I have a dream

MANILA: I am writing this with apologies to Martin Luther King who delivered his earth-shaking speech, "I Have A Dream," on 28 August 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC ("Top 100 Speeches," undated, American Rhetoric, americanrhetoric.com). King is an authentic hero who wanted his people liberated from their individual and social slavery – 50 years later, it's still a dream.

And I? I have a dream, and then another. One is an authentic dream to liberate my people from their presidential myopia that they don't realize they have. Two is to liberate my people from their Internet slavery!

"Slow PH Internet hurts businesses," says CNN (Cecille Lardizabal & Pia Bonalos, 26 November 2015, cnnphilippines.com). "House panel blames gov't for slow Internet speed" (Ryan Ponce Pacpaco, 10 January 2016, journal.com.ph). "I feel slow Internet pain, too, says Roxas" (Marlon Ramos, 07 March 2016, investphilippines.info).

Anyway, finally, at home they installed a PLDT Home Bro ULTERA yesterday, Sunday, 20 March 2016, right after lunch, and the speed test said 3 mbps download, 2 mbps upload. That's still turtle pace, but much, much faster than we were having with SmartBro, the best of which was 0.2 mbps download. Goodbye, SmartBro, hello ULTERA! (I don't know about the RA, but ULTERA is acronym for Ultrafast Long Term Evolution, which is a 4G wireless communications standard designed to provide up to 10x the speeds of 3G networks for mobile devices, according to Webopedia. For the image above, I shot the brand new ULTERA router, supplied free, on top of our HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 1515 white printer.)

That was yesterday. At speedtest.net, this morning at 0820 hours Ookla says our Internet speed is 1.98 mbps download, 1.79 mbps upload. Anyway, I'm a cockeyed optimist, so I will take 3 mbps download and 2 mbps upload as our best speed now. Comparing with our 4-year old SmartBro speed which was 200 kbps at its fastest download, ULTERA is superfast.

Now, combining my dreams, I'm going for 1 million jobs a year and 1 trillion bps for my country. Crazy. If you have to dream, why not crazy?

I no longer want Internet Philippines to be the slowest in Asia. I saw this list in today's Ed Quisumbing's Facebook sharing from The Controversial Files:

3.7 mbps, Philippines

5.1 mbps, Myanmar

5.6 mbps, Laos

7.45 mbps, Indonesia

7.56 mbps, Malaysia

9.42 mbps, Cambodia

18.5 mbps, Vietnam

20.63 mbps, Thailand

24.2 mbps, average global

30.5 mbps, China

73.3 mbps, USA

103.2 mbps, Japan

133.1 mbps, Singapore

Nakababain. Shame on us Filipinos.

I believe we can have that lightning-speed Internet if we abolish the NTC, which has proven inutile in all its life. Their excuse is that their hands are tied – I say they should be hogtied.

I dream of additional 1 million jobs a year. Every year. And that means I'm voting for Mar Roxas, the only one who has a Vision for his country.

Here's the catch: Because if you want 1 million jobs additional every year, that will have to be mostly virtual jobs, and the Internet is your genie in disguise. If you have this slow Internet, you will have an additional of only a thousand jobs a year, a thousand times underachievement.

Why not 1 trillion bps? That will insure Mar Roxas' dream of 1 million jobs a year. I like a dreamer like him.

Is Mar Roxas perfect? No. is he the ideal candidate for President? No. But he is the best among the lot, and that includes the women.

I don't like a plainly corrupt politician as head of my country.
I don't like a thug with no vision for his country except death to criminals.
I don't like an American lady as President of the Philippines, my Philippines.
I have admiration for the other lady, but I think she is too good to be President!

I dream of the best man. And I dream of the best Internet speed! And they are meant for each other.

I thank the Lord the Internet today is my world. Since 2007, I have found the Internet my best buddy for writing. Proof? Visit my one-stop blog, A Magazine Called Love (blogspot.com). You will find there my claim: "Frank H, world's most highly original, creative writer online." If you say you have read all my essays continuously in 20 days, you are lying. There are 2020 essays there of a minimum 1000 words each. 2,020,000 words.

And thanks for the HP mouses – I have 2 mouses, the left and the right, as I am ambidextrous. The mouse is my writing companion. And thanks for the A4Tech external keyboard, the small one, the one that is truly ergonomic, which goes well with my Lenovo laptop everywhere I go. The Microsoft ergonomic keyboard is a pretender. And thanks for Windows 10, which is very fast and very beautiful. And thanks for Word 2013, which is very supportive of a creative mind like mine – for instance, you should learn Outlining, an unbeatable feature for writing and editing, Format Shadow Effects, a handy feature for blogging, and Bookmarks, an indispensable feature for desktop publishing.

And for all that, I am 76, thank God! At the peak of my creativity. I think superfast, so I need an Internet connection that is as fast, if not faster.

I must be at the peak of my powers as a writer, editor, and author's editor, not to mention as desktop publisher (layout artist). So don't give me the bullshit that the NTC have their hands tied. I want the NTC abolished so we can have our Internet freedom. I want out of the withering injustice of slow Internet, I want a daybreak from this long night of NTC captivity.

The Internet came to the Philippines in 1994 (Wikipedia). Some 22 years later, the Philippines lives on lonely islands of slow Internet in the midst of a vast ocean of blistering Internets in other countries.

I say that all men, including Filipinos, must be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of a superfast Internet!

Learning from Martin Luther King, yes, we have come to the point to remind this country of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of the Internet.

Oh no, I'm not selling my vote; rather, I'm selling my dream.

Oh yes, I dream of the fulfillment of the promise of Mar Roxas of 1 million jobs additional every year for the next 6 years. I'm pinning my hopes on that campaign promise. And I don't think I will be disappointed because, after all, he is the Father of the Call Center Industry in the Philippines. I'm excited, because I know that he has to make the information superhighway not only the right road (daang matuwid) but more so the fast road (daang matulin)!