I want to write a story.  A story set in the land of sugar.  A story that embodies idyllic living as practiced by Negrenses.  At the end of it though, I want it to be a story with purpose.  A story for children to realize that money is not everything and that material things are...well, immaterial.  In the end I hope that this could help the next generation of Negrenses value what is really essential.  And perhaps, even their parents who read the story will begin to realize that status in the small town is not everything.

Coming up! The 1st NEGROS MUSEUM Children’s Book Seminar in Bacolod: Saturday, 2010 October 23.

The 1st NEGROS MUSEUM Children’s Book Seminar in Bacolod is scheduled for Saturday 2010 October 23. It will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The Negros Museum, Old Agricultural Building, Bacolod City 6100, Negros Occidental.

Do you have a passion for children’s literature? Are you a published, unpublished, soon to be published, or aspiring writer or illustrator of children’s and young adult books? If yes, you’re welcome to register! You just need to be 18 years old or older, no upper limit.

The seminar will be conducted by the Philippine chapter of the Los Angeles based Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI), in cooperation with The Negros Museum.

Register now! Thirty slots only, first come first served. Registration will close at 5 p.m. Thursday, October 14, 2010. Walk-ins or late registrants will not be allowed on the day of the seminar.

For more information, contact:

Ihvonnie Sevilleno, Mktg & Comm Officer, The Negros Museum, Old Agricultural Building, Bacolod City 6100 Negros Occidental, Philippines, Tel. 6334 708 5080, Telefax 6334 433 4764 / Cel 0921-3307861, E-mail negros_museum96@yahoo.com

Beaulah Pedregosa Taguiwalo, Regional Advisor, SCBWI Philippines. E-mail taguiwalo8888@yahoo.com, Cellphone no. 0917-787-4956.

Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki), Asst. Regional Advisor, SCBWI Philippines. E-mail nikkigtorres@yahoo.com, Cellphone no. 0905-347-1668

Scene opens up with a five year old boy running to his mom asking frantically, "Mommy!  Mommy!   Why is Lola and Tito screaming at each other?".  The boy, being unused to this commotion until this time is calmed down by the mother with the words, "Don't worry, they're just talking business".

Fast forward to a few days later when the boy finds himself in a fistfight with his cousin in the Lola's garden.  Lola runs outside to break up the fight when the boy blurts out while taking a jab, "Don't worry Lola, we're just talking business!!!".

The five year old boy is now grown up.  And now the reflection is this...more than forty years are about to pass.  Still no end in sight for the squabbling in that part of the family.  It is so sickening that it is pathetic.

I spoke to my kids yesterday and gave them some insight on a reading of Scripture I had the other day.  I told them, "Did you know that there are things that Jesus cannot do?".  Kids then started naming all the negatives which would not be within Jesus' capacity to perform.  Beyond the smart-aleck replies, I brought them to what I had recently pored over in the Bible. 

Luke 12:13-14

 ¹³Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."

 ¹⁴Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" ¹⁵Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

"Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?".  Jesus Himself leaves it to us to settle this matter.  

Indeed a strange reflection.

So many stories in my mind, so little time to write. :(

What to write?  Romeo and Juliet in the time of the Sugar Barons?  Love and hate between hacendero and mamumugon?  Pasundayag sa phak sang kapigaduhan?

So many interesting Negros stories in my mind, so little time to write.

Ahay.
------------------------------------------

The Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature (Palanca Awards) continues to live up to its reputation as the country’s most prestigious and longest-running literary contest as it officially opens its 60th year.

This year, the Carlos Palanca Foundation looks forward to more brilliant works to add to its trove of 1,954 winning literary gems it has gathered since it first handed out an award in 1951.

The regular categories under which participants can submit their entries are: English Division – Short Story, Short Story for Children, Essay, Poetry, One-act Play, Full-length Play; Filipino Division – Maikling Kuwento, Maikling Kuwentong Pambata, Sanaysay, Tula, Dulang May Isang Yugto, Dulang Ganap ang Haba, and Dulang Pampelikula; Regional Languages Division – Short Story-Cebuano, Short Story-Hiligaynon and Short Story-Iluko. Each contestant may submit only one entry per category.

Much anticipated as well are entries to the competition’s relatively new categories: Poetry Written for Children in the English Division and Tulang Isinulat Para sa mga Bata in the Filipino division. The categories were launched last year to encourage the development of a body of poetry for young children ages 6-12.

Meanwhile, in the Kabataan Division, Palanca Awards’ special division for young writers below 18 years old, the Kabataan Essay theme in the English category is “What is it in the environment that I can protect?”, and in the Filipino category, “Ano sa kalikasan ang aking kayang pangalagaan?”.

The literary contest is open to all Filipino (or former Filipino) citizens, except current officers and employees of its organizing body, the Carlos Palanca Foundation, Inc.  Contest rules and official entry forms are available at Palanca Awards’ official website, www.palancaawards.com.ph.

Entries with complete requirements may be submitted to the Foundation’s office at the 6th Floor, One World Square Bldg., 10 Upper McKinley Road , McKinley Hill Town Center , Fort Bonifacio , Taguig City or may also be entered online through the Palanca Awards website or sent through email at cpawards@palancaawards.com.ph.

Deadline of submission of entries for this year’s awards is midnight of April 30, 2010. Winners will be announced on September 1, 2010.

For further information, you may call telephone number 856-0808.#

Everybody is in awe of Cory these days.  Oh well, maybe not all.  But among those who revere her today, are the same ones who opposed her on a very sensitive issue during the time of her presidency.

"And what issue is that?", one may ask.

Land reform.

I wonder what thoughts enter hacenderos minds these days.  Yeah,...just wondering.

The feeling is very eerie.  It is reminiscent of life back in Negros.  Negros, Bacolod, the old place where everything is supposedly only 5 minutes away.  Okay, maybe not 5.  Ten because traffic has already built up in Bacolod the past few years.

Ten is more realistic because that is the amount of time it will take me to get from where I'm at to the Makati Central Business District.  And yet, I find myself in surroundings which are reminiscent of a farm.  Just behind me, wide open space inhabited by game fowl and some newly planted vegetation kept as a hobby by the local politician who owns the property. In the morning, his roosters crow, much to my disorientation thinking I am back in the province.

I look out the window and see the trees, the vegetation, and the fowl.  They seem ok.  But as I shift my gaze a bit, I see the Makati skyline.  I am not ok. LOL!  Eerie is too light an adjective when you realize that you are situated in a farm right in the heart of Metro Manila with the CBD only ten minutes from you.

Well, Toto, this ain't Kansas!

A rejoinder to my post Entrepreneurship 101.

My second major undertaking happened after high school.  My dad had passed away in September 1985.  His demise nipped in the bud my lifelong dream of becoming an architect.  At that time, I had to leave the UP College of Architecture and move back to Bacolod to study Fine Arts.

On the side to studying, I was running a small operation a world apart from architecture or advertising.  It concerned two trucks hauling sugarcane.  My cousin, Manong Joemarie, let me haul his cane from their farm in Granada to the sugar mill.  Reckoning was on a weekly basis.

I'd have to say that while the operation was quite manageable especially for a 17-year-old, I had to give it up eventually due to the trucks breaking down from natural wear and tear.  It would have been costly to put them back together so these where sold.

For that short stint, I was able to learn how to keep costs down, shop around the junkyards and get my hands dirty to find replacement parts (it was more like a treasure hunt searching for REO 6x6 parts), learn to nego with the 2nd hand parts dealers.

Overall, I'd say, it was a good exercise for the duration of it.

People rave over Calea cakes from Bacolod.  Everytime I come home from Negros, I always lug along 2 chocolate cakes from Calea for friends.

To the Calea cake fans in Manila, I have good news and bad news.  Good news...Calea's Chocolate Pecan cake is 100x better than the regular chocolate cake.

The bad news is, as of the other day, Calea no longer accepts any orders for more cakes until January 1.  I guess their ovens are already churning out their delicacies at max capacity.  Fully booked na sila.

Actress, model, and TV host Angel Jacob had no idea what she was in for when she signed up for an indie film entitled Namets!, but she got the experience of a lifetime. “I thought it was a cameo role,” she says, “but then I found out I was playing the lead. I thought, ‘I have to do well, I have to show them they made the right decision when they cast me.’” By coincidence, she had listed “to make an indie” as one of her goals at the start of the new year. Little did she know that her wish would soon be granted.

The role of Cassie Labayen calls for an actress who exudes the right amount of sass and spunk, charm and wit. Once Jacob’s name came up, director Jay Abello knew he had found the right Cassie.

But first, a major challenge had to be overcome—Angel spoke no Hiligaynon at all. She accepted the role instinctively, but realized that she would have to work hard to master the language. “I received the script and an mp3 player so I could listen to my lines being pronounced,” she relates. “I found it so difficult to do because I had no one to speak to in Hiligaynon.”

Arriving in Bacolod on her first shooting day, Angel found herself plunged right into the world of Namets!, in a scene shot at Burgos Market, in which she had to eat cansi. “I never told anyone that I don’t eat meat, just fish,” she says, laughing. “Eating meat at the market, in Bacolod, doing a film in Hiligaynon was just too overwhelming for me. But I was determined to do it.”

Her determination paid off—in the movie, she transforms into the quintessential Bacolod girl, and off-camera, she now understands and speaks the language fluently. “I observed how people interacted with each other, how girls would be so ‘lambing’ when they talk. Everyday was another day to ‘get into the Bacolod groove.’ I loved every second of it!”

The chemistry between her and leading man Christian Vazquez, so crucial to a romantic comedy, was cultivated over years of having worked with each other. “We have done soap operas together, movies and pictorials, where we were always husband and wife, so working with him came naturally.”

That Namets! is about food also made the job easier. “I love food! Not that I can cook, but I appreciate and enjoy food,” she adds. “My sweet tooth is happy, as well as my working relationship.”

So completely did she bond with the cast, crew, and the province, that shooting her last scene proved to be an emotional moment. “I take pride in doing a Negrense film—learning the language, enjoying the good food, learning the culture. Experiencing the warmth and ‘pagkalambing’ of Negrenses is an experience I keep close to my heart.”

Seeing the finished film affirmed that she had made the right decision. “I want people from all over the country to experience what I did! And Namets! gives them that opportunity!” she says. “To savor each bite of inasal, each mouthwatering spoonful of dulce gatas, the crunchy piyaya, the tummy-filling cansi, the finger-licking goodness of the napoleones! To get a glipmse of Negrense eating habits and realize there is a Negrense in each one of us!”

Namets! is showing exclusively at the following venues: 

• SM Bacolod:  November 24 –30, 2008 SM Cinema 3
• SM Iloilo:  December  1-6, 2008  SM Cinema 7
• Ayala Center Cebu: December 6, 8-10, 2008 Ayala Cinema 4 

For reservations, please call:

•    Bacolod: (034) 495-0936 / Rhea Sol – 0919-744-7706
•    Iloilo: Eden – 0929-777-0734
•    Cebu: Tina – 0908-987-4731 
  

DVD and VCD copies will be available in video stores in December. 

We’d like to thank the following: 

Bonfire Productions /  7^th Films  /  Tramontina / Sugarland Hotel / Ford Motors Negros Occidental / Enting’s / Pixel / Cook Magazine 

Our media partners: The News Today / Yuhum Magazine / Expresscom / Pacific Ads / Love Radio / Killerbee


---reposted from namets.multiply.com

The buzzword "Business Process Outsourcing" indeed bears its own flash value in business-speak.

Take a look at this definition:

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the contracting of a specific business task, such as payroll, to a third-party service provider. Usually, BPO is implemented as a cost-saving measure for tasks that a company requires but does not depend upon to maintain their position in the marketplace. BPO is often divided into two categories: back office outsourcing which includes internal business functions such as billing or purchasing, and front office outsourcing which includes customer-related services such as marketing or tech support.

BPO that is contracted outside a company's own country is sometimes called offshore outsourcing. BPO that is contracted to a company's neighboring country is sometimes called nearshore outsourcing, and BPO that is contracted with the company's own county is sometimes called onshore outsourcing.

Ooooh it sounds so modern.  Nevertheless, I remember that in a time not so long ago and a land not so far away, this was already being practiced.

The purpose for the principal entities engaging the BPO operations was not so much about cost saving measures.  It was more of augmenting the current workforce under regular employment because of the immense task and literal ground to cover.

The BPO third party contractors had to travel from a neighboring island and reside in company provided dwellings within the industry complex.

So down to specifics....

Time not so long ago : around 50 to 70 years back
Land not so far away : Negros
Principal entity : Sugar plantations
BPO operations task : carga (load sugar cane on trucks/railroad carriage) y tapas (cut cane)
Literal ground to cover : average of 1,200 hectares per principal entity
Neighboring island : Panay
BPO third party contractors : sacadas


More Negros stories and Sugar tales soon :-)

For those who have not yet started to build up their personal art collection, here's a good place to start...drawings by acclaimed Negrense artist, Nunelucio "Nune" Alvarado.  Oil pastel on Negros handmade paper; signed 2008; unframed.

If you're the first to show interest in any of the pieces, you can get your first piece at 5thou only.  Everything else is at 8thou.

If you want the entire lot, that's a different story

Now if you want something bigger, you can have a 4x4 oil on canvas at PhP 400,000.00.

Bacolod Chicken House...the local legend

"Sugar and Spies" was originally released on November 5, 1966.  It was actually a six-minute film showing Wile E. Coyote obtaining a "spy kit" from a fleeing bandit and tries it out on the Road Runner. He tries sleeping gas, mailing a time bomb, a James Bond-type "spy car" and radar- guided rockets, but (as usual) all to no avail.

For some reason, I took a fancy for its title.  A few months back when we had this tropical send-off party for Cookie Bartolome, I made a quick note of what I could perhaps do once I take on reverse migration in later years.  I guess I could go back to Bacolod and chronicle the city's nocturnal events.  No, I don't want to be Maurice Arcache despite having this liking to use the term "palanggas".  I'll just serve as the journalist lurking by the sidelines making mental notes of each idiosyncratic Negrense at the ball.

With this kind of agenda, I guess there could be no better by-line than "Sugar and Spies" .  

Just before I moved to Manila, I was writing the Arts and Culture column for the Visayan Daily Star.  The column used to be called "Artspeak".  Now as I ponder, I can't return as "Artspeak" anymore.  My views have changed.  Bacolod has changed too.

Since there are still so many untold stories about Negros, "Sugar and Spies" is much, much better.

BACOLOD- 6:00 am.  I took an early morning stroll in the neighborhood and passed by a simple two storey house.  It is the Bacolod address of an alleged Jose Pidal.  The property is simple.  The property is rented.  Quite out of sync to the personality of a person who stepped out to claim that he posseses oodles and oodles of money and owns various properties in the US.  It is all the more out of sync with the Negrense decadence I last wrote about.

When Jose Pidal came out in 2003 claiming he was so, the planters in Negros were laughing.  It was so unbelievable.  There were even some comments about actually doing a backtrack on Jose Pidal's previous income tax returns.

So, may we please ask the real Jose Pidal to step forward?

A few months ago, over a round of golf, I had this interesting discussion with investment banker, Richard Dalao, who told the story of their family's "reverse migration" from Negros to Manila.  It was the mid 1960's and Richard's dad opted to move back to Manila as in Richard's words, "my dad couldn't take the lifestyle in Negros.  Being an Ilocano, he found the life too decadent.  So back to Manila it was".

The same impression lives on until today.  For those who are not familiar with the inner trappings of the sugar culture, the flamboyance displayed is easily misconstrued as outright arrogance.

How did it get to this point?  What triggered such behavior?  If you still have these lingering questions, allow me to take the first step in breaking apart the mystery.

There is a saying that the people from Davao spend yesterday's money today, the people from Cebu spend today's money today, but the people from Bacolod spend ...well, tomorrow's money today.

Spending versus one's future earnings comes naturally to the Negrense.  This was triggered before the turn of the 20th century when sugar as a product was picking up in terms of price in the world market.  Demand was beginning to grow among the Commonwealth domains in South East Asia including Australia and New Zealand.

The principal catalyst in this little "Story of Sugar" is a man by the name of Nicholas Loney.  He was the son of a British admiral, born in the naval town of Plymouth, and well-educated.  He left England at the age of 24 to seek his fortune and travelled to South America, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and finally to the Philippines in 1852.  He became a clerk in Manila of the British firm Ker & Co.

In 1856, Loney was assigned to Iloilo and became a vice-consul and eventually opened the firm of Loney & Ker & Co.  In those days, British ships came to the Negros and Panay region to be loaded up with sugar for export to Australia and the other states in the region under the British flag.  Once docked in the ports of Negros and Iloilo, the ships would be stationed for some time until it was fully loaded with sugar for export.  Precious days were lost in this exercise.

To arrest the situation, sugar crops and produce were paid for in advance the year before so as not to hamper the loading of sugar on British vessels.  This is where the practice of receiving money against standing crops began in the Philippines.  From those days, the crop loan had entrenched its way into Negrense lifestyle.  This was further fortified by the sugar quota system under the Jones-Costigan Act of 1934 wherein year on year, the Philippines had a great quota to fill, not only for the British but for the almighty US of A.

Imagine receiving the bumper reward of money months before the crops were to be harvested!  Loney even convinced the American financial house of Russel & Sturgis to open a branch in the Negros-Panay region in order give crop loans to planters.

Now with cash on hand to spend long before the harvest has actually come, I guess I need not elaborate how Negrense decadence came about and how the phenomenon has become legendary.

More about Negros soon ;-)

The invitation read, "Dress up in tropical gear, bright colors, Hawaiian shirts, surf shorts, sarongs and even swimsuits for those who dare to bare".

I just found it so ironic that on the night when UniversalMcCann had its send off for VP, Cookie Bartolome, I was garbed in common work attire.  It was ironic because I usually wander the De la Costa Triangle in shorts and a sports t-shirt.

Coming in super early was a good thing.  There was nothing else to do anyway at nearby Makati Golf Club.  So I popped in at about the time ex-colleagues Carl, Ivy, Andrea, Tammy, Tin, Pam, and Danna were still sprucing up the place.
First to arrive among the invited was McCann CEO, Ricki Arches in her tropical attire.  Andrea surprises and stuns by directing to keep Mother Ricki occupied while waiting for the others to come. 

There was a good twenty minutes till UM head, Venus Navalta and hubby, ex-ASAP President, Egay came.  In a little while, everyone else started trickling in - including the fêted herself, Cookie B. with husband Eric.


Photo shows our media superstars Gie Lansang, long time area buddy, Josette Feliciano, Cookie, and the ever scintillating Junn Diva.

All in all, it was one bang of a UM reunion.

In my mind, the scene was all too familiar...parang kasal ito ni Minnie and Andre sa Boracay a :-)  Unfortunately, Minnie and Andre are halfway around the globe enjoying the Norweigian summer.

Finally, as a parting shot to this post: I  really don't write this way.  Nagpa-practice lang po ako as  I'm thinking, "Hey, one day, when I fully retire in Negros, maybe I could be the society columnist in the local paper".    Of course I do not intend to hop around in outrageous outfits like other publication scions. :-) 

See you later palanggas . ROFL

If there is one stage play which captures the essence of family life in Negros, it will have to be La Casa de Bernarda Alba by the Spanish dramatist, Federico Garcia Lorca.  As if it were not enough that Filipino society is skewed with matriarchal tendencies, this facet of Visayan life is multiplied a hundred times over in the Negros of the century's turn.

Until today, women in traditional DBFs primarily call the shots in terms of domestic, spiritual, and.... financial affairs!  If one were to grab a more recent peg of what I'm talking about, think of Angela Channing in the 1980s hit TV series, Falcon Crest (La Casa de Bernarda Alba may be too far off in the past).  Then again, some blindsided readers may not have been born during the days when Falcon Crest ran every Sunday evening on Channel 7.  Falcon Crest, for those who may not remember, centered around the feuding factions of the wealthy Channing/Gioberti family in the Californian wine industry. The series was set in the fictitious Tuscany Valley (modeled after the Napa Valley) just north of San Francisco.

Different setting Falcon Crest is.  However, in actuality, it's the same cast of characters....it's practically the same plots.... only this time, instead of Tuscany Valley, we're talking of the sugarlands of Negros.  In place of wine, it's the "white gold" known as sugar.

The strong maternal influence is drawn from the Negrense woman or Ilongga achieving dominance over her brood because of any of the following:

1) a premature launch into widowhood
2) an unexpected assumption of tasks and key roles due to the neglect of the husband (philandering included), and/or
3) a mother's impeccable foresight given the large family and all the extensions (or in modern day e-mail terms, attachments)

Yet, long before the matriarch assumed such power, there were "difficulties" which led to her rise.  This post is the first of four parts.  Each part talks about a brave Ilongga's experience and how it led to her awakening.

Let's listen to them....

MARRIED TO A MAMA'S BOY

Kathy (not her real name), 38 , used to be married to a certified Mama's boy. She already knew that his attachment to his mother would pose a problem later on. But she was madly in love with him that she chose to ignore the signs. Her husband was sweet and caring when they were still going steady. But after they got married, he showed another side of him that gave her years of unspeakable anguish. "He's used to having what he wants.His mother really spoiled him." Kathy shakes her head when she recalls their stormy marriage." I was always the one who compromised , the one who adjusted to his caprices, the one who did all the hard work."

It did not help that they were staying with his parents as they were still saving up for a house of their own (which was actually out of her prodding). Although Kathy has no complaints as far as her in-laws are concerned, she still thinks that it would have been better had they lived in their own house, even if it was in a far corner of the parents-in-laws half hectare compound. "That would have taught him to be responsible. He was dependent on his parents and on me. Since he's the youngest and only boy, he's the 'baby' of the family. He's so demanding and wants instant gratification." What made it worse for Kathy was her husband's habit of telling her that she was not as efficient as his mother. He complained that she's not a good cook and not frugal like his mom. The constant comparision almost drove her to the heights of dementia. Things got worse when his parents left for the States during the sugar crisis leaving them on their own.

Although she finally had a say on how to run their household, Kathy found out much to her dismay that she could not shake off the shadow of her mother-in-law. Blame it on the strong matriarchal tendencies of Negrenses. Not a day passed that her husband did not make her feel that she wasn't as good as his mother. Later on, the emotional and verbal abuses graduated to physical abuse. Kathy had just given birth to their first child when he started hitting her. He wanted her to stop working and be a full time mother to their kid. But Kathy refused as she had a career with a national company based in Bacolod. But the abuses became frequent and she could no longer concentrate on her work. "I was losing my head but before it could happen, I finally decided to end the relationship. I left him even if he was already down on his knees begging me to stay."

But leaving her husband wasn't an easy decision for her to make even if he was abusive. She spent countless nights mulling over her decision. For one, her in-laws were very nice to her wants; and second, her husband adored and was very close to their child. "My in-laws were telling me to be patient and wait for him to mature. But how long can I wait? Our son is so close to him and it pains me to see him crying and looking for his Dad. But having gone through years of abuse, I've had enough and I know I must leave and get my life back."

Part 2 soon....

This blog was meant to highlight the need for retirement strategy.  If ever it seems to veer away from its intended path and occasionally delves into Out-Of-Home media, it only does so in order to showcase how one can "re-engineer" or "re-invent" a new routine after corporate life.

The farthest thing this blog was meant to delve on would be the Ilonggo (or Ilongga) and all the idiosyncracies that come along with being one.

So much has been said about Ilonggos.  More so, about Negrenses.  But whether these are fact, fiction, or fantasy, we shall soon see.  Hence, from time to time, I shall make some posts about Ilonggos and Negrenses.  Hopefully this will help blast away the mystique and in the process allow the readers/onlookers a safe perspective to understand the quirks of a unique people which seem to be ridden with opposite and contrasting traits -all at the same time! (i.e. malambing daw and yet at the simultaneously, "tikalon").

In simpler terms...this series of posts will help demystify and unravel the schizophrenia.