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Parents Blamed For Children's Misbehavior?

It bothers me so much when children are exploited. and who's to blame? The parents of course.

Take the case of Miley Cyrus - that sweet girl from Disney's Hannah Montana. My gosh, she's a role model to my daughter, and to millions and millions of her fans. But what do you find her in? An almost porn pose in Vanity Fair. And she's only 15!

What do I have against her parents? Oh just that THEY SHOULD BE SUPERVISING WHAT THEIR DAUGHTER IS DOING! Children are children. They will make mistakes and yes, we should let them make mistakes. But not the ones that can cause them trauma. Like I always say, parents should be their child's ally no matter what.

I sure hope somebody does something about that issue.

So, now I'm asking my daughter to watch other shows she likes. I would prefer Hillary Duff.

Sounding the Alarm on Global Warming

I've read someone's article that said "global warming is a global concern that needs a global action". I absolutely agree. Al Gore's call for cooperation in his film "The Inconvenient Truth" has to be spread to every corner of the earth and to every person whether man or woman, child or adult, rich or poor.

The effects of global warming is already being felt everywhere. Here, in our city, the weather is changing like crazy. It's the summer and yet we have occasional rain which has not happened before. What's worse is the heat - it gets so hot on some days too. No wonder a lot of people are getting sick. It's the drastic change of weather that causes it.

Let's do something about Global warming, shall we? We have a few more years to be able to let the earth recover. Really, just a few more years.

Refinancing - Doing Business With A Heart

Can you do business while helping other people? This one does. Take for example their mortgage refinance program that they give out at a low rate. When you let someone borrow money but burden them with high loan rates, you make the people miserable.

We had an experience with financing. The home loan we got was payable in 15 years with an annual interest of about 16%. It grew to be so burdensome that my husband decided to pay off the loan right away and not to renew it. Instead of helping us out, we found it harder to raise the money to pay off our debt. Refinance.com is a business with a heart. Their interest rates are low enough to keep you almost burden free when paying your loans. Right from their website, you can check what home loan is most suitable to your need and budget.

What I like about www.refinance.com is that you practically get all of the information that you need to know when considering to refinance your home. If the information cannot be obtained right away, they have a form for you to fill out so that they may be able to get back to you with the right answer to your query. The website has loan rates applicable on a day to day basis so you can actually predict when you should borrow.

The company has been featured over several popular media such as Fox Busines, MSNBC and the New York times to name a few. Their prompt and able service coupled with low rates make them stand out among the rest.

Investing on Swim Gears

As a nurse, I normally advice people to take swimming as a form of exercise. It offers the most extensive workout with less chances of trauma to the body.

My daughter has been under training with the Flying Dolphins Team since last year. She has scoliosis and that sport will be good for her. We used to buy an expensive brand of swimsuits and gears. Lately, the members of the team have one by one changed their swim attires to the long sleeved ones. Naturally, Ikee wanted one too. I, on the other hand, have also agreed for her to buy one of those because it will protect her from the harmful UV rays. But, then again, we just bought one swimsuit for her lately.

Fortunately, we discovered a store in Makati. Just last Wednesday, we bought for her a wet suit (it is used for swim training and diving too), a pair of aqua socks (for her fins), and a long sleeve top. All these we got at the price of just one swim suit and we're so happy about it. Now, I'm thinking of buying some stuff from there and selling it at just a little higher than the price at the store. They have discounts for bulk purchases so that might be a good venture. One problem though is that there's only 1 more month left in the summer break. So, it might not be practical to do the business now. Maybe next year.

My First Ever VT Meet

I've been a member of the virtualtourist.com for a little over 2 years now. Today I met some of my VT friends when I attended my first VT meet held at the walled city, Intramuros. VT member Barbskie is in town and as a tradition, vters of Manila gathered to meet her.

It was fun. I never thought it could be. When you meet your internet friends who you've been chatting with for the longest time, it adds some premium on your friendship with them. What's more is that we rediscovered Intramuros together.

Have you met some of your virtual friends yet?

Are You Getting What You Pay For From Taxicabs?

Yesterday, I brought my daughter to the Medical City Hospital for her regular check up with her Orthopedic Surgeon. There wasn't any direct transportation from my place to there so we hailed a cab. It was 36 degrees outside and I expected the cab to be cool when we got in. But no. It was about 30 degrees inside. Of course I politely asked for him to put ther airconditioning's temperature lower and make his blower a little stronger. He refused and said that his airconditioning unit would break down should he do so. Because of that, I asked him to let us go down just shortly after.

What's happening to the taxis and other transportation here in Manila these days? I mean you're charged higher because of the premium placed on service for a comfortable ride and they refuse to deliver that to their customers. that particular cab was not the first one. There had been others who do not care whether their clients are already bathing in their own sweat. The fx and buses are the same. There are fx whose airconditioning can hardly be felt and whose seats barely have cushions anymore. Some buses pack in riders so tightly when their airconditioning isn't strong enough to make a few passengers comfortable. The bottomline is that the commuters who pay are the ones who suffer.

The Land Transportation office , the LTFRB together with the Police Force and the MMDA should be able to fix this. Perhaps an ordinance or an administrative order should be made to take care of the poor paying passengers of Metromanila. Give us what is due. We pay for a comfortable ride, and we should be able to get it.

I've just been to hong kong, macau and zhuhai and I can say that one of the reasons their tourism is booming is because of their public transportation. I wish we could have that here too.

How Did You Take it The First Time Your Daughter Went Out With Her Friends

We Filipinos are known to be so protective of our children. Oftentimes, it is misinterpreted as being control-freakish.

For the really protective type, hearing a daughter ask permission to go on a four-some will sort of create a little panic. But not for me. I've conditioned myself a long time ago that sooner or later she'll have to learn to do things on her own. That includes going to the mall with her friends. But I was worried with her dad. He was not the type who'd let her daughter explore on her own. He was jittery the first time I asked her to go to her Kumon center by herself and it is barely a kilometer away from the house. As for myself, I was worried when he let her cross the street the first time. Hehehe I guess that's how it is for only-childs.

To my surprise, neither of us gave a grim reaction to her proposal. She was going to the mall and all I asked were "when" "what time" "who's going" and then the "ok" came after it. Her dad just said "poor you. why did they ask you to buy them starbucks?" and he instructed her to withdraw money from her account and he'd just pay her after.

Really, from experience and from observing other friends, the more we parents prevent the children from doing something, the more they go against our will. We should just learn to let them discover and just guide them when they do. I believe that is the hardest part of it all, huh?

The Plight of the New Philippine Nurses

You go through 2 years of general education, work your way to reach internship, spend another 2 years and 3 summers for internship, graduate, review for the board and pass it. That's heaven to most nursing students. But that's not it. After you get registered, you sit at a corner of the house and look for work or maybe spend hours, days, months or even years with the internet trying to get a job. While all the news around you says that nurses are needed in every corner of the world, those same countries ask for so much experience that the new nurses wouldn't naturally help. What's worse is that in your own country, noone wants to take you in either? What are we supposed to do?

Lately, I've read that Canada needs Filipino nurses. Why Filipinos? Because in all those countries that are knowledgeable in the English language, Filipinos are the cheapest labor force they can find. But somewhere in their requirements page they'd need a 1125-hour experience over the last 5 years(although for some provinces this not needed yet). For the US, most states need a 2 year experience. In Singapore, at least 1 year experience. I was told that in Dubai you just have to be a board passer. That is good news for those who would like to consider going there.

The bottomline is that it seems that the Philippines is really going to be drained of the experienced nurses if the same requirements will continue to be observed. I'm sure the government can intervene. Why not just ask those countries to hire the new nurses at a lower rate perhaps? They wouldn't really mind after all the salary should be commensurate to the experience that one has.

Another option is for nurses to be asked for different trainings which they should undergo over and above their diplomas and board ratings? These trainings that the nurses take should account for something right? It is an additional learning for them which makes them go up the ladder of the nursing career path.

I mean if someone needs you, shouldn't you have a say on the negotiation table? A contract is 2 sided - the employer's and the employee's.

Teach in China

I was at one forum lately and one of the topics was whether it is good to teach in China. One person said the salary that one gets is more than enough to live on and even save. Now that we're here in Zhuhai, China, I think he is correct. We don't know how much the cost of living is but even as tourists, it is really cheap here. You can actually live on the equivalent of 2 USD of food per day. We're of course talking about coming here as a contract english teacher. The average salary is about 1,800 USD and some packages even have board and lodging incorporated. It's a matter of negotiating with the employer. What's not so good here though is that they have an almost zero knowledge of English. If you think about it, that's why they're hiring English teachers. That's good. What makes it bad is that you are hardly understood so you usually end up not getting what you want. It's not without a solution. Learn basic cantonese and you'll get around well enough to survive here.