My Share on Sustainable Development

The responsibility of the protection of mother earth, be it known, is not exclusive to industries alone. Each inhabitant has his own share of responsibility, whether we like it or not. Little measures, if done by many, would end up as a good tool for environment protection.

trash
Originally uploaded by analyse.

Here's my 10 hit list on how I help preserve mother earth.

1. Segregate - in France, they have this colour coding system which guaranties effective waste elimination. Green for bottles (vert pour les verres - easy to remember, right? Vert (green) and verres (bottles) have the same pronounciation), yellow for recyclable wastes such as plastics and papers, and gray for other domestic wastes. Each household is of course equipped with their own garbage bins which are furnished by the city or communal government.

2. Recycle - check the packages. If there's this recycle sign, then do it. Batteries for example, which don't fit with the green, yellow and gray segregation, could be eliminated by bringing them to the nearest electronics store where a bin is stationed for this purpose.

3. Re-use – problem with old stuffs monopolizing your drawers, cabinets and closets? Check if you could give them on charity agencies that could eventually send them to people in need. It may not serve you anymore, and elimination might not be the best solution yet.

4. Sell – vide-grenier: a day when French people empty their attics and resell those old / unused / unwanted stuffs which long been sleeping in their grenier. There are always those who seek what others wouldn’t want anymore: antique stuffs, stamp collections, old coins, old books, old maps, old rocking chair, old plates, old cups…vide-grenier is just about anything!

freeze
Originally uploaded by analyse.

5. Reduce fuel consumption - there are a lot of ways to limit fuel consumption and at the same time prevent throwing those bucks out of the window.

a. 19°C - it's the temperature best adapted to the human body. So if you're experiencing winter now, stop exaggerating, reduce that temperature and wear your pull-over now!

According to experts, an average of 21°C inside the house means energy optimisation. A meagre 1°C increase would mean 6% energy consumption, would you believe that? Here's a good temperature distribution for you:

Bathroom: 22°C
Living room: 20°C
Bedroom: between 18°C and 20°C
Halls and corridors: 17°C

b. Programmable thermostats - keeps temperature uniform inside the house. The best way is to manage the system:

Start heating an hour before waking up
Stop heating an hour before sleeping
Stop heating when you're out (mine stops at 7:30am and restarts at 5:30pm)

c. During summer, 22°C – 25°C on your air-conditioner will surely lessen your electric bills. You know, setting it at 18°C and wearing pull-overs on summer is simply ridicule!

d. Turn off the television and other electronic paraphernalias when not in use. Leaving them on standby mode is not the best solution as it still consumes electricity. Leaving a television on standby mode the whole evening, for example represents 2 hours of actual utilisation. Multiply those extra hours now with 30 to get your monthly extra charges for nothing.

e. Switch off those lamps - if not in use, better switch it off dude.

f. Take public transportation. If possible, take those public transportations. They are there to serve you. Not only you reduce your gas consumption a.k.a. budget, you also help limit gas pollution.

g. Take those bicycles out. Don’t you think it’s time for you to transform those fats into muscles? Here’s one practical solution for you.

h. Walk. If your destination is really near, please don’t bother to take that car key, walk! For a healthy lifestyle, an hour of leisure walking do wonders.

i. When you buy a vehicle, please take note of fuel consumption too. Don’t forget to have your vehicles controlled to ensure proper functioning, thus correct consumption.

j. Drive correctly. Yep, have you heard about economic driving? Be noted that each time you try to speed up, that translates to higher fuel combustion.

6. Plant a tree – for obvious reasons, right?

7. Product lifetime – as you must have noticed, product lifetime has decreased considerably nowadays, especially electronic appliances. Is it to accelerate the rate of consumption? Frenchguy has an old clock from his gradmom which is more than 100 years now. Every little part of it still works, to the enchantment of everybody in the family of course. I’ve got a decorative clock which I bought barely 2 years ago, it’s dead! When you buy, do you consider design and/or quality? Think about it.

8. Don’t throw anywhere – there’s a place for each waste, remember? Once upon a time, a friend of mine told me that he was charged with P500 fine for littering (a cigarette butt) at Buendia St, Makati. Everybody has got to learn their lessons, he learned it the hard way.

9. Preserve water – it’s one of our natural resources which is in real danger due to pollution and abundant use. I don’t want to propose flushing every 2 peepees because that would naturally cause air pollution, but get that economizer thing where you’ve got 2 buttons, one for half the volume, and another one for full volume. Do I have to elaborate in which cases you’ll have to use such button?

10. Stop farting – no kidding! A study showed that cows produce methane when they fart. Holy cow! Uh-oh, not me…

I must have forgotten some, or do things not listed which eventually go in this same purpose. One thing is for sure, I do my share, and I hope, you do too..

Concerned Citizen

Weekend Gimik

As jetlag accustomization (read: mental and physical alertness despite travels which could stretch out up to 26 long and tiring hours!) has been part of our professional life à la jetset, an effective way to fight this goddamn fatigue which miraculously works for both of us is to adjust ourselves at once with the actual time upon arrival at our destination. That is to say, adapt a life-on-the-go attitude as if everything is synchronized.

Frenchguy just arrived last Saturday afternoon from Thailand, just in time to have our lunch together. My pasalubong, a bunch of ripe mangos from Thailand was our mouth-watering dessert. Yummy yum yum! Needless to say that I would much prefer the not-as-delicious-as-our-Zambales-mangos from Thailand than the not-at-all-delicious-mangos from Brazil/Africa which are being commercialized here. I just hope Philippine mangos would one day reach the European markets..well, at least Dijon hehe.

After this sumptuous lunch, we then proceeded with our house decoration. Yep, frenchguy traffics a lot of Asian decorations each time he travels so each balikbayan drama with him means additional art expo in our saloon. What the heck, it’s thrice or so moins cher (less expensive) in this tsangge* haven. (*did I spell it right?)

The sun was still up when we finally finished our interior design session so we decided to grab a little relaxing gimmick. Bowling and billiards were on the menu, with of course the unbeatable San Miguel Beer. The rule, as always, was: loser pays. He paid. Wow, for a second, I thought I was in the good ole Philippines!

on sustainable development

picture taken from le figaro
Originally uploaded by analyse.

After 8 long years, the Kyoto Protocol has finally seen it's light today, the 16th of February 2005. 141 countries, eXcluding the USA and Australia have given their accord to protect mother earth by decreasing their emission of greenhouse gases to prevent global warming. A tough decision which engages not only big investments but most importantly, everybody's willingness to help protect mother nature.

So what is greenhouse effect all about? It's the rise in temperature of the earth's climate due to the emission of certain gases in the atmosphere or the so-called global warming. This is greatly penalized by of course the rampant industrialization experienced in the last decades leading to gross consumption of fossil fuels.

Eco-Efficacité was the subject of the training I attended to last week. It tackles our companies approach to sustainable development and how we could transcend this step in our respective subjects.

I conducted a comparative technical-economic study last year for one of my projects and this same study has been dissected to add its environmental impact, digging down even at the smallest percentage of uranium to produce one piece of our product. The choice could have been different if we were to implement this same project this year.

For us, this additional constraint will add up to the long list of our already-head-aching decision matrices that we have - launching delay to the market, budget, technical complexities, product quality, human ressources, etc - I know that project implementation will be all the more difficult, but I'm just glad that our company engages to be environment friendly and that stretches out to all our production sites worldwide.

My Valentine Blog

Don’t ever ask me why I blog on valentine’s day. I’m alone, period. Frenchguy's out of the country.

To be honest, I find this day too advertised, too commercialized, a day to spend those bucks out. Why wait for this famous February 14 to offer your valentinas their much-awaited red roses and candlelight dinner in the well-decorated rooftop of your kapitbahay?

Ha? Sourgraping? Sino? Ako? Hello?

Ok ok, so let me just reminisce the past valentines I had with my frenchguy..

2004: I was alone too..he's again out of the country. Hmmm, Am I actually getting used to it now? Well, it was actually un jour comme les autres (a day like all others) - when my daily itinerary was restricted to juggling between books, television and internet. So what made this day different from the rest? At exactly 7pm, the doorbell rang and infront of the main building door was a young lady whom i never met (our doorbell was equipped with a camera and an interphone). As I was told not to open doors to strangers, I didn’t answer pretending there was nobody and continued savouring my self-made rhum-cola. The doorbell rang again so I finally decided to answer. It was actually a flower delivery. Seconds later, my phone rang and it was frenchguy saying je pense à toi, je t’aime. *kilig*

2003: My university days. Went home late and was surprised to see frenchguy in his dressed-to-kill attire and our apartment in a romantic atmosphere. He actually took his afternoon to prepare a sumptuous dinner for us – better than any Bourgogne restaurants!

2002: Our first valentine together. Unluckily, he was in the Philippines on a project assignment (and later with my family) and me, on scholastic vacation, visiting romantic Venice alone, well, with a friend! We spent valentine together on the phone.

2001: On a Philippine setting (I was still working there and he was on a project assignment in our company). After work, we headed in a cozy restaurant, far from the curious eyes of our colleagues – were we hiding our relationship? Yep.

2000: We’re not officially together yet. Went out with other friends. Just on a Philippine gimik mode.

2005: I just had a phonecall from frenchguy asking me if I could be his valentine. Hangkoolet! Ok, we just fixed Saturday as our valentine date (he will arrive on the same day from Bangkok), starting off at the nearby bowling inn. Loser pays!

Roméo and Juliette was the valentine special in one of the channels this evening...naisip ko lang, if only there were chats, texts, blogs and cellphones during those times, things could have been different. Naku, ito na ba ang symptom ng SMV (Samahan ng Malalamig ang Valentine)?

Happy Valentine's Day Folks..

I've been Tagged !

CeliaK, a co-Malayan (geeze, baduy talagang pakinggan) just tagged me in this music même chain blog craze. At first, I just wanted to ignore it as I’m not anymore a die-hard music lover as I was back in my teens. Secondly, I hate chains (letters)! But then, I don’t want to be tagged as KJ (kill joy) so here I go:

What is the total amount of music files on your computer?

Don’t know exactly. I guess I have more in my car, does that count? … and oh, this ain’t a survey, is it? … heard about 3 years imprisonment and a 300,000€ fine (in france) because of illegal downloading.. beware guys and gals.

The CD you last bought?

Errrr, it was a compilation of ‘driving musics’ in 2 volumes that dates way back 1999!

What was the last song you listened to before reading this message?

Hmm, nice question. I was lazily humming it this morning. It should be the music aired at exactly 8:42 this morning at RFM.

Write down five songs that you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.

"Mon Fils Ma Bataille" – Daniel Balavoine – At first, I just loved the melody as I didn’t understand anything yet the first time I’ve heard it. Now, I love the music, the melody, the lyrics, the singer and everything about it.
"Belle Ile-en-Mer, Marie Galante" – Laurent Voulzy – same reason as previous selection. And yes, love it especially when frenchguy and I dance with this tune.
"Elle Danse" – De Palmas – he’s just mucho guapito and his songs have equally the same merits. Love this song too.
"La Solitudine" – Laura Pausini – it’s a challenge to sing it (I’m a hopeless soprano) even if I understand just a bit of it – this bella italiana just amazes me.
"Whiter Shade of Pale" – Annie Lennox – an all-time fave

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?

Oh no, didn’t I say I hate chains!

mapuan ka ba?

Then read this. Or better yet, sign this online protest.

So much things has changed since I left this institution. Dati, just before graduation, tsismis na yang pagbebenta ng Mapua sa mga Yuchengco. Most of the organizations even formed the first ever rally inside the campus, but since we're not used to this kinds of protestations, ayun, we still continued with our reports/drawings or whatever sa bawat sulok ng CR. Wala lang, tsismis lang naman e. And then, nagkatotoo ang tsismis barely 2 years yata after i left.

After that, they closed Mapua High School, implemented quarter-mester program (P100,000 na daw per year!!!), added other IT courses, pati nursing courses...and now, they're changing the name!

So what's the big deal abouth that name-changing? Siguro naman everybody could relate with me that you're proud to be alumni of your respective universities. And yes, every Mapuan is darn proud to be one! In that name comes a reputation...

I just hope that whatever the decision may be..this new name could inherit the same legacy as what Mapua has proudly embedded to his graduates. Sabi nga ni Mr President..

"Mapua" has been synonymous with quality engineering education for a long time. In preserving the precious name "Mapua", this can remain true moving forward, even as "Malayan", we hope, will eventually become synonymous with quality education in general.

Reynaldo B. Vea,
Ph.D.President

where did my accent go?

My colleague's phone rang just as I entered my office this morning, opps, I should say OUR office as I'm sharing it with him. Once again, he forgot to divert his phone calls to his voicemail and he's on a meeting the whole day, darn! So before I could even start my daily morning habit - removing my winter gadgets (coat and scarf), hanging them at the corner, opening my PC, pushing the start button, and lastly opening my window - I frantically grabbed the phone and answered:

Me: Analyse, Bonjour.
Early Morning Caller: Good morning. Can I please talk to Colleague?
Me: Oh, Colleague won't be in his office the whole day, do you want to leave a message? May I know who's on the line please?
EMC: It's Khun EMC. (Khun = Mr, Ms or Mrs in Thai language)
Me: Oh hi Khun EMC, it's Khun Analyse.
EMC: Oh, sorry, I didn't recognize you, I thought you were French!

And this wasn't my first encounter with this troubling bizarroide remark!

Encounter # 1:

I was on vacation in my beloved Philippines and was chit-chatting with my sister (in our dialect of course) with our usual 7-11 midnight snack when she looked at me seriously and said You know what, you sound Bisaya! No kidding!

Encounter # 2:

I was on vacation (again?) in the énormes US and was chit-chatting (again?) with my friend and suddenly, she told me Funny, you sound like frenchguy! Darn it!

Encounter # 3:

Pause-café. A colleague told me Sérieusement, je trouve que tu n'as pas beaucoup d'accent. (Seriously, I think that you don't have a lot of accent). Waaaaaaaaaaaah!

I don't believe this happening. Naman, it's just 2.5 years that I could consider myself francophone and voila the result? Oh my..

Where did my accent go?

when french complains..

WHY DO THEY TREAT THEMSELVES LIKE A DOG? THEY ALWAYS BARK!

French people have always something to complain and brag about, and mind you, that adds up to their overly elevated stress intake during the day that normally ends up with stress overdose. More often than not, their stress is psychological, nothing but a magnified micro-stress that naturally transforms into a mega-stress.

It normally starts with il ne fait pas beau aujourd'hui (the weather is not good today) - this is one of the major and favourite discussions to start the day. This brief sentence will of course grow into a paragraph, then into a book, until it becomes the best-seller with millions of copies translated into different languages sold all over the world. Yes, I call them la population Big Deal! Did you know that they even claim that they're less productive when il ne fait pas beau et quand il n'y a pas de soleil (when it's not sunny), and take note, this phenomenon is depressing for many! The funny thing is that, when it's sunny, they would say c'est dommage de travailler quand il fait beau comme ça (too sad that we have to work when it's sunny like that)! Or c'est dommage de rester à l'intérieur avec un soleil comme ça (too sad to stay inside in a sunny day like that). Haha, they will never be happy!

Here's the hit list of the causes of their stress gathered from my private observatory:

1. La ligne - if I were to give a sole adjective to the frenchies, I would choose vain. Read: V A I N ! They're always preoccupied about their body's sculpture. They love to eat and it's a fact, it's part of their culture, right? They would talk about food on the table...and yes, about their balanced diet. So anything that could hinder that objective is part of their stress. They would blame the excess fats, salt, sugar or whatever...but take note, they would never compromise the quantity and quality of what they eat! Did you know that there's a pese-personne (weighing scale) in every french bathroom??? Well, for those single and looking especially.

2. Le travail - let's start with their boss. Do I have to elaborate?

3. Les dépenses - everything that touches their hard-earned money requires detailed weighing before passing to the act of spending. They always fined everything trop cher (too expensive). If they could pass without paying, they would certainly do..so if you see two french people in Paris trying to squeeze themselves together infront of the Metro entry...it's not only because they're oh-so-romantic, it's also because they want to get away by saving one Metro (underground train) ticket too.

4. Le travail - it's either they've got a lot of work...

5. Les nounous - the nannies! They're marked as endangered species here...there are even some cities where soon-to-be-moms start their nounou hunt at their first month of pregnancy! And yes, what have you - they're either angels or bitches.

6. Le travail - or they've got nothing to do...

7. Les tâches ménagères - the problem is, if both are working, who will do the chore? And if they do, of course everybody should know! They talk a lot here, just about everything infront of a cup of tea or coffee. I guess I have to pass a decree here: minimize la pause café (coffee break)!

8. Le travail - sometimes they love it..

9. Le conjoint or simply l'ami/e- if they don't have a partner, of course it's a problem. They would interest in every uninteresting stuffs just to find one. And if they have one, OMG, you would ask yourself why they still stay together. Yep, they lack discretion here!

10. Le travail - but most of the time, they don't!

Another remarkable observation about them is that it's too easy for them to say NO. This is of course in consequence with their 'complain first before you do' attitude. Imagine the negotiations you could have with a French counterpart? Well, on the other hand, if we consider the positive side, we could consider this attitude as a preventive action as they will lay down all the constraints in trying to evade from the possible difficulty. So as a negotiator, you will automatically add their 'presentiments' to your risk analysis. Isn't that great?

Well, not really...

Quand la Chine s’éveillera, le monde tremblera…Napoléon Bonaparte.

After a long silence, the sleeping dragon has finally waked up. The world has changed China, now brace yourselves, China will eventually change the world.

Historically, they know how to manage business. They know the ins and outs. You can find them in the four corners of the world and their forté is the word TRADE! Go to Chinatown and you will see what this word means.

Recently, China has been imposing in the world scene too. Their quest for space discoveries, gold medals in the olympic games, the arts, their growing investments..we’ve been talking about them in the net, in the magazines, in the newspapers..

With a demography equivalent to 20% of the total population in the world, China represents a promising market to all commercials and investors. Some Paris boutiques even have Chinese-speaking sales agents to welcome the next powerful population of the world.

Its take-off to the world market was definitively on time (China has joined the World Commerce Organization last December 2001), when all means of exchange has opened the doors to easier business trades – the net, competitive airfare prices, free trade – the liberalization of world trade.

It was no secret that the rest of the world was behind China’s explosive take-off – their market, their technology, their capital! China has provided its country and its people…and now, like a little bird learning how to fly, it has gained independence and now ready to explore the world on its own.

positive tidbits

Ok, I was quite negative on my last post so I'll try to balance now and be positive. It was probably the influence of the weather on me. Dijon was below freezing point from sunrise to sunset last week and that plus my daily dose of work didn't give me enough motivation to be on the lighter mode.

So what's up?

Les soldes d'hiver (winter sale) started 2 or 3 weeks ago and glad to say that inspite of my shopping phobia, I succeeded to find a winter coat for me..the negative point was that...it wasn't on sale! It was even in the nouvelle collection (new collection) section...but what the heck, there was nobody in there and I didn't have to push everybody so I could get my size. Wow, that was pretty quick..

Last week, I found an envelope on my desk..and surprise!...in it was a notice signed by the chefs (bosses) for ma prime exceptionelle (incentive) because of the good results I had with my Philippine project last year. Wow, not only it gave me enough miles to have a free round trip ticket Paris-Manila, it also gave me enough budget to buy my winter coat atbp and most importantly...the motivating words from my chefs: travail rémarquable - implication, rigeur, professionalisme et initiative - avis très favorable... excuse my french people but i want to savour it that way, as it is... too much adjective for me boosting my yoyo-like self-esteem. It was like i was in the middle of an applauding crowd while i was accepting my Oscar's best actress award..if you dont know the feeling, me either..but it was exactly like that...hmm, i hope they wont forget that during my annual interview e.g. salary increase!

by the way, la prime exceptionelle was taxable...eh merde!

Last Friday was the strategic meeting for our group held in a chateau (castle) way between Paris and Dijon. After the not-so-bad results for the year 2004 where one of my subjects is on warning zone (I hope they wont take my incentive back!), the objectives and forecasts for 2005 were equally presented. I was glad to know that a lot of the expansions will be destined to Asia and our Philippine sites will get a good share of the cake. That left me thinking about my future here, my professional evolution, the future of my future children. A lot of groups are in the desindustrialization phase and mass productions are en route to Eastern Europe or Asia. What job will be left for the future generations here?

Ok ok, before i get negative again...

Since we moved to our new house, every weekend was consacrated to petits travaux (repares, small jobs, etc) inside or outside the house. It was tiring but fun and fulfilling as we see the results transform our house into a new one. This coming weekend will be another itinerary for us - the mountains! Yahooo!