Just discovered this through the news.
The Philippine National Police is suspending a female police officer. It was said that she was dirtying the image of the Philippine Police by posting pictures of her wearing only a bra in her Friendster profile and sending messages to a 9-year old.
Yes. Annoying much. Considering the fact that it was just a profile photo and a few messages. I mean, why don’t you guys spend your time hunting down kotong cops instead? But yeah, exchanging messages with a 9 year old? Priceless.
But what annoyed me more was the “concerned parent” of the kid. Apparently, upon discovering the exchange of messages between her kid and the cop, she sent an e-mail to the PNP officers (tama ba?), reporting the incident.
Somewhere in her e-mail she said something like children were more frequent users of Friendster, and must be protected from such malicious stuff. (correct me if I’m wrong. My memory might be failing me).
The protecting their children bit, fine with me. Who wants their sons and daughters to see bras or boobs in the internet? What ticked me off was the comment about children and Friendster.
I mean, is Friendster really for kids? The first time I registered in Friendster (it was around 2002), I had to lie about my birth date since people under 18 supposedly weren’t allowed to register in the site (these recent days, they lowered the limit to 16).
And what did they say her son’s age was? 9?
He shouldn’t be creating a Friendster account, in the first place!
Oh well. Better stop writing about this, concerned parents might begin storming my precious blog (”you are a disgrace to the Filipino people!” Lol).
Anyways.
There’s this another issue that majorly annoys me. According to a few Miriam College students, people from the Miriam faculty/administration have been Googling for hate blogs that concern Miriam, its administration, its faculty, its rules, its whatever.
First it was the extortion exaggerated collection of fees (P3500 computer fee, anoyone??), and now, this.
What’s been going on in that school?
I was chatting with a friend earlier when I brought this issue up to her. She said that Miriam was “filtering” their blogs. According to her, blogging about something you didn’t like about Miriam and it’s administration was considered an offense.
Hm. Very much like the anti-terror bill here in the Philippines. Saying/doing something against the government and its actions are grounds enough for you to be called a terrorist.
Blogging against Miriam = offense. WTF?!
Anyways. With all this filtering thing going on, I feel that the faculty and administration of Miriam see these blogs as threats, rather than rooms for improvement.
Rather than saying, “ahh okay. I won’t do that again next time,” it seems like what they’re saying is, “shut up. I’m the boss and I’m never wrong. YOU’RE the one who’s wrong.”
Argh. I hate close-minded people.
Sheesh.
If you ever, ever give offenses to my sisters just because a brother of theirs wrote this entry, you’ll just be proving that there is something wrong with you guys, and that you are indeed close-minded.
UPDATE: A friend just confirmed: It’s also happening in Saint Theresa’s College, my older sister’s alma mater.
July 13th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Yep, I saw that bit on TV too. And I protested too. Hahaha.
Okay, another hahaha. Hahahahahaha. I went to a private school in elementary so I have an idea of where that’s coming from. And I find it really funny and pathetic on two counts: (1) they obviously haven’t tasted the freedom of UP; (2) they obviously haven’t understood what the Internet is all about (which is basically freedom also).
July 13th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
offense offense.. ewan ko ba..
again, i ask, b.a., bakit may mga taong ganun?
i mean, now what you wrote about is the real disgrace to the filipino people!! ayan ang mali!
July 13th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
in response to ia’s comment: ironically, the one who proposed the rule came from UP.
July 13th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Last time I checked, we had something we called freedom of speech. What the hell?
July 13th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
[...] This is so very sad. [...]
July 13th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
The Philippine government and Miriam College are like the Ministry of Magic in HP5 (Cornelius Fudge, Dolores Umbridge, etc.): They want to diminish freedom in order to keep themselves in a position of power.
With the new “rules/laws” imposed, it is not for the benefit of the people (as it diminishes their freedom), but for the benefit of those in power (as they prevent “unwanted citizens” from “poisoning the minds of other people.”)
In my college, though the problem is not much about freedom of speech and the internet, a similar case occurred (and is still a problem for us students).
There’s something wrong in this era.
July 13th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
uh-oh
Scary.
July 13th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
*nods*
i know! when people blog about miriam, they should insert random dots/dashes/underscores! if they’re going to filter the blogs, let them go through hell and back before they block all of them.
but really, that’s just shit. so much for freedom of expression.
July 13th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
freedom for the people in exchange for power? hmmm.
i hate self-righteous bastards.
July 14th, 2007 at 1:14 am
hey, they do that in my school too
July 14th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Uh-oh. I seriously think that the MC administration finally snapped. I mean, wtf? Why the hell are they doing this? I thought what they were doing to the Magnificat and Banaag last year were bad enough, but now… Holy shit. They’re really nuts.
…Thank God I graduated already :)
July 14th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Ia: Funny and pathetic indeed. Hahaha. We shouldn’t let stupid people use the internet. It makes them do stupid things. XD
pauline: Oo nga! Yun ang mali! Hahaha
Ade: Eh, weirdo sila eh. Oh well.
joo: Hindi ko na binasa yung libro. XD Although pinanood ko yung movie. Pero oo nga, medyo ganun sila.
fay: Pano kaya kung pati UP gawin yun online? Hmm, medyo yung offline (Kule) hina-halt na nila eh.
doreen: Sadly, they don’t just simply block the blogs. When they find out a student wrote about them, I heard that they give offenses to the student.
epi: I hate ‘em too. Haha
anonymous: What’ll I do?
PC: If my sources were correct, all this hullabaloo started because of a blog entry concerning Banaag and Rent. Tsk tsk.
July 14th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
oh noes. :|
it’s like martial law, only without the gung-ho soldiers. gung-ho admin people = scary image, tho.
July 14th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
I saw this news sa TV days ago or was it yesterday? Basta ganon, and yes it also annoyed me. Rather than focusing on bigger issues that might help our country, they focus on this. Parang ‘what the hell?’ and for the Miriam thing, parang nagkaroon ng rumor na ganyan samin dati after I graduated hs. (I don’t know kung nagkatotoo na nga) Considered offense din yung blgging about our school. Again, what the hell.
July 14th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
oh, did you know na kami mismong alumni ng high school, kailangan pa ng permit para raw bisitahin ang teachers? tapos if the guards would spot an mc student with a guy kinukuha yung names and rinereport? hello, kahit kapatid pa raw yung kasama rinereport pa rin… what is up with mc!!! ooooh and can i rant here? hindi ko pa rin mapatawad yung fact na we paid for our field trip, but we never got our field trip… our field trip money went to something else…. without our permission
July 14th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
poveda checks out our multiply sites and if they see pictures that are inappropriate we get sanctioned. kaboom! :) but all is well. :)
July 15th, 2007 at 12:42 am
pc: yes!! i’m so glad to be out of there, pero nakakaawa din yung mga naiwan dun!! and i soooo hope they’re not doing anything to banaag and to magni.. kung hindi…. :|
ba: so people said that their own schools also give sanctions to those who have inappropriate content.. pero hindi ba dapat may concrete definition sila ng “inappropriate” at hindi sha dapat subjective dun sa definition nung isang tao lang na nagchcheck?
and if there are many schools which implement the filtering, does that mean we have to give in and let our freedom be sacrificed?
July 15th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Naghahanap lang sila ng human interest story. Haha. Anyway, I agree. It’s the kid’s or his mom’s fault. Duh. Sumbong natin sa friendster! Delete natin yung account ng bata! Ahaha.
Boo Meriam administration! Boo! Isn’t that like, against the freedom of speech thing? :P
July 15th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
doreen: Scary image nga. Hahaha. I hate it when people abuse their power.
pao: Totoo raw yung sa inyo. Oh noooo
hallsy: Kaya pala may nangsita sa aking guard dati nung sinundo ko mga kapatid ko. Haha. Ang epal. Pero wait lang, hindi ba pwede niyo sila i-demanda or something for the missing P350? I mean, P350 times the number of students na hindi nakuha yung fieldtrip equals big-big money.
andro: Really? Tsk tsk.
pauline: Hay. School admin’s can be so unreasonable.
Tiffie: Kasalanan nga nung bata/nanay! Hahaha. But yah, human interest story nga. Sino bang hindi mapapalingon pag narinig niya ang salitang Friendster sa TV? :p And boo Miriam! Super anti-freedom of speech thing nga.
July 16th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
The last time I talked to a friend of mine from the lower batch, sabi they weren’t blocked anymore. eh tradition na yun na when you’re in 3rd year you have the same class in fourth year. sila hindi na… and the reason was that the school didn’t have enough rooms. wala kayang connection yun! and besides, even if meron ngang connection, which i really don’t see, saan napupunta yung pera ng school o yung mga misc. fees(na by the way, hindi naman nagagamit ng mga students ang ibang facilities)???? (i heard sa mga bulsa lang daw ng administration but then again that was just a rumor) Miriam gives too many offenses for shallow matters, really. MC alumni ako and i’ve experienced some. panahon na para malaman kung anong nangyayari jan sa miriam… oh and sa comment ni hallsy… i heard… again, it’s just a rumor but it’s prolly true knowing mc, yung pangfieldtrip ng greenbatch07? napunta DAW sa beautification of mchs.
July 17th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Sounds like something that the nuns in my highschool would have done if there were blogs back then. Haha.
July 17th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Oh! Ba’t di ko naisip gumawa ng hate blog for my High School!? *Diba Doreen!?* Though I’m not really prepared for some sermon by nuns. Freaky.
What can I say? Blogging is freedom of speech. Since these students can’t express themselves by writing some article for a local newspaper, they blog. That school’s pretty… wicked? I mean, why punish their students if they’re ranting about their mistakes or something’s wrong with their system!?
Well, Bulacan’s not really fond of blogging.
July 18th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
now that were facing a lot of deceptive policies here in UP, there’s a large probability that we, too, could suffer from these.
as UP turns to privatizing its precious assets, collecting exorbitant fees which wasn’t normal for a state university like UP, will soon be a trend from now on. Lest it would mean we’re not that far from other private universities when it comes to hard-to-get quality education. ryt? :p
July 27th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
@ kevin: nyahaha. between the two of us, hindi lang mangangalahati ang number of students dun. kakailanganin siguro nila magsara. :p isipin na lang natin na buti na lang, mabibilang mo lang sa daliri ng isang kamay ang mga teacher na sanay maginternet. MUAHAHAHA.
July 29th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Jam: In fairness, umaayos ng KONTI yung itsura ng MC. Hahaha. Pero pangit pa rin ang banyong panlalaki.
Prudence: Where did you study nung highschool?
utakGAGO: Hahaha. Read Doreen’s reply. XD And I doubt hahabulin ka ng nuns ngayon.
iconoclast: Yes, kinakatakot namin yun. And oh, have you seen the call center buildings? Ang dami pala
September 1st, 2007 at 1:31 pm
i was so happy when i graduated form miriam, i mean all my classmates and i were already so fed up with the administration. we even considered boycotting one time, but then due to some technicalities it didn’t go through. i really hate the fact that they’re like that, since most of the teachers i know are really brilliant and they’re also kind of against the admin as well. i just wonder if this is beyond repair now.. hayy..