Start free
← Alleba Blog

Wablet and Filipinos Crunched

Web Apps
Me
Tech News
Opinion
Wablet’s going to rock web IM, according to Marshall Kirkpatrick, after he road-tests Wablet. His review was nothing short of an endorsement which makes me feel good because it is for the most part a product of Filipino innovation. Yet if you course through the article you'll see how some of the commenters shrug it off as a third-rate app from a third-world country. It's discrimination at the most hi-tech form. I understand how one should be concerned about how their personal data is treated, but really, just because Wablet is developed by Filipinos, does it mean that your privacy won't be any less respected if it were made somewhere else, say, in the USA? Funny that with the recent AOL episode, people tend to forget so easily (Marquee: AOL data now searchable!). That and the fact that the country's best hackers troop freely to Vegas every year like it's an OK thing to do. Are the geeks educated in Stanford, Yale or MIT the only ones who deserve Kirkpatrick's attention or anyone's for that matter? Like the dirty world of politics, the tech sector has its own brand of nepotism. It's despicable. Honestly, I have seen a lot of overhyped Web 2.0 apps that are either utterly pretentious or a copycat of another. I could only name a few that I really like, and I think Wablet will make it to that shortlist once I try it. Asians are the smartest people in the world, IMO. Maybe it's because of arrogance, discrimination or indifference, Westerners should suck it up and accept that fact sooner or later.

11 archived comments

Comments are preserved from the original blog and are now closed.

  • Mike Abundo

    Filipinos have <a href="http://mikeabundo.blogspot.com/2006/04/bayanihan-and-social-media.html" rel="nofollow">a core cultural affinity for social media</a>. That will make us a force to be reckoned with in Web 2.0.

  • badongers

    I don't think they are targetting the filipinos in particular. its more about the system we have in our country which i agree on some level but not all.

  • Andrew

    It's their ignorance that irks me the most, badongers. They write with their mouths, not with their brains. As with you, if you agree that it indeed has to do with the 'system' of our country, then why are you still working for David Foote? Isn't that a conflict of interest on your part?

  • Maria Jose

    Why is it that some Filipinos would rather heartily agree with foreigners' statements against the Philippines and the Filipinos rather than defend the country and their kababayans? Those ignorant people (especially that creep David Zatz) is obviously (not subtly) attacking the intergrity of the Filipinos. And yet you choose to believe that he is attacking the system? What system? He is saying, in not so many words, that he does not trust Filipinos to keep information safe and secure. Nothing more, nothing less.

  • badongers

    you guys missed this part "i agree on some level but NOT ALL."

  • badongers

    and please lets try not to make this a race thing.

  • Andrew

    What system are you talking about badongers?? Please, enlighten us. If this isn't a race thing, explain that too.

  • Obet

    It's a white thing mixed with a small economic thing. I would respect them more if they said they don't want dog eaters making their web applications.

  • Danny Santos

    Guys, if you think about it, the security concerns voiced out in techcrunch comments are valid and understandable. Who would want to send their passwords to a system they're not familiar with? But the thing is, they just don't know any better. They're a victim of their own ignorance. The racist insinuations is also a product of that ignorance. That's just the way things work in the world. The best thing we can do is to educate them by overwhelming them with what we are capable of doing -- and Wablet is one of the ways we can do this. Wablet sparked this issue, and if we do this right, Wablet will remove all doubts and enlighten the unenlightened.

  • drew

    Asians are fucking idiots. Fillipinos especially. I've had the dipleasure of being around them the last few yrs, and outside of Hawaiians have to be the dumbest race on this planet. IMO as an American I would love to see all asians deported back to thier countries. God USA would be a much better place.

  • yeah

    Drew.... fuck up..... USA would be much better place to stay in without deep shits like you... close minded and ignorant!