Yup, victory is sweet!
Here’s an excerpt from my CNET Asia blog post.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the scrapping of taxes on imported books amid widespread criticism against what has been dubbed the Philippine Book Blockade.
Yes, we can!
Find out all about the Philippine government’s “book blockade” — and how you can help end it.
Here’s an excerpt from my CNET Asia blog post.
From blogs, to microblogging tools like Twitter and Plurk, to online petitions, Filipinos are taking the fight against the Philippine government’s “book blockade” to cyberspace.
The “book blockade” refers to the decision of Philippine Customs officials to impose a tax on books which are not “educational”, such as novels, thereby curtailing the entry of imported books into the country. Here is an article written about the issue by Robin Hemley, director of the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa, who is in the Philippines on a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an opinion piece from columnist and TV host Manuel L. Quezon III published in the leading Philippine newspaper, the Philippine Daily Inquirer. On Facebook, Louie Aguinaldo also started the cause Filipinos against the Taxation of Books by Customs.
Read the full story.
SEA Head of Social and Community of Yahoo! Southeast Asia. Catalyst, blogger, evangelist, gamer. Follow me on Twitter and add me on Facebook and Koprol. Visit Yahoo! Philippines, follow @yahooph on Twitter and Like the Yahoo! Philippines Facebook Page. Views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer, Yahoo! Southeast Asia.
