SmartBro WiMax VI: Modem Problems Again (Part II)

I haven't brought my modem yet to the Smart Wireless Center. I've been stressing about it lately and finally decided that I've had enough. This WiMax connection has been one of my stressors since the day I applied for it, sad to say. I don't have the time to bring their defective modem back and have it replaced only for the replacement modem to break down after a couple of weeks. I don't have the patience to do that anymore.

I wrote a letter to Smart Communications requesting termination of their service without having to pay for the pre-termination fee (PSF) and other such payments related to disconnection. I sent it through their WebConnect service 24 hours ago, and they haven't responded yet. But then it says that "valid" requests will be responded to within 24-48 hours of submission. I wonder how they classify a valid request. Anyway, if they don't respond within the hours they said, I will send them an email again or maybe go straight to the NTC.

I am actually very, very tempted to just ignore it, get another broadband subscription from one of their competitors. After all, all they could do if I don't pay up is to sell my account to one of the collection agencies, and then these collection agencies would send demand letters, have a "lawyer" call me and threaten to sue me. They can sue me all they want, I know that I won't be jailed for it. Section 20 of the Philippine Constitution states that: No person shall be imprisoned for debt or non- payment of a poll tax.

Real lawyers don't threaten people or coerce them to pay up or they will sue. That only happens on TV. I know that for a fact because I come from a family of lawyers too, and they don't act that way. 

Au contraire, if the consumer is actually forced to pay up or threatened, these "lawyers" can be the ones to be sued as stated in the Revised Penal Code Article 287.

Christopher Lao, The Media, and Cyber-bullying

I admit that I laughed when I saw the video of him driving his car into the deep flood. It was pretty obvious that the flood was deep because there were no cars passing by the area, and yet he proceeded to still drive into it. I even re-posted the video, which I believe was taken down by the original person who posted it because I couldn't find it on my wall when I wanted to delete it; even clicked Like on the page created for Mr. Lao, which was wrong of me to do so, so I eventually clicked Unlike and decided not to be part of the cyber-bullying.

Mr. Lao's accident was an act of stupidity, but it was not entirely his fault that he is now "famous".

First of all, the network's reporter shouldn't have interviewed him. It was an unwise move because he risked humiliating the person on national TV - which is exactly what happened. Plus he appeared to have provoked Mr. Lao to continue talking which then turned into ranting. He should have just interviewed those who helped Mr. Lao push his car out of the flood.

Secondly, the network should not have approved the report. In my opinion, this network is slowly becoming notorious in broadcasting "high-risk" reports. I feel that they think that as long as they have something to show on TV, it's all fine.

Last on the list, well, is Mr. Lao. He had a choice not to be interviewed, not to publicly humiliate himself even more. He would have been anonymous. And yet, he proceeded and had himself shown on national TV and ranted about him not being informed, that it was the government's fault that there was no roadblock before the flood, even blamed the people on the street for not informing him. For me, that was him digging a deeper hole of humiliation.

I'm not including the government here, because it's very typical of Pinoys to blame the government for everything, and it's has become overrated. Honestly, the government can't take care of every single little problem we have because they have much bigger and more important situations to handle other than putting roadblocks to inform motorists that there is deep flood ahead. I mean even MMDA is depending upon the Filipino citizens for flood reports because they simply could not be everywhere.

I understand that Mr. Lao, even before the flood incident, has been stressed because he is currently reviewing for the bar on top of him being a family man (a friend re-tweeted something about this, that's why I know). And it's normal to have bouts of stupidity sometimes; we are, after all, human. But it's really partly his fault that he is receiving this kind of attention, which has now turned into cyber-bullying.

Bill Belsey of cyberbullying.org defined cyber-bullying as, "...the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others." According to the definition, a lot of Pinoys are doing just that. Some people also have resorted to racism.

I hope we stop this already. It's normal to laugh at such events, but it's already considered cyber-bullying to continue humiliating and posting hate-comments about Mr. Lao online. I implore to the creator of Mr. Lao's fanpage to take it down, as it promotes cyber-bullying; also I request my readers who are guilty of this crime, if you haven't already done so, to take down your hate-comments and re-posts of the video. Thank you.

**Due to the sensitivity of this issue, I edited out the names of the reporter and network involved, in the title, the entry itself, and labels/tags. I also re-published the entry as a new one since the url of the original reflected the network's name, hence the comments were also deleted.

Prenup at a Cemetery

So there's this outrage on the couple who did a prenup at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. It's irked a lot of people, and personally, I was too, at first - until I saw and compared those photos to the prenup photos of Jay Contreras (vocalist of Kamikaze) and Sarah Abad.

There is this photo wherein the groom is hugging the cross. Let me ask you, what is more desecrating, hugging the cross at a cemetery, or stepping on a tomb? Another photo shows the bride drinking alcohol. What is the difference of it to a photo of the bride and groom smoking cigarettes? Jay is even seen here doing the dirty finger.

My concern is that why didn't the people react to their prenup then like they reacted to the unknown couple's prenup? Some friends of mine agree that they are making a big deal out of it. Is it because it's the Libingan ng mga Bayani? I personally don't think there should be a difference in the peoples' reactions, more so I don't think that there should be a difference in the respect we give to our buried heroes and the buried regular people.

For the photos of Jay Contreras and Sarah Abad, go here.

For the photos of the regular couple, go here.

See for yourself and compare.