iDisrupt

What Prize, or of What Value Are Some Bits of Information? Why Someone Wanted to Destroy & Kill Us for These? His Other Motives?

(PLUS Some Thoughts on Why Many of the Malignant Problems That Plague the Philippine Society Persist)

     There is no expedient to which a man will not

     resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.
                                                 Sir Joshua Reynolds

Can a tiny bit of a very critically-important info acquired from some trash, be incomparably far more valuable than a similar one acquired through an elaborate, secretive, costly, risky and sophisticated scheme? Yes, of course. Two more very critically-important questions: Can data and information providers imperceptibly influence how raw data and facts are processed & used and can analysts introduce imperceptible nuances in their reports to subtly manipulate how their intended end-users think, make decisions and act or react? Of course. (This post was hurriedly typed. Our minds still reeling from the shock, the terror that we endured more than 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure when I can go back to this post, to edit and elaborate on what we really want to say.)

It’s always present, the personal biases, the traces of religious, political and ideological leanings of information / intelligence analysts. One can’t reasonably expect that the reports they make and submit

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Ernest Barraquias Jr
Rian Igos

are completely sanitized from the macro and micro levels of the contextual environments and personal backgrounds that shaped their mindsets and their thinking. Thus, it is essential to establish the extent an end-user can be misled, misinformed and under-informed that can lead him to misjudge and miscalculate matters of interests and

Interception of Bulk Data: "I'm An American & I  Trust My Gov't More Than I Trust Terror (& Crime) Groups & Leaders of Hostile Nations Who Can Gain Access Even to My Bedroom Secrets"

bases of decisions and actions, that in turn can cause the unexpected failures of otherwise perfect executions of a perfect plan. In short & simple terms: the perfect execution of a perfect plan to accomplish the wrong and or unnecessary operation.

We Watch the Field But They're Already In PLUS Don't Break the Rules - Change the Rules (Undermine Policies and Legislation)

The same serious and long-term problems that plague the Philippine society ail most other societies, including the relatively corruption-free advanced Western ones. But, whereas there are traces of corrupt practices in, say, Germany or Canada, in the Philippines and China corruption is in massive scales, severe in gravity and systemic - deeply and very broadly rooted in all of the society encompassing cultural, political, socio-economic and

In our other blog  Save1Life.stop-that-corrupt-act.blogspot.com
Ravenous Greed of Some Officials & A Million Children Who Go to Bed Hungry...

geographical divides and across public and private institutions (yes, including many of the churches or religious groups, non-government organizations, cause-oriented and charity groups). Between the 2 extremes – from the least corrupt societies and the most corrupt 


ones – the Philippines and China are close to the most corrupt ones. This fact should be given much consideration in the overall contextual environment out of which processed data or information are weighted, interpreted and made a basis for planning and decision-making. A corrupted system in a corrupted society can't be expected to produce pure and unsanitized information products.

I’m not sure that mathematical models exist, ones that can capture sufficient contextual nuances in order for end-users to make the best and most effective of decision and plans. Those who grew up in the West have mindsets, thinking and brains shaped by very different types of foods, geography, weather, cultures, socio-economic and political realities and ways of life, even nuances in the practice of the same religions, among others. Therefore, brains of the Americans, or Germans, or British or Indians should produce different kinds of emotions, interpretations and judgments on the same sets of information or analytical reports with those of the Filipinos or the Chinese. The educational system in the United States, and the academic and research environments are incomparable to either China or the Philippines, even if so many educators and researchers in these countries were educated or obtained advanced education in fine US institutions of higher learning.

Can very good levels of situational awareness be achieved using automated data-processing and information-interpretation systems? Of course, for example in the battlefields. But in the realms of larger war theater, I have some confidence no such system exists, it probably requires what you can call a vast system of systems that require so vast and so energy-consuming computational power, the types in use in advanced industrial countries of Japan, the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia (and even) China but for use for far more high-consequence strategic endeavors. The simple alternatives are human beings.

Human beings, as opposed to human-made automated systems no matter how complex and advanced, will remain the most accurate sources of interpretations of data and information. But the million-dollar question is: What types of human beings can give the most accurate and most valuable information, and its interpretations? Who can contribute the most useful and most valuable, timely, accurate insights essential for decision-makers to have the most advantageous level of situational awareness? The most honest, the ones with the least entanglements in the very socio-economic, political, environmental and cultural contexts they are collecting and analyzing information from, the ones with the greatest potential incentives and rewards when things change for the better, when the status quo is rocked.

If to be effective, an anti-drug operative working against the planting, processing, transport and trafficking of heroin from Afghanistan can’t be someone whose godfathers, whose relatives’ bosses, whose career trajectory and sources of daily and monthly extra-income are masterminds or players in the very chains in the illegal industry. Regardless of the good intentions and dreams of the past and present leaders of the country, and regardless of drastic measures employed to address these problems, no one can expect for things to change overnight. But fortunately for the people of Afghanistan, most of them feel the urgent needs to overhaul / reform the ways of their government and public officials, to quickly establish and strengthen institutions and to make all sorts of sacrifices in their painful efforts to do so. We really believe many of the oppressive practices of its past governments were rocked, eased and now giving way to the adoption of a freer, more open and fair society however still so far from the ideal one.

They know of the seriousness of their problems, of what ails their society. In Afghanistan’s case, we really think that the tens of billions of dollars of reconstruction funds, and the more valuable sacrifices of the American soldiers for more than a decade, forever changed the trajectory of this country, regardless of all sorts of doubts on the sustainability of all of the relevant projects and programs. The country is in far better direction than before the war against the Taliban started.

Back to the contextual environment topic now. Imagine how many thousands of the most brilliant and genius physicists, astronomers, astro-physicists who came up with the theories and mathematical models of the workings of our known universe. Yet for centuries, in real universal terms, hardly anyone would have imagined that all of the detectable and observable physical elements of the universe, the billions of trillions of stars, comprise just a small fraction of the forces and matter in our known universe.

Hardly can anyone, for example, come up with an accurate analysis of a given situation when what's required for any meaningful,  actionable and highly-valuable insights include a long-time immersion in the contextual universe where relevant data and information are to be used. If you're not a close relative of the dictator-dynasty family ruling North Korea, you would not be able to meaningfully, or accurately interpret the thinking, the reasoning and the driving factors in the decisions and pronouncements of the country's leader and his most loyal and influential advisers.

Can accurate analysis be arrived at even with scant or incomplete information? Certainly, even by someone far detached from the realities that form the contextual universe. But then, it can be the mindsets, or attitudes of the end-user/s that can reduce the usefulness of even the highest quality and most useful of information or analysis. The predictive value of a good analysis is nothing if and when it's not used in the first place.

IMPORTANT

There are entire countries where entire families, even without being physically restrained or threatened, are practically hostages. There are pockets of places in some 3^rd World countries where such harsh realities also exist, regardless of the types of government. And in many of these countries, or geographical or political units – individuals or groups of people can be living in a situation in which they live in fear, and under serious and constant threats. It must be so bad in North Korea overall, where an entire population live their day to day lives conscious of not committing so much of a crime as not wearing an official haircut, and speaking unfavorably of their Supreme Leader.

But at least the world knows, acknowledges the fact...

(To rest of the article to be uploaded soon...)

To those concerned about us, and our safety, I'm so sorry I can't help posting something like this. It's mind-twisting, so much of a mental pain for us to not articulate what we want to, and to refrain from elaborating)