A Christmas Story-The Ugly Americans

Is it too early to talk about Christmas? Tomorrow is Halloween, but the nights are getting colder here in Fair Oaks. The trees on my yard are starting to turn dark yellow, orange, red and gold and have started dropping on my swimming pool. With Fall season in full swing, I can not help myself thinking about Christmas. I can not think of any article in the past that I have written, that is more appropriate than this article I wrote for our employees newspaper at Stauffer Chemicals, Richmond, California in 1983. I titled it : A Gift from the Ugly Americans-A true story. Here's the full article as published in the Stauffer News, Christmas Edition, Vol.14, 1983, page 11.

December, 1959. It was my first year as a graduate student at the University of Illinois, Chicago. As a foreign student from the Philippines, away from home, wife and family, I was lonely, homesick and almost ready to quit school. However, my burning ambition to get a Ph.D. in Chemistry and not to be labeled a quitter, forced me hang on for a whole year.

All my co-graduate student assistants realized how much I missed my newly wedded wife, and they had been inviting me to their homes on weekend and holidays. I wrote to my wife almost every week, but how I wished I could afford to talk to her via overseas call, even just for 10 minutes. But my stipend as a graduate assistant of $190 a month was barely enough to pay for my room and board and an overseas call was beyond my means.

Realizing my need, ten of my classmates arranged to pay for a call as a surprise Christmas gift to me. They organized a potluck party in one of the assistant's apartments and called the Philippine operator ahead to arrange for an open line to my wife. In the middle of the party, I was told I had a telephone call. What a big surprise to hear my wife's voice after one year of separation. I was dumbfounded.

I stuttered like a three year old kid as tears streamed down my face-tears of happiness and appreciation of what the group had done- the best Christmas present I have ever received. I will never forget that act of kindness and thoughtfulness from people I once called the "Ugly Americans". With that surprise gift, my preconceived ideas that most Americans were clones of Lederer and Burdick's characters went down the drain. Gone were my impressions that Americans were imperialists or colonial pigs, selfish and heartless people.

Today, we have lived in this country for 24 years, and pledged citizenship in 1970. From the beginning of our time here, we have made it a family tradition to invite foreign students into our home every Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. This is our way of saying "thank you", to the ten "Beautiful Americans" who gave $2.00 each to pay for the telephone call so that a poor and homesick student could enjoy the spirit of Christmas.

Note: William Roberts, Manager Employee Communications of Stauffer wrote me a personal note as follows:

Dr. Katague: Your story has been chosen to be published in the 1983 issue of the Stauffer News. It gives me great pleasure to tell you that you will received shortly in the mail a $75 U.S. Savings Bond to thank you for sharing your memories with us.

Amana, an Eco-Friendly Project in Cawit, Boac

Recently, Yong Nieva, Macrine's first cousin inform us of the latest development on an eco-friendly weekend retreat or sanctuary just for his family and friends. He called it Amana, Nature Reserve. The reason why I am posting this, because I believe this is the first of its kind project in the whole province of Marinduque.

Yong writes, " My dream for Amana is not about the unusual. It is simply going back to the basic-the natural. Eco-tourism is now the trend and I hope it will not be just a fad but a lifestyle".

"I have planted hundred of white bougainvillas shrubs and mahogany trees along the side grade of a small hill that overlooks the river. I have the Yoga Hut, which is open sided which is perfect not only for meditation and yoga exercises, but also for taking naps and siestas, or just simply reading a book. Around you, aside from the view of the river down below, are the tall trunks of coconut trees that change color as the day progresses. The best times are the early break of dawn-watching the fading shadows of trees against the rising morning sun, or during sunset-with the purple and orange clouds above the setting sun. Its paradise!!

All day, you can walk around the landscape gardens. You will hear the cacophony of birds' sounds that is rarely heard anymore. Instantly you get transported to a different land. It could be Bali or at some nice compound in Africa. I just sometime shut my eyes to just literally "inhale" the bird songs. The only interruptions I get from this nirvana are the shuffling feet of the grounds keeper on the gravel paths along the ancient trees".

There are two cottages, designed to be eco-friendly, boarded up only by floor-to-ceiling shutters on all three sides. "Rustic-Chic" is the inspiration inside these huts. My wife Ivy is currently doing the interiors. It will be our welcome surprise to our invited guests.

Ivy also designed the two Portals that look majestic majestic on each side of the future site of the OUTDOOR LIVING ROOM, which is an elevated platform that overlooks the whole place. From here, guests go down to dine and lounge around in the AFRESCO DINING PLACE under the canopy of the ancient Ilang-Ilang and Santol trees. This is my Carmel or Napa-inspired outdoor cafe, where we dine with candlelights.

Soon, you will be invited to "camp out" in this weekend sanctuary. Camp out is the word I want to use because in Amana we encourage outdoor living. You only go back to the guest cottage to sleep. Everywhere are lounge chairs, bamboo daybeds and park benches underneath nooks and shades."

Lastly, we will honor it if you wish to keep to yourself alone and just like what I do, just "inhale the ambiance".

Yong and Ivy, Congratulations on your eco-friendly project. Marinduque will be proud of this project and your commitment to improve our environment.

If you have additional questions or comments on this project, let me know and I will relay it to Yong.

Senior Jokes to Relieve Stress from Dow's Woes

Last Monday the Dow was down about 500 points. It went up 200 points Tuesday and today it went down another 450 points. With my retirement savings losing about 7% in the last three days, I feel so depressed , so to cheer myself, I decided to look at some of the senior jokes that I received recently. The following four jokes are my favorites.

1. Two elderly gentlemen from a retirement center were sitting on a bench and just bullshitting to pass the time. One turn to the other and says " John, I am 83 years old and I am just full of aches and pains. I know you are about my age. How do you feel?.
John answers, I feel like a new born baby.
Really! ? Like a new born baby?
Yep. No hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants.

2. The boss walked into the office one morning not knowing his zipper was down and his fly wide open. His secretary walked up to him and said, This morning when you left your house, did you close your garage door? The boss said yes but was puzzled by the question. Later on, he noticed his fly was open and zipped it up and understood his secretary's question
Later, he headed out for coffee and paused by his secretary desk and ask, When my garage door was open did you see my Hummer parked in there?
She smiled and said No, I did not. All I saw was an old minivan with two flat tires.

3. Three old guys were walking.
First one says, Windy, isn't It?
Second one says, No, its Thursday!
Third one says, So am I, Let go get some beer.
(I am really thirsty).

4. A little old man shuffled into an ice cream parlor and pulled himself slowly, painfully up into a stool. After catching his breath, he ordered a banana split.
The waitress asked kindly, " Crushed nuts?
No, he replied, " Arthritis ".

I hope the above jokes made you laugh a little, in spite of the current economic disaster in Wall Street.

Doing Business in the Philippines

The Makati Skyline, Philippines

I just finished reading a short article that it is not easy to do business in the Philippines. According to the article based on the World Bank survey, Singapore took the top spot in the rankings in the ease of doing business. New Zealand was 2nd and US was 3rd. Hong Kong was 4th, Japan 12th, and China 83rd. Could you guess PI ranking? A pathetic 140th!!

This is not news to me. Grease money runs the country. Unnecessary paper work slows down the growth of small business. For example just getting a permit takes a lot of paper work and grease money. Even in the business of tourism ( which should be encourage by the government), the presence of "grease takers" really frustrates me. There are other specific examples, that I will not mention for fear that it will have a detrimental effect in my small business in the Philippines. To survive, I follow the principle, "If in Rome do what the Romans are doing". Sad but that is the reality of life.

The article concluded that we should not be discourage from doing business in the Philippines. It says there are some rotten eggs in the basket, but the good ones outnumber the bad ones. It also advise us to know the proper way of doing things and stick to it and most of all ditch those greasers. What do you think? Is this a reasonable advice?

Call Center in the Philippines

Recently, I had an occasion to use the help center in the Philippines. I was surprise of how helpful and knowledgeable the employees are. At first, I was not sure if my responder was a filipina, since she did not have a trace of accent. However, after 5 minutes of teaching me how to change my password to log in to my new bank account here in California, I realized I am talking to somebody in the Philippines. I was pretty sure she knows I am filipino, because I still have a slight accent even after living here in the States for more than 40 years. Sometimes, I still can not pronounce the difference of my "P" and my "F". Back to the subject, of help center, I have heard that it is one of the most glamorous jobs every college graduate is seeking, if they have no chance to go abroad. Is this true?

Incidentally, I have also experience getting help from call center in India. I guess both India and the Philippines are competing for out sourcing jobs from the US.

After helping me, I did do a little social talk and she confirms she is from the Philippines and she even gave me her name. Hurrah for the call centers in the Philippines!

Internet Withdrawal Symptoms

The Internet Addict

For the last four months, it has been my daily habit as soon as I woke up, while drinking coffee, to read news in the Internet( CNN, Philippines Inquirer, COMCAST, etc..) as well as read my e-mail. In addition, I have to check for new and interesting articles and responses to my comments from several of my favorite blog sites. Weekly, I will also check the balances of my bank account and investments and monthly, I pay my bills via the Internet or sometimes purchase items in the Internet. In addition to the news, I usually check what is new in You Tube. By the time I finish all these, it is almost lunch time.
Today, we have an electric outage which lasted for three hours from 9:00 AM to 12 Noon. Power outage is rare here in Sacramento, compared to Marinduque. In Marinduque, it occurs daily or weekly, for 30 minutes or less.If there is a typhoon it will last for a few days. Needless to say I have a generator in Marinduque, because of my resort business So if there is a "blackout", I will have emergency electric power for my clients.

Now back to my withdrawal symptoms: I feel depressed. I do not know what to do with myself and appears a little bit confused. Since there is no power, I tried to put on my battery operated radio, but there is no battery, so I started looking for magazines to read. I was still uneasy though after I finished reading all of RD. So, I decided to do yoga exercises, do a little push up and then I started to sweat a little bit. After a while I took a shower and I felt good. It was about 11:00AM and the power was still out. My restlessness started again, so I realized I was really missing the Internet. Luckily an hour later the power was on. Without any hesitation, my PC was on and the results is the blog you are reading now. So fellow bloggers, and Internet addicts, have you experience Internet or blogger withdrawal symptoms? I would like to hear of your experience and how you overcome or controlled it.