The Medal

This medal is a symbol of two powerful emotions: fear and motivation. And these two emotions will determine who and what will you become in the future. They are the sources and foundation of your actions, decisions, and choices-- small or big-- which will either make you or break you. 

Today, I will speak about dreams and how I came about realizing in a hard way the dangers of focusing too much on numbers and end results as a measure of success and self-worth.

Who among you think you are successful in your chosen field? What is your perception about success and excellence? Is it based on medals and certificates you earn?

When I was still in high school, I thought that success is always measured by grades and number of medals. I graduated salutatorian, achieved PGMA excellence award in campus journalism, and obtained several other awards to the point that I looked awkward for having so many medals hanged around my neck. Although I haven't achieved the topmost rank, which is Valedictorian, I felt proud and a sense of accomplishment. And I thought those accomplishments made my parents happy and proud.

College days came and it provided me an opportunity to set new goals. Again I always carry this belief in me that success is all about getting high grades and achieving awards. My happiness and well-being are always tied up to that idea. The first semester of my first year ends and I managed to be the top 1 in the whole College of Commerce. I also won the championship in our Accounting Wizard contest.

I felt elated and very proud for landing top 1 and I can say that that was one of the best moments of my life. These achievements fed my ego which I did not realize was already destroying my life. I became arrogant and I saw myself as something special.

When I reached 2nd year I started to lose momentum and my performance started to decline. I thought maybe I am not doing my best and I probably need to work harder. Upon reaching 3rd year I was at my worst and was totally burnt out. I almost failed in my Computer Programming subject which I considered my forte.

I am still holding on this thought that I need to get high grades and I should reach the highest honors when I graduate not realizing that I was already burnt out. My ego is telling me that I need to maintain my ranking or else people will think that I am a total failure. I had this fear that I may not be good enough to other people especially my parents and my peers.

My self-esteem started to plummet. Close friends noticed that I seem sad and too serious all the time and asked me if there is something wrong. I blatantly said that I am fine and I am just tired because of school work. My ego hinders me from letting myself be vulnerable and open up with my close friends and family afraid that they might judge me negatively.

Be more Computer Savvy

Uber's self-driving car equipped with a lot of sensors.
Copyright Forbes.com

Who among you here considered yourselves techies? Is there anyone who does not know how to use a personal computer? How about smartphone? Do you think computer skills are very important in today's fast-paced generation?

Almost everything that we do are either done through computers or managed by computers. We interact with them from the time we wake up in the morning up to the time we sleep. Even the number of sleep hours that we have are sometimes managed by computers. We are surrounded by data and information that are mostly processed by these machines. From the billboards that you see in the streets up to that tiny gadget in your hand. And computers nowadays are becoming smarter, faster, and better as more codes and data are produced and processed. There will be a time that these computers will perform much better than humans do.

According to a leading scientific "futurologist", computer power will match the intelligence of human beings within the next 20 years because of the accelerating speed at which technology is advancing. Furthermore, an academic publication titled "The Future of Employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerization" tells us that about 47% of all jobs will be taken by robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI).  Recent innovations such as Uber's self-driving cars, Apple's personal assistant Siri, and Amazon's Go Cashless Shopping are slowly replacing some of the clerical jobs.

Maintaining Effective Internal Controls

Extent of damage of the Bangladesh Bank heist.
Photo owned by cnnphilippines.com

On July 2017, Maria Victoria Lopez, head of Metrobank's Corporate Service Management was arrested for stealing Php1.75billion from the Bank through a fake loan account.

On February 2016, unidentified hackers managed to steal over $81-million from Bangladesh Bank's account at the New York branch of the US Federal Reserve using fraudulent orders directed to the SWIFT payments system. The heist resulted to the arrest of former Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) branch Manager Maia Deguito for several violations of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 (AMLA).

Another big incident which involved the country's oldest bank, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), affected 1.5 million depositors involving a major system glitch. The glitch resulted to a double posting of bank transactions which was caused by the Programmer bypassing her supervisor's approval.

The three real examples that I had mentioned perfectly describe the concept of fraud and error which are significant costs in doing business. Do you think we can lessen the probability of happening and the impact of these unfortunate events?

Fortunately, there are several ways. And these ways are part of the Company's risk management activities which are applicable to all types of organizations regardless of size. Part of these activities are implementing appropriate controls.

The Rise of Digital Wallets and Electronic Payments

The Coins.ph logo. Coins.ph is one of the leading digital wallets and bitcoin trading platform in the Philippines. It has started its operations on year 2014.

How do you usually pay your bills? Auto-debit? Bank Transfer? Bills Payment through Internet banking? Or how about paying through mobile wallets such as coins.ph, Gcash, or Paymaya? How do you usually do shopping? Do you do it online? Are you using your debit cards in paying your purchases?

According to the World Payments Report  2017 released by Capgemini, global digital payments volumes are predicted to increase by an average 10.9 percent through 2020, reaching nearly 726 billion transactions. This report does not even include those that are taking place through Blockchain technology-- the most popular among them is bitcoin.

With the rise of digital payments, due mainly to the ubiquity of the internet, no wonder a lot of Companies nowadays especially those from the banking and financial markets evolve to fill the demand and obviously to survive in an ever-changing business environment. Some of these Companies that are worth looking at are those that you might not heard of. The likes of Gcash, Paymaya, Coins.ph, Alipay, GetgGo, among others. Each of this Company is unique but they have something in common-- to dominate the digital payments market in the Country.

First from our list is Gcash. Gcash is a payment platform that transforms the mobile phone into a virtual wallet. It is operated by Mynt, a wholly owned financial services subsidiary of Globe Telecom. Gcash has several payment capabilities. First, it can be used to pay your bills such as water, electricity and so on. Second, it can be used to buy prepaid loads to all networks and even loads that can be used for skype mobile, steam, and cignal tv.

Another good feature of Gcash is it can be linked to Mastercard and American Express which you can use to buy anything online. On top of that the mobile app can also be used to book movies, buy food and groceries by simply using your phone's camera. Have you seen those weird photos and images consisting of an array of black and white squares posted in public areas? Those are QR Codes which are mainly to store information about a certain item. And these codes have been widely used to do payment transactions.

Conversations with Myself

Carol Dweck, the author of the book Mindset continues to inspire me all these years. Her concept of the growth mindset helped me steer the wheel towards self-development. She wonderfully said "Picture your brain forming new connections as you meet the challenge and learn. Keep on going."

Last holiday season, I went to my hometown to spend my vacation. I thought to myself-- this is probably the best time for me to meditate and evaluate where am I now in my growth plan. For us as workers of the information age, holiday or vacation time is probably the only time when we are able to unplug our minds from work thus giving us time to ponder and meditate. Unless you are the workaholic type who keeps on working even during Christmas Day. Or unless you are the type who likes to realize things when they are at the most unexpected moments such as having a shower or having a dump.

I learned that when your mind is clear you become aware of the thoughts that are running through your head. There are these memories, realizations, worries, plans, goals, reminders, and unfortunately sometimes impure thoughts. I can say that these moments are valuable ones and they could be more valuable if we are able to capture our thoughts to pen and paper. Usually I encourage myself to capture my thoughts and that is why I always see to it that I have my smartphone with me all the time. And by the way, I want to endorse and recommend Microsoft OneNote app. It is a great tool for capturing all those valuable thoughts in your head. You can download it through the windows store, the app store or the play store.

While being amazed with the magnificence of the sun's silhouette when it starts to set off, I pondered-- "I have been working for almost 6 years now and I can't believe I was able to endure those hard moments in my audit life." And by the way, for those of you who are not familiar with how auditors worship their job. During the peak seasons-- and this is when businesses which are on a calendar period, prepare their financial statements for filing -- and auditors during these times work almost 24 hours a day straight even on weekends and holidays. This was the time when our Partner, shouted to my manager and said "You are not doing your job and you are not prioritizing this client! How dare you!" This was also the time when my senior associate, who keeps on pressuring me to do almost all audit works because she had a lot of clients, cursed me and said "What the fuck! Are you still not finished yet?!" Imagine that was 5 in the morning and I haven't slept since 9am the other day.

Out of Focus

Late morning on Saturday, I was awakened by the noise as my housemates prepared food for their late breakfast. I reached my phone, opened my Facebook and quickly scanned the news feed. I was still lying in my bed while trying to entertain myself with some funny videos in Facebook. Plagued with boredom, I tried to entertain myself some more with the funny videos I'm watching not realizing that it is already midday. I just can't seem to get rid of my phone no matter how much willpower I muster and remind myself that I still have a lot of things to do for the day.

I am pretty sure that some of you, if not all, can relate to this struggle. Procrastination and indulging ourselves on pleasant but unimportant things are almost second nature to us. Do you agree? Well, I can say that it takes discipline and commitment to keep ourselves moving throughout the day. There are myriad of reasons why procrastination seems to take over our lives.

One reason is nature. As I've said earlier, we tend to indulge ourselves on pleasant things which soothe our feelings and abstain on unpleasant things that usually involve effort and pain. As John Maxwell said in his book titled Failing Forward, "People naturally tend towards inertia. That's why self-improvement is such a struggle." Maybe God intended us to be like this so that we can consider effort and sacrifice as the sole means of achieving our goals, which in turn can make us become more self-reliant and confident as we go through the different kinds of challenges in our lives.

Another reason I can think of is distraction. We can probably spend much of our discussion on this matter since distraction, like an epidemic, is affecting lots of people nowadays especially the newer generations. While it is true that technology improved our lives in ways unimaginable, it also affected our relationships with ourselves, with others and with our work. We became obsessive data hoarders and voracious data consumers. Everywhere we go, there are always distractions. Most workers and professionals today use computers to do their job. And these computers are excellent tools for multi-tasking and are very good in giving workers a lot of to dos which are irrelevant to their work.

The Place where I spent my Childhood

There are two things that influence our growth towards adulthood. We call them nature and nurture. Nature are the innate qualities that we got from our parent's genes while nurture are the external factors that affect our growth both positively and negatively.

Having been raised in a Province where there are lots of rice fields, blue-green mountains, pebbly seashores, and lush green forests, I always love nature and amazed by its grandness. In the morning when I wake up, I can hear the birds singing their morning greetings and the trees rustling their leaves while my skin is being touched by the cold morning breeze.

Peeping through the window, I can see the Sun rising behind a magnificent mountain which my ancestors call as Mount Kantayoktok. The sunlight immediately brightens the vast rice fields and the dense forest as the herons and wild ducks pass through the clear blue sky.

Living in a place like this reinforced my introverted personality and the love for God's creation. When I was still a kid, probably around 4th Grade, I am very fond of planting and caring for various kinds of plants like vegetables and root-crops. Seeing the plants grow provides me a sense of curiosity and fulfillment.

Our house is surrounded with a lot of fruit trees ranging from coconut trees, mango trees, guava trees, and a lot more. If I am hungry and craving for something sour, I'll just climb to a mango tree and pick several of its fruits without a cost of money. And if my mother wants to cook a healthy food, she'll just pick malunggay leaves, okra, or kangkong leaves from our backyard.

The abundance of healthy free food has a big impact in my physical growth. Probably that is the reason why I have quite a healthy body even since I was still a kid.

Revisiting Security and Privacy in a Digital World

Photo owned by huffingtonpost.com

Proliferation of the Internet 

Big Data, the Internet of Things, Smart Home, Smart Watch, Google, Facebook—these are the common terms we hear not only from the tech world but even from the common public. These technologies brought us mobility, convenience, reliability and efficiency in the every day tasks that we do.

When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989, innovations in the information technology since then were unprecedented. Larry Page and Sergey Brin soon founded Google which revolutionized the way we interact with data ranging from instantly finding a vast amount of information about a certain topic to navigating the entire world. Facebook, which was founded by Mark Zuckerberg on 2004, revolutionized the way we connect and socialize with people around the world. Uber made our travels much easier and more convenient.

And right now, giant tech companies are racing towards achieving the smartest self-driving cars that will soon replace human drivers.

Increasing threats to Security and Privacy 

Although these technologies improved our lives, they also brought us lots of concerns mostly on security and privacy. Facebook and Google for example collect a lot of information about us including our addresses, our dates of bilrth, the people who are close to us, our co-associates and a lot more sensitive data that can either be used against us or used by other people for self-interest.

The Growth Mindset

Frances O. Ponce

Talent alone can make you successful in your area of expertise. Who among you agrees to that statement?

Well, let us find out if the statement is convincingly true.

Today, I will write about the two opposite mindsets that we can embrace. These are the fixed and the growth mindsets. I will try to differentiate the two by stating several ideas about the two mindsets.

First, how does the two mindsets react with failure and setbacks?

From the fixed mindset perspective, failure becomes his identity instead of treating it as an event separate from him. The scores and ratings define his worth. This is what happened to the two college students from Batangas who committed suicide because of failing grades. A mechanical engineering student at Batangas State University, named Daveson Beron left a cellphone message of apology to his parents and siblings for failing to graduate and having been a disappointment to them. He also wrote a one-sentence statement in his laptop saying: "I'm sorry, I quit."

The growth mindset too feels that failure can be utterly devastating but he sees to it that it does not define his worth. He treats it as a painful event, a problem to be dealt with and learn from. He realizes that he has a choice and he choose not to let the failure or setback make the better of him, instead, he treated it as a stepping stone to become a better person, not committing the same mistake again in the future.

One very important figure that we can make as an example for this is Michael Jordan. His story is extraordinary. It might come as a shock, but the man who became what many would call the best basketball player of all time didn't make his high school basketball team. But it did not stop him from pursuing his dream and he worked harder to be better in the next try.

Furthermore, the fail of failure paralyzes the fixed mindset. Because of this fear, he stays in his comfort zone and does not dare to try. He is afraid that others might label him as no good when he tries to do his thing and fails.

But the growth mindset thinks that the only way to grow and succeed is to try and fail forward. He sees to it that his comfort zone does not confine him from achieving his dreams.

LTE in the Philippines

Photo owned by www.sahaltel.com

Long Term Evolution (LTE) which is reported to have internet speeds 10 times faster than the regular 3G network is the newest technology in telecommunications today.

On February 2014, OpenSignal Inc., in its report entitled State of the LTE reported that the Philippines has the slowest LTE speed among the 16 countries surveyed. Australia, Claro Brazil, and South Korea landed as the fastest and has the widest coverage of LTE.

The Philippines has two large telecommunication companies: Smart and Globe Telecommunications. Globe Telecommunications is reported to have the slowest LTE speed.

This news is a slap in the face for Filipinos. Nevertheless, the results of the study is quite obvious. Internet speeds in the Philippines are worst as compared to other countries. Even Cambodia which is less developed compared to the Philippines is reported to have faster internet speeds as compared to that of the Philippines.

The Philippines has still have lots of needed improvements in terms of business climate, infrastructure and human power.

All Rights Reserved @ Frances Ouano Ponce

Let us Talk About Conversation

Photo owned by www.brainmilitary.org

What is conversation? How to determine a successful conversation?

The following definitions are gathered from various sources:

1. Conversation is communication by two, three, or more people. Conversations are the ideal form of communication in some respects, since they allow people with different views on a topic to learn from each other. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversation)

2. It is where two people talk spontaneously about something that may be of interest to both. (Speech Communication by Remedios V. Vinuya)

3. It is an informal talk between two individuals. (Speech Communication by Remedios V. Vinuya)
Its nature is less purposive, serious, and intimate than any other type of dyadic communication (e.g. dialogue, interview). This is a form of social entertainment. (Effective Speech Communication by Apolinario S. Saymo)

4. Its purpose is to transfer a message as smoothly as possible. It aims to talk with and not to lecture another. (Effective Speech Oral Communication by Fe O. Aquino)

5. It is not just about correct word usage. It entails a lively exchange of ideas. You can easily share thoughts, feelings and insights with others. (Effective Speech Oral Communication by Fe O. Aquino)

On the other hand, a conversation is said to be successful when both two persons involved in the conversation process had fulfilled to share the ideas and information they wanted to provide to each other and had gained new understanding or knowledge about the topic or person being discussed. Let us take for example a scenario that you have an unexpected conversation with your boss about a particular topic-- if you provided the information that you wanted to share to your boss and it satisfied him, the conversation is said to be successful, much the same to the person that you had conversed to.

In Campus Journalism: Photojournalism

Photo owned by http://www.theartcareerproject.com/

Pictures and artwork are aids in catching the reader's attention. A series of black-and-white pages with nothing but printed words is certainly unattractive. Carefully taken, appropriately chosen, and properly cropped pictures add life to an otherwise boring and text-heavy page.

The age of modern technology has made the art of taking pictures considerably simple and easy. One need not be an expert photographer to come up with good and well-composed pictures because most cameras today are equipped with sophisticated devices that take care of some of the technical concerns of a photographer.

Qualities of a Good Picture:
A picture worth printing must posses certain qualities. These are:
1. It must feature a prominent personality, event or a place.
2. It should tell a story by itself.
3. It should have a certain degree of human interest. Something odd or unusual never fails to draw attention.
4. It should capture a portion of the drama of life.
5. It should show a person or persons in action. Posed and stiff pictures create a sense of inactivity and lifelessness.
6. It must express the recent events.
7. A good picture should clearly show the faces of its subject matter. A picture of unrecognizable faces means nothing to the readers.
8. A picture must be properly cropped so that the desired image may be highlighted. Cropping means getting rid of the undesirable and unnecessary images or portions of the picture.
9. Any picture meant to complement an article must tie up with its contents. They must go together as one unit.
10. A picture must have a caption (also called a cutline) summarizing the "story" the picture tells. Poetic caption is also acceptable, and in many instances, attracts readers, example: Icing On A Concrete Cake, Sa Ihip ng Hangin, Musmos sa Likod ng Rehas.

Ang Katotohanang dapat nating Tanggapin

Sadyang napakahirap talagang mabuhay sa mundo. Maraming pagsubok at kasawian ang iyong dadaanan. Samakatuwid, masasabi nating mas nangingibabaw ang kalungkutan kaysa kaligayahan sa bawat kabanatang nilalakbay ng tao sa kanyang buhay. Ito’y sadyang totoo sa ating lahat. Ngunit, bakit ganoon “ka-ironic” ang ating buhay? Nilikha tayo ng Diyos upang malalasap natin ang kagandahan ng kalikasan at maging masaya. Bakit kailangan pa nating dumaan ng isang masakit na pagsubok nang mayroon namang madaling paraan na makamit ang isang kaligayahan? Ang sagot ng mga tanong na ito ay simple lamang: ganyan ang katotohanan-- nilikha ng Diyos ang mga pagsubok upang magkaroon tayo ng malalim na pananaw tungkol sa buhay. Ang isang kaligayahan na gawa ng isang madaling paraan ay pansamantala lamang; ang tunay na kaligayahan ay walang katapusan na kung saan makakamit lamang ito sa mahaba at mahirap na paraan. Sa gayon, ang tunay na kaligayahan ay ang pagkilala sa mga paghihirap at pagsasakit sa buhay at ang pagtanggap sa mga ito.

Sa kasalukuyan ay patuloy kong nilalakbay ang mga katotohanang nangyayari sa aking buhay; patuloy kong inuunawa ang aking mga kamalian at ang paglaan ng mga kaukulang solusyon sa mga ito. Kasabay ng pag-unlad ng aking pagkatao ay ang unti-unti kong pagtanggap sa katotohanan na ako ay isang nilalang na itinadhanang magkakaroon ng mga kasawian at kamalian sa buhay. Masakit talagang tanggapin ang realidad na ito; subalit kailangan natin itong tanggapin sapagakat ito ang maglalaan sa ating inaasam-asam na tagumpay. Sa gayon, ito ang isa sa mga pinakamagandang natunan ko sa aking sariling kakulangan sa buhay. Samakatuwid, malaki ang pasasalamat ko sa Panginoon sapagkat siya ang nagbigay sa akin ng karunungan sa pamamagitan ng kanyang mga Salita; at sa mga taong naging aking “mentor” at iniidolo.

Burning Desire

I am now on the last chapter of the book "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. I learned a lot about the impact of thoughts on the things we do everyday and on the wealth we desire to accumulate. 

Napoleon Hill emphasizes that the very first step of building riches is desire. "Thoughts are things, and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into riches, or other material objects", said Napoleon Hill. 

Had you ever stopped in your day-to-day living and ponder on the things you do everyday-- if they are still in alignment to your inner purpose or if they have added value to you? Napoleon Hill described it holistically that thoughts are things when we have a burning desire to realize them. 

So many people today (me not an exception of course) dream of things that will make them happy-- wealth, fame, title, happiness, peace of mind or whatever it is that they desire, but only few were able to realize them. I wondered why only few are blessed with the things that most people want. Hopefully Napoleon Hill's classic book "Think and Grow Rich" will help most people achieve what they want in life by developing the habit of burning desire. 

I agree that unwavering faith and persistence are key ingredients in achieving our life goals. But eventually you should have definiteness of purpose as Hill emphasizes. 

It is quite logical since doing things persistently that do not really add value to you or are not in line with your true purpose here on earth will only waste your time and energy and eventually lead to failure and frustration.

 All Rights Reserved by Frances O. Ponce

How to Court Your Girl in 5 Simple Steps

Originally written by Red Jun Suminguit

Girls are very sensitive when it comes to courtship. They value courtship so much. It is because this is all for them. The reason why courtship exists is not for the guys; it is certainly because for girls. In some other places, courting is already gone but if you want a long-lasting relationship with the woman you love, you should court, man!

Basically, the primary goal of courtship is to get the sweetest ‘YES’ from her. In this stage of relationship, you and your woman are on the getting-to-know-each-other stage. This is the test whether you both are compatible to each other.  Courting is fun but it’s kinda hard though if it is your first time.

Here are the simple, easy steps that you might want to consider. Trust me, they’ll work.

1. Know her very well

This is the most important part in courting. Before taking a move, you should know your woman very well in order for you to get some idea on how to get on with her. The important things that you should know about her include the following:

• Family
• Religion
• Friends
• A little bit of her background

Today, it is very possible for us to get these information without excelling lots of efforts. We have social networks that we can count on with. Just browse her Facebook account or maybe her tweets in Twitter. Just be resourceful.

You can also ask her friends for advises and many other things that you will find interesting that involve her attitudes, her likes and dislikes, and everything that makes her happy. Please take note every little thing.

High School Journalism: Writing the News

News is any information that has a meaning for a set of readers. It covers anything that concerns the school, its students, the teachers, and the parents.

School news include:

1. worthwhile or extraordinary acts of students
2. stories of success, conflicts or suspense
3. anything that informs, entertains, or sets students, teachers or administrators thinking about reforms and improvements
4. school convocations and other programs
5. interviews of visiting personages

Sources of news:

1. Beats
2. tips for teachers and students
3. printed material
4. publicity and press releases

Parts of the news story:

The Lead - the beginning of a newspaper story

Classifications of a lead:

a. who-when-where-why-how

b. grammatical-beginning leads

c. unorthodox leads

The grammatical lead

a. subject noun (e.g., A car accident happened at Espana has shocked the UST students)

b. causal clause (e.g., Since the Sanguniang Bayan failed to ask aid from the national government, construction of the roads nearby the church will be stopped.)

c. conditional clause (e.g., Since Congress agreed on private landholdings, the present government will mandate the limits in connection with the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.)

d. conditional change (e.g., Since Congress agreed on private landholdings, the present government will mandate the limits in connection with the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

e. concessive clause (e.g., Although the outreached program will start next year, the teachers have already planned the solicitation program with the director and principal.)
f. temporal clause (e.g., While the school board searched for outstanding teacher, the teachers felt nervous as time goes by.)

g. infinitive phrase lead (e.g., To meet the quota, the students has presented number of applicants as member.)

h. noun clause lead (e.g., Whether the "Faculty Club" will contribute in preparing the school program will be known at the student meeting with the principal.

i. gerund (e.g., Raising the salaries of the government employees was the main topic in the agenda of the presidential meeting last Monday.)

The Body of the Story - the body only has to retell the story in details by: (1) explaining or elaborating the feature or features in the lead; (2) by adding minor features not summarized in the lead.

Steps in writing the news story:

1. write a summary

2. list the facts according to their descending importance

3. dig out the lead facts; put the best "W" forward

4. write several ideas for leads

5. review for clarity, coherence, accuracy, thoroughness

6. be prompt in submitting copy

Copyright @volcomlife

Concerto: Davao War diary

Picture owned by concerttothefilm.blogspot.com

By: Frances O. Ponce

The movie underscores a great story of friendship, trust, humility, faith, survival and family. It had portrayed a good example of how a family thrives to survive amidst the many horrors and challenges they are facing. It had showcased the culture inherent in every Filipino family-- that is, joining together and putting God as the life of their hope for survival in times of dire conditions and misfortunes. We can see it in the very person of Julia (the mother in the family) who, by way of her religiosity, always shows to God her undying faith on Him through uniting themselves in fervent prayers. Furthermore, the movie also expressed the indiscriminate pains and horrific oppressions brought by war in the hearts of many people. It showed how war devastated humanity-- the injustices on the victims and most of all the prevalent wreckage on the dignity of human life.

Survival-- united in prayers of faith and hope

The film did not focus on actions and animated scenes of the war going on but it did showed the miserable effects of the battle. We cannot see on the movie the bombs exploding on the horizon and the soldiers firing their guns towards their opponents but we can subtly feel the misfortunes of the victims-- the cries of the children who were horrified by gun fires and bomb explosions and the constant fear that dominates the hearts of every people trapped on the paws of the battlefield. As we can see, the family of Julia (played by Sharmaine Buencamino) and Ricardo (acted by Nonoy Froilan) was forced to abandon their house and evacuate to a farm owned by their relatives wherein they set up a small shack as their shelter. Packed like sardines, they stayed together as one complete family being united by their faith and hope to survive the war. Though they had faced dire adversities, they never give up instead they joined themselves together and persevered. Their faith were being tested but they did not lose it instead strengthened it. Their hearts were made strong because of their undying faith to God.

Survival-- showing modesty and humility

The family did not only outweigh their survival with virtues but also developed attitudes and behaviors that lead them to have close ties with the Japanese soldiers. The movie, as most of us expected, did not show much how the Japanese armies treated inhumanely our Filipino countrymen during the Pacific War Period. It had showed on the other side on which the family had developed friendship to them instead of making them as their mortal enemies. Of course they had to do it in order to survive. They had to be modest as possible in order to gain favors from the Japanese authorities. They must set aside the hatred and anger they feel against them. But whatever it is-- we may think that it is not a patriotic act, it is still considered the most practical way in order to survive; the issue being involved here are their lives. If they did show off their hatred and anger against them in a very inappropriate place and time, they are just like killing themselves by their own actions. This could be possible for Nina (Meryll Soriano) who was befriended by an American pilot much the same to Ricardo who had tortured by the Japanese officials. Fortunately, they controlled their emotions.

Cloud Computing and the Future of Business: New Challenge for CPAs

Microsoft Onedrive, Apple ICloud, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle and the like-- these are just a few of the large companies offering cloud services both to individuals and organizations.

If you do not know what cloud computing is, you can always refer, as most of us does, to google or dictionary.com for its definition.

Nevertheless, cloud computing covers a a very broad range of topics including the cloud-integrated Enterprise Resource Planning or Program (ERP) in which large companies nowadays such as Procter & Gamble and Citibank are continually investing huge amounts of their resources to stay competitive and strong; and the cloud storage which is most common to the general public.

In my own definition, cloud computing is doing business in the "cloud". The word cloud pertains to the World Wide Web or the Internet. Our businesses could range from saving important documents like bank transactions and reports to business processes like cash receipting and sales.

I could say that cloud technology is the future of "Everything". It will turn out one day that every single data entry in business processes are directly done through the cloud-- paperless, fast and automated. Even the groceries that you regularly buy, in the future will be done through the cloud and this is quickly changing the business practices on commodities.

The increasing role of social networking in recruitment

What is social networking? Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are categorized as Social Networking Sites.

Most of us view or use these sites for entertainment and socializing. However, few of us know that many companies nowadays are tapping the power of social networking sites in finding prospective employees. According to a recent survey conducted by careerbuilder.com, about 45% of companies are using social networking sites to view profiles of some prospective employees.

As you might notice, several professional services firm such as Deloitte, PwC Philippines and SGV create fan pages in Facebook and professional profiles through LinkedIn. They even create promotional videos that talk about their working environment, culture and the like through YouTube.

Furthermore, some companies also provide details about scheduled job fair and even job vacancies through Facebook fanpages and Twitter. Some HR Managers use Facebook or LinkedIn to view the professional and personal background of an applicant.

Therefore, the next time you open your Facebook account through your phone, laptop or any device, try as much as possible to obtain details of possible careers that you might want to have long-term association with. There are lot of productive and valuable things you can do through Facebook aside from entertaining and socializing.

All Rights Reserved by Frances Ouano Ponce

GCash Mastercard: another Innovation in the E-Commerce Industry

Frances O. Ponce

The Ayala Group of Companies
Globe is one of the diverse businesses of the Ayala Group. It is also one of the largest telecommunications company in the country with its closest rival Smart. As part of a large conglomerate who has business interests in industries ranging from real estate, retail, banking, water infrastructure, renewable energy, electronics, information technology and BPO, Globe has an edge to its competitors like Smart.

When Globe wants to penetrate the e-commerce market, it can tap the expertise of its sister company Bank of the Philippine Islands or BPI which is one of the giants in the banking and financial services industry. Banking and financial services is highly-regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and E-Commerce (Electronic Commerce) is quite risky and therefore needs a huge amount of investments in information and cyber security.

Four reasons why you should apply for a GCash Mastercard

The good news is GCash Mastercard is very accessible to the market. The four reasons why GCash Mastercard is better compared to other products are:

1. It has no annual service charge or fee unlike the EON Card of unionbank that has an annual fee of Php350.00.
2. It has a one-time processing fee of only Php50.00, Php40.00 of which will be credited back to your GCash Account.
3. Only one valid ID is required upon enrollment. You will do a series of simple steps through your cellphone in order to link your GCash account (in case you already have one) to your Mastercard. You will receive the card with your name embossed in it after activating.
4. You can use your GCash Mastercard for any kind of financial transactions (it will be discussed later).