AMAZING START-UPS, INTERNS, OLDIES AND NEWBIES

AMAZING START-UPS, INTERNS, OLDIES AND NEWBIES

“Old school” or “old’s cool”?

Dear Newbies, Oldies, Newbies-Oldies and Oldies-Newbies,

        mga kapatid, ka-pamilya, ka-barkada, kasama, ka-negosyo, kaibigan at ka-ibigan

“Old school” or “old’s cool”? Watch the movie “Intern” and find out.

Isn’t it amazing to remember that the oldies used to say “it’s a brave new world”? Isn’t it more amazing to see newbies fearlessly doing what they’re doing, with no time to say what it is they’re doing?

So what are the newbies doing? Start-ups… the kind my boss has been preaching about. “Intern” is a funny story of newbies fearlessly, effortlessly doing startups, doing it well, until oldie Ben (De Niro) joined a den of newbie interns, and did it better! It still is a brave new world except that the newbies just keep on braving it, faster than the speed of sound, with no time say “it’s a brave new world”.

Amazing what the newbies can teach the oldies. More amazing is what oldies can teach newbies. For telling that story, “Intern” is amazing. I’m not surprised the movie was full, with more oldies than newbies.

Talking of amazing, “Heneral Luna” is another amazing movie, not because it’s clearly a good one, but because the theater was full when I watched it, with more newbies than oldies. The lesson of the “fiction-based-on facts” movie hit is that war and revolution do produce heels and heroes, widows and orphans. For that lesson, I see it as "fact-based-on fictions".

Let us be mindful that our war on Poverty produces only victors. 

A little time off from braving our start-ups and a big laugh will do a lot of good for “TODDLERS”! We may be getting old, but our stories are always new. Keep toddling on, fearlessly, effortlessly!

Enjoy,

Bob  

WAWD, September 30, 2015

FARE THEE WELL, SAF 44

Heroes are made in heaven.

They are born in pain and strife

to fertilize Earth for plentiful harvests

of Justice, Righteousness, Peace and Joy.

They make Earth, old as it is, ever GOING,

YOUNG AND ABUNDANT…

Dear SAF 44,

On January 25, 2015, on the corn fields of Mamapasano, you fell. Mamapasano is not a graveyard. It is a field of dreams. It is a garden seeded and watered by your wounded bodies and shed blood. Together with prayers of kin, friends and the nation, they fertilize and cultivate Earth to produce bountiful harvests of Justice, Peace, Joy and Abundance. They nurture and bring forth acts of goodwill and reforms that this shaking has put to light, desires so long dormant but pent-up in the heart and soul of the Filipino Nation. Your life and death proves “Pulis Panalo” is the new normal. We have longed for this for so long -- we no longer long in vain.

You have done well SAF 44! You help construct what Christ started and continues to build – a Heaven on Earth of Justice and Peace where there is no death, strife or sorrow. You lived as Christ lived, loved as Christ loved, served as Christ served. You have died as Christ died -- to save and protect the many.

Farewell, welcome and thank you SAF 44.  With this song we salute you!

WAWD

We Also Walk Dogs

February 5, 2015

“THERE IS NO SORROW TOO DEEP”

There is no problem too big God cannot solve it,

there is no mountain to high God cannot move it.

There is no storm to dark God cannot calm it,

there is no sorrow too deep God cannot soothe it.

If He carried the weight of the world, upon His shoulder.

I know dear brother that He will carry you.

If He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulder,

I know SAF Four Four that He will carry you.

He said “come unto me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.” 

THE BUCK STARTS HERE

“I have come that they may have life,

and have it to the full.”

(Gospel of John 10:10, quoting Jesus of Nazareth)

“For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.

Whoever does not have, even the little that he has will be taken away from him”.

(Parable of the Talents, told by Jesus of Nazareth at the Mount of Olives,

recorded in the book of Matthew 25:29)

The buck starts here.

“Why is the goal to eradicate extreme poverty so critical now? Is it achievable? What is required to achieve the goal, and to what extent does this represent additional and/or different efforts from what the development community has done in the past?” – DEVEX for USAID.

The demise of Poverty is 2,014 years or so overdue. When the gift of abundance is not fully received did the giver miss something? Or could it be that the intended recipients have all along been asking a prolonged “who me?” instead of appropriating the “talents” given with an eager and grateful “yes, why not?”?

Is the goal to eradicate poverty achievable? Is this the right question?

The Blind Minstrel of Subic - The Unseen Roots of Poverty

A case of mistaken identity? The abundance yet unseen? Learned helplessness?

At the Subic Bay Freeport gate to Olongapo City people sometimes see something very ordinary – a blind man singing old ballads like Freddie Aguilar’s “Anak”, songs easily recognized and remembered; sad, dirty, indifferent face; clothes, guitar, harmonica and portable amplifier that look so old. Standing beside him is an old, lonely shoebox, empty except for a few coins and passing by all around, a crowd of indifferent faces, rushing in all directions; no one seems to hear, no one seems to care, indifferent audience, indifferent performer.

But wait. Take a few moments to listen and feel, and ah, what a surprise! What beautiful music, what perfect notes, what haunting voice, and what nimble fingers dancing with such mindless rhythm and mastery that they seem to have a life of their own. Don’t look, just listen, and see pure talent in action. He’s got talent yet he’s poor?

Is the goal to eradicate poverty achievable? How many of the countless poor are like the Blind Minstrel of Subic? Looking at his own poorness, he does not see the wealth of his own talents and the abundance all around waiting to buy a good product at a price he may not know equals whatever value he gives it. As the marketing gurus say, if you got talent, you make a brand, you have a market and you create your Price and VALUE!

Will I pay P200 to see him play in a bar? Yes, I will. Will I pay P500 to see him in a concert with Freddie Aguilar? Why not? Will Erap or Pacquiao pay $1,000 to see him in concert with Andrea Bocelli? Likely! Why is the Blind Minstrel, he with the nice voice and masterful fingers, poor in the midst of abundance? Is it because he sees himself as poor and the “market” sees only what he sees? What makes him poor and Andrea Bocelli rich? Can Bocelli even play the guitar and accompany himself?

Is the problem merely his physical presence and condition? Or is the “soulution” his spiritual resonance that can be seen, heard and felt in spiritual ways, language and systems? How does Blind Minstrel unlearn the “learned helplessness” that has become a part of him like the guitar in his hands?

Exposing the Roots of Poverty

Are these the right questions to ask to expose the hidden roots of Poverty? Could these be the key that will unlock an understanding of Poverty and redirect an inspired and widely shared work of poverty eradication? Is it not easier for Blind Minstrel to be rich when he starts to understand that he does not have to be poor because he is rich? The Parable of the Talents indeed works for those who “have” who know what they have. It works too for those who “do not have” because they do not know what they have. The only ones that “do not have” are those who do not know what they have.    

If everything is energy, and energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred or transformed, is not the earth as abundant now as it was at the time of Eden? If so, is Poverty a distribution issue, to be remedied by a properly functioning distribution system? That is another story, a social and economic story, and another angle for sociologists and economists to essay.

 

The Spiritual Roots of Poverty

What if Poverty is also a spiritual issue and spirituality the missing component in past development programs, the unseen dimension of Poverty that many in the development community tend to “unsee”? Are we limited physical bodies with eternal spirits, or eternal spirits living in limited physical bodies? Is there anything other than spirituality that can match the abundance and indestructibility of energy?

Did Poverty take root when people started believing in their own physical limitations, forgot their unlimited spirituality and started relying on inherited and/or acquired “copouts”, the wrong and limiting belief systems? Limiting beliefs like “it’s OK to be poor”, or “making money is too difficult”, or “I have to go abroad to make enough money” or “I’m not good enough”, or “the economy is down”, or “nothing works here”.

The War on Poverty: The Real Score

Poverty is an attitude and way of thinking. People who think poor are poor. Poverty is the physical manifestation of a spiritual reality. To win the fight to eradicate poverty it must strike the spiritual roots of the problem.

Governments, Multilaterals, NGOs, churches, social investors and philanthropists continue to wage war on poverty. Meanwhile many poor people remain poor thinking that “it’s OK to be poor”. Many people stop trying to become rich thinking “it’s not OK to be rich”. Does this come from wrong and limiting belief systems that have been embedded and fractured in the soul from generation to generation?  Can this be reversed? Talk about the Pork Barrel, Philippine style, and see that there is no lack of abundance, only a malfunctioning distribution system at play.   

Spiritual Aspects in Poverty Eradication - Paradigm Shifts

The world today is shifting in quantum shifts. The shifts are many, both happening in the physical and the spiritual. The former is easily seen, the latter less readily noticed. They are two dimensions of what quantum thinking calls “observer created reality”. Global movements and advocacies towards poverty eradication seem to converge in business, government, non-government, church sectors and now in the consciousness of the middle class, the sector that could be the tipping point when it decides to get engaged.

In the Shifting, Nothing is Impossible…

As humans shift from a consciousness of helplessness to a consciousness of abundance, as people see and believe that the war on poverty has been won 2,014 years or so ago, it will be won. This shift is readily seen from the way Pope Francis’ message of compassion, development and inclusion of the Peripheries was easily spotlighted and universally accepted. It affirms the timeliness of fresh approaches and paradigm shifts that use the lens of human spirituality, the practice of pragmatic spiritualism so to speak, to put focus, perspective and energy to the effort of Poverty Eradication. This story is trending around the planet now, spontaneously.

Whether Pope Francis said it or not, Gospel means good news and the good news is that there is no Poverty in Heaven, nor will there be in the Heaven on Earth that is presently under construction. This is not the Gospel of material affluence. This is the good news of the human spirit’s infinite worth in the Divine image.

This is the story of the spontaneous, independent local manifestations of a global shift from the old “what’s in it for me?” outlook to a quietly emerging outlook of “how can I participate and co-create and share in the abundance of an inter-connected world?”.

The Blind Minstrel of Subic is in for a surprise!

Bob Calida

HECC, January 25, 2015 

ZANY, SAVVY ZACCHAEUS

Dear CFO,

Don’t wait for the flood to come before building or buying a boat. Don’t wait for a Yolanda to land fall before building back better systems. Don’t wait for tax deadline to comply or you’re dead.

When requirements become mountains nothing one can do but move mountains. Get busy, not stressed out. Get savvy, not angry. Or outsource. Make templates and get 90% of the work done in advance. Or better still get 99% of the work done in advance? Yes, get savvy, outsource!

Zacchaeus, Chief Tax Collector of the Revenue District of Jericho of the Roman Empire, faced with the compelling presence of Jesus Christ, got savvy too. He returned half of plunder he could not really keep and must have lived happily after in stress-free peace. 

WAWD can give you ASPI. It’s as tax-savvy as Zacchaeus or your friendly neighborhood RDO and more cost-efficient.

WAWD

Bob Calida

May 29, 2014

Farsight, Insight, Foresight

FARSIGHT, INSIGHT, FORESIGHT

Bob Calida, December 3, 2013, the Year of the Big Storm

“Ang lahat ng bagay ay magkaugnay” – Joey Ayala’s Magkaugnay…

“There’s no such thing as a minor devastation” – Pres. Noynoy, PDI, Nov. 13, 2013…

“When you lose everything this world can offer, you then understand the things that are of

real value…” – Ptr. Jesse Viloria, Church of the risen Christ, Dec. 2013…

“My answer to … is the application of a Marshall Plan approach in the recovery program

for the disaster stricken communities…” – Rolando Valenzuela, PDI, Nov. 29, 2013…

“Kung may paku lang ako,(“paku” is Bisaya for wings) nilipad ko na yung…” (If only I had

 wings, I’d have flown to...) – Nanay Dionisia, soon after her son’s big win.

“For most people, what is out of sight is out of mind.   Manila-bound decision-makers tend to

 un-see Mindanao and the Visayas because they don’t see them much.” – Joey Ayala, Farsight.

Farsight perspective for Rebuilders: “Rebuild the Visayas and build the nation”.

WAWD, Dec. 3, 2013

Dear me,

Nothing beats a disaster in drawing extremes from people and communities. Yolanda and its aftermath gave unprecedented extremes in unprecedented doses. Heroes and jerks; givers and looters; the capable silently helping, spectators loudly complaining; encouragers, discouragers, naggers; the strong finding hidden reserves of strength, the weak retreating in distress; damage counted in billions of pesos, international aid in billions counted and still counting. Isn’t it awesome to see at close range the diversity, healing power and abundance of the planet? How long will the drama of Yolanda’s aftermath be replayed again and again in the consciousness of the nation?

World War II gave Europe the Marshall Plan. When the collective systems of the Filipino tribe weakened to the point of complacency if not collapse, Martial Law came. Martial Law gave us EDSA I. Right after a terrible earthquake, Yolanda came with unexpected fury. Will Yolanda give the world a Marshall Plan II? Will the Manny-Kim debacle give us Nanay Dionisia and motherly surge and “Pati-Kim”?

Dear PAGASA,

What’s in a name?

There is energy in words and there is energy in names. The Adamic naming prerogative was established when the creator allowed Adam to “name all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.” And so it came to pass that name meant character. Name describes a person’s character and a person’s character is shaped by his name. But what’s in a name?  The answer is a question - why are there so many of us named Jesus, Maria and Jose? And years from now can you imagine how many new voters will come out named Manny and Jinky? Praying in the name of Jesus simply invokes the character and power of Jesus Christ to make prayer come true.

 

Now, here’s the thing -- they say beware the fury of a woman scorned and on the surge, because it can destroy. When the next storms come WAWD hopes you’d stop naming them after women. Nothing superstitious and no offense meant at all to all the women that we admire and love. Let’s name them after the fragrant Sampaguita or the lovely Chrysanthemum, or the cute bird Maya, or the tiny and harmless creature Kagwang (Tarsus), or the cross-pollinating Bat, or the Dilis, so abundant in our seas, or Tilapia…

Or if you really want a woman’s name, use something like Lan which sounds more nerd and techie than Yolanda. Or you can use ‘Nanay Dionisia’. Imagine taming a storm into being motherly? Fierce and just so, but motherly. Motherly surge? Isn’t that something? If storm goes to where she wants to fly, imagine all the storms it can create in media. Use a soft and feminine name that you have to use, but not Kim. Don’t risk inducing a whirlwind.

If you outsource storm naming rights to WAWD, easily my best bet is PAGASA. Name them all PAGASA 1,2,3, and so on and so forth until they stop blowing. As the Bible says “in everything give thanks”, WAWD says “in everything there’s HOPE”.

Dear Mr. President,

We salute you in this time of extremes. The bad news is you have a huge and difficult job to accomplish. The work of Relief, Restore, Rebuild could take years to finish.

The good news is you have a huge and difficult job to accomplish. And all the support, encouragement and resources that you need will be there. Empathy and prayers will be there. If there is to be a Marshall Plan II, you can be sure all the matching resources, talents and intentions will be there. We saw the world doing it just a few days after Y struck.

What was started will continue as you continue. It will come from young and old, big and small, simple and wise. Above all it will come from those who are given Farsight, farsight in space and time. From Farsight, forward and backward, will come Insights and from Insights will come Foresight. All you can use.     

Why worry when we can pray, believe our prayers, and laugh? They say laughing is the Pinoy’s way to cope and overcome problems. If that is true then we know we will overcome. Let’s laugh as we repair, restore and rebuild. And when all is done it will be our joy to see we have reformed, as in re-form or form anew, for the better that we can be. And for the best that we were made to be.

Finally for perspective, WAWD presents below an article on Farsight written by Joey Ayala many years ago, during a curious time when we had a president he called VP. We hope to give farsight perspective to the ‘Rebuilders’ because as they rebuild the Visayas they will build the nation. WAWD will continue on this road to Farsight, Insights and Foresight as needed and as inspired!

Bob Calida

We Also Walk Dogs

Asian Solution Providers Inc.

Asian College   

Altered Native/Joey Ayala

Farsight

(WAWD’s note: Wikipedia describes Joey Ayala as “a Filipino singer, songwriter and former chairman of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts…” He is known to prefer that his work serve as his introduction.

To me, he is good friend, intermittent co-worker, writer and minstrel-prophet, inspiring his tribe with the harmony of words and music. This piece is reproduced with his permission- Bob Calida.)

Our sense of sight is an overpowering sense.  The impressions and information we receive through it are so powerful that most of the time we implicitly accept that what we see is what is. Whether we like it or not, sight dictates to a great degree our mindset and worldview - the way we think, feel and decide, the very way we perceive and interact with “reality”.

For most people, what is out of sight is out of mind.   Manila-bound decision-makers tend to un-see Mindanao and the Visayas because they don’t see them much.

For city-dwellers used to having their line of sight limited by houses and buildings, fences and walls, billboards and electric wires, movie screens and cathode tubes, the unaccustomed treat of having a far horizon to gaze upon can be quite a liberating experience.

Cramped and cluttered spaces tend to make you feel cramped and cluttered on the inside.  Unimpeded external space makes one aware, it seems, of the vastness of inner space as well. The music and art of plains, coastal and mountain peoples evoke such spaces, composed as they are in spaces such as these.

Mindanao abounds with liberating space.  Even from bustling Davao City it is still possible to catch a glorious glimpse of Mt. Apo, serene in the distance, the secret date of its next stirring known to none.

There is power, deep personal power, inherent in such interfaces.  There is also a humbling sense of reverence or awe that scales one’s self-importance to the proper proportion.

I am eager to see what our VP (Virtual President) will accomplish with his promised (?) 3-month Mindanao residency.   I wonder what experiences he will undergo and how these will influence his thoughts and deeds.  Those who will get close to him will have the opportunity to guide his sight.

Allow me to share with you a song lyric written in Davao in 1982 (from the album of the same title) in the hope that you might place yourself vicariously in the Mindanaon landscape and lend the weight of your will to the vigilance that Mindanao is now, and will always be, in need of.  It is, after all, the “front” and not the “back” door to our kapitbayan.

Panganay ng Umaga

Joey Ayala, 1982

ang panganay ng umaga'y

sumilip sa bintana

ako'y dumilat at nagulat

sa lawak ng mundo

mga burol at kabundukan

nakahanay sa abot-tanaw

bughaw na langit at kapatagan

magkasintahang nagtatagpo

lawa ilog dagat

lamig tamis alat

ulan agos alon

haplos sa pisngi ng panahon

sanlibong ulap nagliliparan

kasabay ng agila at lawin

bulong ng simoy awit ng hangin

at sigaw ng buhawi

ako'y tao lamang

taga-bigay ng pangalan

taga-sukat taga-bilang

munting butil sa sanlibutan

ang panganay ng umaga'y

sumilip sa bintana

ako'y dumilat at nagulat

sa lawak ng mundo

Milestones in Banking

New milestones in banking – can awards criteria be better?

Will inclusive banking better serve inclusive development?

Dear Editor-in-Chief of Philippine Daily Inquirer,

Thank you for ‘Top of the banking heap’ written by your staff, Sept. 15th, 2013. Cheers for writing a winning piece, about an award-winning bank, in a regional competition using criteria that make banks the winners in the race toward inclusive and sustainable progress. A toast to BDO for besting other perennial winners like mega banks DBS and HSBC.

It is truly a milestone to be proud of when one of our banks outperforms bigger and older institutions beyond national horizons. Your report that the award reflects the rise in fortunes of the country is heart warming and makes us see the improvement in the country’s credit rating as not just a notion and a benchmark, but as a tool that can actually lead to more meaningful inclusive development.

New Milestones: New Wineskins for New Wine

BSP, good shepherd and excellent gatekeeper, has kept the banking industry as strong, robust, resilient and successful as ever. It has advanced and preserved the strength of banks for so long, as this award shows. Is it time for fresh milestones in banking excellence? If banks are winners should not the victory belong to the customer?

WAWD thinks it could be time to shift from just keeping banks strong to making their consumers stronger as well. In the spirit of inclusive development for banks and their clients we make a humble challenge for PDI to sponsor and take a lead in granting awards that are based on new set of criteria that focus and connect with the bank customer rather than just the banks. If FinanceAsia can do it, why shouldn’t PDI be able to do it better with new set of criteria which WAWD suggests can include:

1.       In addition to loan-to-asset values and ratios, MSME loans-to-asset values and ratios;

2.       Loan portfolio classified and differentiated as to MSME borrowers and non-MSME borrowers;

3.       Loan portfolio broken down as to size, such as micro, small, large and mega;

4.       Net interest margin for MSMEs compared to NIM for non-MSMEs;

5.       Bank products geared for MSMEs;

6.       Loan portfolio granted by Head Office and by Provincial Branches and the % of branch deposits to branch loans; are the bank branches net deposit takers or net loan providers or do branches contribute to local development or siphon it?

7.       Compliance with R.A. 9501 or the Magna Carta for MSMEs.

I bet you it will be great fun to see these numbers officially and publicly revealed for the first time! I’m sure you would be able to add more criteria that can point out that the banking industry will thrive more and the bank consumers are served in more and better ways by serving the smaller sized segment some more. The same issue reports that Philexport, for one, has made studies that show there is more beneficial impact to the economy when the MSMEs are served as they should be and the consumers in the provincial areas are served more. How so? That is another story that WAWD can tell some other time.   

For now we encourage and challenge you to spearhead this competition and awards and we will help as much as we can. This can even be the start of a movement with more social and news impact than Pork. I’m sure you have your resources to use in responding to the challenge and making it a viable value proposition.

Or you can always outsource!

Cheers and may you be more than conquerors in your daily quest for truth and progress!

Bob Calida

We Also Walk Dogs

Asian Solutions Provider Inc.

Asian College  

Cc:          Ms. Alexandra Prieto-Romualdez

                President, PDI

BSP Gov. Armando Tetangco

PHILEXPORT

To Have It Done

Fill Your Life with Everyday Joys

Is it so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived light in the spring, to have loved, to have thought, to have done?

By Mathew Arnold

From the book ‘Be Happy In All The Ways That Matter Most’

To Have It Done and Have It Done Well

To outsource is to have it done, and have it done well and faster!

Bot Palacol

We Also Walk Dogs

Asian Solutions Provider Inc.

Asian College