Philippines Archives - Page 11 of 15

April 4, 2008August 28, 2011

I’m a Sucker for Underdogs!

Yes, I am a sucker for underdogs. It’s just me.

Of course, the underdog has to be one of decent stock and integrity. Someone credible. Someone vulnerable. Someone unable to fight on his/her own. And recently, another such person has caught everyone in the throes of controversy that has gotten incredible media mileage.

Brian Gorrell has captured the hearts and minds of bloggers and web surfers globally, including Pinoys (one of whom he accuses of having allegedly scammed him of his life savings of 70,000 dollars). Brian could not get it back and resorted to blogging in an attempt to force this Pinoy to hand his money back — money he desperately needs for his medicines. Brian has HIV.

I won’t go into detailed comments about what Brian claims he knows or what he blogged about. You can go to Brian’s blog and read all about it there.

But what is really core to all these is his exposure of what we already have a glimpse of — the huge abyss between the rich and the poor of our country and what perks it gives to the high and mighty, to the detriment of those who merely survive from day to day and learn to go without.

If, through Brian’s blog, we Filipinos can see the real view of our country (its good side as well as its sickening ills), maybe we can now be stirred to move towards changing society, help in whatever way we can to make life better for millions of our own, bring back honesty, integrity, good governance at every level of society, and give back the dignity of the Pinoy that has been stripped bare by countless scandals not just in government but also, apparently, in our high society circles.

Kitty Go’s amazingly candid interview was so refreshing. While being herself a socialite now based in HK, she shows the better side of what real high society should be made of — finesse, social concern, clean living, honest profession, etc. There are still many of those in this country. Those who use their money to engage in housing projects, set up foundations for education, for better provincial infrastructure, and so forth. It is the few who live like there was no tomorrow, indulging in wild lifestyles, liquor and drugs, living in their intoxicated world, engaging in corruption to continue building up their empire, who bring a bad image to high society (and government, as well).

Some creative person came up with an image which Brian posted on his blog. It does not look like it is copyrighted as it has “Team Brian” on it. So I am putting it up here as well.

Good luck to you, Brian. Many people are praying you stay healthy. Many are hoping you get back your money. Thank you for exposing what many in this country have known for some time now but never dared talk (or write) about.

March 26, 2008

iblog4: The Bloggers’ Summit

Are you an active blogger? Then come join the Manila bloggers’ summit on April 26!

Last year, about this time, I came across an announcement about iblog3. Imagine, it was already the 3rd year running and I never even heard of such a summit. So, curious me decided to go attend even if I knew absolutely no one in the crowd. My first blog was just weeks old then and I knew next to nothing about stuff they talked about (problogging, Google Adsense, SEO, podcasting — DUHHHH!!!)

By the end of the 2-day conference, I had a pile of business cards from bloggers: probloggers, media bloggers, personal bloggers, and even vloggers. Not only that, I came to know the faces behind the more famous blogs you come across, got more-than-I-could-digest blogging information and even won a raffle prize.

This year, it will just be a 1-day event but still packed with very useful topics you could bring back home for your own blogs. Best of all, it is FREE!!!

Date: April 26, 2008 (Saturday)
Time: 9am – 5pm thereabouts
Place: Malcolm Theater, College of Law, UP Diliman

It’s better to reserve early so that you are sure to get a kit with handouts and be enrolled in their mailing list.

Here are some useful links:

iblog4 homepage

List of iblog4 registrants

Since joining iblog3 laslt year, my blogging life has never been the same. I now have thispublic blog as well as a yoga blog, The Yogini from Manila (chronicles of my life as a budding yogini). I joined several blogger events and now count some of these long-time bloggers as my good friends.

Hope to see you there!

March 16, 2008August 28, 2011

Earth Hour 2008

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO REDUCE THE EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WARMING?

Join Earth Hour 2008 this coming March 29, 2008, 8 PM.

Last year, March 31, 2007 to be exact, Sydney turned off its lights for 1 hour.

– 2.2 million people

– 2,100 businesses

Sydney landmarks like the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House turned their lights off; weddings were done by candlelight. That collective effort resulted in reducing the city’s energy consumption by 10.2 percent for that hour, equivalent to taking 48,000 cars off the road for an hour.

Inspired by Sydney, other major cities are joining Earth Hour 2008, Manila included (with WWF-Philippines leading the pack). In their website, WWF-Philippines reports that “Pasay City Mayor Wenceslao “Peewee” Trinidad agreed to turn off all lights along Manila’s historical Roxas Boulevard seaside strip for 60 minutes on 29 March to show support.”

What can YOU do? The Earth Hour 2008 website gives these suggestions:

Sign up for Earth Hour 2008
Get involved and create a bigger, better Earth Hour
Reduce your impact on climate change
Create your own Earth Hour event
Calculate your carbon footprint

In its list of participating cities, Earth Hour 2008 reports Manila’s vision as follows:

The people of Manila care deeply about climate change and we are united in our resolve to meet this challenge in the best way that we can. This is why the City of Manila has teamed with WWF to make Earth Hour 2008 a success around the world by being the lead city in Philippines participating in the simple but momentous act of turning off the lights for one hour.

Here in Manila we understand that climate change is the most significant threat to life on Earth. One way to slow the current rate of global warming is for each individual and business to make small adjustments to the way they live. To meet the threat of climate change we need to demonstrate how simple and easy it is to make the small adjustments to our lives that begin to make the difference.

An event like Earth Hour that achieves full community involvement in a simple action like turning the lights off can make a huge difference. And even more importantly, it will mark the beginning of a campaign to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of Manila significantly by the time Earth Hour 2009 comes around.

WWF and Manila invite all households and businesses to take part in Earth Hour by turning off their lights for one hour at 8pm on March 29 2008. Information on how you, your business or local community can get involved in Earth Hour 2008 can be found on the Earth Hour website.

Let’s do our share. Pass on this information to your family and friends.

March 8, 2008August 28, 2011

We Celebrate International Women’s Day Today!

Every March is International Women’s Month and specifically, March 8 is celebrated globally as International Women’s Day.

On the International Women’s Day (IWD) website, the day is described as follows: “Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. While there are many large-scale initiatives, a rich and diverse fabric of local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women’s craft markets, theatric performances, fashion parades and more.”

Many corporations have began to actively support IWD. Even Google reportedly changes its logo every March 8 on its search engine pages.

I found several activities (many from FilipinaImages.com) in Metro Manila as well as in the provinces that aim to celebrate women and inspire each one to achieve her full potential — to celebrate womanhood in all its forms.

March 9, NBC Tent, Rockwell (7am – 5pm) – all women’s expo and all women’s run of different distances. Sen. Pia Cayetano will be one of those joining the run.

March 9, Quezon Park, Dumaguete City (5am – 10pm) – A 5-kilometer Fun Run/Walk for all women and girls will take place with support from men distributing information flyers on womens rights.

WikiPilipinas is hosting the Portal Encyclopedia of Filipina Women.

Filipiniana.net has a link to Philippine Women Studies which features links to laws relating to women, academic and statistical works on Filipino women, and literary masterpieces written by and for Filipinas.

FilipinaImages.com founders Noemi Dado, Dine Racoma and Lorna Dietz, in collaboration with wikiPilipinas, launched a writing contest, “Filipina Stories” for bloggers.

HAPPY WOMEN’S DAY TO ALL —

Filipina kababayans (fellow citizens), most of all to those who have distinguished themselves in their own fields and given the Filipina a positive image

my Pinay mommy blogger-friends (you know who you are!)

my women blog readers

women all over the world — with special mention to those whose basic rights as women are not respected, upheld or appreciated

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!

March 5, 2008August 28, 2011

Holy Divos!!!

When I was growing up, the priests, as I knew them, conformed to what I always expected of the religious. They said Mass, heard Confession, officiated during weddings, baptisms, and wakes. They were retreat masters, theology teachers, frequent lecturers (with me falling asleep half of the time). You know what I mean…

Lately, a new breed of priests capture the attention of ordinary folks like us and bring us closer to the Lord in a different and personal way primarily because they do things we ordinarily do and share the Word of God in the ordinary-ness of life. They are bloggers and gym rats, composers of songs, lyricists, creative writers, artists. And on my last visit to Dumaguete over the holidays, I met a group of priests who did something else which Filipinos love to do a lot — SING!

Fr. Ray Victor Pascual used to be the chaplain at SM Megamall and some of you may have attended his Masses there. He was also concurrently the Orientation Year and Vocation Director at the San Lorenzo Mission Institute. Several years ago, he was assigned as parish priest of Mary Immaculate Parish in Dumaguete after its parish priest passed away. Since then, that parish has flourished and grown into a dynamic one with an active and vibrant choir and involved parishioners. Fr. Ray also happens to be a relative of my hubby (their ancestors came from the same small Chinese village).

What many probably did not know was that while still in Manila, Fr. Ray was part of a group of singing priests. He had a good singing voice and was just as good with the guitar. Their concerts were always packed. So when he assumed his new post in Dumaguete, it was no longer a surprise that eventually, he and 3 other priests (Fr. Ramonito “Ram” Maata, Fr. Carmelito “Junjun” Limbaga, and Fr. Felino “Linlin” Jumawan) would find each other and put up their own singing group, known as the “Priests in Music”.

The Priests in Music have performed in several concerts and private functions in metro Dumaguete. At my in-laws’ Diamond Anniversary celebration last December, they performed to the delight of the crowd.

When priests like these are able to break into the circle of the youth, they show the young that the priesthood is a vocation which need not be boring, staid or outdated. They are able to share God’s Word without “lecturing” — a big turn-off many times for kids who are used to fast-paced multimedia. The blogger priests I know communicate in the medium best known by the youth. They are able to REACH OUT, then REACH IN.

Who knows….maybe down the road we will see a priest who can breakdance and hiphop alongside the kids. Now that I am looking forward to!

Here is a YouTube video showing the Priests in Music in one of their Dumaguete concerts (Fr. Ray is the one in the opening video, in a purple shirt):

….and “BARKADA” sung in a Visayan upbeat way…

March 1, 2008August 28, 2011

Raising a New Breed of Leaders

It was a stark contrast.

At almost the exact time that thousands rallied in Makati yesterday against our present leaders in government, I found myself attending my daughter C1’s LEAd graduation. She was 1 of 32 new graduates of a 2-year leadership program formed 6 years ago by her school’s Office of Student Affairs to raise potential leaders.

Many of the graduates had to apply, and undergo screening, for LEad, which aptly stands for Leadership, Empowerment and Development. Surprisingly, C1 was only a newbie, a freshman, when her club nominated her for the program. At home, we had to discern whether to allow her to go through it. After all, she was just beginning college life, still unsure of what academic demands would be placed on her, and this program required a solid commitment from her to attend its activities on weekends. But C1 was determined to make it. We eventually had to trust that somehow, in spite of all the adjustments she needed to make in her new school, she would come through.

And what a program it was! I remember many weekends when we hardly saw her. It seemed like she “lived” in school already.

In her first year, they were groomed for leadership. Seminars and workshops were offered to hone their skills. The second year was even tougher. On weekends they went to different places around the metro. I had to steel myself once against turning paranoid when she said they were visiting the Bilibid prisoners. There were other immersion programs as well such as Gawad Kalinga, trips to Nueva Ecija and other exposure trips which opened my once-sheltered daughter to the realities of how people lived around her.

As I sat at the back yesterday, listened to some come up to the podium and relate their experiences, and viewed their powerpoint presentation of programs achieved, I felt a mommy’s pride in C1 welling up. So this was what she had been up to all these weekends.

As one of their school officials told me during dinner, while the program aims to form potential leaders of university organizations and projects, what she hoped to see in them was leadership in terms of social action, character and values as well. We both agreed that our wish was for these 32 new leaders to keep their idealism and values intact even as they leave school and go into the workplace.

I could only wish that if our own national leaders — graduates of prestigious schools including C1’s school — had likewise kept their idealism, nationalism and values intact after they got their degrees, we would not be in this mess we are in today which precipitated the rally in Makati.

To all Batch 6 graduates of LEaD, I reiterate my conviction that young people like YOU are the hope of our land. And to our daughter C1 goes a mommy’s (and daddy’s) prayer that the wisdom and idealism you have now may always stay in your heart. With God’s grace, you will become a leader in your own right and make a difference in our country.

Here is a video I took of LEaD’s activities: