Ang Dabawenyo

I live in a compound that sits right beside the Ateneo de Davao High School campus. I’m up early for my flight to Manila — actually, I’ve been up for an hour already. From last night till this early morning, I’d been hearing rambunctious noises over at the campus. Kids. Must’ve spent the night there for a school activity.

If my folks could’ve heard them, they would’ve thrown a fit. My folks, I mean. But I didn’t mind. Hearing them chat and hoot and guffaw and go about their antics made me recollect my own time in high school (which wasn’t all that long ago… or so I try to convince myself).

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I got this email from my family’s e-group, and I thought I’d blog about it. I’m not exactly sure if this could work, but, like it says in the email, if enough people join in, it just might have an effect.

The gist of it is, if millions of people stop buying gas from the big oil companies, they’d be forced to lower their prices. For example, we could top up at Phoenix (which is a homegrown fuel company, by the way) or at other local gas stations.

But… don’t these local companies get their gas and diesel from the big oil companies? The scheme presented by the email sender sounds simplistic to me, but why not you be the judge?

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At the threshold of summer… and it’s raining. I hear from my friends in Manila that it’s getting really hot over there, but here in Davao it’s been raining too much. Not that I’d rather it was hot here. But, the rain’s dampening my spirits. I’ve never really liked the rain — it’s always caused my mood to drop.

And two things happen when it rains here, two things that just gets to me. One: Some streets in Davao become waterways after only an hour’s downpour. I’m talking about “major” thoroughfares here: J.P. Laurel Ave. in front of Victoria Plaza (I’m there a lot); the roads surrounding our family compound; F. Torres St., which is the city’s restaurant row…. Read more »

The 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit was satisfyingly successful. We could’ve gotten more participants from more areas of Mindanao, but for a first-time effort for a unique event, I was happy with the turnout. The important thing is, my colleagues and I have gotten the ball rolling. I’m counting on the viral nature of blogs: each blogger has his or her own set of readers, so when he or she writes about the Summit and its objectives, the word gets around pretty quickly. Read more »

It is not uncommon to hear about Americans, Europeans or Asians falling in love with Davao and settling down here for good. Davao City has that special appeal even to other Filipinos who hail from other cities. And from time to time, you chance upon a gold nugget in the haul. What’s not very common — but always an inspiration to find — is a foreigner who not only assimilates himself into Davao society, but contributes to its growth as well.

I can name a few: Claude le Neindre, a Frenchman who has gifted Davao with exquisite French cuisine. Watch out for my feature on his French bistro, Claude’s Le Café de Ville. Another worthy mentionable is Bob Martin of Mindanao.com and LiveInThePhilippines.com, among other things. He has singlehandedly done so much to improve the image of Davao and Mindanao in the eyes of fellow Americans and other foreign nationals. Read more »

I have a Japanese friend who’s married to a Filipina, and she recently gave birth to a healthy baby girl. My friend, Naoki, has been in Davao for about 6 months now, and got to love the city so much he made a Japanese-language website about it. However, recently, he had a truly disappointing and disheartening experience with our medical services.

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The party got off to a rather slow start due to some unforeseen glitches, but when it got going, boy, did we have fun! What’s great was, we had so many bloggers all in one place — the registration sheet isn’t with me right now, but I believe we had more than 40 boys and girls.

We had entrepreneurs, professionals, students, media practitioners, hobbyists… It was an exciting mix of people that surprisingly did gel and come together as a community of bloggers.

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Somehow I haven’t witnessed any expressions of gratitude or jubilation after the installation of new traffic lights all over the city. Some say that’s because of the traffic accidents that have happened ever since. And this, in turn, is apparently due to Davaoeños’ not being used to so many traffic lights.

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The Davao Blog Party #1, which will be held on 17 March 2007 @ Netfront Internet Cafe and Coffee Shop, is a sure go! We are expecting around 30 or so Davao-based bloggers to participate, plus friends who are interested in starting their own blogs. I’m happy to announce that two distinguised guests will also be gracing the event: DigitalFilipino’s Janette Toral and Aileen Apolo of Google Philippines.

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Just found out — nominations for the best Pinoy blogs are open at The 2007 Philippine Blog Awards!!! You can nominate your own blog, or anyone else’s whose blog you think deserves to win.

The Award site lists 12 categories:

• Best Technology Blog
• Best Travel Blog
• Best Entertainment Blog
• Best Personal Blog
• Best Home & Living Blog
• Best Socio-Political Blog
• Best News & Media Blog
• Best Business/Entrepreneur Blog
• Best Sports & Recreation Blog
• Best Fashion & Lifestyle Blog
• Best Photo Blog
• Podcast of the Year Award

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