China is the next Superpower

Brushed up your Mandarin.

China will be the economic and military superpower power in the next ten years.

Yesterday, China rolled out its fastest train yet on Tuesday and announced that the Three Gorges Dam, the world's biggest hydroelectric project, is now generating electricity at maximum capacity.

They are building more nuclear power plants and the Beijing-to-Shanghai high-speed railway will be open in 2012.China's average economic growth rates of more than 9 percent per year over the past two decades have laid the foundation for rapid progress.

The dizzying upward economic speed of China made her the center of gravity. Physics 101 says that those who are near the center will experience gravitational pull.

Countries such as the Philippines will be pulled towards China.

Leaders who will go against this gravity will float in the atmosphere of stagnation.

Philippines, can't you feel the predictable force that China is creating?

Lucena: A Nowhere City

The Business Process Outsourcing of the Philippines, the Commission on Information and Communications Technology and the Department of Trade and Industry announce the TOP 10 NEXT WAVE CITIES 2010. The cities are as follows:
Top 1. Davao City
2. Sta, Rosa, Laguna
3. Bacolod City
4. Iloilo City
5. Metro cavite
6. Lipa City
7. Cagayan De Oro City
8. Malolos City
9. Baguio City
10. Dumaguete City

The General Criteria of the 2010 NEXT WAVE CITIES are the availability of graduates and workers, infrastructure, cost, and business environment.
(Source: Computer World August 2010 issue page 6}
Nowhere in the list is my beloved city of Lucena. The leaders of our city need to focus on the following:

1. Make a strategic plans to absorb new employment requirements.
2. Improve the quality of roads.
3. Identify an area within the city as a property site for IT and BPO. Possibly tying up with PEZA.
4. Reduce regulatory fees and taxes for IT and BPO investors.
5. Market Lucena as a viable investor site because of less vulnerability to natural disaster (very true!), and reliability of water and electric utilities.
6. Improve the peace and order situation.
7. Create an ICT council for the city.
8. Partner with colleges and universities in the City to promote ICT.

nelcadelina.blogspot.com

Gutter Politics

I voted yesterday because it is my civic duty. But the sights were ugly. There were fistfights and shouting matches outside my voting precint.

Democracy in the Philippines is chaotic. While other countries and people are willing to risk their lives in order to be allowed to vote , here we are cutting each other throat for just a barangay post.

Our democarcy is not mature where the voters vote based on family ties and political relationships. Those who are more qualified refused to be a candidate because they don't have the money nor means to win convincingly in this erratic electoral process of ours.

Yesterday was ugly. Neighbors against neighbors, friends against friends and families against families. Added to that the delay of COMELEC election paraphernalia and you will have a powder keg for fistfights and shouting matches.

With the culture of the country that family first at all costs, those who will lose in this barangay election will not be on speaking terms with their neighbors for a long time. This is gutter politics at its best.

nelcadelina.blogspot.com

Positive Energy

I am a believer of positive energy. Persons who possessed strong vortex of positive energies influenced me in creating juices of creativity. They made me develop my natural strength.

Discouragement and insecurities are absent because I a have leeway for my creative expansion.

I also discovered that the antidote for prejudices and personal interest is the development of my natural strength. This results to inspiration caused by the positive energy that permeates the air.

Friends, May you be blessed by meeting people with positive energies!

nelcadelina.blogspot.com

Letter to the People of Burma(Myanmar) (re-blog)

Myanmar (Burma) will not allow international monitors to oversee its elections on November 7, 2010. The country ruled by their military SINCE 1962 has a constitution requiring more than 100 military nominees in their parliament.A reflection on how the junta will tighten their power grip. I wrote a blog 2 years ago about Burma and I am re-blogging it in solidarity with the people of Burma.

Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Your country is experiencing a decade long repression that as a people you are not only given scarce but misleading information. You can not communicate outside of your country whether mobile or internet because the junta cut it off. Do not be intimidated my dear brothers. What is happening to your beautiful country , we experienced 20 years ago when the Philippines was under a dictatorship.

Hold on to your belief. We know that the junta raided your sacred monasteries, beat up monks and shooting unarmed students. These acts are desperate attempt to salvage their decaying regime. Remember my dear brothers that everytime they hurt you, their morale were attacked in return.

We are praying for your country. May you find consolation in our EDSA revolution 20 years ago when we marched unafraid. We were students who at that time were not thinking to oust a regime but to express our outrage to the assasination of Ninoy Aquino. But our outrage was rewarded by ending a 20 year dictatorship.

The Burmese people will also be rewarded and the Junta knows it. That is the reason my brothers why they are using violence. They inflict fear but deep inside their heart they are the one afraid.

I pray for you courageous Burma and may the faith continue to guide you. One day when the darkness is defeated (because it will surely come), I am the first Filipino to salute you.Even though we are ocean apart my heart is with you. Because once I stood up with more than a million Filipinos in 1986 against a regime quite similar as yours.

At the end you will be triumphant just like us. Just hold on!.

Arnel L. Cadeliña

The songs of Paolo Santos

Last night I fell in love again with my wife Nanette. The songs of Paolo Santos in his Back to Basic album bring back a lot of good feelings and memories. The lyrics and the melody in the songs Kanlungan, Gaya ng Dati, Walang hanggang paalam, Moonlight in Paris, Photograph, Naglalambing, Million miles away and yakap are enough for us to reminiscence our teen years.
To my friends and blog readers, try to hear the songs of Paolo Santos, you may get the loving feeling again.

nelcadelina.blogspot.com

Loyalty

In my Principles of Management subject, I required my students to submit a business plan. One group shared to me that she has complaints against one of her member. The leader of the group, eager to win sympathy of her classmates immediately took a strong action by eliminating the person as member of his group.

I asked the leader of the group that the wise and truly loyal thing to do is to ask first what are the charges and to work quietly with the member to correct her fault. This is respect for human dignity.

But by pleasing the other students at the expense of one, the leader showed an action of strong disloyalty. Without thinking that the leader and her member were after all belong to one group.

If the leader treated the member right , this loyalty may turn into lasting friendship and friendship lasts long than the business plan.

nelcadelina.blogspot.com

Feelings

A manager need to realize that the organization is made up of people and these people are made up of feelings.
These feelings should be taken into consideration ALWAYS because this will make the organization worth fighting for.

As a true human, we should keep open to the feelings of others. If we refuses to consider any feelings at all then we are transforming the organization into an army of cold hearted people.

If everybody feels that everybody has genuine feelings for each other, that compassionate concern is always the first move in an organization, support to each other will always be present even without somebody asking for it.

Jesus was a prime example of a leader who has genuine feeling for his disciples. Who can forget the washing of his apostle’s feet?. With his loving gesture, he made everybody willing to die for the cause. Even to be crucified upside down.

Have you experience meeting somebody who expresses genuine feeling for you? Heaven isn’t it?.

nelcadelina.blogspot.com

Excellence in School = Excellence in Work

The beauty of teaching can be enhanced if a teacher experienced the theories he is preaching. No wonder that business schools nowadays put a premium on hiring people with actual experience in the corporate or business world. They paid them more than the newbies because of their wealth of experience.

The one lecturing on the podium who knows the feeling on how to lose customers or to be ecstatic when company became profitable are more plausible to the eyes of the would-be commerce people.

Really, companies hire people who failed in their business endeavors because they have more stories to tell where people can learn.

Here are the reasons why students will appreciate the connection of the world of school (in italics) and the world of work (in bold letters):

School Rules and policies/Student Handbook =
Officeprocedures/decorum/employment contract

Teachers and deans = Boss, Manager, President
Extra-curricular activities = Professional organizations, clubs
Medals, awards = Promotion, Bonus
Exams, Tests = Results, output
Grades, Transcript of Records = Performance Appraisal
Allowance from parents or guardians = Salary
Assignments = To-Do-Lists
Long hours of study = Overtime
Course syllabus = Job description
Entrance Exam and interview = Employment exam and interview
Interpersonal relationship with classmates = Interpersonal relationship
with diverse people

There is a correlation that those who performed better in the world of school will also perform better in the world of work.

I remember my marketing professor who shared to us that those who are in the corporation or academe will experience losing their market share.
No one can escape it.
But the solution can be traced to what we learned from school. The formula:

MIND SHARE + HEART SHARE = MARKET SHARE

Have a nice weekend to all of you. God bless!

Arnel L. Cadeliña

Yes to Grade 12 but...

The class picture in this blog was my 4th year high-school taken decades ago. We were 49, all came from lower class families with big dreams. I considered myself lucky to be with them, first because they were studious and second because other classes were rowdy due to their number which were more than 50.

We had classes IN the grandstand, UNDER the grandstand and SIDE of the grandstand. We were exposed to the elements that combination of odors caused somebody to faint. It was tough, literally.

Oh yes we have a library. But the books you can count. If there was one available, it was either worn-out or the pages you need were missing. It's survival of the fastest. There was no incentive to read because THERE WAS NOTHING available to read. When the government finally issued books to us, we need to share it to one another because it was only good for 20 students. The solution was to share it because our parents did not have the means to buy these "discretionary" expenses.

To me, and I believed with the rest of my classmates, this experienced transformed most of us to achieved and read more than the norm.

Now here comes the suggestion of having Grade 11 and 12 added to our high school. My personal experienced 20 years ago is still happening in public school in the country but this time much worst.There is no doubt we need two more years of high school, but my argument however is that the government should strengthen the existing basic education first. Build more classrooms,distribute more books and train more good teachers.

Last time I visited my old high school, they are still using the grandstand for their classes but now they divided the gym by installing partitions to convert it for additional classrooms. This is truly not moving forward.

Solve the existing problems first before we add two more years.

It's like putting the cart before the horse and the students sitting on the cart are still thinking "survival of the fastest". The difference? The mode is fiercer.

WHY I AM A TEACHER ( a re-blog)

This article was written 3 years ago and was re-blogged in celebration of "International Teachers day"

By: Arnel L. Cadeliña

Dear Alyssa and Amiel:

Both of you asked me several times why I am teaching and why I left the corporate world. The frequency of your query is getting higher as you get older and you see your classmates riding in their shiny cars while both of you literally squeezed in the tricycle. I even remember a prayer of yours requesting the heaven and the saints to send me in far away places in order to earn the mighty dollars. Amiel even whisper to me that almost half of his classmates were boasting that their parents are OFWs and I should be one. How can I blame both of you? Your generation is bombarded daily of thousand advertisements tempting you to buy anything and everything. The TV, radio,cellphones and internet are part of your life that these so called technology helped you and your peers to have a blurred distinction between needs and wants. Sometimes when I hear you and your friends talking about the latest Nokia cell phone, I started to ponder that materialism already won the battle and my children are being groomed by the environment to be the next disciples.

My dear Alyssa and Amiel, you are very much correct that I earn less than the parents of your classmates. The OFW’s who are breaking their backs to feed, clothed and send their children to school are earning more than I. You should remember though that your classmates are enjoying the benefits in replacement of having the physical present of their parent. I know several OFW friends suffering homesickness, toiling from sunset to dawn and missing the important events of their growing up children in return for earning more. But remember though, majority of your classmates OFW parents were not provided good job opportunities in our country and going abroad for them is not an option but a necessity. Every time you kneel for a prayer, include prayers for them.

In your case, I am there when your tears are flowing when you fell in the bicycle; you hear my voice every night while I read stories; we watched wrestlemania together with both our feet up in the chair and sharing Gatorade and spit it loudly every time John Cena loses; we are both teary-eyed when we watched Superman dying ; we pillow fight in the wee hours of the morning; we play soccer until we can not stand anymore; we go to church together and held each other hands while singing the Lord’s Prayer. Would you believe I eagerly await the first time you will be in love?

There are other million things that we did together which you may vividly remember ten years down the road. The memories imprinted on you are irreplaceable. I can not earn dollars but I am with you while you are growing up. For me that’s the best thing in life.

Before I forgot, I am teaching because I am happy doing it. I worked for 14 years in the corporate world which help me build the house we call home. Lord even blessed you in having funds for your college education because of my incessant savings. However, working in a corporation and teaching are like Mars and Venus. In teaching, I found out that I can shape the future, that I am standing on the shoulders of the teachers before me who find teaching noble: Christ, Buddha, Confucious, Gandhi, Franklin, Rizal and million others. Your generation may call as nerds, geeks and weirdos but we are not treating it as a blasphemy but notice our passion. You must remember that a lot of people are successful because of being passionate and I am a passionate teacher at the same time a passionate parent. While I make sure that my students learned, I always find time to be with you.

When will we scale Mount Banahaw?

Very Short But Amazing Speech by Coca Cola CEO Bryan Dyson

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and you’re keeping all of these in the Air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.

But the other four Balls – Family, Health, Friends and Spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it.”

WORK EFFICIENTLY DURING OFFICE HOURS AND LEAVE ON TIME. GIVE THE REQUIRED TIME TO YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS & HAVE PROPER REST.

Value has a value only if its value is valued.