Some people believe that the Philippines is somewhere in Latin America. Some people also still believe in the tooth fairy. The problem with these people is that they are ill-informed due to the lack of information provided to them. When a child is told that the tooth fairy and Santa Claus are not real, he resents the person because he is taken out of his necessary delusion. However, when stuck in the myth, a person only gets hurt by the limited information he has on the subject. He also gets hurt by being given the wrong information, such as being told that Santa Claus does not exist for children who are Jewish. Absurdity is the norm for those who do not have access to information, and it's just as bad when they are given terrible information.
Let's look at Thailand and the Philippines. They are more than just countries that are mentioned on the label of a shirt or pants that you wear which read "Made in Thailand" or "Made in the Philippines" (yes, there are things not made in China; hello globalization). When the word "globalization" is mentioned, the first thing people think of is economics-- whether it is outsourcing and sweatshop labor, or if it is more of China's massive growth. But there are other economies of importance out there besides China's, and their economies do not appear and re-appear every few weeks like moon phases, they are always there, just poorly reported.
The best site to visit for the Philippine economic news would have to be abs-cbn news, a local news media network there located at http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/. Navigation is easy, as the interface has a good color scheme and each cateogry has a tab with headlines for each subject listed under in a well-organized manner; headlines are always up to date; and news is available in print and Internet format, as well as broadcast on television. From the minimal and non-intrusive advertisements to the link for a daily prayer reflection called daily bread showing how Catholic the country is, to the pictures and option to have news sent via SMS text messaging, this is the resource for the Philippines, even beyond news, for it is a window to the Philippines.
If you want someone to think that the Philippines is some tropical archipelago where people wear grass skirts and serve pina coladas to sex tourists, go to http://www.newsflash.org/, which is a site that looks like it was put together by a high school student whose greatest achievement in life is his ability to use flash media and program in it. One learns almost nothing but to find a list of links to news events in different sites. Clicking on each link opens up another window and list of headlines, NOTHING ELSE. Extra navigation from a page that attempts to be a good index portal to more noteworthy news sites does not give it high marks. If anything, you can do much better using google to find news sites because the news is all over the place and gives you the feel of pop-ups that you want to block. Although it is a simple resource hotlinking to other places to give you a quick Manila feel, it does not have the interface that makes you want to save it in your bookmarks and return to it time and again.
Thailand gets its Bangkok Post, the simple interface and up-to-date news with not too many advertisements getting in the way make it more attractive to the newcomer. Although the site is not professional, and definitely has the look of an independent effort, it has direct news feed that is consistent, simple navigation on the sidebar to the left, minimal but smart use of images, and a direct link to its newspaper print version as well which uses the cool epaper program to read it as though you were reading a newspaper by clicking on each page, article, and image for close-ups, similar to using pdf files. On the right sidebar, they have useful information on exchange rates, breaking news, and opinions. The bottom navigation bar also links to some non-news areas of the site, which show personal stories, special interests such as automobiles, and travel information. Truly a delightful (though somewhat simple-- or minimalist for the picky) site, it is conveniently located at http://www.bangkokpost.net/.
For people who believe Thailand and Taiwan are synonymous with one another, feel free to point them in the direction of http://www.thainews.com.au/news-bkk.html, which is also just a listing of links to different news feeds, done in the annoying comic sans font. Though it claims to be updated hourly, it just means that there are hyperlinks posted to about six different news sources, meaning that you would have to navigate through each and every one of them. This means you do more work than you should be doing in surfing for news. A waste of time, especially when they post advertistements along with news headlines, like this one that clearly reads "Mortgage Rates at 3.0% - Save Thousands...
$150,000 loan for $391/month - refinance, home equity and purchase. Sponsored Link - Refinance.LeadSteps.com Tue Mar 06 2007 16:09:00 GMT-0800 (Pacific Standard Time)", the fact that there are no pictures, and an annoying pink color font against a bland background image which is barely visible unless your screen settings are dark enough. There is no webmaster to contact, hence there is nobody to complain to about how the site needs a complete overhaul to be considered useful
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