TALES FROM THE TOP

In recent weeks the Obama Administration reversed many Bush era policies.

I expected as much.

But what came as a surprise to me is the recent decison to drop the terms “Enemy Combatants” and ” War on Terror” from the Whitehouse lexicon.

If you recall, the “War on Terror” was the battle cry of President George W Bush right after 9/11. That phrase gave him the license not just to finish off the Talebans, but also to finish off Sadam Hussein and anyone else his government found to be terrorists.

And “Enemy Combatants” was the term used to described POWs the US detained without trials in Guantanamo Bay. The phrase was used instead of POWs so detainees can be excempted from protection under the Geneva Convention.

So now I wonder, will the US still lead the world in the fight to get rid of terror? And If so, what term will be used?

And what about the thousands of nameless men and women detained at Guantanamo bay? What will they be called now? And how will the name change actually change their plight? Are they not still being held without trial?

If you want to be promoted to a higher executive position in the office — perhaps think about moving to the Philippines or working for a Filipino company.

The latest survey results from Grant Thornton International puts the Philippines number one when it comes to having the most number of women in executive positions.

Filipino women hold a whopping 47 percent of all senior management positions. That’s 23 percent more than the world average.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton only managed 18 million cracks on the US Glass ceiling while fighting for the White House.

While Filipino women have been shattering glass ceilings all along, both in Politics and in the corporate world.

The country has had two elected, or some may argue, “selected” female presidents, countless of other cabinet secretaries, senators, members of the house of representatives, governors, mayors and so on.

On the corporate front, a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer revealed data from the Department of Labor suggesting women steadily outnumbered men in executive positions over the past several years.

In 2002, the ratio was 1.86 million females to 1.4 million males.

In 2006, with the ratio  became 2.257 million women to 1.629 million men.

By 2007, this ratio had become 2.281 million female managers to 1.677 million male managers.

Women in Russia , Thailand , Poland, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Mexico also scored high.

The report, however, revealed Japan, India, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium remain at the bottom of the list.

Women may be gaining ground in the corporate ladder but men in the office are still taking home more money.

— except me

The very future of our mobile handsets and the wireless communication industry is being discussed, debated and predicted at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.

And from all accounts it seems Touch Screen handsets is the now and the future.

Samsung for one, changed it’s slogan from “A Mobile for Every Lifestyle” to “A Mobile to TOUCH Every Lifestyle.”

The iPhone can be credited for starting the Touching trend in phones, HTC, LG, Samsung, recently Nokia and Sony Ericson played catch-up.

I was slow to follow the hype, and only started  using a touch screen phone extensively in 2008.

I realized that my text messaging activity actually goes down to just a few hundred a month, on months  I use a touch screen phone, even when the handset comes with an actual keypad underneath. I can average atleast 2 thousand messages sent when using a non-touch phone.

On the flipside, my calls are higher when on a touch phone than on a conventional one.

My mobile subscription gives me unlimited free calls but limited free text messages — so on months I use touch screen, I am actually saving a lot of $$$ just by being too lazy to message.

After all the hype, and the advancements in touch screen technology, I am still not convinced.

So I hope, while handset manufacturers ponder how to make their touch phones even better, they should spare a thought for those out there with big fat fingers who can’t be bothered with touch screen phones.

The swearing-in party of Barack Obama is historic in so many ways, he is not only the first African-American president, his inauguration was also witnessed by more people than ever before.

It is also historic for being the most expensive inaugural party especially during a recession.

It’s been reported than between 150 to 160 million dollars was spent staging America’s biggest inaugural celebration in history.

Half of the amount was from private donations, while the rest was used for security arrangements.

I’nst it a bit inappropriate to hold such a grand event with an economic depression in the backdrop?

I think 150 to 160 million dollars is enough to put food on the table of those 2 million jobless in America.

That money could have been put to better use especially since POTUS today called the current recession “disastrous.”

Since he was elected President on November 4th, more than 2 Million Americans have lost their jobs. And thousands more are losing their jobs as the days go by with one company after another announcing major lay-offs or complete shutdowns.

President Obama had nothing to do with the current economic meltdown.

The problem started way before he was chosen as the Democratic Party’s standard bearer.

And he will definitely be elevated to God-like status if he manages to get America and the world out of this economic depression.

He could have fast-tracked his God-like status if only he put the 150 Million inaugural fund into something better, like donating it to the unemployment benefits fund or something like that.

He could have turned stones into bread, and water into wine.

But America and the media still loves him — but for how long?

In Manila, it rained on Christmas Eve and New Year’s eve. I’ve never ever seen a wet holiday season in the Philippines for as long as I’ve lived. Record low temperatures were also recorded in many parts of the Philippines in the early part of January.

At that same time, Vancouver and most of the pacific South West of Canada and Pacific North West of the US experienced heavy snow fall and an arctic chill for the first time since the 1960’s. When I was living in Vancouver for over a decade, the sight of snow falling was rare. This winter season, it became the norm.

Las Vegas saw snow for the first time in a long time during the holidays too.

And this week, much of  Central and Eastern Canada and the US felt the extreme chill of Mother Nature with the region blanketed by an arctic cold front that flipped temperatures in some parts to as low as -50 degreees celsius. While the Yukon, in Canada’s NorthWest is experiencing warmer than usual 2.5 degree temperatures in the middle of winter, when it is usually in a deep freeze until spring.

If you havent noticed, In the last decade, the weather has been going topsy-turvey. Weather patterns are changing and are no longer what we expected them to be. Global Warming? Perhaps. The dawn of a new ice age? maybe.

Is there anything we can do to prevent this from happening? Will anything we do now still reverse the effects of one century of industrialization?

Will industrialized country finally put the Earth in front of economic gain and monetary growth?

Or should we just get used to the ever changing new weather and climate patterns and not leave home without our umbrellas, coats and sunscreen?

I used to tell dad that I don’t believe in saving for a rainy day — the rainy day might not come — then what do you do with all those savings?

So all my life, I didn’t save. I wouldn’t save. That word “save” was just not in my vocabulary.

Financial planners who try to convince me to invest in this and that would leave frustrated because I would stubbornly say ‘no.’

My personal monetary policy is simple – if I have it I spend, when I don’t then I wont.

Then the on-going global financial meltdown and a recent Mastercard survey got me thinking…

The survey reveals atleast 87% of respondents from all income brackets would save during these hard times. For precautionary or other reasons.

As far as I can see, I have no reason to save. My job seems stable. And I don’t have any other financial obligations.

But the survey got me worried, if high-income earners are saving for the rainy day, shouldn’t I be saving too?

The final stop on this whirlwind tour of small town New Zealand was the Maori enclave of Rotorua.

Here you get totally immersed in Maori culture, from sacred wood carving, weaving, extracting fiber from plants to learning about the edible plants and herbs in the town’s lush bush.

And this must also be the only town where locals perform the hongi to people they meet.

I dropped by a Maori village in the evening to partake in the Te Puai night cultural extravaganza and traditional hangi dinner.

And guess who was chosen tribal chief?

That’s also where I learn the traditional Maori Haka but I think I failed to intimidate anyone

We retreated to a very remote hunting lodge in the evening.

Treetops is inconveniently nestled among the Rotorua bush, but the drive up was well worth it.

The lodge was as luxurious as any 5 star accommodation in any city. Except this one is self sustaining, everything consumed here is grown in the farm or picked from the bush.

The lodge’s chef took me for a bush walk to pick herbs for dinner, and again I joined him in the kitchen to prepare our dinner.

But I couldn’t wait to retreat to our lodge at the end of the night, just because the rainy weather was perfect to light a fire and keep warm indoors.

Of course I had to take pictures of the stylish and thoughtful rooms too, apart from the usual toiletries found in many hotels, Treetops stocks its guestrooms with sunscreen, lip balm, eye cream and a bedside “sleep sniff” to help put guests to sleep.

It was truly very difficult to wake up the next morning for an early flight out of Rotorua to catch our Singapore flight from Auckland.

Who would have thought traveling through small towns in New Zealand would bring me face to face with a woman I grew up seeing on Philippine TV.

She calls herself the “Crazy American” and she operates a vacation house so ostentatious you might think you just walked into a Hollywood movie set circa 1940’s.

Karen used to live in Manila when her then husband was a diplomat. She did a tv ad for a popular milk brand back in the early 80’s and I can still recall it all. What a small world indeed.

She hosted an evening soiree at her home where me and my entourage stayed for the night, in glamorously extravagant bedrooms with names like Zsa Zsa, Marilyn, Isabelle and Esmeralda.

The highlight of the night was learning how to cook, with New Zealand’s Chef of the Year 2007.

The stay at Park Hill Estates showed me how it would be to live the glamorous Hollywood life of yesteryears.

The town of Napier is also well known for it’s Art Deco architecture. So the next day we hopped into a vintage 1930’s car for a drive by through the town’s busy streets and boulevards to have a glimpse of its well preserved art deco buildings.

It is probably the only town on earth where people not just drive their vintage cars but also dress-up in costumes of the era.

The other day we drove through the artists’ town of Nelson, along the coast.

Charming town with its fair share of shopping venues and chic boutiques downtown.

But what we went for was the artists and the studios that dot every corner of the town.

Being in Nelson gave me the chance to blow some glass and make something out of all that shattered left-over. But I must admit, I only did the easy part and the expert in the studio did the rest of it.

I also met a famous artist Ana Leary who just so happened to be putting on an exhibit of her work right by the beach. Imagine that — an art installation curving along side the coastline at low tide.

I also met the guys who crafted the Lord of the Rings ring.

They say you see a lot more stars up in the heavens when you look up to New Zealand’s night sky.

And that’s exactly where I am now, under a canopy of hundreds, perhaps thousands of stars.

My day started with an early morning Aqua taxi ride to the Abel Tasman National Park, the starting point of my day in the wilderness.

I am not a big fan of the wild, or of nature, but when I get to do it around a beach – I’m all for it.

I met my kayaking guide at the station and we both set out to hunt for seals. It was a two hour journey through the calm waters of the Tasman Sea to Tonga Island where seals usually sun themselves in a cold spring morning like today. But since we got there at the wrong time, there were only a handful of seals swimming about.

We paddled back to shore for a picnic lunch and then it was off to what is to be a highlight of this wilderness adventure I allowed myself to be part of.

The Awaroa Lodge at Abel Tasman National park. It is only accessible by boat or kayaks making the journey something really unforgettable. My arms were just in pain by the time I got to shore.

The lodge is more modern and chic than what I had expected. My room was a split level unit with the bedroom on the upper level and the living area and bathroom on the lower. The balcony faces the wilderness that is Abel Tasman National Park.

The Awaroa Londge is self sustaining and very environmentally friendly, so much so that I got lost just listening to it’s development director spell out the effort the company puts in to make sure Awaroa Lodge is number one not just in meeting it’s customer’s needs but also of the environment around it. In fact there are reminders everywhere to conserve water and energy because the supply is limited.

There are no TVs in the room and the best internet connection I can get is intermittent. Forget about your mobile phone, there is zero reception up here.

In a way the lodge really forces its guests to re-connect with nature…with nothing else to watch in the room, I found myself staring at the skies trying to count the stars and see if they match the number of sheep I counted on my way to the lodge.