The Beautiful Game
It was 1999 and I had just joined an IT services and consulting comany in Makati. It was inevitable that I would be drawn into football, the beautiful game, as my Scottish-born, British-passport-holding-boss was an avid fan. EPL, FA Cup, Champions League … these were words that I heard as often as client visit, change request, documentation. I started scouring the net for information, just so I could put in a word or two when he’d say he’s off to watch a game. I got to the point where I could name the star players for each team, and recognize them by sight. I found it strange at first how a Frenchman could be a goalie for an English team, and how Arsenal’s lineup was more Latin than caucasian.
Read more
Red Ribbon’s Reply, Part 2
Dear Ms. Gaerlan,
I am mortified to learn about your unfortunate experience in our Iligan store and can empathize with the contempt you felt as a result thereof. In fact, I marvel at the restraint with which you conducted yourself, given the gross disservice accorded you. I can only offer my profuse apology as there can be no excuse for what you had to go through.
However, beyond mere contrition, I am sincerely grateful that you took the time and bother to make sure that this matter reach our attention here in Manila. Our organization prides itself in consistently providing all our customers a unique and gratifying experience beyond simply consuming our products, and nothing less will do. This is the reason we go through great lengths to ensure that the quality of our products, the ambiance in our stores and the service levels we offer our customers are the best that you deserve. Nevertheless, all our efforts will be for naught unless we get constructive feedback, as you have provided us in this case.
Rest assured that we will take the necessary remedial actions to make sure that the ineptitude you had to face will not happen again. I hope that you will sometime soon favor us with your esteemed patronage again, so that we can have a chance to prove ourselves worthy of the trust and confidence you have come to expect of the premiere bakeshop reputation that Red Ribbon has painstakingly built over the years.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
Jorge Ma. Q. Concepcion
Vice-President & General Manager
Red Ribbon Bakeshop, Inc.
I now consider this matter closed, the fault forgiven. Would that all companies were as quick to react as these gentlemen who have replied to my complaint.
Murder in my heart
I have been a non-practicing Catholic for a long time. It started in the mid-80s, when I was in church with my eldest son who was then just a toddler. Everything was going fine until the celebrant/priest started talking about who to vote for in the upcoming elections. Being one who until now believes in the separation of church and state, I stood up and walked out of his sermon, toddler in tow. From then on I only set foot in a church if someone was about to be baptized, married or buried.
I don’t know if this is psychologically sound, allowing single incidents to ruin my relationships with religion and bakeshops. I know this does not extend to my relationships with actual people, as I have disappointed and been disappointed by several people (hey, i was once in a marriage that tasted like very bad paksiw for 19 years before I decided to get out) but that didn’t deter me from keeping people around me. When you’re a mother you don’t have a choice.
But today I have been seriously considering multiple murder, a virtual massacre of both human- and canine-kind. Our landlord and landlady (landpeople?) have 20 dogs, give or take a mutt. This apparently is to compensate for the lack of grandchildren, as their kids are thoroughly enjoying singleness. If you listened to them without looking you’d think they were talking to little kids when they romp around with the dogs.
Fact is, I’m having a bit of a problem with them already, as there was one afternoon when Mrs. Landlady told me to have Maia put her shoes on so she could play with the puppies that they had let loose on the grounds. There they were pooping and peeing and she wanted my little girl to get down and play with them, as if they were next door neighbor’s kids!
Just this morning, as my 12-year-old was on his way out to school, we didn’t know that Mr. Landlord had let loose the german shepherd and was playing a game of fetch with it. This german shepherd is about six months old, which means it’s almost at its full height & weight but still with the “playfulness” of a puppy. This GSD could easily pin down a slight-of-build 12-year-old kid and it may have happened, had I not ran out to intervene.
For some reason I hold no fear of dogs of any kind, but I could not for the life of me pass on this lack of fear to my kids. It’s not like a stick.
Mr. and Mrs. Landlord made no move to collar their wayward pup, but they kept calling out to it like it was a one-year-old child who could heed his grandparents. This dog had never been through any training, formal or otherwise, and I saw no reason why it could not have knocked my son to the ground. It was barking incessantly at my son who was now immobile. But it stopped when I stood in front of it, pointed a finger at it’s nose and growled “Bantay lang jud ka…” which in Cebuano is a clear threat that implied anything between maiming and murder.
Mr. & Mrs. Landlord quickly stepped in and grabbed the GSD by the collar, as if to sheild him from the damage I might inflict on him. I took this opportunity to escort my son to the gate, open it so he could go out to the road and catch a ride to school. Behind me I could hear their usual assurances not to worry, the dog had had his shots anyway… the dog, always the dog, no thought at all for my human son.
When I turned around I willed myself not to look at either Mr or Mrs Landpeople. They would have dropped dead if they had seen the look in my eyes, because at that moment I really had murder in my heart.
UnDress Code
World | Philippines
Published: 5/12/2004, 07:04 (UAE)Homosexuals and indecent attire prohibited in southern city
By Al Jacinto, CorrespondentA city in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao recently imposed a ban on gays as well as tight-fitting jeans, tube blouses that expose a woman’s midriff and other scanty attire in public.
“Since Marawi City is the only Islamic city in the country and part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), we have to comply with the culture, religion and tradition of the Muslims but without going against the country’s Constitution,” said Mayor Omar Solitario Ali.
Ali said the ordinance is part of the “cleaning and cleansing” programme to improve Marawi City’s image.
The mayor said there was a clamour from both public at large and government authorities to ban these types of behaviour that entail putting cross-dressers back into the closet.
Aside from the ordinance, Ali said the beautification drive also includes the ongoing clean-up of garbage in the urban area, demolition of illegal structures and the cleansing of bad influences in the community.
The Marawi City council also requires Muslim women to strictly wear the headscarf and the prohibition of wearing skintight denim or non-denim pants and other skimpy attire, so as “not to induce impure thoughts or lustful desires”, the mayor said.
About Me
