Yesterday, Molotov cocktails killed a policeman trying to keep order.
The day before saw oil spread on the roads so that cars would slip and slide and collide with each other.
When police in the UK act to suppress mob violence with tear gas or water cannon, the Western press refers to it as riot control.
When police in Bahrain try to control destructive thugs with the same batons as used in the UK or America, the police are castigated for torture.
When police in the West face protestors who resist, they use pepper spray and tasers to quell the violence.
When police in Bahrain attempt to quell violence with tear gas, they are accused of using excessive force.
When Western journalists write stories about demonstrations, the public gets the seamy side of a response.
When Bahrain denies visas to journalists, they know those journalists only report what’s sordid.
When New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof writes that Bahrain “represents a brutal, family-run dictatorship…” he’s surprised when he gets called for that untruth.
When Western reporters refer to the monarchs in Arabia, they consistently call them dictators. They know, full well, the negative connotations of their choice of words.
When Western journalists refer to monarchs or members of royal families in Europe or Asia, they respectfully call them king or queen or prince and princess.
When the Western media refers to Middle Eastern royal families and their supporters, they refer to them less pleasantly as regimes.
When the Western media refers to the families of Western royals, they respectfully label them royalty.
What right do Western journalists have to belittle countries that they have never lived in and know little about?
What right have members of the Western media to accept unverified reports of events?
What right have Westerners to prescribe democracy for countries with governance that has been better than democracies?
What right have Western democracies to assume that their democracies are the best form of government for all?
What right do members of Western democracies have to pretend that their system of government is faultless when it suffers from gridlock that prevents anything from being achieved?
What right have Western democracies to pretend that their system of government is the best when they have never measured it against other systems?
Why doesn’t the press challenge contradictory American statements about being “in lockstep with Israel” while simultaneously calling for a “diplomatic solution”?
Why doesn’t the press report that America’s removal of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq is meant to deploy them and surround Iran in support of an Israeli strike?
Why do journalists interview only a few protestors while ignoring staunch defenders of the realm?
Why does Reporters without Borders complain about journalists being refused visas when those reporters haven’t reported fairly?
Why do Western media lie repeating the slogan “Reporting all the news from all angles” when they know they don’t?
Why don’t Western media anchors and reporters start doing what they claim they do? Why don’t they report ALL the news from ALL angles?
Credit card fraud in RP remains manageable – BSP.(Business)
Manila Bulletin June 27, 2005 Byline: LEE C. CHIPONGIAN The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said the local credit card industry has assured monetary authorities that they have taken “significant” steps to make sure credit card scams or fraud are contained to manageable incidents.
The assurance follows news reports in the US that MasterCard International, the worlds second largest card network, suffered a security breach at one of its payment and data processing units, which put at risk 40 million cardholder accounts worldwide. in our site dillards credit card
BSP Deputy Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said local credit card providers have put in place procedures to detect threats to their security systems, or alert devices to prevent fraud.
“Card companies here have taken the appropriate steps to protect their customers from any security breach, such as what took place in a credit card servicing center in the US,” Tetangco told reporters. “(They) have advised their clients that in case they notice an item in their statement or purchase they did not make, they should report this or file a complaint as soon as possible,” he added.
However, Tetangco said that in case credit card companies here have been affected “to a certain extent” by the MasterCard incident, then appropriate actions to prevent it from spreading is already at work.
“If ever there is an impact it will just be a minimal effect and even if theres an effect there is already a procedure by which a cardholder can contest any suspicious or false transactions (in his/her credit card account),” Tetangco said.
Wire reports pointed to a computer hacker accessing 40 million credit card accounts in the US last week, another hit on the industrys consumer data. go to site dillards credit card
MasterCard said the breach was traced to Atlanta-based CardSystems Solutions Inc., which processes credit card and other payments for banks and merchants.
In the Philippines, credit card fraud is mostly in the form of stolen cards or duplication of accounts. However these are traceable almost immediately since every cardholder accounts have daily limits to their transactions. For example, when a credit card purchase exceeds 50 percent of their daily limit, the credit card company immediately informs the account holder to verify the transactions.
The credit card business is governed under Republic Act 8484 or the Credit Card Law. The E-Commerce Law or RA 8792 is also an accompanying law. Both laws slap penalties of up to P100, 000 for credit card fraud and a maximum jail term of 20 years.
But both laws need to be amended to update regulations since credit card fraud are now more technology-savvy.
There are 3.5 million credit card holders in the country. Visa International is the biggest credit card provider followed by MasterCard.
As of end-December 2004, BSP data showed that total credit card receivables inclusive of credit card subsidiaries of the banking industry reached P69.3 billion, up by 10.9 percent from last quarters P62.5 billion and by 17.4 percent from P59 billion in 2003.
Commercial banks accounted for 68.8 percent or P47.6 billion of the total CCRs. Subsidiaries of these banks accounted for 27.5 percent or P19.1 billion while non-linked Thrift Banks held the remaining 3.7 percent or P2.6 billion.
The combined past due CCRs of both commercial and thrift banks rose by 3.5 percent to P14.5 billion from last quarter and by 1.5 percent from last year.
CCRs come from purchase of goods and services, cash advances, annual membership and renewal fees and interests, penalties, insurance fees, processing and service fees and other charges.
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