In a survey of the world’s most and least racially tolerant countries, Max Fisher of the Washington Post found the Philippines to be “low.” It states:

“RACIAL TOLERANCE LOW IN DIVERSE ASIAN COUNTRIES. Nations such as Indonesia and the Philippines, where many racial groups often jockey for influence and have complicated histories with one another, showed more skepticism of diversity. This was also true, to a lesser extent, in China and Kyrgyzstan. There were similar trends in parts of sub-Saharan Africa.”

The rating of other countries are as follows:

ANGLO ANG LATIN COUNTRIES MOST TOLERANT. People in the survey were most likely to embrace a racially diverse neighbor in the United Kingdom and its Anglo former colonies (the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and in Latin America. The only real exceptions were oil-rich Venezuela, where income inequality sometimes breaks along racial lines, and the Dominican Republic, perhaps because of its adjacency to troubled Haiti. Scandinavian countries also scored high.

INDIA, JORDAN, BANGLADESH AND HONG KONG BY FAR THE LEAST TOLERANT. In only three of 81 surveyed countries, more than 40 percent of respondents said they would not want a neighbor of a different race. This included 43.5 percent of Indians, 51.4 percent of Jordanians and an astonishingly high 71.8 percent of Hong Kongers and 71.7 percent of Bangladeshis.

“WIDE, INTERESTING VARIATION ACROSS EUROPE. Immigration and national identity are big, touchy issues in much of Europe, where racial make-ups are changing. Though you might expect the richer, better-educated Western European nations to be more tolerant than those in Eastern Europe, that’s not exactly the case. France appeared to be one of the least racially tolerant countries on the continent, with 22.7 percent saying they didn’t want a neighbor of...Read post

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REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH (RH) BILL. Malalim ang sugat na iniwan ng isang Risa Hontiveros sa mga Katoliko. Konting pagbabago at respeto lang sa pamilya ang hiningi naming. We can never agree that SAFE SEX education should be thought to Grade 2 pupils. Sex education is very different from “safe” sex education.

We even had a signature campaign. We presented to her more than 10 million signatures of people against the RH Bill. Sana lang pinakinggan niya becase she had plans to run for the Senate. Now that 10 million signatories spoke to her… that we don’t want her.

Pres. Noynoy Aquino was not in the Plenary hearing of the RH Bill. It was Risa who lobbied. It was Risa confronting us all the time. It was Risa who brought her Akbayan to confront us head on. It was she who didn’t listen to reason. It was she all the time. It was history and I was there all the time. We swore in her face that she would pay for not giving us an open mind, for not respecting our belief.

I did not say a thing before the election. She had a fair and square chance to win. She didn’t and we know why.

It's drizzling in Taipei!

My dear mother went to Taiwan so many years ago to attend a training/workshop visit courtesy of the Philippine government. When she came back she brought a lot of Taiwanese crafts, coffeetable books, oriental decors, music and beautiful stories of her experiences over there. She taught us one song that she learned in Taiwan.

I never forgot about it. In fact, I memorized it and I can sing the song too (pardon the voice!). Try me! Hahahaha! But I loved the melody anyway. It's called Mei Hua (Plum Flower). I loved the version of the late pop star Teresa Teng.

Yesterday was a wonderful day in Taiwan and we thank our Taiwanese friends for it. Our first visit to the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) was fruitful. Thank you so much Dr. George Chien, the Dean of the College of Music; Dr. Wu Shih-Yin, Head of the Taiwan Bamboo Orchestra and Ms. Vivian Chiang, the staff at NTNU for the very warm welcome. Vivian, you are our friend. I am looking forward to our other meetings. We cling to our long history of friendship and understanding through arts, film, performances, cultural traditions and music.

The series of meetings in Taipei today were very meaningful. Thank you Dr. Chien, Dr. Ma and Dr. Yim! Huge thank you to Mr. Hsu! Thank you Ms. Yun and Ms. Chen! We are all very pleased with the hospitality. As always thank you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Vivian who's our superwoman here in Taiwan! She's been most helpful. We are very grateful to her.

I walk the streets of Taipei a lot especially after our meetings and our official tasks and I find the Taiwanese extraordinarily kind. When I asked for directions they really take time to explain and they even give suggestions. When I go to convenient stores and restaurants, the servers are very fast, precise and very attentive. They listen and underst...Read post

2013 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL . The Cannes Film Festival got off to a blockbuster, if stormy start, as Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby opened on a soggy French Riviera. Amid heavy rain, dancing flappers flocked down the Cannes red carpet Wednesday night, bringing a touch of the Jazz Age to the Croisette. Gatsby stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire helped give the festival's opening day a strong dose of star power.

Over the next 12 days, dozens of the world's most artistically ambitious films will premiere on Cannes' global stage. But Wednesday was a day for blockbusters — both the big-budget "Gatsby" and Hollywood's most accomplished director of spectacle: Steven Spielberg.

Steven is serving as jury president at this year's Cannes. The Lincoln director received a standing ovation at the opening ceremony and was serenaded with a performance of "Miss Celie's Blues" from his 1985 film, The Color Purple. He heads the jury that will decide the prestigious Palme d'Or, given to one of the 20 competing films, with entries ranging from the Coen brothers (Llewyn Davis), Alexander Payne (Nebraska) and Steven Soderbergh (Behind the Candelabra). This year's jury is an intimidating, starry bunch, including Nicole Kidman, Ang Lee and Christoph Waltz.

Baz's 3-D adaption of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is this year's festival opener, a choice that surprised many since the film opened last week in North America. Cannes typically takes precedence over release schedules, but Gatsby sails to the Croisette after a robust weekend haul of $51.1 million.

Gatsby plays out of competition at the festival, but Spielberg should have his hands full with a slate lacking any obvious favorite. Internationally-respected filmmakers like Roman Polanski (Venus in Fur), Asghar Farhadi (The Past) and Jim Jarmusch...Read post

ELECTION 2013. Other than the religious block, it was the showbiz block -- as enhanced by advertising -- that determined its outcome. This big effect could not de denied. This proved that the best way to enter and stay in politics is to have entertainment link.

The Senator winners with showbiz background are: Grace Poe, Loren Legarda, Chiz Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano,  Nancy Binay, Sonny Angara, Bam Aquino, Koko Pimentel,  Gregorio Trillanes, Cynthia Villar, JV Ejercito, and  Gregorio Honasan.

Local government winners are: Joseph Estrada, Vilma Santos, Lucy Torres Gomez, Lani Mercado, Lino Cayetano, ER Ejercito, Jolo Revilla, Daniel Fernando, Herbert Bautista, Manny Pacquio, Alfred Vargas, Maita Sanchez-Ejercito, Isko Moreno, Dan Fernandez, Roselle Nava, Jinkee Pacquiao, Janella Ejercito, Roderick Paulate, Chris Mathay (brother of Ara Mina), Dingdong Avanzado, Yul Servo, Robert Ortega, Anjo Yllana, Lala Sotto, Gian Sotto, Jason Webb, Ryan Yllana, Alma Moreno, Precious Hipolito, Sol Aragones, and Angelica Jones.

But an entertainment link could not be expected to work always. It depends most of the time who the candidate with entertainment link run against and how it served said candidate. Among the losers are Bro. Eddie Villanueva, Alfredo Lim, Christopher De Leon, Imelda Papin, Shalani Soledad-Romulo, Annabelle Rama, Ramon Ilagan, Joe Grad de la Torre, Rez Cortez, Joey Marquez, Onemig Bondoc, Roi Vinzon, Dennis Padilla, Michelle Ortega, Amay Bisaya, Rey Valera, Ervic Vijandre, Mon Ilagan, Rey Valera, Anthony Castelo, and Lou Veloso.

Aga Muhlach’s win is in question as of this deadline.

We all have some things we wish we could change, remove, improve or enhance about our faces.

Some of us are plagued by those unwanted veins, all too visible through the skin on our faces, or those annoying frown lines and folds that appear where they shouldn’t, making us look older and more fatigued than we’d like. And others simply want to have healthier skin that will make us more radiant and younger-looking.

This week on Salamat Dok, Dr. Disnee Dulalia of Belo Medical Group is stepping in for the country’s most respected beauty expert Dr. Vicki Belo to give us a brief guided tour of what we can do to address these beauty woes for the face.

They will conduct a live demonstration of one of Belo’s most innovative offerings, the laser veins procedure which primarily removes those unsightly facial veins that show through our skin. The treatment, as we will soon discover, is also ideal for lifting and tightening the skin on the face.

Those unwanted lines on the face, on the other hand, are not easily addressed by common procedures, including Botox—you need something that more effectively corrects volume loss. The Belo solution is the new Embedded Protein Thread. This treatment draws from the age-old wisdom of acupuncture and marries this Asian practice to the best that Western medicine has to offer. The procedure makes use of tiny needles like thin threads, which are then applied to points where you would like to increase volume, such as the deep “11” often found between eyebrows or frown lines on the face. Sometimes, these can also be acupuncture points where blood circulation can be improved.

And last but certainly not least, Dr. Dulalia will introduce the Jet Peel for the face to restore that youthful glow that we all want to recapture. This is a procedure that utilizes pressurized oxygen to have an exfoliating e...Read post

SID LUCERO . Two important Filipino films, Lav Diaz’s NORTH: The End of History and Adolfo Alix, Jr.’s Death March, are about to screen at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, both of them Sid Lucero starrers who is unable to attend its world premiere at the Un Certain Regard section.

GMA7 where he has a valid contract says that its proud that Sid has, not one but two films at the film festival, he was not permitted to attend because of his work commitments with the network.

Naturally, Sid felt sad, "To represent not only the films that I am fortunate to be part of in one of the world;s top 3 film festivals, but also representing our country, is priceless and being there can be a life changing experience. But I've got work and I understand that Love & Lies is on its final weeks. That's life, I guess.”

As a professional actor, he prioritizes work over prestige, "I will continue to do my job as an actor and be part of great local films so that we can continue to show the world how we have evolved. I wish the Philippine contingent only the best."

NORTH tackles the stories of labor migration and economic progress in what was once a sleepy village of La Paz, in Paoay town.

Death March, on the other hand, is a war drama that recounts how the Imperial Japanese soldiers, who occupied the Philippines during World War II, forced some 80,000 Filipino and American prisoners to walk for 128 kilometers after the three-month Battle of Bataan, which was marked with physical abuse and murder.

Sid’s professionalism is paying off. He is part of the ensemble cast of Emmanuel Palo's David F, an entry to the New Breed section of the 2013 Cinemalaya this July-August. Work is in progress for the biopic of slain politician Evelio Javier of Antique. Sid had been casted as Evilio by his family as he has a resemblance with t...Read post

ELECTION 2013 . T’was an exciting elections with candidates with showbiz connections giving the most thrilling performances!

The biggest winners with entertainment links are:

JOSEPH ESTRADA. Not only did the ex-actor/producer and Former President successfully staged a political comeback by being elected as Manila Mayor but his legacy and influence was strongly felt. Elected were son JV Ejercito Estrada, reelected Laguna Gov. ER Ejercito, reelected San Juan Mayor Guia Gomez, and Councilor-elect Janella Ejercito, daughter of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada,

GRACE POE. With the unqualified support of the entertainment industry, freshman Poe gave the biggest surprise with the amazing feat of topping this election’s Senator winners over the long-term candidates. With dad Fernando Poe, Jr. and mom Susan Roces’s legacy strongly working for her (with mom Susan as active campaigner), her meritorious entry into government service as past Chair of the Movie and Television Regulation and Classification Board Chair strongly enhanced her winnability.

VILMA SANTOS. With her sparkling performance as a government official of Batangas, Santos did not have a strong challenger as reelectionist Governor. A sure winner, she campaigned relentlessly just the same, clinching the last term as Batangas’ highest official. Her positive image as mother, wife & actress and untarnished honesty worked positively for her.

KRIS AQUINO. Endorsing Grace Poe, Chiz Escudero, Bam Aquino, Alan Peter Cayetano (eldest brother of buzzed boyfriend Lino Cayetano), and Sonny Angara, the youngest sister of P-Noy had a 100 percent accuracy in her non-monetary endorsements among Senators. Although a shortlist, she backed up sure winners, enhancing further their winnability.

While failing to reflect Grace Poe’s rank number one, the Social Weather...Read post