The game of the generals

MANILA, November 23, 2004 (STAR) By Wilson Lee Flores (Soldiers
usually win the battles and generals get the credit for them. - Napoleon
Bonaparte, French general and emperor)

(It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those
who are willing to endure pain with patience. - Julius Caesar, great
Roman general and Latin writer)

(There is nothing impossible to him who will try. - Alexander the
Great, Macedonian general and emperor)

(Those who are skilled in combat do not become angered, those who are
skilled at winning do not become afraid. Thus, the wise win before they
fight, while the ignorant fight to win. - Zhuge Liang, great Chinese
general, 3rd century A.D.)

One of this writer's favorite pastimes is studying the exploits and
aggressive leadership styles of the greatest generals who shaped world
history - Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Gen.
Douglas MacArthur, Gen. Robert E. Lee, Gen. Zhuge Liang, Gen. Yue Fei
(whose fealty to the nation and to his mother is taught to kids all over
Asia and China), Genghis Khan and others.

It is distressing to read the headline-grabbing foibles of some
military and police generals due to alleged jueteng, smuggling,
kidnap-for-ransom crimes, reselling of arms to rebels and skullduggery.
We shouldn't generalize that all generals are corrupt, inept and craven,
in the same way it is unfair to condemn all our politicians as hopeless.

Lessons From The Generals

In the recent arraignment of AFP Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia for corruption
charges, the Philippine STAR was invited by Integrated Bar of the
Philippines (IBP) officers led by national president Joel Cadiz to join
in the front-row seats reserved for the IBP Monitoring Team. The military
officers we informally surveyed inside the court martial hall said that
the best Filipino generals for them were Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, his slain
political rival Gen. Antonio Luna, Gen. Gregorio del Pilar (the youngest
general in the country's history), West Point graduate and Japanese
military victim Gen. Vicente Lim, Katipunero Gen. Macario Sakay, and
former President, Gen. Fidel V. Ramos.

Despite the controversies raised by his political foes like Sen. Miriam
Defensor Santiago, Ramos worked hard and inspired investor confidence.
Thus, becoming the most effective Philippine President in the post-Marcos
era. In Asia, some outstanding generals who had presided over "economic
miracles" in their respective nations were Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek
of Taiwan and Gen. Park Chung Hee of South Korea. Gen. Pervez Musharaff
seems to be a much better leader than the many political riffraffs who
had earlier misruled Pakistan. Retired US Gen. Collin Powell also served
with distinction as Secretary of State and his name is being mentioned as
a future Republican presidentiable.

In contrast, the despot Indonesian General Suharto was one of the
world's most corrupt political leaders. Nowadays, the generals who rule
Myanmar are accused of corruption, but they have maintained political
stability in a multi-ethnic nation wracked by incessant conflicts.
Former generals Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo became South Korean
presidents mired in non-stop corruption scandals, and were publicly
prosecuted and punished. These two Korean generals publicly expressed
contrition and even voluntarily secluded themselves in a Buddhist
monastery.

Unfortunately, in our fiscal crisis republic, the generals accused of
corruption are often shamelessly belligerent, bellicose, self-righteous
and even publicly lash out at media or congressional critics. It is
infuriating to hear tales of underpaid foot soldiers risking their lives
to help our democracy obliterate such pests like the Abu Sayyaf bandits,
MILF insurgents or communist terrorists, while their pension funds were
allegedly emptied or their supplies compromised by sordid deals.

Why don't our generals learn a lesson or two from their Korean peers?
Come out with the truth, confess to allegations by disgruntled young
officers and the prosecutors, turn over their ill-gotten wealth to the
so-called Bayanihan Fund, and voluntarily cloister themselves in some
Catholic monastery in Tawi Tawi or the boondocks.

A top general told this writer: "I agree with your criticisms, but do
not forget that we are now holding this court martial trial of General
Garcia just two months after your newspaper started this scandal with
your reports. Look at our civilian political leaders and the courts. It
has been years but there's still no trial date for ex-President Estrada.
How is this so?"

A General VS. An Emperor

In China's Sichuan province, an ancient temple stands in honor of
General Zhuge Liang (181-234 AD), also known as Kong Ming. He was a
legendary military strategist in the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD)
and the hero of the classic novel San-Guo Yan-Yi (Romance of the Three
Kingdoms), which is well-loved throughout Asia. Zhuge Liang was 26 when
he pledged loyal service to Liu Pei and later to his son, distant
descendants of the Han imperial house.

At the end of the western Jin Dynasty (265-316 AD), the original temple
was built by a certain King Li Xiong in Shaocheng of Chengdu City. The
temple to Zhuge Liang was transferred in 1368 during the Ming Dynasty to
another part of the city and combined with the temple to the Emperor Liu
Pei, which was also his burial place. Why did they move the temple of a
famous general to that of an emperor? One account goes this way:
Centuries later and under the Ming Dynasty, scandalized by the fact that
Zhuge Liang's temple has more visitors than Emperor Liu Pei's, a member
decided to demolish the statesman's temple and move him into the
Emperor's temple. The people, however, didn't like this, so they not only
built a special hall for Zhuge Liang, they also called the new combined
temple as Zhuge Liang's Temple instead of Liu Pei's Temple.

Zhuge Liang's legacy was just awe-inspiring and the people genuinely
loved him. In 1672, an additional Hall of Zhuge Liang was built. The
current site contains statues of Zhuge Liang, as well as those of his son
and grandson. This temple of Zhuge Liang also has many tablets with
poems and accounts of the inspiring life of the legendary general. No
amount of multimillion dollar Swiss bank deposits or New York real
estate properties can equal the unblemished public service record of an
honorable general in history!

Try to ask media-shy billionaire Lucio Tan or any other taipans in East
Asia about Zhuge Liang, and they would enthusiastically spend hours
recounting his chivalry, fearless exploits and superb tactics. Even
China's revolutionary supremo Mao Zedong loved the novel Romance of the
Three Kingdoms. A former Vietnamese ambassador told this writer that when
the TV drama series on the Three Kingdoms and Zhuge Liang was shown in
his country, almost all the streets were deserted due to public
enthusiasm for this military hero's exploits.

Leadership Secrets Of Alexander The Great

It would be tragic if moviegoers will watch director Oliver Stone's
forthcoming movie Alexander just to see Irish actor Colin Farrell,
Angelina Jolie, Sir Anthony Hopkins or the battle scenes. An admirer of
Alexander the Great since his G.I. days in the Vietnam War, Oliver Stone
recently outflanked rival filmmakers and finished this project first.
Another big epic film on Alexander the Great now being made stars
Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman as his mother. Let us study this
Greek general's incredible career of discipline and excellence. Let us
learn his leadership lessons.

Then in his 20s, Alexander the Great was a youth of phenomenal
intellect and courage, and was out to conquer the world - from Macedonia,
Europe, Persia, Egypt to the mountains of India. He was so great that he
even believed that he was a god. If we study his life and works, all
business executives, professionals or even politicians can immeasurably
profit from strategy secrets of Alexander the Great for robust
competitive edge in the tough business arena.

Alexander the Great was the last military leader to successfully
conquer Afghanistan nearly 2,500 years ago. The cities and cultures he
built still exist today, and places where he had passed still have
legends about him. Considered by the West as the greatest military
strategist, tactician, and ruler in western history, Alexander the Great
has inspired countless international business, military and political
leaders for thousands of years. CNN founder Ted Turner keeps a bust of
him in his office. US General Norman Schwarzkopf said Alexander's superb
tactical strategies directly inspired his troops' attacks in the Desert
Storm in Iraq, including the "Hail Mary" flanking move that inflicted the
final defeat on Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army.

Three centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ, the leadership and
war strategies of Alexander the Great provided us lessons ideal for
business or other fields - how to build a successful organization, the
requisites of visionary and inspirational leadership, the importance of
creating a winning philosophy, how to motivate your generals and foot
soldiers, how to overcome seemingly impossible odds, how to master the
element of surprise, how to prepare for the unexpected, how to leverage
your inherent strengths to gain the advantage, learning when to advance
and when to retreat.

To all generals, to all our datus in politics, all the captains of
business and industry - emulate the inspirational leadership of Alexander
the Great. Although he died at the young age of 33, he lived life to the
fullest and with unerring devotion to excellence. He was admired. He
showed us the importance of leaving behind a legacy of lasting value.

* * *

Thanks for continuing to send messages to wilson_lee_flores@yahoo.com,
wilson_lee_flores@hotmail.com or wilson_lee_flores@newyork.com or P.O.
Box 14277, Ortigas Center, Pasig City, Metro Manila.

From: lquesada@newsflash.org

GMA rating among Filipinos dips from 33% to 7%

MANILA, November 23, 2004 (STAR) Filipinos became more critical of
President Arroyo's performance during the first few months of her second
term, with her net approval rating down from 33 percent in June to just
seven percent last month, according to an independent public opinion
survey.

"All these political and economic problems have taken their toll on the
performance ratings of the President," Pulse Asia Inc., which conducted
the poll, said in a statement issued yesterday. "The President's overall
approval rating is the same as the lowest ever rating she has received.
since she assumed the post in January 2001."

While four out of 10 Filipinos approved of Mrs. Arroyo's performance in
security issues, the poll also showed that public criticism was sharpest
on her efforts to improve the lot of Filipinos, especially the poor.

Most Filipinos were also found to be pessimistic about their quality of
life with six out of 10 Filipinos saying "they are worse off now than
last year."

Reacting to the survey, Mrs. Arroyo's communications adviser, Silvestre
Afable, said the President has "consistently accepted a drop in ratings
as the price to pay for doing what is right for the national interest."

"The executive has experienced low ratings in the past and has
consistently shown resiliency. While the people are expressing concerns
over the social impact of high oil prices and fiscal reforms, we believe
that this is not a verdict on overall presidential leadership," Afable
said in a statement.

Forty-one percent of 1,200 Filipinos surveyed nationwide by Pulse Asia
approved of Mrs. Arroyo's performance during the last quarter, while 34
percent disapproved, giving a net performance rating of seven percentage
points. Twenty-five percent were undecided.

The latest net approval rating is a 26-percentage point drop from her
rating in June, in which 55 percent gave Mrs. Arroyo's passing marks and
22 percent failed her, for a net approval rating of 33 percent.
Twenty-two percent were undecided.

Controlling inflation was the public's highest concern, followed by
fighting corruption, maintaining peace, reducing poverty and better
wages.

"It is the rising prices of foodstuffs and oil products - an economic
issue that hits closer to home - that most preoccupies them at present,"
Pulse Asia said.

Afable maintained the Arroyo administration was not to blame. "We are
reaping the political cost of oil price hikes not of our own making and
of putting our fiscal house in order."

Combating terrorism, while a top priority of the Arroyo administration,
was among Filipinos' least concerns. However, 42 percent approved of
Mrs. Arroyo's performance in this department, compared to 28 percent, for
a 14-percentage point net approval rating. Twenty-eight percent were
undecided.

Forty-four percent approved of Mrs. Arroyo's performance in maintaining
peace in the country while 28 percent disapproved.

On the issue of curbing crime, 43 percent approved while 28 percent
disapproved.

In economic issues, 25 percent approved of Mrs. Arroyo's efforts to
control inflation while 54 percent disapproved, 29 percent approved on
the issue of reducing poverty while 48 disapproved, 34 percent approved
on increasing workers' pay while 45 percent disapproved, and 36 percent
approved on economic recovery while 37 percent disapproved.

However, on the issue of encouraging new investments to generate jobs,
40 percent said they were satisfied while 29 percent said they were not.

On the issue of eliminating graft, a serious problem for the Arroyo
administration, 32 percent said the President did a good job while 47
percent said she did not.

"This may be attributed in part to the high-profile corruption charges
against Gen. Carlos Garcia," Pulse Asia said. Garcia is undergoing
court-martial proceedings for allegedly amassing millions of pesos
illegally.

On the issue of restoring public trust in the government, 32 percent
approved and 33 percent disapproved. Thirty-five percent were undecided.

The numbers were almost similar on the issue of upholding the law.

The Pulse Asia survey also found that "pessimism remains the dominant
sentiment among Filipinos." It found that 60 percent felt they are worse
off now than the past year.

"An even bigger proportion (78 percent) considers the national quality
of life as having deteriorated in the last 12 months," Pulse Asia said.

"In addition, nearly half of Filipinos (47 percent) say they expect
their personal circumstances to worsen further in the year ahead while
about two in three Filipinos (65 percent) also express pessimism as
regards the country's state in the coming 12 months."

Pulse Asia conducts an opinion poll every quarter to gauge public
sentiment. The latest opinion poll was conducted from Oct. 22 to Nov. 6
and had an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points and a
95-percent confidence level.

Afable said the Arroyo administration is listening closely to the
criticisms.

"We acknowledge and understand the sentiments of the public and the
government is moving as one to buck the trend. Our anti-corruption
campaign takes its toll on errant officials day by day, we are cutting
waste in spending and a strong executive-legislative partnership is
pulling the train of needed revenue measures," he said.

"In the meantime, we are riding on solid gains in law and order,
stopping street crime, cutting the drug trade by half, putting a halt to
kidnapping and forging peace in Mindanao," referring to peace
negotiations with Muslim rebels.

The Arroyo administration is struggling to rein in a burgeoning budget
deficit, which economic analysts warn could throw her anti-poverty
program off track.

Rampant tax evasion, corruption, bloated state subsidies and
protectionism have been blamed for the government's fiscal woes.

Mrs. Arroyo said in August the Philippines was already in the midst of
a fiscal crisis and introduced a drastic austerity program.

Earlier this month, she said the country was now successfully avoiding
a fiscal crisis with the expected passage of a bill that will raise taxes
on cigarettes and alcohol products.

Mrs. Arroyo is counting on Congress to pass the so-called sin tax bill
and seven other tax measures that are expected to rake in an additional
P80 billion in revenue for the cash-strapped government. - With Marvin
Sy, AFP

Cordillera Crossover: A Japanese Legacy (Book Review)

MANILA, November 15, 2004 (STAR) By Alfred A. Yuson - The cover for
this handsome coffee-table book is entirely appropriate, showing a vintage
photo of a newly finished wooden bridge spanning a gorge in the
Cordilleras. Standing proudly at one end of the successful infrastructure
project, built a century ago, is a row of men, albeit they're hardly
distinguishable because they appear so minute. The photo, in sepia, is
placed over a faded sheet with a grid-like construction plan. Above, the
title says it all: Japanese Pioneers in the Northern Philippine Highlands:
A Centennial Tribute, 1903-2003.

This admirable, 330-page volume sets a fine example of how a centennial
book ought to be: full of facts and narratives, superbly structured and
written, rife with oral histories and warm-hearted accounts, and
splendidly inclusive of old photographs that not only bring us back to the
period commemorated, but also makes us sigh for the pristine views,
sights, and album collections of groups of heroic people that the book
pays tribute to.

Edited by Patricia Okubo Afable and published by the Filipino-Japanese
Foundation of Northern Luzon, Inc. (with postal address at No. 3 Bukaneg
St., 2600 Baguio City, Philippines), the book should be a welcome addition
to any shelf, but especially to those lovingly maintained by readers who
are increasingly appreciative of how cross-cultural leaps are achieved
through migration, technology transfer and harmonious co-existence.

Now that countless Filipinos seek greener pastures for their skills, we
should remember that all over the world other peoples have traveled from
their natural confines to find other lands of promise, and not only made
good in their resettlement, but gave exceedingly well to the world. While
it's become unimaginable for the Japanese to engage in large-scale
migration, it should be noted that a hundred years ago, the Japanese
pioneers whose stories have finally emerged in this book constituted
migrant labor.

Over a thousand Japanese carpenters, masons and road workers joined
3,000 Filipinos and other members of a workforce of 46 nationalities that
built the Benguet Road, since renamed Kennon, for the Americans from 1901
to 1905. Most of them, and many more who came in succeeding years, joined
the multicultural community that became Baguio.

"The 1910s saw Session Road, which evolved into the city's main street,
become established as a major Japanese business area," Afable writes.

Indeed, the Japanese pioneers who came over from farming prefectures in
southwestern Japan engaged in multifarious activities in our northern
highlands. They established a cooperative in Trinidad and introduced the
production of cold-weather crops. Carpenters, masons and gardeners worked
on the Wright Park Promenade and Mansion House Gardens, and virtually all
of the major buildings and projects in Baguio, including the Cathedral,
the Dominican Monastery, Baguio Central School, the Stone Market, and the
drainage system under the parking lot which still stands at the lower end
of Session Road.

The boom years of logging and mining from the 1910s to the '30s involved
Japanese craftsmen and supervisors. Some turned capitalist and established
hotels and photography studios, or built up bus and truck fleets for
commercial transport. Many moved deeper into the Cordilleras, helping
transform the old Spanish Mountain Trail into the Halsema Road, erecting
government buildings in Bontoc and the magnificent stone church in Sagada.

Part 1, offering a "Historical Background," features a single chapter:
"Building Bridges in a Faraway Place: Japanese Pioneers in Baguio and
Benguet History." As with much of the book's six sections subdivided into
13 chapters, it is written by the editor, a highly accomplished scholar
who has spent long years at the Smithsonian Institute.

Afable writes: "Together with the natives of Baguio and Benguet, other
Filipinos, and the Americans and Chinese who flocked to this highland
region, the Japanese arrivals in the early 1900s helped to lay the
region's foundations for a prosperous economic and tourist center. Among
these settlers were skilled carpenters, masons, building contractors,
gardeners, sawmill workers, and entrepreneurs. They created a school, a
Japanese Association, a farming cooperative, neighborhood groups, and
construction and trucking enterprises. Theirs is the story of a small band
of Japanese strangers who came to this faraway place a hundred years ago
to help lay out a road into the highlands. In the three decades that
followed, they built many bridges that crossed not only the Bued River's
rocky gorges, but also spanned the distant worlds of many Philippine and
Japanese families, cultures, and communities."

Patricia's mother, the legendary Baguio journalist Cecile Afable, serves
as the book's project director. It is obviously a labor of love for both,
who trace their roots to the inter-racial marriage between Ibaloy Mateo
Cariño's daughter Josefa and Teruji Okubo, the maestro of a builder from
Hiroshima.

Teruji had worked as a teenager on the Benguet Road, and sent for his
younger brother Noboru for the tunnel construction of the La Union-Baguio
railroad in 1913, which was unfortunately aborted. The brothers went on to
supervise the construction of mine tunnels, schools, Teachers' Camp
cottages and private residences (including the Quezon and Muller
mansions), and various Catholic Church projects, foremost of which was the
Baguio Cathedral, whose renovated altar is credited to Teruji.

By all accounts, Teruji Okubo was an exemplary man. He helped build all
of the Cariño houses on Kisad Road and Camp 7, the structure that
eventually housed the Baguio Printing Press, the Dominican retreat, the
Jesuit house on Mirador Hill, and the first mess hall in Camp John Hay,
among many other projects. He also started a vegetable farm in Sto. Tomas,
"where he built a large fish pond and loaded it with carp and dojo
(Japanese loach)."

His son and former apprentice Bernardo Yoshikazu C. Okubo offers
reminiscences for Chapter 3: "Papa got to be a foreman (maestro or
capataz) because he was good at designing and executing building plans.
The old-timers remember him as a builder and carpenter, but he was more
than that. He was an artist. The appearance of his work was different from
that of the other carpenters. He paid attention to the grain of the wood
and he spent time matching the different shades of wood. He would often
use wood pegs and hide the nail heads. I could always recognize his work."

The boxed feature on Teruji's brother Noboru notes: "It is said that
Noboru Okubo knew pine wood so well that he could judge its quality for
construction by simply knocking on it."

Cecile Okubo Afable had older half-brothers from Josefa Cariño's first
marriage, to Reukitse Hamada who died early from a sawmill accident. These
brothers were Oseo Hamada, who managed the Baguio Printing and Publishing
Company, and became the first chairman of the Filipino-Japanese Foundation
of Northern Luzon; and Sinai Hamada, a lawyer who founded Baguio Midland
Courier and Cordillera Post, and whose prizewinning story, "Tanabata's
Wife," sourced to his early memories, is a much-anthologized classic as a
Filipino short story in English.

No doubt, the Cariño-Hamada-Okubo-Afable genes continue on their
cross-cultural, crossover roll: Patricia's brothers are the poet-carpenter
Fernando or "Andy," now Vice Abbot in a Zen monastery in the US; and
Silvestre or "Yongyong," peace pact honcho and Malacañang's top man for
communications.

For her part, Patricia's skill at research manifests itself in this
book's comprehensive treatment, including invaluable back-of-the-book data
such as "A Chronology of Japanese Settlement in the Northern Philippine
Highlands" and full appendix listings of early Japanese residents, second
generation, and third generation Japanese-Filipino descendants in the
Cordillera region.

There is so much to be said for this volume, and so little to cavil
about. Well, on a nitpicky level, "every day" is often misrepresented as
"everyday"; and occasionally the editor betrays her training by employing
that academic-paper technique of telegraphing one's punches, er,
explaining beforehand what a chapter will set out to do, which should have
no place in a book - or so this non-academic reviewer thinks. Other than
these, it is a centennial volume to be cherished and to draw many fine
lessons from.

Other chapter contributors include Kathleen T. Okubo ("Carpentry, Mason
and Sawmill Work"), Geraldine Fiagoy ("Farming, Gardening, and the Silk
Industry: The First Arrivals"), Dionisia A. Challongen ("Naojiro Aihara, A
Builder in Bontoc"), Hakumu Furuya - translated by Marie Dolores T. Escaño
("Hideo Hayakawa, Pioneer Resident of Baguio"), and Ann Loreto Tamayo
("Culture and Everyday Life in the Japanese-Filipino Community").

Utterly charming is Cecile O. Afable's chapter account titled "'You
Husband Me and I Wife You.' How They Got Started." Here we get to fully
appreciate the magic of custom and ceremony, and the power of their
acceptance by strangers in strange lands. Such material. (Our film
directors would do well to mine this book for potential scripts).

Appropriate too is this chapter's placement right before the poignant
epilogue on how this ideal world of four decades of crossover harmony
ended with World War II. In 1945, the Japanese men who had helped
considerably in building up Baguio and other Cordillera communities were
repatriated as "enemy aliens."

Patricia Okubo Afable concludes: "While the Japanese men returned to
Japan, all (except one or two) Filipino wives and most of their
half-Japanese children stayed behind. Grateful just to be alive, and
thankful for the support of kinsmen and neighbors, they became fully
resigned to the tragic family break-ups that the war had brought them from
its very beginning. As one Japanese-Filipino former internee asked,
reminding us of the atomic bombings, 'Why would we choose to go to
Hiroshima in 1945?' Another said, 'Our father told us it made no sense for
us to go with him. That was when we knew we were Filipinos.'"

From: lquesada@newsflash.org

How Soon Should I Tell My Boss I'm Pregnant?

How Soon Should I Tell My Boss I'm Pregnant?

ASK ANNIE
How Soon Should I Tell My Boss I'm Pregnant?
I worry that if I break the news now, I'll miss out on a juicy new
assignment. Plus, how to deal with a boss who's spreading rumors about
your love life, and when to look for a summer internship.

Nov 16 2004
By Anne Fisher
Fortune.com


Q. I work for a company that is currently undergoing a merger with new
positions being created and responsibilities shifting around. I just found
out that I'm pregnant with my second child. I'm worried that if I make it
known now that I'll be taking maternity leave for four months, I'll be out
of the running for a juicy new assignment. On the other hand, I do have a
good relationship with my boss, whom I consider a friend. I know that she
will be hurt if I don't tell her pretty soon, i.e., before it can't be
hidden with baggy clothes. I'm inclined to keep it a secret as long as
possible to keep my professional options open, and deal with my boss's
feelings later. Are there any rules about this? What's my best bet?

A. I think you should put all your cards on the table. This isn't simply
about your boss's feelings. One of the primary functions of bosses is to
help nurture the careers of the people they manage. If yours is interested
in doing that—and let's hope for her sake, as well as yours, that she
is—then she could be a valuable ally in your quest for a new assignment.
So, tell her what you've told me: You're going to have another child, but
you don't want that to put you out of the running. It's unwise to keep her
in the dark, not least of which is because (who knows?) she may already be
thinking of recommending you for a new position. If she does do that
without knowing your true situation, it could create all kinds of
awkwardness later on.

The fact that this is your second child is important. Presumably, you can
make a persuasive case that, since your first baby didn't throw your work
off track, this one won't either. When you're trying to convince
higher-ups of this, it's far better to have your boss on your side. But if
you mislead her now, then why would she be?

Q. Help! I recently found out from my assistant that my boss is telling
people that I'm having an affair with one of the other assistants. This is
completely untrue, and I am shocked to learn that he's saying it. Apart
from the obvious fact that my boss is trying to damage my reputation here,
and the fact that maybe I should think about leaving, should I just ignore
this slanderous talk?

A. Whoa. Don't start buffing up your resume, just yet. Slinking quietly
away to some other job is going to look an awful lot like an admission of
guilt, and it could come back to bite you later on. Instead, make an
appointment to speak with your boss privately, or just take him aside if
you have the chance, and say something like, "I've heard there's a rumor
going around that So-and-So and I are romantically involved. It's not
true, and I'm really concerned about the effect this kind of gossip could
have."

You don't need to let on that you know the rumor came from him. Then, wait
to see how he responds. You may be able to embarrass him into stopping the
slander. If not, then you and the person you're allegedly involved with
will have to join forces and go over his head, either to his boss or to
the human-resources department, or both, and get it on record (again
without blaming your boss by name) that this rumor is untrue. Simply
saying nothing and hoping the gossip will fade away is not an option.
Unless nipped in the bud, these things have a way of getting out of
hand—turning, for instance, into messy lawsuits and countersuits. Don't
let it get that far.

Q. I'm in my junior year of college and thinking about finding an
internship next summer. I want to go online and get my resume out to as
many potential employers as possible. Can you recommend web sites that are
good for finding internships? Also, is it too early to start looking now?
Should I wait until after January?

A. It's certainly not too early to start to look for an internship,
especially since a new survey by the employment web site Vault.com
(http://www.vault.com) suggests the competition is already heating up.
About 60% of college students polled say they're actively looking for
summer internships now, versus 40% who said so at this time five years
ago. Not coincidentally, Vault publishes a 550-page guide to
internships—including who hires interns, how many they hire, what they
hire them to do, what they pay (if anything), application deadlines, and
how to contact employers—available through its site for $14.95.

Although there are sites like http://www.internships.org that hook up
students with summer opportunities, I hope you won't restrict your search
to sending your resume out on the web. You're likely to fare better
contacting employers in person, beginning with local companies and
nonprofit organizations, where you already know someone. For some tips
that could help get you started, take a peek at a column that appeared in
this space last December, "Students: Want a Job Next Summer?" Happy
hunting!

Send questions to askannie@fortunemail.com.

From: annieadm@TIMEINC.NET

Customers Driving You Crazy? 7 Common Problems and How to Cope

ASK ANNIE
Customers Driving You Crazy? 7 Common Problems and How to Cope
According to one expert in conflict resolution, your customers' irrational
behavior is biochemical in origin. To calm them down, stay cool yourself.
Oct 25 2004
By Anne Fisher
Fortune.com


Dear Annie:
I graduated from college last spring and took a job as a sales rep for a
mid-sized manufacturing company. I like it, except for one thing. Some,
not all, of my customers get so upset when something goes wrong (the wrong
product is delivered, or it doesn't work the way it's supposed to) that
they're impossible to reason with. They bite my head off when I'm trying
to fix the problem, they don't listen, and they argue even when I'm
agreeing with them. It's crazy! Any ideas on how to handle these people?
—Just Trying to Help

Dear JTH:
First, don't take it personally. Andra Medea has taught conflict
management at the University of Chicago and Northwestern and now consults
to Fortune 500 companies and government agencies on how to defuse
anger-filled situations. She is co-author of a book you might want to
check outConflict Unraveled: Fixing Problems at Work and in Families
(PivotPoint Press, $19.95: see www.pivotpointpress.com). Your customers'
baffling behavior "isn't character, it's chemical," Medea says. "When
people get upset, too much adrenaline floods their brains, and their
thinking malfunctions."

Here's a list of the seven most common problems with customers on
adrenaline overload, and how to deal with them:

1. The customer can't follow simple directions."Under a flood of
adrenaline, the brain loses its ability to do sequence. That means that
steps one, two, and three become a hopeless jumble," says Medea. "If you
tell them to walk down the hall, take a right, and go in the green door,
they may get lost at the first turn." Solution: Go along and show them the
way, step by step, even if it strains your patience.

2. They snap at you when you're trying to help. The adrenaline-overloaded
"are edgy and get hostile around jargon or unfamiliar words. Think of the
last time you had a computer problem and the techie started spouting geek
at you. Wanted to kill him, right?" says Medea. Solution: Keep your words
short and simple. Repeat them as often as necessary.

3. They ignore signs and directions right under their noses. "With too
much adrenaline the brain loses its ability to pick out key objects,"
Medea explains. "You've probably done this yourself: You're dashing out
the door and suddenly you can't find your keys. After you tear the whole
place apart, you realize they're sitting in front of you. This is how a
customer manages not to see the warning on the back of the box, or the
directions on the package." Solution: Point out the information--calmly.

4. They ramble on and bring in every problem since the Reagan
Administration. "It's the problem with sequence again. They can no longer
tell what's on topic and what's off." Solution: You'll need to walk them
through it. Ask, "What happened first?" Then, "Okay, then what happened
next?" Says Medea, "As they step through the sequence, they'll probably
become coherent again."

5. They don't listen to a thing you say. Adrenaline causes people to lose
the ability to take in new information. "They're not purposely ignoring
you. It's just that that part of their brain is now disconnected."
Solution: Talk slowly and draw the customer a simple map or diagram to
emphasize your words. "If they can't recall what you said, at least they
can look at the diagram."

6. They argue even when you agree with them. "Remember, they may not be
able to hear what you said," Medea says. "You could offer them a free trip
to China and it won't matter if they can't hear you." Solution: Ask simple
sequence questions until the customer calms down. Then make your offer or
state your proposal.

7. They make you as frazzled as they are. "Adrenaline flooding is
contagious," notes Medea. "That means that, even as they tell you that
rambling story, you're losing your ability to listen to it." Luckily, calm
is contagious too. "Keep breathing deeply, keep your voice low and steady,
and you can bring them around to you."

Needless to say, this is going to take some practice, but look at the
bright side: Once you've mastered the art of dealing with fractious,
adrenaline-overloaded customers, you can use the same techniques on irate
colleagues--or a ranting boss. In all, a skill set well worth cultivating,
wouldn't you say?

Send questions to askannie@fortunemail.com.


From: annieadm@TIMEINC.NET

Americans Still Top RP Visitors Despite Travel Ban

MANILA, November 12, 2004 (STAR) Americans have remained the country's
top tourists despite a US government warning that travel to the
Philippines could be dangerous.

Tourism Secretary Joseph Durano said 352,132 Americans visited the
country from January to September, representing 20.9 percent of the total
international arrivals this year.

"The increase in arrivals, especially from American nationals clearly
proved that the perception of the Philippines as a dangerous destination
for tourists is untrue," he said.

He was not clear how many of the tourists were Filipino-Americans.

Durano said Americans and Japanese are security conscious, and yet they
continue to come to the Philippines in large numbers for the past months.

"This should only mean that they find the Philippines safe, let alone
its various attractions," he said.

Apart from the Americans, Japanese tourists accounted for the largest
share of the recorded international arrivals of over one million from
January to September this year, he added.

Durano said China is among the top target tourist markets of the
Philippines, along with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia,
Europe, Southeast Asia and North America.

Visitors from South Korea numbered 271,747 and accounted for 16.1
percent of total arrivals, while Chinese tourists reached 28,659 in
comparison with 22,729 in 2003, he added.

Durano said he would make the Philippines a leading tourist destination
through marketing suited for each and every target market.

The Department of Tourism's enhanced marketing plans would bring more
tourists to the country next year and in the following years, Durano said.
- Mayen Jaymalin

From: lquesada@newsflash.org

The Human Mind

Don't delete this because it looks weird. Believe it or not you can read
it.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg.

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch
at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy,it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in
a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be
in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it
wouthit a porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef,
but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig huh?

yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt!


From: larrainecriss@email.com

What Do Hiring Managers Really Want?

ASK ANNIE
What Do Hiring Managers Really Want?
Employers don't always prefer ambitious high-achievers. Plus: Is eating
lunch at your desk a smart career move?

Nov 09 2004
By Anne Fisher
Fortune.com


Dear Annie:
I've been job hunting for about six months now and, while I have a lot of
experience and the right credentials for every position I've applied for,
I'm getting nowhere. A friend took a look at my resume and suggested that
it may be too focused on my individual accomplishments and not enough on
teamwork (working well with others, leading a group to achieve a goal,
etc.). Do you think he's right?
—Lone Ranger

Dear L.R. :
It's hard to say without seeing your resume, but your friend may have a
point. Pittsburgh-based HR consulting firm Development Dimensions
International (www.ddiworld.com) recently polled 1,515 employers to find
out what they're seeking in new hires, and discovered that 75% want
employees who work well in a team setting. Only 20% cited individual
ambition as a desirable trait. "In today's working environment, very
little is accomplished without strong collaboration," says Scott Erker, a
DDI vice president. He believes managers worry that "overly ambitious
hires will only look out for themselves, which can harm team productivity
and morale."

The DDI survey yielded a few other tidbits that are rather surprising, at
least to me. For instance, the conventional wisdom holds that being late
for a job interview is an automatic black mark against a candidate, as is
showing up (late or not) with only a very sketchy knowledge of the
company's business. But according to DDI's research, just 15% of job
interviewers say they'd be turned off by these shortcomings. By contrast,
the majority—57%—say they'd turn thumbs down on "inarticulate candidates
or those who are vague about their previous experience." Says Erker:
"Hiring managers don't want to have to train people to communicate well.
If an applicant is a vague communicator in an interview, chances are that
he or she will not communicate well on the job either."

So, while you're tweaking your resume to make more mention of your
collaborative skills, think too about how clearly you're able to describe
your experience in person. The clearer and more specific you can be, the
more likely an interviewer is to be impressed.

Dear Annie:
I hope you don't think this is a dumb question, but here it goes: I'm in
my first "real" job after graduating from college last spring. I'm still
getting the hang of the work, so I tend to keep my nose to the grindstone
and work through lunch (which I bring from home). Other people around here
go out to lunch together, even if it's only for 20 or 30 minutes, and I
wonder what I'm missing by not joining them. Gossip doesn't interest me,
and half the time I don't know who they're talking about anyway. But
should I go? What do your readers think?
—Lucy in the Sky

Dear L.S.:
I'll be interested, as always, to see what readers say. Meanwhile, Pat
Key, a vice president at the Chubb Insurance Group and a 31-year veteran
of the corporate wars, thinks brown-bagging lunch is "one of the most
common mistakes" that overly conscientious neophytes make in the
workplace." Why? Because lunch can be a relaxed opportunity "to talk to
people about what they're working on and find out what's going on in other
parts of the company"—and, of course, to network.

"Consider networking part of your job," Key says. I applaud your
inclination to try and avoid nonproductive gossip, but lunch may be your
best chance to get wind of important happenings that people would prefer
not to discuss in the office. And heck, you might have fun, too. No law
against that, grindstone or no grindstone.

Send questions to askannie@fortunemail.com.

From: annieadm@TIMEINC.NET

Transparency

MANILA October 22, 2004 (STAR) SKETCHES By Ana Marie Pamintuan - If it's
any consolation to us, corruption is a global problem. Transparency
International (TI), in releasing its latest Corruption Perception Index,
estimated that at least $400 billion is lost annually worldwide through
bribery in government procurement.

TI expressed particular concern over corruption in large-scale public
projects, which chairman Peter Eigen said "is a daunting obstacle to
sustainable development and results in a major loss of public funds needed
for education, healthcare and poverty alleviation, both in developed and
developing countries."

Going through the ranking in the corruption index, you can see that the
least corrupt countries are also among the most prosperous.

With 10 being the perfect score in transparency, Finland topped the list
with 9.7, followed by New Zealand with 9.6. Denmark and Iceland tied for
third place with 9.5. In Asia, Singapore was ranked the cleanest, coming
in at fourth place with a score of 9.3. Hong Kong ranked 16th with 8 and
Japan placed 24th with 6.9. The United States tied for 17th place with
Belgium and Ireland with 7.5.

At the bottom of the heap were Haiti and Bangladesh followed by Nigeria,
then Chad and Myanmar.

That list alone should give us an idea of the transforming power of
transparency.

* * *

The Philippines, rating a dismal 2.6, shares the dubious distinction of
being among 60 out of 146 countries where corruption is considered
rampant. The index lumped us together with Eritrea, Papua New Guinea,
Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia

The index, based on surveys taken among risk analysts, academics and
business people, rated countries such as Nicaragua, Serbia and Montenegro,
Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Dominican Republic better than the
Philippines. That may strike some Filipinos as unfair.

Yesterday Malacañang emphasized that corruption in this country has
festered for decades, with the Marcos regime and the aborted presidency of
Joseph Estrada worsening global perceptions of graft in the Philippines.
Estrada quickly shot back that President Arroyo was to blame.

Both are telling part of the truth. If this is going to be a blame game,
every adult Filipino could end up indicted for perpetuating a culture of
corruption. We pay fixers to facilitate the processing of documents in
government agencies. We shower politicians with gifts to seek favors. We
believe connections trump merit in the path to success. To win a case in
court, it pays to know the judge; to win a public contract, it pays to
have an influential patron or know the members of the bidding committee.

And though we know there's corruption all around us, we live and let live.

Instead of finger pointing, we should simply start doing something about a
serious problem.

* * *

The prosecution of Army Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia in the proper courts - not
in Congress where there is an abundance of "pork"-hungry crooks - is a
good start. Investigators should take care that this probe does not
degenerate into a witch-hunt.

President Arroyo has also ordered the inclusion of subjects on values in
the public school curriculum to sell young Filipinos to the idea that
corruption must be eradicated. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago made a
similar proposal yesterday, saying subjects on ethics must be taught from
grade school to college. I don't know how effective this can be when
children see adults - both in real life and on TV and in the movies -
doing everything they're not supposed to do.

Religious workers may also want to improve their teachings so ordinary
folk can relate the seven deadly sins and the 10 Commandments to workaday
activities. It does not speak well of the Roman Catholic Church that the
bastion of the faith in this part of the world keeps being ranked among
the most corrupt countries. For many Filipinos, it seems, the principal
reason for religious devotion and prayer is not spiritual fulfillment but
to beseech the Lord for something, including a tip for the lottery or
jueteng.

Like democracy, religion is twisted in this country. Political warlords
pray on bended knees for forgiveness for murder, then kill again. Rumor
mongering and character assassination are national pastimes. There's no
divorce but a lot of philandering. There must be a serious failure of
communication here between religious shepherds and their flock.

* * *

What could communicate the gravity of corruption is not a Sunday sermon
but the sight of someone being punished for the offense.

Unfortunately for Carlos Garcia, it looks like he's it. There have been
other public officials punished recently for graft, notably Public Works
Undersecretary Salvador Pleyto, whose dismissal has been made final by the
Office of the Ombudsman. But Garcia is the big fish; the amount involved
could be massive enough to warrant a case of plunder, and his case could
sink several other prominent government careers.

Garcia will be the example for all to see, the man whose punishment will
serve as a warning that corruption no longer pays in this country. Judging
from the documents set to be used against him, it will take serious
bungling for prosecutors to lose this case.

Even with strong evidence, however, the public's main concern is that this
case will drag forever, that every attempt will be made to sweep things
under the rug and prevent the scandal from spreading especially to higher
levels of government. The fear is that somewhere along the way, there will
again be system failure and the prosecution of this celebrated case will
sputter toward an acquittal.

And money for soldiers' combat boots will continue to end up in the
pockets of a few officers. Money for roads, school buildings and teachers
will continue to go to the bank accounts of public officials. Funds
intended for national coffers will continue to be pocketed by revenue and
Customs collectors.

This is how budget deficits build up and a fiscal crisis is created. This
is how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is how we are
ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world.

We can still do something about it.

Princess Diaries (Ayen-Munji-Laurel)

MANILA, October 18, 2004 (STAR) CONVERSATIONS With Ricky Lo - This is a
modern-day fairy tale (sort of), with shades of Cinderella, The Frog
Prince, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty.

Once upon a time, there was a shy girl who only loved to sing but never
dreamed of becoming a princess. Well, she did become a singer,
inheriting the knack for music of her father, Emy Munji (musical
director of the long-running Nora Aunor TV show Superstar and Two For
The Road; and music arranger for such artists as Jose Mari Chan,
Pilita Corrales, Louie Reyes and Dulce).

And then, while on a singing engagement in Brunei, she won the heart
of Prince Jeffrey and her world was never the same again. Her Fairy
Godmother had waved the magic wand and turned her into a princess.

So for seven years, Ayen Munji lived a charmed life that millions of
other girls could only imagine and/or dream of. Soon, when reality set
in, she started to feel like Rapunzel cooped up in the tower and like
Snow White forever guarded by seven dwarfs.

To make our fairy tale short(er), the prince and the princess separated
after seven years. Feeling like Sleeping Beauty, the princess was
kissed back to reality by a commoner (Franco Laurel, definitely not a
Frog Prince) and she could have sung all night: Free again! Lucky,
lucky me free again!

Here for the first time, Ayen Munji-Laurel talks about her days as a
princess - sans regrets.

"I learned a lot from that chapter of my life," she says. "If I were to
write my life story, I wouldn't edit that part. I'm thankful to have
been given a chance to live like a princess."

Thankful.

That's the title of Ayen's new album (her first under BMG Records)
which carries 12 songs, two of which - All About You and The Treasure
of My Heart - eloquently speak of what she has been through and what
she now aspires for.

"People think only of me as wallowing in wealth, which is not true,"
says Ayen. "They don't really see the real me. The two songs will help
them understand what I really am."

Was being a princess among the things you are thankful for?

"Of course, of course. I couldn't erase the past. It's already part and
parcel of who and what I am."

How long had you been a princess?

"From 1995 to 2002. Seven years."

What was the best thing about being a princess?

"Of course, the perks. The best thing siguro were the material rewards
but I didn't really enjoy them. They were not really something that I
wanted. They were just there, so you just have to learn to enjoy them.
But the respect was there and that was what mattered most to me."

Didn't you feel restricted living in a palace?

"No, I didn't live in the palace. It's the Sultan and his family who
live in the palace. I lived in one of Jeffrey's houses; I had my own
house. It wasn't really palatial but it was nice and homey."

Were you confined within the four walls of the house?

"Kind of. I couldn't be as normal as I am now. Now, I could go
anywhere. Noon, I didn't have a chance to go out a lot. Brunei is so
small that you couldn't do anything much there. When I wanted to shop,
we'd go to London or Paris or Singapore."

Is it true that the members of the Royal Family would go to Singapore
or nearby cities on their private plane just to have lunch or dinner?

"Not naman for lunch or dinner but for shopping. Or, you know, for a
change of environment."

Didn't you feel like a bird in a golden cage?

"Oh, yes, I did. Definitely! You have everything but your freedom is
limited. You hardly see your friends. Towards the later part of our
marriage, I started seeing my friends a lot. But in the beginning, I
was just at home. Maraming bawal. It wasn't a normal life. I was
protected by a lot of people. My movement was limited."

Were you happy?

"I wouldn't say that I was or I wasn't. But as days went by, I realized
how terribly I was missing so many things."

What did you miss most then?

"Freedom - freedom to walk around, freedom to be by myself (because I
was always being followed even inside the house), freedom to be
myself."

How often did you go out of the house?

"Very seldom. In my house, I had everything I needed - there was a
pool, a gym, a recording studio, a mini-theater. I had everything!"

Were you the only wife living in that house?

"Yes. There were four of us legal wives and each one had her own
house."

Did you socialize with the other wives?

"No. Okey lang sa akin but I didn't know if it was okay with them
because some of them were kind of very private and selosa."

Were you the only Filipina wife?

"No. There were two of us."

So you didn't get to see one another...

"...Hardly. Funny nga because our houses were near each other and yet
hindi kami nagkikita-kita."

Was it part of the protocol?

"I don't think so. We could mingle. But then, Jeffrey's wives happened
to have certain issues among them, parang he was being constantly
questioned by his wives about this and that."

How did Jeffrey divide his time among you wives?

"At that time, he was seeing only two of us. From the evening to the
next morning until the afternoon, he'd be with me. The following
evening, he'd be with the other (the third) wife."

How many children did you have with Jeffrey?

"Just one. I have three children all in all. The eldest (Mariella, 13)
is a love child; the second, Kiko, 9, is by Prince Jeffrey; and the
third, Angia, who is turning two years old on Oct. 28, is by Franco."

Does Kiko still enjoy royal privileges?

"Yes, of course. He communicates with his dad regularly. But if you're
talking about being heir to the throne, he's not really an heir
because there's a first family and a second family and a third family."

How often does Kiko see Jeffrey?

"Four times a year. Now, Jeffrey is in Paris and London. They're seeing
each other before New Year. But they talk to each other every day."

Do you still have communication with Jeffrey?

"When I have to, when we have to talk about something. As far as Kiko
is concerned, somebody is in-charge of him, making sure that he's okay
all the time."

What made you give up your life as a princess?

"Well, aside from being unhappy... There was a third party involved.
There were already four of us wives and I thought that I would be the
last. Mayroon pa palang iba. I was shocked to discover that the third
party was the supervisor of the house."

Was she a Filipina?

"No. American-Japanese."

Wasn't Jeffrey entitled to five wives?

"No. Just four. Also at that time, I seldom saw him. In three months,
I'd see him for only about 10 days, so we were not like a family
anymore. The set-up was starting to affect our child who was
constantly looking for his dad."

Was the parting amicable?

"Yes, it was. But, of course, there was some pain. Divorce is always
painful no matter what the reason is. He could have said no. But then,
he saw that things were not working anymore; he realized that I
desperately wanted out of the marriage so he couldn't do anything but
say yes (to the divorce)."

Did you dream of being a princess when you were a kid?

"Not at all! But my eldest brother used to call me Princess; everybody
in the house called me by that nickname - Princess. I'm the youngest
among the children. My dream was to become a performer, a singer. I
never expected that I'd end up a princess."

Your meeting with Jeffrey must have been providential. Or was it
accidental?

"It wasn't accidental at all. I worked as one of the singers in the
country club owned by Jeffrey. There were five of us singers. One of
Jeffrey's brothers is a musician and he made me sing Malay songs. One
night, I was pleasantly surprised to see Jeffrey in the audience. He
requested me to sing first mostly Malay songs and then one English
song, In All The Right Places. Through a friend, he asked for a dinner
date with me. How could I say no? He was our boss, the one with the
power to hire and fire."

Were you flattered that he asked you out to dinner?

"Anong flattered? I was scared!"

Scared? Why?

"Because of his reputation. Parang... you know, nakakatakot. My fellow
singers were warning me, 'Be careful, he's a womanizer!' Ako naman,
okey lang. Wala 'yon, wala 'yon!"

Did he shower you with gifts during the courtship?

"None. Just dinners, usually in his house. There were other people
around but they kept their distance. It was just Jeffrey and me walking
around, talking. Very kundiman."

How did he say "I love you" to you?

"He wasn't vocal at all. Less talk, more action. Pahawak-hawak lang.
Very gentleman. Chivalrous."

So how did he finally propose to you?

"He did - one year later."

It's a good thing you were free at that time.

"I wasn't committed to anybody then. I planned to come home after two
months but I stayed, I continued working. Until we got married and I
stayed there na..."

...as a lady of leisure?

"Kind of."

What was your childhood like?

"Sheltered. Very organized. Everything was well-planned. I wanted to
keep on studying and learning new things. During summer, I wouldn't
rest. I'd attend workshops for this and that, mga CCP workshops at
Repertory workshops. I was then taking up Music at UP. My father was a
musician and we were brought up loving and making music."

How did your family react when they learned that a prince was courting
(and later marrying) you?

"Medyo natakot sila because they had heard about Jeffrey's reputation.
They were like, 'Sigurado ka bang pakakasalan ka niya?' But you know,
they couldn't do anything - I was in love na, e! - especially when I
was converted to Islam before Jeffrey and I got married."

How did your family finally get over their misgivings?

"Finally, Jeffrey and I got married and then I got pregnant. During the
first three years of our marriage, everything was peaceful, everything
was okay, so my family rested assured. The next four years were
something else. A lot of issues started cropping up na."

Were the royalties gentle?

"Oh, yes, they were - they are! They're cultured and educated; they
studied in the best schools in the world."

Were they ever, uh, physical?

"Never! Jeffrey never laid a hand on me. He was such a gentleman
through and through. Chivalrous nga, e!"

Wasn't he choosy with food?

"Not at all. I cooked for him a lot."

Filipino food?

"Some of them."

But not lechon, I suppose.

"Of course, not! Ako nga, up to now I don't eat lechon anymore."

Are you still a Muslim?

"No. I've been reconverted to Christianity."

How has the transition been from being a princess to being a commoner
(again)?

"It wasn't hard. I felt like a bird freed from the cage. It wasn't hard
because I wanted it and I expected that things would be back to normal
even if I still have some 'security' (bodyguards) being the mom of a
prince's son. Kiko has his own 'security,' too. I enjoy my freedom
again. I can sing again, I can see my friends anytime or as often as I
want to, my family is around..."

During your seven-year marriage, were you allowed to come and go
between the Philippines and Brunei?

"During the first three years, not often. I stayed mostly in Paris and
London, traveling with Jeffrey. I'd come home but the longest I'd stay
was two weeks siguro."

Is it true that you got several millions in alimony?

"No comment."

And a few houses (one of them in Forbes Park, Makati City)?

"No comment."

How much ba talaga?

"Hhhmmmm. Just enough for me to live a comfortable life."

You met Franco after your divorce from Jeffrey...

"...I've known Franco since 1999 when I produced Rama-Sita. He was
among the actors. We started as friends, as barkada. Jeffrey and I
divorced in 2001. Franco and I got married in 2002."

During your marriage (to Jeffrey), you put your career "on hold,"
ganoon ba?

"Yes, I did. But I did productions in Brunei, like in 1997 when I
mounted Chorus Line there, with an all-Filipino cast. It was an
invitational show. I would invite entertainers from the Philippines
and during their shows, I would sometimes perform with them."

So from a prince, you ended up with a commoner. That's the trend now,
isn't it? It happened in Norway and in Denmark where the Princes
married commoners.

"And in Brunei recently. The Sultan's son, 34, married a 17-year-old
commoner."

Weren't you invited to that royal wedding?

"No. Divorced na ako, e!"

As far as Franco is concerned, what are you thankful for?

"With Franco, I can do what I couldn't do before - like enjoy a free
life. Our communication lines are open. We are both Christian and we
make beautiful music together. We support each other in so many ways.
Our marriage is working out really well."

Have the kids (Marielle and Kiko) taken to Franco like he's their own
father?

"Oh, yes, they have. He's physically present all the time. Franco is
playing the role so well."

How was the adjustment period?

"There were a few kinks in the beginning. But now, everything is okay,
everything is perfect. Siempre, when we got married, Franco was an
instant father to two children!"

Some people have the impression that you dominate Franco. Is Franco a
yes-man?

"I don't think so. I admit that I have a strong character and Franco is
very gentle but we complement each other. The truth is that I am a very
submissive wife. Franco is the man of the house. He's smart and I am,
too, so we get into arguments sometimes, just like any other couple."

What else are you thankful for?

"I'm thankful for my family, for Franco being there and for our
children...I'm thankful that my parents are there still supporting
me...I'm thankful that I'm singing again and making people happy in my
own little way...I'm thankful for being able to live the kind of life
that I am living now."

* * * E-mail reactions at: rickylo@philstar.net.ph

Create New Metaphors

Objective: This activity encourages students to create new metaphors
rather than rely on the cliche phrases too frequently cited. Perhaps more
importantly, it focuses on matching up descriptive phrases, causing them
to begin looking at things from a fresh perspective.

METAPHORS (Taken from "The Inventing Writer")

To learn something new about anything that's familiar, we
need to see it differently, and nothing opens the eyes like a metaphor. A
metaphor is an implied comparison of two things, ideas, or states of mind
that may not literally have much in common.

A good metaphor is a comparison that hadn't occurred to us
before.

Thousands of metaphors form the stuff of everyday talk. Most
of these are little more than corpses of deceased metaphors, otherwise
known as cliches: "Chill out." "He thinks he's hot stuff." "She made a
mountain out of a molehill." "That expression is dead as a doornail." We
use old metaphors because they are so handy, but, of course, they have no
force and little explanatory value. (What, after all, is a doornail?)
George Orwell recommended never using a metaphor that we are used to
seeing in print (to which should be added, "that we are used to hearing
on the air").

The following is a method that can help you generate new
metaphors.

STEP 1. MAKE THREE LISTS
list I - 10 abstractions followed by the word "is"
list II - 10 specific things
list III - 10 adjective phrases
Example below:

List I - abstractions
1. Love is
2. Death is
3. Education is
4. Knowledge is
5. Religion is
6. Faith is
7. Power is
8. Sleep is
9. Work is
10. Play is

List II - specific
1. a wet hound dog
2. a popular song
3. a landfill
4. a black hole
5. a new Corvette
6. a frozen TV dinner
7. a circling vulture
8. an ancient temple
9. a melting Popsicle
10. a festering wound

List III - adjective phrases
1. waiting for its time.
2. old to the wise, new to the foolish.
3. silly to those who think, serious to those who feel.
4. needed only by the poor in spirit.
5. unused by all but the rich.
6. unused by all but the poor.
7. quietly known, unquietly felt.
8. strange in twilight, common in daylight.
9. barbarous to the truly civilized.
10. productive only of couch-potatoes.


STEP 2. CHOOSE ANY THREE-DIGIT NUMBER. (see 919 example below)
Start with the phrase from List I that corresponds to the
first digit Connect it to the phrase in List II that corresponds to the
second digit then phrase in List III that corresponds to the third.

Then, read the resulting metaphor.

Example: The number 919 yields "Work is a wet hound dog,
barbarous to the truly civilized."

Exercise 2: Take something very important to you and try to
imagine it as (1) a famous person (2) a plant (3) an animal (4) a machine
(5) a place.
Suppose that you have an old Volkswagen Beetle that you love,
and have driven for years. If it were a famous person, who would it be?
Danny DeVito, Jesse James, Roseanne Arnold? What kind of plant would it
be? A dandelion, A rose, An artichoke? What kind of animal? A bulldog, An
armadillo, (Someone has already thought of it as an insect so don't use
that) Suppose it were an appliance. Would it be a popcorn popper? And if
it were a place, enlarged in your mind's eye to the size of a house,
where would you visit first? Where would you prefer not to go? Once you've
come up with your images, write a paragraph on your favorite object,
using your newly created metaphors.

http://www.engl.niu.edu/sourcebook/II-1-11.html

From: dove@sbcglobal.net

Holy Carabao! Where Have All These Beasts Of Burden Gone?

MANILA, October 27, 2004 (STAR) By Wilson Lee Flores - Please allow me
to vehemently deny the false rumor that I am a carabao thief! Let me
share with you what happened last month at the National Bureau of
Investigation (NBI), when two NBI officers confronted me with the charge
that I, Wilson Flores, had stolen a carabao in a certain barrio in
Pangasinan and therefore violated P.D. 533 or the Anti-Cattle Rustling
Law. They can accuse me of being a tax evader, smuggler, subversive, or
even a rapist, but not the ridiculous charge of stealing a carabao!

I was tempted to yell at the two NBI officers, "You
thick-faced sons of a carabao! This is an injustice! Just because I
don't have the looks of a Tom Cruise, do I look like a carabao thief?
Just because I don't have the billions of San Miguel's Danding Cojuangco
or Zobel de Ayala, do I have to steal a carabao? *&%^#@#%*%#!"

Why be a carabao-napper even? For farm work, milk and free
fertilizers?

They accused me of stealing, but in fact, I'm now gifting the
English vocabulary a new word - carabao-napper. This is not Lito Lapid or
Melanie Marquez's carabao English. Since a person who steals a kid is
called a kidnapper and a person who steals a car is called a carnapper,
then the NBI agents are in effect accusing me of being a carabao-napper,
di ba?

Our semi-feudal and topsy-turvy Philippine society is often
absurd and funny to those who think, and tragic to those who feel,
that's why we often shake our heads like a weary carabao and say, "Only
in the Philippines!"

Don't you think it's carabao shit that many of the bull-headed
high and mighty in politics, the military, police and other sectors are
rarely punished for their milking our state coffers of gazillions? But
how come ordinary citizens like us can be dragged into court for
stealing just one carabao or making "kupit" a few thousand pesos? That
is unfair carabao justice!

My driver said one carabao costs P17,000 in his hometown in
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. Holy carabao! That's not even enough for a
night of carousing in a high-class nightclub for many of our wild bulls
and toros in government!

Actually this was an old case filed in 1996, and the only
reason the NBI had only now confronted me with this was due to a friend,
sculptor Juan Sajid Imao and his wife Cielo, who were nominating me for
an award which required that I submit an NBI clearance. When the two NBI
officers asked me to enter their office, and told me there was a slight
problem with my clearance request, I felt like a carabao lost in a roast
beef restaurant! I was worried there might be a crazy guy among our
country's 84-million population with the same name as mine, who was a
rapist, murderer or a big-time funds embezzler.

Thank goodness, there was indeed a certain Wilson Flores of
Pangasinan whose only crime was having stolen a carabao in a rural barrio
in 1996 with a case filed in the Municipal Circuit Trial Court of
Binalonan, Pangasinan! I felt like a carabao who had escaped the
slaughterhouse after asking the two NBI officers, "Do I look stupid
enough to steal a carabao?" The two NBI officers smiled and gave me my
clearance faster than a carabao can shout, "Moo"!

Who was that carabao-napper with the same name as mine in
Pangasinan province? Why did he steal a carabao in 1996? Maybe he just
wanted to eat roast beef carabao! A singer friend of mine heard this
case and asked, "What did the Pangasinan carabao tell the late Elvis
Presley? The animal sang to the tune of the song Love Me Tender - Roast
me tender, roast me true, roast beef carabao!"

Despite our politicians' decades of gross neglect of rural
farmers, farm mechanization in irrigated farms had caused many farmers
to replace carabaos with hand tractors. However, farmers in the uplands
and rain-fed farming regions still favor carabaos. Perhaps because
they're not only easier to direct on high terrains, but because carabaos
use no expensive fuel and also give free fertilizers. Was carabao-napper
Wilson Flores one of the many impoverished farmers now victimized by the
ongoing rampant rice smuggling in this country, forcing him to steal a
carabao for his rice farm out of frustration and desperation?

Our semi-feudal Philippine society is truly a funny place for
those of us who think, but tragic for those who feel. Could it also be
possible to liken this carabao-napper with the same name as mine with
the 19th century character Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo's novel Les
Miserables? Jean Valjean was jailed for 19 years by French authorities
and hounded by the law for the petty crime of stealing a loaf of bread,
an act which forever scarred his whole life. Was this carabao-napper a
poor but filial son, whose widowed mother was very sick and who stole the
carabao to give his mother some milk and meat? Did they jail this poor
carabao-napper, and for how many months or years?

Maybe it was uncalled for when I described to the NBI officers
that stealing a carabao was stupid, for this animal represents an asset
and real livelihood possibilities for the many rural poor. About 99
percent of the more than three million carabaos or water buffaloes in
the country are raised and bred by small-hold farmers.

Who Stole All The Tamaraws?

Coincidentally, our fiscal crisis republic just recently
hosted the October 20 to 23 event, "7th World Buffalo Congress", at
Shangri-La Manila. A primemover was the International Buffalo Federation
(IBF). Did our leaders discuss our many carabao problems in the
Philippines, or was this just a series of bull sessions and a grand
party for foreign guests?

In this era of the shrinking pan de sal and the shrinking peso
purchasing power, it is sad that our estimated three million Philippine
carabaos also suffer from declining physical size and growth rate due to
poor breeding practices and other problems. In 1989, then Senator Joseph
Estrada authored one of his few bills - Senate Bill 1165 entitled, "An
Act Creating the Philippine Carabao Center to Propagate and Promote the
Philippine Carabao and for Other Purposes". Erap denied that his support
for the carabaos had anything to do with his supposedly carabao English.
Is this Philippine Carabao Center making a big positive difference to
save the carabaos and help our poor rural farmers?

Another problem of our carabaos is the vanishing Tamaraw
specie, the largest endangered land animal in the Philippines, which has
been stolen from us by our politicians' failure to stop shameless greed
and environmental degradation.

In 1900, American military officers suppressing the Philippine
Revolution organized the "Military Order of the Carabao" at the Army &
Navy Club by the Manila Bay, an organization which today includes
officers of the US military who served in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
In the 1900s when American military forces fought with Filipino
insurgents, there were about 10,000 heads of these unique Tamaraw pygmy
water buffalos freely roaming all over the island province of Mindoro
where the Tamaraws are endemic.

Today, the Tamaraws have been stolen from the landscape of
Mindoro. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
in 1996 listed the Tamaraw as one of the 10 most endangered species on
earth. What is the government and other sectors doing about this grave
crisis?

First studied by Dr. Pierre Heude in 1888, the Tamaraw is a
unique animal a little smaller than the carabao or Asian water buffalo.
The dexterity and strong short legs of its bulky body enable Tamaraws to
traverse through dense tropical jungles or climb up steep mountains.
Tamaraws are unique for their V-shaped horns, while the horns of carabaos
are curve-shaped.

Many people call it wild and aggressive, a favorite prey of
adventurous hunters. Unabated hunting, coupled by the destruction of the
animals' natural habitat drove the declining number of Tamaraws to a few
remote areas in the mountains.

The tragedy of the harassed Tamaraws reminded me of my former
Ateneo teacher Atty. Charlemagne Yu, now president of Empire East Land,
who said he was a former volunteer who taught the Mangyan minority their
legal rights in the face of lowland settlers who drove them into the
mountains.

The 20th century influx of people in Mindoro caused the
indiscriminate hunting of the Tamaraw for food and livelihood. Worse,
thrill-seeking hunters and poachers plundered Mindoro wildlife, with
elite Manila hunters in the 1960s and 1970s using high-powered weapons
to hunt the wild Tamaraws as sport and took home their heads as trophies.

From 10,000 heads in the 1900s, the number of Tamaraws dropped
to only 369 heads by the late 1980s. Reports said that by 1996, Tamaraws
were sighted in only three areas - Mt. Iglit, Mt. Calavite, and the area
of the Sablayon Penal Settlement. Today, there are estimated to be only
20 Tamaraws in the wild. How can we reverse the generations of non-stop
stealing of this unique Tamaraw, which is found only in the Philippines?

Comedy & Tragedy Of Carabao-Napper & Kidnap Victim

In September 2002, Secretary Richard Gordon and this writer
arrived from a China tourism promotions tour. At the airport, his aide
Judee Aguilar showed him a summary of recent crimes which incredibly
included the kidnapping of a certain businessman Wilson Lee Flores in
Butuan City in Mindanao. This kidnap victim paid ransom and was released.
The Tourism Secretary was surprised and I was shocked.

Though I'm not a poor farmer who stole a carabao in rural
Pangasinan and neither am I a wealthy tycoon kidnapped in Mindanao, I
couldn't help but empathize with their tragic plight. What fears,
anguish and untold family sufferings did they endure? These two persons
who shared my name remind me about the fates of those poor fellas who
are punished by their penury and also those hardworking entrepreneurs
whose hard-won success are endangered by criminality.

Why are we no longer shocked by these kinds of negative news?
Why are our leaders so bull-headed, their minds and their rhetoric often
still full of carabao dung and crap? As an ordinary citizen with a
peaceful existence, I am angered by the massive poverty, social
injustice, shameless corruption, rampant criminality and other iniquities
which have seemingly become so normal to our Philippine society.

We should subvert the cynical, inequitable and decaying status
quo with vigorous economic, social, cultural, moral and even political
reforms. We should not allow ourselves to be victims of cruel fate. Let
us radically change the destiny of Philippine society - so that there
shall be no more kidnappings and extortions by corrupt men in uniform or
by bandits in politics, no more swarms of street kids begging at night
under the rains, no more mass exodus of our talented youth overseas. And
also so that there shall be no more poor farmer anywhere in the
Philippines so desperate that he has to steal a carabao!

* * * Thanks for all your messages. Comments and suggestions
are welcome at wilson_lee_flores@yahoo.com,
wilson_lee_flores@hotmail.com, wilson_lee_flores@newyork.com, or P.O. Box
14277, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

From: lquesada@newsflash.org