Bear Hugs Of Emily Abrera

Two Mondays ago, I got out of our Greenhome early. Before 9:30am, I was at the lobby of Harrison Communications, eager and excited for an interview with Emily Abrera!

Nobody…absolutely, nobody in local advertising establishes a presence like Emily Abrera. And she has agreed to share her thoughts and feelings about Cecile and I for the coming segment on “Mel and Joey.” This will be aired on 11 November 2007 in Channel 7.

The moment she walked into the Conference Room, the atmosphere changed. Her aura completely engulfs and engages anyone around her. Gosh, she is THE “icon” of Philippine advertising. Am sure many would “kill” just to be in the same room with her. My student, Chico Santos, was mesmerized by her presence. Natahimik at nahiya.

While we were waiting for the GMA crew, we got into a lengthy conversation. We talked about family and friends. About Joey, whose wife, Doris, had recently passed away. About our work in Vietnam. About her late husband, Caloy. About Somyot Chairat. Kids. Family. Marriage.

She talked for 15 minutes in front of the camera. She describes Cecile and myself… how opposites attract and how people love in “different ways.”

She later explained to Matess Salviejo that she asked to meet me (McCann Philippines was still at Eurovilla Bldg) so she could gauge the relationship Cecile and I had. I remember that afternoon I met her. She distinctly talked about a “balance in life” sharing how she and Caloy made it work for them.

It had been a long time, since I sat down and shared kuwentos with Ems. The first time was when she asked to meet me in February 2001, a few weeks before Cecile was to be posted in Vietnam.

I was very much nervous in 2001 when I first met Ems. I knew her iconic status in the industry. I felt “unworthy” to be sitting besides her. But since then, I have slowly adjusted to her presence in our lives. She will always be our “ninang” and like a mother to Cecile and I.

Her “bear hugs” to Cecile and I will always be remembered and cherished.

We love you Ems!

Obesity by Dr. House

I don’t normally watch “House.” In fact, last Monday night was the first time I ever finished one episode. And the episode was about obesity. Photo from www.tvguide.com

Yes, we see of them around our lives and often, they are depicted on TV and movies in ways not favorable to obese people. Sometimes, made out of fun. But obbesity is a serious concern.

In “House,” the episode entitled “Que Sera Sera” begins as firemen rescue a 600 plus pound obese person. He is reported dead until he farts and the firemen learn he alive and bring him to the hospital. Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) doesn’t give up on the patient until he discovers “clubbed” fingers which was a sign of a lung cancer.

High Laurie has received the 2006 and 2007 Golden Globe Awards and 2007 Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor in a Drama. The show was renewed for a fourth season.

House’s “diagnostocians” team, led by Dr. Allison Cameron (played by Jennifer Morrison) desperately try to find out the reasons for his coma, even against his own wishes. He maintains nothing is wrong with him, except that he is fat. One of the young doctors argue treatment on the obese patient, saying, “he got himself in that situation.” Cast photo from Fox.

Although obesity is an individual clinical condition, it is increasingly viewed as a serious and growing public health problem. Jay Leno often makes jokes about how Americans eat their way to obesity because of junk food.

We know that excessive body weight has been shown to predispose to various diseases, from diabetes to cardiovascular diseases.

Remember that exercise with a balanced diet help maintain good health.

Lives Lost in Glorietta

Noelle el Farol by friend from the University of the Philippines first sent me a text message about the Glorietta blast! He said, “Glorietta was bombed. 3 dead. FYI.” I was at the 9th floor of Philam Life Building, preparing for a client meeting with Grace.

Immediately, thanks to Globe Visibility, I browsed the Internet for news. The Inquirer website was busy and was “loading” for a very long time. Impatience quickly followed, so I switched to Yahoo News.

The breaking news said, “Gas cylinder causes blast in Glorietta.” But even that site was taking longer than usual to load the complete story. But given, all the flack that GMA’s government had been getting, an attack from within was a possibility? Am sure many other Filipinos are speculating many conspiracy theories.

Even the news program on ANC was quick to have a discussion on these speculations. If not for the Karachi bombing, the Glorietta Blast would surely have placed the country in the headlines again.

Police said they found traces of plastic explosives, thus refuting the gas cylinder angle. By now, 9 persons had died and 119 more injured.

Amidst all the speculations and whispers, can we first stop and say a quiet prayer for the families and relatives of those Filipinos who lives and presence were quickly lost in the Glorietta blast.

And to all those who also died in the Karachi blast.

Lechon Fiesta

We had a “lechon fiesta” during the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary in Angeles City, Pampanga. Mama Mary’s presence has continued to shed light and inspiration to million of Filipinos, and specially, during fiestas when family and friends come together to share life’s blessings and a good crack of lechon!

And with the Garcia clan, a few rounds of mahjong would be the fun part of any reunion. This time, Victor de Vera, Mom, Melo Garcia and myself sat through a “high stakes” game. Nope? We played a game of 10 – 20. Ten pesos for a simple win and 20 pesos for a “bunot” win. Luckily, I won the first few games, which put a few bills into my “pot.” At the end of the game, I won around 500 pesos, which turned into longaniza and tocino we bought on the way home at “Pampanga’s Best” outlet.

In-between the “high stakes” game as Nedda would call it, Chief, Nedda and Toti would take over our seats. This gave Victor, Melo and I some time to rest our butts and grab some dessert. I got some “buko pandan” which was brought by Toti and his family. Only mom stayed on for all the games.

By 6pm, it was time to “pack up” the mahjong set. We said goodbyes to our host, specially, Tita Ache (mom’s oldest sister).

And we promised to have our presence felt again next weekend in Manila for Olga’s despidida and Melo’s dancing lessons for everyone!

Burmese Monks makes presence felt again!

Back in February 1986, thousands marched through EDSA to stand up for what they believed in. For four days, the Philippines was on center stage as democracy was regained. Those days became to be known as “People Power.”

A few weeks ago, Burmese monks started to make their presence felt by participating in a peaceful rally in the central town of Pakokku. Later, a group called the Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks emerged to co-ordinate the protests. On 21 September (the anniversary date of martial law), the group issued a statement describing the military government as "the enemy of the people".

By the 24th of September, Rangoon saw the sight of thousands of people. They responded to a call from the monks and joined a massive protest. (Photo courtesy of Yahoo news.)

Outside communication was cut. Violence resulted. On 27 September 2007, the military junta said nine people had been killed. But the whole world knows that more people had been killed. Thousands were also arrested. Monks were rounded up, held in make-shift detention compounds and transported to prison camps in the north.

All these events in Burma was happening while I was in Hanoi, Vietnam.

According to a BBC Report by Sarah Buckley, “There are 400,000-500,000 professional monks in a country of about 50 million people, but many more laymen worship alongside the monks for a few weeks at a time throughout their lives in order to earn spiritual credit.”

She also reports that “Burmese monks not only play a spiritual role, but also have a history of political activism. They have been at the forefront of protest against unpopular authorities, from British colonial power in the 1930s to the last pro-democracy campaign in 1988.”

Unlike those four days in 1986, the Filipinos had media on their side, plus the military had been part of the clamor for change.

The BBC report also says that “only about 10% of Burma's monks are politicized, and many of the monasteries may be unaware of the scale of the agitation currently under way in the country.”

While here in the country, almost everybody seems to be “politicized.”

Spade and Shatner

Last Wednesday night, Chief and I had watched “Boston Legal.” We really wanted to sleep early and there was nothing really good on TV until the opening credits of “Boston Legal.”

We only had watched a few episodes of this series back in Vioetnam, which had started as a spin-off from “The Practice."

What was important to learn in this episode was how Allan Shore (James Spade) chose friendship over his own principles. He valued his friendship with Denny Crane (William Shatner), who had been subject of a lawsuit from an indigent, named Kirk (after Shatner’s own character n Star Trek) he had shot with a paint-gun. Spade agreed to take on the case as a way to settle with the indigent for the amount of 75,000 dollars.

In a parallel story, Denise Bauer (Played by Julie Bowen who was born on March 3, 1970… and celebrates her birthday after Chief’s own birthday) and Brad Chase (Mark Valley), two other lawyers of the firm, Crane, Poole & Schmidt. pretend to be FBI agents to the extent of violating the law to rescue the son of her maid who had been kidnapped by a pedophile. This pedophile had been hiding and only maintains contact with the priest.

Chief was surprised at one scene, when Brad with an ax in hand, accidentally, cuts of three fingers of the priest, who had prevented the lawyers from entering his office.

At the end of the episode, Spade talks about the 27 million poor Americans who might one day decide to fight back against the rich like Denny Crane.

Meanwhile, the priest gets his missing finger back and points to the location where the pedophile is hiding. The boy is rescued.

But on the teaser for the next episode, Brad is on trial.

Guess, we will watch that episode nexr Wednesday night.

Photo courtesy of Boston Legal cast from www.tvguide.com (by Scott Garfield / ABC)

Last Day In Saigon

I always maintain the premise that whenever I am in Vietnam on business, it would be the last trip back to this country, which Chief and I consider as our second home. Our presence here was first felt in March 2001, when Chief was cross-posted from McCann Erickson Manila to McCann Erickson Vietnam. From 2001 up to October 2005, we lived and worked and loved here in Vietnam.

I was in Vietnam these past ten days for a mix of business and a little pleasure. First, I attended the Asian CSR Forum. Nearly 600 delegates from 21 countries! And that Forum gave me many opportunities to meet people from different countries, from as far as Japan and Italy.

Plus, met Pacita Juan, the CEO and President of Figaro Coffee, which is Chief’s favorite coffee shop. We had an interesting discussion on Figaro’s CSR Program that helps coffee farmers in the country.

I also met Cheng Cheng Loo, Intel’s Regional Manager for Education. She is Malaysian and had interesting insights o how Intel’s employees contribute their free time for community work.

How far can I push my friend Tere Lopez-Pacis? Hmmm. Maybe, if Doy helped? But he is just smiling, probably thinking of the Pinay singer he met at the Caravelle Hotel. Also met up with a few friends like Pollynne Ibasco, my former boss with Venus Communication, plus my former colleagues from McCann Erickson and Mai Thanh Advertising.

The other half of my trip was spent in Hanoi for the Advanced PR Training Course at AITCV.

This is a photo of home items from ceramics to lacquer ware that can be found in our favorite suki in Ben Thanh Market. I bought a few pieces of chopsticks, fruit bowls and jewelry boxes made of lacquer.

But tomorrow, I fly back to Manila, where Chief and I would continue with the steps of our lives and eagerly open the pasalubong!

Remember the cube?

I remember back in the 80s, young and old people alike were holding a multi-colored cube, called the Rubik’s Cube. Back then, the Rubik’s Cube became a “must have” toy before mobile phones and iPods.

This weekend the 2007 World Championships of the Hungarian-born Rubik's Cube will be held in Budapest, the birthplace of the cult puzzle. 300 candidates from 33 countries, including reigning champion Jean Pons from France, are expected to take part in the competition on October 5, 6 and 7, 2007.

Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik will be present. Rubik invented his "Magic Cube" in 1974 and obtained Hungarian patent HU170062 for the Magic Cube in 1975. The first test batches of the product were produced in late 1977 and released to Budapest toy shops.

The Rubik's Cube has nine square facelets on each side, giving 54 "facelets" in total, and occupies a volume of twenty-seven unit cubes in red, green, yellow, blue, white or orange that can be moved around a central hinge. The goal is to re-arrange the squares so that each side again displays only one color.

In 1982 at the World's Fair held in Knoxville, Tennessee, a 6 foot rotating cube was put on display at the World's Fair Park. It was moved and forgotten, after the fair. In July 2007, it was restored and placed in the Holiday Inn lobby that overlooks the park.

The first world championship organized by the Guinness Book of World Records was held in Munich on March 13, 1981. The official winner with a record of 38 seconds was Munich-born Jury Froeschl.

The first international world championship was held in Budapest on June 5, 1982 and was won by Minh Thai, a Vietnamese student from Los Angeles, with a time of 22.93 seconds.

I used to have one Rubik’s Cube. Nasaan na kaya iyon?

Blogging on the 2nd day

It my second day of the PR Workshop here at AITCV in Hanoi. And we were talking about blogging. Blogging here in Vietnam has not yet reached the level of influence and impact as blogging has done in Western countries.

Maybe, in a couple of years, blogging would have a stronger presence here.