Top 10 Sweetest Things

In no particular order:

1. Filing me under the Family group of your YM.

2. Looking for a driver so I won't be forced to commute when you lost your license.

3. Getting worried I'd get mad at you for losing the wallet I gave you as a gift.

4. Planning of having a joint bank account.

5. Lending me money to pay off my credit card bills without collateral.

6. Picking me up from work almost everyday to ensure I get home safely in Taguig even if you live in Quezon City.

7. Telling me I'm losing weight.

8. Giving me +10 RO equips. :P

9. Using me as your dantay before you fall asleep.

10. Trusting me with keeping all your characters in My LU account.

Corporate Blogging in the Philippines

Earlier today, I just signed a memo about internet use in the office. We are now not allowed to visit any websites or use the internet for anything other than work. Haven't they heard of the saying "All work and no play, makes John a dull boy"? I'm sure that there are many studies done on productivity that will corroborate this.

I firmly believe that if an employee remains productive despite participating in online quizzes, blogging or the like, shouldn't that be enough?

Think, if the corporate web filter firewall is put into place (it's already in place actually but users without admin access can still change this setting), we will not be able to access the following websites:

• Google
• WordReference
• Wikipedia
• Blogger
  

These are useful websites for our work!

Which brings us to the subject of this post, corporate blogging.

Searching for BayanTrade on the internet, you will be able to find my blog on the fifth page. My blog is the first to appear on the list when you search for "BayanTrade blog" on Google. This blog has had hits coming from search words such as "BayanTrade salary", "BayanTrade sweldo", and "BayanTrade culture". With the current memo in circulation, it would mean that I am not allowed to update my blog in the office anymore.

I'm sure big companies, bigger than BayanTrade have benefitted from employee blogging with Google at the forefront. Wouldn't it be more beneficial if they let me just do my thing to give a softer side to their corporate image?

Image from: http://scriptavolant.files.wordpress.com/

Am I turning emo?

I've been reading Jethro's blog for a long time and you don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that he's not that into emo. All the stuff he's written convinced me that it's not a good idea to be emo but with my new favorite artists and songs I'm convinced I'm turning emo. Oh noes! So I asked resident emo hater expert Jethro for a definition:

Zarah: Jet, can you define emo for me please?
Jethro: anybody who sees misery as a point for coolness
Jethro: breakups, self mutliation, looking like a piece of rag
Jethro: stuff like that

With that definition in mind, I ask myself in all earnesty, am I turning emo?

I don't think misery is cool. I think it's sad. I don't like breaking up and I don't want hurting myself (except for the occasional spanking XD which is strictly speaking is not hurting myself but letting another person hurt me). And finally as far as I know, I do not look like a piece of rag.

I therefore conclude that I am not turning emo. So do I just like emo music? According to Pure Volume, Paramore is emo. I like their sound. I like their lyrics. But are they really emo?

I turned again to Jethro for a definition of emo music. Here's what I got

Zarah: Define emo music.
Jethro: music that combines the three: Whining, misery, senseless lyrics

Again, with this definition in mind, I objectively picked through Paramore's music. Is it whiny? Somewhat. Is it miserable? Some songs, yes but not all. Do their songs have senseless lyrics? Not for me. So as far as I'm concerned, Paramore is definitely not emo.

I therefore conclude that genre is in the ears of the listener.

A World Without Filipinos

I received this article from one of our HR managers Ms. Lucy. It made me appreciate more my being Filipino and I'd like to share this with everyone hoping it will help you appreciate our being Filipinos (for my countrymen) or to appreciate the Filipinos you work with (for other nationalities).

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Let's imagine then, not just California, but the entire world, waking up one day to discover
Filipinos have disappeared. We're talking here about the six or seven million Filipinos currently working overseas in countries with names that run the entire alphabet, from Angola to Zimbabwe.

Let's not worry first about why or how the Filipinos disappeared; in fact, it becomes academic whether it's a day or a week.

Just imagine... a world without Filipinos.

Think of the homes that are dependent on Filipino housekeepers, nannies, caregivers. The homes would be chaotic as kids cry out for their nannies. Hong Kong and Singaporean and Taiwanese yuppie couples are now forced to stay home and realizing, goodness, there's so much of housework that has to be handled and how demanding their kids can be and hey, what's this strange language they're babbling in? It's not just the children that are affected. The problems are even more serious with the elderly in homes and nursing institutions, because Filipino caregivers have provided so much of the critical services they need. When temporary contractual workers are brought in from among non-Filipinos, the elderly complain. They want their Filipino caregivers back because they have that special touch, that extra patience and willingness to stay an hour more when needed.

Hospitals, too, are adversely affected because so many of the disappeared Filipinos were physicians, nurses and other health professionals. All appointments for rehabilitation services, from children with speech problems to stroke survivors, are indefinitely postponed because of disappeared speech pathologists, occupational and physical therapists!

Eventually, the hospital administrators announce they won't take in any more patients unless the conditions are serious. Patients are told to follow their doctors' written orders and, if they have questions, to seek advice on several Internet medical sites. But within two days, the hospitals are swamped with new complaints. The websites aren't working because of missing Filipino web designers and website managers.

Service establishments throughout the world -- restaurants, supermarkets, hotels -- all close down because of their missing key staff involved in management and maintenance. In Asia, hotels complain about the missing bands and singers.

In the United States, many commercial establishments have to close shop, not just because of the missing Filipino sales staff but because their suppliers have all been sending in notices about delays in shipments. Yup, the shipping industry has gone into a crisis because of missing Filipino seafarers.

The shipping firms begin to look into the emergency recruitment of non-Filipino seafarers but then declare another crisis: They're running out of supplies of oil for their ships because the Middle Eastern countries have come to a standstill without their Filipino workers, including quite a few working for the oil industry.

Frantic Presidents and Prime Ministers call on the United Nations to convene a special session of the Security Council but Kofi Annan says he can't do that because the UN system itself is on the edge, with so many of their secretarial and clerical staff, as well as translators, having disappeared from their main headquarters in New York and Geneva,
as well as their regional offices throughout the world. Quite a number of UN services, especially refugee camps, are also in danger of closing down because of missing Filipino health professionals and teachers.

Annan also explains that he can't convene UN meetings because the airports in New York,
Washington and other major US cities have been shut down. The reason? The disappeared Filipinos included quite a few airport security personnel who used to check passengers and their baggage.

Annan calls on the World Bank and international private foundations for assistance but they're crippled, too, because their Filipino consultants and staff are nowhere to be seen. Funds can't be remitted and projects can't run without the technical assistance provided for by Filipinos.

An exasperated Annan calls on religious leaders to pray, and pray hard. But when he phones the Pope, he is told the Catholic Church, too, is in crisis because the disappeared include the many Filipino priests and nuns in Rome who help run day-to-day activities, as well as missionaries in the frontlines of remote posts, often the only ones providing basic social services.

As they converse, Annan and the Pope agree on one thing: the world has become a quieter place since the Filipinos disappeared. It isn't just the silencing of work and office equipment formerly handled by Filipinos; no, it seems there's much less laughter now that the Filipinos aren't around, both the laughter of the Filipinos and those they served.

I know, it's exaggerating the contributions of Filipinos to the world but considering what the
producers of "A Day Without Mexicans" had in mind: using a bit of hyperbole to shake people up.

As their blurb for the film goes:

How do you make the invisible, visible?
Make them invisible.

To realize this not so much for the Hong Kong Chinese and Taiwanese and Singaporeans and Americans who don't appreciate us enough, than for us, who as Filipinos, are pretty good at putting ourselves down, at making ourselves invisible.

Pinagmamalaki ko ako ay isang PILIPINO !