Saturday, October 26, 2013

Spectacular Train Stations; was Tutuban train station one of them?

Repost from CNN NewsThe interior of the Liège-Guillemin station in Liege, Belgium. The facility's ultra-modern glass and steel facade is featured in promotional posters for upcoming Wikileaks docu-drama, The Fifth Estate, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Although far from Belgium's biggest or busiest station, Liège-Guillemin is fully equipped for high speed arrivals and departures as well as commuter trains.



We had a group work exercise on ideation and innovation which concerned megacities.  The major topics included architecture, energy, mass transportation, waste disposal.  And the class submitted a lot of ideas;  it shows the degree of engagement and the development of creativity among students. 

This article at CNN shows that you can have great transport system and great architecture at the same time.  Our MRT and LRT train stations are uninspiring.  Can they be made more appealing and compelling in the future?

The Tutuban train station looked great before, right?


                   

                   

 The classy yellow facade and green copper dome of Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, Australia. The century-old structure is the busiest suburban railway station in the southern hemisphere with 110,000 commuters passing through each day, according to the City of Melbourne.


Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Our class yesterday at Spentrep in H de la Costa - October 21, 2013

 

Creation and Miracle.

After the usual prayer, I discussed with the class our participation in continuing creation (as mentioned in Genesis Chapter 1 Verse 26, ie that man "shall gain dominion" over God's creation.   How do we participate in creation?  Merely planting trees or procreating children?  New products and ideas coming from our imagination, creative synthesis, is creation.   A memo,  a poem, a marketing plan, a drawing, a product is a creation.  The assignment submitted, the group work made, the picture composed and taken is a creation.

Miracle:   those seemingly impossible tasks are miracles.   The treatment by doctors and pharma meds are miracles.   The college graduate made possible by selling taho or recycled plastic is a miracle.  Miracles did not just happen during the time of Jesus Christ, but is happening on continuous daily basis.

Initiatives for Mega Cities

We engaged the class on various projects and initiatives that involves mega cities.  Mega cities, cities with more than 10 million inhabitants, as residents from the countryside continue to pour in in the cities as the multitude look for convenient and comfortable life, if not steady source of income.  Agriculture is hard and demeaning and people will, with education will look for better high paying jobs.  And there is no way we can stop the trend.

There will be multitude of problems involving:

housing

transport

health

energy

waste disposal

architecture

The 4 groups were assigned to come up in rapid succession (no screening) ideas on how to address the above issues.  The class came up with a lot of bright ideas.  The four groups took on housing, energy, waste disposal, and transportation.

I mentioned that we are taking up entrepreneurship and MBA, so that next time the problem crops up, we do not engage in blame the govt routine.   "Kasi the govt did not provide this...." 

"Ask not what the country can do for you, ask what you can for the country"

The next time there are problems, despite the bureaucracy and resistance to change, we must be ready even with baby steps to address the problems mentioned above.  We have to because in "AGSB, our country is our business"

PDQ

The group presentation on PDQ continued.  This is the enterprise delivery system of the business plan, SPATRES. Only one of the groups tonight conformed to the guidance to present innovation on the business., as was last week.

Jeopardy

                                                 

As was mentioned we will have no formal exams as with other conventional class but a Jeopardy contest, which is as demanding.  It called for group effort, quick thinking and strategy.    Some groups refused to take risks, and refused to answer.  Those who continued to answer wrongly had negative score.  I think everybody had fun because it was open book and computer.   And everybody was adjusting to the Jeopardy rules.

Congratulations to Group 4 for a lopsided victory and I gave an award of snickers.  Thanks to the creator of class Jeopardy:  Emmanuel and his co host JC

Case analysis

We ran out of time for MC2 and Jose Lontoc case analyses

Monday, October 21, 2013

Sultan Jamalul III Kiram died today, end of Sabah Claim?



From Inquirer | Sunday October 20, 2013

 Sultan Jamalul III Kiram, the patriarch of the Kiram family claiming ownership of Sabah, died today of multi organ failure at Philippine Heart Center.  He was 75 years old.  This was announced by his daughter Princes Jacel Kiram to Radio Inquirer

The Sultan's security forces, it should be remembered landed in Sabah to claim the land for the sultanate.  The Malaysian security forces however killed 60 his men.  The leader Sultan Rajah Mudah Kiram his brother is in hiding and no one knows his whereabouts.

KIram claims that the island has been merely leased to the British North Borneo.  The lease was merely transferred to Malaysia after Malaysia gained independence from the British.  Up to this date, Malaysia still pays 5,330 ringgit to the Sultanate heirs.   Malaysia calls it cession fees. 

What do you think?

Does Sabah really belong to the PHL?

Should we support Kiram's to support their claim so that Muslim Filipinos shall not be considered illegals in Sabah (their home country?)

Or his death signals the claim will die with him?






-
Prof Jorge Saguinsin

BIDDA:   BELIEVE, INSPIRE, DREAM, DO, ACHIEVE

+639228730181