Senator Drilon and Malls for Vacation

A few days after the elections, I decided to stop for a few months so that I could observe the winners and see how they hold up to the pressure of saving our country. C’mon, admit it: we’re too lazy to move our butts to save this country that we just blame the president and every other politician for not doing enough.

But there are actually statements that just made me cringe and forced me to write this. I was listening to the radio and Senator Franklin Drilon was being interviewed because of his proposal. His proposal is actually very impressive – start the classes in September instead of June. This will prevent students from missing classes because of too many floods, typhoons and other climate-related problems from June to August.

I actually like the idea. But there’s just one qualm that I can’t imagine him saying it. He was asked about the detractors or people complaining to this proposal because they will miss their vacation. His reply? Parents and people can still go out even during rainy season – they can still go to the mall! Mall! MALL!

The mall makes sense in a physical manner because it has a roof that will protect everyone from the rain and other adverse effects of nature. But the mall is never a place where you go on vacation with your kids or have some fun. What do you do at the mall? Spend a lot of money…you watch movies, you play video games, eat and shop. At the end of the day you spend thousands because of the whining kids who wants to do this and that.

This is partly the reason why I can’t seem to agree with his reasoning. We need vacation but parents should never take their kids to the mall. This will only teach them consumerism so they end up spend and spend and spend some more until they die. With this economy, no one can deal with that type of lifestyle and this can lead to dangerous scenarios. Summer is great because kids can still go out and be at the beach.

Yes, this is selfish but our kids need options. Imagine your kid having to go to the mall everyday for two months because there is nowhere else good to go? You can say that your kids will stay at home for two months but that doesn’t do anything good for the kids development.

Senator Drilon, please don’t send the kids the mall. Consumerism is a good thing in someway but forcing them this habit doesn’t help them in anyway.

A Look at the Senatorial Candidate's Website (Part 2)

We continue to look at the senatorial candidate's official websites. In this blog the hotseat will be on Franklin Drilon, Teofisto Guingona III, Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Guico.

Franklin Drilon (http://frankahan.com)

Information 5: This is a very personal site for Senator Drilon because it's a basic blog with a unique platform. He has so many things to say about various topics and he doesn't hold anything if he has some problems with some issues.

Interaction 3: Not much to do except to read the site and comment on his blogs.

Aesthetics 5: The best blog website I've seen so far. The iPhone like slides regarding his latest blogs is ingenious. You'll most likely browse through his articles and read what he has to say about various issues.

Highly personal, it's a recommended site for those who loves politics.

Juan Ponce Enrile: (http://www.jpenrile.com/)

Information: 5 - Everything you need to know about the very popular Senator is in this site. The site is not just on his previous roles as a senator but even when he is not part of the legislative branch of the country.

Interaction 2: Although the only interaction with has soem extra "forum" someone got the format wrong. A forum is composed of topics where every exchange opinion. The forum part of the site looks like a message board.

Aesthetics: 4 - The website background featuring his name in italics, official website and crimson red color is very unique. This really shows creativity on the site although that's the only thing that looks great in the site.

Pretty generic but well thought out although the forum in the site is a bit awkward.

Jinggoy Estrada: (http://www.senjinggoyestrada.com)

Information: 4 - There are so many things that you can read in the site but it's not updated. The "Jinggoy Speaks" page has very limited entry. Last entry in this part of the page was still in 2008.

Interaction: 2 - I may have missed it but there's no outside links that connects to various social networking sites. This is quite odd because most national candidates want to connect to Twitter, Facebook or Friendster.

Aesthetics: 3 - It's very generic and the borders are too wide. The green background will make you think you are visiting a boring website that didn't had a lot of changes.

The website is very generic and not updated compared to current candidates. Somebody do something about this site.

Ramon Guico (http://www.ramonguico.com/)

Information: 4 - because Ramon Guico is jumping from local to national scene, he has to use the internet to get his message across. Fortunately, he has provided enough information for those who wanted to consider him as part of their 12 senators. Photos and videos are not extensive but good enough. It's very good but the articles are not updated.

Interaction: 5 - Facebook, Friendster and other social websites are linked to this site. There's even a poll in the site where you can vote. There's even an area where you can sign up for the newsletter.

Aestehtics: 5 - The design looks great. Although not as great compared to Franklin Drilon, it's well thought out and time was spent designing the page.

Informative, the site offers a lot of things to first time users. They just need to update the articles for us to know more about the candidate.

Teofisto Guingona III (http://tgguingona.com/)

Information: 3 - Note to candidates: If you add a "blog" or any link to the page for unique information, make sure there's something in it for the readers. Mr. Guingona's site looks great but his profile is not extensive.

Interaction: 4 - links to outside sites and multimedia is very impressive in this site. Photostream and even tag cloud is in the site so that you'll know which topics are extensively discussed.

Aesthetics: 5 - The design is easy to understand and doesn't have that standard blog platform (like this site).

Great looking site but lacks additional information. Remove the blog or at least fill some articles on that part of the site.

Stay tuned for the next episode!