Widow of murdered activist killed in front of children - GMANews.TV Special Reports

GMANews.TV - Widow of murdered activist killed in front of children - Special Report - Latest Philippine News

The kids, 10 & 8 yo, saw their mother murdered. Two years ago, they saw their father murdered, too. No need to indoctrinate these kids when they grow up. The seeds of war are in them.

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Can this survivor survive this?

Reports say that Ethan Zohn, Survivor 2002 winner, has cancer. He began treatments last week. If he survives this, he will be a survivor twice over. Tough guy.

A Cutie Priest = Babe magnet

A Miami priest is in the news after a tabloid featured photos of him cavorting on the beach with a woman, fondling her and engaging in other sexually compromising positions. Rev. Alberto Cutié has since been relieved as administrator of his parish. But the scandal is not as shocking to the world as would have been if he was caught with a minor, male or female. Catholics, especially Filipinos, have been desensitized with that. If at all, the church's hypocrisy over the matter of celibacy was exposed again.

Filipinos have heard of similar scandals since Rizal's Noli. We know priests who have left priesthood to marry. Besides, with a name like Cutie, and being a priest - he's a sure-fire babe magnet. He will be forgiven.

Five mistakes managers make most often

My guest blog, from TechRepublic:

Author: Toni Bowers
Some management mistakes are so common that you can actually compile them into a list. If you’re a manager struggling to find out why your team is dysfunctional, take a look at the behaviors in this list and see if any look familiar.

1. Not communicating with the team. I know, I know, you’ve seen the advice for communicating so often you want to smack someone. I want to smack myself for saying it so often. But you know what? Unless you’re on the front line heading into a military battle, you have to take time to communicate with your team members. You don’t have to pass on every shred of information you’ve gotten from upper management on a new initiative, but you have to give them enough information to know why they’re being asked to do what they’re being asked to do. The more information your team members have, the more ownership they’ll feel in the process, and the better they’ll perform.
2. Continually focusing on the negative. Thinking in negative terms is a common result from working in a reactive environment, which IT tends to be. In that environment, IT spends most of its time keeping the negative to a minimum with goals such as decreasing network downtime or putting out fires. A good leader has to make an effort to recognize the positive. (How about mentioning increased uptime?) Recognize your people for the forward progress they make and not just for their efforts to keep things from getting worse.
3. Changing policy due to one person. The term “team” makes some managers think they have to treat everyone the same way. This is true in many cases, but if one person has a performance issue, don’t take across-the-board measures to correct it just because you’re afraid of confronting that one team member. If one team member is failing to complete some duties in a timely manner, don’t introduce a policy forcing the whole team to submit weekly progress reports. Deal only with the one with the issues.
4. Not understanding the needs and concerns of your team. Some IT leaders find it virtually impossible to tell their bosses that something can’t be done. The team’s bandwidth or overall state of mind takes a backseat to real or imagined glory of being the guy who “gets things done.” Good managers don’t over-promise on their team’s behalf.
5. Never admitting you’re wrong or never taking responsibility. There’s risk involved in being a manager of a team. And that risk is, if your team fails at something, you should and will be the one held accountable. It doesn’t matter if one team member screwed something up; your job was to manage the overall process of all the team members, and you didn’t do it. So suck it up and own up to that. On a related note, if one of your actions caused a kink in a project, admit it. It’s ironic but not owning up to a problem damages your credibility with your team more than simply saying, “I was wrong.”

Ocean Park experience, doctor fishes nibble off my dead skin

We visited the Manila Ocean Park, a world-class oceanarium that compares with the Underwater World in Singapore and the Sea World in Jakarta. Press releases say that the MOP is bigger than the Singapore's, but I doubt it. But it also has a touching tank where visitors can touch star fishes, baby sharks, and giant clams. It is a good educational trip for kids (and adults) who seldom have the chance to see nature up close.

The MOP is on a building on stilts while the Sentosa and Ancol oceanariums are built on reclaimed lands. The underwater tunnel is much shorter than the tunnels in the Singapore and Jakarta, as I remember them. The Singapore underwater is much better because it had a moving platform so the guests don't walk through the tunner, they glide. The MOP tunnel appears to be wider, though.

The ticket costs Php400 for adults and Php350 for kids below 3.5 ft tall. It is still too stiff for Juan de la Cruz, but it's cheaper than the ticket to Singapore's Underwater World for which you have to cough up S$120 (around Php3840). That also includes the Dolphin show. The Jakarta oceanarium ticket sells for around Php150.

An upcoming attraction to the MOP is the scuba diving and snorkling facilities, patterned after Singapore. Expect the tickets for this to be astronomical. But at least you won't have to outside of Manila to enjoy the corals.

They have an ongoing promo where for Php500, you get  to enjoy the aquarium for an unlimited time and afterward you get a 10 minute treatment at their fish spa and a ride at their glass bottom boat. It is a good bargain because if you just paid Php400 for the ticket and decided that you want the spa treatment that is another Php120. The boat tide is another Php150.

The fish spa is a wading pool with nibble fishes or doctor fishes. The fishes feed on dead skin cells. Since they consume such cells (when they have nothing else to eat), they leave the healthy skin to grow. You will be startled the first time they nibble off the dead skin off your feet. It takes a while to get used to the tingling and ticklish sensation. The funny thing is that the moment I dipped my feet on the pool, the fishes went on a feeding frenzy. They left the feet they were munching on and attacked my unpedicured feet. It was embarrassing because it was very noticeable that most fishes were on my feet, while the others had just 2 to 5. My skin cells are dead? They feasted so much food, I thought I watched them grow before my eyes.

Joy's reaction to the whole thing is very funny. She had a tortured laugh throughout. But she endured it because of the purported benefits.