These days are days of terror, anxiety and stress. Normal and logical, when markets fall and crash, when investors head for the nearest exit with their tails between their hind legs, IT manufacturers tremble in fear. And with no early end in sight to this blighted scenery, companies are cutting costs; doing everything including closing plants and laying off their employees wholesale.

Consumers, meanwhile, start feeling insecure about their jobs and sources of income. Like their employers, they are cutting costs, reining in their expenditures by holding on to their money and postponing their purchases.

Vicious cycle, instead of buying new gadgets and devices, consumers are doing their best to get by with their old computers, staying longer with their old mobile phones. These are not necessarily bad, most consumers can and will survive even though they are using a 3210 mobile phone or a Pentium III computer.

On the other hand, if nobody would buy those shiny, highly fangled smart phones and multi-core computers, manufacturers would not make money. Investors would lose their shirts, and markets would always be as bearish as Winnie the Pooh.

Vicious cycle, indeed.

Exorcise Stress

Researchers from the University of Toronto have found out that faith in God “can help block anxiety and minimize stress.” The studies conducted by a team led by Assistant Psychology Professor Michael Inzlicht revealed “distinct brain differences between believers and non-believers.”

The brains of believers, the study has found out, showed less activity in the anterior cingulated cortex (ACC) during anxiety-causing events, such as making a mistake. The ACC signals when the brain needs to focus and take control during such events, and in the process, affecting behavior.

The study also revealed that the stronger the believers’ religious zeal and the more they believed in God, the less activity in the ACC area.

Moral of the story, I mean, study? Faith conquers all, including stress.

Now, do we still wonder why Filipinos can still afford to laugh? The current recession might worsen into a depression as some economists fear. Would the Filipino lose that happy-go-lucky smile on his face? I don’t think so, either.

Cheap Venezuelan Phone

Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela is set to start selling a mobile phone named “El Vergatario” in May this year. The 14-dollar handset comes with an MP3 player, radio and camera. The phone would be manufactured by Vetelca, a company 85 percent of which is controlled by Chavez’s government. The remaining interest is owned by the Filipinos’ favorite Chinese company—ZTE.

Vetelca plans to manufacture 4 million El Vergatario phones each year in partnership with Huawei, another Chinese company.

This corner has yet to confirm rumors that a local trading company, Bukol Telecoms, plans to distribute the handset in the country.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT. For feedback: adlfrancis@gmail.com.