The Right Moves

Stanford University announced February 19, 2008 that attending Stanford University next year will be a lot more affordable for some undergraduate students by eliminate tuition for students with annual family incomes totaling less than $100,000. It also will pay most room and board for students with families making less than $60,000.

Financial aid director Karen Cooper says the move comes as middle-income parents express concern about paying for a Stanford education.

Meanwhile Harvard University announces sweeping middle-income initiative by sweeping overhaul of financial aid policies designed to make Harvard College more affordable for families across the income spectrum. The new initiative focuses on ensuring greater affordability for middle- and upper-middle-income families through major enhancements to grant aid, the elimination of student loans, and the removal of home equity from financial aid calculations.
When will you act ADMU, DLSU,UST,................?
Can't you feel the trend?

Killing the Middle Class

In this country, the middle class are the pawns. The politicians ignored them by taxing them to death and by not making laws providing them opportunities to fulfill their aspirations. With only the lower class or the "masses" they always try to pleased because of their sheer number that can translate into votes. The middle class which are only few are the least priority of these politicians. How many of them stand up to defend them? How many write laws to protect them? How many wish to make them numerous?.How many of them feel that they are now financially squeezed?.
One of the key aspirations of middle-class families is to provide their children with the good education they’ll need to maintain — or exceed — their standard of living when they enter the work force. But the financial security of the middle-class has been strained by the rising cost of higher education, which has risen faster than overall inflation for much of the past decade.
The GMA regime failed miserably in protecting the middle class due to her extreme busyness in making sure of its survival.
Meanwhile, the middle class is facing the biggest question of their life: leave the country to survive or survive by fighting until death for this country?

What I learned from the Ateneo

The MBA program that I gone through at the Ateneo Rockwell demanded the best in me. The classrooms there are swanky, the equipment brand new, the technology updated and the professors rich in business experiences. But I learned a lot not because of them but because of the the sharing of my classmates in our case analysis and the rich collection of business and liberal arts books that shaped my thinking.
At the Ateneo, they are proud of their library and it is not a boast that in the country they have the most number of business books available.
In that library I am a constant visitor.
That is the place where I met colorful people who got great minds and best advice not found in the classrooms. Some of them are: Confucius who advised me to be humble in the face of business uncertainty, Freidrich von Schiller who pressured me to take calculated risks, Benjamin Franklin scolded me to have an emergency fund of 3 months living expenses, Miguel de Cervantes notified me not to put my money in one basket, Warren Buffet informed me that the best way to own stocks is through an index fund, Edwin Lefevre conveyed that I should be patient on my investment, Peter Lynch revealed to me that I don't need to time the market and John Kenneth Galbraith imparted that I should borrow only to buy assets that appreciate. These are some of the people who made my stay at the Ateneo worthwhile.
The cost of all the books I borrowed and read in the Ateneo Rockwell library may reached more than P200,000. More than half the fees I paid.
I already forgotten what my accounting professors taught us but I am forever grateful to the large collection of books I read and enjoyed.
The Jesuits are charmers and their snakes are libraries.

Lucban,Quezon

My family hails from Lucban, Quezon. A place well known as the summer capital of Quezon Province. Tourists flock to our town to see the famous Pahiyas and to eat the equally famous longganisa and pancit lucban. My ancestors were one of the pioneers of the town that is why you can find Cadeliña streets honoring them. There are lot to thank for my town. The climate, the people, the rain and the mountain. These are the reasons why artists abound in my town, they can be easily inspired by the environment.
The last time I visited Lucban, I was disturbed. Though it is still cold there but not as cold during my younger years. The people are still pleasant and hospitable but are now so numerous that water pollution in the once clean canal are evident. Surely, Lucban is now overpopulated. With its very small area, the throngs of people polluting the river will affect the drinking water which is the primary source of Lucena, Pagbilao and Tayabas.
There will come a time that Lucban will loose its luster and it's not because of the nature but because of the people who slowly destroying it.