The sky is bleeding, we must fear the flood
Working for a Lemming
January 28, 2008Do you ever get that feeling that you’re working for a lemming peeking over a cliff, looking at a plunge into the inevitable?
Dra Josette Biyo - Modern Day Filipina Hero
January 24, 2008While some people are straining to get glimpses of the ASF dancers or the EB Babes and others watch with much indifference the daily political comedy that has gripped this society, stories such as that of Dra Josette Biyo fail to get the media mileage they richly deserve. While the country’s largest networks are spending millions of pesos on their petty bickering and more money is spent on advertising the latest weight-reduction racket, probably much less than the daily allowance a typical La Salle or Ateneo student was spent on the coverage and publication of her proud achievement.
Dra Josette Biyo is the first Asian to have ever won the Intel Excellence in Teaching Award. More suprisingly, because of this feat, the Massachusetts Institue of Technology named a minor planet after her. A pebble by cosmic standards, Planet Biyo is only 9 kilometers in diameter and floats in space along the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This could very well be a juxstaposition of her identity in the whole of Philippine society, just another pebble amongst many pebbles.
Hailing from Ilo-Ilo, she is a science teacher at their local Philippine Science High School, earning just around 15,000 pesos a month even with her Ph. D in Biology. Her humble roots belies her achievements, and were it not for displaying her accomplishment at their school’s bulleting board, then her story would have just passed and waned without the credit and attention it truly deserves from the nation.
You can read more about her here.
Choices
January 15, 2008If given the choice, where would you rather live and work? Dubai, Hongkong or Singapore?
All three cities are similar in that they are well-developed, cosmopolitan and highly-westernized urban areas which have very high numbers of expatriates and foreign nationals. Dubai is said to be composed of 90% foreign nationals, 3% of which are Filipinos. While not nearly as large as that of Dubai, Hongkong and Singapore also have very large expatriate communities.
Off-hand, Hongkong and Singapore appear to be very similar as they are both Southeast Asian megacities with predominantly Chinese heritage. Hongkong, however, strikes me as a little darker, stressful and maybe even a little dirtier. I guess the tight streets and heavy crowds lend much to this outlook. Singapore, on the other hand, seems cleaner and lighter, more carefree. As workplaces, both cities are known for workaholics, where success and money are the ultimate priorities. But, I guess, the same could be said for most, if not all, places in the world, at least when it comes to our highest priorities.
Both Hongkong and Singapore are already mature markets with economies whose size do not accurately reflect that of the cities that generate it. These cities do not sleep, and literally the only difference between day and night is the sun.
Dubai, in comparison, has the advantage of being a one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. In that, it is an exciting place to be at this time. It has come a long way from its dependence on oil. It is now a leading tourist destination with some of the planet's most daring and unusual construction projects. I would go so far as saying that Dubai is a resort-city. Having no taxes makes Dubai an instantly attractive destination. It is also known to have a very relaxed and carefree attitude towards work, but that's just word-of-mouth.
