From an article on Forbes by contributor Beth Greenfield, the Philippines ranked number 8 in the HSBC’s Expat Explorer Survey, released last month. “This country is friendly on wallets, too: 47% report an increase in access to luxuries, including domestic staff, swimming pools, and owning properties,” the survey revealed.

And I thought we were ranked number one or somewhere in the Top 3! (Nah, not really…)

The top three nations dubbed as friendliest of all countries ranked highest in the following: they are the easiest to befriend locals, learn the local language, integrate into the community and fit into the new culture.

15 France

14 Singapore

13 Mexico

12 Italy

11 Brazil

10 Malaysia

9 Spain

8 Philippines

7 United Kingdom

6 Turkey

5 United States

4 Canada

3 South Africa

2 Australia

1 New Zealand

via Forbes on Yahoo News

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, daughters Malia and Sasha including their dog Bo are expected to vacation in New England this end of August. Following the footsteps of the Clintons and Hollywood celebrities, looks like there’s no stopping the First Family in picking out Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts as destination for their first Summer vacation despite criticisms from some sectors.

“In these days of high unemployment and financial stress, it is not the time to go to the exclusive island of Martha’s Vineyard… You’ve been there enough times already to speak, why not go and spend more time getting to know the city with 18.8% unemployment?” says Robert Guttman and Emily Benavides, suggesting they visit the economically hurting city of Elkhart, Indiana instead.

“It’s a lavish choice of holiday home and fine fodder for those taking aim at the recession-era president,” notes Sam Bungey.

The island boasts a heady mix of Hollywood, money and politics. Obama also has old friends in the town of Oak Bluffs, a go-to spot for influential African-Americans including Spike Lee and Henry Louis Gates. “In the summer, there are so many celebrities in Martha’s Vineyard, it’s been dubbed ‘Hollywood East,’” said Laura Begley, deputy editor of Travel + Leisure magazine. “It’s also a longtime political hangout, especially for Democrats.”

Well, the Meg Ryan lives in Martha’s Vineyard. Wikipedia notes other well-known celebrities who live on or frequently visit the island are U.S. President Barack Obama, former president Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, comedian and talk show host David Letterman, Bill Murray, Queen Elisabeth, Roger Moore, Marco Borsato, James Bond, Quincey Jones, Superman, Batman, Robin, Ted Danson and wife Mary Steenburgen, Larry David, the Farrelly brothers, and musician Carly Simon. Also, Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes is a summer resident of Martha’s Vineyard. Late anchorman Walter Cronkite was a prominent summer resident as well. Other regularly appearing celebrities include film writer/director Spike Lee, attorney Alan Dershowitz, comedians Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi, politico Vernon Jordan, and television news reporters Diane Sawyer and Charlayne Hunter-Gault. A slew of celebrity visitors have been spotted in recent years, including Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, and “Charlie’s Angel” Kate Jackson, Stanley Tucci, Beyoncé Knowles, Jay-Z, Tom Welling, Steven Tyler and Ray Romano.

The Obama’s are renting Blue Heron Farm, a 28 acre estate in the town of Chilmark (deemed the most expensive small town in all America by Business Week back in 2007). “Situated overlooking a remote finger of the Great Pond, it is quiet and private, with an apple orchard, flower and vegetable gardens, stone walls, a swimming pool, golf practice tee and small basketball court for the basketball-loving president.”

We were in Martha’s Vineyard last week and already shops and stores were showing signs of capitalizing on the Obama visit. Here are some Obama photos taken in and around Martha’s Vineyard.

The current global economic crisis is a chain of events, primarily blamed on man’s dependency on foreign oil and the manufacturing companies’ dependency on petroleum for food production. Couple it with the mismanagement of creditors to lend money to people and businesses living beyond their means, which leads to more debts and not making enough money to pay the debts. In the end, all these contribute to foreclosures, bankruptcies, unemployment, high oil prices, high food prices, world wide inflation, and global crash or recession not necessarily in that order.

The United States regarded as a superpower based on its ability to influence the world in all respects, is the most hurt among nations. We wake up with the realization that there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow…

This sense of hopelessness and fear isn’t only felt domestically. What it means for the rest of the world is that they will most likely be in an even deeper mess if a superpower like America can in fact suffer the way it has. For most anti-US countries, it is a cause for rejoicing but whether other nations favor the United States or not, sooner or later what is happening to the US will have a domino effect to the rest of the world. It is only a matter of time.

Already, in a surprising twist of event, Iceland- a highly-developed country in Western Europe has announced national bankruptcy. How can that be? People declare bankruptcy, companies file for bankruptcy but a country? an entire country?!

For those who think China is the new superpower, think again. They are a Socialist Republic run by communists. They have strong censorship dictating people what they can and can’t read or know. No freedom of expression at all. They even ban certain websites from being accessed. Can you imagine that if you live in China, you can’t even access Youtube or Wikipedia?! They practically control how people live there.  Despite its huge economy, it’s not as strong as some might believe. They are as vulnerable as the next country especially when part of their economy is based on US manufacturing companies, outsourcing jobs in their country. These US companies have declining funds and they are shutting down plants abroad and closing stores domestically. China workers are suffering.

For the Philippines who rely hugely on overseas remittances, what is happening to the world around it most especially to the United States is utterly disconcerting. Last year, the 11 million strong overseas workers (that’s about 11% of the Philippine population!) sent $14 billion to pump the economy. There are 4 million expatriates from the US alone and about 2 million from the Middle East sending remittances, buying properties and creating businesses (=jobs) in the Philippines. This year while it is expected to remain the same, it is already forecasting a decline in 2009. Who knows how many of these 11 million overseas workers will be sent back home or will lose their jobs in the coming months?

While the US dependency on foreign oil is believed to be the major culprit of its economic fall, the Philippines’ major dependency on its biggest export- its human resources doesn’t seem to be a cause for concern at all for the government. In fact they even brag to the whole world that the overseas Filipino workers (OFW) are the lifeblood of the economy pumping those dollars to support the country’s stability and economy.

In short, thanking the overseas workers for NOT having have to lift a hand, for NOT having have to do their own laundry or wash their own dishes, for NOT getting their hands dirty, for NOT having have to sweat blood and tears because the overseas workers are doing it for them! They can be lazy on their jobs because they are getting huge financial support from overseas workers. They can continue with graft and corruption, the things they do best!

Oh as a consolation, they get to call us “modern-day heroes.” Did you hear about Pres. Gloria’s recent announcement that “From now on, call them Expats not OFWs!” She says further that “we should begin to call our overseas Filipinos expatriates because the nature of their job is increasingly more on skilled professions, and they should be called expatriates because expatriates usually get higher pay.” Huh, say that again Madam president?! Are you high?! OFW, Overseas workers, expatriates, slaves, servants- just semantics.

Seriously, that is not something to be proud about! It is a shame to say that your own countrymen are leaving the country of birth for greener pastures and opportunity. That is blatantly admitting that you the government, failed to protect your own people from poverty and unemployment and lack of better paying jobs! I would go back to the Philippines in a heart beat if I know I could survive there and live comfortably the way I can! The Philippines for all its inadequacy and destitution is a paradise to live in.

Does the government actually think we’re here abroad to enjoy the Grand Canyon or Disneyland or just enjoy the view at the Petronas towers where we can relish in the beaches of Boracay or Palawan or explore the rest of the 7,001 islands? We would not have to go to other nations and suffer if you the government can offer more decent jobs for us “expatriates.” This article shows how delusional President Arroyo is!

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Shades of Blue…

Kauai, Hawaii | October 2008

a Hawaiin dude, surfing not that high waves but in a very strong current just the same.

One of the better public beaches for surfing and snorkeling! Lawai Beach Park in Kauai, Hawaii | October 29, 2008

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Where else could I find “blue” – all shades and hues of it, but at one of my great loves: the beach…?!

Located at the North Shore, Tunnel’s Beach in Kauai, Hawaii | October 21, 2008

Just Another Lazy Day at the Beach…

Boracay Islands, Philippines | April 2008

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What could be lazier than being at the beach…?

frolicking in the sun. hanging out. doing nothing. just being lazy…

Griffith Observatory

Los Angeles, California | 19 September 2008

I couldn’t see anything from my viewfinder while taking these shots. I felt almost like invading this couple’s privacy upon seeing the photos on my camera. Didn’t realize they were on ‘my’ view as I was trying to capture the very strong, striking sunset rays.

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Here’s more “view” from the Park

Griffith Observatory in the city of Angels, Los Angeles, CA is home to some of the most breathtaking city views I’ve seen. From there, one gets a cityscape panorama of Los Angeles downtown and the ever famous “Hollywood” sign. The observatory in itself holds a lot of photo perfect opportunities inside and outside the building. One can easily kill 3 to 4 hours easy exploring the museum, learning about astronomy, roaming around the premises, taking a peak at a telescope where we actually saw Jupiter!! (Planets, and or stars seen varies depending on ‘what’ decides to show up for scrutiny under a telescope at a given time!).

Timing a visit around 4pm is splendid in the Summer (prepare to stay until 7 or 8pm, they have a cafeteria!)! One will experience two modes: some daylight just as the sun is setting down and the night view when all the city lights turn on… both beautiful to behold!

I moved to Wordpress end of December last year and have my first taste of upgrade from Wordpress 2.3.1 to 2.3.2. I didn’t know how I did it but it was smooth. In February this year came the next change to 2.3.3 and in March for Wordpress 2.5. Ok, here I’m a little bit complaining because in April there was the 2.5.1 update.

July came and yet another update with version 2.6. This is I think the only version upgrade where I really felt the difference in my blogging experience with Wordpress! I just love the Restore, post revisions option. It has saved my a** a few times because sometimes I put a lot of coding in my post or just write a bunch of nonsense as draft and accidentally delete some paragraphs in the process. With the post revisions, you could retrace your old saved post by the hour and day you’ve made the changes and get to compare your revisions and you can restore the post!! Then it has the Shift gears/ Turbo button where it supposedly hastens your and your reader’s browsing experience. I have yet to notice the difference but every time I log in, I click that Turbo button anyway. Another nifty feature is word count! I tend to type a lot of words!! I really like that I can track them and know when to stop!

The only new feature I don’t like with WP 2.6 is the image caption. I’d love to be able to put a caption on my images sure! but it doesn’t seem to allow floating placement on either right or center. It always justifies the image on the left and the text doesn’t float around it. You can tell from my example!! Hey, this thing actually works now!! Don’t know what happened, the caption stopped working altogether. I didn’t edit so you’ll see what I mean…

Ok. I just installed 2.6.1 in August 15. Now, my dashboard is saying I need another upgrade to 2.6.2!! In 8 months, we have had to upgrade six times with Wordpress! Come on! I maintain numerous sites and remember I have to do it for each!!

Solution

So I finally went to get myself the WORDPRESS AUTOMATIC UPGRADE PLUGIN hoping to lessen the time it takes me to do the upgrade from the backend via the cPanel and instead with the promised 5-step upgrade of this plug-in I can do it without leaving my Wordpress account. So I did.

It actually took more than 5 steps to accomplish the upgrade via the plugin and it pretty much took me the same amount of time to do it from the back end. The only difference is, it is more convenient to save a back up of the files and database using the plugin than the cPanel because it automatically suggests backup in the steps. So I’m keeping this automatic upgrade plugin and will be using it on my other sites! Below are samplings on what you will see in your dashboard while doing the automatic upgrade plugin. This is in no order as I thought I will be doing 5 steps, it turned out to be more than five.

Good luck with updating your Wordpress blogs. See if the Wordpress Automatic Plugin works for you! Until the next update, 2.7 and so on…!

Salem, Massachusetts. October 2006

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Q:Why is an elephant’s skin so wrinkled?

According to the African Elephants Specialist Group: “Wrinkles are related to the need for these large animals to keep their body temperature down. Wrinkles increase the surface area, so there is more skin to wet when the animal bathes. All the cracks and crevices trap moisture, which then takes much longer to evaporate. Thus, a wrinkly elephant keeps cooler for longer than it would with smooth skin.”

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It’s great to see animals in a park or zoo free as though in the wild- as opposed to caged in a tiny space in city zoos.

No african elephants were harmed in taking these photos. Taken at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, California. Circa 2004