Bob Martin

Living in a country other than your own opens all sorts of windows that you did not have in your home country. The “window” that I want to talk about today is having friends from all over the world.

I never really thought about this topic until about a year ago. I have an American friend that I have known for years who lives in Iligan. We knew each other in the States before either of us moved over here too. Well, about a year ago, my friend told me that he and his wife were going to come to Davao for a visit. We were quite happy that they were coming, as it was their first time to visit Davao. We had been to Iligan a few times, but this would be their first trip to Davao. My friend, Marc, told me that a few other friends would be coming along on the trip too.

Well, when they showed up at the house, I was surprised that there was Marc, an American, and also people from Switzerland, Australia and Haiti! My goodness, what an International Crowd we had. This got me thinking about friendships. I realized that I now had friends from countries all over the world. When I lived in the USA, almost all of my friends were Americans. Those who were not Americans were immigrants to America, and thus were “becoming” Americans.

I find it nice to have an International group of friends. It opens up my eyes and helps me understand things differently. Maybe my view is still very American, but at least I can see other sides of the issue, and consider those other opinions.

Of course, living in the Philippines, most of my friends are Filipino.  I have a large number of ex-pat friends too, though.  Of my ex-pat friends, probably half are American and the rest are from all over the world.

So, as you can see, moving outside your own country really does open many culturally different windows of opportunity.  It’s a learning experience to say the least!  I believe that it broadens the way you think, and makes you a more interesting person.

General Santos City (29 March) — Smile at life…in the Philippines!

Retired Police Director General Edgar Aglipay, chairperson of the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) proudly enunciated the agency’s battle cry shoving the Philippines as retirement hub in the world.

“We have this branding because Filipinos are by nature happy people and it is the kind of service Filipinos provide - from the heart,” he explained.

PRA, a government-owned and controlled corporation supports the Philippine economy through the foreign currency remitted by foreign nationals to the country.

As lead government agency, Gen. Aglipay said PRA “has a mandate to attract foreign nationals, 35 years and above and former Filipino citizens to retire in the Philippines.”

He said its (PRA) program particularly aimed at those retirees born after World War II whom he described as “baby boomers,” and who, according to him have “a great deal of income.”

Aglipay believes that the Philippines has the best features in store for retirees, namely: climate, safety, proximity to medical supplies, highly skilled and caring people, low-cost living, natural attractions, and desirable facilities.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared the Philippine retirement industry as a key flagship program armed with the belief that the “country will benefit a lot if the potential of the retirement industry can be harnessed.”

Committed to help the government accelerate “socio-economic development; contribute to foreign currency reserve; and provide in a most attractive package the best quality of life to its foreigner-retirees,” PRA expects to generate thru its program $44B which is expected to snowball by end of 2015.

Aside from that, it also anticipates to pump employment to benefit some 4 million Filipinos. Aglipay was also confident that the program will bring about “reverse migration” and might even convince highly skilled workers and professionals to opt to stay in the Philippines rather than seek employment abroad.

“Last year was a very good year for PRA. The enrollees for special resident visitor’s visa (SRRV) have increased compared to 2004 and 2005,” Gen. Aglipay intoned.

The SRRV is a special visa that allows the holder to stay in the Philippines for one year, from the date of arrival in the Philippines.

All foreign nationals, except those classified as “restricted” by the Department of Foreign Affairs, are eligible to join the program, he stressed as he prodded “marketers and facilities to renew their accreditation for year 2007.”

“We are now working on the different incentive schemes for marketers who enroll more retirees in the program, and for facilities that would attract more retirees to invest in their properties for the coming year,” Aglipay added.

PRA, the retirees’ “home away from home” has participated in different international and local travel and trade expo to promote the retirement program of the Philippine Government.

It also provides assistance to enrollees in facilitating the processing of their application papers, investments and other business transactions in the country.

Aglipay said a retiree can choose to invest their required deposit through the following means: purchase of a condominium unit; subscription of shares of stocks in a non-traded Philippine corporation; purchase of shares of stock in existing corporations registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and selected corporations traded in the Philippine Stock Exchange; long-term lease of a parcel of land or house and lot; construction of a residential unit on a leased parcel of land; and purchase of proprietary shares in golf clubs.

But he said his agency has special offer for former Filipinos “because they can purchase a lot not exceeding 5,000 square meters in urban areas or three hectares in rural areas to be used for business or other purposes.”

Aglipay has been touring the entire country to scout for viable sites where PRA can establish facilities to boost the number of destination areas for the visiting retirees.

“There are lots of existing properties available for retirement facility development that are found in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao,” he revealed.

For Region XII, he said he is eyeing a particular area in Maasim, Sarangani and Tambler, General Santos City as potential retirement havens. “Both areas have their own unique potential that can be developed into some kind of amenities for this purpose.”

Aglipay was accompanied by Sarangani Governor Migs Dominguez and Col. Willie Dangane during his tour of Sarangani-GenSan over the weekend. (PIA SarGen)

OK, let’s wrap up our series about setting up an entertainment system!  So, you have the computer that you will use for the system, you have the TV set that you will use.  You have the computer set up with Azureus or some other Bit Torrent client so that you can download shows to watch, and you have the software needed to watch the shows.  You are all set, except one thing.  All you need to do is to hook it all up!

This part is simple.  When you chose your computer and TV set you made sure to get equipment that had matching connections, right?  That’s what I had said on my earlier post.  So, if you are going to go with a system the same as mine, you will use S-Video connection between the TV and Computer.  Just run an S-Video cable between the two components, then connect an audio cable between them as well.  After that - you’re done and ready to start watching TV shows!  It’s that simple.  If you chose another connection method like VGA or RCA cables, just do the same thing with the type of cables that you chose.

Start downloading TV shows, movies whatever you want to watch through your Bit-Torrent client, then you will be ready to start watching.

It’s not easy to explain all this in writing, it would be much easier to explain it face to face.  Because of this, I don’t doubt that some people didn’t really get the whole thing.  If you are one of those - no need to be shy about it - just post a comment with any questions that you may have, and I’ll do my very best to answer for you.

Have fun with your new entertainment setup!  Now, you can watch your favorite shows no matter where in the world you are!

OK, now you have purchased all the equipment you need, you’ve download a Bit Torrent program, and have started downloading shows that you want to watch.  Once you have finished downloading a few shows, though, there is a new challenge:  how will you play the shows?

Most downloaded shows are AVI files, or WMV files.  Personally, I use Windows Media Player to view the files, but there are other players you can use too.  Windows Media Player is included with Windows.  Probably if you just double click on the file you wish to watch, Windows Media Player will open it automatically.

If you aren’t using Windows as your Operating System, there are players for other Operating Systems too.  If you use Linux, I have found that Kaffiene works great.  If you are  using Mac, there is a program, although I don’t know the name.  Certainly for Mac, just double click the file, and the proper program will open up automatically.

Here is a tip for those using Windows Media Player - once the program has started, just hit <alt+enter> and the program will go full screen.  When you do that, it looks like regular TV, not like a computer playing the program.

OK, after you have the computer that you will use for your entertainment system, and the monitor or TV set, it’s time for software.

The best kind of software you can use for downloading TV Shows, Movies and the like is software that will let you take advantage of Bit Torrent technology. What is Bit Torrent? It is a system where you download large files in small chunks from different people on the network who all have the file. For example, let’s just say that you are doing to download last week’s episode of “24″. If you go to a bit torrent site and look at the list of shows that are available for download, it will show statistics about the show. It will tell you how many “Seeders” there are and how many “Leechers” there are. A Seeder is a person who has the entire show and is sharing it with everybody else. A Leecher is somebody who only has a portion of the show, and is downloading the rest of it (he is also sharing the parts that he has). The more Seeders there are, the better for you, because you can have a better and quicker download. Once you have finished downloading the show, it’s best if you can leave it on your drive and share it with others for a few days at least, to contribute to the community.

OK, so how can you join in this Bit Torrent community? Well, you need software! There are a number of different programs to choose from. The one I like to use is called Azureus. If you click on the link, you can download Azureus for your own use. After downloading Azureus, install it on your computer, and you are about ready to go!

Next step, you will need to go to a site where you can choose what shows to download. Here are the sites that I use:

• Mininova: I like Mininova because it has a wide variety of different TV Shows, Music and other things available for download. Last year, I almost switched to another site because Mininova became very slow, but they have upgraded their hardware and it’s performance is quite good now.
• IsoHunt: IsoHunt also upgraded it’s hardware in the past few months. Another good site for fining available Bit Torrents. I like Mininova better, though.
• EZTV: For the very best in TV shows available for download, EZTV beats them all. The only thing you’ll find here are TV shows, but if that is what you want, you need to check out this one!

Basically, just go to any of these sites, and when you find items that you want to download, just click the download link, and Azureus will automatically start downloading. When the download is complete, a little box will pop up and tell you that the download is finished. Remember, these files are huge (300 Mb to 4 Gb), so downloads take time. On average, it might take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to download a file. But, you can have multiple downloads going at once, so it’s OK. For popular shows, where there are a lot of Seeds available on the Bit Torrent, you can generally download a one hour program in about 2 or 3 hours or so.

Happy Downloading!