Thursday, April 30, 2015

Despite information age, leaders admit they are not ready for a techie future

By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

MOBILE APPS, smartphones, and Wi-Fi run the world. Some of the most downloaded applications are Spotify for free music streaming, Instagram for photograph sharing, and Viber for instant messaging.

Friday, April 24, 2015

By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

It’s all about the face...

...OR YOUR race or the lace (of what you’re wearing). Imagine these: a) A foreigner walks hand in hand with a Pinay. You immediately think they are in for a good time, if you know what I mean. b) A scruffy-looking guy in tattered jeans keeps eyeing your bag. You quickly put it in front of you. c) When someone’s named Cheemarlyn or Jhograd, you automatically think he or she’sbakya (tacky). We are quick to judge and stereotype. We, including this writer, who may have certain presumptions about readers who encounter this article what they immediately have in mind about the scenarios above.

In the movie, Divergent, society is divided into factions: Erudite, Candor, Amity, Abnegation, and Dauntless. But that’s fiction. In real life, there’s another faction in society that persists: the Judgmental, which, come to think of it, is all of us.

Yet, “sociologists believe that we are not born with prejudice.” So says the Web site of Sociology Guide. “Rather, we learn prejudice from the people around us.” The Web site defines prejudice as attitudes and opinions of people while discrimination refers to the “actual behavior toward another group or individual.” As long as there are factions in society, discrimination and prejudice prevail. In American activist and author Charlotte Bunch’s words, “Sexual, racial, gender violence, and other forms of discrimination and violence in a culture cannot be eliminated without changing culture.”

For Carlo Vergara, a graphic designer and writer of the Zsazsa Zaturnnah and Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady comic books, being judgmental is embedded in the Pinoy mind-set. “I think it’s in our culture. Will it stop? I think it will be very hard to change,” he said. Mr. Vergara’s latest book-turned-musical Leading Lady tackles the issues of yayas (domestics), sosyals (bourgeois) and coños (loosely refers to a particular subset of Filipinos of Hispanic descent with a predilection for a certain expletive).

“Whether we care to admit it or not, we have little forms of discrimination, like the idea of certain skin color or when you’re not speaking in English you’re not sosyal, or if you’re attractive you get ahead. Even though we know they’re wrong, somehow we still do it. The whole idea of speaking in English alone, we are so quick to criticize other Filipinos ‘pag sumablay sila (when they commit pronunciation or grammatical errors), we turn [into] grammar Nazis. But then again, there are foreigners who don’t speak it fluently, but for us, it’s okay. We have bias even in our own fellow Filipinos,” Mr. Vergara said.

In today’s pop culture, there’s a viral slang word that every cool kid keeps using -- the “basic bitch.” Women today loosely refer to some among them as “basic” if they are, well, basic, regular women who like basic, regular things -- anything that’s the trend in pop culture or in the contemporary milieu at large, from Justin Bieber to Starbucks.

But then again, what does “regular” mean?

In Hong Kong, Filipino and Indonesian maids are banned from using “regular” elevators. And this, of course, has been the regulation locally, especially in the high-rise apartment buildings of Makati and Bonifacio Global City. The car to ride for theseyayas, drivers, and outside contractors from electricians to plumbers is the “service elevator.”

To be sure, discrimination is worldwide, universal. Last February, a photo in Pakistan went viral, showing a family dining together in a fancy restaurant while the two yayaswatched over them, and this, of course, drew outrage and debate among the netizenry.

By now, of course, we’re aware of Balesin Island Club’s controversial “yaya meal.” Operators of this resort club in an island getaway off Quezon province have since cleared this issue, saying the servants may order anything they wish. But this will not end right away the persistence of discrimination, especially among “people who don’t want their yayas to eat whatever they want,” as TV personality Maggie Wilson lamented in her Facebook post on the yaya meal.

Students and graduates too aren’t spared discrimination. A recent survey byJobstreet.com showed that employers still favor the top eight universities in the Philippines -- which in order, are the University of the Philippines, University of Sto. Tomas, De La Salle University (tied with Ateneo de Manila University), Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Mapua Institute of Technology, Far Eastern University, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (tied with Adamson University), and University of the East (tied with Philippine Normal University and Technological Institute of the Philippines). But employers also say they are open to accepting graduates from other schools as long as the candidates are “trainable and willing to be trained.”

This presumably excludes the many dropouts (some of them now National Artists) who have excelled in culture and the arts, if they were just starting out today. But in some organizations, like BBC’s broadcasting training program and Google, an applicant’s background hardly matters. In that famous interview with Huffpost, Google’s people operations head Laszlo Bock said, “We used to care about what school you went to. We really don’t anymore. We found it doesn’t predict performance. How you do on the interview questions predicts performance.”

Small (and huge) gestures indicating prejudice and discriminations happen in society, every day, every minute. We sometimes take them for granted, but then a moment of basic goodness seizes us and we become aware of the nuances in our relations as people. Comedian Ruffa Mae Quinto’s Instagram post of her “yaya meal” order in Balesin was one such moment, but it was followed by contrived speculation as to whether she ate it, which is so the pulse of social media.

By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

How you get there is as important

IF MONEY were no object, where would you go? To Boston or Zurich or perhaps to Africa for a safari?

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Last Holy Week, thanks to Japan’s lenient visa application, many Filipinos traveled to the Land of the Rising Sun. A barrage of photos on Instagram flooded feeds and teased travel appetites. One of these tourists was style icon Amina Aranaz-Alunan who went to Japan last year.

“It’s one of my first trips with the whole family. We were surprised that the children were independent. We enjoyed the city so much that my eldest gained five pounds from all the Japanese food we ate. It’s so nice to see my kids exposed to different culture and moods,” said Ms. Aranaz-Alunan.

But traveling isn’t just the destination -- getting should be an experience.

“We know that travel is as much the journey as the destination. Every travel story is an inspiration and every new journey is a story waiting to be told. In the end, a life well traveled is a life well lived,” said Cathay Pacific Philippines country manager Alan Lui at the recent launch of its newest social media campaign, “Life Well Travelled.”

Travelers are encouraged to hashtag their travels, #LifeWellTravelled.

“Social media is important when people travel. They share their photos and experiences online so their friends could know what is a good destination or a good airline. It spreads the word. People share their experience with their friends and family. On the other hand, it makes us more responsive in the customer’s needs. It keeps us more updated to what’s happening,” Mr. Lui told BusinessWorld.

The airline is opening a bigger and refurbished lounge at NAIA Terminal 3 and is investing in new aircraft. Its lineup of new destinations include Newark, Manchester, Zurich, Boston, and Düsseldorf.

The Future of Business Travel

Cathay Pacific traditionally caters to business travelers. “But there are growing numbers of pleasure travelers. Traveling is changing. More and more [people] are able to afford overseas travels. They are getting younger and younger. We are expanding. A lot of travelers are now going to Japan for leisure,” said Mr. Lui.

Among Filipino travelers, Mr. Lui said that Hong Kong remains the top destination. “We still carry a lot of people in the States and Europe, but still a lot of them [are traveling] for business,” he added.

More than half of its Filipino passengers are business travelers he noted. “They don’t mind paying high prices, because we’re a bit pricier, but they get the service that they pay for.”

For basketball player and businessman Chris Tiu, it all boils down to service, albeit there is a serious price tag attached to it. “It’s all about the experience. I don’t mind spending more time in the airport and getting my flight delayed [as long as the service is good]. The Wi-Fi is also free so I can check my e-mail and reply to my businesses,” he said.

Here’s How to Live Life

But whether one is a business or leisure traveler, traveling should always be a pleasure.

“Life well traveled is not just about going to the city to see what it offers. It’s about the experience, from planning a trip, deciding where to go, to planning the itinerary. It’s part of the excitement. It’s the decision making: where to stay, how many days, the budget to allot. It’s the entire life lesson that traveling teaches you. There are always new memories you’ll put in your memory bank,” said Ms. Aranaz-Alunan.

Another frequent flyer, stylist Liz Uy, recently flew to Russia with her family. “I was scared at first but when I was there, it was amazing. I got to see the Kremlin at night. Sumakit nga ulo ko kaka-history every day (I got a headache from all the history every day),” she said.

She gave her top five tips on how to have a life well traveled:

• “Know your destination and research thoroughly so you won’t waste time when you’re there.”

• “Understand a culture. I was excited to see how different one place is from another. In Russia for example they call their comfort room, WC or water closet. Here, we call it CR (comfort room). Others call it loo or washroom.”

• “Travel with your loved ones because you create a completely new memory with them that you’ll cherish.”

• “Traveling starts from checking in to the flight to reaching your destination. If it’s bad service, una pa lang sira na agad ang araw mo (from the beginning your day is ruined).”

• “One travels to inspire and be inspiring. This applies most especially in my line of work. Say, in London, they dressed cool, in Paris meanwhile, the people are very chic. Fashion-wise, I get inspired from another country. I hope that I also inspire others when I get inspiration from my travels.”

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Shoo the Achoo!

“JUST BECAUSE nobody’s dying from allergic rhinitis, [they think] it’s a trivial disease. It’s not. It has an impact on daily lives and quality of life,” said Ralph Mosges, German professor and the chairman of the International Standardization Committee for the Objective Assessment of the Upper Airways, last Wednesday in a media briefing on allergy control.

Say goodbye to runny and red nose. In celebration of the World Allergy Week on April 13-19, here are tips on how to win the battle against allergies.

Allergic rhinitis or hay fever affects 600 million people worldwide. The World Health Organization in fact classifies allergic disease as the fourth most important chronic disease in the world. Allergic rhinitis can disrupt one’s work and school productivity and is associated with other diseases including asthma and sinusitis.

“The victims feel like they’re a zombie,” said Mr. Mosges. Besides sneezing, sinus pressure, runny nose, congestion, and itchy eyes, he said hay fever also causes a reduction in sexual desire. The sedation often felt is caused by the disease and not by the antihistamine drugs they take to relieve the symptoms, he noted. “You are sleepier when untreated,” he said.

Allergic rhinitis is often caused by an allergic response to outdoor or indoor allergens, such as pollen, dust mites, and pet dander. In the Philippines, the top two causes are dust mites and cockroaches said Dr. Jovilia Abong, past president of the Philippine Society of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.

According to the National Nutrition and Health Survey in 2008, two in 10 Filipino adults suffer allergic rhinitis. Residents in rural areas (22%) have a higher prevalence than residents in the urban area (18%). Ms. Abong said that although hay fever occurs all year round, its cases increase when the weather is humid.

To lessen or ease the symptoms, especially this summer, Ms. Abong gave some tips on how to shoo the achoo:

• households should clean the carpets and beddings every day;
• replace pillows every year;
• clean mattresses regularly and dry them under the sun;
• taking honey and vitamin C helps, too.

Other treatments include allergy education (majority of the victims take hay fever for granted said Ms. Abong), allergen avoidance, and allergen immunotherapy or allergy shots.

There are also medications like Bilastine, a non-sedating, second-generation antihistamine allergy drug which relieves allergic rhinitis and urticaria or hives, an itchy skin rash. Bilastine is a once-daily antihistamine tablet endorsed by the International Therapeutic Guidelines and the only drug so far that has met the Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact of on Asthma guidelines set in 2010. Mr. Mosges said that there has been no new technology on allergy control since 1988.

Bilastine, according to him, is the best of its class. Bilastine, a prescription drug, costs P27 per tablet and can be taken by people age 12 years old and above. --Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

Tha's So Fly

That is so fly

NOWADAYS, traveling far and wide, east and west, here and abroad has become part of Filipinos’ lifestyle, regardless if they are well-heeled flyers or budget backpackers. Everybody’s in and out: going to Cebu, Bicol, or Bohol, or having a fun weekend sojourn in Hong Kong or Japan.

Filipinos also like shopping, and retail companies have latched onto this predilection with loyalty systems and rebates to reward their customers.

Cebu Pacific’s Get Go has put together this love for traveling and for shopping with a customer loyalty card that lets passengers earn points and book a free trip as a reward.

“While the heritage of the program remains in the Cebu Pacific, we are independent. We want this to be used by other organizations and partner programs that’s why we came with Get Go name. We’re all about making it easy for people to get free flights just by doing what they do every day -- paying bills, shopping, or dining. With this exciting lifestyle rewards scheme, all you need to do is fly, shop, dine, and get ready to go places,” said Get Go general manager Nik Laming.

Besides paying for everyday purchases such as groceries, gas, and utility bills using major credit cards, people can also collect reward points by flying with Cebu Pacific and Tiger Air. Mr. Laming added that additional points are given when one avails of add-on products like reserved seats, additional baggage, and meals.

Get Go’s partners currently include Citibank, Metrobank, ZAP, and Ring Rob Concierge, from which cardholders can convert their rewards to Get Go points and start flying for free.

“The list is not yet complete. We’re only beginning to introduce more. We’re in discussions with all kinds of retailers like supermarkets, department stores, gas stations, and mobile networks. I cannot commit that they’ll be coming on board but we’re in discussion with them for you to be able to translate your everyday transactions to free flight,” said Mr. Laming.

There is a P150 one-time membership fee. Get Go cardholders can also form a group of seven and pool their points. A cardholder can earn one point for every P5 spent. International flights are 5,000 points. Sydney, Australia, which is Cebu Pacific’s farthest destination, earns 10,000 points. The card has no expiration as long as the account is active.

“We’re making it fun and down to earth. We want to make it accessible to majority of Filipinos. Who are we aiming for? The frequent shoppers, the OFWs, and the business and pleasure travelers. The young, pleasure travelers or the barkadas (group of friends) who may not have credit cards but they are savvy and like to travel a lot. Generally they are in their late 20s with friends booked together. The OFWs, meanwhile, fly with us twice or thrice a year. We’re looking to target them for some travel rewards,” said Mr. Laming. -- Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Writing is a Love Affair

By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

Whether young adult or historical fiction, writing is a love affair

WRITING a book takes stamina. Take it from the prolific and critically acclaimed Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. His fellow writers couldn’t agree more -- like international authors Juan Manuel de Prada and Emily Lockhart who were in town recently, interacting with our own acclaimed writers like fictionist Vicente Garcia Groyon.

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AUTHORS Juan Manuel de Prada of Spain (L) and Vicente Garcia Groyon of the Philippines -- INSTITUTO CERVANTES

Although writing for different genres, including children’s literature and literary criticism, they agreed that being a novelist is like a bodyguard on 24/7: always on duty, alert, dedicated, and passionate.

“I have yet to meet a published writer who waits for a muse. You have a deadline so you just cannot sit around. You work with rigor and dedication,” Ms. Lockhart said in a separate interview. She recently finished her book tour in Cebu and Metro Manila for her latest young adult (YA) novel, We Were Liars.

It took Ms. Lockhart two years and 15 revisions before giving birth to her latest young adult fiction. Mr. de Prada and Mr. Groyon toiled 15 years over thousands of revisions before their respective books, Morir tu Cielo (To Die Under Your Sky) and The Sky Over Dimas, were published.

Mr. Murakami was right when he said writing needs energy -- and, oh, blood, sweat, and vast imagination too.

HISTORICAL FICTION
Seclusion from the outside world, extensive research, and unfettered imagination -- these and more are some of the qualities and advantages behind a successful work of historical fiction, a genre that is anchored on true events but with its sprinkle of fancies.

For renowned Spanish novelist Mr. de Prada, 15 years feels like a short time to finish his latest novel To Die Under Your Sky. He remembers barely leaving his seat except to take a pee.

The book recounts the last days of the Spanish regiment under siege in the town of Baler, Quezon, which the author said is one of the most heroic yet relatively unknown episodes in history. The book required a vivid imagination as well as broad research on Jose Rizal’s books and on accounts on Filipinos in Spain at the time, among other facets.

Mr. Groyon recalled having the same undertaking for his book as Mr. de Prada. From conceptualization to the actual writing, The Sky Over Dimas also took Mr. Groyon a considerable 15 years to finish. Dimas is about a Filipino family in Negros, a fascinating milieu for writers as well as filmmakers because of the social dynamic and tension between the hacendero (rich landowner) class and laborers, dating back to the Spanish era.

To finish his book, Mr. Groyon relied on text and other sources.

Writing is a solitary endeavor, Mr. Groyon said, and novelists are lonely.

But beyond the solitude, Messrs. Groyon and de Prada are bound together by their love for historical fiction and the solidarity between the Philippines and Spain which goes back to history.

They were the guest speakers in a recent forum, “Encuentros en la literatura” (“Encounters in Literature”), presented by the Instituto Cervantes at the De La Salle University.

“Inspiration comes when I am busy writing. I make it a habit to devote my time into writing. For as long as there are stories to tell, the writing should be continuous. You should be disciplined. Travels are not advisable, but you have to be a slave of that world you’re creating,” Mr. de Prada told the young aspiring writers in that forum.

His visit to the Philippines seemingly stamped an approval seal to his book. Mr. de Prada said he knew the Philippines only from his research. Yet his tour was like a homecoming of sorts.

Among the characters in his book, the two nuns Lucia and Guicay should symbolize the affectionate relationship between the Philippines and Spain, Mr. de Prada said. “It’s not a coincidence that the relationship of both countries took more than 300 years. We should resurrect our lineage and our brotherhood. Spain and the Philippines are no strangers.” The 750-page novel was published last year and Mr. de Prada is now free to travel.

Mr. Groyon, on the other hand, visited Spain after Dimas was published in 2003. He said his visit didn’t feel foreign at all. “I’ve taken for granted the aspects of Pinoy culture. Many things are familiar. I struggled while writing the book because the setting was in the 19th century and I didn’t have a writing skill with an authentic flavor. I think I kind of cheated when I wrote it as a modern perspective looking back,” he said. Dimas won the Manila Critics Circle National Book Award in 2004.

CHALLENGES IN ‘YA’
While it took Ms. Lockhart a shorter time to finish her YA books, which includes We Were Liars, Fly on the Wall, and Ruby Oliver, among others, she said writing young-adult fiction isn’t easy. “I was lucky to write when YA is expanding. The libraries, classrooms, and critiques are starting to engage in YA in a smart way,” she said.

Her latest New York Times bestselling novel We Were Liars tells the story of the “beautiful and distinguished” Sinclair family, as a tumblr site describes these characters. The family has never missed its summer vacation in a private island until Cadence, one of the granddaughters, falls in love and has a serious accident. Back to the island after two years, Cadence knows nothing of what happened.

Nothing is what it seems. Everything seems a lie.

But please, never belittle young adult fiction in the context of historical fiction and other widely presumed “high quality” reads.

“YA is a little bit shorter, yes, but there are many kinds of stories within, like paranormal, dystopian, horror, literary fiction, many types.

I think that sometimes people who have not taken the time to read widely are just misinformed,” Ms. Lockhart said -- adding that YA is concerned with coming of age, separation from family, and kids’ many first-time experiences.

Ms. Lockhart said she gets inspiration from life experiences. “You end up almost like making a collage when you write,” said the American author who has a doctorate in English.

As a writer and a teacher, she emphasizes the beauty of short sentences, clarity, and simplicity. “I always talk about revisions in my class. For beginning writers, revision is adding a sentence here or there [or] fixing…grammar or punctuation. That is not revision, but it is throwing big chunks, rearranging dialogues, getting rid of characters or adding new characters,” she said.

The three writers said they did several revisions with their books.

NO SET RULES
Messrs. de Prada and Groyon both agree that there are no set rules in writing historical fiction, but this discipline takes a balance between fiction and fact.

“I wouldn’t say that there are rules, but only responsibility. You cannot be as free. While you have the freedom to put your interpretation of history, you have to be cautious. Usually, you have to find gaps in history and place the fiction there,” Mr. Groyon said. “In the end, you will always have a disclaimer that this is a fiction. In my experience, people usually ask me parts of the book really happened. I think it’s a Filipino thing to have an automatic belief, a desire to believe that it really happened because it makes it more affecting. Historical fiction is about taking repercussions. There could be damage to people and descendants.”

For a historical novelist to be successful, he should have consistency and balance, Mr. de Prada said. “You are creating fictional characters with ideas, but at the same time, you’re being faithful to the actual events. This isn’t easy. Sometimes, you have to express your own ideas and there can be temptations to change the history. But you must constrain yourself,” he said.

There’s a vast field of fiction to play with too, Mr. de Prada said. “We can play mainly with the characters. For example, we know that 50 Spanish soldiers were in Baler church, but we don’t know everything about them. That’s when we can recreate their psychology.”

While Ms. Lockhart said she loves to read historical fiction and fantasy, she qualified that her storytelling abilities are more “contemporary.”

“Historical fiction takes a lot of research. I salute the writers. But it’s not for me. I don’t think that my storytelling abilities lend myself [to] writing that genre,” she said.

But whether one is writing YA or historical fiction, the three writers said inventions may come from a story in your childhood you want to reimagine, from something you read, or from stories by other people.

“It’s a mixture of those elements,” Mr. de Prada said.

Ms. Lockhart, for her part, said she always injects a part of her in the characters. “I see myself from all the characters. I usually take myself and develop from [those] characteristics and emotions. The heroine in We Were Liars is suffering from chronic pain, amnesia, heartbreak, and anger. I haven’t had amnesia, but I’ve experienced heartbreak and anger, so I took the things I knew and understood and brought them together.”

What makes a great novelist? Three words: Read and write. “My advice to aspiring writers is to read, read, read. Read the great novelists and gnaw your way through the local library’s sci-fi or romance collection, if that’s what does it for you,” Ms. Lockhart said.

For Mr. de Prada, writing should be a lifetime love affair. “For as long as there are stories, writing should be continuous. Let it surprise you,” he said.

The three writers are working on their next books. We couldn’t wait.