Random thoughts on communication

On the sidelines

Today, I planned to write about the importance of communication in love relationships. But when I opened my netbook, in my usual unhealthy impulse, I decided to minimize the love aspect in the picture and bring random thoughts (admittedly, with no clear sense of direction) into the foreground.

Gatekeepers

One of the very few theories I learned back in college concerning communication is the role of media—where a wide expanse of information tailored for communication lies—as a gatekepeer. Well, when I was lucky to get a job in a newspaper, I realized that the gatekeeping theory is no longer a theory. Media set off the public talking and discussing topics.

The bottomline is: proper communication leads to proper decisions and actions.

As soon as a sensational banner is seen on the newsstands, the public reacts—sympathize with the victim, express anger over suspects, organize rallies, start a signature campaign, complain to media outlets for sensationalizing headlines, and even decide not to read sensational stories. Whatever the reaction is, the goal of the gatekeeper is achieved.

The bottomline is: proper communication leads to proper decisions and actions.

Plagiarism

On the other side of the coin, the reactions prompted by news stories are important manifestations of the need to properly communicate accurate information.

Accuracy, of course, does not follow that one just have to copy other people’s works. It’s not even proper communication. For me, plagiarism is a mortal sin. Not only does the copycat show disrespect to the original writer, the act also indicate laziness to learn and betrayal to the publishers and to the readers.

I have to admit that when I started writing for the high school paper a decade ago, my first two works were plagiarized (My editor then, Patty, doesn’t know until now). At that time, I was conscience-stricken when I saw my name for an article I didn’t write, got hunted by the act, and vowed never to do it again. When I do, I will most probably stop writing for a while.

When I recently saw a blog about a certain writer whose literary work by a contributor  of a local newspaper (my employer’s competitor), I reacted—quite passionately—about how the world should be while being disgusted that some professional people could easily copy and paste. Afterwards, I reminded myself that life is unfair and some people are just so messed up.

After word

Culture differences. This is how I would comfort myself after I would read a romantic novel about two people who fell in love in the outskirts of New York, USA. Then I would go looking for a love story written by a Filipino author, which makes a lot of sense to me.

The common flaw in the plots of these foreign novels (the ones I’ve read, that is) is the lack of communication between couples. They project a lot of emotions and manifest very little intellectual connections between an infatuated female and a macho man. Well, I guess I am just disappointed.

After all, for me, there is only one secret to a healthy and happy relationship. It’s not love. It’s the intimate talks and, as they say, the chemistry that these conversations evoke.

I gave away most of these books to a non-government organization that would sell them in order to buy educational materials for pupils in the mountain barangays. The others I kept on my shelf because they passed my tastes; they indicate the importance of direct (not necessarily tactless) and honest conversations of two ordinary citizens, illustrating the kind of communication I would want to happen in my life. After all, for me, there is only one secret to a healthy and happy relationship. It’s not love. It’s the intimate talks and, as they say, the chemistry that these conversations evoke.

End.

Filed under: Personal Thoughts/Experience

Moved: Smokes

Transferred from from nrcudis.wordpress.com (October 26, 2007)

I admire smokers and would-be smokers plainly because they know what’s going to happen but they still risk doing it. I think smoking is a risk factor. In the international perspective, smokers risks their body and their environment to sweet chemicals that decay them. In Cebu, a smoker risks, too, his personality in the midst of swarming conservatives. In my home, a smoker risks himself to humiliation–because Dad will really ask him to get out of the house. I belong to a family of asthmatic darlings, that’s why. But I shall never know these risks, not until I try smoking myself. But I would tell myself that I’m already a smoker–a second-rate one, that is (you know, inhaling all the fumes from all kinds of mufflers no matter how much I try to suffocate myself with my handkerchief). And I would wonder if this is just one of my many ways of contributing to air pollution and global warming. And I would wonder, too, how several smokers would discourage would-be smokers not to take the risks of smoking because it is unnecessary, it is dangerous, but they themselves could not discourage themselves yet from taking the risks. I wonder how they could still manage to hold on to one stick after another with already quite shaky hands. Or how smokers would puff off smokes before each other’s faces unintentionally and still manage to create a great conversation. Amazing. Plain amazing. I admire smokers for their unnecessary and dangerous risks, and nothing else. Well, you could at least smoke to that, folks.

Filed under: Personal Thoughts/Experience

Moved: Prima donnas

Transferred from nrcudis.wordpress.com (October 26, 2007)

The prima donnas I know sing on television. It’s a bonus if they can dance. Or cook. Now, I see them just about everywhere. And they just don’t sing, or dance, or cook. They are also public speakers, speaking for or in behalf of other people, with or without their consent. It’s amazing how they can just talk; only this time, there is no rhythm or rhyme. Just plain inhuman outburst. From my silent corner (as always), I gape with awe, transfixed at what I am seeing and hearing. Sympathy drains the wits out of me–for the victims, the targets, the subjects of the heartless composition. I feel numb with helplessness. And choose not to speak. And choose not to join in the singing of another kind of music. Bad music. I’m familiar with it. I just don’t like it. I’m certain I don’t have to like it to be liked. So I choose my modest corner instead, and sing happy thoughts to myself. I pray I won’t find my feet tapping to the rhythm of their music.

Filed under: Personal Thoughts/Experience

Moved: I stopped blogging

From nrcudis.wordpress.com (October 26, 2007)

I stopped blogging more than a year ago. That was when I was hooked to computer games like Sims 2 and became lazy. I still am now (hooked to computer games, that is), but I’m quite bored with it. Funny how I can build fantasy homes on screen when I couldn’t even save up, no matter how much I tried. I just don’t know where my money goes. Well, that’s dangerous, I know. I have expensive tuition in school, for one. So I will stop studying for now. And work. I buy and eat a lot of sweets, too. Those who know me wouldn’t be surprised if I have gained some seven to ten pounds from my ideal 118 lbs. over the past three months. So, as I was saying, I got bored with Sims 2, Rocket Mania, Box World, Insaniquarium, and other computer games that are within my mental capacity. So I went back to blogging. At WordPress. Not only because someone–a computer genius, I must say–recommended it, but perhaps the word “press” rings a whole new world of possibilities with words. Well, I hope I can stick around longer this time.

Filed under: Personal Thoughts/Experience

Diet and adultery

This is funny. I opened my blogs but I still log on to my email account to write this entry. In some way, it feels like I am sending myself an email or writing a diary like some innocent fifth grader. You see, I am enjoying so much this new neat WordPress feature.

Anyway, I just came from a coffee shop date with a special friend. For several hours, we talked about life in general and reminded ourselves the danger of unchecked diet and adultery.

We shared a common understanding that diet is good when recommended by the doctor. Diet is about control, not hurting one’s self with too much cut in carbohydrates and other minerals. It is about still having the same or even better energy to allow you to get up in the morning and start the day with a positive vibe. Diet is good. One just have to check thoroughly first which one will work for him or her, according to his body structure, hormones, etc.

Under our beliefs as Catholics, on the other hand, adultery is definitely not good. Adulterers are an overwhelming lot; for us, they are home-wreckers. They affect the lives of their partners, their partners’ legal wives or husbands, and their partners’ children. We do not even consider them partners of their partners, in the truest sense of the word. Why and how they engage in such relationships are beyond us, although we also have to consider the types of families and social environments they grew up in. My friend and I will continue to debate on this while keeping open minds and strengthening forgiving hearts.

We also talked about careers and family life. Well, whatever it specifically was will remain special knowledge between the two of us. After all, we are special friends.

P.S. Thanks for your time, dear friend. You know who you are.

Filed under: Personal Thoughts/Experience

JOBS, THAT FIGURES.

BY Nancy R. Cudis

CEBU CITY, CEBU—Figures are supposed to mean nothing unless verified by a credible study. Sometimes, though, when one is seeing and/or experiencing things, one cannot help wonder how deep and serious a situation is. Figures, in a way, give us a picture—although not necessarily 100 percent accurate. But, at the end of the day, it boils down to deciding whether or not to believe them.

Take for instance the three popular words these days—global financial crisis. This situation has affected and is threatening many export-oriented companies in Cebu. Locators at the Mactan Economic Zone (Mez) are no exception. In the middle of last month, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) reported 68 of the 105 locators at Mez 1 to have been affected by the turmoil such that they have intensively adjusted their work schedules.

As a result, a total of 15,311 workers have affected in different degrees—11,642 under temporary work adjustments, 3,182 have stopped working due to their companies’ suspension of operations, and 487 have been retrenched. This is based on the report that Peza started in February, which is updated every 15 days.

With many affected workers reevaluating their budget to meet their daily basic needs while being able to save, local retailers are facing a serious dilemma in consumer spending—but something they can always face, if they remain innovative and focused. Among them is homegrown retailer Junrex Cellphones and Accessories, which reported a 30 percent decline in sales volume from January to March this year compared to the same period last year. Junrex president and chief executive officer Jun Yap considered this to be the lowest in the past ten years.

On the bright note, though, Mr. Yap said they were able to enhance the manpower of their shops by having just enough people and letting go of the extra hands. However, that did not stop the company from having to close two stores and one of its two offices in Cebu Business Park just to keep going. In these times, the goal of most, if not all, retailers is to survive—by all means possible—to be still around when the economy rebounds under good conditions.

Apart from retailers, the government also expects a decline in tax collection this year, especially after the passage of Republic Act 9504 that aims to ease the effects of the global financial crisis on Filipinos. In 2008, the Bureau of Internal Revenue Cebu City-13 was not able to meet its P9.9 billion target by collecting only P9.4 billion. About 34.9 percent of the collection came from income tax on individual taxpayers.

With the new RA 9504 and the significant number of jobless people from Mez 1 alone, BIR is confronted with the challenge to intensify its collection areas in order to meet its target this year. Notably, the bureau is eyeing real estate, now on stable condition in the province amid the economic turmoil.

As I’ve said, these are figures. They form a picture—pieces of a puzzle. A writer can only do so much—to present them in the most informative and unbiased manner. Due to these figures, government agencies like the Department of Labor and Employment and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority has decided to aggressively implement more programs for displaced workers.

What about you, as (what you say) an ordinary citizen? What would you do with these figures? You decide.

Filed under: Personal Thoughts/Experience

CYCLISTS-TURNED-ENTREPRENEURS

An experience

BY NANCY CUDIS <> Friday, March 27, 2009

CEBU CITY, CEBU–Forward, backward. These two words came in mind in the middle of my interview with German bike enthusiast, Mr. Jens Funk, who is now based in Cebu for the past seven years. We were at Cafe France in JY Square in Lahug, Cebu City earlier this month-he was having a mug of coffee while I was battling running nose with a nice cup of raspberry tea-to discuss a unique business venture.

The venture has something to do with biking, which partly attracted Mr. Funk to stay in Cebu. While working as an information technology consultant for a reputable school here under a project of the German Government, he met new friends who happen to be cyclists like himself. His experiences eventually include biking with them in various parts of the country, including one of my favorite places, the Transcentral Highway that snakes its way from Cebu City to midwest municipalities of the province.

When his contract ended, Mr. Funk decided to stay for as long as he can. He said he still visits Germany several days or weeks in a year but he always come back because there is so much he could do here, so many faces of nature he could see and explore.

It was only late last year when he and his cyclist friends finally tapped the business potential of biking. How? Through transporting documents and consumer products from one area to another for a very small fee. Last December, Ecocouriers was born. It was organized under Outdoor Perspective, an outdoor gear shop along Juana Osmena St., Cebu City, which is owned by Funks’ Filipino friends.

I came across Ecocouriers when I was given a copy of Bite Magazine by a photographer friend from another newspaper. We were on board Cebu Pacific flying to Siargao on its inaugural flight there from Cebu. With nothing else better to do, I leafed through the pages, one of which shows a simple yet eye-catching ad of Ecocouriers, it services, rates, and contact number. It considered itself as Cebu’s first bike courier.

When I showed the ad to my boyfriend later that day, he disagreed to the tagline since there has always been bike messengers in Cebu as far as he could remember. True, but I pointed out to him that Ecocouriers is the first “organized” bike courier service in Metro Cebu with formal services and rates. To that, he made no move to argue.

The following week after the flight, I contacted Mr. Funk and we decided to meet in Lahug with the common aim of having Ecocouriers featured as a weekly enterprise story for the business section of Sun.Star Cebu.

Naturally, my first question during the interview, to get the ball rolling, was how Ecocouriers started. Amusingly, Mr. Funk answered that it was a long story. I was close to retorting that I have enough time and money (for several more cups of raspberry tea) to hear it. But he went on without delay.

When he mentioned that that bike courier business is a good concept because of an impressive package deal-it helps the environment, it satisfies transporting requirements, it is a source of income, and workers get to do what they love, which is biking-two words came in mind, as I’ve said. Forward, backward. Forward, because the cyclists look toward preserving the environment and stretching a longer and greener future with narra trees and Philippine eagles. Backward, because the medium-a bike-is a traditional one, something we commonly see since we were children. I think when one combines a forward perspective and a traditional medium, a uniquely greater idea is created.

The whole business concept, of course, is about several decades old, as far as the world is concerned. It has happened in places like London, Mexico, and India. But it is new and unique to Cebu, in the sense that it has no competitors of its kind (not yet), as far as I know. Cebu, though, is already home to several branches of more organized, bigger, and more tech-savvy couriers. Mr. Funk told me Ecocouriers will not compete with them but rather enhancing the whole industry by servicing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and private individuals-those who want to save in terms of time and cost especially with the ongoing global crisis now and those who doesn’t have a driver they can send on an errand immediately.

Since December, at least six bikers at Ecocouriers are making an average of 10 to 12 deliveries in a day. A couple of them have lost their jobs to the crisis that had significantly affected their former employers at the Mactan Economic Zone.

The business concept of Ecocouriers may be an old one (I remember a postman riding his bike to deliver letters to my aunt from her penpal when I was still a kid) but the positioning is unique. Why? Cebu, for one, holds a huge bulk of SMEs in the country. And people here prefer the cheap but best quality of service (the best of both worlds, literally speaking). I have been told that Cebu is a challenging market. If a new product works to the satisfaction of the Cebuanos, that product will work anywhere in the country.

Despite its uniqueness, Ecocouriers preferred to enter the local market at a relatively slow pace-through word of mouth and fliers upon deliveries. No launching events, no billboards, no print and broadcast ads, no press conferences, no gimmicks. Mr. Funk simply explained that it is a new service in Cebu. And new means change-a change in the process, in the system, in the way things are done. And change is something most, if not all, backward-thinking minds are not accustomed to.

If it means taking a forward perspective and helping save the planet from too much air pollution, I guess it’s about time to strike a balance between backward and forward ideas.

(Ecocouriers’ services include standard rate-P50 for pick-up and delivery and P80 for roundtrip-and one-hour express-P80 for pick-up and delivery and P120 for roundtrip. Its initial coverage area is Metro Cebu. For more details, contact Jens Funk at 0920-272-6472.)

Filed under: Environment, Personal Thoughts/Experience