Monday 31 January 2011

All about Quota on Women in Top Management

Following a discussion on the introduction of laws regarding
setting of quota on women in top management in Germany, I found
this article "In the Philippines, women bosses rule," and would
like to give my readers a brief report on the situation of Pinays
in the big business world back home. Very surprising to see the
rank of Germany when it comes to women in top management.
Here's the article.

In the Philippines, women bosses rule

MANILA - NINE out of 10 supervisors at Anxa, a French-owned software development
company in Manila, are women. And it is no coincidence.

For Mr Fabrice Boutain, the company's general manager, Filipino women are more motivated, handle responsibility better and are much cooler under pressure than men.

'We have been in the Philippines for five years, and practically all our managers are women,' he said.

Proportion of women in top management

* Philippines: 50%
* Brazil: 42%
* Thailand: 39%
* Hong Kong: 35%
* Russia: 34%
* China: 32%
* Botswana: 31%
* South Africa: 29%
* Taiwan: 29%
* New Zealand: 24%
* Malaysia: 23%
* Poland: 23%
* United States: 23%
* Armenia: 22%
* Australia: 22%
* Sweden: 22%
* France: 21%
* Greece: 21%
* Ireland: 21%
* Singapore: 21%
* Mexico: 20%
* Canada: 19%
* United Kingdom: 19%
* Spain: 17%
* Turkey: 17%
* Argentina: 16%
* India: 14%
* Italy: 14%
* Netherlands: 13%
* Germany: 12%
* Luxembourg: 10%
* Japan: 7%

SOURCE: GRANT THORNTON

Anxa may be an extreme example, but nowhere else in the world do women occupy as many supervisory and management positions than in this country.

A recent survey by business consultants Grant Thornton International revealed that half the senior management positions in the Philippines were held by women.

This compared with a global average of just under a quarter, including in Singapore.

Philippine government figures give an even stronger indication of the trend. The latest Labour Department data showed that women in executive and supervisory roles not only outnumbered men, but also indicated that the gender gap had been widening steadily over the past five years.

So, why are Filipinas making such big strides in the workplace?

One reason, managers and business organisations said, is that Filipino men mostly do not mind having women bosses.

'Mothers are very dominant figures in Filipino society,' said Ms Dina Salonga, managing director of SQL Wizard, a software company she set up just over a decade ago with four male partners.

'Historically, we have always had strong women in the Philippines. Women are certainly not in the background here, either in the home or in society.'

Mr Dan Roces, chief researcher at the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP), agreed.

'Filipino men tend to be closest to their mothers and do not generally have a problem taking orders from women,' he said.

In a recent study for the Philippine Centre of Investigative Journalism, writer Jaileen Jimeno said boys were more pampered at home and did fewer chores than girls. As a result, women were simply better prepared for multi-tasking and other rigours of the workplace.

Labour and Employment Secretary Arturo Brion attributed the rise in the number of women managers largely to education. One in five employed Filipinas had completed college or higher education, compared with only one in 10 employed men, he noted.

It is not only in the workplace that women are making their mark in the Philippines.

Running the country, of course, is President Gloria Arroyo, the second woman president since democracy icon Corazon Aquino replaced Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

However, the country's legislature is still predominantly male, with women making up only 20 per cent of the House of Representatives.

It was during the 1980s that women started making their presence felt in senior management. And government data showed that between 2004 and last year, the number of women executives and supervisors rose by 97,000 - six times more than for men.

At the end of last year, there were 2.26 million women in these jobs, compared with 1.63 million men.

Not surprisingly, 97 per cent of Filipino respondents to the Grant Thornton survey, which polled 7,200 companies in 32 countries, said women occupied senior positions in their companies.

In East Asia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand came in at more than 80 per cent. Singapore scored 69 per cent, and Japan, which pulled down the regional showing, was last with only 25 per cent.

'It is encouraging to see some of the Asian economies leading the way. North American and European businesses, in particular, continue to disappoint,' said Ms April Mackenzie, Grant Thornton's executive director for public policy.

One factor enabling working mothers in the Philippines to pull long hours in the office is the abundant supply of cheap domestic help to look after the children.

But while women are landing senior jobs, men still get paid more. PMAP's Mr Roces said the median management salary is 100,000 pesos (S$3,351) for men and 75,700 pesos for women, although the gap narrows considerably at higher levels.

In larger companies, he said, career ladders for women aiming for senior management positions tended to be in the human resources and finance departments.

Mrs Nina Lim worked in the finance departments of two foreign airlines before joining the Manila office of American software vendor Oracle, where she has been finance director since 2000.

Now in her late 40s, she said: 'Equal opportunities in the workplace need to be backed by corporate policies, and I have been lucky in that respect.

'But as a woman, you still have to come across as a figure of authority and establish the respect of your male colleagues.'

And women should keep on doing that, observed congressman Lisa Maza of the Gabriela Women's Party, which advocates women's issues.

'There have been considerable gains in equal opportunities over the past 20 years, but women still have to keep on asserting themselves in the workplace,' she said.

'And then there is the enduring attitude that those who got to the top did so by either being rich or being a bitch, or they slept their way there.'

Article taken from Asiaone

Sunday 30 January 2011

Sharing News: Angehörige pflegen macht krank

This is a news item taken from a local newspaper in Germany.
Angehörige pflegen macht krank

Von Daniel Baumann, 28.01.11, 09:55h
Wer Angehörige pflegt, muss sich viel häufiger als andere Menschen in medizinische Behandlung begeben. Das geht aus einer Studie hervor, die dem „Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger“ vorliegt. Pflegende bekämen mehr Medikamente und Kuren verschrieben.
Pflege

BERLIN - Einen Angehörigen zu pflegen ist eine enorme Last - und macht häufig krank. Pflegende Angehörige müssen sich deutlich häufiger als andere in medizinische Behandlung begeben müsse. Sie bekommen mehr Medikamente und Kuren verschrieben. Dies geht aus einer Studie der Siemens Betriebskrankenkasse hervorgeht, die dem „Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger“ vorliegt.

Die Ausgaben der Kasse für pflegende Angehörige sind demnach 18 Prozent höher als für andere Versicherte. Besonders hoch ist die Zahl der chronischen und schwerwiegenden Krankheiten. Sie liegt der Untersuchung zufolge 51 Prozent über dem Durchschnitt. Zum einen ist es die körperliche Belastung durch das Heben und Umheben der Pflegebedürftigen“, sagt Franz Billinger von der Siemens Betriebskrankenkasse. „Das ist jedoch der kleinere Teil. Das weit größere Problem sind seelische Belastungen“, fügt er hinzu.

Oft Depressionen

Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass 17 Prozent der pflegenden Angehörigen unter Depressionen leiden. Das sind dreieinhalb mal so viele wie in der Normalbevölkerung. Den Angehörigen fällt es der Studie zufolge deutlich schwerer, geistig kranke Menschen zu pflegen als körperlich beeinträchtigte. „Das schwierigste ist der Umgang mit der emotionalen Belastung, vor allem bei Demenzerkrankungen“, sagt Pflegeexpertin Claudia Brinner von der Caritas.

Experten sind sich zudem einig, dass Pflegende häufig in eine große soziale Isolation gerieten, der Austausch mit anderen Menschen fehle oft völlig. Fast zwei Drittel der Pflegebedürftigen in Deutschland werden zu Hause von ihrer Familie betreut.

Sunday 23 January 2011

Going Bananas



As promised to my friend, Beate, I'm posting something about the
old notes I found this week while keeping my New Year's resolution
to clear clutter away at least 10 minutes a day.
With a heavy heart, I threw the fading piece of paper and
retyped the notes to a folder named Diary Collection.
So here's what I found:
Im Jahre 1892 biss der erste Deutsche in die Banane.
90% alle Bundesbürger – einmal in der Woche,
9.5kilogram Pro Kopf jährlich
Gegen Raucherbein, Haarausfall, oder Fettleber.
Aus: Die Banane – "Dokumentation einer außergewöhnlichen Frucht“
Informationsgemeinschaft Banane. Müenchen, 100Seiten, 15 Mark

Rough translation:
In 1892, the first German bit into a banana.
90% of Germans eat banana once in a week, consuming about
9.5 kilos per person annually.
Banana is good against "Raucherbein" (literally, smoker's leg)or
hardening of the arteries in the legs due to excessive smoking.
Further googling defined it as PAOD, Peripheral Arterial Occlusive
Disease or simply leg gangrene which hopefully scares many smokers.
Banana is also good against hair loss (have you seen a hairless
monkey?) and fatty liver.
Taken from:
"The Banana - A Documentation of an Exceptional Fruit"
Banana Information Team. Munich, 100 pages, 15 Mark

I must have noted this info just a year before we started to pay
our bananas in Euro. As could be seen in the photo, the cost is
about 1.09Euro per kilo. I paid roughly 72.60pesos for the six
pieces, and this is the cheapest price one could have in my city.
Bio-shops and other city supermarkets demand higher prices for
the same imported goodies.

What I do with my bananas?

I mix it with breakfast cereals, make smoothies, do Banana split,
make turon, fry and shower it with white sugar or eat it with Adobo, a national dish from my home country with rice
or with any fried fish...with rice, of course.
There are some taste freaks who mix banana with peanut butter for
their sandwiches and I'm one of them, doing it for breakfast.

What I won't do is offer banana as dessert to some visiting
Pin@ys coming straight from a Banana Republic. Reason?
I don't want that comment once said to me: "How can you eat
banana here? They taste like medicine!"

Below are added scribblings on that fading piece of paper.
I have no idea why I included them in my notes on that same day:

Sepharden – orientalische Juden in Israel
Ashkenasim – europäische Juden

But I was not going bananas, definitely!...not!

Sunday 16 January 2011

Have Porsche, will have some fun.


(Photo:taken from pagenstecher.de)
The last week started with the purchase of a second or a third hand
Porsche by President Nonoy which stirred not a few comments on
the private business of PNoy. My FB friend Naomi promised to
invite me sometime to share some myths she knows about Porsche
drivers. Waiting for that date, I would like to spend this
sunny Sunday afternoon to blog some posted stuffs about Porsche.
Enjoy them! And if you contemplate on buying one, I won't hold
it against you. Can I have a hitch, Please?

Porsche Driver Abducts a Child

Published: 18 May 10 13:57 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100518-27269.html
A 47-year-old man is under investigation for abducting a young boy and hauling him to a police station for throwing dandelions at his Porsche, Lower Saxony police reported on Tuesday.
Around 8:10 am on Monday, a local bus driver called emergency services after witnessing a man force a boy into his car in the town of Hittfeld, just south of Hamburg.
But as officers were beginning to start a manhunt for kidnapping, the Porsche driver arrived at the station with a “totally terrified” eight-year-old boy, police spokesman Jan Krüger said in a statement.
The man had reportedly been driving down the street when the boy and another eight-year-old friend threw dandelions at his fancy car.
“Out of rage over this ‘dangerous joke’ the man quickly stopped and dragged one of the boys in his car to bring him to the police,” Krüger said. “He only realised later just how badly he scared both eight-year-olds.”
Both children were “somewhat” comforted by their parents at the station, he added.
Now police have instigated criminal proceedings against the testy Porsche owner for false imprisonment.
Krüger also commended the 50-year-old bus driver for her quick reaction to the incident, saying it would have been vital in the case of real kidnapping.
The Local

And another one below showing who drives Porsche car:

Materialism

A Londoner parks his brand new Porsche in front of his company’s Northern office in Matlock to show it off to his colleagues up there.
As he is getting out of the car a lorry comes speeding along, far too close, and takes his driver’s door clean off before zooming away.
More than a little distraught, the Londoner grabs his mobile 'phone and immediately calls the police.
Five minutes later, the cops arrive, but before the policemen have a chance to ask any questions, the man starts shouting and screaming hysterically, "My Porsche!” he cries. “Just look at my beautiful silver Porsche. It’s ruined. No matter how long it's at the panel beaters, it'll never be the same again."
To which the policemen shake their heads in disgust. "We can't believe how materialistic you bloody Londoners are," says one. "You lot are so focused on your possessions you don't notice anything else."

The Porsche driver is aghast. "How can you say such a thing at a time like this?"
The policemen reply, "Don't you realise that your arm was torn off at the socket when that truck went past?"
The Londoner looks at the bloody stump by his shoulder for the very first time and screams, "'Aghhhhh! My watch! My watch! Where's my bloody Rolex?"
theedgemag.co.uk


An acronym for this flashy German car reads:

PORSCHE: Piece of Rubbish Saps Continually High Expense

And the last for a big liberating laugh:

Q. What's the difference between a porcupine and a Porsche?
A. A porcupine has the pricks on the outside!

K, walang pikonan hah?

Friday 14 January 2011

Film: Couscous mit Fisch


"La graine et le mulet" - the original title of this French film
by Abdellatif Kechiche.
At the port of Sète, Mr. Slimane, a tired 60-year-old, drags himself toward a shipyard job that has become more and more difficult to cope with as the years go by. He is a divorced father who forces himself to stay close to his family despite the schisms and tensions that are easily sparked off and that financial difficulties make even more intense. He is going through a delicate period in his life and, recently, everything seems to make him feel useless: a failure. He wants to escape from it all and set up his own restaurant. However, it appears to be an unreachable dream given his meager, irregular salary that is not anywhere near enough to supply what he needs to realize his ambition. But he can still dream and talk about it with his family in particular. A family that gradually gives its support to this project, which comes to symbolize the means to a better life. Thanks to its ingeniousness and hard work, this dream soon becomes a reality...or almost....
Written by Venice Film Festival

Sunday 9 January 2011

Our Daily Food, "More Colorful, More Poison"


(Photo Source: Ksta.de.8.9.Januar 2011 Nr. 6)
News are all carrying items now on food contamination.
People are getting anxious if they could still enjoy their
breakfast eggs.
After reading the local papers this Sunday while waiting for the
"Sternsingers" to come singing in front of our door, am posting
the English translation of what one finds in one's daily food in
Germany:
* food additives
* trans fatty acids
* dioxin
* emulsifiers
* pesticide
* food coloring
* heavy metals
* flavours/aroma
* flavour enhancers
So what's glorious left in food, glorious food?
I'm planning to have Sinigang na Salmon for a late dinner or
soup emulsifier with trans fish fatty acids wrapped in
heavy metals.
Guten Appetit!

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Like Brand Things? How About Brand Eggs?


(Photo taken from Deutsche Welle

After finishing my power palitaw, news came in warning people
about eating eggs in Germany as they are dioxin-loaded. Uuups,
thought of hundred of Pin@y friends and their especial dessert
for important celebrations-Leche Plan. How many eggs have we
been consuming lately, hidden in many holiday cakes. How many
scoops of deliciously prepared yolks dressed with cream in
leche plan?
More on this dioxin loaded eggs, see the news taken from
Deutsche Welle.

...and this is just a tip of the iceberg. Ei!Ei!Ei!

Saturday 1 January 2011

First Posting on 1.1.11, Power of Palitaw


"When poets...write about food it is usually celebratory.
Food as the whole thing-in-itself, but also the thoughtful
preparation of meals, the seving of meals, meals commonly
shared: a sense of the sacred in the profane."
Joyce Carol Oates

This is not a poet writing on food but just posting what
I had for brunch on the first day of the new year. I had
some pieces of delicious Palitaw. To give an authoritative
definition of what palitaw is and how to do it, Wiki described it as "a small, flat, sweet rice cake eaten in the Philippines. They are made from malagkit (sticky rice) washed, soaked, and then ground. Scoops of the batter are dropped into boiling water where they float to the surface as flat discs - an indication that they're done. When served, the flat discs are dipped in grated coconut, and presented with a separate dip made of sugar and toasted sesame seeds. Sounds easy you might think.
Palitaw is a common delicacy in the Philippines but it gets a special
status when prepared, cooked and eaten on the first day of a new year.
Like other round objects to wear, decorate and eat to celebrate the
coming of a new year, Palitaw is a symbol for luck. The word litaw
means to float, to appear and it conveys a meaning of getting
above, getting lighter: above problems especially financial worries
as many people believe or would love to believe.
My hubby said that I might be very unpredictable in many ways
and things but preparing palitaw on the eve of a new year becomes
a part of a sacred ritual.
Many years of experiencing how to make it have given me palitaw
of different sizes and textures:sometimes too thin that they
would melt upon hitting the boiling water or too thick they
would not float above which would not serve the meaning of
having them in the first place. My fingers would be sticky with
the batter and dusting them with the flour would send hubby into
a violent fit if he would actually see me in action.
I could claim now that I could do palitaw, delicious ones, and one
could eat my own version and feel that they bring good omen for
the new year. Proof? Hubby eats them now voluntarily,
commenting that my Palitaw get softer, tastier and the sesame
with sugar toppings do taste like sesame and not burnt residue.
Prosit! Cheers to the New Year!