Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – The first-ever Social Tourism Summit was organized in partnership with TEAM Philippines (Tourism Educators and Movers of the Philippines) and the League of Tourism Students of the Philippines. It was held at the Gawad Kalinga (GK) Enchanted Farm on Feb. 21, gathering students and professors to discover how tourism can help to alleviate poverty. More than 170 attendees from four different universities in Metro Manila visited the GK Enchanted Farm, the Gawad Kalinga platform to raise social entrepreneurs, help local farmers and create wealth in the countryside. Delegates were welcomed by Gawad Kalinga founder Tony Meloto, whose vision to create a “Disneyland” for Social Tourism has, in little over five years, seen the Enchanted Farm emerge as an international hub attracting entrepreneurs, volunteers and short-term tourists from across the world. International corporations such as Air France, Schneider Electric and Shell have helped to transform the Farm’s surroundings, which today attract thousands of international visitors each year thanks to its partnerships with 34 universities from across Europe. “We are attracting the brightest and the best from Europe to join us in our vision to build a fairer, safer world. More and more of them are coming because they are attracted to a cause which truly inspires them,” Meloto said. “They partner with our people, and offer such love and care to the poor that even the lost and most marginalized are learning to dream once more. Here at the Enchanted Farm they even learn French – something beyond Read More …

Fire walk with me: Coach Cherry Pua-Africa (second from right) strengthens teamwork, leadership and communication through her “Ignite the Fire in You” boot camp from April 21-25. MANILA, Philippines – Success always starts with your first step. Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) can supercharge your life so that you can break through your doubts, gather your inner energies and push you or your team on the road to success. It is a set of insights and skills that help transform your mindset, language patterns and behavior so you can maximize your greatest gifts. One of the tools in NLP utilized to empower you to walk through your fears is to fire-walk. It might seem initially weird or absurd but for a lot of people across the globe, it works. Brought to the Philippines by Cherry Pua-Africa, fire walking has been gaining a tremendous following in other countries. It is used as a metaphor to describe individuals who conquer their fears through the power of their minds. “It disables self-doubt, limiting beliefs, fears, and even bad habits like procrastination and lethargy, and turns you into a person with a powerful psychology and winning physiology or state,” says Pua-Africa. “It is also a transformative team-building tool. Team members are pulled into a cohesive and committed team because they now share a common experience.” By walking barefoot on a bed of red-hot (600°C) embers or stones, you fire up your spirit and unleash the inner fire within yourself. Before the actual fire-walking activity, participants Read More …

Are you a committed person? Do you deliver what you promised? I make commitments all the time. A commitment has to be met no matter what. And I do have a confession to make. I, too, have made commitments that I regretted soon after committing. But don’t get me wrong, I still delivered these commitments even if I felt regretful. Why so? Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Because this is what the numerous years of my professional practice taught me: what I feel doesn’t matter in comparison to the important responsibility my commitment holds. There is something beautiful about being committed. (And I have met many committed people.) Committed people show characteristics that are worthy of emulation. 1. COMMITTED PEOPLE STAND ON HIGH MORAL GROUNDS. Committed people exhibit dedication. Their main concern is the fulfillment of their commitments. As a result, they do not make excuses. They value reputation. They know that credibility is more valuable than money. 2. COMMITTED PEOPLE ARE GENERALLY HAPPY. Many of them have gone through the same challenges ordinary people have. Some of them have experienced frustration and a lot more negative feelings yet they remain happy simply because they are firm or committed on their promises. 3. COMMITTED PEOLE ARE TRUSTWORTHY. If they say they will get the job done, then they will get the job done. This makes them credible, dependable and reliable. Committed people are assets and highly appreciated by their leaders. 4. COMMITTED PEOPLE KNOW WHY THEY Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Snack food manufacturer Mondelez Philippines Inc. (MPI) has launched new products unique to the Filipino market to support higher sales. In a briefing, MPI country head Ashish Pisharodi said the company is introducing new products to cater to the Filipino market’s preference as to better serve customers. “While we are a global company, we try to think local,” he said. Among the new products launched to cater to the Filipino market is the Oreo Coconut Delight cookies which are made from coconuts sourced from the Philippines but are manufactured in Indonesia. Aside from Oreo Coconut Delight, MPI is also offering new flavors of powdered beverage Tang such as calamansi, dalandan and honey lemon, exclusively for the Philippine market. Pisharodi said the new offerings, which were just made available to the market this month, are expected to help drive higher sales for the company. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 He declined to give a sales target, but said that the company expects faster growth in younger business categories such as biscuits and chocolates, than in mature categories like cheese and powdered beverage. This, as MPI’s brands in the cheese and powdered beverage categories already hold the top spot in the market. “Essentially, the mature categories for us are powdered beverage and cheese. We are already leading,” Pisharodi said citing that Eden is the number one cheese brand here, while Tang is the biggest powdered beverage brand. “For biscuits, we set significantly higher targets (than Read More …

Southeast Asia’s dream of raising living standards to equal advanced economies will stretch for decades and the road will be paved with tough reforms that promise to test policymakers’ resolve. A senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said these countries faced several challenges to raising incomes, among them the need to sustain high levels of infrastructure spending amid funding constraints, and the modernization of job-generating industries. “No doubt, the process of convergence is a long one; it extends over several decades,” said David Lipton, IMF first deputy managing director, in a speech in Kuala Lumpur. He said that while some, such as Malaysia and Singapore, were nearing the high-income threshold, most countries in the region were still behind the curve in terms of so-called “convergence” with advanced markets. Twenty years ago, Malaysia’s per capita income was about $3,500. Now it has risen to $11,000 or near the $15,000 gross domestic product (GDP) per capita required for a country to be called rich. The Philippines’ GDP per capita stands at around $1,600, according to research group Trading Economics. “Full convergence with advanced economies is a more distant goal for some other Southeast Asian countries,” he said. Economies in the region are mostly stable and governments have comfortable fiscal buffers. Lipton said countries should use this space to sustain high infrastructure spending. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has estimated Asia’s infrastructure needs at $8 trillion over 10 years, of which about $1 trillion was needed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations   Read More …