Filipina Soul

May 15th, 2008

The Latest About the Sentosa 27

The case of the Sentosa nurses has been in the news for a while now. The case revolves around 26 nurses and 1 physical therapist recruited from the Philippines through the Sentosa Recruitment Agency.

The “Sentosa 27″, as they came to be called, were brought to the U.S. in 2004 and 2005 for employment in various medical facilities. They eventually resigned from their posts en masse, alleging serious complaints and labor law violations against their employer. The case eventually involved the POEA, the U.S. Department of Justice and other offices. Each side has alleged that violations were made by other party.

Read More

By Maricar -- 0 comments

May 14th, 2008

Filipino Family Forgets Toddler in Vancouver Airport

It’s straight out of ‘Home Alone’ the movie.

The Parreno family (grandparents, father, mother, and 18-month old son) had just arrived as Canadian immigrants in Vancouver’s airport. After the long flight from the Philippines, they had to unpack and repack their luggage, presumably for customs inspections. They only had 10 minutes before they had to be on their connecting flight to Winnipeg via Air Canada. Having to deal with the stress of a permanent move to a foreign country, an exhausting flight, customs and immigration, and a delayed flight, the family was as harried as can be imagined.

Read More

By Maricar -- 5 comments

May 14th, 2008

Filipina Soul give-away: Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini

May 2, 2006 was the first day I wrote for Filipina Soul, and my first foray into blogging. I can’t believe it’s already (only?) been two years! Filipina Soul wouldn’t have been a success, and a fun place to blog if it weren’t for our readers - YOU. Thank you for reading, following, and interacting with us.

But the thing with me is… I totally forgot about this milestone! If I hadn’t seen Maricar’s post at Keeping the Castle, this whole month would have passed. Is my memory crashing?! YIKKS!

So, in celebration of my 2nd blogging anniversary, and in honor of “memory” … I’m giving away a Maxtor One Touch 4 Mini (120GB)!

From music to family photos, videos and work files, everyone has a lot of meaningful digital content they need to protect and the Seagate Maxtor One Touch 4 Mini will be perfect for you.

• Full-featured, portable backup and storage solution for complete recovery of your PC hard drive’s contents in case of a system crash or virus;
• Easily moving data between home and office and automatically syncing all your files with multiple computers and having different sync paths to keep the files organized according to system
• Perfect for: Mobile warriors, students and creative professionals who take their work with them

How to join?

1. Click on our collection of My Faves posts. Which is your favorite? Tell me in the comments, and that will be your entry.
2. Additional entry will be given to those who link this contest post on their site!
3. Eligibility - one entry per person per email daily (so you get more entries if you come back tomorrow, but rules #1 (faves posts) and #2 above apply for each entry.
4. It’s open to residents of the US only. Now, if you have a blog, do post your URL as well, as I love to visit my readers’ sites and catch a conversation.

The contest ends 12:00 midnight EST May 30, 2008. One (1) winner will be randomly chosen. I will post the winners before 12mn of May 31.

By Grace -- 58 comments

May 13th, 2008

Charlie Green and His Music

Charlie Green, who took Britain’s Got Talent by storm, is no stranger to musical performance. According to his website, 11-year-old Charlie has appeared on several talent shows. He has sung on cruise ships and at many venues, including the Royal Opera House in York, at Black & White Minstrel Reunions, the Guildhall in Worcester and at the Holy Trinity Church in West Midlands. He has sung before Britain’s Princess Anne at St James’ Palace.

Charlie has recorded “Hands Around The World”, at the invitation of composer Cedric Whitehouse. The song is available for download at Amazon.com. Proceeds from his recording will support the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.

Charlie’s father, Roger Green, is also a vocalist, and had a hand in training young Charlie.

He’s one to watch, not only on Britain’s Got Talent, but beyond. If he wins this competition (and he’s got a great chance!), he could be singing for royalty once again. Last year’s winner, Paul Potts, sang before Queen Elizabeth at the Royal Variety Performance.

via Charlie Green Music; image via Amazon.com

By Maricar -- 0 comments

May 13th, 2008

Soy-Free Adobo

My son is allergic to soy, so I have held off on using soy sauce for cooking. The other day, I was lamenting the fact that I miss adobo and that it might be a while before I can make it again. So I looked for a soy-free adobo dish that will satisfy my cravings.

I found this recipe for Filipino Adobo with Coconut Milk on Chowhound. This rather blurs the definition of adobo for me. There is no soy sauce, or even a substitute other than salt. It’s white, instead of dark. But there is vinegar in it. And, regardless of whether it’s true adobo or not, it’s really really good.

Read More

By Maricar -- 2 comments

May 13th, 2008

Top 20 Best Posts at Filipina Soul

It’s my 2nd year anniversary as a blogger for b5media, and for Filipina Soul.

YEY happy birthday to me! (although I really did miss it, since my first post was May 2, 2006). I am so pleased to have made it this far. When I look back at the two years, I can’t but pick out several posts that I really loved.

So here they are - my top 20 favorite posts:

1. What it means to be a blogger Mom
2. A tribute to the true Filipino
3. “A borderless world”
4. What is a modern Filipino mom?
5. The 1000-strong Dancing Inmates of a Cebu prison
6. The unique history of the Barong Tagalog: a symbol of colonial resistance
7. An Honest Look at Poverty and Paradise in the Philippines
8. This land of abundance
9. What is the best medium of instruction - English or Filipino?
10. “Paraiso”: the Gawad Kalinga movie trailer
11. On the Desperate Housewives Issue
12. A Filipino-American Thanksgiving Dinner
13. 100 things that make us Filipino
14. The proper way of eating balut (fertilized duck egg)
15.  Social relevance and the Filipino music
16. Culture shock - defined and experienced
17. The Philippines’ best universities
18. Recovering our “Filipino-ness”
19. Migration economy and the OFW
20. Growing up bilingual

How about you? Which of our posts became a favorite of yours?

I’m also excited over where Filipina Soul is going in the future. But, what is missing from Filipina Soul? What would you like to see more of? And what can we do to improve this blog (be it design or content). We’d love to hear from you!

By Grace -- 43 comments

May 12th, 2008

Passenger sues jetBlue for flight spent in toilet

Passenger manifesto:

• Jane Doe               seat # 16-B
• Joh Doe                 seat # 21-C
• Gokhan Mutlu       toilet seat

OK so it sounds funny like that, but I am sure it wasn’t any fun for jetBlue passenger Gokhan Mutlu when he was told to stay in the airplane bathroom for his flight from San Diego to New York. And it’s certainly not funny now for jetBlue if this suit goes to court.

Gokhan Mutlu was wait-listed on a flight from San Diego to New York, but was allowed to board when a flight attendant gave up her last seat. According to the New York Post, the attendant sat on the personnel “jump seat” but 30 minutes into the flight wanted to take her seat back. So the pilot told Mutlu to give up that seat to the stewardess, and spend the rest of the flight in the toilet. Which he did, much to his humiliation.

Even though this didn’t happen in the Philippines, I thought I would post this as part of the travel-related news. Just in case you might be traveling with jetBlue. Read the complete report from the New York Post.

By Grace -- 7 comments

May 12th, 2008

Woes of a Filipina Gadgenista

I’m excited to bring in some fresh takes here on Filipina Soul with a guest blogger - Lia Amanda F. Espina. Lia writes for Gadgenista, the b5media’s version of “beauty and the geek”. She brings the latest news and updates on girl gadgets and everything else that’s geek-ishly cute and fashion-worthy!

I’ve been writing for the Gadgenista for about a year now (Yup, you got that right! Gadgenista officially had it’s birthday last April 28! Happy Birthday!) and as much as I’ve enjoyed writing about fashion gadgets for girls, it’s actually been pretty hard for me to come up with content while I’m here residing in the Philippines.

For one thing, as much as I hate to admit it, the Philippines is still technologically backward compared to other countries like Japan (aaaaah, the robot mecca! And the land of uber-duper cute cell phones and cell phone trinkets!) and the US!

I can only “ooh” and “aah” over the gadgets I  surf about over the internet because most of them are only available in other countries *cry*

I can, of course, go online shopping, but then it would definitely be very expensive, and it’s only lately that the Philippines has been exposed to Paypal and using credit cards for paying online (sad, sad, sad).

Though it’s not really that bad. I mean hello, we don’t live in the mountains and we definitely have our share of gadgets like the iPods and laptops and a gazillion cellphone models, but then, when it comes to accessories, I’ve noticed we only have a few choices to choose from! All the nice ones (and not to mention quality-made accessories *smirks*) are usually only available abroad!

Don’t get me wrong. I love the Philippines, but really, when I read about how DS Lites are being used in Japan as interactive tourguides in museums and how pink GPS (aaaaah!!!) gadgets are being in the US, I can only sigh and dream that maybe, in the near future, my country can have those, too!

Aaaah, the woes of a Filipina Gadgenista!

***

check out Lia at her personal blog http://leeyahgrl.blogspot.com/

By Grace -- 0 comments

May 11th, 2008

What it means to be a blogger mom…

• blogs at the breakfast table with sticky strawberry jelly fingers, and a baby on her lap
• blogs in the afternoon, on the big king bed, with a sleeping toddler by her side and a baby on her lap
• blogs at 2 am, on the glider-rocker… no baby (whew!)
• dancing hip hop to “ABC”
• discipline is heartbreaking!
• wet kisses
• toothless smiles that melt her heart
• goofiness without shame
• “Mommy, I’m your princess!”
• “I love you, Mommy.Goodnight, Mommy.”
• anytime-hugs
• someone to play Dora with
• a newborn, skin to skin
• watching Smallville with the girl. for real.
• hero, unsung but fully rewarded
• middle-of-the-night snuggles when the girl wakes up and goes to sleep with her mom and dad
• that loving gaze her husband gives when he sees the kids with her
• when the girl pretends-play with her dolls and she acts like her mom
• to labor through, and deliver a really beautiful child
• nine months without chocolates, coffee, peanut butter, sushi, eggs and dairy
• and after giving birth, maybe many more months without the dairy, eggs, nuts, chocolates and seafood of an allergy-free life
• love, rediscovered

Every hero has a mom. Every mom is a hero.

Happy Mother’s Day.

By Grace -- 1 comment

May 11th, 2008

WordCamp Philippines Set for October

Attention, WordPress users! WordCamp is coming to the Philippines!

Oliver Robillo is leading Mindanao Bloggers, Inc. to bring this event to the Philippines. It is set to occur on October 25, 2008 in Manila. Write it into your schedules right now!

Participants of WordCamp Philippines can expect to learn about the latest developments in, and future plans for, WordPress; hopefully from Automattic representatives themselves. What we plan is to create two tracks: one with technical sessions for hardcore WordPress developers, PHP coders and theme designers; and, one for front-end users and beginners. Aside from that, there will also be an “install-fest”, where we’ll invite everyone to bring laptops or even desktops to the venue for a guided installation of the latest version, the most important plugins, and for demonstrations on how to tweak WP themes. Of course, there will also be socials after the sessions.

You can track the developments at the WordCamp Philippines blog (powered by WordPress, but of course!).

via Inquirer

By Maricar -- 3 comments