travel, love, romance, geekiness, and all random shit of a former UP teacher

Walking among the millionaires in Singapore (SG post 2)

Posted by on Aug 10, 2012 in FEATURED, Lakwatcha!, travels | 6 comments

Singapore’s leading publisher, SPH, reported that the country has the “highest density of millionaires” around the world because of the state’s small size and the number of millionaires living here: 99,000! A typical millionaire, the report says, has an average of 3 signature watches (SGD15,000 each or half a million pesos), and travels out of the country every month (for international cuisine and leisure), among others.

When I shared this statistical fact of inequality, I mean, demographics, to Mike, we started being curious about people we see–is that one of the 99,000? Ah that luxury car driver is one of them son of a… millionaire, actually aside from the Queen Bees (old women millionaires) and Old Gold (men), there are also the young corporate bankers and traders who are part of this 2% (hmmm that rings an Occupy bell).

I’m using here our photos in Clarke Quay (accessible thru the MRT purple line) because it’s one of the beautiful and sleek places in Singapore. One memorable experience I hold here is when I had a lunch meeting with my Singaporean boss and his Aussi friend who’s a magazine publisher and who’s been living in Singapore for six years.

It was cool watching them talk about their international trips (which eventually, and sadly for me, turned to sports talk). Lots of them businessmen and women in suit (many of which are Caucasians) could be spotted in Clarke Quay because of nearby offices. These guys may not necessarily be the millionaires I’m talking about, but they’re part of the workforce and industries that form the capillaries and veins of  Singapore’s well-pumped economic system.

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Guilty, cheap pleasure (Singapore post 1)

Posted by on Aug 9, 2012 in beauty and fashion, travels | 2 comments

It’s sweet that my brother Maeng asks how I’m doing in Singapore (I haven’t posted any photos/status of my whereabouts for weeks now, so to prove I’m not yet dead or rotting in a cabinet, I’ll start a series of Singapore posts).

Last Sunday

Aside from Kinokuniya Bookstore, another place I frequent in Takashimaya (at Orchard) is… Sephora!

 Sephora is a French brand and chain of cosmetics stores founded in Paris in 1970, and acquired by Frenchconglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton and Moet Hennessy) in 1997. The Sephora chain includes more than 750 stores in 17 countries. Carrying over 250 brands, along with their own private label, Sephora offers beauty products including makeup, skincare, fragrance, haircare, bath and body products, and hair and make-up tools. (wiki)

Mike, like other men, has no patience in waiting for their ladies while shopping or “malling,” but like other men, he can be bribed with tweetums, hugs, kisses, and smiles. (If this doesn’t work, a straight face eye-to-eye contact will do.)

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Wet and dry flip-flop

Posted by on Aug 7, 2012 in horrible news | 1 comment

Typing this as I saw sad news and photos of what’s going on in inundated Philippines–Be safe, friends and family

Weather news is a must-watch for those who stay tuned to economic matters.

Commodity markets, for one, depend on good weather for production and transportation. In India, now is the time when farmers expect a good monsoon season for their crops, but there’s no adequate rain showering them so there’s fear of not meeting the expected supplies of rice, wheat, and other crops.

In the Philippines, the expectations are a bit different, because farmers do not want any torrential rains, but since the climate has been giving us what exactly what we don’t want, the typhoon season is on. Nonstop rain has been flooding the streets (and social networks), and the world is watching the country’s level of alertness for this annual typhoon visit. And of course, millions of Filipinos scattered around the world are concerned about their loved ones when super typhoons test the durability of houses and the people’s spirit.

Manila, today–from Skyscrapercity.com

In global news, the biggest news on weather is the drought in the U.S., particularly in California, where vast dry acres of lands have seen farm jobs dwindle and plants wither. Analysts warn the market that this could lead to inflation in global food prices as food demand is short of supply due to extreme climate conditions that the world is suffering.

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Airport reading

Posted by on Aug 6, 2012 in books | 0 comments

 Waiting in airports–for boarding especially–could be a tad boring.

Some prefer to nap, usually when it’s an early morning flight; some chat with friends or make last calls before boarding; some connect to the airport WiFi and browse their gadgets; some shop around airport stores or buy some snacks or grab a cup of coffee; some prefer to read. I do all.

Next weekend, I will be leaving Singapore for the Philippines, and I’m already starting to think about which book to carry with me.

The last time I carried a book in bag, the security personnel scanning the bags asked me to take it out. Puzzled me slowly handed it to her while thinking, hmmm, ok, are they perhaps taking seriously the notion that literature can be a dangerous weapon, too? The personnel scanned the leaves quickly then returned it to me; perhaps, they were looking for a different kind of leaves tucked in the leaves?

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Sweet SONA and a grain of salt: thoughts on OFWs and BPOs

Posted by on Jul 24, 2012 in write-ups on culture | 3 comments

The first thing I will confess is I fell asleep yesterday afternoon watching the live streaming of President Aquino’s SONA. The drift was inevitable when he was promising the police force and the military big toys for big boys. I dozed off in front of my laptop.

Please excuse my untoward reaction. My brain was tired, so it hit the Sleep button. It was tired processing all the global news it digested that morning. Tired of placing the Philippine president’s speech in the context of the world’s current events.

Now that the brain has refreshed, here are some good bits from the speech:

First, the NAIA terminal 1 overhaul plans. Thank heavens. That airport is an embarrassment of a structure, so any attempt to improve it, or any small part of it (a plank of wood, a chair, a lone light bulb) would be welcome. If we are serious about this whole “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” campaign, which by the way looks great on TFC, we need to fix not just the airports in Boracay and Bohol, but those roads and highways within small towns, especially those that connect markets. I understand the bulk of the work to be done, so I’ll remain optimistic about this. (Gordon reportedly not impressed with “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” simply sounds bitter. Excuse me.)
Next is the budget increase for education–you’d have to be the lord cynic not to see the good news in that report; it would’ve been better though if state universities and colleges are fully subsidized. How’s that for dreaming? (But let me elaborate on this later).
Another box of goodness is the plans to export rice and stop importing as part of the self-sufficiency project of DA Secretary Alcala. However, international rice traders remain in doubt of the country being self-sufficient because, for one, much of the reported rice in stock/in the market are smuggled from Vietnam and other countries whose rice surplus is being disposed. Smuggled cheap rice that is counted as local yield will put an imbalance in the production equation and an illusion that we are helping our farmers. Also, if we are planning to export rice, one analyst from Singapore advised that we still ought to keep open the possibilities of importing rice to build trust among countries. This, methinks, is how international trade operates—you buy some, sell some. Not sell all, buy nothing, because that’s tilting the global trade into a dangerous imbalance.

And now. Let me focus on the big news of the Philippines being reported as the Asia’s next tiger economy. As I expected, the President quoted international reports on the country’s strong economic potential. I’ve seen this Bloomberg news before. It made me proud, but then, it pays to take sugar-coated lollies with a grain of salt.

See here, the two main reasons for this reported tiger spring are the OFW remittances and the BPO industry, both of which are driving dollars into the country. Ok, let me discuss this carefully. My stand on this is that, relying on the OFWs and BPOs is a gamble as risky as betting in bonds and futures.

Let’s start with the OFWs.

My salary as an overseas Filipino worker is about four times more than what I get from my previous job in the Philippines, and that alone gives me the purchasing power to invest in a small condominium. While I was signing papers early this year, the sales team were saying that a major part of their market is the OFWs who are planning to return to the Philippines or invest on Philippine properties.

Suppose the global economic crisis hits rock bottom and no bailout could save the super powers, I was wondering how the million Filipinos working abroad (and their remittances) would be affected; I was wondering how tough the Philippines’ insulation from global markets really is.

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