Sunday, June 8, 2008

Was there a scam? Part 1

Mayen, A Good Filipina Image?



If you played the video, what you have just seen is a video posted on You Tube for the public to see. I was led here by the links provided here. Now, if you are subscriber of You Tube, you have the choice to set your videos to private or public. It’s obvious that the blogger wanted this to be viewed by the public. You may watch the rest of the videos here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgS8jP7M4wQ




What’s in the language?

“Conned by a Filipina”, decided to portray Mayen as the victim in this “supposed scam” in an entry posted on Filipina Images with a tagline “reshaping the Filipina Images online”. My initial reaction was that some Filipina conned somebody, yet I am on an advocacy blog that seems to promote good images of Filipinas.



  • To reshape the Filipina image – is a wonderful advocacy. But one has to be clear why they were reshaping it and what is the final objective image were they trying to mold.


  • To popularize the Filipina image, especially is you use the tricks of the SEO strategy becomes an SEO project.



Would one be able to change or reshape the Filipina image by using SEO strategy? I’d be very interested to find out.



What’s the moral of the story?

The entry and the video were confusing as to the moral story that it was trying to impart in re-shaping the Filipina image. That Filipinas are con artists? Whatever the desire to pursue Mayen for an interview seemed to be obvious for me. Was it was for traffic? She was not the perfect model to present a good Filipina Image. Much to the chagrin of Tim, the interview did not even touch one very important matter. The scar. The blog responded that they were not in search of the truth and they were not trying to re-shape the Filipina image. Huh?!



Be that as it may, but from the good Filipina image standpoint, there was no sense whatsoever to trumpet what’s obvious about Mayen that was known to the interviewer. It’s a story that runs counter to the blog’s cause and advocacy, which according to one entry, “this is an advocacy blog and news site”.


What is an advocacy?

Advocacy - giving aid to cause: active verbal support for a cause or position [14th century. Via Old French advocacie < medieval Latin advocatia < Latin advocatus] and an Advocate - 1. somebody giving support: somebody who supports or speaks in favor of something a tireless advocate of social reform 2. helper: somebody who acts or intercedes on behalf of another.


Let me pick up what Cat said: “In simple language and from the Webster Dictionary, it means to support a cause.” What is the “cause”? It seemed to me that based on the blogs’ contents, they seemed to impart that there must be some distorted Filipina image they’re trying to fix and that’s what the advocacy is running after. My question now is what kind of moral lesson did we get from the video? What morality is it trying to impart? Is it uplifting the Filipina image? My answers were all negative.


The website eventually came out with an entry trying to be clear about their definition. In a recent entry, they said, it’s now an SEO project.


What is an SEO?

While there are tons of SEO definitions on the web, here’s one that I like. “SEO is the attempt to modify something about your Web site to improve the quality of your organic or algorithmic rankings at the big search engines,” says Eric Peterson, a JupiterResearch senior analyst. In SEO, for the most part, there is an over-emphasis on positioning, which is, getting that number 1 or top spots. Unfortunately, getting a higher position does not necessarily mean that you’ll close the deal (if you’re a business), or get new subscriber/reader, if you’re a blogger. It takes a lot more work and strategy to turn the new visitor into a regular or close a deal. Businesses use SEO to either promote their product or initiatives. Turning the new visitors into regular customers is another business strategy.


The question now becomes, could you use SEO to change the Filipina Image online? So, now you were able to put Filipina Image on top of the chart. Now, what? Will it change the perception of the Filipina image if your website is number one?


Taglines don’t mean anything to a blog other than bringing some text aesthetics or a magnet welcome mat. It’s a come on. If one wants to find out what a blog is, you have to look at the contents of the blog and not what the blogger trumpets it to be. No matter how much one promotes let’s say a rabbit as mouse, it’s not a rabbit. It’s a mouse. Even if you take out the Lexus logo and put it on a BMW, the BMW does not become Lexus. It’s still BMW. It’s in the totality of the contents of the blog that defines a blog. Not the tagline. Not what the website wants it to be defined.


It seemed more appropriate to say the least that Tim actually did a pretty good SEO job in blanketing the Internet with Tierra Maria Estates with every available scam stories.


What is a news site?

Forget about the blog being a News Site for it did not show a balance between Mayen and Tim’s story. From what we all know, a news site is a web site with the primary purpose of reporting news. There are two main types of news site: general news and subject-specific. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News site. There are some news sites that are known for being one sided. There are also news sites that are factual and well balanced.


What seemed to be missing in the entry?



1.) A balanced discussion.


Instead, what you will read is a lot of name-dropping. Let me show you:


"My sister-law/doctor used to work there"


Was it because the sister in law works there or the sister in law was a doctor that the scam was impossible to happen? Was the sister in law who is a doctor relevant to the happening or not happening of the scam? Which is which?



"The Sir Francis you mentioned is a neighbor of mine in a Makati Village I used to live"


Was it because Sir Francis being a neighbor that the scam was impossible to happen? Or was it because she lived in a Makati Village? Which is which?



"My best friend knows Chinchin, the celebrity endorser who is Christian"


Ok, so all Christians are incapable of doing a crime? Or is it because you have friends who are friends of celebrities, which is why the scam was impossible to happen. Which is which?



Ok, so it’s only Php100k? Meager amount and is therefore not a scam? Does the amount of money defines the existence or the non-existence of a scam? A scam is equal opportunity. It could show in a Php0.01 transaction to over Php90,000 and beyond. Ask any auditor or anyone with an auditing background.



2.) The scar.

The scar could have very well resolved the entire saga. Tim needs to be reassured that this was legitimate. The scar will tell the truth but as Tim has been writing in his journal, Mayen could have shown it right there. Remember, he does not believe that the ectopic pregnancy ever happened and everything else related to that.



To this day, the question was: was there a scar? Yes, it was shown by Mayen but was challenged by Tim as nothing more than pentel pen marks. Thus, the interview that was done was not much of assistance to Tim. The more he is convinced about the scam because it was the perfect time for Mayen to prove the scar.



TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Related entries:
1.) Moral righteousness, Part 1
2.) Moral righteousness, Part 2

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