding the prefix ANG. If we can't even trust these fuckers to fall in line properly, how can we trust them to work for us?
Bottomline? The Party List System is not working, it never worked and it will never work. I say scrap it and let's waste the surplus tax we get in free beers for everybody.
Jay Sonza: Patron Saint of Hopeful Idiots
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
This post is a tribute to Jay Sonza, who by my standards is the one politician who manages to stand out by not actually standing out. In my opinion, he is the true Filipino politician, the representative of the real Filipino.
- Hindi galing sa mahirap, pero mahirap sumuko.
- Hindi nangangakong hindi magnanakaw, pero parang sa sobrang nakakaawa, pagbibigyan mo na rin kumupit kahit onti lang.
- Hindi suportado ng administrasyon, kaya salat sa budget pambili ng peluka.
- Walang seksing first lady, at mukhang hindi na talaga sila magkakatuluyan ni Mel Tianco (sorry to hear that)
Yan si Jay Sonza.
Seriously though. What drives a man who's lead a seemingly successful career in one profession to wake up one morning and say "I'd like to do something different today." and completely go do a 180 degree turn and head for another field where he routinely shits himself and throws away what dignity he saved up all the years of his life?
The man anchored for a really good talk show, when him and Mel still had a good thing going, and he's a broadcast manager for a channel, albeit a somewhat obscure one. The man had a show called PINOY SCANDAL for fucks sake. Any show named after a porn site should be something to watch. Think about that, man. Think about that. (I'm not kidding. Check Wikipedia.)
6 years ago, probably out of shock from the Mel and Jay breakup, Jay Sonza finally broke his greymatter flask and gunned for senator, despite the fact that we only know him as "that" guy Mel Tianco always hangs out with, and ended up as the 41st out of 45 candidates, presumably beating three other candidates that may or may not actually be placeholder pieces of vegetables, and not real people. He did not even garner a top 20 spot in his own FUCKING HOMETOWN. I'm not sure about benchmarking popularity, but if you can't get even your own uncles to vote for you, you got some serious issues to work out.
Fast forward to now, Jay is once again trying to break into the scene (and hilariously). Figuring the only reason he failed before is that he was trying to get elected to a too low position, he aimed for the highest possible position in the land that allows you to be completely lazy and still post a good resume entry for it - Vice President. (Because let's face it, President-in-case-shit isn't exactly demanding, granted the president doesn't die. And since we haven't had a mabait-kaya-kinuha-ni-Lord president since Magsaysay, every VP since has been utterly useless)
Jay is seemingly blindly wandering through the sea of turmoil that is the campaign period without so much as a clue as to how the fuck he can win a vice presidential race - but none of that seems to faze our guy.
Asked in an interview on how he hopes to win, Jay is silently assuming that all those undecided votes are actually just secretly pining for him, coming out during the election day like ninjas that will break everybody's expectations in two.
Okay, maybe not exactly like that, but the jist is basically the same.
Jay Sonza - helpless, but never hopeless.
MRT Ticket Shortage Fun
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Alright listen up.
I have with me a GENUINE RARE STORED VALUE MRT TICKET. March 2010 mint, limited edition, autographed by window cashier. 100 peso face value. Never been used, with faint scent of sweat used to acquire this darling piece of heaven. One of the last 100 in existence.
If you use the MRT as much as I do then you know that there is a retarded unexplainable shortage of tickets. Possible reasons I can think of so far are as follows:
1. Dear Leader Arroyo wants her face on every ticket (she almost already does actually) and she wants her face now on both sides, full body shot.
2. We will be replacing the ticketing system soon with Smartmatic scanners that will only let you in if you shade the Administration bets.
3. The MRT is running out of supplementary diet advertisements featuring either Chinese people or mediocre celebrities nobody remembers anymore. Less stored value tickets = less bonus rides = more profit = fuck you, dear commuter.
4. The stored value tickets are now being hoarded by a secret syndicate that wishes to open an underground economy of scalped tickets.
5. We will be releasing new MRT SVT prints that feature rising ABSCBN stars for no real reason at all. Nope. No real reason.
Anyway, best bid at the end of the day wins.
I have with me a GENUINE RARE STORED VALUE MRT TICKET. March 2010 mint, limited edition, autographed by window cashier. 100 peso face value. Never been used, with faint scent of sweat used to acquire this darling piece of heaven. One of the last 100 in existence.
If you use the MRT as much as I do then you know that there is a retarded unexplainable shortage of tickets. Possible reasons I can think of so far are as follows:
1. Dear Leader Arroyo wants her face on every ticket (she almost already does actually) and she wants her face now on both sides, full body shot.
2. We will be replacing the ticketing system soon with Smartmatic scanners that will only let you in if you shade the Administration bets.
3. The MRT is running out of supplementary diet advertisements featuring either Chinese people or mediocre celebrities nobody remembers anymore. Less stored value tickets = less bonus rides = more profit = fuck you, dear commuter.
4. The stored value tickets are now being hoarded by a secret syndicate that wishes to open an underground economy of scalped tickets.
5. We will be releasing new MRT SVT prints that feature rising ABSCBN stars for no real reason at all. Nope. No real reason.
Anyway, best bid at the end of the day wins.
LRT New Operation Hours
Monday, March 15, 2010
For the information of the real environmentalists, LRT operation hours have now been adjusted to the following:
Last train ride to Monumento (weekdays): Departs from Baclaran at 9:30 PM
Last train ride to Baclaran (weekdays): Departs from Monumento at 10:00 PM
Last train ride to Monumento (weekends): Departs from Baclaran at 9:00 PM
Last train ride to Baclaran (weekends): Departs from Monumento at 9:30 PM
p.s
I'll take heed to your environmentalism babble after you get off that stupid car of yours and commute like me, as God intended.
Last train ride to Monumento (weekdays): Departs from Baclaran at 9:30 PM
Last train ride to Baclaran (weekdays): Departs from Monumento at 10:00 PM
Last train ride to Monumento (weekends): Departs from Baclaran at 9:00 PM
Last train ride to Baclaran (weekends): Departs from Monumento at 9:30 PM
p.s
I'll take heed to your environmentalism babble after you get off that stupid car of yours and commute like me, as God intended.
Random Musings
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Why do we have postcards of Philippine Presidents? I can't imagine a situation that a tourist or anybody who uses postcards for that matter would need to send somebody that kind of postcard. "Hi Anna! I'm in the Philippines right now, and I feel that you need to know what the deceased 2nd president of their country looks like." WISH YOU WERE WITH HIM.
Last year, MMDA banned sexy advertisements in EDSA, and I support that, granted that a few years back, an Ashanti picture nearly sent me flying over the Magallanes cloverleaf. But WHY is it that the new rule only applies to females, while male models are centimeters away from revealing their testicles on a 50x50 canvas? If a tourist were to observe how we cover our girls and make sure our men are stark naked in our ads, they'd think our whole country is gay.
Last year, MMDA banned sexy advertisements in EDSA, and I support that, granted that a few years back, an Ashanti picture nearly sent me flying over the Magallanes cloverleaf. But WHY is it that the new rule only applies to females, while male models are centimeters away from revealing their testicles on a 50x50 canvas? If a tourist were to observe how we cover our girls and make sure our men are stark naked in our ads, they'd think our whole country is gay.
The Country Of Dreams
Friday, March 05, 2010
by Hasna Usman, GW
Poverty is a state of mind.
Most people would, when confronted by this phrase, immediately disagree. Others would nod in an instant. To the disagreeing lot, poverty is a result of ill character, bad luck, and falling victim to an ever vicious cycle of materialism rampant in our society today. To the agreeing lot, poverty is but a hurdle to get over for the willing. Who wants to be poor, they'll ask. The answer to that question is indisputable.
I say both cases remain true, for there is potential in everybody to overcome poverty, and at the same time there exists a widespread vice-like grip that prevents our brothers from rising beyond what fate has laid out - absolute despair.
Consider the word "Dream". For such a short word, I cannot think any other can rival the weight it carries in its meaning: aspirations, ardent wishes, lifelong goals, and hope. It is a heavy word, for everything begins with a dream. Every good thing begins as somebody's wild thought, escaping from the mind that spawns it and then made a reality. Everybody has a tale of how some idea revolutionized the lives it touched, dreams that came true. Dreams are the seeds that sprout and give people the fulfillment in life that they seek. When it comes to dreams, our country is never poor.
The Philippines is a country of dreams. Honest dreams made by enthusiastic young spirits. Dreams that can make lives better.
It is sad to say however, that ours is not a country where dreams can truly thrive in. We live with a culture that urges us to keep in line, to do what society dictates us to do. For every dream that a child can come up with, there is an equivalent looming despair that will prevent that dream from ever becoming more than a moment's reverie.
It is said that James Watt, inventor of the modern steam engine, was no older than six when he first started his fascination with steam power after seeing the boiling kettle. Schooled by nobody other than his own mother, he was explained the basics of steam. Twenty or so years later, he went on to create a machine that would catapult civilization into the industrialized age that we live in today.
James had the simple dream of harnessing that simple energy, a dream kindled by his first educator, James' mother. She could not have possibly imagined how such a simple lesson about steam back then would have changed the world as we know it today.
At school we are taught, if you learn this and that, you will eventually be able to get this or that job, you will not find it fulfilling, but your stomach will not grow hungry. We are taught, if we know slightly more than the other student, we will be more successful than him or her someday. In our minds, we are made to believe that everything we will ever need to succeed in the books. Anything that we do outside those precepts will only make us miserable. Breaking out of your mold will just give you despair.
But is this ever the case? William Gates III, the world's richest man never finished college. Steve Jobs, a man who revolutionized computers as we know it did not even complete two years of college. These people had dreams, and they realized success could not be achieved without them. There are countless more examples, people who realized something that many of us still haven't - the value of real education, one that we currently do not have.
Yes, the greatest failing of our educational system is that the youth of today are given poverty as a state of mind. Not physical poverty, but one that takes root in our mind. One that gives us despairs for every dream that we try to fulfill. This is not real education.
Real education is one that fosters what's already intrinsic in man - to be innovative, to rise above expectations, to find a vision, and make it real. Real education is one that goes beyond teaching a person. Real education inspires. Real education is the cure to the poverty as a state of the mind, and eventually the same cure that will remove poverty itself.
I have a vision. One day I can walk into any academic institution and see how it provides real education to its students. One day there will be schools that let its students realize that the distance between where the ground that they stand on and their lifelong goals are not too far away; schools where dreaming is encouraged, supported, and helped in realization.
And you'd think this is all farfetched, of how we are surrounded with rigid walls, built by tradition, closed-mindedness, and a vicious cycle of do-unto-others-what-had-been-done-to-thee. I tell you, my fellow country man, this is not far from what can happen. For a long as there is a single principal, a single teacher, a single parent believing that education is more than just learning to earn one's keep, that education is more than just memorizing the established, that education is questioning and seeking answers, and that education is a process of dreaming and realizing dreams, this ideal will remain moving towards the eventuality. This I can tell you.
No, this is not a dream. The Philippines empowered by a real concept of education is coming into fruition. A revolution is happening as you read this sentence, in the rurals, in the impoverished areas of Manila, in the words of the mother slowly but surely gifting his child with the light of literacy through a worn out pencil and a piece of paper, in the heart of the working student curiously looking at steam rising from the meal he is cooking.
Deep inside you, deep inside me is a piece of this country of dreams, with eyes that open little by little through education, waking up with the grand vision of the beautiful tomorrow, the only Philippines that we should be aiming for.
A country of realizing dreams.
Poverty is a state of mind.
Most people would, when confronted by this phrase, immediately disagree. Others would nod in an instant. To the disagreeing lot, poverty is a result of ill character, bad luck, and falling victim to an ever vicious cycle of materialism rampant in our society today. To the agreeing lot, poverty is but a hurdle to get over for the willing. Who wants to be poor, they'll ask. The answer to that question is indisputable.
I say both cases remain true, for there is potential in everybody to overcome poverty, and at the same time there exists a widespread vice-like grip that prevents our brothers from rising beyond what fate has laid out - absolute despair.
Consider the word "Dream". For such a short word, I cannot think any other can rival the weight it carries in its meaning: aspirations, ardent wishes, lifelong goals, and hope. It is a heavy word, for everything begins with a dream. Every good thing begins as somebody's wild thought, escaping from the mind that spawns it and then made a reality. Everybody has a tale of how some idea revolutionized the lives it touched, dreams that came true. Dreams are the seeds that sprout and give people the fulfillment in life that they seek. When it comes to dreams, our country is never poor.
The Philippines is a country of dreams. Honest dreams made by enthusiastic young spirits. Dreams that can make lives better.
It is sad to say however, that ours is not a country where dreams can truly thrive in. We live with a culture that urges us to keep in line, to do what society dictates us to do. For every dream that a child can come up with, there is an equivalent looming despair that will prevent that dream from ever becoming more than a moment's reverie.
It is said that James Watt, inventor of the modern steam engine, was no older than six when he first started his fascination with steam power after seeing the boiling kettle. Schooled by nobody other than his own mother, he was explained the basics of steam. Twenty or so years later, he went on to create a machine that would catapult civilization into the industrialized age that we live in today.
James had the simple dream of harnessing that simple energy, a dream kindled by his first educator, James' mother. She could not have possibly imagined how such a simple lesson about steam back then would have changed the world as we know it today.
At school we are taught, if you learn this and that, you will eventually be able to get this or that job, you will not find it fulfilling, but your stomach will not grow hungry. We are taught, if we know slightly more than the other student, we will be more successful than him or her someday. In our minds, we are made to believe that everything we will ever need to succeed in the books. Anything that we do outside those precepts will only make us miserable. Breaking out of your mold will just give you despair.
But is this ever the case? William Gates III, the world's richest man never finished college. Steve Jobs, a man who revolutionized computers as we know it did not even complete two years of college. These people had dreams, and they realized success could not be achieved without them. There are countless more examples, people who realized something that many of us still haven't - the value of real education, one that we currently do not have.
Yes, the greatest failing of our educational system is that the youth of today are given poverty as a state of mind. Not physical poverty, but one that takes root in our mind. One that gives us despairs for every dream that we try to fulfill. This is not real education.
Real education is one that fosters what's already intrinsic in man - to be innovative, to rise above expectations, to find a vision, and make it real. Real education is one that goes beyond teaching a person. Real education inspires. Real education is the cure to the poverty as a state of the mind, and eventually the same cure that will remove poverty itself.
I have a vision. One day I can walk into any academic institution and see how it provides real education to its students. One day there will be schools that let its students realize that the distance between where the ground that they stand on and their lifelong goals are not too far away; schools where dreaming is encouraged, supported, and helped in realization.
And you'd think this is all farfetched, of how we are surrounded with rigid walls, built by tradition, closed-mindedness, and a vicious cycle of do-unto-others-what-had-been-done-to-thee. I tell you, my fellow country man, this is not far from what can happen. For a long as there is a single principal, a single teacher, a single parent believing that education is more than just learning to earn one's keep, that education is more than just memorizing the established, that education is questioning and seeking answers, and that education is a process of dreaming and realizing dreams, this ideal will remain moving towards the eventuality. This I can tell you.
No, this is not a dream. The Philippines empowered by a real concept of education is coming into fruition. A revolution is happening as you read this sentence, in the rurals, in the impoverished areas of Manila, in the words of the mother slowly but surely gifting his child with the light of literacy through a worn out pencil and a piece of paper, in the heart of the working student curiously looking at steam rising from the meal he is cooking.
Deep inside you, deep inside me is a piece of this country of dreams, with eyes that open little by little through education, waking up with the grand vision of the beautiful tomorrow, the only Philippines that we should be aiming for.
A country of realizing dreams.
Philippine Bond Investment 101
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
A few months ago I wrote a couple of articles here about stock trading here in the Philippines.
Stock Market 101 (part 1)
Stock Market 101 (part 2)
Between that time and now, I tried to refine my stock trading skills and at the same time, while I also studied and entered into other investment instruments. One of the better investment instruments that you may be interested in is the bond, which is like the more mellow, less drug-addled brother of the stock.
(more after jump)
First things first. A bond differs from a stock in a sense that a stock is a unit of ownership of a company while a bond is a unit of ownership of a debt (i.e. somebody owes you, and not the other way around, because in that case, we'd all be bigtime bond holders already).
In terms of income, a stock, like a company, may give you earnings but it is not guaranteed the if and the when, becuase not all companies have a steady source of earnings. A bond, being debt, will give you yearly "repayment interest" based on the agreed upon interest rate or "coupon rate", which is guaranteed, to some extent anyway.
The biggest risk of a bond is when the debtor becomes no longer able to pay for the debt, or refuses to do so. We will discuss this scenario in a bit. There are two types of bonds - corporate issued and government issued. Corporate bonds are generally with more interest but at a bigger risk of not being repaid due to the company folding.
Government bonds hold the same risk, but come on, when was the last time a government went totally bankrupt? As in not threaten to go bankrupt but completely bankrupt, Mr-President-Will-Sleep-In-The-Streets-Tonight bankrupt. Another risk is the government totally disappearing due to civil revolt, a war, or a giant meteor crashing down on your country (tough luck). The new government that will replace the old has the option to no longer recognize debt from the previous government. The same way we no longer recognize non-electronic, non sports-related stuff we gave to our exs. But then again if those things ever happen, not getting your bonds back will be the least of your worries.
Long story short, as far as investments are concerned, government bonds are a hellot more secure. And although it's not nearly as high yielding as stocks, it certainly beats the shit out of time deposits anyday of the week.
The lowest dollar bond I can see right now is at a coupon rate of 6.35% per annum, whereas the best dollar time deposit wont even reach the lower limit of 0.5% per annum. See the difference?
Bonds are usually issued per series. Philippine Government bonds are coded ROP's, followed by a series number that identifies it from other bonds. This number has no apparent pattern, and I've long since given up trying to figure out how they come up with it. Counting the number of hair strands left on the Banko Sentral Governor's head sounds like a sound explanation.
Anyway, bonds are usually sold to banks first, who then sell their acquired bonds to their higher end customers. By higher end, I mean minimum unit investments are large. Whereas a time deposite requires 5k and stock trading requires 10k, bonds usually trade on the range of 100k pesos or 10k dollars for foreign denominations. I'm not too sure on this, but that's what I've learned so far. Lower end investors are allowed to join mutual funds that pool the money that they have to avail of the larger investment requirements. (hence the term mutual fund)
Bonds also come with a number of years before the bond is paid back in full. For example, a bond that matures 2016 at a coupon rate of 10% will have 6 years (as of this writing) that will pay the bond owner 10% of the original amount EVERY year. Then on 2016, the amount is returned to the lender, by then the capital would have grown by 60%. (ridiculous, but it happens). Each ROP series will have a different maturity year and a different coupon rate, since the time each series is issued is different.
As a rule of thumb, bonds issued during times of prosper have high interest rates, while bonds during recessions have very low interest rates. One reason for this is becuase during good years, it's easier to make your money grow on any other investment than bonds, so the government has to sweeten the deal just to get people to buy. And vice versa.
Now, sometimes Bonds have a maturity date of almost 30 years. (mine wont mature until 2036, for example). What if you need to lose it? Answer: Sell it to some other guy at a price he's willing to get it for. Hence the bonds market.
The bonds market is kind of like a stock market for bonds belonging to previous owners of bonds that were issued during the initial government issuance. Kinda like a buy and sell lot for government debt. If you want to sell a bond, the price is usually affected by #1 the potential of a bond and the willingness of a buyer to buy your bond at your set price. The potential is usually obeserved by how much higher the coupon rate is and the number of years left in a bond before maturity. The higher the rate and the longer the number of years, the more value a bond holds. (need to check on the effect of years though). The willingness of buyers can usually be affected by a lot of things, too many to mention here but the majority is as follows (i.e. these things will drive the demand up):
1. Stock market/economic instability
2. Banks lowering their interest rates to entice borrowers
3. Overall inflation increasing.
The opposite of course will drive the bond prices down instead.
1. Stock Market bull runs, economic recoveries
2. Banks gradually increasing interest rates
3. Inflation dropping or going neutral
Of course somestimes, the price is pushed down lower than its actual face value. A 100$ bond sometimes gets sold at 86$, which is already a solid bargain, because on top of the interest you get, you will get another 14$ if you sell on the date of maturity, or more if ever the demand pushes bond prices higher than 100$ and you decide to sell.
If you're interested in this sort of investment, the best person to talk about it is your bank manager (as long as youre not in a rural, blood, or sperm bank), who should be more than happy to assist you. Transactions through the bank are usually charged with a 2% comission for both sales and acquisitions.
Short of it? Bonds are a good investment to fight off cash depreciation. A good percentage of your dormant money can be stored here at very little risk and it's a good investment tool to compliment stock trading if you can't afford to stake it all in the high risk game of stocks.
Good hunting.
Stock Market 101 (part 1)
Stock Market 101 (part 2)
Between that time and now, I tried to refine my stock trading skills and at the same time, while I also studied and entered into other investment instruments. One of the better investment instruments that you may be interested in is the bond, which is like the more mellow, less drug-addled brother of the stock.
(more after jump)
First things first. A bond differs from a stock in a sense that a stock is a unit of ownership of a company while a bond is a unit of ownership of a debt (i.e. somebody owes you, and not the other way around, because in that case, we'd all be bigtime bond holders already).
In terms of income, a stock, like a company, may give you earnings but it is not guaranteed the if and the when, becuase not all companies have a steady source of earnings. A bond, being debt, will give you yearly "repayment interest" based on the agreed upon interest rate or "coupon rate", which is guaranteed, to some extent anyway.
The biggest risk of a bond is when the debtor becomes no longer able to pay for the debt, or refuses to do so. We will discuss this scenario in a bit. There are two types of bonds - corporate issued and government issued. Corporate bonds are generally with more interest but at a bigger risk of not being repaid due to the company folding.
Government bonds hold the same risk, but come on, when was the last time a government went totally bankrupt? As in not threaten to go bankrupt but completely bankrupt, Mr-President-Will-Sleep-In-The-Streets-Tonight bankrupt. Another risk is the government totally disappearing due to civil revolt, a war, or a giant meteor crashing down on your country (tough luck). The new government that will replace the old has the option to no longer recognize debt from the previous government. The same way we no longer recognize non-electronic, non sports-related stuff we gave to our exs. But then again if those things ever happen, not getting your bonds back will be the least of your worries.
Long story short, as far as investments are concerned, government bonds are a hellot more secure. And although it's not nearly as high yielding as stocks, it certainly beats the shit out of time deposits anyday of the week.
The lowest dollar bond I can see right now is at a coupon rate of 6.35% per annum, whereas the best dollar time deposit wont even reach the lower limit of 0.5% per annum. See the difference?
Bonds are usually issued per series. Philippine Government bonds are coded ROP's, followed by a series number that identifies it from other bonds. This number has no apparent pattern, and I've long since given up trying to figure out how they come up with it. Counting the number of hair strands left on the Banko Sentral Governor's head sounds like a sound explanation.
Anyway, bonds are usually sold to banks first, who then sell their acquired bonds to their higher end customers. By higher end, I mean minimum unit investments are large. Whereas a time deposite requires 5k and stock trading requires 10k, bonds usually trade on the range of 100k pesos or 10k dollars for foreign denominations. I'm not too sure on this, but that's what I've learned so far. Lower end investors are allowed to join mutual funds that pool the money that they have to avail of the larger investment requirements. (hence the term mutual fund)
Bonds also come with a number of years before the bond is paid back in full. For example, a bond that matures 2016 at a coupon rate of 10% will have 6 years (as of this writing) that will pay the bond owner 10% of the original amount EVERY year. Then on 2016, the amount is returned to the lender, by then the capital would have grown by 60%. (ridiculous, but it happens). Each ROP series will have a different maturity year and a different coupon rate, since the time each series is issued is different.
As a rule of thumb, bonds issued during times of prosper have high interest rates, while bonds during recessions have very low interest rates. One reason for this is becuase during good years, it's easier to make your money grow on any other investment than bonds, so the government has to sweeten the deal just to get people to buy. And vice versa.
Now, sometimes Bonds have a maturity date of almost 30 years. (mine wont mature until 2036, for example). What if you need to lose it? Answer: Sell it to some other guy at a price he's willing to get it for. Hence the bonds market.
The bonds market is kind of like a stock market for bonds belonging to previous owners of bonds that were issued during the initial government issuance. Kinda like a buy and sell lot for government debt. If you want to sell a bond, the price is usually affected by #1 the potential of a bond and the willingness of a buyer to buy your bond at your set price. The potential is usually obeserved by how much higher the coupon rate is and the number of years left in a bond before maturity. The higher the rate and the longer the number of years, the more value a bond holds. (need to check on the effect of years though). The willingness of buyers can usually be affected by a lot of things, too many to mention here but the majority is as follows (i.e. these things will drive the demand up):
1. Stock market/economic instability
2. Banks lowering their interest rates to entice borrowers
3. Overall inflation increasing.
The opposite of course will drive the bond prices down instead.
1. Stock Market bull runs, economic recoveries
2. Banks gradually increasing interest rates
3. Inflation dropping or going neutral
Of course somestimes, the price is pushed down lower than its actual face value. A 100$ bond sometimes gets sold at 86$, which is already a solid bargain, because on top of the interest you get, you will get another 14$ if you sell on the date of maturity, or more if ever the demand pushes bond prices higher than 100$ and you decide to sell.
If you're interested in this sort of investment, the best person to talk about it is your bank manager (as long as youre not in a rural, blood, or sperm bank), who should be more than happy to assist you. Transactions through the bank are usually charged with a 2% comission for both sales and acquisitions.
Short of it? Bonds are a good investment to fight off cash depreciation. A good percentage of your dormant money can be stored here at very little risk and it's a good investment tool to compliment stock trading if you can't afford to stake it all in the high risk game of stocks.
Good hunting.
PARTY ON
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
"God damn, that's one sexy poster. Are we rocking or what?"
"Oh hell yeah. If the hands in the pocket doesn't tell everybody we're game, I don't know what will"
"Hang up. I got another idea. Dude's going to be so hard, panties will come flying at us at supersonic speeds"
"Okay, what's the plan?"
"Break the goddamn leg."
"Wait, you can't do that. Remember the last time we tried that with one of the models? It was a bitch having to haul the body to Cavite"
"Alright. I got this covered. Do you have a copy of MS Paint?"
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