incessant rambling

Recently we celebrated the fact that Cebu City ranked number four in the Top 50 Global Outsourcing Destinations as reported by Tholons (investment advisory firm) and Global Services (leading magazine for global sourcing of IT and BPO Services). The study indicated that outsourcers consider the competencies, costs of operation as well as maturity of the services in a location as primary metrics in the ranking system. While we celebrate this achievement, this does not highlight the bigger picture of the study: in the Top 15 destinations, India has 5, China has 3, Vietnam has 2, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Argentina, Brazil and Philippines only logged a single city each. The Top 50 revealed a further interesting result: India (6), China (5), Philippines (3) and Vietnam (2). Other destinations in North/South America and Europe are included in the list but the emerging trend shows that China and Vietnam are fast catching up to the Philippines as a regional competitor in the global outsourcing industr...

"most of the foreigners are middle-aged men with young women hanging on to their arms." that is part of the preface by lonely planet when describing cebu city as a tourist destination. for USD 299 dollars "yanski" will meet you at the airport, and for 7 days, have a personal assistant arrange for 5 ladies to be brought up to your hotel for a get to know each other session. oh, they also provide you with a cell phone. if you're on a quick turnaround flight, USD 99 will have someone meet you at the airport and arrange for 5 ladies to be brought up to your hotel room for a "get to know each other session". and yeah, the cell phone comes along as well. i seriously doubt that "get to know each other session" will last long before someone starts to strip, and that is definitely another type of conversation i don't want to go into. and if you probably ask for it, the "escort" can also provide you with viagra supply. but like any other ...

keep your friends close but keep your enemies even closer. Everyone in Cebu knows that Tommy Osmena and Gwen Garcia have a passionate loathing for one another.I suspect that they hardly know each other on a personal level but their differences stem from their polar beliefs on certain issues that impact Cebu City and the Province. On the other hand, I am baffled by journalists who use this as a headline to introduce events where Tomas and Gwen are seen together. I half-suspect that they are eagerly waiting for that moment when Tommy loses his cool and slugs it out with Gwen. That would be really newsworthy. heck, i would pay money to get ringside tickets if that happens. Two articles written in Cebu Daily News and Sunstar used this angle to introduce articles about Sinulog activities where the Mayor and Governor were seen together - despite the fact that when you strip down the unnecessary details, the article simply mentioned the Governor acepting an award for some performance. Gwen su...

cebu governor gwen garcia is (in)famous for being publicity hungry, people argue that she is a master manipulator of mass media, using it to her advantage to create constant awareness of her activities. we all agree that tommy can't compete with her in this category - beauty is not one of his errr... strong points. gwen garcia has cleverly manipulated media to trail around and catch her every movement (make that carefully "posed" pictures), concocting events such as "catch me if you can" contests that gives away prizes for picture perfect photos of the governor in her daily activities. why is it that margot can go around doing her charity work without having members of media trailing around? i guess that love-hate relationship between the media and tomas gets in the way. the latest gwen media salvo is her preparation for sinulog 2008. i truly can not understand why it is a news item to feature gwen and her selection of gown as a sea goddess for the grand parade....

you want to know the REAL reason why I have long hair? try to catch the movie adaptation of Todd Sweeney: Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) (Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman) and you'll understand the psychotic phobia that i have when it comes to a sharp razor grazing soft, soft skin. i personally don't really put much value to movie reviews, but this movie lived up to its praise (it won Golden Globe Best Picture, Best Actor for Depp). Ask most people and the idea of a musical brings about the thought of the Trapp Singers, cartoons, cute little things, happily ever after and the like. whereas the movie 300 succeeded telling a tale of violence through an antiseptic filter, sweeney todd showed singing actors drenched in ruby red blood, blood spurting and bubbling from neatly severed jugular veins. the music and lyrics from stephen soundheim is the perfect compliment to the majestic darkness painted by tim burton of a london festering in social decay. burton tint...

sometime late december (2007) i got a call from mem and she asked me if i knew anything about a thousand people that got laid off from Western Watts. i was honestly caught off guard as i make it my responsibility to monitor industry movement and something this big should have made a beep somewhere in my radar. early this year i called up a friend whose son works for Western Watts and confirmed that people were laid off sometime just before Christmas last year. Last week a commentary by Bobby Nalzaro in SunStar reported about a thousand people were laid off. the reports indicate that the company terminated the services of people due to gross incapacity to meet performance standards as set by the company. what a lot of bull. any decent performance management system allows for an employee to be coached and provided ample warning of roughly two months before decisions to terminate services are served. this is backed up by documented reports on performance, coaching sessions as well documen...

i'm a borderline hypochondriac and i find myself trying to interpret every smallest bodily function, action or reaction to be a symptom of the latest ailment i've heard about. a previous blog entry talked about how to identify a possible "stroke" using the STReS (Smile, Talk, Reach Out Your Arms, Stick Out the Tongue) method, given this, i imagine everyone to be a candidate for stroke. i was taking a walk with marty (imagine a rotund, heavyset fellow) and he fell over - what better way to test the STReS method. Me: "Can you smile for me?" Marty: "Pucha, nadapa na nga ko pipicturan mo pa. ang sakit ha! Bwiset." (Shit, I already fell down and you want to take a picture of me! Eeeets painful you know!) Ok, that eliminates the symptom for smiling and talking coherently. I immediately asked him to put out his hands in front of him. Marty: "Heller, wala ako planong mag ala darna dito.. madapaka ka rin kaya! tulungan mo ngako!" (I am not darna!...

you ever asked yourself how do you identify "stroke" when it happens? a "stroke" or cerebrovascular accident is caused when a blood clot clog a vein that leads to your brain. the effect can be lethal or it can leave you a vegetable for the rest of your life. unfortunately, a "stroke" is sometimes not so obvious until the patient goes into arrest. Doctors say that if stroke is identified and given treatment within three (3) hours of incident, the effects can be COMPLETELY reversed. The following are general symptoms of stroke: severe headache with no known cause weakness, numbness, or tingling in the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance, or coordination inability to speak or difficulty speaking or understanding trouble seeing with one or both eyes, or double vision confusion or personality changes difficulty with muscle movements, such as swallowing, moving arms and legs loss of bowel a...

About 90% of all BPO/Call Center transactions being managed in the Philippines have North American clients or contracts. The fall of the American dollar will not stop global outsourcing (rough estimates say that only less than 5% of jobs are being done offshore) and in fact, will aggressively see a ramp to counter the effect of rising cost of business in the US. On the other hand, it is equally true that global outsourcing has always been dictated by quality, cost and availability. In an industry where revenue is defined by one currency and expenses is defined by another, it is ideal that the exchange rate remain relatively stable to ensure that yearend target for margins are consistent. But what do you do when the exchange rate fluctuates by almost 12% within a six month period? (e.g. from PHP 47 to PHP 41 versus USD 1) companies that are targeting net profit margins of 35% - 40% will have to contend with managing margins at roughly a quarter less than their original targets. Where a...

of late, i have seen newspaper articles and people refer to the Sinulog as the "Mardi Gras". unfortunately, it just goes to show the level of ignorance some people have about Sinulog and Mardi Gras. do a search in google using "define mardi gras" and you will come up with a list of definitions for this french phrase that is more commonly referred to as Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday . Mardi Gras refers to the Tuesday that falls just before Ash Wednesday, exactly 46 days before Easter and preludes the penitential season of Lent. Sinulog is a festival that is kicked off by a nine day novena to the Señor Santo Niño de Cebú of which the start date is dictated by the culminating grand parade on the tenth day of the festival. the parade happens on the 3rd Sunday of January. This festival in Cebu is relatively new (the Cebu version started early 80's) and does not have the historical roots as some of the other christian festivals that's being celebrated in the c...

7 in the morning, sunday is just way too early to get up. the cold shower doesn't make the prospect of attending the 54th year reunion of abellana class of '54 more interesting. there's something about a highschool reunion that turns late sixtyish something men and women act like the same highschool students many many (and add more "many" hereafter) years ago. each year they usually have a theme for the reunion. on their 10th anniversary in '64 they called themselves "Forever Young". Their 20th year showed a shift towards friendship as they themed the '74 reunion as "Friends Forever". fast forward to their 54th year anniversary and the group was thinking of an appropriate theme. the following were suggestions but only one really made it: "Matira Matibay" "Isa Isa Lang." "The Last One Standing" "Survivor" "Ikaw Na Lang Hinihintay" "Never Ending Story" it was interesting as how t...

"Jinggoy Estrada: I'm pond scum. Well, lower actually. I'm like the fungus that feeds on pond scum. Joey Reyes: Lower . The pus that infects the mucus that cruds up the fungus that feeds on the pond scum. On the other hand, thank you for loving me that much, that way. It's pretty flattering. Jinggoy Estrada: Except it makes me fungus ." Just replace "Jinggoy Estrada" with Julianne and "Joey Reyes" with Michael and you'll have the scene from the movie My Best Friend's Wedding. Ladies and gentlemen, we have just reached a new low in our film industry with the awarding of Jinggoy Estrada as best actor for the movie "Katas Ng Saudi" in the recent Metro Manila Film Fest (2007), on the other hand he has had three years in senate to polish his pond scum act. Heck, Katas (Juice) ng Saudi sounds like a porn movie, the thought of junggoy naked makes me want to run to the nearest bathroom, to puke , silly you. have junggoy strip naked i...

Posting some pictures for the Del Mars in London... I know you miss the family so am posting the latest addition to the Del Mar Family - budyok - and by far, the cutest of them all. Here's the video...