Louganis loves El Nido

Louganis in love with El Nido


Abac Cordero
Philippine Star
13 April 2019

EL NIDO, Palawan, Philippines — The greatest diver in history was smitten by the beauty of the surroundings here.

“It’s just a spectacular background,” said Greg Louganis, the four-time Olympic champion from the United States.

 

Louganis, 59, is here as sports director of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, which was to kick off its 11th season yesterday.

Twenty-four of the world’s best cliff divers are in this picturesque island of amazing geologic formations and pristine waters with corals and marine mammal life.

Louganis, who wore his Olympic ring on his right hand during the interview, said the event couldn’t find a better spot.

“Such an incredible backdrop,” he said of the site.

Two platforms of 20 meters (70 feet) for women and 27 meters (90 feet) for men were constructed on a towering limestone formation in Miniloc island.

The competitors from the US, Great Britain, Canada, Mexico, Belarus, Romania, Poland, Ukraine and the Czech Republic will jump off a cliff with sharp, jagged rocks from as high as 90 feet. It takes them three to four seconds to hit the waters at a speed of 70 to 80 kph.

It’s heart-stopping to watch.

“I’m just in awe,” said Louganis, winner of two Olympic gold medals (platform and springboard) in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics.

“And I’m always asked, ‘What’s your favorite spot?’ I have to say it’s Oman and the Philippines. They’re neck-to-neck,” he said.

“But here you really feel you’re embraced by nature. And that’s what cliff diving is all about. It’s the backdrop. The gorgeous clear waters. It’s stunning,” he said of the El Nido site.

From here, the series moves to Ireland in May, Italy in June, Portugal in June, Lebanon in July, Bosnia and Herzegovina in August then Spain in September.

Louganis, winner of five world championships, has never tried cliff diving.

Not yet. One day, he will.

“I really want to experience what the divers experience. The impact. But you don’t know until you do it yourself,” said Louganis.

“But if I’d dive, I’d do it here,” he said.

Louganis is in love with El Nido.

PH to become 18th largest economy by 2037

Philippines to become 18th largest economy by 2037 — report

Philippine Star | 11 December 2018

This Nov. 9, 2018 file photo shows the Mandaluyong-Makati skyline. The Philippines is set to become the 18th largest economy in the world over the next twenty years, Capital Economics reported, citing the Southeast Asian nation’s young workforce.

The STAR/Michael Varcas

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is expected to become the 18th largest economy in the world over the next twenty years, Capital Economics reported, citing the Southeast Asian nation’s young workforce.

In its “Long-Term Global Economic Outlook” report released last week, the London-based economic research consultancy forecasts the Philippines’ nominal gross domestic product to hit $1.414 trillion by 2037.

Thirty economies were tracked in the report. In 2017, the Philippines was ranked 25th in terms of nominal GDP.

According to Capital Economics, the Philippine economy will likely outgrow Turkey, Poland, Thailand, UAE, Egypt, Colombia, South Africa, Argentina, Czech Republic, Angola, Morocco and Kenya two decades from now.

By 2037, Capital Economics sees the US dominating the top 17 economies based on nominal GDP, followed by China, India, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Mexico, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Italy, Indonesia, Russia, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, respectively.

“Growth in Emerging Asia is likely to slow over the coming decades due to a combination of less favourable demographics and reduced scope for catch-up,” the consultancy said.

“Meanwhile, working age populations will still grow at a fairly rapid pace in countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia and India,” it added.

The Philippines had enjoyed uninterrupted growth in the past quarters, thanks to benign inflation in the previous years that had given the central bank enough room to keep interest rates low.

In the same report, Capital Economics flagged weakening investor appetite in the Philippines due to President Rodrigo Duterte’s leadership style.

“There are signs that the election of President Duterte in the Philippines is scaring off foreign investors and the situation is unlikely to improve when he is gone,” it said.

“The country has a poor history when it comes to electing competent governments,” it added. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral

Pinoy Disney character

Soon a Pinoy Disney character? 


Nathali Tomada
The Philippine Star
14 November 2018

The Pinay artist during the roundtable interview to promote the latest Disney animated film Ralph Breaks The Internet — a follow-up to the 2012 Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph 2’s Fil-Am animator Josie Trinidad would love to see a Filipina Disney princess warrior and definitely thinks ‘that’s in the future’

MANILA, Philippines — Want to see a Filipino Disney character? For Fil-Am Disney animator Josie Trinidad, she would love to see a Filipina Disney princess warrior and definitely thinks “that’s in the future.”

“I definitely think that there will be a lot of stories that can come from and be inspired by the Philippines because culturally, artistically, creatively, it’s such a rich world that (it) would be very exciting to see. And I definitely think that’s in the future,” Josie told the media, including The STAR, last Friday when asked about the possibility of a Philippines-inspired Disney animation similar to other “culturally-themed” films like Coco (Mexico) or Moana (Polynesian islands).

The Pinay artist was here to promote the latest Disney animated film Ralph Breaks The Internet, a follow-up to the 2012 Wreck-It Ralph, which opens Nov. 21 in cinemas. She is the film’s co-head of story, which means she oversees the story team responsible for translating the script to its first visual form. Her other Disney credits include 2016’s Oscar-winning feature Zootopia, Tangled (2010), The Princess and the Frog (2009), among others. She was also part of Wreck-It Ralph 1.  

Ralph Breaks the Internet brings back to the big screen video-game bad guy Ralph and fellow misfit Vanellope von Schweetz. They leave the video arcades behind and venture into world of the Internet.

Said Josie, “Ralph is a character who doesn’t quite get the Internet…He thinks it’s easy to get viral.

(For) writers and artists we know, it’s such a challenge to create viral content… (Ralph) thinks it’s going to be easy. And then there are great things about the Internet and not so good things like comments and being trolled that we felt like, won’t it be fun to take a naïve character like Ralph and put him through that?”

She also shared how the sequel came about.

“Rich Moore (as director) and Phil Johnston (as screenwriter) worked on the original. This is the first movie where we have the original filmmakers making the sequel and after they finished the first one, they said, you know what, this is great, this movie, we’ve ended it where we wanted it to. And then they have the idea, what if Ralph went to the Internet, broke the Internet, like that’s really funny that this videogame character could think that he could destroy the internet. That sort of opened up the whole world of possibilities.

“The biggest challenge was toning it down — what we were going to focus on because there was too much good stuff going on here to play with. When we focused on their friendship (between Ralph and Vanellope), these two kids from a small town and kind of going to the big city, that’s when we really, OK, it was still really compelling and fun and hilarious and also full of heart.”

Josie, who still has a lot of family in the Philippines and has come home often, was also asked about her Pinoy roots, and what it’s like being a woman in animation, which in her own words, is such a “competitive” and “laborious” job.

Below are excerpts from the rest of the interview.
On her Filipino roots and background:

“I was born in the States. My parents migrated to the US in the 1960s. My dad went to UST (University of Sto. Tomas) and he left to do his (medical) residency in Montreal, Canada. My mom went to Philippine Women’s College and she studied nursing, of course, and she went to Texas as a student. I think her visa ran out and she went to Montreal, Canada where my parents met. Then they went back to the United States and they ended up in California.”

On how she got into the arts:
“My family always talks about that. Each side will claim that the artistic side comes from them. But I feel like my dad is someone who likes to tell stories, and he grew up during World War II. As a kid, we always heard about the war, and the Japanese occupation and all these different stories. So, I feel like the storytelling side came from my dad. But you know, things like hard work, things that Filipinos always instill in their children — that came from the both of them.

“I’m the bunso. I’m the first artist in the family. My other cousins are lawyers, doctors and engineers, so I really went out on a limb doing art and animation (laughs). But now they’re very proud.
“I always loved drawing as a kid. I love Disney. When I was 11, my bestfriend and I were watching Robin Hood, and we paused the movie, just kind of playing around, and the movie started to play frame by frame. Then we realized, my gosh, those are drawings… There’s a human being behind these drawings. And so that’s when I really wanted to become an animator for Disney.” (She eventually attended UCLA where she majored in English Lit and Fine Arts, and then studied character animation at CalArts.)

On how her Pinoy roots influence her work:

“I’m very proud to be Filipino and the Philippine culture is so embedded in who I am. I feel like we were so connected to the Philippines. My mom used to always say, back home in the Philippines. You know, we’re so close as a family and friends. All of that encompasses who I am but also Philippine culture. I feel like it’s just… they’re one and the same despite having grown up in the US, because I feel like they transplanted Philippine culture. It just happened to be the United States but all my experiences were surrounded by family.

“You know, there was a time when I was speaking English and learning as a child, I couldn’t distinguish Tagalog from English. I would say words in school with other Americans and they said, that’s not English. It was really, truly how I grew up. We always have family coming from the Philippines. We always have big family gatherings. It’s weird because growing up, I have the Filipino side such as everything at home and there’s the American side, which is everything at school. It kept worlds a little bit separate. But I was weirdly embedded in both.”

On bringing the Filipino culture to Disney:
“At Disney animation, there are at least three Filipinos working in the story department. I have a friend named Jo Mateo, he’s been there with me since I started working there, he’s like my kuya. There’s a kinship that I feel with other Filipinos… it’s just a shared experience that I know, it’s like I’m with family.

“As far as bringing our culture? I think it just happens… For example, there are a lot of Filipinos working in Disney Animation as well. It’s just nice to see familiar faces who have shared experiences, and I can go there and just kind of know that I’m in a trusting environment.”

On the challenges of being a woman in the animation world:
“When I started in 2004, 14 years ago, I was the only female in our apprenticeship program and there was only two women in the story department… Now the story department is nearly half women. It’s women all over the world and many Asian story artists (from) Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand. It’s really wonderful because you get a female perspective and Asian perspective…from different cultures in Asia. It’s nice to have that camaraderie and diversity in the story room so that each artist can bring their unique perspective and they don’t have to carry the mantle of women or that sort of thing. They can just be themselves because the room is diverse.

“I always thought of it as an advantage because I was the only woman sometimes in a story meeting and I felt like this was a unique perspective, that I can say, that’s not how women act. Or that’s not something that’s common. Or that might be a misperception so I could correct some things or I could just enlighten, I guess, and just say, from my experience, this is what it is. I always found it and I find it in general, I’m not a minority. I’m someone who’s bringing a unique perspective to the room. That’s valid, interesting, they can take it or leave it, but I’m not going to not say my opinion, you know.”

On how aspiring animators can make it:  

“I was aided by luck but also a lot of hard work, which I think a lot of Filipinos have. Filipinos are talented and amazing artists. I would just say, stay true to yourself and don’t give up. We offer a unique perspective as artists and as Filipinos, and we have a very unique story to tell given our history, our varied history. That’s something really worth tapping into. So I would encourage, especially Filipino artists and animators, to tell your own story because that’s something I feel that the world has not seen.”

Top Globalization Destination

Philippines is world's second top globalization destination: index

Arianne Merez

Abs-CBN News
20 Oct 2018

Business process outsourcing is an economic lifeline in the Philippines with over 1.15 million Filipinos working in the industry. File photo

MANILA - The Philippines is the second top globalization destination in the world this year, according to global strategic advisory firm Tholons.

The 2018 Services Globalization Index saw the Philippines rising to the second spot of the "Top 50 Digital Nations" after placing third last year.

India continues to dominate the list while Brazil follows the Philippines at third place.

Other countries in the top 10 are the United States, Mexico, Canada, Russia, Vietnam, Colombia, and South Africa.

"Most of the services will get commoditized for the biggest leaders in services globalization like US, UK, Canada, Europe, India, Philippines, East Europe, and Latin America," the index report stated.

Business process outsourcing is an economic lifeline in the Philippines with over 1.15 million Filipinos working in the industry.

The industry, along with remittances from overseas workers, remains one of the top 2 earners of foreign exchange for the Philippines.

SUPER CITIES

Six cities from the Philippines, meanwhile, made it to the "Top 100 Super Cities," with Manila placing second to Bengaluru in India.

The Philippine capital, which ranked fourth in 2017, is followed by the Indian city of Mumbai, which ranked third.

The rest of the Philippine cities included in the list all saw an improvement in their respective rankings.

Close to the top 10 is Cebu City, which ranked 11th from 12th last year, while President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown Davao City went 10 notches higher to the 75th spot from 85th last year.

Santa Rosa City in Laguna rose to the 87th spot from 100th last year while Bacolod City climbed to the 89th spot from 97th in 2017.

The Visayan city of Iloilo, meanwhile, is a newcomer to the list, landing at the 92nd spot.

The index evaluates and ranks countries and cities based on availability and quality of talent in the area, business catalyst or the level of industry-related activity and organizational support, cost of doing business, infrastructure, innovation, and risk and quality of life among others.