Dangerous public officials

By Alex P. Vidal

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”—John C. Maxwell

PUBLIC officials who badmouth their critics after being exposed of committing acts of dishonesty and doing irregularities involving the public funds shouldn’t be trusted especially when they aspire for higher offices.

These types of public officials are mediocre and dangerous. They aren’t fit for positions higher than the village sentinels (with due respect to barangay officials).

A public official is not supposed to blow her top and retaliate brutally if being politely asked to explain something related to budget, or appropriations and functions of her office.

An angry public official is not an effective public servant. An antagonistic leader cannot govern and unite the people.

She becomes a harbinger of doom and mayhem. In other words, a liability and anti-progress.

Government critics aren’t enemies. They are necessary evils in civil service.

They are the vanguards of transparency and accountability. We need critics for government to function effectively and efficiently.

Without the sentinels or guardians of public coffers, both the public servants and the populace they serve will go down together from the thieves, thugs, pagans, bloodsuckers.

Characters who steal the taxpayers’ money are the real enemies of people because they bring down the society and rob the people of their hard-earned money and rights to quality of life.

-o0o-

I was probably right when I warned cellphone users to think twice before joining the horde of iPhone-crazed enthusiasts in mad scramble for the “new kid in town”, iPhone 15.

iPhone 15 owners have had their shiny new device in their hands for a few days, observed Mashable writer and technology expert Matt Binder, and we’re starting to get a better idea of the latest release from Apple.

Most have had positive things to say about the iPhone 15, but it’s not just the Apple detractors who are voicing the complaints.

In fact, there’s a number of widely reported issues with the new iPhone 15 that should be on prospective buyers’ radar, according to Binder. Fortunately, most of these issues are fixable with a software update and Apple has signaled that those are in the works.

Here’s a roundup of drawbacks that have been plaguing new iPhone 15 owners according to Binder:

1. iPhone 15 gets way too hot. As Mashable recently covered, iPhone 15 users are reporting that the device gets way too hot. Some users are claiming that the phones overheat during taxing mobile gaming sessions. Recording intensive, high-quality 4K video also reportedly causes thermal issues. Others even say that simply charging the device causes the iPhone 15 to sizzle. Some reports state that the phone gets so hot, it becomes too uncomfortable to hold for a phone call.

Adding to customer testimonials, tech outlet Android Authority decided to put the overheating issue to the test and found that the new iPhone 15 ran much hotter than the latest mobile devices from Google and Samsung.

Apple could likely fix at least some of the overheating issues with a software update. However, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims the overheating issue is likely caused by compromises that were made in the new iPhone 15’s thermal design in order to “achieve a lighter weight.” For now, iPhone users will need to wait to see how Apple will address this.

2. A bug causes the iPhone to freeze during setup. As Mashable previously reported last week on the iPhone 15 launch day, some unlucky iPhone 15 users were stuck in an Apple logo boot up loop while trying to transfer data from their previous iPhone.

Luckily though, this is one issue that Apple has already rectified. An iOS update released on launch day fixed the problem for users. New iPhone 15 owners should see the option to upgrade to the new iOS on setup. Users who do get stuck in the loop can take a short series of actions to reset their device and upgrade to the new iOS, allowing them to launch setup without a hitch.

3. Slow, laggy iOS. Some iPhone 15 users are also complaining of lag or choppiness while using the phone.

It’s likely that this issue is more related to the newly launched iOS 17 than the iPhone 15 device directly. Also, many apps have probably yet to launch an update for either iOS 17 or the new iPhone, so any degraded software experience related to that will be fixed as soon as those updates are pushed out.

“I’ve been using an iPhone 15 Pro Max as a daily driver for a week now; I haven’t experienced anything unusual,” Schroeder said when asked about any potential bugs he came across. “It doesn’t overheat, it’s fast, and it charges normally — even the FineWoven case looks great with no scratches nor marks.”

4. Fingerprint-attracting chassis. As mentioned, practically everything we’ve just run down can be fixed or addressed with a software update. But what about issues regarding the chassis? iPhone 15 users have been reporting that the new titanium body is causing trouble, too.

First up, dirt, fingerprints, and other blemishes are apparently much more common on these new devices. Others have reported scratches and even display alignment issues straight out of the box as well.

Users who find issues with the phone before it even comes out of the box should definitely take it back to return or exchange it. It’s unclear how many users are affected by these issues, but it doesn’t seem to be widespread.

As for the titanium body’s propensity to get mucked up, users probably don’t have much to worry about. “The only thing I’ve seen out there that is the discoloration of titanium due to fingerprints,” Schroeder said. “That’s temporary though.”

5. The new iPhone breaks too easily. Arguably, the biggest issue facing the new line of iPhone 15s is the durability of the device. This is something built into every phone and isn’t solvable with a software update. Some longtime iPhone users are finding that the new-generation flagship phone line breaks much more easily than older models.

-o0o-

I was first intrigued by the cover of this book, Window on Russia, written by the late American critic, Edmund Wilson (1895-1972), widely regarded as the preeminent American man of letters of the 20th century.

Wilson modestly called the book “a handful of disconnected pieces, written at various times when I happened to be interested in the various authors.”

Wilson’s ideas were powerful. But after reading some paragraphs on The Strange Case of Pushkin and Nabokov, I quit. I find the book difficult to decipher.

Readers will encounter that rare pleasure of entering a living world where the dead hand of academia never casts its shadow.

The essays are uneven, the earlier surveys of Gogol and Chekhov are slight affairs, without the range and poignancy of Wilson’s studies of Turgenev and Tolstoy and Pushkin.

Wilson was no phrase maker. He told readers that “Gorky rightly said that Tolstoy and God were like two bears in one den,” and there is nothing in his own remarks on Tolstoy that equals the pithiness of Gorky’s remark. Wilson built up a character, an era; his fussy data and leisurely summaries are fascinating.

Readers will encounter the bureaucrats who flourish under the Soviets as they did under the Tsars, the peasants who suffer from one regime to another, the melancholy authors who universally despair of Russia yet cannot bear to be parted from her.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)