Barack Obama's BlackBerry stays

I received an early morning Kung Hei Fat Choi text message last Monday. The texter thought I’m Chinese. I acknowledged the message in like manner with a little amendment. I said Kung Hehe Fat Choi:

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President Barack Obama will be able to keep his BlackBerry with which he has been inseparable for years. And he admits he’s Berry happy.

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BlackBerry is not a fruit named after the color of Barack’s skin. It’s a mobile communication gadget like your Nokia cellphone, only it’s more sophisticated.

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How sophisticated? I asked Kenneth, my grandson, who’s a cellphone buff. “Oh, Lolo,” he said, “a million times more sophisticated than your vintage Nokia 3310 Hehehe.”wednesDay, january 28,

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They say President Obama can’t live comfortably without his BlackBerry. Now that he’s head of the most powerful nation in the world, this communication gadget of Barack O is well protected by the US secret service agencies. Yes, protected from hackers, eavesdroppers, textmate seekers, and other intruders like those senders of text messages informing you that you won millions in lotto even if you didn’t bet at all.

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Enrique “Iking” Santos has passed away. Who he? The present crop of press people might ask. Iking was one of the country’s highly respected (by the press of his time) PR men. He was a journalist worthy of the word and a public relations man par excellence.

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Iking later became PR man of the Philippine Airlines and helped build up the image of this airline. Iking was the press people’s favorite PR man in and out of PAL. He was friendly to his brothers in the news profession. Of me, he once said: “One thing I like you, John, is because we can see eye to eye.” Actually, he was three inches shorter.

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Today, PAL’s image builder (am I correct, Jun Canton?) is Rollie Estabillo who is of the same mold as Iking. Rollie, like Iking, gets along very well with members of the press. He has a pleasant disposition like Iking’s. Their only difference, I think, is their physical height. The height of their talents are the same.

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