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3 Cost Effective Ways to Solve Metro Manila's Traffic Problem

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The Facebook page of ANC 24/7 is asking for its reader's suggestion on how to solve Metro Manila's traffic problem. This got me thinking, "what is the best way to solve Metro Manila's traffic problem?" It's easy to make suggestions, what's hard is the implementation and the cost of implementation. So what is the the best way to solve Metro Manila's traffic problem and the most cost effective solution? Punitive Fines Add caption First of all, any implementation will definitely cost money, a lot of money. The cause of the traffic mess is the people themselves so it's only right that those causing the traffic problem should be fined and the fine should hurt. That way, the fines will pay for the cost of enforcing the law. The fines should start at P500 and goes up every week if you don't pay it within 15 days. To enforce this and prevent people from ignoring the fine. It will be tied to their driver's license or car registr

Batibot

Remember the kids show Batibot? I used to hate that show. I grew up with Sesame Street and at the time, most shows were in English. Even the news programs were in English like those news programs with Tina Monson-Palma (I'm aging myself).

For background, Batibot was first called "Sesame!". Batibot was made by the same company that made Sesame Street but for the Philippine market. It started out as Sesame! in 1984 and later renamed as Batibot.

When it came out, It was in Tagalog. I was shocked! Shocked that a show with muppets and a kids show at that was in Tagalog. I was even more shocked when they stopped showing Sesame Street and hated the fact that they changed it to a Tagalog version of Sesame Street.

I used to hate watching Tagalog shows and never watched any of them. That's why I hated Sesame! But as it went on and later renamed to Batibot, it started to grow on me. It was a high quality show and there was no argument on that. It was very child friendly and the cast was great as they were all veteran stage actors. The main muppets, Kiko Matching and Pong Pagong were great. They were based on Sesame Street's Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird. I eventually learned to love the show and was happy that there were quality programs for kids.

Unfortunately, the main muppets were taken off by the Children's Television Workshop in 1994 due to licensing issues and because of that, their audience declined. In 1998, Batibot ceased airing and since then, I haven't seen any other children's programming in the Philippines that can compare. All we see now is Cartoon Network which doesn't really teach a child anything and Disney Channel which is pretty much all a commercial for Disney products. But the main problem is, these shows are all in English and there is no comparable children's show in Filipino.

On March 26, 2010, Batibot returned to TV5. I haven't seen the new show, but if they make it as good as the old ones.

Here is a clip of the opening theme of Batibot that I found.

Comments

Rah said…
hanggang ngayon i am quite surprised na memorise ko parin ang mga kanta na tinuro sakin ng batib0t. Isada da da da isda ni ning ning at ging ging ging. Telopono.. tokwa... pati mga characters memorize ko pa.

I did not know that the creators of Batibot are the same as Sesame street. :D that's a new info.
Unknown said…
Rah,

I had that theme song running in my head for the last few days that's why I posted it.

Pong Pagong and Kiko Matsing were made by the Jim Henson Company I believe which created the muppets. Hence the high quality.

I seem to recall that near the end, the two characters weren't being maintained properly so the licensing was pulled. But I could be wrong.

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