MikeLigalig.com

Mark Twain in America Again, Chicago Tribune [New York, 10/15/1900]

"You've been quoted here as an anti-imperialist."

"Well, I am. A year ago I wasn't. I thought it would be a great thing to give a whole lot of freedom to the Filipinos, but I guess now that it's better to let them give it to themselves. Besides, on looking over the treaty I see we've got to saddle the friars and their churches. I guess we don't want to."

"Then you're for Bryan?"

"I guess not. I'm rather inclined toward McKinley, even if he is an imperialist. But don't ask political questions, for all I know about them is from the English papers."

Mark Twain on Imperialism

Mark Twain, The Greatest American Humorist, Returning Home, New York World [London, 10/6/1900]

You ask me about what is called imperialism. Well, I have formed views about that question. I am at the disadvantage of not knowing whether our people are for or against spreading themselves over the face of the globe. I should be sorry if they are, for I don't think that it is wise or a necessary development. As to China, I quite approve of our Government's action in getting free of that complication. They are withdrawing, I understand, having done what they wanted. That is quite right. We have no more business in China than in any other country that is not ours.

There is the case of the Philippines. I have tried hard, and yet I cannot for the life of me comprehend how we got into that mess. Perhaps we could not have avoided it -- perhaps it was inevitable that we should come to be fighting the natives of those islands -- but I cannot understand it, and have never been able to get at the bottom of the origin of our antagonism to the natives. I thought we should act as their protector -- not try to get them under our heel. We were to relieve them from Spanish tyranny to enable them to set up a government of their own, and we were to stand by and see that it got a fair trial. It was not to be a government according to our ideas, but a government that represented the feeling of the majority of the Filipinos, a government according to Filipino ideas.

That would have been a worthy mission for the United States. But now -- why, we have got into a mess, a quagmire from which each fresh step renders the difficulty of extrication immensely greater. I'm sure I wish I could see what we were getting out of it, and all it means to us as a nation.

 
The conflict with Aguinaldo and his guerrilla fighters in the Philippines seems to offer some foreshadowing of the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, the US became so caught up in a large, geopolitical goal (fighting Communism) it failed to realize that in the pursuit of this larger goal it was harming a smaller country full of proud people who desperately wanted to govern themselves and who were willing to fight a long war to set up a unified, independent Vietnam.



In annexing the Philippines, the US did much the same thing: looking towards large geopolitical goals like increasing the US commercial presence in East Asia, the US stopped the nationalist Philippines from pursuing its own independence. Not surprisingly, the Filipinos fought back. In fact, just as the Vietnam War became a subject of intense public dissent against illegal US infringement upon the sovereignty of a foreign nation, so too did the struggle in the Philippines have its Anti-Imperialists, who argued along similar lines.

http://www.sparknotes.com/]http://www.sparknotes.com/

The Anti-Imperialist argument was as follows. Since the Filipinos wanted freedom, annexing their homeland violated the basic American principle that just government derived from the "consent of the governed." Second, and perhaps more practically, the Anti-Imperialists felt that American territory in the Philippines would make it likely that events in Asia would involve the US in more conflicts and more wars.

The pro-Imperialist viewpoint succeeded because it appealed to the American public's sense of national honor and pride, as well as the jingoism taking hold in the period. From a business perspective, imperialists felt strongly that there were many opportunities for profit inherent in American possession of the Philippines. And of course, the imperialists proudly promised to "uplift" the "poor" Filipinos and satisfy the "white man's burden". (If only to simultaneously get something out of the bargain.)

The founders of the United States, who fought a revolution to end its own status as a colony of Britain, probably never expected that a little more than a century later the United States would take colonies of its own. From this perspective, America's imperialism during and after the Spanish-American War is quite a shock, which some have called the "Great Aberration." It is therefore not surprising that a strong resistance movement, the Anti-Imperialists, would rise up.

However, from another perspective, American imperialism in 1898 was not a sudden abandonment of anti-colonial tradition, but a was logical extension of commercial expansion, something the US had been doing throughout its history. The claim that the year 1898 was an aberration in American history are undermined by the facts.

Today, the biggest colonialist of recent history, Great Britain, has relinquished its last colony, Hong Kong. Meanwhile, America still possesses the protectorates of Guam and Puerto Rico, and still has naval bases in Cuba and the Philippines. In this sense, the imperialist effects of the Spanish-American War remain alive even in the present.

Filipinos did not assume that their nation was Spain's to give. They created a new constitution, but the United States refused to recognize the new republic, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, who had fought for independence as an ally of the United States.

In the United States were strategists who believed that if the United States did not hold the Philippines other powers, such as Germany and Japan, would rush in and take possession. The alternative of establishing an alliance with the Philippines that included defending it against an invasion by other powers was either not considered or rejected. There were those who favored annexing the Philippines for greater access to trade. And some missionaries favored annexation, although Filipinos were already largely Catholic.

On February 4, near Manila, fighting erupted when two US Army privates fired upon and killed three Filipino soldiers. On February 6 the US Senate ratified the Treaty of Paris, and on that day President McKinley signed the bill that made the Philippines a US possession by US law. In the early months of 1899, US troops pushed northward into the central Luzon plain. The force under Aguinaldo retreated into the northern mountains, where they began guerrilla warfare, which spread to various other islands in the Philippine Archipelago.

http://www.fsmitha.com/

 
Advocates of annexation portrayed the Philippines as markets in their own right and as the gateway to the markets of the Far East. Many Americans, including the president, were swayed by "the general principle of holding on to what we can get."


Cartoon lambasting the hypocritical and arrogant treatment of the Philippines by the U.S.
Source: By Joseph Morewood Staniforth (Wikimedia Commons)

A diverse group of politicians, business and labor leaders, intellectuals, and reformers spoke out against annexing the Philippines. Some based their opposition on legal and ethical concerns; for others, racial and ethnic prejudice formed the basis of their objections. In the end, swayed by a sense of duty and by practical concerns, McKinley authorized the purchase of the Philippines for $20 million. After a hard-fought battle in the Senate, the expansionists won ratification of the treaty in February 1899.

http://www.enotes.com/

How and why did the United States take control of the Philippines in 1898?

On April 20, 1898, a joint resolution of Congress recognized Cuban independence and authorized the president to use force to expel Spain from the island. The Teller Amendment disclaimed any intent to annex Cuban territory. The purpose of the war was to free Cuba, but the first battles were fought in the Far East, where, on April 30, Commodore Dewey defeated the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay.

By August, Americans occupied the Philippines. American forces won a swift victory in Cuba as well. Spain agreed to evacuate Cuba and to cede Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States. The fate of the Philippines was determined at the peace conference held in Paris that October.

Almost overnight, the United States had obtained a substantial overseas empire. Some Americans expressed doubts over the acquisition of the Philippines, but expansionists wanted to annex the entire archipelago.

And then I went to bed, and went to sleep, and slept soundly, and the next morning I sent for the chief engineer of the War Department (our map-maker), and I told him to put the Philippines on the map of the United States (pointing to a large map on the wall of his office), and there they are, and there they will stay while I am President!

Source: General James Rusling, “Interview with President William McKinley,” The Christian Advocate 22 January 1903, 17. Reprinted in Daniel Schirmer and Stephen Rosskamm Shalom, eds., The Philippines Reader (Boston: South End Press, 1987), 22â€"23.


William McKinley
25th U.S. President
William McKinley was the 25th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his assassination in September 1901, six months into his second term. (Wikipedia)

I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night. And one night late it came to me this wayâ€"I don’t know how it was, but it came:

(1) That we could not give them back to Spainâ€"that would be cowardly and dishonorable;

(2) that we could not turn them over to France and Germanyâ€"our commercial rivals in the Orientâ€"that would be bad business and discreditable;

(3) that we could not leave them to themselvesâ€"they were unfit for self-governmentâ€"and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain’s was; and

(4) that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God’s grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died.

US President William McKinley, on the Philippines:

Hold a moment longer! Not quite yet, gentlemen! Before you go I would like to say just a word about the Philippine business. I have been criticized a good deal about the Philippines, but don’t deserve it. The truth is I didn’t want the Philippines, and when they came to us, as a gift from the gods, I did not know what to do with them.

When the Spanish War broke out Dewey was at Hongkong, and I ordered him to go to Manila and to capture or destroy the Spanish fleet, and he had to; because, if defeated, he had no place to refit on that side of the globe, and if the Dons were victorious they would likely cross the Pacific and ravage our Oregon and California coasts. And so he had to destroy the Spanish fleet, and did it! But that was as far as I thought then.

When I next realized that the Philippines had dropped into our laps I confess I did not know what to do with them. I sought counsel from all sidesâ€"Democrats as well as Republicansâ€"but got little help. I thought first we would take only Manila; then Luzon; then other islands perhaps also.

A background

Spain never had an easy time in pacifying its Philippine colony and in the course of over three centuries of colonial rule, scarcely a year went by which did not witness rebellion in one form or another somewhere in the archipelago. The fragmented, insular nature of the country and the separate regional, ethnic and language groupings made it difficult to coordinate a nationwide anti-Spanish struggle, but at times the Filipinos came close to achieving a broad united front against the foreign foe. As early as 1587, for example, a secret society was formed in Manila by Magat Salamat which spread throughout Central Luzon to the Visayas and as far south as Borneo. This early movement was not typical, however, and it was to be more than 300 years before such unity of action was again achieved. Subsequent rebellions were commonly local or regional affairs, sparked by local conditions and grievances. Sometimes they lasted for a surprisingly long period of time, as in Bohol, where Spanish authority was denied for over eighty years. The Islamic areas of Mindanao and Sulu were never really conquered.

-The First Vietnam: The U.S.-Philippine War of 1899*
by Luzviminda Francisco (1973)
*With apologies to Mexicans, American Indians and other early victims of American imperialism.

[size=8]more at: http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/franciscofirstvietnam.html[/size]

Quote from: islander on May 26, 2015, 01:17:48 PM
Soon afterwards links and excerpts referencing that article were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered the item mistaking it for a genuine news report. However, the article was just a fictional spoof from the Adobo Chronicles ("Your source of up-to-date unbelievable news"), a Philippine-based web site whose "About" page notes that the nature of their content is creative writing, not news:

hahaha!  tira, to!

Self Service




Claim:   The American Psychiatric Association has classified the taking of 'selfies' as a mental disorder.




FALSE


Example:[Collected via e-mail, April 2014]

Is it true that taking selfies is a mental disorder? Lots of articles going around saying it is and/or that it can lead to narcissism and SUICIDE.


Origins:   On 31 March 2014, the Adobo Chronicles published an article positing that the American Psychiatric Association had classified the taking of 'selfies' (i.e., self-portrait photographs shared via social media) as a mental disorder:

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has officially confirmed what many people thought all along: taking 'selfies' is a mental disorder.

The APA made this classification during its annual board of directors meeting in Chicago. The disorder is called selfitis, and is defined as the obsessive compulsive desire to take photos of one's self and post them on social media as a way to make up for the lack of self-esteem and to fill a gap in intimacy.

Soon afterwards links and excerpts referencing that article were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered the item mistaking it for a genuine news report. However, the article was just a fictional spoof from the Adobo Chronicles ("Your source of up-to-date unbelievable news"), a Philippine-based web site whose "About" page notes that the nature of their content is creative writing, not news:

THE ADOBO CHRONICLES is your source of up-to-date, unbelievable news. Everything you read on this site is based on fact, except for the lies.

We abide by the highest standards of creative writing and intend to make this site as respectable as possible to the extent allowed by our fertile mind.

http://www.snopes.com/

Nash Equilibrium

by John Moriarty, Manchester University

Great new mathematical ideas have a balance to strike - they must be precise enough to allow detailed conclusions to be drawn, and yet sufficiently loose that they can be useful in a wide range of problems.

The Nash Equilibrium, for which he won a Nobel Prize, is just such an idea. It offered something truly new - the ability to analyse situations of conflict and co-operation and produce predictions about how people will behave.

Nash's famous equilibrium has grown to be perhaps the most important idea in economic analysis and has found application in fields as diverse as computing, evolutionary biology and artificial intelligence.

More recently it has been used in studies of corruption and also name-checked amidst the Greek financial crisis.

-Nash and game theory, by John Moriarty, Manchester University

http://www.bbc.com/

The President of Princeton, Christopher Eisgruber, said he was "stunned and saddened" to hear of their deaths.

"John's remarkable achievements inspired generations of mathematicians, economists and scientists who were influenced by his brilliant, groundbreaking work in game theory," he said.

Even this week, Nash received the Abel Prize, another top honour in the field of mathematics.

http://www.bbc.com/

Nash married Alicia Larde in 1957, after publishing some of his breakthrough works in game theory, which is the mathematical study of decision-making.

But he developed severe schizophrenia soon after, and Alicia had him committed for psychiatric care several times. The couple divorced in 1962.



"I was disturbed in this way for a very long period of time, like 25 years," Nash said in an interview on the Nobel website.

The two stayed close, and his condition had begun to improve by the 1980s. They remarried in 2001.


Nash and his wife attended the Oscars in 2002

The two were thrown from their vehicle, police said. Media reports said the couple may not have been wearing seatbelts when they crashed.

Their taxi driver, and a passenger in another car, were also injured.

'Genius'

Born in Bluefield, West Virginia, Nash first studied in Pittsburgh before moving to Princeton.

His recommendation letter contained just one line: "This man is a genius."

Russell Crowe, who played him, tweeted: "Stunned... My heart goes out to John & Alicia & family. An amazing partnership. Beautiful minds, beautiful hearts."

The film's director, Ron Howard, also tweeted his tribute to the "brilliant" John Nash and his "remarkable" wife.

Alicia Nash helped care for her husband, and the two later became prominent mental health advocates.


Game theorist John Nash (left) was portrayed by Russell Crowe in the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind

'Beautiful Mind' mathematician John Nash killed in crash

24 May 2015

US mathematician John Nash, who inspired the Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind, has died in a car crash with his wife, police have said.

Nash, 86, and his 82-year-old wife Alicia were killed when their taxi crashed in New Jersey, they said.

The mathematician is renowned for his work in game theory, winning the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994.

His breakthroughs in maths - and his struggles with schizophrenia - were the focus of the 2001 film.

sakto tuod sa?  hahaha!

natay-an na diay tingali ang axe.

at least they were not kidnapped.  whew.

as long as di law-ay, labi na alang sa mga bata nga moukab sa tb, i believe reyceniza has every right to post possible money-earning businesses or what he thinks may be helpful to others.  naa na nato ang individual decisions kun moabante ba ta.  to each his own risk, matod pa. 

morag di na pod tingali maayo ang plano nga suholan si mr webmaster aron tangtangon ang posts ni rey.  i believe too that it's beyond the webmaster to do that.   

so let's not look for problems where none exists.  this caveat of very successful businessmen continues to hold true, anyway: invest only what you can afford to lose.

was he ever compensated, at least?

glad this is just fiction.  juliet is two weeks shy of 14 years old and romeo's age is placed between 16 to 21.  in the current philippine setting, naa gyoy dunggan nga mabitas ani.  and romeo must (well, not really die)  rot in jail.

Chinese dredging vessels are purportedly seen in the waters around Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in this still image from video taken by a P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft May 21, 2015. REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Handout via Reuters

"US actions have posed threats to the security of Chinese maritime features, it is highly likely to cause unwanted incidents, it's highly irresponsible and dangerous. We are strongly dissatisfied with this."

He urged the US not to take "any risky and provocative actions", saying China would "take proper and necessary measures to guard against any harm to China's maritime features and incidents in waters and airspace," he added.

China's state broadcaster, CCTV, played part of the CNN footage showing the Chinese navy ordering the US plane out of the area with Chinese subtitles.

The US does not recognise China's claims to the artificial islands.

But China has repeatedly said it has "indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha islands and adjacent waters", using its name for the archipelago known as the Spratlys.

http://news.yahoo.com/

Chinese fishing vessels are seen anchored at Fiery Cross Reef -- part of the Spratly islands which are claimed partially or in their entirety by Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and Brunei (AFP Photo/)

"This is the Chinese navy... This is the Chinese navy... Please go away... to avoid misunderstanding," a voice can be heard telling the Americans.

The Chinese navy issued eight such warnings during the P-8's flight near Fiery Cross Reef, one of the sites of Beijing's land reclamation effort, CNN reported.

American pilots replied in each case that they were flying through "international airspace".

Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing in Beijing: "China garrison troops drove it away by radio in accordance with relevant regulations.

The US Navy has released video footage taken from the P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane, which received several warnings from the Chinese military to retreat as it flew over the South China Sea -- home to vital shipping lanes.

The footage showed a flotilla of vessels carrying out reclamation works in one lagoon, and an airstrip under construction on another island.

A CNN crew on board captured a tense radio exchange between the US aircraft and Chinese forces.

China declares victory in US surveillance overflight

AFP
May 22, 2015


The US Navy P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane received several warnings from the Chinese military as it flew over the South China Sea (AFP Photo/Carl Court)

China declared victory on Friday over an encounter with a US surveillance aircraft overflying the contested South China Sea, saying its military "drove away" the intruder with radio warnings.

Beijing is in the throes of a rapid land-reclamation programme in the area, building artificial islands and facilities including an airstrip -- raising tensions with Washington and the risk of a standoff on the high seas.

China regards almost the whole of the South China Sea as its own and the foreign ministry condemned the overflight as "highly irresponsible and dangerous", warning that such actions could cause "unwanted incidents".

Julia Gnuse, commonly known by the nickname The Illustrated Lady, born in 1959, has 95% of her body (including her face) covered in tattoos and holds the Guinness Record for being the most tattooed woman in the world. In her mid 30s, Gnuse developed porphyria, a condition in which sunlight results in blistering of the skin. As the blisters often result in scarring, she began getting tattoos as a way to cover up the scars. However, the tattoos do not prevent the skin from blistering as they are purely aesthetic.

She currently resides in Foothill Ranch, California. (wikipedia)

why, why, why?  gusto man diay niyang mahimong tabili, giusab na lang pod unta niya ang iyang nawong.

he's just drinking water, come on...

iabot ani nga ma-senior citizen si Domingo Chavez, ang pangulo sa Office of Senior Citizens Affairs.

mokiha gyod si bugsay.  ikaw bay mapusgay, lalim ba.  pero ang iya gyong kasuk-an kay wa siya pukawa.  that is what he could not take.

di ba agua de pataranta es su bebida favorita, herr hubag?  mi perfume es  pinot noir, muchachito region del sol querida.   

sayang di klaro sa news item kun diin gikan ang agulo sa menteryo; sa bakante ba nga nitso kay gihaya pa ang hintungdan o sa kilid ba sa lungon nga nabakante kay naglakawlakaw pa ang residente ani? 

aguruy, natarantar po ako sa tagalog ni lolla.

A group of 65 OFWs in Dubai are planning to take legal action but lawyers told them that it will be very difficult because they cannot identify the defendant.

“Bringing this down legally is more painful than we can imagine because we don’t know who the real people behind this scam are,” Muhammad Al Baradai, an Arab lawyer who was asked to represent the groups told local reporters.

“The damage is already done and we can’t do anything about it. The only thing we can do to stop this by telling people not to get involved. Those who already exited the table should have at least a conscience. The money they made is from other people who lost so they should be ashamed of themselves. We cannot blame the program if people keeps supporting it,” Atty. Hadadi, another Arab lawyer said.

“I already requested a refund twice by contacting the website admin but I am getting no response. I am very disappointed. The website keeps giving an error page when you tried to contact them”, Jeremy Chan from Taiwan added.

http://www.thephilippinepride.com/

“We visited the said address in Dubai but there was no one there. The neighboring office told us that they never heard about Emgoldex”, Fermin Carbajal, an engineer working in Dubai said. Carbajal lost more than P70,000 in two accounts.

Cavite balikbayan Celia Paterno said “I just don’t know how to get my money back. It’s been almost a year since I invested”.

“I hope other OFWs stop recruiting people because the more they recruit, more people are losing money. I almost joined last year and thanks God that I gave it two nights of thinking. My best friend who tried to recruit me lost her money because her table hasn’t been moving”, Lucinda from Laguna posted on Realscam.com.

“Other people are happy because they receive payment and alleged gold, but they don’t know that for every smile on their face, another fourteen people below the table are crying. Greed is taking a toll. This Emgoldex is no different from other billion-dollar scams since 2002”, a Talkgold.com member from Romania posted on the forum.

In one table or one group of 15 people, a total of  P525,000 is needed in order for the first person to exit with P180,000. This means that the first person makes P145,000 ROI while the other 14 people loses P35,000 each. Emgoldex on the other hand makes P345,000 for every exit.

“Victims are ashamed to reveal how much they lost so they prefer posting their problems on social media and scam forums”, an employee from SEC who refused to identify himself told TPP.

“I was told that I was going to receive gold after I put P35,000 without telling me that I had to recruit. It’s been 6 months and I receive nothing. I don’t know what to do to get my money back”, Jonas Garriel, a factory worker in Taiwan said.

“All six of us in our dormitory invested last September 2014. Until now, our up-line told us that our group is not moving so we asked to get our money back. Since then, our up-line, who already exited the table keep on ignoring us”, Jocelyn Pitogo, another factory worker in Taiwan said.

In the Philippines, SEC has already warned people from investing the company.

The company’s compensation and investment plan is binary. It means an investor cannot earn unless he recruit another members.

There are fourteen other slots to be filled under the first investor before he can exit from the table. In order to get a payout of P180,000, one must recruit two or more people in order to fill the other fourteen slots under him, especially if other people in his down-line has no recruit.

More OFW victims emerges as Emgoldex continues to scam investors 

05/19/2015 | Posted in Business and Finance



05/19/2015 â€" Manila | At least ninety eight OFWs voiced out their frustrations against the investment company Emgoldex that is operating in Middle East, Malaysia, and Taiwan. Realscam.com  and Talkgold.com reported that hundreds of people from other countries are asking for refund, but there is no detailed procedure on how to process a refund.

Emgoldex, an alleged investment company that has no physical office and has been operating for years has already amassed millions of dollars according to realscam.com â€" a website that monitors online scam programs.

kana ba, killed gyod ko ana...

hehehe, wa gyod tuoy lingaw ani si pablo picasso...

i want him to be my DI!

one, little two, little three, little aliens...

sa kakuwang ug mga baye sa china, giilogan pa gyod nila ning nawonga?

good luck to you then, rey.  truly i wish you well.

meanwhile, allow me to track online this mysterious company some more. 

it is noted from the videoclip that the "Unified Filipino Emgoldex Clients in the Philippines and Abroad", who could be anyone or any group using this unidentifiable term for faceless people, had this video produced by the Financial Freedom Institute (with address at 8 Yarra St, Hawthorn VIC 3122, Australia?).

it is thus so international.  according to the video, physical addresses of emgoldex are at mahe, seychelles and geneva, switzerland, with parent company Gold and Silver Physical Metals KG in munich, germany.  so why is this company not registered in the philippines so it can operate legally in the country?

According to Emgoldex websites, the company is based in Dubai and has a presence in the Seychelles and Amsterdam. It says it is the marketing arm of a Munich company called Gold and Silver Physical Metals, a trader of precious metals that was founded in 2008.
- (from http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/08/07/galvin-investigating-emgoldex-gold-selling-enterprise-that-sprung-wake-telexfree/Z2RcOGlpfnBjbx8ezSwrKP/story.html)[/i]

dubai in the uae and amsterdam in the netherlands have been added.

Quote from: islander on May 21, 2015, 02:12:35 AM
All businesses and investments require a certain degree of risk. The only thing guaranteed here is that you will lose your money in the end. Remember the caveat: If it is too good to be true, then it probably is.

It is not registered nor licensed

Worse, they do not have any physical office. Even if they do, it is somewhere where no one could verify its authenticity â€" even with Google maps.

Under Philippine law, a legitimate partnership or corporation should be duly registered with SEC. Also, any solicitation of funds from the public should have a license to do so under Section 8.1 of the Securities Regulation Code. Even their solicitors need to have a specific license to offer their investment.

The purpose of being registered is to have a governing body regulate operations. No registration, no license, no solicitation. No excuse.

A scam comes in any form or size: equity stakes, precious metals, oil, foreign exchange â€" anything that could lure investors has been and will be thought of.

But by equipping ourselves with knowledge, we will even the odds already. â€" Rappler.com

Pressure to invest now

Scammers will try to coax you into investing now. They will not allow you to “think about it”.

They will tell a (probably fictitious) story of how another person, who was pretty much in the same predicament as you, found a jackpot in this investment scheme. And that if he could rise out of poverty, then so could you.

Complex product or portfolio

You would often hear jargon as part of their explanation on how they make money. The premise is that the more highfalutin the words are, or the more complex a product is, the more unconvincing the investment is.

If the solicitor cannot translate his methodology or product in layman’s term, then he is more likely covering something up. Most of the time, people are afraid to ask questions. Do not be afraid. It is your money at stake.

High-return for little or no risk

The basic tenet in investing is the higher the return, the higher the risk as well. High returns do not constitute a scam, but if the solicitor promises you such guaranteed returns with absolutely no risk â€" and bets his entire life savings on it â€" turn him down.

All businesses and investments require a certain degree of risk. The only thing guaranteed here is that you will lose your money in the end. Remember the caveat: If it is too good to be true, then it probably is.

Red flags



A scam like Emgoldex Philippines has 4 tell-tale signs that should send investors running in the opposite direction:

Know thy scam

Generally, a scam can be classified into either Ponzi or pyramid.

At a glance, there is little difference between the two. Both are designed to fool unsuspecting (read: ignorant), or greedy investors into investing their money in exchange for hefty rewards.

The Ponzi scheme is named after the Italian immigrant Charles Ponzi who originated this type of scam. In a Ponzi type of investment, the solicitor, usually labelled as a financial expert, would solicit money from investors with the promise of extraordinary returns paid out in regular intervals. At the end of the contract period, the investor would get his principal back. This ruse encourages the investor to reinvest his money. After all, the solicitor made good on his promise.

What the investor did not know is that the money the solicitor paid him was from other investors and what he is paying the other investors is money solicited from other investors again. Trouble comes when he is paying out more than he is bringing in. By then, he simply collects the remaining money and disappears â€" forever.

In a pyramid scheme, however, the investor is required to recruit other investors, who in turn will recruit other investors. The amount paid is given to his recruiter. He will be able to recoup his investment through the other recruits he can bring in for the company.

Oftentimes, the investment will be justified as purchases for some revolutionary product; and the amount is but a small sum to partake of. In time, the pyramid will collapse as there are only a finite number of people who can join this scheme.

The apparent Dubai-based firm recruits investors to buy gold online and pays bonuses for referring friends and acquaintances.

Emgoldex has such the same enticing pitch as what its forebearers had. Emgoldex Philippines is promising high returns: for example, a P1,000 ($22.61) investment would earn profits ranging from P5,000 ($113.05) to P10,000 ($226.11) or a P35,000 ($791.40) would return P180,000 ($4,070.04) to P360,000 (8,139.77).

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) already warned the public against investing their money in Emgoldex Philippines, as it is not a registered corporation or partnership.

SEC stressed Emgoldex Philippines is not authorized to solicit investments from the public as it did not secure prior registration and/or a license or permit to solicit investments from the commission as required under Section 8.1 of the Securities Regulation Code.

Not all that glitters is gold

The lure of a quick return on investment momentarily blinds many, until they realize they are trapped in a scam

Kendrick Chua, RFP
Feb 21, 2015



It has all the ingredients of the next lucrative investment â€" or a scam.

Depending on who you talk to, either Emgoldex Philippines is your next ticket to financial freedom, as what the solicitors are claiming; or it is your next train ride to poverty.

But it is what Multitel did in 2001.

It is what FrancSwiss did in 2007.

It is what Aman Futures did in 2012.

And it is what Emgoldex is doing right now.

Emails sent to addresses on its website have also yet to get replies.

In the last 20 years, people have lost more than P80 billion to investment scams in the country.

These scams include Bancap in 1994 (P900 million); Multitel (P25 billion) and Mateo Management Group in 2002 (P4.3 billion); Tibayan Group in 2003 (P2 billion); Francswiss (P1 billion); Performance Investment Products Corp ($250 million) in 2007; and Legacy Group (P30 billion) and Royal Manchester Five Trading Corp. (P2 billion) in 2008; and Aman Futures Group in 2012 (P12 billion).

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/focus/02/17/15/what-you-must-know-about-emgoldex-pyramiding-scam

A cease and desist order had been imposed on Emgoldex in Massachusetts, US, and it has been banned in Finland, Colombia, Estonia, and Panama.

People who try to recruit "investors" in Emgoldex claim that the company is registered in Europe, but a complaint filed by Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin showed that it is registered in the Seychelles, an island nation off Africa.

ABS-CBN News called Emgoldex's alleged administrative office in the Seychelles to get its side but no one wanted to talk.

Lukban said the law requires any business to register in the Philippines if it will operate here.

"Kaya po natin pinare-rehistro ang mga kumpanya para makita natin, unang una, sino mga tao behind them," he explained. "Kung hindi po natin makita sa database, medyo mahihirapan po tayong habulin."

The National Bureau of Investigation, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and the Department of Trade and Industry are also investigating Emgoldex's pyramid scheme.

Investors are also urged to recruit at least two more people into the scheme.

The SEC said this is clearly a pyramiding scheme that can collapse at any time.

Emgoldex is also not a registered corporation or partnership in the Philippines, and is not legally allowed to collect investments from the public.

"Ito po sa pyramiding kung susuriin investment style, nire-require mag-recruit tapos may bonus," said SEC spokesman Atty. Gerard Lukban. "Kung sa pag-recruit ang payout kinukuha sa baba pag nag-collapse mawawalan ng kita."

What you must know about the Emgoldex pyramiding 'scam'

from a report by Zen Hernandez, ABS-CBN News
02/17/2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNJ3yQFwf1A

Emgoldex banned in US, 4 other countries

MANILA - People who illegally sell securities or financial products without registration in the Philippines face a P5-million fine and a 21-year prison term, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned Tuesday.

This, amid the furor regarding the Emgoldex pyramiding scheme that promises to make anyone rich.

Emgoldex recruiters claim that an investment of P1,000 will yield P5,000 to P10,000, while an investment of P35,000 can turn into P180,000 to P360,000.

"Yung ibibigay nila sa’yo galing din sa mga taong na-engganyo mo. Papano po pag wala nang sumali?" he said.

An employee of Emgoldex Philippines, meanwhile, denied allegations that it is a fake company, saying the company is registered in Germany. The firm has yet to issue an official statement.

SEC said companies found selling unregistered securities in the Philippines may face penalties amounting to P15 million, and its officers may face imprisonment of up to 21 years. -- Report from Zen Hernandez, ABS-CBN News

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/02/16/15/why-sec-issued-warning-vs-emgoldex-philippines

An overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Seoul, South Korea said he was lured to invest P36,500 in Emgoldex Philippines because of the gold bars being sold by the company.

The OFW said many of his co-workers were also lured to invest a month’s salary for the opportunity to earn P180,000 to P360,000 from their investments.

However, he said he is starting to have doubts on the scheme.

The SEC added that the website of Emgoldex Philippines does not indicate a Philippine address, but only contact numbers.

"SEC has a regulation sa mga kumpanya. Kung wala sa database, mahirap habulin. Kapag dito nagco-close ng deals, may jurisdiction tayo,” said SEC spokesperson Gerard Lukban.

SEC said the investment scheme also involves a pyramiding-style scheme that requires investors to look for two more investors.

"Ito po sa pyramiding kung susuriin ang investment-style, nire-require mag-recruit tapos may bonus. Ang networking, ‘di masama per se kung ang puhunan ay sa sipag sa pagbebenta kinukuha, pero kung sa pag-recruit ang payout ay kinukuha sa baba, pag nag-collapse mawawalan ng kita. Eventually, magco-collapse kung walang produktong binebenta,” said Lukban.

i'm sorry to burst some balloons here, rey.  a few clicks of the mouse showed the following items:


Why SEC issued warning vs Emgoldex Philippines

ABS-CBNnews.com
02/17/2015

Firm denies it's a fake company, says it's registered in Germany

MANILA â€" The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a warning against a company that is luring investors through claims of huge returns.

The firm, Emgoldex Philippines, is looking for investors through its “Pinoy Style Patak Patak,” a scheme that involves the promise of high returns where an investment of P1,000 can earn profits of P10,000, or an investment of P35,000 can yield P180,000 to P360,000.

However, SEC said Emgoldex Philippines is not a registered corporation or partnership and is not authorized to collect investments from Filipino investors.

and after all is said and done, can we expect legislative investigations again into how they were helped? 

those legislators who are too aware of the tv coverage of investigations never run out of things to investigate.  it's time for them to switch careers and join the NBI or the tv comedians.

Quote from: hubag bohol on August 14, 2014, 01:53:31 PM

hurot na akong bilib.  can beat humankind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD2Mb8pM6E8

After Holly dismounts ace drops onto Dai for a congratulatory cuddle after their trick

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Holly gets he balance on her owner's right foot to complete one of their plethora of clever tricks

Ace, Dai and Holly in the park, where they hone their skills and bond every morning and evening in Sydney

Ace and Holly both came into former personal trainer Dai's life as rescue dogs

Ace first climbs onto Aoki's foot while Holly waits patiently for her turn to join in the fun

Australian dog trainer takes downward dog to a whole new level by doing yoga with his clever border collies Ace and Holly

Dai Aoki's two border collies Ace and Holly can do a myriad of tricks

New video shows how they help their owner during his yoga workout

Former fitness instructor Aoki got his furry friends as rescue dogs

By MICHAEL GADD FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 8 May 2015


Dai Aoki pulls off a yoga move with his dogs Ace (left) and Holly (right) balancing on the soles of his shoes

quote from hubag,
LITERAL TRANSLATION:

Saba diha, nunca diga mi chica, ha? Si no mi rapido sus pompas enseguida.
SABA DIHA, NEVER SAY  MY GIRL, HA? IF NOT MY FAST YOUR FUNERAL SOON.

niunong intawon si mingkay.  good boy, mingkay.

Quote from: hubag bohol on October 08, 2013, 05:00:00 PM
Pananglitan sa English: WHERE are you going? WHERE did you came from? WHERE are you now?

sipjat pa jud.  hinaot typographical error ra ni.

caramba, raguna gyod ka uy.  mas rapido ang di minolde, para tu informacion.

Nepal 7.3 earthquake, 12 May 2015

Rescue team members walk on a collapsed house after another powerful earthquake struck, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photograph: Hemanta Shrestha/EPA

The US Geological Survey said the 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck 52 miles (83km) east of Kathmandu, close to Mount Everest. Tuesday’s quake was one-fifth as powerful as the magnitude-7.8 that struck last month.

As many as 66 people from Nepal, India and Chinese Tibet are believed dead as a result of the tremor.

At the last government estimate, more than 1,100 are believed to be injured. Both estimates are expected to climb as hard-hit rural villages contact officials.

more at http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/may/12/nepal-earthquake-74-tremor-hits-near-mount-everest-live-updates