Of eagles, mobile banking, more tourists and mayonnaise

 

Students push for the Philippine Eagle as the National Bird. 

I thought it already is. I remember that Pagasa (hope), the first Philippine eagle bred in captivity has sparked such move. Philippine stamps since 1996 have declared that the Philippine Eagle as the holder of the title. Hmm. Where have these people been? 

Mobile Financial Transactions in the Philippines 

Very few people know this but it is the Philippines who first got to use the world’s first electronic cash in the form of Smart Money, although not very widely used. It has been in Smart’s product lineup for years now. A few months back, Smart and Globe began offering remittance services wherein the subscriber can receive remittances from abroad thru his celphone. A very smart move indeed. And now, it is official. Filipinos can now experience the convenience of mobile banking with transactions such as account balance inquiry, bills payment and money transfers. One can even reload into the prepaid SIM using the service. In a country of aging and mostly offline ATMs and painfully slow and long lines at the bank, this is a welcome service, especially for those who don't have the time to go. Lately, my number one criteria in selecting a bank was having a website for online account inquiries. Now, this is my number two. Never mind the .002% interest the other bank offers more than the next. Mobile banking means huge savings from taking stressful trips to the nearest ATM or paying more to log on to the Internet. Bravo Smart and Globe. 

Tourists flocking to resorts in the Philippines 

There are now reports of hordes of tourists being redirected from the tsunami-stricken countries to resorts in the Philippines. Truly one man’s poison is another’s sweet wine. Although there is reason to celebrate as this could help boost tourism to the country, it is not worth more than 150,000 lives lost. But there is no reason for the Philippines to apologize either. I am sure that these tourists have considered The Philippines when they planned their South East Asian trips but opted to go somewhere else for some reason or another. Terrorism is probably one of those. This is opportunity banging at the door. Hopefully, Filipinos take the hint and pull their act together to grab this chance to shine as a top tourist destination. 

Ladies Choice Mayonnaise

Have you seen the ads of Ladies Choice Mayonnaise suggesting it as the new dip for fried food? Are they insane? Fried food as it is, already screams of cholesterol, obesity, heart diseases and even death. Add to that, whipped oil and vinegar and you got a social health time bomb ticking. In the US, 1 in 4 are overweight and they are doing something about it, including reducing fat and cholesterol intake (not to mention doing the famous ATKINS diet). Here, Ladies Choice is airing mouth-watering ads with Filipino fried favorites such as the lechon kawali, fried liempo, fried longanisa, etc. And they aren’t even making any effort to reduce the fat in their product. Are they mad at Filipinos or something? Ladies Choice Mayo is evil in a jar if you ask me.