The July 26 issue of Newsweek cites the World's Best Countries and as expected, the Philippines is nowhere near the list. The awards go to: the United States (Best Country to be Rich), China (Best Country to be a Technocrat), Germany (Best Country to be An Artist), Turkey (Best Country to be Young), the Netherlands (Best Country to be an Idealist) Canada (a haven for writers) etc.etc. It would have been okay except that one other Southeast Asian country made it to the list and that's Vietnam.The country was cited for being "one of the best places to be an economic ... Continue Reading...

I learned a couple of words from Encarta yesterday. Some of these are: garbology, "the study of waste materials," and defenestrate, "to throw something or somebody out of window." Usage: "I felt like a defenestrated object a few weeks ago but now am fully recycled and don't feel otiose at all." Otiose, my dear friends, means "worthless."Am reminded of garbology because our corporate office is moving its headquarters to a five-star hotel nearby and all of us are in a frenzy packing our things. The morning had accounting clerks putting inventory tags on our office ... Continue Reading...

FRIENDS. You lose some, you win some.Meeting a long-lost friend is definitely as refreshing as a cone of ice cream on a summer day.I felt this way when I met Gigi for lunch today at a Chinese hole-in-a-wall. She was a former co-employee and masteral classmate in International Studies at the State U. It has been ten years since we last saw each other.Ten years! And we were so surprised to learn (short of gloating) that we were still slender and in fact, could still be the good friends that we were...Gigi worked for a long time as a public relations manager for a hotel ... Continue Reading...