"Coffee or Tea for Poem" to Promote Love for Poetry

Wazzup Pilipinas!

"Poetry is an act of peace." – Pablo Neruda

To promote love of poetry, “Coffee or Tea for Poem” will be held on March 21, 2017 the whole day Tuesday to celebrate UNESCO’s “World Poetry Day” for the second year in Quezon City’s pioneering, 78-year-old, artisanal/pugon-style Kamuning Bakery Cafe. Customers can pay for their coffee or tea drink with their original poem in any language that day at No. 43 Judge Jimenez St. corner K-1st Street, Kamuning, Quezon City.

All published poets who bring their book or magazine with their original poem shall also be given FREE coffee or tea on that day.

The verses will be published on Kamuning Bakery Cafe’s Facebook page. Kamuning Bakery Cafe also hopes to publish a literary journal, primarily celebrating poetry. KBC owner Wilson Lee Flores is a writer who started writing poems in four languages as a student, his late mother educator Mary Young Siu Tin also wrote poetry.

On March 21 morning, the special guest of Kamuning Bakery Cafe’s “Pandesal Forum” with media and intellectuals will be Singapore Ambassador Madame Kok Li Peng. Apart from hosting the tertulia-inspired, non-partisan “Pandesal Forum” for newsmakers and leaders, Kamuning Bakery Cafe hosts other cultural events for artists, thinkers and poets.

Kamuning Bakery Cafe also hosts book launchings, such as those by ex-President Fidel V. Ramos, former Senate President Edgardo Angara (whose late cousin theater artist Zenaida Angara Amador was a neighbor and “suki” customer of Kamuning Bakery), and the only Filipino winner of USA’s American Book Award, New York-based author and activist Ninotchka Rosca. Kamuning Bakery Cafe welcomes art exhibits on paintings, photographs, etc.

8 reasons why “Coffee or Tea for Poem” project at 78-year-old Kamuning Bakery Cafe?

— Highlight the rich legacy of poetry in the Philippines and Asia
— Encourage the love and writing of poetry, an art which ennobles & humanizes people.
—Promote more poetry readings
— Help in bringing poetry out of classrooms & literary circles into public places like a cafe
— Highlight importance of poetry to culture and better quality of life
—Help promote poetry to the mass media and social media
— Encourage more publication and distribution of poetry books
— Encourage better appreciation of and support for poets and poetry

How to Maximize Your Online Presence as a Real Estate Professional

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Technology plays a vital role in the success of many if not all industries today. Luckily, if you know how to play your cards right, a well-executed online campaign might be all that you need to be ahead of the game.

This is specifically true with the real estate sector. Leading property portal Lamudi Philippines have noted that more and more house-hunters are going online to search for properties. Be it for serious buying or just merely researching for future investments, the Internet is the top-of-mind resource to get quick and accurate real estate facts.

To help the dedicated players of the property arena, Lamudi Philippines compiles the best strategies on how to establish and enhance your online exposure to get a plethora of leads and eventually secure that sale.

Subscribe in an Industry-focused Portal

Instead of shelling out your advertising funds in printing a bunch of flyers, why not direct your ad budget in a platform where you can post your real estate listings. MyProperty.ph and Lamudi Philippines are two top property-focused local websites where you can upload listings and be sure to be seen by the right target market. A trustworthy and credible website complete with all the relevant real estate information is surely an excellent approach to improve your business.

Be a Social Media Titan

The quickest and also cheapest way to your client’s eye is through social media. You can take advantage of a number of platforms that can be used for free such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and use it to promote your property listings. Just remember that you must not use your social media pages to hard sell your listings. Sharing an exciting trivia, a nice photo, or elaborating the experience is a sure way to get noticed without boring your followers.

Be Mobile

The fast-paced lifestyle of today almost expects real-time results in every activity. Because consumers are turning to their mobile devices as their number one mode of communication and the fastest way to mine data, it is also imperative to ensure mobility in your day-to-day operations. This will not only show that you are prompt and active but it will highlight that you are reliable and serious in your profession.

Maximize Your Tech Tools

Attract your clients with high-resolution photos, panoramic shots, aerial angles taken by drone cameras, and virtual reality. These are just some of the best tools you can use to capture the beauty and sell the experience. As technology continues to advance, it is only fitting to take full advantage of different gadgets and put more color and vibrancy to your real estate offerings.

Content Is Mighty

Never get tired of sharing valuable bits of information to your readers and followers. You can start a blog and post relevant real estate tips that will not just impress your clients but will also arm you with knowledge. This might come in handy in a problematic transaction that you will certainly face in the sea of customers.

These are just some of the online promotion schemes that have been proven effective by hundreds of professional real estate brokers across the Philippines. Come March 30, 2017, Lamudi Philippines will award the best of the best-licensed real estate brokers who are subscribed in the portal. Various honors will be given away.

Filinvest Land, one of the major sponsors in the upcoming prestigious awards night, joins Lamudi in recognizing the contributions of real estate professionals in the field and their technical know-how that enabled them to succeed in the modern business landscape.

The Lamudi Philippines Broker Awards Night will be held at the New World Hotel in Makati.

Expanded Maternity Leave Law To Address "Multiple Burden" of Pregnancy

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Saying that pregnant women carry a "multiple burden," lawmakers from both the Senate and House of Representatives close ranks to push for the passage of a bill that seeks to double the paid maternity leave of working women.

In a press conference today in Quezon City, Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros and Atty. Joy Anne Lai, Chief of Staff of Diwa Partylist Representative Emmeline Aglipay-Villar said that the government should address the "physical, mental and economic burden of pregnancy.”

"The physical demand of pregnancy alone is challenging. A nine-month pregnant woman carries an average weight of 15 kilos. This is as heavy as a regular hollow block or mid-size microwave oven. Yet, this is but a small fraction of the multiple burden of pregnancy,"Hontiveros said.

"The mental and economic challenges of pregnancy are also daunting. The existing maternity law doesn't give enough paid maternity leave for working mothers to fully recover from childbirth, properly care for their child and establish a stronger mother-child bond through breastfeeding. An expanded maternity leave bill does not mean a vacation for mothers. We want women to have the chance to take care of their children and their health and well-being without worrying about the economic costs of being away from employment," Hontiveros added.

For her part, Lai called on Congress to reciprocate the action of the Senate in passing its version of the Expanded Maternity Leave bill. She said that the country's alarming statistics on child malnutrition are the result of a lack of a progressive maternity Leave policy. Citing a study by the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in 2011, Lai explained that 65.4% or 4.3 million of Filipino children are suffering from long-term chronic malnutrition. Malnutrition was also blamed for about one-third of deaths of children below five years of age.

"The number of paid maternity leave days granted to working women are not enough for their new-born children to be properly fed. Thus, nursing mothers who need to return to work are often forced to stop breastfeeding and shift to infant formula. Two-thirds of deaths among malnourished children are associated with inappropriate feeding practices,” Lai explained.

To dramatize the "physical and multiple burdens" of pregnancy, Hontiveros presented bags of sand and hollow blocks weighing 15 kilos each. She asked members of the media to lift them in order for them to temporarily experience the physical challenges of pregnancy.

Last week, the Senate passed the Expanded Maternity Leave Law of 2017 granting all female workers, regardless of civil status or legitimacy of her child, 120 days maternity leave with pay and an option to extend it for another 30 days without pay. 30 days can also be allotted to fathers and alternate caregivers.

 

Photo by Rence Chan