...the greatest photos of all time

Filipino’s Pinatubo photo named among greatest of all time

By Bert Eljera
INQUIRER.net US Bureau

Sunday, March 9th, 2014

 

The driver of a pick-up truck desperately tries to overrun a cloud of ash spewing from the volcanic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. ALBERTO GARCIA/CONTRIBUTOR

• Several publications have honored Alberto Garcia’s photo

• Picture captured a pick-up truck running away from ash storm

• Photographer took the shot while running for his life

 

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — A photograph of the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo has been selected as one of 38 emotion-packed pictures of all time by an American online publication.

 

In an article titled, “32 Heart-Stopping Moments You Can Only Experience Thanks To A Camera,” the Huffington Post picked the iconic picture of a driver in a pick-up truck running away from a storm of ash spewing from the volcanic eruption in 1991.

 

It was the latest accolade for photographer Alberto Garcia, former chief photographer of Tempo, a Manila tabloid affiliated with the Manila Bulletin.

 

” I am happy and grateful. At least after more than 22 years, they still remember how I captured the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo,” said Garcia when reached from his home in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where he is now based.

 

Even though the eruption happened those many years ago, Garcia said he feels like it happened yesterday, and his capture of the event is still vivid in his mind.

 

He said that when the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvolcs), raised the alert level on Mt. Pinatubo, he immediately informed his photo agency based in New York about the situation.

 

“It took me 30 minutes to prepare my things and headed back to Zambales where the Philvolcs[1] people were stationed,” he said. “When I took the picture, my heart didn’t stop, it beat so fast and my body was shaking.”

 

He said that during the major eruption, they were about 20 to 30 kilometers away from the mouth of the volcano, and suddenly were being pursued by tons of hot ash.

 

” So everybody jumped into our vehicles and I was trying to put on my gas masked when I saw a blue pick-up ahead of that beautiful wall of gray,” Garcia said. “I opened the door and tried shooting the picture with my 50mm lens but it was too tight, so I decided to change the lens and used the 24mm instead and made sure my setting was correct and shot eight frames.

 

He said they finally outran the hot ash, and “although I had only eight shots, I rewound the entire roll of film, keeping it safe in my pocket.”

They spent more days documenting the aftermath of the major eruption before going back to Manila. He called a friend to process the film.

 

“I went straight to the airport international cargo and shipped the negatives to Time Magazine office in New York. The following week, the Mt. Pinatubo picture ran in a two-page Time Magazine spread,” Garcia said.

 

Time, Newsweek, and Asiaweek all included the picture in the 1991 great images of the year. In 1992, the picture won first place in the nature and environment category in the World Press Photo competition held in Amsterdam.

So far Garcia is the only Filipino photographer to have won the World Press photo competition. In year 2001, the National Geographic Magazine published a book called “100 Best Pictures,” which included Garcia’s Mt. Pinatubo photograph.

 

Also in 2001, Time published a book called “Time: Great Images of the 20th Century” featuring powerful images as Ali’s knockdown of Sonny Liston, the US Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima, the fall of Saigon and the JFK assassination.

 

Garcia’s photograph was there too.

 

” When I took the pictures, I was praying hard that I got the right shot,” Garcia said. “I knew we might die and before I die, I wanted to tell a story using my camera.”

 

...the Filipino delicacy

Balut: The Filipino delicacy that makes the world squirm

By Justin Calderon, for CNN

February 6, 2014

The semi-formed bird fetus (pictured) slides right out of the shell. You can eat it by taking a "shot" of the contents, dipping your head back to let the bird slide into your mouth. Some prefer to dip it in a dash of salt or vinegar before eating.

The only thing left is the yolk. It can be scooped out with a spoon, but many Filipinos prefer to use their fingers. It's easily detached from the shell, veins and all. Some prefer to reverse these steps -- cracking the wider end of the shell to eat the yoke first -- saving the little duckling for last.

 

How to eat balut

Open the egg ... carefully

Slurp the soup

Eat the bird

 

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Balut, an 18-day-old fertilized duck egg, is a popular snack in the Philippines
• Acceptance of balut depends on exposure at a young age
• First time eaters are advised to not dwell on the textures

 

(CNN) -- Despite being an object of culinary fascination around the world, balut is no beauty queen.

The 18-day-old fertilized duck egg -- a snack widely eaten in the Philippines -- has revolted even the most daring foodies with its carnal textures, earning it lofty rankings on many a "most disgusting/strange/terrifying food" list.

 

While food journalists commonly label balut as the Philippines' "much loved delicacy," in reality Filipinos are decidedly split over their nation's oft-sung snack.

 

The science experiment you eat

 

Acceptance of balut often depends on exposure at a young age, much like Vegemite in Australia.

 

In an apparent attempt to preserve the delicacy's popularity among the country's rapidly modernizing and discriminating palates, some schools in the Philippines introduce balut to young students during science classes.

 

Students use balut to study the anatomy of birds, then eat the compressed bird beak, veins and developing wings within.

 

"Our teacher made us eat the egg so it wouldn't go to waste," says Manila resident Anna Vecin of her ordeal.

 

"And if we didn't eat it, we'd get a low score on that day's lesson. Of course, I had no choice but to eat it."

 

The experience can leave some with a lifelong aversion to the so-called national delicacy.

 

Even balut's tamer cousin, penoy -- an unfertilized duck egg billed as a less carnal option, given that it lacks the semi-developed chick within -- can be hard to stomach.

 

The yolk is easily detached from the shell, veins and all.

Taste over appearance

 

For others, balut's combination of savory soup, fresh meaty bird and warm yolk is a revelation.

"My dad had a duck farm once upon a time in Binangonan, Rizal, so at some point growing up, we had a lot of them at home," recalls Cheryl Tiu, a Manila-based writer.

 

"My mom's parents always enjoyed eating it, thus it got passed on to her and her siblings, and then down to us. My favorite part is the soup. And then I dip the yolk in rock salt.

 

"Today though, I'm not sure if I can eat the whole chick anymore, unlike when I was much younger."

 

The dish is particularly popular among Filipino families with ethnic Chinese backgrounds.

 

Balut is also widely enjoyed across numerous provinces in China, especially in the south.

 

Like many Chinese dishes, balut comes with a list of putative health benefits.

 

Among these, it's claimed balut can boost male fertility and libido.

 

Balut in New York

 

Can't make it to Manila?

 

Though balut is hard to find outside the Philippines, New York Filipino restaurant Maharlika offers the delicacy for $5 a pop.

 

The restaurant hosts an annual balut eating contest, held every August.

 

Last year's winner knocked back 27 balut in five minutes.

 

Think you can do better?

 

 

...the PH enviable position

Bloomberg chief says PH in an ‘enviable position’

By Daxim L. Lucas
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013

 

 

 

 “And I think you are in a very enviable position to have a President who is focused on driving the country forward, creating transparency in the markets and building the economy with a solid and sustainable foundation.” - Peter Grauer, Bloomberg chair

 

 

President Aquino: Due credit. FILE PHOTO

The Philippines’ growing momentum in economic growth is due to a large degree to the Aquino administration, whose policies have given local and foreign businessmen fresh impetus to invest in the country, according to the head of one of the world’s biggest and most influential financial news organization.

Bloomberg L.P. chair Peter Grauer said the Philippines was in an “enviable position” vis-a-vis other countries around the world that lacked leadership at a time of great economic uncertainty.

“But I think leadership is a key differentiator and the [Philippines] today has quite a strong leadership,” he said in an interview with the Inquirer. “This will allow [the country] to move forward in a very thoughtful and solid pace of growth.”

The New York-based chief of Bloomberg —whose computer terminals are described as the gold standard of financial market news and analytics—visited the country on Monday and Tuesday to meet with government officials and business leaders amid the Philippines’ rising prominence in the international investment scene.

“I talk a fair amount about the leadership vacuum that exists in a lot of countries around the world,” Grauer said, when asked about what makes the Philippines attractive to the foreign business community. “And I think you are in a very enviable position to have a President who is focused on driving the country forward, creating transparency in the markets and building the economy with a solid and sustainable foundation.”

Bloomberg is a 15,000-member organization (which includes 2,300 news personnel in various media platforms) and has 172 bureaus in 72 countries. Its Bloomberg terminals —leased for approximately $1,700 a month per unit—is used by 310,000 subscribers in 174 countries.

Grauer noted that a significant part of Bloomberg’s revenue growth in recent years has been occurring in Asia as both the United States and Europe struggle with their economic difficulties. And within Asia, he said the Philippines was particularly promising.

“The economies are bumping along at zero or very little growth [in other advanced economies],” he said. “It’s much more fun here. It manifests itself. People walk with a little more spring in their step. It’s very intangible, but you see it and you feel it.”

In general, the growth of Bloomberg’s business in the Asean region—at an average 14 percent in 2012 for Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore—has outstripped the financial service organization’s global average growth rate of 0.5 percent. Grauer said he believed that the growth rate reflected the actual and potential expansion of the local economy as well.

“It’s matter of sustaining [the growth] and that’s a function of the quality of the leadership that you have,” the Bloomberg chief said when asked about challenges facing the Philippines going forward. “You seem to be in a very good position today, with a President who is leading the country in the right direction. And that’s not always the case in other countries.”

Apart from growing Bloomberg’s footprint in the Philippines, Grauer said his organization was also interested in helping the country’s capital markets mature and grow further.

In particular, he said Bloomberg was working toward providing more “localized” services that would help clients value government and corporate bonds more accurately on the Bloomberg system; developing a system to facilitate the trading of interest rate swaps, as well as partnering with the local bourse to develop exchange-traded funds, futures and options.

“A lot of these things take time to develop, but we think that the Philippines will be a very attractive market for us, going forward,” Grauer said. “We want to be partners with both the local market participants and regulators and other players like the finance ministry and the central bank.”

...the most romantic destination

China paper names Philippines ‘most romantic destination’

By Fat Reyes

Monday, January 21st, 2013

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Monday said the Philippines had been given the distinction of “Most Romantic Destination” by a Chinese paper.

In a statement released Monday, the DFA said the award, based on a consumer survey, was given by the Shanghai Morning Post in a ceremony held at the Shanghai Peninsula Hotel on January 15.

The DFA noted that the award was received by Consul General Charles Jose, accompanied by Niel Ballesteros of the Philippine Tourism Office in Shanghai.

Other country-winners include: Australia as “The Best Tour Destination for Discovery;” Switzerland as “The Best Shopping Paradise;” Korea as “The Best Skiing Destination;” and Germany as “The Best Destination for Art Appreciation.”

The DFA noted that the Philippines had earlier received one of the “Best Tourist Destination” awards given by the Oriental Morning Post during its annual World Travel – Special Trips Awards.

It also said that more Chinese were traveling to the country “especially during this winter season in China and for the upcoming week-long Chinese New Year holiday in February.”

It said that several Philippine carriers have also re-launched their flight services from China to the Philippines to cater to the growing demand of Chinese travelers for short-haul beach holidays.

It gave as examples Airphil Express, which reactivated its chartered flights from Shanghai to Kalibo on November 30, 2012; and Zest Air which also increased its regular flight frequency from Shanghai to Manila in December 2012.

“The regular multiple flight services to Manila continue to run steadily out of Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, Jinjiang and Guangzhou,” it added.

Both countries are embroiled in territorial disputes over atolls and reefs in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), believed to be the site of vast oil and gas resources.

The disputes among claimant countries have heightened in recent weeks, with a report of China’s plan to board and seize ships that enter what it claims to be its territory in the disputed sea.

China claims nearly the entire sea, while the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and Taiwan claim parts of the area, believed to be the site of oil and gas deposits.

China’s purported plan came days after it issued new passports bearing a map showing China’s nine-dash claims in the West Philippine Sea. Both the Philippines and Vietnam have refused to stamp the Chinese e-passports in protest of China’s claims, and have also sought China’s clarification on its new maritime patrol rules.

...the Asian TV awardees

PH Bags Two Honors At ATA 2012

 

 

By JULIEN MERCED C. MATABUENA

December 8, 2012

Manila Bulletin

 

Korina Sanchez

MANILA, Philippines – Veteran news anchor Korina Sanchez and lifestyle show “Chef vs. Mom” were the Philippine bets that won at the 17th Asian Television Awards (ATA) held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore last Dec. 6.

TV5’s “Chef vs. Mom” won the Best Lifestyle Program award, a Programming category. It bested Singapore’s “Passage to Abu Dhabi,” “Chef On The Road,” and “Lonely Planet Six Degrees China - Episode Shanghai”; India’s “Band Baajaa Bride with Sabyasachi”; and Malaysia’s “Axian Food Adventures (Season 2)” and “Now Everyone Can Fly to New Zealand.”

On the other hand, Sanchez was deemed “Highly Commended” as Best Current Affairs Presenter for her hosting stint on ABS-CBN’s “Rated K - Kwento ng Buhay ko (This is my Life),” but it was India’s Barkha Dutt, host of “We The People with Hillary Clinton,” won in this category.

Aside from the Philippines, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, and India also took home nods under three umbrella categories of the ATA, namely Programming, Performance, and Technical & Creative.

Last year, the Philippines won the awards for Best Talk Show (ABS-CBN’s “The Bottomline with Boy Abunda”) and Best Theme Song (titled “Ikaw Ang Buhay Ko” for TV5’s “Star Confessions”).

The Philippines clinched 13 nominations in all in this year’s ATA, with the breakdown per network as follows: ABS-CBN with six, GMA-7 and TV5 with three each, and Solar Entertainment (ETC) with one.

The ATAs was launched in 1996 and, according to its official website, it is “the Asian TV industry's most significant and celebrated event, recognizing excellence in programming, production and performance.” The winners in its more than 30 categories are “determined by an expert panel of over 50 judges from across the region," with the results "tabulated and audited by international auditing firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers" and announced during the Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner held every December.

...the 2012 PH bet (Miss World)

Queneerich gets early international attention in Miss World

 

By Jozza Palaganas

 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom 

17Aug 2012

 

 

Miss World-Philippines 2012 Queenierich Rehman (NPPA Images)

The pageant is set on August 18, but this early, Miss World’s Philippine delegate Queneerich Rehman is already making the rounds of social media sites and even on international online publications with her talent in beat-boxing.

The 23-year-old Pinay candidate went up on stage during the pageant's talent portion on August 8 in Inner Mongolia, China in a long, back-baring halter dress. She turned her back to the audience to sing Far East Movement's "Rocketeer" and began what the audience thought was a typical song number.

Queneerich then beat-boxed hits such as "Yeah" and "Teach Me How to Dougie," to the surprise and delight of the audience.

The Miss World Philippine delegate and her beat-boxing talent was featured in online publications such as Time, Huffington Post, and and The Daily Mail.

And while her talent already got local recognition when videos of her Binibining Pilipinas 2012 screening and Miss World Philippines Talent Competiton were uploaded on YouTube, no Filipina candidate has left so many in awe in this part of a pageant the way Queneerich has.

...the US immigration law

'TNT' Pulitzer winner on Time cover


By Jose Katigbak
STAR Washington Bureau
(The Philippine Star)
June 16, 2012


WASHINGTON – Filipino journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, a poster child of illegal immigration in the US, has landed on the cover of Time magazine surrounded by 35 other undocumented young people, their picture emblazoned with the legend “We are Americans, just not legally.”

Filipino journalist Jose Antonio Vargas is at the center of Time magazine’s cover story for June

In a 4,500-word essay in the latest issue of Time, Vargas, who won a Pulitzer Prize as part of a Washington Post team that covered the April 2011 Vietnam Tech massacre, reports on life in “citizenship limbo” and how others coming out like him can change the debate.

Two months after winning the Pulitzer, Vargas outed himself in a New York Times article entitled “My life as an undocumented immigrant.”

He said his mother sent him to live with his grandparents in the US in 1993 when he was 12. At 16 he found out he had a fake green card.

In the Time essay, Vargas said the questions he has been asked since announcing his undocumented status indicate the things people don’t know, the things they think they know but have been misinformed, and the views they hold but do not ordinarily voice.

“I’ve also been witness to a shift I believe will be a game changer for the debate: more people coming out,” he said.

He said at least 2,000 undocumented immigrants, most of them under 30, have contacted him and outed themselves in the past year.

“The contradictions of our immigration debate are inescapable. Polls show substantial support for creating a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants – yet 52 percent of Americans support allowing police to stop and question anyone they suspect of being illegal,” he said.

Democrats are viewed as being more welcoming to immigrants, but in the three years since Obama took office his administration has deported 1.2 million people. It took Republican President George W. Bush eight years to deport 1.6 million people, Vargas said.

He said election year politics was further confusing things as both parties scramble to attract Latino voters without scaring off other constituencies.

But the real political flash point, according to Vargas, is the proposed Dream (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, a decade-old immigration bill that would provide a path to citizenship for young people educated in this country.

To be eligible they must have been brought to the United States before the age of 16 and lived in the country for at least five years. The bill never passed.

Vargas said he spends every day wondering what, if anything, the government plans to do with him.

He said after months of waiting for something to happen, he decided to confront immigration officials and asked them if they were planning to deport him.

Despite announcing he is in the country illegally, he has been told that technically he does not exist in the eyes of US Customs and Immigration Enforcement.

Like most undocumented immigrants, he’s never been arrested and therefore not on an ICE list, he said.

“I am still here. Still in limbo, so are nearly 12 million others like me –enough to populate Ohio. We are working with you, going to school with you, paying taxes with you, worrying about our bills with you. What exactly do you want to do with us? More important, when will you realize that we are one of you?” Vargas asked.

...actor in NY review

Joel Torre on NY Times review: Like I hit gold

By: Bayani San Diego Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Torre in “Amigo”: “Hangdog brilliance.”

Filipino actor Joel Torre is ecstatic that he and his film, John Sayles’ “Amigo,” got a rave review from the New York Times.

In an SMS, Torre, who is in the United States for the film’s promo tour, told Inquirer Entertainment: “You know how insecure actors are about their performances. Good reviews validate the hard work we put into ‘Amigo.’”

Torre, who top-bills and coproduced the indie movie on the Philippine-American War at the turn of the century, was particularly moved by the New York Times piece, published Aug. 18 and written by chief film critic AO Scott.

In the critique, Scott said that Torre played his role Rafael, a beleaguered village chief, “with sly, hangdog brilliance.”

Torre admitted:  “I was near tears because I know the weight of a New York Times review. It’s a big deal. I feel like I hit gold.”

Scott said Sayles’ film “[attends] to gray areas and [focuses] on characters whose essential decency is challenged and complicated by circumstances.

In that regard, Scott wrote, Rafael is “an exemplary Sayles protagonist.”

Torre said, “I am elated; these critics are very knowledgeable about cinema.”

Highest praise

Torre joined Sayles in  the promo tour, starting when “Amigo” opened Aug. 19 in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Stockton and other cities.

Today, it’s set to open in Honolulu, Guam and San Jose (California). Next month, it moves to Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas, Washington DC, Gaithersburg, Virginia Beach, Albuquerque, Chicago, Dallas and Minneapolis.

“Amigo” is also part of the 31st Hawaii International Film Festival, which runs in October.

Scott reserved the highest praise for Sayles, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter for “Passion Fish” and “Lone Star.”

“This is not the kind of movie, and Sayles is not the type of director, to linger in the picturesque past, savoring antique details and re-staging bygone conflicts,” Scott noted.

For Sayles, Scott pointed out, “history… turns on recurrent themes of power, greed, exploitation and principled, often Quixotic, resistance to those forces.”

Scott called Sayles a “left-wing, baby-boom John Ford, spinning fables of the American character out of the threads of myth, memory and ideology.”

The critic then praised “Amigo,” which was shot in Bohol with a Filipino cast and crew alongside Hollywood actors—led by Oscar winner Chris Cooper—as “a well-carpentered narrative, fast-moving and emphatic, stepping nimbly from gravity to good humor.”

Scott asserted that, in orchestrating scenes, Sayles seems to have invited “his actors to find their own ways of wearing the tight garments he has designed.”

In sum, he hailed Sayles as “a pretty good history teacher, the kind who knows how to make even difficult lessons entertaining and relevant.”