Philippine Provinces: Size and "Prosperity"

Because of the plebiscite on Republic Act 9495 -- a law that creates the new province of Quezon del Sur and renaming the remaining* part of Quezon into "Quezon del Norte" (which will effect a significant change for the people of the province) -- I have dug into this research** to see what stand statistics*** will support: "Yes" to the change or "No".

"Smaller is better," the proponents said, for the development of the province. Let's see what statistics says.

[Land area is expressed in square kilometers; source of geographical data****: Wikipedia]

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||Quezon Province: 8,706 sq. km (5th largest) ||

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Ranks 36th out of 79 Provinces on poverty incidence among families (excludes NCR Districts, Isabela City and Cotabato City) (year 2000 = 46th; yr2003 = 42nd; yr2006 = 36th)

Click here to see more official 2006 Poverty Statistics

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Top 10 least poor provinces/areas in 2000, 2003, 2006 (National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB)):

(R = Region)

1. Bulacan: 2,637 sq km (29th smallest) -- Central Luzon, R3
   
2. Rizal: 1,309 sq km (10th smallest) -- CALABARZON, R4-A
   
3. Laguna: 1,757 sq km (17th smallest) -- CALABARZON, R4-A
   
4. Bataan: 1,373 sq km (11th smallest) -- Central Luzon, R3
   
5. Cavite: 1,297 sq km (9th smallest) -- CALABARZON, R4-A
   
6. Batanes: 209 sq km (smallest) -- Cagayan Valley, R2, island
   
7. Benguet: 2,599 sq km (49th largest) -- CAR (Cordillera Administrative Region)
   
8. Pampanga: 2,180 sq km (23rd smallest) -- Central Luzon, R3
   
9. Nueva Vizcaya: 3,904 sq km (33rd largest) -- Cagayan Valley, R2
   
10. Ilocos Norte: 3,399 sq km (27th smallest) -- Ilocos Region, R1
    

According to Gov. Luis Villafuerte Jr. in Inquirer.net: Camarines Sur (5,266 sq. km, 17th largest)--(Bicol Region, R5) is the 10th richest province in the Philippines (12-05-2008)

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Top 10 poorest provinces/areas in 2000, 2003, 2006 (National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB)):

(R = Region; ARMM = Autonomous Region in Muslin Mindanao)

1. Masbate: 4,048 sq km (30th largest) -- Bicol Region, R5, island
   
2. Maguindanao: 4,900 sq km (21st largest) -- ARMM
   
3. Sulu: 1,600 sq km (15th smallest) -- ARMM, island
   
4. Ifugao: 2,518 sq km (24th smallest) -- CAR (Cordillera Administrative Region)
   
5. Lanao del Sur: 3,872 sq km (34th largest) -- ARMM
   
6. Camiguin: 230 sq km (2nd smallest) -- Northern Mindanao, R10
   
7. Camarines Norte: 2,112 sq km (25th smallest) -- Bicol Region, R5
   
8. Tawi-Tawi: 1,087 sq km (7th smallest) -- ARMM, island
   
9. Agusan del Sur: 8,966 sq km (4th largest) -- Caraga, R13
   
10. Romblon: 1,356 sq km (11th smallest) -- MIMAROPA, R4-B, island
    

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10 largest provinces (simply copied and pasted from Wikipedia :'p lazyboy):

Province	Capital	Region	Population	Area (km²)	Pop. density (per km²)
Palawan	Puerto Princesa City	Region IV-B	755,412	14,896.3	50.7
Isabela [2]	Ilagan	Region II	1,287,575	10,664.6	120.7
Cagayan	Tuguegarao City	Region II	993,580	9,002.7	110.4
Agusan del Sur	Prosperidad	Region XIII	559,294	8,966.0	62.4
Quezon	Lucena City	Region IV-A	1,679,030	8,706.6	192.8
Bukidnon	Malaybalay City	Region X	1,060,265	8,293.8	127.8
Negros Occidental [3]	Bacolod City	Region VI	2,565,723	7,926.1	323.7
Zamboanga del Norte	Dipolog City	Region IX	823,130	6,618.0	124.4
Cotabato	Kidapawan City	Region XII	958,643	6,569.9	145.9
Davao del Sur	Digos City	Region XI	1,905,917	6,377.6	298.8

10 smallest provinces (simply copied and pasted from Wikipedia :'p):

Province	Capital	Region	Population	Area (km²)	Pop. density (per km²)
Batanes	Basco	Region II	16,467	209.3	78.7
Camiguin	Mambajao	Region X	74,232	229.8	323.0
Siquijor	Siquijor	Region VII	81,598	343.5	237.5
Biliran	Naval	Region VIII	140,274	555.5	252.5
Guimaras	Jordan	Region VI	141,450	604.7	233.9
Metro Manila	Manila (Regional center)	NCR	9,932,560	636	15,617.2
Dinagat Islands	San Jose	Region XIII	106,951	802.12	133.3
Marinduque	Boac	Region IV-B	217,392	959.3	226.6
Tawi-Tawi	Bongao	ARMM	322,317	1,087.4	296.4
Basilan	Isabela City	ARMM	322,828	1,234.2	243.8

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I gotta sleep now... I can't interpret this now (It's 06:09 :'o).

Nevertheless, here's my short take: at first glance, it seems that the small provinces in Luzon really do have the lowest incidence of poverty, i.e., they're the most prosperous.

As for the "most poor", I think there's no comparison. Most of the poor provinces are in Mindanao (R10 and above, ARMM) where it's conflict-ridden. The two others in the list of the poorest that are not in Mindanao -- Camarines Norte and Ifugao -- are mountanous (right? please verify...). So, it's likely there's nothing to compare, really. Quezon's geographic and political conditions are different.

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*Try saying that several times as fast as you can :'p

**It's actually only something I stumbled upon. At first I thought about writing on how dividing the the Province to enable its development is an insult to (i.e. a testament to the incompetence of) the present officials of our Province.

***This is probably because I just watched the movie 21 yesterday :') It's about a group of MIT students who beat the blackjack system in Casinos in the U.S. using Mathematics. It's inspired by a true story.

****I'm afraid my rounding off of the numbers (from decimal to whole) was inconsistent. Cut me some slack, please. Land stuff moves. Sands are blown, rocks are built into houses, erosion, plate tectonics...

+ Sorry if there are errors in the data... I'm exhausted. I don't want to double check now. Or maybe not ever.

No To "World Peace"

[Tell you why next time.[12-10-2008]]

[12-12-2008]

What is "world peace"?

Is it the absence of war? No hunger? All in harmony, no unemployment? No one being beaten up, everyone telling everyone else his secrets? No hate all love?

No matter. No one, I believe, has defined it definitely. It's a combination of all of those above and more. There's something about "world peace" that we can't quite get a hold of.

Utopia, right? Paradise. Uh-huh. But, then, we also don't really know what these concepts are.

That's the trouble with "world peace". We don't know what it is. We know some parts of it, but we don't know it fully. And yet we ask for it. So in that regard,

"I want world peace"

becomes a futile statement. It's wishing for something that we don't know about.

It's like being a big boss in a big corporation, having your own big spiffy office and asking your assistant to make you a coffee, "and make it taste like paradise, please".

How do you make coffee that tastes like paradise? I mean, how absolutely -- in the sense that if anyone else tasted it, he will say, "Wow! Utopian coffee!"?

Can your assistant make it?

No.

Can you make it?

You can't.

And, THAT, for me, is the whole trouble with that "I want world peace" sort of thing. Yeah, sure, everyone can dream. Dream on. Dream on forever. (As if you know whether forever exists at all.)

But, then here's another thing: There are dreams that you can achieve and those that you cannot achieve. There are those that you are aiming for and there are those that you really don't care about whether they become true or not -- after all, dreams are free, right? Cheap. Happy thoughts in your head. Wow. It's like The Matrix* in your head. "Ignorance is bliss."

So, believe me, if you "want world peace", you don't care if it becomes true or not. Because, ultimately, you believe so very subconsciously that it's impossible. Because you can't define it.

Wishing for something to happen that you believe can't happen is to absolve yourself from the responsibility of making it happen.

Why?

Because, as I've said, you know that you can't make it happen.

And in that regard, it only means that you want others or someone else to do it for you.

"I wish for world peace" is like saying "Give me world peace" (whoever the recipient of that statement is) -- it's a command, not a statement for action.

So, okay, let's try to define "world peace" again.

It's a condition where everyone respects the rights of others. (support Amnesty International Philippines)

It's where no wife or child or husband is abused. (Stop Violence Against Women, Bantay Bata 163, MenWeb)

No one gets to be a victim of land mines. (go ahead, Adopt-A-Mine)

Guns are not used for homicide, murder, coercion... (Control Arms)

Everyone has decent shelter and living condition. (try Habitat For Humanity, Kiva, ABS-CBN Foundation)

Everyone respects the environment. (support Greenpeace)

There is no corruption in politics and business. (UN Global Compact on Transparency and Anti-Corruption, "No to Corruption" campaign by the UN Convention Against Corruption)

One religion for all, or all religion in harmony, or no religion at all. (practice Religious Tolerance)

Everyone eats well. (serve Food Not Bombs, Say No To GMOs!***)

+FEEL FREE TO ADD MORE+ :')

However you define world peace, if you want it, don't look too much at it as a whole. Look at it in parts. Dissassemble your previous vague or ambiguous definition of that concept and work on those parts instead.

We'll all be better off with you not wishing for world peace but making, say, everyone's hair beautiful all year round**.

So

Screw "World Peace".

'cos there's something better ;') -->DOING SOMETHING for world peace.

[Now you know.

And knowing is half the battle. G.I. Joe. (G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra live-action movie slated for release in 2009 :'p)]

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*For those who haven't understood the concept of the movie The Matrix (as I haven't on my first viewing :'p), it's about the enslavement of humans by the machines. A war waged between humans and machines; humans cut off the machines' power supply, we were defeated, the machines discovered that our bodies are like batteries (Duracell). So they harvested us for power, created/cloned/grew us in their power farms, and in order for our psyche to not reject the whole setup, machines programmed a dreamworld and fed these into our brains, a dreamworld that we accept.

Rage against the machine.

**No complaints against my barber/hairstylist :'p Just an example. After all I've been my own hairstylist for over 6 monhts now. Hah!

***GMOs=Genetically Modified Organisms, a.k.a. GEO=Genetically Engineered Organisms, a.k.a. GM or GE. Present GMOs are a threat to health, to the environment, and to small farmers; and benefits only governments, large corporations, and other immoral or unethical individuals and organizations.

Perfection and God

What really is perfection?
Is it the absence of flaw and of failure?
By human terms, it is. But is God bound by our definition of it? Is God even bound by any of our definition of anything at all? I do not think so.

By human definition of the concept of perfection, the human body is imperfect; human existence on Earth is imperfect; the ways of dying to go to Heaven are imperfect; even Crysis is imperfect!

Is perfect existence the absence of suffering? Or is real perfect existence actually a combination of suffering and comfort?

Are we truly unworthy of putting God in our imperfect minds or is thinking about Him in an "imperfect" human noggin the perfect case?

Why do we keep on arguing that imperfect, ugly events and creations mean a cruel, nonchalant, or even nonexistent God?

Because we really don't know what actual perfection is. Like the uncertainty we have of the real power of brightness of stars as viewed from Earth -- evidenced by the terms apparent and absolute magnitude -- how can we surely say that our view of perfection is "absolutely" what we believe it to be?