Wednesday, June 27, 2007

NGO Day

Attended an NGO forum called NGO Day, sponsored by PBSP and Microsoft (of course they had to make a pitch for their relevant softwares).

Keynote speaker was Mayan Quebral, who is one of my idols in "friendraising", and who is ED of Venture for Fund Raising.


It was a joy to also see very familiar faces. Joy because they never tire doing what they love to do best. It was also good to hear that what we have been doing are still effective methods in sustainability. Then there are new ways of doing things which we can try out for ourselves.

I sat in a special interest session (there were 4 different ones simultaneously) on database management and donor research. Funny that I was in a lecture being given by someone much younger than me. Though that was nothing really. It didn't help much however that he was from La Salle. He only had one thing to say about Ateneo: that one of La Salle's biggest donors is an Atenean (while he did not say the reason, we all know that this Atenean was "snubbed" by Ateneo). I think he also said this to sort of even things up as Mayan mentioned earlier that Mr. John chose to give to Ateneo, rather unusual for someone who was more inclined to "greener" pastures.

These gatherings of NGO's are always welcome too as usually there are some stories, success stories, good practices stories that are presented. We really like that. In an ocean of negative stories from many media, goodnews stories make for good gatherings. One participant in the open forum reacted that the stories paint a rather rosy picture of reality as opposed to what we read in the newspapers, to which another reacted: Don't read newspapers. Or you probably read the wrong newspaper. I tend to think the first suggestion was more like it, hehe. I thought that he was new to the NGO movement. Because I must say that we in the not-for-profit, NGO sector find it really important to hear good news. It keeps us hopeful always. There just isn't any room for discouragement in our line of work.

Another point taken was the need to put controls in governance. Heck, to run the organization as a business, not like a business. This was also as a reaction to one of the presentors, who after telling us their success stories, also confessed that they are hoping that what they have done will not all go pfft, as they were recently faced with resignations of 5 key personnel; a review of the incident points to fund mismanagement, and a more thorough audit is in the works.

Another issue taken was the role of government. It was pointed that NGO's like to act as if government did not exist. But they also have the role of checking on government and to also help government. NGO's also accept the fact that there are also many in government who are virtuous, and NGO's role is to find them and enter partnerships with them.

There was also a little tense moment when a person from a workers rights advocacy group gave a spiel that was a little critical of corporate management (there were reps of corporate foundations whom he asked whether their mother companies were "good" to their workers, even as their foundations were practicing corporate social responsibility programs for communities and causes outside of the mother companies). Funny, later, at the end of the forum, when his name was picked from the raffle box, and he won a Vista-ready desktop PC and a licensed Vista OS from a corporate donor. You would think he would not accept. He accepted (the PC goes to the organization), and said that he wasn't really anti-business but was just talking about social justice. I did not understand him, but maybe that justified his accepting the raffle prize.

Of course, there was occasion to talk to some friends. I talked to two groups whom we just might have some cooperative projects going for us. Nice.

I would have liked to have won the PC for my office. Oh, well, I never win in raffles, so events happened as they should have.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

St. Josemaria


St. Josemaria
Originally uploaded by asmillan3
Mass in honor of St. Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei.
Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, June 26
Taken after the Mass

What?

During (Al Gore's) tenure as vice president, America's carbon dioxide emissions shot up far faster than at any time in modern history - by 15 per cent, compared to just 1.65 per cent during President Bush's first term. Kid you not. Read. Of course, he also sort of hinted that he should have been President.

St Josemaria's feastday

Today, 26th of June is the anniversary of Saint Josemaría's death in 1975 and is now also his feastday. There will be Holy Masses celebrated in his honor in many parishes/churches all over the world. In Cebu, Bishop Isabelo Abarquez will be the main celebrant at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral at 6pm. Other places in Cebu where masses will be offered: Bl. Pedro Calungsod Shrine with Fr. Ilde Leyson at 6:30pm and St Joseph Parish (Mabolo) with Msgr. Kintanar at 6pm.

Monday, June 25, 2007

He meets his match

Al Gore was offered a wager, USD 10,000 worth. As a lover of statistics, I like to see how this ends. That is if Al Gore accepts. I'd go for J. Scott. How do we add to the wager?

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

What about the 18,000+?

Senator-elect Antonio Trillanes said after his proclamation, that his election was a people's victory. I also heard some news reports and reporters that said that Trillanes's election was the will of the Filipino people.

Granted, that he got more than 11 million votes. But what is that compared to the more than 29 million Filipinos who actually voted or the more than 42 million Filipino registered voters? PDF.

Well, well. About 62% of those who voted DID NOT VOTE for him. About 74% of all registered voters DID NOT VOTE (and some COULD NOT VOTE) for him? What will of the people are we talking about?

Then again, even topnotcher Loren Legarda only had about 18 million votes. What does this show then? That there are much more Filipinos who do not like any one Senator?

Where will you be in 2100?

A group of US scientists have warned that sea-level increases this century resulting from global warming should be higher than what a UN panel on climate change estimated recently. They said that the rise by 2100 should be in meters, and not between 18 and 59 centimeters as the UN Panel published in a February report that predicts sea levels increasing. Be afraid, be very afraid.

They do not say how much this rise is due to human activity, so they're playing safe. Thing is, they have the guts to say this knowing that they won't be around to see what actually happens. Come to think of it, I wouldn't be around either.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Monday, June 11, 2007

First they were bitter, now they're happier?

Ayala Land a couple of years ago started its real estate project called Amara. I thought it was a weird name for a good project. Amara means bitter in Italian. Must be Spanish, but a search couldn't get me a translation.

Then I saw amarra. Maybe that was it. True enough. In their website, it says: Derived from the Spanish word that means mooring rope used to anchor ships at port, Amara connotes home where a family will find safe harbor. Why did they not just use Amarra?

As if to redeem themselves (not really, heh), Ayala (finally! finally!) started its project in Cagayan de Oro. It is called Alegria Hills. Now that is something to be happy about.

Nadal does his own hat trick

Rafa Nadal had his own hat trick at the 2007 French Open when he beat Roger Federer in 4 sets in this their third Roland Garros finals match-up. Rafa is really King of Clay.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Justine makes it three in a row

Justine wins the 2007 French Open with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Ivanovic.

She completes the hat trick last achieved by Monica Seles in 90-92.  This is also Justine's 6th Grand Slam, putting her ahead of Martina Hingis and Venus Williams.



She's all that: Another Grand Slam title would be Justin Henin's sixth, moving her ahead of Venus Williams and Martina Hingis.





Powered by ScribeFire.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Hep hep Henin

Yep. Justine wins her semifinal match at the 2007 French Open, making her on track to be the second woman to win three in a row after Monica Seles did three in the last decade.

We await the finals against Masha-killer Ivanovic.

Henin wins first set

Henin wins the first set of her seminfinal game. 6-2. Leads 4-2 in the second set.

Henin on track (as of now)

Henin is on track to the finals, leading Jankovic 4-1 of the first set.
Boo-hoo: Masha loses in a lopsided match against 7th seed Ivanovic (6-2, 6-1).

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Henin sails past Serena

Justine Henin

Justine Henin entered the semis at Roland Garros as she saw off a subdued Serena Williams 6-4 6-3. She will play Jelena Jankovic in the semi-finals when she will seek to extend her Open-era record of winning 31 consecutive sets in Paris dating back to 2005. Henin beat Williams for the first time since their 2003 semi-final.

A finals match against Masha is possible as Masha enters the other semis against Ana Ivanovic.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Henin wins to set up Serena clash

My my!
Justine Henin
Henin has won 29 consecutive sets at Roland Garros
Defending champion Justine Henin meets American Serena Williams in the French Open quarterfinals after both won their fourth-round matches.


Masha overcame two match points against Patty. A quote from her, "It's pretty hard being a tennis player and Mother Theresa at the same time and that's just the way it is," after being called for gamesmanship (again, for taking too long between shots in the final game).