383 years total wisdom

I’m training-happy. I love venues for learning and gaining new information and I look forward to queuing up for courses like this Strategic Social Entrepreneurship Training. Actually I missed the original PEARL2 Executive Director Series a few years ago; I am just so lucky I tagged along and finally took this course.

With the presence and availability of various materials to read and listen and watch, it has become a battle for the mind: which is the data and information that we are to pick and prioritize. And I think that this is true whether you’re in government, in an academic institution, or in a business support organization like me. But I guess everyone here agrees that the SSE Training won the battle for our minds.

The five-day training for this Strategic Social Entrepreneurship Course presented business planning and preparation in a novel manner that as a participant, I didn’t know what hit me until we were asked a full-blown business plan as a prerequisite for completion of the training. I believe though that the method was done that way because of the assumption that the training participants are already familiar with the components of a business plan. And I think I am not wrong if we base it upon everyone's performance in the business plan presentation and defense exercise today.

Our training approach focused on basics and highlights, but for just a little refresher, we talked about Vision, Mission, Objectives, Key Result Areas, Performance Indicators, Strategies, Programs, Activities and Tasks. It’s quite a long list – so even if we forget one or two of them, or which order they come, I hope that we won’t forget the most important thing – that we package a project and program that does more than the expected motions, one that will not only answer the challenge of social entrepreneurship, but will ultimately become a part of the ongoing fulfillment of the promise of Mindanao.

As the Executive Director of the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry, let me convey my organization’s and my personal gratitude to PEARL2-CIDA and Capitol University for this opportunity. And to all my co-participants, with whom I was able to share in the joint 383 years of experience, and from whom I have learned so much, thank you.

- A Testimony
SSE Course Graduation Ceremony

don't study for a blood test

I am not surprised to discover why I can count my close female friends with one hand only. Sympathy is what one woman offers another in exchange for details.

I think we should go slow with the tipping no matter how we want to impress our dates. Tips are the wages we pay to people who are actually hired by others.

Then: if you want to immortalize your name, you do something great that no one has ever done or attempted to do before. Now: you get on a forwarding email list.

That door between you seems so impenetrable. So you sit until you are called. But if the doctor makes you wait, let us make him wait until you finish the magazine.

I like stories told in whispers. They're like secrets made in cross-your-heart fashion. And if you promise me not to repeat something, it means you can tell it only once to somebody else.

viral question passed around

"If Joey's father is John, then John is the _____ of Joey's father."
Fill in the blank.

Sorry Jay, I cannot help it!

Father and son photo: Chickpea

come happily ever after be

I'VE DREAMED OF YOU

I've dreamed of you
Always feeling you were there.
And all my life
I have searched for you everywhere.


ISN'T IT A PITY?
The two of us
A perfect team.
Isn't it a pity
We never met before?


THE ISLAND
Make believe we've landed
On a desert island.
Bathe me in the waters
Warm me in the moonlight.


LOVE LIKE OURS
One day you turn and he's there.
Amazing how serene it is.
The shade of evergreen, it is.
Exactly what we mean, it is.


IF YOU EVER LEAVE ME
If you ever leave me
Will you take me with you?
If you're ever lonely
I wanna be lonely too.


WE MUST BE LOVING RIGHT
It might be the way I adore you.
Or the way that you hold me tight.
I don't know the reason but I'm believin'
We must be lovin' right.


IF I NEVER MET YOU
If I never met you
If I never saw your face
This world, this world would be a colder place
I bet.


IT MUST BE YOU
This is not like me.
It must be you, it must be love.
Nothing else could turn me upside down.
Or plant my feet so firmly on the ground.


JUST ONE LIFETIME
Just one lifetime
Won't be enough time for us.
We need more
For all this love.


IF I DIDN'T LOVE YOU
If I didn't love you
I'd be safe from harm.
I would never find myself
Lost inside your arms.


WAIT
Once I never dreamed there'd come a time
When time would need another day
Another week, another year with you.
Forever doesn't mean forever anymore.


THE MUSIC THAT MAKES ME DANCE
And as far as the man is concerned,
If I've been burned I haven't learned.
I know he's around when the sky and the ground start in ringing,
I know that he's near by the thunder I hear in advance.

it's a fish-eat-fish world

If I want to see how the world operates in reality, I don't have to go to Wall Street or to the seat of national government or to the slums. All I need to do is sit down in front of our aquarium.

I was told by many that keeping an aquarium is good for the health. Mental, emotional, and physical health, I believe. The aquarium is claimed to calm the senses. The movement of the fish refreshes the eyes and the pattern of the moving water relaxes the mind.

But what about the day I arrived from work when the girls were excited with the news that a crayfish was eaten alive by the herd? Where did the bonds of tank-hood go wrong?

My own definition of an aquarium is goldfishes floating peacefully with their beady eyes. That's the kind I grew up with! But Nika and Gela, typical of them as they won't be making the purchase and won't be maintaining the tank, were wanting the Japanese koi. Trust them to be always one model upgrade from me.

Ultimately though, Mike filled it with ten tiger barbs, ten platys with Mickey Mouse logos in their tails, and six red cross tetras. We were okay with that.

Then we got these two crayfishes. Jacques and Madeline. Somehow the red slow-walking crayfish resonates French to me. So I named it Jacques. And as it hobbles around with its crimson claws, trying to get near to the other fast-swimming fish, Jacques was a pleasure to watch. It was very clear that Jacques has become my favorite.

Zooming past him are the active tiger barbs, and we had an agreement to give them the names of the Egyptian gods and goddesses. Ra, Re, Mut, Nut, Isis, Osiris. The biggest one is Anubis, not for anything else but just because we love the name. They move a lot anyway that we cannot match the name with which fish. But we knew the barbs were deities in that tank, with their playful demeanor of jumping and sliding on the pair of wedding glasses (yep, the very ones used in our ceremonial sharing of the wine) arranged on the white sand to give the tank that Titanic feel.

It was just late that I discovered that "barb" actually means barbarians!

We found out that they have bitten off parts of two of the tetras. And to think that tetras are the friendlier relatives of piranhas. For days, a tetra went around sans fins and another one without a tail.

And then the barbs turned to the crayfishes. At the beginning, we feared that Jacques and Madeline will eat the other fish. But the opposite happened and Jacques was actually the casualty. The crayfish experienced molting, and lost its bright red shell. Its new shell was very soft and it needed time to harden. And it didn't stand a chance with the barbs.

Jacques was vulnerable and the tiger barbs had a feast of the little lobster. They ate him slowly - one tiny part at a time! It all happened in a day and all I got was the story when I got home.

I think Jacques was not a pet but I cried for him a lot that the whole family must have been surprised. I was devastated because it was not a fair fight. And that red crayfish made me smile when I'd see him try to navigate the obstructions in the aquarium and climb the driftwood.

Crying for Jacques even surprised myself too. I really never thought I'd care for a snippet bought from the local pet store. But I realize that we all are Jacques in our own ways, working hard at that little piece of rock, slowly going through our matters of consequence. And we don't need a team of tiger barbs to hit us during our weakest moment.

Then again, looking back on it now, any other Jacques or crayfish could be bigger. And faster. And a smaller fish could catch its attention. And be the one to end up in its claws. It's barbaric. But some say it's the way nature works. So I acquiesce.

Tiger barb photo credit: Tropical Freshwater Aquarium Fish

where all the transfers stop

Oro Chamber Business Development Centre

Dedication and Inauguration Line Up


Smiles After the Panic

putting it together

Bit by bit, putting it together
Piece by piece, only way to make a work of art
Every moment makes a contribution
Every little detail plays a part
Having just a vision's no solution
Everything depends on execution
Putting it together, that's what counts!

Ounce by ounce, putting in together
Small amounts, adding up to make a work of art
First of all you need a good foundation
Otherwise it's risky from the start
Takes a little cocktail conversation
But without the proper preparation
Having just a vision's no solution
Everything depends on execution
The art of making art
Is putting it together, bit by bit..

Every minor detail is a major decision
Have to keep things in scale
Have to hold to your vision..

What's a little cocktail conversation
If it gets the funds for your foundation
Every time I start to feel defensive
I remember vinyl is expensive!

Dot by dot, building up the image
Shot by shot, keeping at a distance doesn't pay
Still if you remember your objective
Not give all your privacy away
A little bit of hype can be effective
As long as you can keep it in perspective..

Bit by bit, putting it together
Piece by piece, working on the vision night and day
All it takes is time and perseverance
With a little luck along the way
Putting in a personal appearance
Gathering supporters and adherents..

Balancing the money with the mission
Till you have the perfect orchestration
Even if you do have the suspicion
That it's taking all your concentration
The art of making art
Is putting it together, bit by bit
Beat by beat, part by part
Sheet by sheet, chart by chart
Track by track, bit by bit,
Reel by reel, pout by pout
Stack by stack, snit by snit,
Meal by meal, shout by shout
Deal by deal, spat by spat
Shpiel by shpiel, doubt by doubt..

And that is..

.. and i say..
what this building construction is all about!

- from 'Putting It Together'
performed by Barbra Streisand

lindt of switzerland

Petits Pralines

"Giving chocolate to others is an intimate form of communication,
a sharing of deep, dark secrets."

- Milton Zelman

Chocolate box photo credit: Mike Mendoza

step into my parlor

When I was a young girl in my grade school years, one of the poems my mother would recite to us her children to while away a boring weekend afternoon would be Mary Howitt’s “The Spider and the Fly”.

"Will you walk into my parlor?"
said the spider to the fly

I can never remember the correct words now, but all I am certain of is that first whimsy line. Oh for sure there’s also another thing that awaits the fly which gets invited to the web… and that would just be totally horrible… but it is that poem’s introduction that came first into my mind when I think about the three years that I’ve been with the Oro Chamber.

Please do not misunderstand me though – walking into the Oro Chamber is not like walking to your death! For that is not the point I wish to make. Far from it!

Working with the Oro Chamber has been a pleasure. And let me mark off a few things that are most wonderful for me:

* hosting the Good Business Forums and seeing members learn something new
* listening to the trustees exchange stories and parley during the monthly meetings
* watching the staff answer called-in complaints still with a smile on their faces and saving the hoot only until after placing the phone back in the cradle
* learning to make do, deliver the services and maximize the budget allotment
* taking a phone call from the US Embassy because the Ambassador wants to meet the officers in an informal meeting
* scrambling schedules and managing tasks to accommodate the activities with other partner offices and organizations

I could go on and on! But all I ever really wish for is this – that members can see the potential of what being a part of the Oro Chamber can mean to them.

With the completion of the Phase I of the Business Development Centre, I hope that we all would put it to good use by making it the foundation of knowledge, networking, business development, and growth for the members and the business community.

For the three years that I’m in the chamber as the Secretary General-Executive Director, I have seen the passion and the dreams of the officers and trustees and other concerned and active members as together the building in the engineering sketches took its shape.

From the point of accepting the land from Pueblo de Oro Development Corporation to the preparation of the project paper, and to the naming of the building… from the ground-breaking ceremony to the selection of the contents for the time capsule (Oro Chamber-style), to the numerous meetings for the floor plan, to the bidding process… from the building funds management to the selection of the paint and the purchasing of the fixtures. All of these were done with a shared commitment that shall even go beyond the edifice that was constructed.

And I am so proud to be a part of it all.

As the Oro Chamber works to live its mission, the Business Development Centre now shall stand as witness to its endeavors.

The inauguration of the building is really a milestone for all of us – this center that we can really call the Oro Chamber’s own – a product of the dedication of past Oro Chamber presidents, trustees and members who have envisioned a project that will espouse all the wonderful things we plan to continue doing for those who are interested and curious and brave enough to be a part of the dream in the first place.

You are given the invitation. And with the opening of the doors of the chamber building, let us make new dreams come true. Step into the parlor.

Oro Chamber building construction photo:
my camera, last March 2008

doing business with netherlands

In Oro Chamber's commitment to enhance the competitiveness of the business community in Cagayan de Oro City and Northern Mindanao, we are happy to invite you to the seminar on “DOING BUSINESS WITH THE NETHERLANDS” on 19 May 2008, Monday 01:00-05:00pm at the Emperor Court, Grand Caprice, Limketkai Center.

This special event will highlight the following topics:

* Netherlands in Brief
* Trading and the Export Market of the Netherlands
* Networking and Assistance for Exporters
* CBI: Centre for Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries
* Accessing the PUM Netherlands Senior Consultants Services

Speakers from the Netherlands Embassy Manila, CBI, Philexport Cebu and Northern Mindanao will share their expertise and experience; and no less than PUM Netherlands Senior Consultants Chief Executive Officer Mr. Thijs van Praag is joining the activity.

We hope that through this activity, you will be able to expand your market, see new possibilities, strengthen networks and grow your export business. All you need to do is just invest your time, as this seminar is FREE for the participants.

Kinderdijk Holland sunset photo credit: Fonds d'ecran

colors updated

Snow White, then:

* hair black as ebony
* lips red as blood
* skin white as snow

Me, now:

* bedsheets white as snow
* nails red as blood
* sleeping gown black as ebony

Industrial drums photo credit: A Guy with a Camera