Greenbelt's "No Poor People Allowed" Sign Scandal

We've all identified the Ayala Central Business District (CBD) in Makati as a sanctuary of the rich, the well-off and the wannabes at some point in our life. Although not entirely true, the place itself is obviously designed to suit a rich man's taste for opulence and grandeur. But of course, as common practice dictates nowadays, it is deplorable for a "for the rich and well-off only" area to explicitly tell the people visiting it that it is for the rich and well-off only and that poor people and other harsh realities are forbidden in the said complex. Thus the photo of Greenbelt's "No Poor People Allowed" Sign:

For people curious of the sign's existence, yes it exists. People have confirmed it. The one who took pictures of the photos said it's in the Esperanza Drive side near Greenbelt 5 and at Timezone Greenbelt 3 near the cinema ticket counters. Here are more photos:

http://db.tt/h7dXotJ
http://db.tt/8xGDpBD
http://db.tt/a6c23VW
http://db.tt/H9eI5i2
http://db.tt/n4iqGzT

Now, we're not saying that this was purposely done by the Greenbelt Management. It could well be the result of pranksters sticking fake signs all over the area, or the work of a disgruntled employee fired over morning coffee. A @zeeheehee replied to the pictured tweet above, we presume she's from the Greenbelt Management, and said that he or she had no knowledge over the photo. Could well be a prank.

What's out of the question is it's authenticity. It's as authentic as a photo print out. Authenticity confirmed by Flickr:

Dates
Taken on March 23, 2011 at 10.43pm PDT (edit)
Posted to Flickr March 23, 2011 at 11.14PM PDT (edit)
Exif data
Camera htc_wwe HTC Desire
X-Resolution 72 dpi
Y-Resolution 72 dpi
Date and Time (Original) 2011:03:23 22:43:13
Software Camera 360
Image Description Camera 360
Orientation Horizontal (normal)

Here's another photo from the TNL blog to brush off any questions of authenticity: Click here

But for record's sake, we'll leave the photo up here. Discrimination or prank, it's up to you to decide, unless of course, it's proven to be a prank. And personally, I think that the Greenbelt Management is not as retarded as to put such a sign like this, not that our poor people would understand what it means anyway.

Expect these signs to vanish from the Ayala Malls in a few hours time. I heard their damage control team is one of the best in the world.

Update – Ayala Mall Official Statement:

Thanks to Azrael for the information and for @jploh for the first-hand photos.

'Till my next installment.

Filipinos Like Leaked Photos and Scandals, Good for Short-Term Traffic

I've been checking out a couple of Philippine showbiz sites this past few days and I've come to the conclusion (like many before me) that Filipinos like celebrity goings-on and gossip including these so-called "leaked photos" and "scandals" more specifically "celebrity scandals."

Maybe it's just human nature to check out what's happening with other people everyday, therefore the Facebook social network.

Anyway, these Filipino gossip sites race against each other on who's going to release the next hottest leaked photo scandal first and "keywordize" it (I just added a new word to the SEO dictionary - "Keywordize." Hah). What's more is, these keywords have high traffic volume and are searched heavily in the Filipino community. So you could safely say that these keywords in the eyes of those publishers are very profitable. They wouldn't continue publishing leaked photos and scandals if it weren't. This is not limited only to leaked photos and scandals, but the whole showbiz niche as well, although other areas aren't as strong as leaked photos and celebrity scandals.

And I guarantee, provided that you know how to do SEO, spikes of short-term high traffic in Philippine time, little traffic past sleeping hours. The only problem is, once your article burns out its sensation, you need to create another one right away. In short you need to bombard your blog with lots of hot articles to be able to keep in business.

So if you have a lot of time, some manpower to keep rehashing published articles, are resistant to stress and burn outs, and the determination to gain a quick buck from the internet, try the show business niche. As the adage goes, there's no business like show business, specifically leaked photos and scandals.

'Till my next installment.