Technology can solve the world’s problems

We’ve been on a roll, fighting to let the Comprehensive Land Reform Program (CARP) die a natural death. Today CARP will die unless there is some kind of last minute effort done by Congress to save it. Indeed from such a noble goal of giving land to the landless, CARP has become nothing but crap! That is because it took already cultivated land from legitimate landowners (this is akin to the Lina Law that legitimized people who steal your land, called squatters) and gave it to people who do not even know how to plant camote!

Yes CARP failed because of a bad bureaucracy and unbridled corruption. Because of bureaucracy today 1.3 million of CARPable land hasn’t yet been distributed. This is why the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) supported the extension of CARP. Yet no one from the CBCP complained about the bureaucracy or the corruption that plagued the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). Shame on those clerics!

The only way to salvage CARP is to create another law that would grant idle government lands to those who wish to cultivate these lands. But those who are awarded these lands should be prevented from leasing, borrowing or selling these lands to anyone except back to the government. This is exactly what happened to CARP, which is why according to my friend Silverio J. Berenguer 61% of those given Certificates of Land Ownership (CLOA) no longer own the land given to them. This figure could be higher because not every CLOA holder gave the real status of their lands to the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC).

*  *  *

My cousin, Dr. Edward Rosello unfortunately left his cellphone inside the V & F taxicab with plate no. GWN 785 last Sunday morning and efforts to get back his lost cellphone have failed. We officially reported this to CITOM and the Metro Cebu Taxi Operators Association (MCTOA) but as of press time, we haven’t heard any reports from them. Perhaps the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) should check the information of this taxicab that could very well be a non-MCTOA member or a colorum.

There is no question that technology can be used against new technology. For us techie hounds with our high tech camera phones, we always have to be doubly sure that we won’t lose or worse get our camera phones stolen as these devices are not cheap. But help is on the way for the careless or reckless camera phone user. Today’s technology allows a system built within the camera to take pictures of the new owners or the thieves who swiped your camera. I also read an article in a magazine that certain equipped phones will call a central if the “new” owner does not dial a certain code that could identify it.

This was the article that came out in The Philippine Star last Saturday. It is really cool to know that such a technology exists so that whenever your phone is stolen and used by the new owners, it will simply track itself back to you. I just hope that cellphone companies like Nokia, Ericsson or Samsung fasttrack these “safety” devices so that thieves would no longer target unwary cellphones users and it would make taxi drivers honest.

Today everyone is suffering from world record prices of crude oil and no matter what the so-called G-8 Nations do, they cannot convince the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to increase production, which is the only way for prices to go down. In the last report I saw on tv, OPEC announced that it would look into the issue of increasing oil production in September. In the meantime I’m sure that those Arabs are enjoying their luxuries, while the rest of the world suffers from their selfishness.

As the old saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention”. Today there is a mad rush to find new or alternative ways for man to travel. The giant General Motors (GM), which put up the EV-1 (electric car) in the early 90s have resurrected this car and renamed it the Volt. It was due to come out by the year 2015, now it will be made available by the year 2010. Let’s hope that this car will be a success in the marketplace.

Already Toyota and Honda are doubling their efforts to build more hybrid cars. These are cars that have two engines, an electric engine and a small displacement gasoline engine. Unfortunately for us in Metro Cebu or Metro Manila a hybrid car just doesn’t work as hybrids are designed for American style of commuting, where one lives in the suburbs and drives to the downtown area for work some 30 miles from home. We just need a simple electric car that works. Someday the Arabs will be selling cheap oil and no one will be buying it anymore. I hope that someday comes very soon!