...the 2014 Time 100's most influential people

Fil-Am composer is in Time 100's 'Most Influential' list

By Kim Arveen Patria

Yahoo Southeast Asia Newsroom

 

 

Reuters/REUTERS - Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez pose with their Oscars for best original song for "Let it Go" in the film "Frozen" at the Governors Ball at the 86th Academy Awards …more in Hollywood, California March 2, 2014. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

 

 

A year after Time named President Benigno Aquino III and a Filipino doctor among the world’s “most influential,” the magazine included another Filipino in its list.

Robert Lopez, a U.S.-based songwriter of Filipino descent, shared a spot in the Time 100 list with his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez for the song “Let It Go.”

Robert and his wife “are both completely steeped in the traditions of Broadway musicals,” their colleagues Trey Parker and Matt Stone said in their Time profile.

The couple won an Oscar for Best Original Song earlier this year. They rose in popularity along with the highly acclaimed Disney animated film “Frozen.”

Robert also became one of the few people who have won the grand slam of entertainment industry awards or the “EGOT”—Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.

“[T]hey’re really smart and would never be happy just regurgitating what’s come before,” the couple’s profile in the Time 100 issue said further.

With their inclusion in Time 100, Robert and Kirsten joined the ranks of international pop superstar Beyonce, as well as U.S. President Barack Obama and Pope Francis.

The Time 100 is compiled through the help of journalists around the world, as well as the lists’ alumni, “many of whom are as influential as ever,” the magazine said.

“The vast majority of this year’s roster reveals that while power is certain, influence is subtle,” Time said, highlighting the power of the media to shape public opinion.

Last year, Time named Aquino among the world’s most influential. It also honored Katherine Luzuriaga, a doctor born of a Filipino father, for her work on HIV-AIDS.

 

 

...the Filipino strength

 

Down but not out... the stoical people of storm-hit Philippines

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There are faces you just never forget – and these are some of them.

 

BY CLAIRE MCNEILLY 

telegraph.co.uk

25 APRIL 2014

When Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines six months ago the images shocked the world and inspired a huge international aid effort.

Award-winning Belfast photographer Matt Mackey visited the area with Concern Worldwide shortly after the islands were devastated.

His pictures are now part of a major exhibition in Belfast's Waterfront Hall, capturing the moving stories of individuals whose lives were forever changed by the storm.

"The idea was to show the people of Northern Ireland where their money goes when they support humanitarian organisations such as Concern through their emergency appeals," said Matt (right).

"It constantly evolves in front of you as you talk to local people and find out their personal stories. That's how the pictures develop."

Matt visited three islands on his trip, taking over 15,000 photographs. He also spent time in Concepcion, where Concern is based.

He then faced the difficult task of trying to choose just 24 for the exhibition entitled: Faces Of The Philippines: 7,000 Islands, 1 Typhoon, 4 Lives.

Concern is still helping those whose lives were ripped apart when the typhoon struck and has so far reached over 110,000 people.

Peter Anderson, Northern Ireland director of Concern, said the exhibition is a testament to the people of the Philippines, who showed incredible resilience and determination to rebuild their lives.

...the world's first NBA Cafe

World’s first NBA Cafe to open in Manila
            

(hilstar.com

April 25, 2014

MANILA, Philippines – The National Basketball Association (NBA) on Friday announced that the first NBA Cafe in the world will officially open on April 25 at the SM Aura at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

NBA Cafe Manila is a first-of-its-kind NBA destination that features a unique dining and entertainment experience that captures the energy and feel of the NBA. Managed and operated locally by Haute Couture F&B Concepts, Inc., NBA Cafe Manila will feature larger than life NBA displays, unique memorabilia, and basketball-themed accents and fixtures, all complemented with an exciting menu.

It is the first sports bar and restaurant in Manila catering specifically to basketball fans where patrons will enjoy quintessential American bar and grill favorites.

“Basketball is the most popular sport in the Philippines and it makes sense that the first NBA Cafe anywhere in the world would open for our passionate fans in Manila,” said Carlo Singson, NBA Country Manager, Philippines.

“NBA Cafe Manila is a unique one-stop destination for casual and avid sports fans alike and is another great way for them to experience the NBA first-hand,” Singson added.

Gordon Hayward of the Utah Jazz and WNBA Legend Tina Thompson will be the featured guests at the grand opening of NBA Cafe Manila. Hayward was selected 9th overall by the Utah Jazz in the 2010 NBA Draft and Thompson was a four-time WNBA champion, nine-time WNBA All-Star, and was the first-ever draft pick in WNBA history.

Gordon and Thompson will also be in Manila to participate in the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Philippines 2014 National Training Camp presented by Alaska.

NBA Cafe Manila’s menu is inspired by classic American cuisine, offering a wide selection of dishes with an emphasis on nutrition and flavor. Only the finest products and ingredients are used, and the top priority is having the food prepared and served promptly by skilled chefs and servers.

“The concept of NBA Cafe Manila takes all aspects of the NBA into play,” said Nian Rigor, Assistant Vice President, NBA Cafe Manila/Haute Couture F&B Concepts, Inc. “From the team visuals to the use of the colors red, white and blue, everything will make our fans feel right at home with the authentic NBA surroundings we’ve recreated. NBA Cafe Manila will be the metro’s default destination for all things sports, all things NBA, providing fans with the ultimate sports, entertainment and dining experience.”

...the PH Infotech uptrend

PH jumps 8 spots in global ICT rankings

 

ABS-CBNnews.com

04/24/2014

 

 

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines jumped eight notches to 78th spot in the Networked Readiness Index 2014 of the World Economic Forum.

The Philippines had previously ranked 86th on the index for the past three years. The index, which covers 148 countries, assesses an economy's capacity to fully leverage information and communications technology (ICT) for growth and well-being.

The WEF Global Information Technology Report 2014 noted the significant improvement of the Philippines' ranking in the overall index, as well as among ASEAN countries.

"With a significant improvement in its overall score, the country continues its positive trend. The scores of all the 10 networked readiness pillars register an increase. A significant improvement in the perceived efficiency in the country’s legal system and property rights protection drive the political and regulatory environment up to 87th place," the report noted.

Another area where the Philippines showed significant improvement is ICT readiness, with "more affordable (75th) access to ICT infrastructure and better skills (69th), despite the need for higher quality in the educational system."

"Business usage is, as in many other Asian economies, at a more advanced stage (43rd) than individual usage (91st). Progress made in terms of economic impacts registered last year continues this year, moving up eight positions and reaching 48th place. The role of ICTs in fostering innovation by creating new products and services (42nd) and organizational models (28th) is confirmed and contributes to this promising result," the report noted.

However, the Philippines still lagged behind other ASEAN neighbors, such as Singapore (2nd), Malaysia (30th), Brunei Darussalam (45th), Indonesia (64th), and Thailand (67th), in the index.

The Philippines ranked ahead of Vietnam (84th), Cambodia (108th), Lao PDR (109th), and Myanmar (146th) in the index.

Makati Business Club executive director Peter Perfecto said the Philippines has competitive advantages in 11 out of the 54 indicators under the networked readiness index.

These 11 indicators are: availability of latest technologies, venture capital availability, quality of management schools, internet and telephony competition, quality of educational system, use of virtual social networks, firm-level technology absorption, capacity for innovation, extent of staff training, impact of ICTs on new services and products, and impact of ICTs on new organizational models.

Digital divide remains

The Global Information Technology Report 2014 noted that there is little progress in bridging the digital divide between tech-savvy countries and others.

Overall, Finland ranked 1st in the Networked Readiness Index, followed by Singapore (2nd), Sweden (3rd), Netherlands (4th), Norway (5th), Switzerland (6th), United States (7th), Hong Kong (8th), United Kingdom (9th) and South Korea (10th).

On the other hand, emerging economies such China (62nd), Brazil (69th), Mexico (79th) and India (83rd) registered a drop in the rankings, as they struggle to realize their full digital potential.

A key finding of the WEF report is that countries cannot rely only on ICT infrastructure development to become competitive. It noted that the benefits of ICT can be fully realized when a country "implements a holistic strategy aimed at creating conditions for skills, innovation and entrepreneurship to flourish alongside modern infrastructure."

"In addition to the persistent digital divide across countries, governments should also be wary of understanding, identifying and addressing potential internal digital divides so that new opportunities can be created for all and support enhanced social inclusion,” said Beñat Bilbao-Osorio, senior economist at the WEF's Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network and co-editor of the report.

...the future world analytics hub

Now 2 notches ahead, PH gunning for world analytics hub title by 2015

 

by Bernie Magkilat

Manila Bulletin
April 22, 2014

 

 

After becoming the world’s outsourcing hub for voice, the Philippines is now gunning to grab the world’s analytics hub title by 2015 with the domestic industry already ahead of competition by two notches.

Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory L. Domingo has assured “Analitika,” a consortium among social, professional organization and individuals spearheaded by IBM Philippines pushing for the practice of smarter analytics, of government’s strong support noting the 2015 target as “achievable.”

“Rest assured that the DTI will give its full support to help Analitika realize its vision to make the Philippines the global center for smarter analytics by 2015. This target is achievable if we do things right,” he said.

The Philippines already accounts for 10 percent or $230 million of the $212-billion global analytics industry. Of the $212 billion, the services segment of this business analytics account for $70 billion of which the Philippines already has a share of 10 percent.

In fact, a study by Gartner showed that that smarter analytics can provide 4.4 million jobs by 2015 of which only 30 percent can be served by the world.

“This is a big opportunity for the Philippines,” he said.

According to Domingo, the domestic analytics industry, which is distinct from the current IT-BPO industry, has been ahead of competition having linked this very new industry with the academe and the private sector as early as 2012.

IBM signed an agreement in December 2012 with the Commission on Higher Education to develop a Smarter Analytics Education Roadmap for the Philippines, particularly focused on the Business and Information Technology Courses.

Domingo cited the 12 universities that have already developed curricula for business analytics and courses that lead to specializations in this area following the CHED’s introduction of Analytics courses in 2013 to select universities.

Aside from the DTI, the Department of Science and Technology has been working with industry in utilizing analytics to enable the country’s research and development initiatives in weather prediction, agriculture, genomics and disaster management.

Domestic industries that can benefit the most from smarter analytics are telecommunications, insurance, retail and banking as these are industries with readily available huge data.

Data analytics is a way of analyzing huge data from social media, online data and all other data available. With smarter analytics, companies can anticipate business trends, suggest consumption patterns, address consumer issues and make timely decisions from thorough analysis of a mammoth of data that are not easily apparent.

All medium to large scale industries will require business analytics as one of the much-needed competencies in their business and IT portfolio, to remain competitive in the market place. For a company to be competitive and sustainable, it must have the right analysis from the data available.

“Data analytics is where you put a lot of intelligence in mining data… if properly analyzed, it would be put to a lot of productive use like helping companies make good decisions out of that data,” Domingo said.

IBM Philippines President and General Manager Mariels Almeda Winhoffer said the industry roadmap is expected to be finished in 6 to 8 months. Spearheaded by Analitika members, it will determine jobs roles in analytics in the future, listing of skills and marketing and promotion of the Philippines to the world as an analytics hub.

Winhoffer said the Analitika is attacking this challenge by addressing both the elementary grades and college levels by promoting curricula that leads more to engineering and scientific data analysis.
She said that Singapore, a close competitor, is concentrating on the masters programs for graduate students, but the Philippine strategy is to instill analytics both in the elementary education, particularly Grades 11 and 12, and as college courses.

Part of the roadmap is also to make the Philippines the center for the grant of certification for “Data Scientists.” A certification program for “Data Scientist” is yet to be done.

“The dream is to have that certification be done here,” Winhoffer said.

While smarter analytics is different from IT-BPO, Winhoffer said the IT-BPO can be a starting point but workers will need to move up the value chain through additional education.

Data analytics is not also going to replace IT-BPO, but Winhoffer said it is growing
globally at a faster clip of 15 percent than the 5 percent global growth of the IT-BPO industry, which is estimated to be a $200 billion to $300 billion industry.

Already, companies are investing in technology to take advantage of this huge opportunity because it is more sustainable than IT-BPO and offers a wide ranging of job opportunities in all sectors.

 

...the PH might

Philippines ranks 37th in military power Index

            

By Camille Diola

philstar.com

April 22, 2014

 

 

Philippine Marines fire an M101 105 mm howitzer during artillery live-fire training April 12 at Crow Valley, Philippines. Cpl. Courtney G. White/U.S. Marine Corps

 

 

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines ranked 37th of 106 countries listed in Global Firepower's 2014 Power Index, which measures each nation's military strength.

In a statement released this month, the data-collecting site ranked countries based on 50 factors, which determine the militaries' "potential conventional war-making capabilities across land, sea and air."

"The final ranking also incorporates values related to resources, finances and geography," Global Firepower explained. Sources are publicly available including the CIA factbook, online listings and media reports.

Nuclear capability and current political and military leadership, meanwhile, are not taken into account, purportedly to allow smaller, technologically-advanced, nations to compete with larger, lesser-developed ones.

The baseline or perfect value of the index is set at 0.0000, with the United States topping the list with a military power index of 0.2208. America is followed by Russia with 0.2355 and China with 0.2594.

The Philippines has a power index of 1.3042, higher by a notch than Malaysia's 1.3143 but lower than Asian neighbors such as Vietnam wilith 0.8962 and Taiwan with 0.7564.

The Philippines' relatively large population base contributed to the ranking, having 41 million fit for military service out of its total population of over 105 million.

 

About 220,000 Filipinos are active frontline personnel, while 430,000 are active reservists.

The country's tank value was among the factors included in the data, which notes the Philippines 531 Armored Fighting Vehicles and 270 Towed-Artillery. It does not, however, have any tanks, self-propelled guns or mutli-launch rocket systems.

Components of its air and naval power similarly figured in the index. Global Firepower said the Philippines has 145 aircrafts and 124 helicopters in service. It also has a naval strength of 120 with three frigates, 11 corvettes and 38 coastal defense crafts.

The researchers also considered the country's logistics including its labor force, merchant marine strength, major ports and terminals, roadways and railways, and serviceable airports.

"War is much a battle of logistics--moving man and machine from points all over--as is direct combat. Labor force reflects possible wartime strength," it said.

Oil resources were also taken into account as it is deemed the lifeblood of any fighting force. The Philippines itself produces only 12,000 oil barrels per day day, and consumes 315,000 oil barrels.

The country, however, has proven oil reserves of 138,500,000 oil barrels per day, a bulk of which is underutilized.

Defense budget, debt, foreign exchange and gold reserves as well as purchasing power parity were included.

Finally, the Philippines' geographical values were estimated as they figure into a "defensive-minded war," the researchers said. The country boasts a long coastline of 36,289 kilometers and waterways of 3,219 kilometers with no shared border.

The top 10 strongest global powers in the list are:

Screenshot from Global Firepower