Great Wall of China

     One of the perks of working with a multinational company is travelling, especially in my last job as regional marketing manager for Asia for an American chemical company. I organized various marketing events in many cities and usually after the events, was sight seeing when the locals are proud to show what they have for the world to see. I was enjoying my job until a stroke stopped me from working.

     One time we had a road show, a marketing event providing technical seminars, in Beijing. After the event, our Chinese colleague was so nice to bring us around including the Olympic venue when China hosted it in 2008 and the famous Great Wall of China.

     We had the chance to walk a portion of the Great Wall which was swarming with tourists. It was exhausting I found out.

There were many tourists

Looks like I got tired

Seeing this sign made me realize I was defintiely in China

    In 2008, China hosted the Olympics in Beijing. We visited some of the venues which they maintained for tourism I guess.

With the huge Olympic torch

With Dr. Nootens and the Olympic rings

     The rings are colored and only yesterday I got to know the colors stood for the continents, although it has not been used by the Olympics for reason that I don't know.

Black = Africa

Red = America

Blue = Europe

Yellow = Asia 

Green = Australia/Oceania

A Journey, a Filipino Movie

     For some years I've not watched Filipino films for the simple reason of its predictable plots. With the recommendation of a Filipino-American friend, I watched A Journey, that my friend said as outstanding in Netflix

It is a very touching tale of love and friendship

     Three childhood friends were still bonded as friends when they grow older, even as two of them, a boy and a girl, became a couple and the third guy was their close friend. The girl was dying of cancer so she had a bucket list to do at least before she died, which included a trip to Australia in an effort to meet her long-lost father who separated from her mother for some melodramatic reasons. She met her father and they had a wonderful time on her last happy moments on earth. After their journey, ticking all those in the bucket list, they returned to the Philippines only to experience a tragic ending. The husband died of a stroke suddenly, dying ahead of the sick wife, and subsequently the wife died of cancer peacefully.

First Typhoon of the Year 2024

     Finally, after months of super hot and dry weather, there is rain courtesy of typhoon Aghon, which may landfall soon, the first typhoon of the year. It feels good to feel cold after all the sweating and humidity. The rain came this morning, although it has stopped now.

Cloudy skies 

     The rain is a blessing from heaven, my Malaysian Chinese friends say. In this case, it really is a blessing to the parched farms and fields. Many poor farmers are suffering from the drought affecting their plants and preventing them to plant anew.

Anti-Poverty Czar is Ignorant

     This is a classic case of a politician who is utterly ignorant of the realities of Philippine society, who lives in Manila but is unaware of the rampant poverty in the countryside, to think he is the anti-poverty secretary yet he doesn't know the actual state in the countryside. If your measure is the oppulence in Metro Manila, you are completely detached. You are not aware of the existence of urban poor in squalor in the squatter areas. I am disgusted with how the President can appoint him into his cabinet to look into the poverty situation and improve it. If people like him can hold such high position with this viewpoint, it is a doom for the country.

Dutch Boy

     My only job in the Philippines was with Dutch Boy Paints for about two to three years then I worked abroad for better monetary returns. I have no comparison to say Dutch Boy as a company was the best but my short stint made me feel it was among the best.

     I was with the Technical Department where I started as a paint chemist. I was so at home with the department and my colleagues made me feel at home. When I joined, there were about eight of us joining at about the same time, and we liked to call ourselves the young ones.

The young ones during my time who were so close

The Technical Department was like a family

     I learned my ABC's in paint in this company which became my stepping stone to long term career in paints in Malaysia and Singapore, although in Singapore, I challenged myself to venture into technical marketing. My last job was in Singapore for a regional managerial job in marketing responsible for promoting the use of monomer in the whole of Asia. It was a very challenging job, and my technical experience came in handy in dealing with my customers. 

Scam in the Philippines

     Sad to say but it is the reality, there are plenty of scammers in the Philippines. I spent 30 years in Singapore and Malaysia prior to my stroke, I never had this kind of experience.

     Every now and then, I get text messages from random people, and if you are not really careful, you would fall into their trap.

First, I got this!

Then this came

Becoming obvious it's a scam

They're still trying to lure me

     I am not sure if they all came from one source, although I feel they were as they came almost one day after another. I blocked all the numbers, that's the key, eventually they get exhausted of their hoax.

     There are too many individuals in this country who are jobless and are looking for easy money, this is one example of their way to con others who fall into their modus. The society has made them poor and wanting, pushing them to resort to scrupulous modus in order to survive. It's something that politicians should focus and try to solve long term instead of focusing on menial projects as building basketball courts in the communities.