Statistical Improbability

The mid-term election period in the Philippines is about to end. However, no senators has been proclaimed. During the canvassing, certificates of canvass from Maguindanao province, a province in the south inhabited mostly by Muslims, showed that all the senatorial candidates of the administration party garnered all the votes, while those in the opposition party got none. The chairman of the commission on elections (comelec) said that this is statistically improbable. It really is!

Election fraud is all too evident already. All that the comelec can say is that they will investigate this. Comelec has quasi-judicial powers and what they can do is merely to investigate. This really shows that the commission has condoned or tolerated the election fraud happening in the country.

 It is all too clear that the supposedly elected officials in Maguindanao are there because of cheating. The election was a sham. Why not place the entire province for the department of interior and local government to supervise. Do away with the elected offices. The more radical way is for the legislature to dissolve the province and the local government units in it, and apportion it to the adjacent provinces.

Beauty Pageant

Women in Mexico City protested the holding of the Ms. Universe beauty pageant in their place on the ground that is it a form of abuse against women, a derogatory practice of taking undue advantage of women’s bodies.

I strongly disagree. The women who participated in the pageant are mostly intelligent persons, if not all,  who know what they are doing. These women joined the pageant to get an experience of a lifetime, an experience which is destiny-shaping and improves their lives, mostly by raising their social status and their capacity to earn. These women are given the chance to be famous and be a speaker for the cause of a foundation.

While it may be true that there are negative things that are also happening to foundations handling beauty pageants, the positive things far outweigh them. I hate to think that the protesters in Mexico City are people who are frustrated that they do not have the grace and beauty to be a beauty contestant.

Things to Invent

From time to time, I get sparks of wisdom specially on what inventions are needed to make this world a better place to live in. As a first-time mom, I nurse my 2-month old daughter, Aerlind Victoria. Infants are “feed on demand” which I find challenging. I am worried that she is not getting enough milk whenever I breastfed her. It is suggested that infants her age get a total of 24 ounces of milk in one day.

Several weeks ago, I thought that it would be good if there is a device to ascertain how many ounces of milk the baby had sucked. I am not sure if this is possible, but many things we are enjoying now seems impossible to many people years ago.