Good News....

[baron]

---

I just read in the news that the stock market hits another record high since 1997. After nine years, we have set another record which would be another positive gain for our economy. No wonder investments keep coming in as we pose a stable economy before our investors.

Not only this, the Philippine peso continues to strengthen in favor of us. It was even reported that the previous analysis that it could reach P48 early next year could even be reachable before the year ends. Now, the BSP is eyeing that the peso could reach P47 early next year.

These are all good for the economy.

[grabehbebe]

Because of the huge problem about the garbage in the country, MMDA has strengthened their program in informing the public about this matter. They have changed the previous program of door-to-door garbage collection policy where in residents will be living their garbage outside the house and will be just collected by the truck garbage collector. Instead of that habit, the residents themselves now will have to wait for the Trucks to prevent the trash being scattered by dogs or animals around the streets.

Let us hope that by this effort coming from the concern government agency for the country, problems in garbage will be lessen in no time. This will not be successful if we will not cooperate and most importantly if we will not follow the law. I am sure that being clean will bring us to lighter life and will definitely help ease the country’s problems.

[DEStRucto]

4 day holiday fgiving way for the Asean Summit here in cebu..

double pay for Call Center wokers.. and to all who still works on legal holidays..

haha good isnt it??

[baron]

A possible fare rollback is being contemplated this holiday season. Because of the fact that oil prices are going down coupled with a strong economy we are currently experiencing, this is very much possible.

Hopefully this materializes. The commuting public will very much benefit from this.

[grabehbebe]

Another way of improving the educational system in our country has been implemented. CHED has taken actions to those erring review centers who do not meet certain requirements in building up such centers inspite of the fact that they have given enough time for the requirements. They said that their agency has ordered DTI not to accept new applications for review centers in the country following the approval of the memorandum containing the rules and regulation for Executive Order 556 which regulates operation of review centers.

Its just right that the government should be strict enough regarding this matters. This is to avoid trouble like the recent Nursing leakage and to stop those unlawful acts of centers which do not have legal permits in conducting reviews.

[baron]

News states that OFW remittances increased for around 14% over last year. Indeed, our OFWs are a big help to our economy. More so, the GMA's presence in the APEC Summit further motivated our pursuit for a stable economy.

In as much as other positive economic indicators continue to take the economy up, the push towards a vibrant economy is materializing.

[grabehbebe]

A new provision requires that all new iunfrastructures be built next year should comply with the Accessibility Law.

Section 33 of the proposed General Appropriations Act compels “all government facilities to provide architectural facilities or structural features and designs that shall reasonably enhance the mobility, safety and welfare of differently abled persons

PGMA has also ordered for a release of 5-M for call center scholarships for disabled persons as well to give them a chance to work in a telephone company.

[jaybhe]

RP is No. 6 in world gender equality survey



Inquirer
Last updated 03:36am (Mla time) 11/23/2006

Published on Page A1 of the November 23, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

LONDON -- No country in the world has achieved equality of the sexes in the key areas of economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment, according to a new ranking of 115 nations published on Tuesday.

Sweden has gone farthest in eliminating inequality between men and women, followed by other Scandinavian countries Norway, Finland and Iceland. Germany is in fifth place.

The Philippines ranks sixth in the Gender Gap Index, which covers 90 percent of the world’s population and was compiled by researchers from Harvard University, the London Business School and the World Economic Forum (WEF).

It is the only Asian country in the top 10. It scored well across the board and is one of only five countries to have closed the gender gap for both health and survival and educational attainment. (The four others are Dominican Republic, France, Honduras and Lesotho.)

The United States comes in at 22nd place; Yemen ranks bottom.

“For the first time the gut instincts that many of us have are backed by statistics,” said Cherie Booth, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and a prominent human rights lawyer.

“There still is no level playing field for men and women,” Booth said at the launch of the index in London.

Patchy progress

A century on from the heyday of the women’s suffrage movement and nearly 40 years since the publication of Germaine Greer’s feminist bible, “The Female Eunuch,” the Gender Gap Index points to only patchy progress.

“We find that no country in the world has yet managed to eliminate the gender gap,” it states.

The nations studied had, on average, closed about 90 percent of the gender gap in education and health, but only 50 percent in economic participation and opportunity and 15 percent in political empowerment, according to Saadia Zahidi, of the WEF.

Sweden is the only country in the world to close the overall gender gap by more than 80 percent, she added.

Although there are 10 European Union countries in the top 20, five trail toward the bottom of the scale -- Greece (69th), France (70th), Malta (71st), Italy (77th) and Cyprus (83rd).

Their positions reflect low levels of political participation by women in decision-making bodies and poor scores in economic participation and opportunity, the report says.

Women in politics

According to the report, Germany’s success is linked to its high levels of female political empowerment, highlighted by the election of Angela Merkel as chancellor last year.

The top five have changed little since the first gender gap study last year, when it consisted of Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Finland.

This year’s report praises the political position of women in Scandinavia. Sweden is the only country in the world with an equal number of male and female politicians, while in Finland, Iceland and Norway, women hold at least a third of all ministerial and parliamentary positions.

Scandinavia also leads the field economically -- the majority of all professional and technical workers are women.

This position is helped by generous arrangements for women who want to raise a family as well as pursue a career, the report adds.

Sweden and Norway “offer the longest maternity leaves and among the best maternity leave benefits in the world, while retaining high levels of women’s labor force participation,” the report says.

Denmark is rated eighth this year; Britain, ninth; Australia, 15th; and New Zealand, seventh.

Empowered in labor

The relatively poor position (22nd) of the United States was linked by Harvard University’s Ricardo Hausmann, one of the authors of the report, to the “weak” performance of women in politics.

“Women have been empowered to participate in the labor force, but not in politics,” Hausmann said.

Scandinavia benefited from a higher proportion of women in political office than many, and this is the measure that hits the US ranking despite its good scores elsewhere.

Factors including when the school day ends and whether children are expected to go home for lunch before returning to school may also have “quite a significant impact” on women’s employment, said another author of the report, Laura Tyson of the London Business School.

EU newcomers Latvia and Lithuania, which only joined in 2004, are in the 19th and 20th positions, streaking ahead of the five laggard nations and Austria (26th) and Belgium (33rd).

The two countries ranked as having the biggest gender gaps are Saudi Arabia and Yemen, where the gap stands at 52 percent and 47 percent, respectively.

Access to resources

By quantifying differences between the sexes in access to resources or opportunities, rather than measuring absolute levels, the researchers sought to strip out the impact of economic development.

For economic participation, for example, the researchers measured the proportion of men and women in work, pay gaps, and the ratio of women to men among legislators, senior officials and managers.

The study shows that the gender gap for health and survival is very narrow across the world. Based on a score of 1 meaning full equality and 0 a complete lack of equality, the range for all 115 countries is just 0.9796 to 0.9227.

But when it comes to political empowerment -- the ratio of women to men in parliament, ministerial positions, and heads of state over the past 50 years -- the best performer is Sweden with a score of 0.5501. Saudi Arabia is last with zero.

France, however, is only in 70th place. It falls down on both the economic participation and political empowerment rankings.

South Africa is the best performer in Africa, coming in at 18th place. Agence France-Presse, Reuters

[baron]

^ It just shows we are enforcing equal rights when it comes to gender-related issues. It must also be noted that we are the only Asian country included in the list released by the World Economic Forum, placing sixth at that.

This is something we can be proud of. After all, awareness on gender-sensitive issues should be imbued to all of us.

[grabehbebe]

Overseas maids’ salary doubled

Despite the mounting threat from several host countries to cease from hiring Filipino maids, the Philippines is set to double the minimum pay for domestic helpers abroad.

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said starting Dec. 15, all departing domestic helpers will be getting a monthly pay of $400 while those who are already working abroad will start to enjoy higher salaries next year.

"We would like this new policy doubling the salaries of domestic helpers to show how much we value our women workers that they have to get at least $400 monthly pay," Brion said yesterday.

According to Brion, the government also needs to enforce the new policy in an effort to curb the high incidence of abuses and maltreatment against Filipina domestic helpers.

"We are seriously concerned with the situation of our domestic helpers. It’s about time to go to the higher end of the market," Brion said, noting that 80 percent of the labor cases being handled by labor offices abroad involved Filipino maids.

But this early, Brion said, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is already expecting strong opposition to the implementation of the new policy.

"We expect serious lobby against this (policy) but this is an area we have to start to improve the condition of our domestic helpers," Brion said in an interview.