Archive for
July 22nd, 2006
Stories
Philippines: Exporting nurses to the world
The most popular college degree in the Philippines today is nursing. More than 100,000 Filipino nurses have left the country to seek better opportunities. According to the Department of Health, 85 percent of the country’s total number of licensed nurses are to be found in the hospitals of other countries.
One reason why the Philippines is a top supplier of nurses in the world is that it produces skilled nursing graduates who can speak good English.
Manila Times gives a comprehensive background on nursing education in the country.
Ang Blog ni Sayote Queen explains her reasons why she wants to be a nurse. The blogger represents the typical Filipino teenager who aspires for other career but ends up studying nursing in the end.
An OFW Living in Hong Kong believes that money is not the sole reason why Filipino nurses want to work abroad.
The term ‘second-courser’ refers to professionals, including doctors who go back to school again to study nursing. My Life as a Nursing Student chronicles his activities as a second-courser.
Bulatlat features the nursing scandal which recently grabbed national attention: the reported leakage in the nursing board examinations, the resignation en masse of the country’s nursing board and the alleged complicity of the Commission on Higher Education to lower the standards for accrediting new nursing schools.
Government officials clarified that “no glaring leakage” occurred in the nursing examination.
Turkey is Typing….
Well I was hoping to be able to find a reaction from the Turkish bloggers in response to the Republic of Turkey's accouncement of their intention to cross its borders into Iraq to pursue PKK terrorists (as reported in this week's edition of Kurdistance on GV), however I found very little reference to it at all in the Turkish blogosphere. Erkan's Field Diary posts links to commentary on the accouncement. Aydin.net mentions the Middle East Conflict in general; but apart from those two blog entries this week there is little else on the topic. Additionally, this was a relatively quiet week in the Turkish/English Blogosphere….here is what they were talking about:
The White Path this week posted his article (that appeared in the Washington Post) about sexism in Turkey. Apparently the Diyanet, Turkey's highest Islamic authority, is making a new policy to revise Islamic Hadith to erase sexism and extreme views on women. The hope is that the new progressive Islamic nation will gain favor with Europe.
Talk Turkey has been continuing with his coverage of the popular vote for Ms. Turkey in the Miss Universe Competition…check this post for more info on how to vote for your favorite.
Amerikan Turk, our resident cyclist, was recently hit by a car…luckily he was wearing his helmet and it looks like he is going to be ok. Get well soon my friend!
The Round Ball in Ankara writes about his unsurprising poll of his readers on the World Cup.
And Metroblogging: Istanbul waxes sentimental about Istanbul and writes about the difficulties of buying new tiles for a bathroom with limited Turkish skills.
And for our top Turkish links of the week:
1. Deep Fried Fish from Ober Kedi.
2. “I Bet You Didn't Know-Part 16″ from Mavi Boncuk on Venetian Blinds…and Venetian Trading in Old Istanbul.
3. Art and Vandalism from ISBN 9760806.
4. A brand new Turkish blog called Izmir Blog.
A New Wave of Change in Cambodian Blogosphere
Since July last year, the growing popularity of weblogs among Cambodian Internet users is quite remarkeable. Whatever reasons you could think of - overhype of the mainstream media or indulgence in information technology. Though there is no exact count of Cambodian weblogs, according to Technorati, as of now there are 104,832 posts contain keyword Cambodia. And one point interesting is weblog are appearing in a language other than English, Khmer! Weblog, an easy-to-use publishing tool, is probably a possible way to bring a new life and smile to Khmer literature. The question is: will technology empowers the way we live? Although weblog reached its height to make individual become a publisher in a minute, at least for the time being many Cambodian authors find the online tool a mean to showcase their works.
Weblogs in local language - Khmer:
KhmerLegend, as its name, dedicates to Khmer old stories about famous people and events in the past. One of recent posts, ‘Killing Two Birds with One Arrow,' is a story about arts of war. Here is an exerpt part of the post:
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Ukraine: Maidan, Again, Sort Of
Kyiv, Independence Square: “President Kuchma - shame, Yushchenko - the nation's disappointment. Moroz - betrayed the Maidan!” - by Veronica Khokhlova
Nearly two years after the Orange Revolution, there are tents at Kyiv's Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) again. The camp isn't big, and it looks dormant for now, but as Ukrainian politicians continue to keep the country in limbo, this summer's Maidan seems to be waiting to happen. Or not. (After all the broken promises and mismatched alliances of the past four months, it's not realistic to regard anything as a certainty now.) A just-in-case Maidan.
When Oleksandr Moroz, Socialist leader and the newly elected speaker, deserted the so-called Orange Coalition for the so-called Anti-Crisis Coalition, Ukraine's blogosphere reacted with a tiny virtual Maidan of its own: LJ user kotyhoroshko posted phone numbers of all regional offices of the Socialist Party and invited fellow-bloggers to contact them. Below is the translation of the initiative (UKR) and some responses to it:
You have a fantastic opportunity to call the Socialist Party of Ukraine regional headquarters and ask why “Moroz has [betrayed] us.” Also, it seems reasonable to ask if they feel comfortable working for the head of the party who has betrayed the Ukrainian people.
[A list of phone numbers and other contact info is omitted from the translation.]
***
viktoza: I called this number: (044) 573-58-97. Told them: I'm Victor …, I voted for the Socialist Party in this election, and now I do not understand the actions of your faction. We stood together at Maidan against [Yanukovych], and now suddenly you become his allies. I think you've betrayed me.
A Socialist woman replied: “This is what it looks like at first only, that we've betrayed you. In reality, though, you have to know who truly cares about Ukraine. If someone's guilty of what's going on now, it's the president.” And then she hung up.
What Salvadoran bloggers are saying — volunteer edition
Typically my bi-weekly posts concentrate on what native Salvadorans are writing in their blogs about their country. This time I will concentrate on the blogs of people volunteering their time in El Salvador.
A blogger who goes by the handle Jefferson, has started a blog to chronicle his time in El Salvador. Illustrating the post with his own photography, “Initiation to San Salvador Via 9” vividly captures street life in El Salvador. Here's a taste:
An old woman selling dried Yucca and Plantains in a bag enters the bus through the rear. She sells a bag of plantains to the man behind us, pouring salt and chile in the bag. She shakes the clear plastic bag, and hands it to the man. I gaze over Noah's shoulder, hoping to get a glimpse of the market place. Endless stations selling pirated movies. Overweight women, dressed in lacy aprons pushing wheelbarrows filled with tomatoes, mangoes, and apples. Big department store signs towering over tarps used as ceilings for the booths. Umbrellas everywhere. Dozens of colors, patterns, sizes protecting produce from the hungry rays of the sun. Telephone and electrical cables sprawl between the buildings high above the streets like a network of convoluted spider webs. The movement along the streets dances with the distant thumping of Reggaetone beats: “boom. Dadada da. Dadada da. Boomboom Dadada da. Dadada da.”
Abby is volunteering her summer to work as an intern with Crispaz in El Salvador. The posts in her blog reflect her introduction to life in El Salvador, life with a Salvadoran family, and work with an institute promoting methods of organic farming. In her most recent post, she describes the benefits of organic agricultural techniques for a country like El Salvador.
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Malaysia: Ethnic relations course causes furore
All this while, as a multi racial and multi cultural country, Malaysians exist in perfect harmony as the mutual tolerance, acceptance and celebration of the multi-ethnic communities and cultures in Malaysia are traits that have been successfully inculcated throughout Malaysia's history. These multiple facets of Malaysia are what make Malaysia so colourful and fascinating to others.
Despite diverse cultural and traditional backgrounds, the people of Malaysia have been able to coexist peacefully in unity and harmony.
However lately, the "Ethnic Relations" course that was introduced into the curriculum at University Putra Malaysia (UPM), has caused uneasiness among the public and a heated debate in the parliament. The course is said to contain inaccuracies in its course material relating to the May 13th 1969 racial riots, where the unfortunate incident has always been considered a taboo subject.
Famous Malaysia historian Prof. Dr. Khoo Kay Kim commented that ethnic relations is a sensitive subject that needs to be handled with care, and universities should not rush to get their teaching materials and content out.
Why do we always fall into the typical Malaysian pitfall of rushing into something, only to discover that the results are not up to expectations? Historical facts, for instance, need to be easily verifiable.Writers dealing with historical facts must be able to give the precise source of where they get their facts. If the source is vague, then their facts will be highly questionable.
It is a rash statement because there is no evidence of who started the riots. It is a complex issue that needs to be studied from all aspects. It is important for historians not to pass judgment and be able to deal with hard facts coldly.
While blogger Ktemoc called it a half-past six book, blogger Penthesilea questioned the need of a text book for a class of ethnic relations. A simple Malaysian is wondering when Malaysians will learn to pick the good from the bad. Blogger Siva hopes Prime Minister will send correct message over the ethnic issue to the Cabinet and at the same time instruct his ministry to send circulars to all the universities, schools and government departments regarding this matter, in order to help the small minds to see the bigger issues.
Links for Sat, 2006-07
Seems there were no posts around here at this time, sorry!
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