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Dr. Robert Collins taught Social Entrepreneurship Course at the College Education behind Bars inside Davao city Jail. Social Entrepreneurship is an emerging and rapidly changing business field that examines the practice of identifying, starting and growing successful mission-driven for profit and nonprofit ventures, that is, organizations that strive to advance social change through innovative solutions. This course is designed to provide a socially relevant academic experience in order to help students gain in-depth insights into economic and social value creation across a number of sectors/areas including poverty alleviation, energy, health and sustainability. Through case studies, lectures, and classroom dialogue, students will learn to think strategically and act opportunistically with a socially conscious business mindset. As the traditional lines blur between nonprofit enterprises, government and business, its critical that business students understand the opportunities and challenges in this new landscape. Students learn to develop business plan fro-social entrepreneur Continue reading →

It is one of the few times shoveling will be allowed at the new prison. The people who participated in the ground breaking for the College Education behind bars’s second campus focused on how it can better help inmates rehabilitate and returned to society. This event was more than building a building but this was about restoring lives The Social Entrepreneurship Technology and Business Institute, Inc. (SETBI), by partnering with the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) has initiated a “College Education Behind Bars” Second Campus at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm. This program aims to provide the inmates, both male and female, who are mostly drug dependent, the means to advance their education in prison. It also offers them a recovery program with their college diplomas, so that if or when they are released, they are fully equipped to go back into society as a contributor to nation building and not a burden to their family and community. Through the College Education Behind Bars mentoring and recovery program, detainees enhance skills critical to completing a college degree and building trust in personal relationships. Both activities significantly increase prisoners’ chances of succeeding when returning to the community.

Inmate students will read the same university-assigned textbooks and complete the equivalent college level assignments as the “outside” college students, and when they graduate, they will receive a diploma from the USeP for having completed its college program. The only differences is that USeP teachers will travel to the Ma-a Jail to teach courses there, instead of on the USeP campus. Before students enroll in the program, the educational professionals will assess and screen detainees for basic literacy and readiness for college and will document their grade level, vocational assessment needs, length of sentence, and security clearance, etc. The inmate will sign the agreement to enroll in a course and will be monitored for being on their best behavior at all times. To be prepared for additional college coursework, transitional employment and life demands for cognitive skills, detainees will be advised after completing their college courses and will be more throughly counseled before release. Sooner or later, inmates will be out on the street again. Each of the inmates wants to leave the prison world never to return again. To do that, they need to succeed when they re-enter society. There is a huge challenge for the prisons when the incarcerated get out because eventually most find themselves back in. There are many reasons for the high rate of recidivism, but studies show that the primary cause is unemployment. On the outside they need a job to be able to eat, to have a place to live, to support their family, to hold their heads high, and to know they can handle freedom. But jobs are hard to find when an individual is an ex-convict. With a college degree, good life skills, a core education, and solid vocational training of at least one year or more, released prisoners can overcome the prison stigma..

The Memorandum of Agreement for this College Education Behind Bars project was signed by Dr. Aland Mizell, President of Social Entrepreneurship of Technology and Business Institute (SETBI), and Attorney Susan Cariaga, Vice-President of SETBI; and Ronald Dela Rosa, Director General of the Bureau Corrections. Gerardo F. Padilla, MPA, Supperintendent Davao Prison and Penal Farm August 6, 2018, at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm.

Recently The Guardian reported that the US had arrested a 29 year old Russian redhead for alleged espionage. Maria Butina follows a formidable list of beautiful femmes fatales who have lured away state secrets for their countries’ government. Whether through male or female operatives, the history of spying is long. From ancient history to the today’s use of drones and satellites to gather intel, knowing the opposition by spying seems to be a human behavior. Moses commissioned twelve spies, a leader from each tribe, to Canaan to spy out the land— to determine the strength of the enemies and the fortification of their cities. During the American Revolutionary War, the British Major John André conspired with the American General Benedict Arnold to sell a Continental Army fort, West Point and was hanged when caught. The World War I Dutch born exotic dancer, Mata Hari , served as a courtesan to the high ranking military and politicians in Paris gaining vital information for Germany before she was caught and shot by a firing squad. In the 1940s and 50s the KGB recruited Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American Communists, to steal classified documents and designs. They also met an untimely demise in an electric chair in Sing Sing Prison. Seemingly, scandals and consequences accompany secrecy and duplicity. Continue reading →

Annually, leaders of the twenty-nine North Atlantic Trade Organization (NATO) countries meet in one of the member nations to discuss critical issues and agenda items of the alliance, but summits are held for special changes. Although NATO is considered the most successful military alliance in modern history, this year the NATO summit met in Brussels under a cloud of pessimism because of the major disagreement among the member countries.  President Donald Trump’s criticism of NATO allies and his trade wars with the European economies raised concern over the future of the transatlantic alliance At last week’s NATO meeting, President Trump urged members to contribute more in terms of finances, troops, and capabilities, just as the alliance is on the verge of making strategy changes. In his customary blunt straight talk, the President accused the allies of treating the US like “a piggy bank” by not paying their fair share of NATO’s costs. President Trump said that if Europe is afraid of Russian expansion, international terrorism, and an uncontrolled influx of migrants from other countries, they should share the burden more proportionately.  Trump shocked  NATO members further by saying they should not wait until 2024 to reach the goal of spending 2% of their GDP on their defense, but they should pay equitably now. Continue reading →

We hope that President Rodrigo Duterte will continue his war on counterfeit drugs. His policies may tackle the cultivation, distribution, and consequences of illicit drugs. For example, those fighting against counterfeit medicines complain that those prosecuted for this offense receive a  comparatively light sentence compared to the sentences given to criminals peddling narcotics. Yet, counterfeit drugs are very dangerous because they threaten national security by endangering the health of a vast majority of the people. Fraudulent operations, nevertheless, continue to operate and flourish in countries with weak drug regulatory bodies because of the dual accountability problem of poor funding and staffing and weak or corrupt customer services and policy agencies. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the counterfeit drugs business accounts for about 10% of the annual $300 billion global drug industry. This figure includes such pharmaceuticals  as fake birth control pills, cough syrup for children laced with a powerful opioid, and malarial pills composed of just potato and cornstarch. The WHO lists these as examples of poor quality, falsified medicines identified in recent years, all of which ignore the possible consequences for the public— health risks for and potential death of the users.  Furthermore, some drugs that are not classified as illegal or dangerous may become so if purchased from an online site that proves not to be legitimate or even a trusted pharmacy that unknowingly receives a shipment of untested and illegitimate drugs. Because this counterfeit trade is so lucrative, the growing supply has caused great damage around the world. Continue reading →

Political Islam made history again on Sunday evening by winning a landslide victory in the first round of Turkey’s June 24 presidential election. Despite the attempts aimed at deposing President Erdogan, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made history again on Sunday evening by his Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which has been in power since 2002. He received approximately 51.79% of the votes in the first round of the presidential elections and won the presidency again. President Erdogan made history by becoming Turkey’s first executive president and leading his party by an unprecedented number to rule for the next five year until the Republic‘s centennial in 2023. Erdogan has thus been elected as the first president of the new system. Having been in power for 16 years and with 13 elections and referenda wins, Erdogan overcame his closest rival. The President’s hard fought re-election campaign focused on two important factors that led President Erdogan to be reelected: one was national security and the other the religion factor. Erdogan steadily increases the hold of Islam on the nation, squelching other faiths as well as remnants of those supporting the founder of the Republic who held to a pillar of secularism. The Turkish public did not care much about the economy in spite of the Turkish currency being at an all time low. Many citizens apathy about the economy was because they believed that the economic and financial problems were instruments used by foreigners to weaken Turkey. Continue reading →