Pinoy team, won in Asian reality interior design show

Pinoy team, won in Asian reality interior design show

Pinoy winners were Deankie Lantonio and Tiara Sison on the third season of Asian interior design reality show "The Apartment - Design Your Destiny." 

Winner friends from Cebu is a two-storey apartment in Elmina, Malaysia. 

Deankie defeated by good friends and Tiara eight other couples from different countries. 

In each episode of the reality TV show, challenged participants to design different parts of the apartment as the masters' bedroom, dining area, living room and so on. 

In the finale episode, pitted Pinoy winners with an Australian fashion reporter and British actress Sonya. 

Given 72 hours the participants to redesign an entire apartment. 

After that, there was a house party in its apartment designed by the participants which includes visits the head judge Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen was, judge and mentor Jamie Durie, several VIP guests and the participants previously deleted . 

Aside from Bowen and Durie, the judges act as guests at the party.

A Must-Try Christmas Spread!

Manila Bulletin


MANILA, Philippines — Fast aliment joints and ‘take-out’ places accept started to accent their advertisements for their take-out affair packages. That’s because, in these absolutely animated times, amid award the absolute presents, braving the anniversary traffic, and authoritative abiding that assignment deadlines are met afore offices abutting for the Christmas vacation, there are those who absolutely cannot additional the accomplishment and activity to adapt an extra-special home-cooked Noche Buena spread.
Unlike our grandmas who had beneath accent and leisure (not to acknowledgment reliable helpers) to baker acceptable dishes from scratch, abounding may opt to booty the accessible way out by affairs able sauces and marinades, or artlessly aces up the buzz and adjustment commitment from their called restaurant. Because absolutely demography the Noche Buena assignment to affection would beggarly hours of prepping and active over a hot stove to appear up with a absolute barbecue of absolutely Pinoy anniversary food.
It is a acceptable affair then, that acclaimed Pinoy cuisine Chef Ed Quimson and his M Fine Foods Catering accessory Booj Supe formed up their sleeves and took over the Mandarin Oriental Manila kitchen to adapt a absolutely alluring feast, with aliment that in the easily of home cooks will booty hours of alertness and convenance to perfect. Here, they and their families additional balikbayan and expat accompany can artlessly sit aback and acidity the flavors of a Pinoy Christmas in an agitative cafe menu, which will be accessible from December 5 to 18 at the Paseo Uno.

Among the dishes that Chef Ed himself alien to the media is a beggarly Kilawin na Tanigue sa Gata, which, calm with a ambrosial Tinapa attic on Melba acknowledgment set the aficionado in the affection to try out added of his cuisine creations. Addition appetizer must-try is the Suha Salad, with its acerb aperitive flavors that set the affection for an bistro binge. And what a affair it was, with the Bangus Embutido, which had a acceptable solid arrangement and abundant clamminess area one can still aftertaste the milkfish as it was not “extender-ed” to oblivion; and addition adorable angle bowl in the Caprisa, which is breakable buttered adequate served with absurd bananas. In Chef Ed’s hands, Chicken was not alone fried, but absurd accomplished for an hour and blimp with actual adolescent sampalok leaves that gave the bowl an aperitive aroma. His acceptable Afritada was ambrosial with flavors, with a abstracted buttery texture.
The meat alternative bare applause, with hasty entries like the Binagoongan sa Calamansi, area he broiled the breakable pork calm with three kilos of accomplished calamansi fruits that gave it an amazing aftertaste dimension. His brittle pork abdomen was additionally remarkable, as it was alert absurd for crisis and crispiness. One bowl that the media guests could not stop agitated over was the Pancit Buko, as one could absolutely have a good timethe acidity of beginning attic abstract that the noodles were broiled in. Addition brilliant of the advance was the Tinola Paella – 18-carat Tinola served after sabaw as a rice meal that can amuse all on its own.
Of advance a Pinoy Noche Buena would not be complete after the candied stuff, and abreast from the bibingka and puto bumbong that are accessible year-round in the Paseo Uno buffet, Chef Ed added his candied Leche Flan with Dayap and the Carabao-milk Pastillas de Leche that guests kept bustling in their mouths until it was time to leave.

Philippine solar light bottles offer hope

Inquirer *Original Link

MANILA—Filipino entrepreneur Illac Diaz is aiming to help a million poor people in a year, and with the help of some plastic bottles and a clever social media campaign may do even better.

Diaz’s project appears simple – fill discarded soft drink bottles with water, place them in roofs of houses and allow the refracted light to brighten homes during the day instead of using electric bulbs.

However, what began as a small-scale effort in a Manila slum early this year has quickly spread throughout the Philippines and even into impoverished communities as far away as Colombia, India and Vanuatu.

It has also earned Diaz accolades from the United Nations, which will bring him to its climate change summit in South Africa next week to show world leaders how “solar light bottles” are helping to tackle global warming.

“This has blown us away,” Diaz, head of MyShelter Foundation, told AFP of the international reaction to the project that is in part due to a powerful YouTube clip and smart use of social media sites such as Facebook.

“Our original concept was just a Philippine project. We didn’t think it was going to be possible to do it on this scale.”

More than 15,000 solar light bottles have been installed in slums around the Philippine capital this year, and the project was set to ramp up with another 10,000 to be put in homes during a mass day of volunteer action on Wednesday.

Diaz said another 100,000 would be installed in the Philippines’ second-biggest city, Cebu, in December, putting the project on track to meet or exceed its goals of helping one million people over 12 months.

“This is a grass-roots revolution, a people-powered revolution, using simple and low-cost technologies,” Diaz said.

Diaz described the bottle concept as the opposite of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth model, which he said required poor countries to import or develop clean energy technologies such as windmills and solar panels.

“These are expensive and not a lot of people… actually benefit from them,” he said.

“So instead of going high-tech, high-specialty, why not go with something that could be done by hand and cheaply, but could be replicated thousands or millions of times. You can affect more people, save more carbon.”

Diaz said each solar light bottle each year saved 17 kilograms of carbon dioxide, one of the gases that causes global warming, compared with a household using an electric light bulb instead.

“If you multiply that by a million bottles, that will save more carbon than one huge windmill which costs more to run.”

In the San Pedro slum community on the outskirts of Manila where the project started, residents think not about the climate but of the extra light they enjoy during the day without having to use an expensive electric bulb.

Many of the slum houses are dark even during the brightest days, with few windows in the concrete or corrugated iron walls to let the daylight in.

Monico Albao, 46, has five solar bottles installed into the corrugated roof of his tiny home that he shares with his 22-year-old daughter, her bus conductor husband and their two-month-old grandson.

“My electricity costs have halved. The money we save, we spend on food and clothes for my grandson,” said Albao.

The solar light bulb emits the same amount of light as a 55-watt electric globe, and is expected to last for up to five years, according to Diaz.

All that is required is a disused soft drink bottle, which is then filled with purified water and a small amount of bleach to stop any bacteria from growing.

The bottle is then placed inside a hole in the roof and sealed so that rain does not leak through. When the light passes through the bottle, it refracts and shoots into the room in all directions.

MyShelter Foundation is not the first group to use the solar light bottle – Brazilian Alfredo Moser is largely credited with coming up with the concept a decade ago.

However, Diaz’s organization has been singled out for praise from the United Nations for its ability to upscale and reach so many people.

In this regard, Diaz said one of the keys to his success was using the Internet to make people aware of the solar bottle while also giving them a solution online so they could immediately begin installing lights on their own.

Diaz said a person in Colombia began a replica project in September after watching MyShelter Foundation’s YouTube clip, while others had been set up recently in South Africa, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Nepal and Mexico.

Diaz, who oversees a permanent staff of just a dozen people, also uses the online publicity to attract volunteers in the Philippines and sponsors from abroad.

“This is all part of us becoming an NGO 2.0 – helping a million people without being a multimillion-dollar foundation,” said Diaz.

How NOT to get sick

Manila Bulletin *Original Link

MANILA, Philippines — Proper exercise, reduced stress, right diet and enough sleep —these are the ways to prevent sickness.  Everybody knows that.  How in the world then does the number of people with various diseases (sometimes multiple even) continue to grow?

"These are the four foremost ways to take care of one's health but these have become a reactive [manner] rather than preventive," says Dr. Ben Valdecañas, medical director of the LifeScience Center for Wellness and Preventive Medicine.  The center recently held its formal opening at the Bonifacio Global City, Taguig graced by Dr. Michael Klentze, founder of Klentze Institut of Anti-Aging based in Munich, Germany.

Stressing on the importance of educating Filipinos on how not to get sick, Dr. Valdecañas advocates preventive medicine. "[The practice of] preventive medicine lessens the chances of experiencing pain and suffering from illnesses or diseases simply because health problems can be dealt with even before they arise."

According to Dr. Valdecañas, the key is to listen to what your body is telling you. “Most of the [health] risk factors basically depend on the individual so you need to listen to your body and know what your body needs. Like if your body feels tired, you might not be giving your body enough nutrients to sustain the kind of work your body performs.”

Part of developing a keen bodily observation is also a keen understanding of when and how the body regenerates. The presence of inflammation signals that the body needs to regenerate itself.  Also, swelling and pain are the most obvious and reliable signs of inflammation inside the body.  However, there might still be inflammation even without the swelling and pain.  This hinders the body from properly regenerating and consequently, it could make the body sick.  

Although it seems that inflammation is the culprit, the doctor says that the body also needs inflammation to heal itself. "The healing process is generally broken into three stages: inflammation, proliferation and repair.  By controlling the inflammation, you allow the body to enter the later stages of healing."

Another way

Meanwhile, Dr. Valdecañas enlists lifestyle modification and knowing the family health history as other ways to prevent sickness. On the more modern approach, having a gene test could also help a person determine the factors that could make him ill and even those of his offspring.  “Male and female can go through this test by not only knowing what type of genes they have but also knowing how much  of these genes they can give to their offspring.”

Dr. Valdecañas shares that even he had his gene test taken.  "It is like having a health map that helps determine the likelihood of developing heart diseases, diabetes or other illnesses.  It even tells you the drugs that you may be susceptible to.  It is an investment and I’m happy that I did it because now I can run my life more accurately.”

Gene test or Genomics is one of LifeScience's laboratory testing and analysis services. It identifies the diseases and conditions a person is genetically predisposed to, and recommends lifestyle enhancements to ensure health and vitality in the long term.

Another interesting services of the center is the "Food Intolerance Test" where a few drops of blood can provide a person with a list of more than 200 food groups the person is most reactive to, down to the least reactive ones.

"Unknown to us, our body may also react disagreeably to certain foodstuff we know we are not allergic to. Allergy is very different from intolerance; allergy is the immediate development of hypersensitivity symptoms, while intolerance is a much milder inflammatory reaction of the tissue that is directly in contact with the food... your gut!

"Swelling and edema of the gut can lead to intestinal discomfort and mal-absorption, causing our digestive system to malfunction unbeknownst to us -- more gas formation, nutrients not absorbed adequately and toxins staying longer inside us. But if these intolerance symptoms are subclinical or not physically apparent, how do we know which food cause these?"

In conclusion, Dr. Valdecañas shares, "LifeScience programs are all about precision healthcare.  We bring together selected services in an efficient package that brings maximum results for the health and wellness goals our client wants to achieve... We help you sort through a gamut of clinical and lifestyle concerns that may have accumulated over years of prioritizing career goals and setting aside what is truly very important, which is your health."

O.F.W. Summit: Changing Mindsets

MANILA, Philippines — I've  been writing about overseas Filipino workers (OFW) with a common message: the government should do more to help them and protect their interests.

In my view, however, promoting the interests of OFWs cannot be the sole responsibility and function of the government. So this time I want to focus on what the private sector can do for the benefit of our modern heroes.

On November 24, Villar Foundation and GoNegosyo launched the 1st OFW & Family Summit with the theme “Kabuhayan Para sa Kinabukasan.”

The summit, which will be a yearly event, is essentially a partnership between Villar Foundation and GoNegosyo, both advocates of entrepreneurship, and the OFWs and their families.

The summit was conceptualized for OFWs and their families. So we made sure that every aspect of the event — from the program to the exhibitors — was focused on them. We wanted the summit to be really worthwhile, educational, and inspirational for all of them.

I’m glad that the first summit was well attended, and I hope that it will be the start of a movement to change the lives of OFWs and their families for the better and secure for them a stable and prosperous future.

Everybody recognizes the huge contribution of overseas Filipino workers to our economy. Their remittances, which exceeded $18 billion last year, fuel consumption and drive economic growth amid the slowdown in exports and the decline in other sectors like agriculture.

This year, the economy will still post positive growth, despite the financial crisis in Europe and the continuing weakness of the United States economy, because remittances are still expected to grow at least to an estimated $20 billion.

So the prospects remain bright for our country, but, alas, not so bright for many of our OFWs. Despite their huge role in driving economic growth, the individual OFWs and their families still face an uncertain future.

How many times have we heard of OFWs who, after working for so many years abroad, came back to face the same impoverished conditions that they left because their savings were lost either to unscrupulous persons or because of lack of knowledge and skills to use their hard-earned money for income-generating activities?

Several studies have found out that the money sent home by OFWs is usually spent on consumer products like appliances, electronic gadgets, and the like. The mentality is really to spend the money instead of making it “grow.”

Changing this mentality is something that I have been pushing for so long. So, I am glad that we now have a partnership with other advocates and with the OFW community that will work for one common goal: teach OFWs and their families ways to use their money wisely, that is, to generate a constant stream of income.

I would like to acknowledge the experts who participated in the summit, namely, Toots Ople of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center,  Leonardo Dayao Sr. of Puregold, Dean Pax Lapid of Entrepreneur School of Asia, Victoria Villa of Natasha, Dr. Rosalinda Hortaleza of Hortaleza, and Armanda Bartolome of GMB Franchise Developers.

We also heard success stories from OFWs-turned-entrepreneurs. Prudencio Garcia, who used to work in Saudi Arabia, returned home to help in the family business, Mekeni, which is now one of the leading meat companies. Myrna Padilla, a former domestic helper, is now the owner of a BPO company.

Although the summit is a private initiative, the government also has a stake in ensuring its success. For instance, remittances will contribute more to economic growth if these are channeled to entrepreneurial activities, which generate employment and stimulate other business activities.

This, in turn, will encourage more people to go into business here rather than seek employment abroad, where they risk even their lives.

Developing a nation of entrepreneurs will also take us to our ultimate and elusive goal: end poverty.

How can the government help in our effort? By implementing reforms that will improve the investment climate, promoting good governance, improving infrastructure, and establishing peace and order.

In the end, changing the OFWs’ mindset is a self-help effort. Peter Drucker, father of modern management, said:  “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

The Villar Foundation and GoNegosyo are committed to helping OFWs establish and run their own businesses, and the government may also provide some help. Still, it is the OFWs’ own determination that will secure for them and their families a bright future.

Coffee drinkers show lower uterine cancer risk

Manila Bulletin *Original Link

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who down four or more cups of coffee a day may have a reduced risk of developing cancer in the lining of their uterus, researchers reported Tuesday.

A study of more than 67,000 U.S. nurses found that women who drank that much coffee were one-quarter less likely to develop endometrial cancer than women who averaged less than a cup a day.

The absolute risk that any one woman, coffee drinker or not, would develop the cancer was fairly small: over 26 years, 672 women -- or one percent of the whole study group -- were diagnosed with endometrial cancer.