For Adventurous Souls

Sections >> Rev Up

Isuzu couldn’t have come up with a better vehicle for its recent media challenge than the 2008 Alterra.

After taking part in the “Metal-to-Pedal D-Max Challenge” in 2007, I knew right away Isuzu Philippines Corporation (IPC) would hold another great adventure challenge for motoring journalists. This year, they did just that. The challenge, however, was different this time; IPC also invited some lifestyle writers to grace the event.

Well, I guess I got pretty lucky (again); IPC chose me to participate in the “2008 Isuzu Alterra Great Drive, Great Life” media challenge.* It was a two-day out-of-town driving activity filled with friendly competition among fellow writers and editors. The participants also got the chance to display their skills in off-road gymkhana, clay pigeon shooting (we used shotguns), sailing, and, believe it or not, horse racing. Motoring and lifestyle journalists got to check out the 2008 Isuzu Alterra, the company’s current recreational vehicle in the market.

Let’s Ride

The media participants gathered at Tiendesitas in Ortigas Center, Pasig City. Everyone filled up their fuel tanks with Petron Diesel Max before heading for the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga.

For me, the first task was the most exciting part of the challenge. I could finally see for myself what the Alterra could do. Participating teams were in for an exciting ride as they negotiated the off-road course in the Sacobia River (a popular site for off-road beginners). We soon found out driving the Isuzu Alterra through the sandy river bed required precision and a lot of driving skills.

Every team is composed of a driver and a navigator. Having a good navigator in the team is crucial to winning the first stage of the race; one wrong instruction and they will find themselves stuck in a rut faster than they can say “winch cable.”

I brought a lot of luck to the team. My partner, Enrico Subido of The Philippine Star, brought the skills. I mean it was his first time to go off-roading but he took to it like fish to water. (I must admit though I checked myself for fractures and bruises when I stepped out of the vehicle. When I found none, I became a true believer in Enrico’s driving prowess.)

After burning hundreds of calories and sweating buckets during the off-road course, the teams proceeded to Eagle Sports Shooting Club and Range for the second stage: clay pigeon shooting. We tried to shoot down every one of them using a shotgun, which was no easy task (especially for a bad shot like me). Each of the participants were given five rounds. They were given a point for every pigeon they hit. It was evident by then my luck had worn off.

We then drove to the Subic Bay Yacht Club via the newly completed Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (it was still closed to public at the time the Isuzu challenge was held). My team got on our boat and tried to reach a buoy, which was about 300 meters from the shore, ahead of the rest.

After the sailing competition, the teams drove to the El Kabayo stable for the final stage of the contest—a barrel race relay. The competitors mounted their horses and made a hilarious sight as they took turns going around the track. The teams received points based on the time it took for them to finish the circular course.

Total points garnered by each team for all the stages were tallied by the race officials and the winners were announced shortly after.

Tough Like the Alterra

All the stages in the challenge were tough. Some teams showed aggressiveness, others didn’t, while there were some who just chose to sit around and watched who would win. Still, everybody had a great time and gave their valuable support to the event.

“We wanted to show our customers that there are so many fun outdoor activities you can do with the 2008 Isuzu Alterra,” a smiling IPC president Keiji Takeda later told participants.

The Isuzu Alterra has a hardworking, fuel-efficient, Euro-III compliant, three-liter 4JJ1-TC iTEQ common-rail direct-injection turbodiesel engine that delivers 144 horsepower and torque of up to 294 Newton-meters. I personally felt how strong the Alterra was especially during the initial phase of the competition.

On the way to the Subic Bay Yacht Club for the third stage, I thought of playing around with the Alterra’s console. It has a JVC AVX33 DVD player with a 3.5-inch monitor, Dolby digital decoder, iPod connectivity, and a 5.1-channel digital surround speaker system. There’s also a slim 180-watt subwoofer at the back. Isuzu also mounted a camera on the rear spoiler that feeds images into the cabin’s high-resolution monitor. But these thoughts quickly disappeared when I saw how serious my partner was. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d throw me out of the moving vehicle for not keeping my focus on the game.

At the end of the last stage, Top Gear ‘s Vernon Sarne’s and his partner were declared the winners. We didn’t win first place but I was still proud of my team. Enrico and I, despite posting low scores in two of the challenges, still bagged an award for finishing fourth.

The participants all agreed the tough and dependable Alterra is perfect for both long travels and leisurely ride with the whole family. We all found out why the Alterra is truly a superb recreational vehicle compared to the other competitors in its class. I’ve seen this mid-size SUV out in the open highways on many occasions even before the Isuzu challenge. I always felt a tinge of envy at the guy behind the wheel.

“While it’s true that our popular SUV is a dependable workhorse, we are also confident that it is ideal for the whole family as they engage in recreational activities and leisure trips,” Mr. Takeda explained.

Freakin’ Facts

Sections >> Library

You have GOT to be kidding! This would probably be your reply if someone told you there was a significant correlation between public school teachers and sumo wrestlers in Japan; or that the legalization of abortion caused the plunge in America’s crime rate back in the ‘90s.

Well, we all agree that some truths are deeply buried. But some truths are deeply buried beneath oft ignored piles of data. This is what Freakonomics is all about. It is written by American economist Steven D. Levitt, a recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal Award (given every two years to an accomplished American economist under 40) and Stephen J. Dubner, a writer at the New York Times and The New Yorker.

Freakonomics is a quick read. Mostly because it entertains as it teaches. The approach is so simple it can be understood by anyone who doesn’t have the faintest interest or inclination to learn the kind of economics being taught in universities.

Although the authors rejected the idea of having a unifying theme for the book, the topics tend to lean towards uncovering relationships between two objects, subjects, or topics that seem unrelated.

Who would have ever thought that real estate agents, dressed in crisp shirts and smart ties, have something in common with the hooded members of the feared Ku Klux Klan? Or that having a swimming pool in your backyard is far more dangerous than owning a gun? And even sundry questions that boggle the mind, such as “What was my mom thinking when she gave me a common name with an uncommon spelling?

The book offers astounding answers to these and other questions in a storybook manner. But although answers may appear as generalized truths, they come with the caveat that a reader mustn’t believe, but instead contest, conventional wisdom. For example, the authors propound the theory that America’s positive peace and order situation can be credited to abortionists.

Freakonomics is the nearest economics can get to socializing the social sciences. The book dares you to think for yourself and reject what is being forced on you by society. It helps you think freely, unrestrained by rules and formalities, gaining knowledge via the analysis of plain, uncolored facts, raw figures, and numbers.

If your brain freezes whenever you try to consider the principles of macro and microeconomics, price elasticity, and the law of diminishing marginal utilities, then consider what the authors say: The main thing about economics is people react to incentives.

In short, people tend to cheat or, at least, deviate from social standards when faced with a higher amount of incentives. This is illustrated in a chapter that shows how teachers—traditional models of truth and morality—cheat so their students can get better marks in standardized state exams. The authors compare them to sumo wrestlers—the repository of Japan’s religious, military, and historical emotion—arranging their games in order to win, and sometimes lose, a match.

So if you’re faced with a mind-bender, economic or not, try looking at things from a different, even screwy, angle. The solution to your problem may just be right around that crooked corner.

"New" is the New Old

Columns >> Sticks & Stones

I spent three highly unproductive hours last Friday arguing with lawyers, pseudo-lawyers, and regulatory experts for the right to say “new.”

Not everyone gets to say it and, if left to themselves, most people probably would. “New” is, after all, the Holy Grail of marketing copy. With just this one word, consumer hearts and minds are turned on and, before long, your shelves will be out of stock and your customers begging for more of your wonder-making product or service.

Open Season

Sections >> Cover Feature

Philippine products will enter the Chinese market virtually tariff-free next year. Too good to be true? Read on.
By this time next year, shoppers in the Ice City of Harbin in Northeast China could be snacking on something deliciously exotic: Philippine bananas. That, at least, is what the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) promises.

According to Helen Chen, first secretary of the Chinese embassy in Manila, her country has a huge demand for quality tropical fruits like bananas, mangoes, and pineapples, which the Philippines will be able to export to China at 0% tariff.

Chen says that the Philippines can also take advantage of high demand for copper and nickel, of which the country is a major exporter. Trading in services will also benefit the country because of our advantage in English education and medical services.

With a population of 1.3 billion and a nominal GDP of around US$4.4 trillion, China may be our best bet while traditional markets like the US remain weak. In 2008, the trade volume between China and member states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) increased by 13.9%, despite the global recession.

The ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement signed in Phnom Penh in 2002 is not without opposition though. In 2003, then RP Trade and Investment Secretary Mar Roxas rejected the Early Harvest Program (EHP), a tariff-reduction scheme on agricultural products to pave the way for ACFTA.

North of Nowhere

Sections >> Supplement

Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte has yet to be discovered by the urbanites, and the owners of Kapuluan Vista Resort like it that way.

Scaling a meandering uphill road, I see a small resort sitting by the South China Sea. Its backdrop is a sweeping view of lush hills illuminated by the blue sky.

The natural and tranquil ambience of this Eden in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte tells me it is a refuge for stressed-out city dwellers like me.

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