The Calamity in The Philippines
Christmas is coming! Do you feel the joy?
Unfortunately some of our brothers and sisters in the Philippines may not be able to enjoy the joy of christmas.
So as you may already know (or not), a devastating flood hits the Philippines a few days ago.
Disaster agency officials said Tuesday that 957 people have died so far as a result of the floods which began in the early hours of Saturday, while 49 others remain missing.
About 143,000 people were affected in 13 southern and central provinces.
The Office of Civil Defense says some 7,000 houses were swept away, destroyed or damaged.
I am indirectly affected by this situation
I am indirectly affected too by this disaster, because one of my assistants is severely affected by the disaster. She lives in the area but luckily she is okay and her house is not swept.
In the state of chaos, she wrote me an email (because she is supposed to send me a daily report of her work).
Here is some of her emails:
Hello Sir Andrew,
Thank you for your early christmas gift. Sorry I wasn’t able to send you my daily report last night because a typhoon struck our place and heavy rain poured without stopping. My sister woke me up around 2am in the morning because the flood was rising from our garage up to our living area. The situation happened in a fast forward mode. In just a split of seconds, our floor was covered with water. I was praying that the Lord with stop the flood. Thank God we are all safe.
My cousin’s house was washed out by the flood. thank God she and her husband is now safe. As I look at the pictures in the facebook. The whole city was covered with mud and there were so many dead people lying on the streets and everywhere. It really breaks my heart seeing those people whose lives were taken by this typhoon.
It was the first time that our city experience this kind of disaster. Our city now is in the state of calamity and I do hope that God will help those people rise again from this experience.This is one of the greatest tragedy we experience here in our place. The people in this town didn’t expect that the water will rise that fast since we are rarely visited by typhoons.
Please help us pray that we can survive this calamity and that the typhoon will not create more damages anywhere.
Thank you for your understanding.
I am speechless and began to Google the news. It is horrible.
And then the day after she wrote me this:
Hi Sir Andrew,
Sorry I haven’t updated you. Our internet connection is now okay but I haven’t done cleaning our house since there were mud all over the place. I also went to the place of my cousin and friends who were hardly hit by the typhoon to give some assistance since they were left with nothing. no food, water, shelter and clothing. So i gave some of my used clothing to them.
It really breaks my heart seeing the situation in most evacuation centers. And the whole city of iligan was a mess. We don’t know where to start.. streets were full of mud and we can’t scrape any of it since there were a lot of people that are still missing and the families of these missing people were still hoping that their loved ones were still alive. If not, they want to see the body. A lot of bodies were recovered under a thick mud.
I know God will give us strength and hope this Christmas. I gave some of my salary to my friends that was left with nothing. Lucky for me I still have our house and my family. I also have a friend whose her 2 sisters, 1 brother in law and 2 nieces were trapped inside the house. The water was above the roof so there was no chance that they can escape alive.
Let’s just pray for the souls of those whose lives were taken by this typhoon. It was a very tragic and traumatic experience for us all. And the sad part is, Christmas is approaching. I don’t know how long will it take to clean the mess in our city. I just hope that all will fall into places.
Thanks and please help pray. God Bless
I was so touched and moved just by reading the email. The next day Fenny (my girlfriend) and I sent a donation to her, so that she can use it for others in need. Note: she has been working for me for some time, hence the trust I have towards her.
This is the latest email I received from her:
We are okay now. our house is clean again and thank God it didn’t rain again from the day of the disaster. It’s just that everytime it starts to drizzle, I feel like there’ll be a devastating storm again. It was a traumatic experience.
I went to some part of the area to give assistance to my other classmates who are in need and up to now, there are still so many missing people and bodies that are still unidentified. We’ll just pray that their souls will be at peace. There were a lot of donations coming from different parts of the globe tending some of the their basic needs.
Tears fall from my eyes as I handed my classmate some of the money you gave. I told her to buy some underwears for her and her family. She hugged me tight and thank me. I told her that it comes from you and your girlfriend. they were so happy.
I am waiting for the package of a friend of mine, full of donations and then I will distribute it to the victims including the toothbrush, toothpaste and soap I purchased using your money. I also donated some of it in the school. I’m happy that there are a lot of people donating and volunteering, united as one in times of needs. about 80% of our city. Thanks a lot sir, it will return to you a hundred folds.
So if you are touched too and would feel to help those in dire needs by donating money, you can contact me to make a donation and I will make sure that your donation will go to those who are really in need. I will ask my assistant to provide proofs.
Considering the technology today, I think we can give a hand here despite our distance; and share the spirit of christmas with everybody.
You can donate via paypal here:
Read More$1-per-Year CEO
In tribute to his resignation recently, here are some fun facts about Steve Jobs and Apple.
iPad, iPod, iMac.. what’s with the “i”?
First used with iMac in 1998, Jobs said at the launch that ‘i’ meant internet, individual, instruct, inform, inspire
$1 CEO
Steve Jobs received $1 salary every year from Apple Inc. In its proxy filing in January 2011, Apple again confirmed that Jobs was paid a dollar for his 2010 efforts and was awarded no new stock. It also confirmed that he has not cashed in any of his roughly 5.5 million shares since 1997.
Got Fired By His Own Company
The biggest insult in Steve Jobs’ career came when he was fired from Apple, the very company he had helped form in 1985. CEO John Sculley had been brought into the company from PepsiCo to rein in Jobs’s profligate research spending, and the two personalities clashed at every turn. Jobs hatched a plan to get Sculley removed from his position, but it backfired on him. In a crazy turn of events, Jobs was let go by the board of directors, who were convinced the company would be fine without him. Jobs went on to found rival company NeXT, but he would be back in Cupertino soon.
Pixar – Toy Story!
After leaving Apple, Jobs had money to burn and felt like spending it.So he paid George Lucas (yes, of Star Wars!) $5 million for the very unprofitable division of LucasFilm called Graphics Group. The division is soon renamed as Pixar. Yes, it is the Pixar the is behind many animated films like Toy Story, Bug’s Life, etc!
Getting Rich Not Because of Apple..
When Pixar went for IPO, Jobs became billionaire. Disney bought Pixar later on 2006 for more than $7 billion, with Steve Jobs receiving disney’s shares as payment. Jobs received a 6.7 percent share of Disney for his 49 percent share of Pixar. The Disney stocks alone make up about 4.7 billion dollars of Steve Jobs’ fortune today. This holding of Disney shares makes him very rich, and that’s why he can afford to be paid $1 salary every year by Apple. The dividend itself earn him a super-nice living!
Other Facts
- When a reporter asked what market research went into the iPad, Jobs replied: “None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.”
- Apple Has Not Missed A Quarterly Estimate in Nearly 9 Years (Apple has “beat the street” for 35 consecutive quarters)
- Steve Jobs Personally Hold Over 300 Patents
Steve Jobs Resigned
Steve Jobs resigned from his CEO position in Apple, due to his medical problem.
He’s on sick leave all these time for his medication of pancreatic cancer, but sometimes he “leave from his sick leave” to do his keynotes on new Apple products. So every time Jobs is away for medical leave, apparently Tim Cook, one of the executives, is the one acting as the CEO.
So it’s no surprise when Jobs resigned, Tim Cook is appointed the new CEO of Apple Inc. He said that Apple won’t change under his leadership, and Jobs had created a unique culture in the company like nowhere else in the world, and that he will keep Apple that way.
Well, as we know, Steve Jobs is the main force that drives Apple to its current glory. So let’s look forward to the future of Apple with this new leadership.
I myself is a fan of Apple, (but not an extremist lol, I choose to use a PC and laptop) in a way that I really admire how they run their business and how they build their brand.
I like it how they build the brand in a way that customers just know that when they are buying Apple, they are getting quality. My iPod, which was purchased in 2006 still lasts until today, sitting in my speaker-dock playing songs for me.
The battery has died twice (obviously, all batteries will die after a certain amount of use). I replaced them myself, and the iPod is still going good today. Quality products that last.. truly a fantastic way of building a company.
Here is the 1984 keynote when Steve Jobs introduces the first Macintosh ever.
Here is 2001 keynote of the first ever iPod.. notice how good he is when he is pitching his product.. I’m amazed on how he managed to captivate his audience..
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Katherine Jenkins
I cannot believe my ears AND eyes!
Katherine Jenkins is a Welsh with amazing, radiant, stunning look but when she began to sing, my jaw dropped..
What a deadly combo of look and talent! She is almost too good to be true..
It looks like she was manufactured somewhere out of earth..
Apparently Katherine Jenkins is a very popular Mezzo-soprano with tons of albums already!
Wikipedia said Six out of seven of Jenkins’s studio albums reached number one in the classical charts between 2004 and 2008, selling a total of more than 4 million copies.
How come I have never heard of her until now? I must have lived in a cave! (*plays Flinstones theme song*)
edit: oh that’s right, I never followed classical charts
More stuff from Wiki:
Between 1990 and 1996 Jenkins was a member of the Royal School of Church Music Cathedral Singers and won the St Cecilia Award, the highest RSCM award for female choristers.[4] She was also a member of the National Youth Choir of Wales for three years,[5] won the BBC Radio 2 Welsh Choirgirl of the Year contest (twice), and the BET Welsh Choirgirl of the Year competition. She was also awarded the Pelenna Valley Male Voice Choir Scholarship for the most promising young singer. At the age of 17 she won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music,[4] where she studied Italian, German, French and Russian, graduating with honours[5] and receiving a music teacher’s diploma.
Phew, that’s lots of award for such a young age!
Anyway she’s coming to Melbourne on October but it’s such a shame I cannot be there. She will be performing on Rod Laver’s arena.
So I will just watch her performing Parla Piu Piano/Godfather’s theme, on YouTube again….
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