April 2007

Tilapia is our staple fish and abundant in our country. It’s true because I live near the Laguna lake and there are fish ponds that have tilapia and bangus as a means of livelihood. But because of it there are many sellers that cannot command a better price. Nonetheless the company Fisher Farms located in bulacan came up with an idea to add value to the fish. They now produce many processed tilapia and bangus variants like tilapia breaded fillet, tilapia longganiza and tilapia skin chicharon.

One of a proudly Filipino product is the first mango wine in the world, Don Roberto’s Mango Wine. Fairly new in the market and available initially in selected wine stores, Don Roberto’s Mango Wine comes in two variants - sweet mango wine and green mango wine. Both variants are made from carefully selected, processed and fermented mangoes; both products of countless experimentation efforts by Roberto ‘Oby’ Castaňeda, founder of Don Roberto’s Winery. He never thought he would discover the first mango wine in the world. His brush with fate came when he did charity work for a religious order of Belgian nuns in Baguio City in 1999. He wrote, composed and directed a musical stage play for the Belgian nun that was shown as a vocation campaign in the whole of the Cordillera. It was in one of the convents that he got hold of guava, cherry and strawberry wines, which he found interesting. “So I asked the Belgian founders if they could teach me how to make fruit wines, and the Mother Superior told me that, yes, they were sharing their secret recipe with me if I promise that I would not share it with anybody else’s,” Castaňeda recalls. Thus, the secret fruit wine recipe was handed down to him.

After the play ended and he went back home in Imus, Castaňeda began seriously considering going into wine-making for business. Determined on keeping his promise to the Belgian nuns, he chose to make mango wine. After all, mangoes are plentiful in the country and the Philippines are known for its delicious mangoes. He tried using mangoes in the original fruit wine recipe that he got from the Belgian nuns, but it did not work. He made several adjustments, experimenting with a number of combinations, until he got the right formula - detailed down to the tiny mango bits that have been purposely included to keep the raw and authentic mango wine favor. But before making business out of his mango wine, he went back to Baguio to ask the permission of the Belgian nuns.

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The Philippine are already known throughout the world in the area of outsourcing. It is because fluency in language, highly skilled and low labor costs is the primary reasons. For a long time India has conquered the BPO industry. A new player is rising in the arena of Business Process Outsourcing.

Similar to many other Asian countries, the Philippines present competitive costs for their highly skilled talents. This is the main objective of outsourcing. That is why India became the primary outsourcing destination for a long time. And now China is also coming into the scene of outsourcing. However the Philippines’ cutting edge to the other outsourcing Asian countries are being fluent of the English language and intimacy with America. This is why call centers for US based companies are sprouting in the country. Just look at the classified section of Bulletin Today and see the numerous job openings of call centers.

After the Hispanic colonization in the Philippines, Americans came into the scene. The Spaniards has colonized our country for more than 300 years and even Catholism has become our primary religion but American culture was absorbed instantly for a short period of time. And the WW2, Americans was our ally. Also, the Thomasites were the pioneer educators of the English language in the Philippines this is why the educational system was pattered after the Americans. So don’t be amazed when you see Filipinos are more Americanized. This is the disadvantage of other Asian countries in the BPO industry even if they have the most talented people like India or China.

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I have a dog once and loved it but since I got married I tend to forget about pets. If you are dog lover and lived the in the Philippines or a foreigner who loves dogs and want to dress it up, there is a dog couture I know owned by an well known actor Michael de Mesa. It was featured once in the entrepreneur magazine. The name was K9 Couture. They also have a shop in Tiendesitas if you happen to passby there.

[tag]dog clothes,dog,dog couture[/tag]