The global financial crisis has affected many Overseas Filipino Workers and Professionals, with fears of massive layoffs in Macau, Taiwan, the United States, Europe and in many other countries. Due to the unavailability of jobs in the Philippines that gives “decent pay” to its citizenry, Filipinos have been known to be one of the large groups of people looking for jobs in other countries.

This exodus of professionals have benefited the host countries since Filipinos are known to be skilled, diligent and effective at what they do. But on the other hand, it has benefited the country whose economy have been partly dependent on the inflow of cash remitted from overseas foreign workers.

But a few days ago, while I was checking for the Nov 2008 Nursing Board Exam results in Google, I spotted a news over at ABS-CBN online reporting that Queensland, the second-biggest state in Australia is needing 120,000 skilled workers.

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It can’t be denied that China has been the center of attention for big multinational companies in recent years. In the Philippines, several manufacturing operations of multinational companies were either shutdown, or downsized - limited only to certain products, and most were transferred to China due to these simple reasons: Labor and raw materials cost are cheaper, thus reducing production costs and therefore increasing PROFITS.

While the move maybe a prerogative of each company concerned, however, with the recent issue on risks to health on certain products from China, it is high time our government be serious in its campaign of protecting its citizens against such dangers and from these “irresponsible” traders and manufacturers who are only after profits and are totally disregarding consumer safety.

Many years ago, a popular shoe/apparel company was criticized by many for transferring most of its production in China and later found out that it was employing minors/children and were not even given proper safety gears and were subjected to excessive working hours with very low pay. And several months back, a popular US toy maker was forced to recall thousands of toys made from China, after it was discovered that one of the components used to assemble the toys posed dangers to kids’ health.

And who knows that tasty looking apple or banana in your table right now was sourced in China and was wiped with “formalin” or formaldehyde, a chemical used to preserve cadavers, to make it fresh looking for a longer time? That isn’t a wild idea knowing that some “genius” in China found out that Melamine is rich in protein thus it makes a good ingredient for milk and dairy products? We are not trying to dis-credit China here, but if the claim is true that the Chinese authorities were aware of this long before the news broke out, then every one should be cautious on everything that comes from China.

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Every medical representative and sales people know that Doctors are one of the most lucrative groups to conduct business with. While some may strongly deny this statement, but it’s an open secret in the medical world. But that might change - or at least be regulated soon.

Just like any other Profession, members of the Philippine Medical Association (PMA), a self-governing regulatory body of all medical doctors in the country recently released their “controversial” Code Of Ethics. Controversial in the sense that - to many Doctors, it will disallow them from engaging in various activities, most especially “marketing” and ‘business’ activities of different health and medical products and companies.

I was driving home late Sunday morning listening to a radio program on DZMM, an ABS-CBN AM radio station. The host was Dr. Gary Sy - the most “un-ethical Doctor” in the Philippines. That was what he claimed he is anyway. He was discussing the newly released Doctor Code of Ethics of 2008, and it aroused my interest on some sections of the said Code of Ethics.

One notable section is on Media appearances, including hosting programs on TV and Radio, or writing a column on print media.

“A physician should only make a general opinion and shall refrain from making a specific diagnosis, therapy or projection to individual cases in his appearances in the broadcast media..”

Another section is perhaps the most controversial - where Doctors like Gary Sy have been engaged for quite some time. Dr. Gary Sy is popular for his “natural” medical product endorsements, ranging from Virgin Coconut Oil, other ‘natural’ health supplements such as Ginseng, ginko biloba, ampalaya among others most often endorsing a particular Brand or Manufacturer.

“A physician shall not commercially endorse any medical or health product.”

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Warning: This post is quite long so I ask your indulgence. I have been a subscriber of Globe mobile close to ten years. Globe was the best thing that happened to mobile telecoms in the Philippines, being one of the first companies (well they bought Islacom along the way) to introduce SMS or “texting”. I could still remember my first Nokia SMS-capable mobile phone - it was big, heavy, bulky, enough to knock a cellphone snatcher unconscious.

People used to ridicule Smart users who were still using the analog technology - and I was one of them. While Globe was deploying more Digital cell sites, Smart expanded its nationwide coverage for its analog service, dominating the mobile market in that segment. But it was a good strategy, soon when Smart is almost anywhere in the Philippines, it offered digital mobile service and all of a sudden, Globe had a serious, even threatening competition.

Today Smart is a big player in mobile telecoms, including its 3G services. But I’m not going to talk about Smart in this article. I used to have a Smart-sim powered PLDT we-roam and I was happy with the service. Globe on the other hand was a big disappointment. When it introduced its Globe Visibility using 3G technology, I was one of the first people to recommend it to a client whom I had a project two years ago. After presentation of justifications, the client approved my request of procuring more than a dozen units. We deployed the Visibility units in about 12 locations in Central Luzon - where we were doing a pilot project of the client’s Sales and Distribution system, which will serve as the model for a nationwide roll-out (with over 100 locations).

We used the Visibility to transmit data to and from the main office in Central Luzon and its sales locations - and we found out the 3G service was below par. There were instances the client could not connect thus delayed much of the transmission and consolidation of data. So with much disappointment we decided to choose PLDT We-Roam using Smart for the rest of the 100 locations. Although there are glitches at times, but the Smart-powered WeRoam is far more effective - wherever I went, from North to South Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

Now going back the Visibility and the 3G services of Globe. Did you know that you are billed, by default Php0.15 per kilobyte of usage? If you happen to browse Bloggista.com using your 3G-enabled mobile phone, the home page is about 46KB to 50Kb, so that would mean you’ll be billed Php7.50 for browsing this blog on your phone. Why would you use a mobile phone to browse the internet anyway? Well the future is mobility. Soon most transactions can be done using your mobile phone. But companies like Globe took advantage of the unsuspecting subscriber by not openly explaining how much would be billed for every single use of the service.

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Being a fan of open source systems and of course, of the great and mighty Google, I would certainly use everything that Google offers for free - search engines, toolbars, website contents, gadgets, adsense, feed managers, and lately, its new web browser Chrome.

However, a CNET article the other day made me think twice about just installing anything and not reading through the End Users License Agreement or EULA. I must admit, I rarely read the EULA when installing softwares on my PC. How many people are actually reading the EULA’s of softwares they were installing? Most people just click on the I Accept the End User Agreement tickbox or button and voila, install the software as recommended. I rarely choose the CUSTOM Install option as well as it might complicate my life even more.

The new Chrome browser from Google had this in its EULA:

“The software which you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the services.”

Problem with this? Well since I trust Google so much I find it a great extra service that they fix and improve my browsing experience without me even looking the fixes and updates myself. So this one is okay. But how about those other softwares you installed? Could you trust its Developers to give you software updates without thinking about stuffs like malware, spyware and other programs and add-on that are designed to compromise data, privacy and security?

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