I strongly oppose to a Constituent Assembly that may practically extend the terms of our dear President and her allies in power. (read more in my entry Oppose the Constituent Assembly)

If you want to join the “Di Ako Papayag”, then you might want to contribute to the 100 ‘DI AKO PAPAYAG’ videos. Please make your own video & email info@register-and-vote.com

Our Congressmen signed a resolution to convene a Constituent Assembly that will practically extend their terms: OPPOSE ANY CHARTER CHANGE PERPETUATING GMA AND HER ALLIES IN POWER!

Matrix House Proposed Charter Amendments

Read more on HR 1109

In mortal dread of a democratic plebiscite by Raul Pangalangan (He dissects HR 1109)

No to Con Ass – website

Stop Gloria Forever Moves! Kick ConAss! from the Akbayan Executive Committee

Have You No Shame? An Open Letter to the House of Representatives by Marck

Lighting the Beacons for a Phoney War? by Manolo Quezon

‘Gang rape’ of Charter should outrage Filipinos – Bernas, GMA News TV

House Resolution No. 1109 and the People by Juned

The Lone Ranger Chacha of The House by Congressman Ruffy Biazon.

The Pronoun ‘ITS’ in Con-Ass Rez by Dean Jorge Bocobo

No to Con Ass Ad

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You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets.

How about visiting my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

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Media in Focus feature on the Valley Golf Brawl and blogging had guests Carlos Conde, Danilo Araña Arao (Assistant Professor of Journalism in UP), Atty JJ Disini, Councilor JC de los Reyes (Ang Kapatiran Party) and myself.

Questions revolved along bloggers vs journalists, legal issues like libel, blog ethics and Credibility in blogging.

Just some notes on my portion of the interview (View this segment):

In all honesty, I did not realize that I had to disclose editing a word in my entry. (I just found out that one can use the code strikethrough for edits). You can speculate all you want or put malice in my actions. The truth is I edit my blog entry every so often because oftentimes, I don’t like the adjectives or words I choose. I try to be a good writer and continue to improve on my writing skills as I go along.

My last word on Credibility in blogging. I don’t care if I have credibility or not outside my blog’s community. What matters is that my community of readers believe in me. I can stop blogging today and still continue on with my goals in life.

(edit – January 17: I don’t have a problem with credibility per se. The thing is I didn’t think I was important or credible to people outside my community.)

(edit- January 16: added DJB’s comments in his entry
Kudos to the Mom Blogger because he is more articulate than me and says it all.)

I recall the exchange. Noemi was being quite candid about a common experience of many bloggers: they don’t blog to maintain some kind of journalistic stature like ABSCBN or PDI or DZMM. They are in some sense just opinionators, but different even than MSM pundits.

When she said she didn’t care about “credibility” that was when she was being a “Mom Blogger” as she said, writing about things she is an expert on: her husband, her children, herself.

Then when she got embroiled in the golf fracas, suddenly all the credibility she had built up as a Mom Blogger was put to to the test in a completely unfamiliar situation. But of course, being a basically honest blogger, she did just “shoot her mouth off” — but with the normal consciousness that her comment thread and other bloggers would see her published stuff and it would stand as a statement of her opinion or feeling at that point in time.

I think most bloggers–honest bloggers anyway–just assume that if they are speaking their mind with candor and openness so why do they need some editor to watch own for the owners interests in THEIR thoughts?

It really goes back to the fundamental cost of doing business in the MSM vs. blogging. It COSTS a ton of money to publish or broadcast anything, which is part of the reason for the “vetting” which is sold as journalistic integrity.

What a laugh. The MSM is just as full of it as the Blogosphere, except our B.S. costs the economy and the environment far less. That very low cost of transacting memes is revolutionary. It has silenced the Voice of Omniscience that used to belong exclusively to the MSM.

No more! No more! Ordinary citizens will be heard. We’ll pay for pros to gather the news, but our views can and will stand in competition with any commercial pundit. Any day. Any night. Anywhere.

The Blogosphere is a meritocracy of ideas, an aristocracy of meme-makers

I am not perfect. I make mistakes. I am a work in progress.

Related Entries on Media- Bloggers versus Journalists

Kudos to the Mom Blogger by Dean Jorge Bocobo (Thanks for this affirmation. I needed it.)

When you write, do it right™ by Benign0

A Bloggers Wet Dream by Carlos Conde

Yeah Whatever by Jester in Exile

A Brief History of Media by Rom

Why We Blog by Abe N. Margallo

The Disruptive Technology of New Media by Cocoy

The Hoopla Between Journalism and Blogging by Marck

What is Mainstream Media’s Beef with Blogging by Alex Maximo——————————-
You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets.

How about visiting my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

I’ve changed my mind. When I first heard Charice Pempengco in the Ellen Degeneres show, I wasn’t too impressed with the “birit” style. Though quite awesome, her lung-busting vocal skills are simply not my type of singing.

Today, my sister Lorna sent me the Full version of Charice Pempengco who sang “I Have Nothing” in the Oprah Winfrey’s World’s Smartest Kids and I am so bowled over. Charice literally blew them away. The audience gave her a standing ovation before the song even ended.

Her singing is so much improved. I used to get distracted with the “birit” style but this time, her tone was just simply amazing. It must have been the pain in the past that brought out all these emotions during her singing. Charice has known pain and sadness since her parents separated when she was just a little girl. It was, by her mother Raquel’s account, a parting preceded by heart-breaking incidents that Charice witnessed .

Fortunately, mother and daughter resolved to leave it all behind and move on. It was not easy, but the way things have turned out is a testament to the power of faith and the will to succeed.

If you watch the video till the end, Oprah says it sounds like Charice is pulling her voice from somewhere deep in her body. “What a blow-away moment!”

Oprah says she first heard about Charice from producer/songwriter David Foster. “He says you’re a force to be reckoned with.”

For Charice, singing on Oprah’s stage is a dream come true. “I can’t believe I’m here standing with you,” she says. “I can’t believe I’m hugging you!”

I am amazed at how YouTube (through Dave Dueñas, a.k.a. FalseVoice on the YouTube) paved the way to her dreams which brought her to Sweden then the USA, Korea, and the UK.

This girl is going places.

Go Charice. It’s good you gave yourself credit for your success with the support of your mom, friends and fans. We’re proud of you too.

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You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets.

How about visiting my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

To my visitors who watched the blogging episode of Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho, welcome to my blog. I already wrote about the taping of this episode…but I want to clarify portions of the show.

1. I did not give permission to show a reenactment of the swimming pool scene.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho. However, I didn’t know they will re-enact the swimming pool scene. Though brief, it shocked me a bit. The little boy in the video reminded me of Luijoe somehow. In the past,a TV show wanted to feature my story but they wanted an reenactment. I refused. I texted the segment producer that I should have agreed to an reenactment. According to the producer, he informed me of the video sequence. Whatever. Permission is needed because I have to respect other family members who don’t want this traumatic scene replayed on TV.

Besides, I think this scene was unnecessary. I assume viewers of the show are intelligent enough to know how painful a death of a child is. Hello, do they assume their viewers are dumb and can’t understand what “drowning” means?

I will just let this slide but it teaches me a lesson next time, to ask how the segment will be produced (if ever there are future episodes).

The fact that I agreed to blogging in a cemetery is enough cooperation on my part.

2. Blogging as a Therapy as my reason for blogging

I went into blogging NOT for my sake but to spread the word about my advocacy, the grief support group called The Compassionate Friends. I clearly remember the producer asking me this question on why I went into blogging. I said I went into blogging to spread my advocacy . Secondly, I discovered the therapeutic benefits of blogging as I went along. That interview portion was conveniently cut. I am disappointed that my advocacy part on the The Compassionate Friends was not mentioned even in passing. The slant portrayed was the reverse.

What is wrong with blogging for advocacy? I believe media should show that blogging is a credible medium for promoting an advocacy or social change.

3. I don’t just blog on my grief

Oh… the video just had to make it even more dramatic that I often write about my son. I wrote only one entry addressed to my son, Justice, My son which you heard me recite on the video. Grief-related topics deal mostly with the recovery aspect. Jessica Soho’s researchers should browse through the archives to see that I also blog on other topics such as blogging, motherhood, Marraige, Love and Health.

Despite these three annoyances, their blogging segment is more comprehensive and balanced than Studio 23 Yspeak’s episode and the “Beware of the Blog” of Korina Sanchez. Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho showed diversity in blogging such as entertainment, history, religion, fashion. Screen caps of blogs shown were that of Alleba Politics, Celebrity blogs of Lea Salonga, KC Concepion, Jim Paredes, Francis Magalona…

And Rhiz of pinkseo.info and Brian Gorrell were also featured.

In fairness to the show, some of their viewers got touched with my part. I received heart-felt emails from the viewers thanking me for giving some inspiration.

(Thank you Pinoy Biscuits for the above videos.)

Hopefully the Proudly Filipina segment this coming Friday at 7PM (May 2) will be much better.

On the lighter side, here are the behind the scenes of the taping:

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You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets.

How about visiting my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

Right, this is life. This is not a funeral service. Have some fun in it. Participate. Experiment. Take a risk. Be spontaneous. I shouldn’t be too concerned about doing it right or doing the appropriate thing. I laugh a lot now. I love jokes. I laugh at the witty articles written by the Man blog. I snicker at my husband’s corny jokes.

But wait. There are boundaries to laughter and having fun.

There is one thing that I will never do and that is laughing at people’s failures or peculiarities. I don’t find toilet humor funny except “farting” jokes. haha. So when I viewed the video of the Cebu Doctors laughing over rectum operation, I felt anger and disappointment. Here are my fellow Cebuanos mocking their patient. I understand Cebuano dialect and I listened to the conversation taking place in the operating room.

Even if you don’t understand Cebuano, you can still comprehend the conversation. If you listen to the video, you can hear the uncontrollable , hilarious shrieks, the joke of shoving the canister back in, and the utter disregard of the man’s dignity.

This is not the kind of fun I want.

Excuse me doctors, nurses, kibitizers of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, enlighten me. I want to know what is so funny that you had to jeer and cheer?

Here is a feature of that Cebu Rectal Surgery Scandal in Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho shown April 26, 2008 with an interview of the patient:

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You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets.

How about visiting my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

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Read the bloggers entry on Tim Cumper Watch.

Mayen Betita paused to sing their love song, “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again”. She giggled and placed her hand on mine as if placating the pain from narrating the harrowing events leading to the breakup with Timothy Ellis Cumper (also known as Ellumbra or Tim Cumper) her ex-boyfriend, a UK national.

I sought Mayen out so she could tell her version behind the alleged money scam that her ex-boyfriend accused her of. Remember, there are always two sides of the story. Before I show you the videocast I did with Mayen, let me rewind a bit.

A month ago, I was stupid enough to approve a post by Tim Cumper at the FilipinaImages.com. I felt that contributors of the Filipina Images’ Portal should have the freedom to express a positive or negative perception of the Filipina. I was also eager to hear his story.

However, I felt that Tim was extremely paranoid.

1. Tim Cumper lists down around 16 persons including Tierra Maria Estates and Medical Center Parañaque as players (View list of players) of an elaborate scam to snatch over 92,213.39 thousand pesos ($2,000.00 plus). Even the actress Chin Chin Gutierrez is involved.

2. He also thought a staff of the local UK embassy was in cahoots with the alleged scammers.

3. He believes that Mayen’s boss (Francis Jalbuena) is a mastermind of an alleged scam syndicate where his staff including Mayen is used as a pawn to extract money from foreigners.

3. Tim Cumper believes that Mayen faked the surgery of her ectopic pregnancy (with the assistance of 16 players) so they could stand to gain 92,213.39 thousand pesos.

Did Mayen fake her hospitalization? Imagine all the preparation just to “fake” this photo?

Reading his journal entries took me four hours. (read short version by Jepoy in here) I commented that I didn’t believe he was scammed. Some readers agreed with me. The comments from his entries didn’t please him and he started to accuse the Filipina Images’ readers that we were somehow related to Tierra Maria Estates, a real estate company where Mayen worked. I closed the comment section because his statements already smacked of libel.

I didn’t think much of his allegations because Tim, like you and me has every right to freedom of speech and inform the whole world of an alleged scam. In fact , he wrote about the scam in over 30 blogs and video sites. Based on the presentation of facts in his blogs, I concluded that he was not scammed.

Why?

My logic told me this.

1. Tim never sent the 92,213.39 thousand pesos ($2,000.00 plus) to Mayen. So is that a scam if the money was never sent? Maybe an attempted scam is a more appropriate word.

2. With 16 persons & entities involved, each scam player stood to gain by $140.00. Come on!

3. Was it really a scam or an attempted scam? No other victim of the organized scam has come forth and accused the Tierra Maria Estates List of Players. The 30 websites depicting the alleged scam ensure maximum exposure in all search engines results. But no one has come forth and agreed with Tim. So how can it be an organized crime? There should be another victim other than Tim Cumper. I believed it was neither a scam nor an attempted scam.

4. Tim Cumper refused to give his mailing address. Mayen wanted to prove that she was really hospitalized and wanted to send copies of her medical records and photos of her scar from the surgery.

What made it more complicated is that Tim Cumper accused me of many things.

1. He thinks Francis (one of his alleged scammer) used my username at FilipinaImages.com just because we have similar IP address. I blogged about it here and here to clarify his accusations.

Jepoy took pity on Mayen’s plight and surfed the internet for more information on the alleged scam.

2. FilipinaImages.com is now linked as “scum” in his blogs, and together with a few bloggers especially Jepoy, we are classified as cockroaches just because we disagreed with his allegations.

Mind you, Mr. Tim Cumper is 57 years old.

3. He thinks the group of bloggers are paid by Tierra Maria Estates to cover-up the scam. Hence, we are called “TIERRA MARIA ESTATES SCAM – THE SUPPORTERS” a new classification which is different from the “TIERRA MARIA SCAM- THE PLAYERS”. Lately, however, we are now called “scammers”

4. That makes us at least 21 scammers now. Let’s do some more math. Let’s divide 92,213.39 thousand pesos ($2,000.00 plus) by 21 persons. That makes $107.00 each. Haha, is that how low Tim Cumper thinks of Filipinos?

5. Oh but his defense is that the amount should be multiplied by the number of victims other than him. But wait, where are the other victims of Tierra Maria Estates Scam? Come forth and be counted.

Anyway, that’s the short version of the elaborate scam that Tim thinks happened. The accused bloggers soon asked me if we could get Mayen’s story. Don’t ask me how we got her contact number. Call it divine intervention. I called her up over a week ago and asked if she wanted to tell her side of the story. Mayen was reluctant to tell her story. “it pains me. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” Then she changed her mind when I told her that we don’t know her side of the story and that all we read is Tim Cumper’s version.

The question might pop up “Why did I go out of my way to do this interview? I am just a blogger”. I should mind my own business, right? The problem is that he involved FilipinaImages.com and practically smeared us as “scammers” in his more than 30 websites. His personal attacks even came to the point of creating a fake MySpace profile of Jepoy, distorting my photo as one of Jepoy’s friend. His barrage of personal and defamatory attacks classifies as libel under Libel Laws in the UK and Philippine Laws on Libel.

Did I mention that he is 57 years old? Oh yes, I already mentioned it.

Tim’s personal attacks on the bloggers are nothing compared to the pain that gripped Mayen’s heart the past months. While it is true that there are scams pulled by Filipinas and by just about any nationality, one needs to practice due diligence in aborting such attempts.

Instead of checking the scar in person, he based his conclusions from the webcam video that he took of Mayen’s scar at an internet cafe.

How sad it is that Mayen is accused of a scam she never committed in the first place. I want to give Mayen a voice, a chance to be heard. She does not have the budget for internet cafe fees and blog her story like most of us do. Not many are as fortunate as Brian Gorrell who has at least internet access to expose the scam inflicted upon him to the rest of the world. But not Mayen. And many others that have been scammed one way or the other.

I am involved because I am now accused of being part of the scam. Yes, a scam supoorter.

As I watch Mayen wipe her tears every now and then, I believe without a doubt that she sincerely loved Tim Cumper. I believe her when she says that she suffered an ectopic pregnancy. She motioned to her abdomen I can show you the scar. I declined because I didn’t want to lower her dignity any further. It is not my intention to be an investigator and a messenger for Tim Cumper. If Tim Cumper wants proof, let him do the job himself. Oh yes, he tried asking all the players involved and when they could not provide an answer that satisfied him, Tim classified them as part of the scam. If he doesn’t trust Filipinos, why doesn’t he come to the Philippines and see the scar for himself? Why doesn’t he file a case against the scammers?

Why are Tim’s conclusion based on a pixelated and blurry video from a webcam? Jepoy hits the nail on video quality.

How could you base your conclusions on a very blurry video of a webcam streamed from Yahoo! Messenger? The video probably was even recorded via manual screen captures or by a screen capturing program. Which means that every single pixel you record is based on the image displayed by the receiver’s video card.

Now, how the hell does a “very sophisticated” computer equipment analyze a video from this procedure? TELL ME. PLEASE. HOW? Spectral analysis on a blurry screen grab. WHAT THE F%$&?! -_-

One day when someone does a google search on Mayen, that person will see both versions of the story.

I will let you be the judge.

Mayen will not only tell of the love that was never meant to be. She imparts valuable lessons from her heart and about moving on. She empowers herself by seeking spiritual advice from her pastor. Mayen is full of hope. She knows she deserves someone even much better than her ex-boyfriend.

Despite the humiliation and pain, Mayen still had the heart to forgive Tim.

As she reflects over her loss, she pauses to giggle and seek comic relief once again as she hums to the tune of their love song.

So here it is… the videocast of Mayen Betita, A Filipina Who Learned a Painful Lesson.

I rest my case.

Related Posts or Reactions from Blogs/Forums

Read the bloggers entry on Tim Cumper Watch.

1. Tim Cumper’s Reaction and A Good-Bye

2. Tierra Maria Estates Scam Hoax Update: Mayen speaks of heartbreak

3. From Dream to Nightmare

4. World of Filipinas Forum

5. Man Blog Forum

6. hospitalscams.blogspot.com = Severe Case of Psychosis
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You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets.

How about visiting my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

I realize that goals need to be written down. It serves as an affirmation of myself, my life, and my ability to choose. Then I let it go. New Year goals are something we need to dig within and discover what we would like to happen in our life this year. It is an affirmation that we are interested in living life in the year to come.

So the questions evolved. What would I like to attain? Where would I like to go? What would I like to happen in my marriage and family life? I have to remember that I am not out to control others with my goals but rather giving direction to my life. So I continue on pondering. What problems would I like to be solved? What decisions would I like to make? What would I like to happen in my business?

These are my goals for 2008 that are for public consumption.

1. Be more healthy by losing 15 more pounds.

2. Travel abroad and visit my siblings who I haven’t seen the past two years.

3. Have a profitable real estate brokerage with an income of at least _____ (secret) every month.

4. Buy a new server.

5. Help Lauren acquire her first real property.

6. Buy the last batch of furnishings for our new home.

7. Keep my files and folders in order.

8. Be a better writer by attending workshops to improve my writing skills.

9. Be a better blogger by attending more blog events, workshops and writing more relevant socio-political entries.

10. Continue to harness a loving relationship with God, my husband and children.

Things may happen that are not within our control. Sometimes these events are happy surprises and sometimes they are of another nature. The year 2008 looms before us like another chapter in a book just waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals. We will do it not to control but to do our part in living our life.

May the year 2008 bring pleasant surprises, promises fulfilled and a whole year of prosperity and blessings to you and your loved ones. And here are hubby’s New Year Goals.

Here’s a New Year Celebration Treat . An 11 seconds video of an exploding Sinturon ni Judas (Judas’ Belt) type of firecrackers. Pardon the shrieks.

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You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets.

How about visiting my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

Technorati Tags: Happy New Year 2008, New Year Celebration, firecrackers

Munching his pizza (strange to order pizza outside Italy), I was fascinated that as a 17 year old boy he started helping out with his dad’s business even after school days. More than money itself, he is passionate over developing technological advances in eyewear and sports gear every year. Money just follows. I believe it’s good business policy to develop the best product and the income will just come along with it.

Cristiano explains to me in detail the process involved in each eyewear especially the one on ImpactX as it is guaranteed unbreakable for life. I hammer the lens to prove his point while taking a video from my camera phone.

The “Pottery Barn Rule” says: You break it, you buy it. But at Rudy Project if you break an ImpactX lens, they would probably pay you to do it again. Using a hammer to pound on the lens, I gave up fearing I’d destroy the table instead. Each one of us took turns to break this lens. But to no avail. We ended up goofing around with the eyewear instead.

These days, Rudy is retired from the business but often visits their global branches. Rudy Project is managed by Cristiano who is the Managing Director, and Simone ( who is 10 years younger) is in charge of Marketing and Communication. The company is one of the last eyewear brands to remain totally independent, free and faithful to their original mission: that of creating technical glasses with attention to the smallest of details and subjected to the most meticulous quality control, which succeed in fulfilling the requirements of the most demanding of users.

Cristiano Barbazza, Gabriele Boschi, President Rudy Project Philippines and Claudio Fantin, Global Export Manager seem to enjoy each other’s company as we took photos of them. Their laughter and camaderie show that friends can work in harmony. Cristiano teases “do you think I will become famous after you post my photo?”

I said “At the very least, your customers will get to see the persons who run Rudy Project.”

Then I added, “People make the business, right?”

And all three of them nodded in agreement.

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You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets.

How about visiting my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

“Doctor fish” – so named for their ability to produce healthy, glowing results from even the most crusty or diseased epidermis – are the key ingredient in a spa and skin treatment becoming increasingly popular across Japan, China, Turkey and Europe. The idea is that you immerse your feet, hands or, if you are brave enough, your entire body in a warm pool that swarms with hundreds of hungry minnow-sized feeders. The fish zoom in on your most crusty, flaky or scabby skin and chomp away at it to reveal the fresh layer beneath. According to the spas and their enthusiasts, you emerge refreshed, healthy, buffed and glowing. Source: Lucy Atkins

Kampong fish therapy is not your usual beauty saloon since their beauty services range from hand and feet fish therapy to nails services. Imagine a one stop hand and feet beauty shop with Dr. Fish.

After washing my feet, I proceeded to the tub of eager, hungry “Dr. Fish” who looked like our native dilis. As I dipped my feet onto the warm water, hundreds of feeders’ mouth swam to my feet and started to nibble at the dry skin under my soles. It felt so weird that I pulled my leg off the tub with a yelp. Is this how piranhas eat human flesh? It took getting used to and after 5 minutes, the gentle nipping felt like “micro massages” which seemed to improve the blood circulation around my feet. See the video for yourself:

I couldn’t place the camera flash on as it scared these tiny fishes away. Meanwhile, hubby felt invigorated as Dr. Fish ate away the dead skin cells of his feet. Sometimes, I wonder if they get satisfied eating our dead skin. I mean is it healthy for these fishes? They seem to be really enjoying their “meal”. We just sat there mesmerized at the fishes as we sipped on warm tea.

The visit to Dr. Fish was so much fun as hubby and I took time off to relax and just be by ourselves until the next tour.

View photos of our visit to Kampong Fish Therapy——————————-
You might also want to read Positive Mental Energy and Affirmations and my other blogs like Free Filipino Food Recipes, Shopping Finds, Pinoy Food Photo Blog and Techie Gadgets.

How about visiting my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com?

Hope you can drop by! Thanks for visiting…Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado

Desperate Housewives‘ latest episode (the first episode of the 4th season) had Teri Hatcher’s character saying this: “Okay, before going further, can I check these diplomas cause I would just like to make sure that they’re not from some med school in the Philippines.”

(This is the complete video of that scene)

I wonder if the writer meant it to be funny or what. Considering there are a large number of US-based doctors and nurses who are graduates of Philippine Medical Schools, then I think not. These Philippine Medical School graduates took up further training in the States. Before they can even practice in the US, our Filipino doctors called Foreign Medical Graduates have to take a USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Exams) which consist of 3 parts to get into residency:

Part 1- Basic Subjects (can be taken in Philippines)
Part 2 CK – Clinical Knowledge (can be taken in Philippines)
Part 2 CS – Clinical Skills (to be taken in the US)

A lot of Filipino doctors migrate to the US and pass the same USMLE that US-educated doctors take. The fact that our Philipine-trained doctors pass the same examinations which requires a higher percentage score from them as foreign medical graduates proves that medical schools in the Philippines are just as good as any other medical school in the US.

I know there is more than just a USMLE to actually practice in the US. My youngest brother left for the USA in 1999 to train on Epilepsy and Sleeping Disorders in Cleveland Clinic, Ohio. To be accepted in a fellowship program requires rigid interview and review of the doctor’s qualification. My brother made it to the program complete with compensation and family relocation. After his training, my brother (due to immigration requirements) relocated to a suburb of Missouri because a neurologist had been unavailable for the past 3 years or so. So right now, my brother is the only neurologist serving 11 counties. The family practitioners there have been holding on to some patients that have not seen a neurologist for years. He is the same doctor who saved the life of another doctor who suffered a life-threatening stroke aboard a plane (take note, a US airline) two years ago— and diverted the plane to Okinawa.

Right…. America might have a lot of their own “qualified” medical graduates but where do they practice? In large cities where the practice is lucrative. Their own American Med graduates are reluctant to practice in this small town that my brother will practice for the next three years. And even if his contract expires, he will still choose to stay in a state where his medical services will be highly appreciated.

Left to right: My Fil-American cousin who studied in a Philippine Medical School now an Anesthesiologist and my brother, David, with a medical degree acquired also in the Philippines

So I don’t get the point of the scriptwriter. Pray tell me, what is wrong with being a graduate of some Med school in the Philippines yet qualified for the USMLE?

Just ignorance, perhaps? or desperate to be witty?

View other Discussions and Blog Entries:

1. Desperate Housewives message boards and another discussion here
2. Anti-Filipino Slur on Desperate Housewives?
3. Who’s Desperate? – written by a doctor who graduated from a med school in the Philippines but went to the US for internship, residency in Internal Medicine, fellowship in gastroenterology at the State University of New York, Brooklyn.
4. My Take on This Desperate Housewives Shenanigans and Desperate Housewives Shenanigans Part Deux by FeistyMomma
5. Filipino Americans demand for apology from ABC and Desperate Housewives Petition to ABC.

UPDATE: ‘Desperate Housewives’ apology over Philippines slur

ABC, owned by The Walt Disney Co., responded with a statement Wednesday. ABC said it was considering editing the episode.

“The producers of `Desperate Housewives’ and ABC Studios offer our sincere apologies for any offense caused by the brief reference in the season premiere. There was no intent to disparage the integrity of any aspect of the medical community in the Philippines,” the statement said.

“As leaders in broadcast diversity, we are committed to presenting sensitive and respectful images of all communities featured in our programs,” it concluded.

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