Sparmates Look to Cash In on Pacquiao’s Head

By ERICKSON BECO
October 8, 2010, 5:23pm

MANILA, Philippines —With four-time Trainer of the Year awardee Freddie Roach stepping up the tempo of Manny Pacquiao’s training session by the day, things are expected to get more heated and intense with yet another twist.

The 50-year old trainer has revived his challenge to the pound-for-pound king’s sparmates, offering a hefty cash bonus — $1,000 (P44,000.00) — to whoever could floor the gentleman from Sarangani during their sparring sessions.

And look who’s answered to Roach’s dare.

Undefeated middleweights Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. (40 wins, 0 loss, 1 draw, 30 knockouts) and Vanes Martirosyan (28-0, 17 KOs) has heeded to Roach’s call and vowed to give everything they’ve got against the much smaller Pacquiao, who is eyeing yet another spot at the books by snatching an eighth world title in as many weight divisions against Antonio Margarito of Mexico next month.

"I am up for Freddie's challenge. I will be the first to drop Manny," said the 6-footer Martirosyan, who is set to head up north to Baguio City within the week to join fellow boxers Amir Khan, Michael Medina, and Glen Tapia as Pacquiao’s sparmates.

“I respect Manny a lot and I have learned a lot from him. He is a great fighter but I feel I am up to the challenge. That is why I always say I want to fight the best. I want to prove how good I am. It doesn't get much better than sparring with Manny Pacquiao,” Martirosyan was quoted in a report by Fight Hype.

Martirosyan and Chavez, Jr. are expected to arrive in the country within the week and put on their best games on top of the ring once they get face-to-face with the 30-year-old future Hall of Famer.

Both fighters will also be looking forward to getting top class training courtesy of Roach as they prepare for their own bouts before the year ends.

Martirosyan will be up against Pawel Wolak of New Jersey, USA in the undercard of Chavez, Jr.’s bout against Alfonso Gomez of Mexico on December 4 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

The fight will also feature another Filipino hotshot in Nonito Donaire, Jr., who will be pitted against Wladimir Sidorenko of Ukraine.

Sources:
Fanhouse
Boxing Scene
Fight Hype
Bettor.com

Philippine Government welcomes MILF statement it will no longer seek for an independent state

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The Philippine government welcomed on Thursday the 

statement made by the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that it will no longer 

seek for an independent Islamic state.

Government chief negotiator Marvic Leonen, in a text message to reporters, said that the administration will listen to the proposal of the Moro rebels.

"We welcome the announcement of the MILF that they are no longer demanding an independent state. This will definitely pave the way to finding an understanding for politically feasible arrangement that maintains the territorial integrity and the fundamental premise of people's sovereignty in one republic," he said.

"We will listen to their proposals and are willing to work with them to find a just, comprehensive and lasting peace," he added.

MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal earlier said that the MILF, which has been waging war for almost three decades already, will not push anymore for an independent state.

Instead he said the group will seek for the establishment of a sub-state in the southern region of Mindanao as part of the final peace agreement or comprehensive compact.

He explained that under the sub-state, the Moro people will have control on all aspects, except on four aspects: national defense, foreign affairs, currency and coinage, as well as postal services.

The MILF, the largest anti-government group in the Philippines, has been fighting government troops for decades to establish a self-rule Muslim state in the south of the predominantly Catholic country. Peace talks between the government and the MILF remain stalled since August 2008 following the aborted signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain.

Published in Manila Bulletin Setp. 23, 2010.

Conquer Your Fears And Start Wishing

Imagine that you just arrived in a foreign country.

And you got lost.

And worse, when you checked your wallet, you ran out of money.

And you’re starving. 

You haven’t had food the whole day.

So you walk into to a giant food area. 

Around you are various food stalls selling hot congee, steaming noodles, and giant sandwiches.

Your mouth waters.

So you decide to ask for free food.

You rehearse your speech: “I’m from the Philippines. I just arrived yesterday. I’m lost. Can you spare me some food? I don’t have money with me.”

But then something stops you.

It’s an emotion you know very well.

You think to yourself, “What if they don’t believe me? What if they think I’m just fooling them? What if they think I’m just a con artist looking for a free meal?”

So you throw away the plan. 

You try to find your way home instead, leaving the food stalls, overflowing with food.

Three Fears That Can Stop You From Success

       Fear is a powerful thing.

       The reason why you don’t ask is because various fears:

1. You fear rejection.

       Rejection stings.

       Someone says, “I can’t help you.”

       But instead, you hear the words, “I don’t like you.”

       2. You fear disappointment.

       Disappointment can crush you.

       So you lower your expectations by not asking.

       3. You fear you’re not worthy.

       A poor self-image will keep you from asking.

       You think you don’t deserve to be helped by others.

       But here’s a basic Law of life: If you want to get what you want, you have to conquer your fears.

What Happens When You Ask

       Let’s go back to the example above.

       You decide to feel your fear—and ask anyway!

       You approach ten food stalls one after another.

       Nine food stalls owners drive you away and curse you in three different languages you don’t understand.

       But the last one, a kindly old man named Mr. Chan said “yes”. He gives you food with a gentle grandfatherly smile.

       You slurp it up like a dog.

       Mr. Chan was moved with pity, he even gives you bus money and directions how to go back to where you are staying.

       The next day, you come back to pay him.

       He declines, saying he really likes helping people. 

He then introduces you to the other Store Owners who are now apologizing to you. You brush your hand and say it was nothing.

       You gain a few friends in the giant food center.

       You tell them that you cook delicious adobo and wondered if they could sell it for you. Three storeowners agreed.

       You make your first delivery and it was a big hit.

       After one year, you also marry Mr. Chan’s handsome son named Jackie, but that’s another story altogether.

It pays to ask.

Being rejected nine times out of ten is okay, hmm?

Join Me At The Feast

       If you want to learn the power of wishing and how to fulfill your hearts desires, join me.

We’re starting a new 4-part series called Wish! at our weekly gathering, The Feast.

       Join me and change your life forever.

       I’m personally inviting you to get into this new series and redirect your destiny.

       Where is The Feast?

       I lead the one in PICC, Plenary Hall, every Sunday.

       We’ve got two sessions to choose from: 8am and 10:45am.

       By the way, you don’t pay anything to get in. 

Nada. Nothing. Zero. Zilcho.

Except your presence, your time, and your openness to the exciting things that God will do in your life.

Other Feasts In Metro Manila

and Beyond

       There are other Feasts that are held in various places in Metro Manila and suburbs, led by my dearest friends and the most fantastic lay preachers in the country. They too will be giving the series, Wish!, starting this week.

       For information on times and places, email Annie at feastsecretariat@yahoo.com.  Or call up (02) 7259999.

Friend, join me at The Feast.

And get ready for a slam-bang, out-of-the-world, inspiring, life-altering series that will bless you forever.

       May your dreams come true,

       Bo Sanchez

Poverty and scarcity are no barriers to quality education

By Christopher C. Bernido, M. Victoria Carpio-Bernido Philippine Daily Inquirer (The following is excerpted from a paper delivered at the Ramon Magsaysay Award lecture series.) POVERTY and scarcity are proverbial constraints invoked to account for mediocrity in the education and training of the youth. On the other hand, as physicists, we know that in the study of natural phenomena, the presence of strong constraints and boundaries in a physical system often leads to more exciting effects and, at times, even unexpected new phenomena. Thus, when we decided to run the Central Visayan Institute Foundation (CVIF), we viewed the small highschool as a microcosm of a longstanding nationwide educational crisis. From our first day in 1999, we went for 100-percent immersion in the routines and challenges of daily school life, but with a 100-percent open mind for low-cost but effective solutions. We could not discount the possibility that, far from being barriers to quality education, poverty and scarcity might just lead us to zero in on the core of the learning process. The teacher problem Let’s look at the [teacher] problem and take physics as an example. In the Philippines, according to studies of the Department of Science and Technology, the percentage of qualified high school physics teachers dropped from 27 percent in the 1990s to a mere eight percent by 2003. In the website of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (Seameo), accessed in 2010, the number is a more dismal four percent. Sociocultural aspects of foreign language teaching in the SEAMEO countries: Philippines : a survey report This has been attributed to massive migration of science and mathematics teachers to advanced countries, which can offer five to six times the basic salaries of public school teachers in the Philippines, with benefits for accompanying families. Add to this the big difference between the quality of life and delivery of basic services in the advanced countries and in poor developing countries. Thus, in spite of the big-budget massive training programs of science teachers, the numbers have deteriorated to alarming levels! The usual remedy clearly has not worked. Any additional training of teachers makes them more marketable globally, and it has become increasingly naive to expect high levels of altruism and patriotism. The more painful realization is that Filipinos are paying off loans incurred to train teachers for other countries. Our solution: Rethink the role of the teacher in the learning process, and institute a program that would not be strongly dependent on teacher qualification, ability and personality, but at the same time should foster the professional development of the teacher. This we implemented through the parallel classes scheme and activity-based features of the CVIF Dynamic Learning Program (DLP). From the CVIF DLP experience, we also derived the strategy for the Learning Physics as One Nation (LPON) project launched in 2008 by the Fund for Assistance to Private Education with funding from the Department of Education (DepEd). The LPON project answers the question: Can high school students learn essential physics topics effectively even if their classroom teacher has little or no physics training? An assessment of the project after the pilot year of implementation indicates a positive response to this question. LPON materials have been made available to over 200 private schools in all regions of the Philippines. These include a specially designed Physics Essentials Portfolio of 239 learning activities to be independently accomplished by students during one school year, and associated 18 DVD volumes of video lectures by national educators. The materials are designed such that a command team can monitor student progress, and address questions from the field through e-mail, mobile phone text messages, Skype and fast courier services. The LPON prototype bypasses the need for qualified teachers and yet effectively prepares the students for college-level physics. With assessments of student performance showing a positive trend, plans are to produce Learning as One Nation materials for all other science and math subjects following the LPON model. The textbook problem The DepEd has been working hard to reach the 1:1 textbook to student ratio. However, the quality of the textbooks is highly questionable. Indeed, which would be better, no textbook or a bad textbook? Our solution: For public schools, pick a select team of experts that could conceptualize and design concise Learning Activities to be accomplished by students in class. As in the CVIF DLP, only one copy per class is needed since the students will copy by hand the material from the board or from the screen. For schools with enough textbooks, teacher-made learning activities can be based on the textbooks and other reference materials, depending on the topic. The science lab problem This problem leads us to questions at a more fundamental level. Being theoretical physicists, we believe that, at the high school level, there is no need for expensive lab equipment to be able to learn scientific processes and methods of analysis. For example, the simple pendulum can be used to demonstrate the scientific method of experimentation, analysis and inference-making. Moreover, the pendulum is a good model to highlight basic principles such as conservation of mechanical energy and simple harmonic motion. Our solution: Strategically select cheap and simple experimental set-ups that demonstrate fundamental principles of science. Interestingly, the National Research Council of the United States released the comprehensive “America’s Lab Report” in 2006 which questioned, among others, the benefits derived from the usual science lab education that has been implemented since the turn of the 20th century. Tests of effectiveness Have our solutions worked? For our school, we have seen marked increase in proficiency levels of our students, especially in science, math and reading comprehension. This is seen from their performance in college admissions tests and the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE). The number of students who annually pass the University of the Philippines College Admission Test has increased to about 10 percent of the graduating class on average. This is high compared to schools similarly situated, and relatively comparable even to schools in the cities. In the 2009 NCAE, 27 of the 115 CVIF senior students obtained an overall General Scholastic Aptitude (GSA) score in the range of 90-99 percentile rank. This means that 23 percent of the CVIF DLP students belong to the top 10 percent in the country. Of these, two students got a percentile rank of 99 and three 98. This is a far cry from the single student who scored in the 90-up percentile range in the national exam in 2001. For the different categories in the NCAE, there were 26 CVIF DLP students (out of 115) who got a percentile rank of 90-99 in science, 21 students in math, and 26 in reading comprehension. These numbers are remarkable considering the economically disadvantaged background of most of the CVIF students. Moreover, the students are given lectures/discussions only 1/4 or even 1/5 of the allotted classroom time, and were not given homework in their four years of high school. Based on available data, we note that in the NCAE 2007, the CVIF mean percentage score (mps) for general scholastic aptitude was 8.7 points above the GSA mps of schools in the area for the same year. In the NCAE 2009, the GSA mps of CVIF was 23 points above the national mean, which has remained relatively stationary (with fluctuations? 5) for years. Continuing to raise the bar, we have started to benchmark with international SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) score ranges. We have stepped into the lower bounds of SAT scores in math for admission in good American universities such as the University of California system. However, improvement is still needed in other areas. A wealth of insights After over 10 years of immersion in basic education, while continuing our work in physics research and mentoring, we can definitely say that the lack of human and material resources that we suffered from proved to be the key to discovering fundamental principles in the learning processes that young people undergo. Indeed, poverty and scarcity have bestowed a wealth of insights that we continue to benefit from, even as we study with excitement the many new results coming in from research in the neurosciences. With deeper understanding of how the brain really works, we are expecting a profound transformation of educational systems and institutions within the early part of the present century.

Heels, Flip flops

By Michael Tan Philippine Daily Inquirer WOULD you believe there’s actually an Encyclopedia of Feet and Footwear? The editor explains why the topic was considered important enough to merit an entire encyclopedia (even if only one volume): “How we view and treat the kinds of footwear that we wear, and how we view our footwear, tell us a great deal about society and culture.” There is an entry devoted to Imelda Marcos, but the other entries of the encyclopedia convinced me that maybe it’s time we move away from this fixation on Imelda’s shoes and face up to the fact that all throughout the world, people have varying degrees of fixations on footwear, a generic term which includes everything from slippers to sandals to shoes. (I won’t be dealing with feet here, which the encyclopedia shows to be an amazing object of culture as well, with many possible topics from foot-binding to sexual fetishes.) At first glance, footwear is there to protect our feet from dirt and mud, and from the heat. Yet when we buy footwear, even slippers, we go beyond the functional and want our footwear to be nice-looking, eye-catching, or both. Our aesthetics around shoes can become quite complicated as we consider the many social meanings for footwear generated in each culture. The most obvious is how footwear represents wealth. In many places in the world, some people are so poor they can’t even afford slippers. Even in the Philippines, the very poor might have slippers and shoes, but they use them very sparingly. The meanings can shift. The lowly tsinelas and bakya in the Philippines took elevated status when embellished with beads or sequins, so they could be worn by the rich. Who would have predicted that rubber slippers, once considered pedestrian and proletarian, would now command prices of a few hundred or even over a thousand pesos because of brand names or styles? Nope, they’re no longer considered tsinelas (slippers) but flip-flops, Havaianas or one of the many upscale brands of casual footwear. While footwear are status symbols, they also represent our contact with the ground, which is considered “profane” or “dirty” in some cultures. Many places of worships—temples and mosques in particular—require worshippers and visitors to remove their footwear before entering sacred ground. Many cultures, including our own, also require that visitors remove their footwear before entering a home as a sign of respect to the host. As culture goes though, there are many variations on the rules. If the visitor is considered very important or of high status, the owner of the home is required to “exempt” the visitor, “No, no, please keep your shoes on.” The cultural meanings attached to footwear may sometimes be lost across time. Take the men’s shoes with very long pointed toes which are currently in vogue. I never found them particularly appealing and wondered why they’ve become so popular... until I read in the foot-and-footwear encyclopedia about the poulaine, a male shoe that was quite popular in medieval Europe, but which was condemned by the Catholic church as obscene. Yes, the elongated toes were supposed to have been phallic. The poulaine’s toes could extend up to 24 inches, stuffed with wool and horse hair to keep it, well, erect. Men supposedly stood by street corners and would wave their poulaine-clad feet at women (and maybe fellow men?) passing by. Footwear reflects and replicates gender. Notice how men get to be the aggressor with their poulaine. Women, on the other hand, learned to wear all kinds of footwear not just for their own satisfaction but for men’s as well. Sandals and other open-toed shoes provided women occasions to display their feet to men, sometimes seductively as when the feet were brightly pedicured or dressed up with elaborate henna tattoos. Heels, terribly difficult to walk in, were meant to highlight women’s hips and legs especially when they were walking, because as women tried to keep their balance, they would end up swaying, precariously and erotically. The TV series “Sex and the City” had a strong “shoe theme” running through its episodes, its main characters (particularly Carrie Bradshaw) talking all the time about, and shopping for, shoes. The interpretation that appears in the foot encyclopedia was that it represented the shallowness, materialism and immaturity of the women characters (and of women in general?). Alternatively, the power to buy expensive shoes also comes through, so maybe accumulation of shoes runs parallel to the accumulation of power. The encyclopedia quotes Imelda Marcos as saying that many of her shoes were actually gifts, and it occurred to me that was probably true too—the more powerful a person becomes, the more gifts they receive. And in the case of Imelda, the gifts would probably be shoes, which then represented not just her power, but the attempts by many sycophants to bask in, or solicit, her power. Quick now and check the footwear in your home... and do an analysis of who wields power, and over whom. •

Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer September 4, 2010.

Where Cheapskate Put Their Money

By JANE NEPOMUCENO

September 6, 2010

When you’re out doing your monthly grocery shopping, do you always think about what you may gain or lose when buying a certain product? Do you often veer away from grocery alleys with novelty items that you believe you don’t need at home?

At home, do you find it a waste to throw away toothpaste bottles without squeezing out all of its contents? And do you not throw away Q-tips without using both ends?

If you answered yes to all the questions above, you’re probably a self-confessed cheapskate or have been called one a few times.

You are a cheapskate if you rarely spend even if you have the resources to do so. You have the money but you simply refuse to spend them.

These people usually spend most of their money on promo items and products with free items and most times, would only spend money on things that they believe will save them some more.

It’s no wonder that marketers have buyers on items like toothpaste squeezies and soap savers.

As reported by the Associated Press, the most effective way to get penny pinchers to spend is to pitch products that promise to save them money.

So it wouldn’t come as a surprise that demand for kitchen and bath gadgets that squeeze out that last blob of toothpaste and help get the suds out of tiny slivers of soap is rising.

Consumers buy these items believing that they can save more money by reducing waste on the products that they use on a regular basis.

Big companies like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and The Container Store and a longtime "As Seen on TV" pitchman are stocking up on items claiming to help people save a buck.

These items include caps that keep the fizz in opened soda cans; digital day counters that count the days and hours food has been in the refrigerator and new, stylish versions of pants extenders that let people wear their clothes even when they gain or lose weight.

However, there is an open question whether the truly frugal are too cheap to buy the gadgets that can cost up to $20. Who needs a soap saver when an old washcloth or a pair of pantyhose will do?

According to Lynnae McCoy, who runs the blog beingfrugal.net, "Surely, people who lived through the Great Depression found ways to use up all their soap without needing a soap saver."

"Are these products convenient? Some of them, yes. But are they necessary? No. And in some cases, they're probably a complete waste of money." (With a report from AP)

Heels, Flip Flops and Poulaines

By Michael Tan Philippine Daily Inquirer WOULD you believe there’s actually an Encyclopedia of Feet and Footwear? The editor explains why the topic was considered important enough to merit an entire encyclopedia (even if only one volume): “How we view and treat the kinds of footwear that we wear, and how we view our footwear, tell us a great deal about society and culture.” There is an entry devoted to Imelda Marcos, but the other entries of the encyclopedia convinced me that maybe it’s time we move away from this fixation on Imelda’s shoes and face up to the fact that all throughout the world, people have varying degrees of fixations on footwear, a generic term which includes everything from slippers to sandals to shoes. (I won’t be dealing with feet here, which the encyclopedia shows to be an amazing object of culture as well, with many possible topics from foot-binding to sexual fetishes.) At first glance, footwear is there to protect our feet from dirt and mud, and from the heat. Yet when we buy footwear, even slippers, we go beyond the functional and want our footwear to be nice-looking, eye-catching, or both. Our aesthetics around shoes can become quite complicated as we consider the many social meanings for footwear generated in each culture. The most obvious is how footwear represents wealth. In many places in the world, some people are so poor they can’t even afford slippers. Even in the Philippines, the very poor might have slippers and shoes, but they use them very sparingly. The meanings can shift. The lowly tsinelas and bakya in the Philippines took elevated status when embellished with beads or sequins, so they could be worn by the rich. Who would have predicted that rubber slippers, once considered pedestrian and proletarian, would now command prices of a few hundred or even over a thousand pesos because of brand names or styles? Nope, they’re no longer considered tsinelas (slippers) but flip-flops, Havaianas or one of the many upscale brands of casual footwear. While footwear are status symbols, they also represent our contact with the ground, which is considered “profane” or “dirty” in some cultures. Many places of worships—temples and mosques in particular—require worshippers and visitors to remove their footwear before entering sacred ground. Many cultures, including our own, also require that visitors remove their footwear before entering a home as a sign of respect to the host. As culture goes though, there are many variations on the rules. If the visitor is considered very important or of high status, the owner of the home is required to “exempt” the visitor, “No, no, please keep your shoes on.” The cultural meanings attached to footwear may sometimes be lost across time. Take the men’s shoes with very long pointed toes which are currently in vogue. I never found them particularly appealing and wondered why they’ve become so popular... until I read in the foot-and-footwear encyclopedia about the poulaine, a male shoe that was quite popular in medieval Europe, but which was condemned by the Catholic church as obscene. Yes, the elongated toes were supposed to have been phallic. The poulaine’s toes could extend up to 24 inches, stuffed with wool and horse hair to keep it, well, erect. Men supposedly stood by street corners and would wave their poulaine-clad feet at women (and maybe fellow men?) passing by. Footwear reflects and replicates gender. Notice how men get to be the aggressor with their poulaine. Women, on the other hand, learned to wear all kinds of footwear not just for their own satisfaction but for men’s as well. Sandals and other open-toed shoes provided women occasions to display their feet to men, sometimes seductively as when the feet were brightly pedicured or dressed up with elaborate henna tattoos. Heels, terribly difficult to walk in, were meant to highlight women’s hips and legs especially when they were walking, because as women tried to keep their balance, they would end up swaying, precariously and erotically. The TV series “Sex and the City” had a strong “shoe theme” running through its episodes, its main characters (particularly Carrie Bradshaw) talking all the time about, and shopping for, shoes. The interpretation that appears in the foot encyclopedia was that it represented the shallowness, materialism and immaturity of the women characters (and of women in general?). Alternatively, the power to buy expensive shoes also comes through, so maybe accumulation of shoes runs parallel to the accumulation of power. The encyclopedia quotes Imelda Marcos as saying that many of her shoes were actually gifts, and it occurred to me that was probably true too—the more powerful a person becomes, the more gifts they receive. And in the case of Imelda, the gifts would probably be shoes, which then represented not just her power, but the attempts by many sycophants to bask in, or solicit, her power. Quick now and check the footwear in your home... and do an analysis of who wields power, and over whom. •

Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer September 4, 2010.