Majadahonda Filipino Community

Refuting China’s Nine-Dash Claim – OpEd

janus10 — Sun, 27 May 2012 20:00:48 GMT

The South China Sea in Southeast Asia is bordered by 7 countries: China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. The name of that water, like others such as Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Thailand, Philippines Sea, East China Sea and Sea of Japan, do not imply any notion of sovereignty because they were invented for convenience by European explorers.

In the South China Sea, there are three islands groups – Paracel islands, Spratly islands and Scarborough shoal – which are not permanently inhabited because the islands are small and do not have dependable fresh water. Some man-made objects have been found on some of them, indicating transient human presence, because since prehistory, fishermen, merchants and pirates from various countries built temporary shelter on them. Because those islands cannot support permanent human habitation, various national governments in the area recently had to build superstructures on them, as on Okinotori (a Japanese islet in the Pacific Ocean), to support human habitation.

South China Sea

China claimed sovereignty over 90% of the water and all the islands in the South China Sea by drawing a nine-dash line covering 90% of that sea, prompting her neighbors to protest that her claim contradicts international law, specifically the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

UNCLOS gave a coastal nation or an inhabited island an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 200 miles from the baseline (shoreline at low tide) in which the coastal nation or the inhabited island has the exclusive right to exploit natural resources. China’s nine-dash claim extends beyond her EEZ, biting into the EEZs of her neighbors. Also, UNCLOS said that rocks on the sea that cannot support human habitation and do not have economic life of their own cannot have EEZ. By UNCLOS definition, the South China Sea islands cannot have EEZ because they cannot support permanent human habitation on their own. Only China argued that they have EEZs, a hypocritical argument because in the dispute about Okinotori, China had argued that Okinotori cannot have EEZ because Okinotori cannot support human habitation on its own. As the Paracel islands lie halfway between China and Vietnam while Spratly islands and Scarborough shoal lie within the EEZs of China’s neighbors, China argued that those islands have EEZs simultaneously with claiming sovereignty over all the islands in order to maximize China’s EEZ at the expense of her neighbors.

China justified her exaggerated claim on the South China Sea by arguing that ancient Chinese texts mentioned certain islands in the South China Sea, proving that Chinese people were the first to navigate that sea and the first to discover the islands in the area, that China was the first country to exercise jurisdiction over the islands and that the South China Sea was China’s historic water. China further argued that in 1947, when China published a map of that sea with an eleven-dash line (predecessor of the nine-dash line), nobody protested, proving that the world had accepted China’s claim. However, close examination shows that China’s arguments are baseless.

First, in 1947, the world did not react to the map of the South China Sea with the eleven-dash line because the world ignored that map. That map carried as much legal weight as the traditional Chinese political thought which said that the world (All-under-heaven) is under the authority of Chinese emperors. Can China argue that the world had accept China’s sovereignty over the world because nobody protested when the Chinese emperors declared that the world is under their authority ? .

Second, countries that had historical border with the Arctic Ocean formed the Arctic Council to divide the Arctic natural resources according to the rules of UNCLOS. China never had any historical border with the Arctic Ocean, yet China asked to join the Arctic Council in order to have a share of Arctic natural rersources, arguing that the Arctic Ocean is a "common heritage for all of humankind”. If the Arctic Ocean is a "common heritage for all of humankind”, then the South China Sea is a common heritage for all the peoples who live on its shores, not only for China.

Third, peoples of the Austronesian language family, more specifically the Malayo-Polynesian branch, were the first to navigate the South China Sea. Their original homelands were Southern China or Taiwan. Between 5000-2500 BC, they crossed the South China Sea to populate the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. From Southeast Asia, they crossed the Pacific Ocean to populate Melanesia and Micronesia by 1200 BC, Polynesia by 1000 BC, Easter Island by 300 AD, Hawaii by 400 AD and New Zealand by 800 AD. They also crossed the Indian Ocean to populate Madagascar by 0-500 AD. The Indo-Pacific maritime space, including the South China Sea, was their historic water. Since the Austronesian peoples (ancestors of the Filipinos, Indonesians and Malaysians) were the first to navigate the South China Sea, they were the first to discover the islands in the area and to fish in the associated waters. Though they did not invent writing to record their discovery, it would be ludicrous to deny their discovery of the islands so close to the Philippines and Indonesia in light of the fact that they were able to discover the various islands in the vast Pacific Ocean. By the way, they have been displaced or reduced to aboriginal minority status in their original homelands.

Fourth, the South China Sea has always been an international waterway since prehistory. Indian traders navigated that sea early in prehistory, introducing Indian philosophies to Southeast Asia, leading to the formation of many Indianised states on Islands Southeast Asia in ancient time. One of those states was Srivijaya, located on Indonesia in the 7th century and exercised prominent maritime activities in the South China Sea. During ancient time, the influence of Chinese civilization on Southeast Asia was limited to Vietnam whereas the influence of Indian civilization was dominant throughout Islands Southeast Asia, indicating Indian traders were very active in the South China Sea. Persian and Arab traders also navigated that sea, introducing Islam to Indonesia and the Philippines. The Arabs even settled in Guangzhou during the 7th century. A 7th-century Chinese monk, I-Tsing, went pilgrimage to India by embarking at Guangzhou on a Persian ship, stopped over at Srivijaya before continued onto India.

Fifth, even if Chinese people were the first to navigate the South China Sea (not true), China cannot claim sovereignty over the water that is used by many other countries. The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia do not claim sovereignty over the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean even though their Austronesian ancestors were the first to navigate those waters. Norway does not claim sovereignty over the Norwegian Sea even though the Norsemen (Vikings) were the first to navigate that water to populate Iceland and Greenland in the 9th century. Portugal does not claim sovereignty over the water off the West African coast, the water around the Cape of Good Hope and the Indian Ocean even though Portuguese under Bartolomeu Diaz and Vasco da Gama were the first to navigate those waters in 1488 and 1498. Spain does not claim sovereignty over the Atlantic Ocean, the Magellan Strait and the Pacific Ocean even though Spaniards under Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan were the first to navigate those waters in 1492 and 1521. Russia does not claim sovereignty over the Bering Sea even though Russians under Vitus Bering were the first to navigate that water in 1741.

Sixth, ancient Chinese texts which mention the South China Sea islands do not describe discovery of the islands but only describe general knowledge about the islands, knowledge shared among the fishermen, merchants and pirates from various countries who navigated that sea since prehistory. Chinese writers were the first to write about the South China Sea islands because China invented writing earlier, not because Chinese people were the first to navigate that sea or the first to discover the islands. This principle is illustrated by the Sea of Japan and the Black Sea.

Japan first appeared in written records in 57 AD in China’s Book of the Later Han as followed: "Across the sea from Lelang were the people of Wa”. Lelang was a Han Empire’s military outpost in Korea and Wa referred to Japan. The sea between Lelang and Wa is now known as Sea of Japan. Chinese writers were the first to write about Japan and Sea of Japan because China invented writing early, not because Chinese people were the first to navigate the Sea of Japan or the first to discover Japan. Korean and Japanese peoples lived by the Sea of Japan since prehistory and sailed into that sea to fish and to trade with each other, and knew about the existence of each others since prehistory, long before Chinese writers wrote about Japan and Sea of Japan.

The Black Sea first appeared in written records in 5th century BC in the writing of the Greek poet Pindar as "Pontos Axeinos”. By the 5th century BC, the Greeks had established many colonies by the Black Sea. Greek writers were the first to write about the Black Sea because Greece invented writing early, not because Greeks were the first to discover or the first to navigate the Black Sea. There were other peoples who lived by the Black Sea alongside with the Greeks and had sailed into that water to fish and to trade since prehistory, even though they did not invent writing to write about that. The Black Sea, like the South China Sea, is a common heritage for all the peoples who live on its shores.

Seventh, ancient Chinese texts which mention the South China Sea islands mention those islands as foreign lands, not as China’s territories, and do not describe which activities the authority of ancient China exercised on the islands. Therefore, there is no proof of China’s jurisdiction over the islands. In the case of Scarborough shoal, China argued that Kublai Khan’s officials were the first to map out and to establish jurisdiction over those islands in 1279. However, Kublai Khan was the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire who conquered China. If any country can inherit Scarborough shoal from Kublai Khan, it is Mongolia, not China.

In 1279, Kublai Khan’s officials neither "discovered” nor "established jurisdiction” over Scarborough shoal because that place was already the historic water and traditional fishing ground of Filipino fishermen, descendants of the Austronesian sailors who navigated the South China Sea and populated the Philippines in 5000-2500 BC. Scarborough shoal was known as "bajio de Masinloc”, meaning shoal of Masinloc, in a Spanish-made map of the Philippines in 1734. Masinloc is not a Spanish word and is the name of a municipality on the Philippines’ main island, confirming that Filipino fishermen had been to and had named the islands after their own tongue for centuries.

Eighth, official maps of the Yuan Dynasty and Ching Dynasty, including but not limited to Da Qing Zhi Sheng Quan Tu (published in 1862) and Huang Chao Yi Tong Yu Di Zen Du (published in 1894), show that the southernmost extent of China ends at Hainan islands (see below).

Finally, the Chinese empire originated on the Yellow river basin and eventually conquered many lands and peoples, including Tibet and Sinkiang, which is why China is a multiethnic, multi-languages country. At the time when China allegedly discovered the South China Sea islands, China’s border on the mainland was not what it is today, Tibet and Sinkiang were independent countries of the Tibetans and the Uyghurs, respectively. The Tibetans and the Uyghurs are demanding self-determination. Three dozens Tibetan monks have burned themselves to death to draw attention of humanity to the sufferings of their people under China’s rule. If China is serious about its historical claim, it should return to its historical border on the mainland, return Tibet and Sinkiang to the Tibetans and the Uyghurs, respectively.

China knows that her arguments for claiming sovereignty over the South China Sea and all the islands in that water are baseless, which is why China refused the Philippines’ invitation to submit the dispute to an international court.

By Huan Tran

Holidays

janus — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:06:10 GMT

Holidays

Regular Holidays

Occasion	Date	Day of the week in 2011	Where celebrated
New Year’s Day	01 January	Saturday	Philippines and Spain
Epiphany	06 January	Thursday	Spain
Edsa Revolution Anniversary	25 February	Friday	Philippines
Araw ng Kagitingan	09 April	Saturday	Philippines
Maundy Thursday	21 April	Thursday	Philippines and Spain
Good Friday	22 April	Friday	Philippines and Spain
Labor Day	01 May	Sunday	Philippines
Fiesta de la Comunidad de Madrid	02 May	Monday	Spain
Philippine Independence Day	12 June	Sunday	Philippines
Feast of Corpus Christi	23 June	Thursday	Spain
Feast of St. James the Apostle	25 July	Monday	Spain
Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary	15 August	Monday	Spain
Ninoy Aquino Day	21 August	Sunday	Philippines
National Heroes Day	29 August	Monday	Philippines
Santa Maria de la Cabeza	09 September	Friday	Spain
Spanish National Day	12 October	Wednesday	Spain
All Saints’ Day	01 November	Tuesday	Philippines and Spain
Bonifacio Day	29 November	Wednesday	Philippines
Constitution Day	06 December	Tuesday	Spain
Feast of Immaculate Conception	08 December	Thursday	Spain
Christmas Day	25 December	Sunday	Philippines
Rizal Day	30 December	Friday	Philippines
Last Day of the Year	31 December	Saturday	Philippines

Note: The proclamations declaring national holidays for the observance of Eid’l Fitr and Eidul Adha shall hereafter be issued after the approximate dates of the Islamic holidays have been determined in accordance with the Islamic calendar (Hijra) or the lunar calendar, or upon Islamic astronomical calculations, whichever is possible or convenient.

Spanish language diploma key to Pinoys' legal stay

janus — Sun, 15 May 2011 09:56:23 GMT

JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO, OFW Journalism Consortium

05/14/2011 | 03:39 PM

BARCELONA, Spain — Paperless Filipino workers here each got pieces of paper hoping that these help them regularize their immigration status in Spain and in the country’s Catalan region.

"Good thing the passport number [in my diploma] is correct," said irregular migrant Julia (not her real name) after shaking hands with her teachers and with officials of the Church-run Centro Filipino Tuluyan San Benito that has been running thrice-a-year idioma (language) classes for 20 years.

Her diploma, printed in a white, ordinary A4 bond paper, certified that Julia finished a certain level of Spanish language instruction.

There had been increasing demands for slots in Centro Filipino’s idioma classes, says Centro president Paulita Astillero, given new regulations that a migrant cannot renew one’s residency permit without knowledge of Spanish — and, in the case of the Calatunya region where Barcelona is, Catalan.

Filipino workers receiving their diplomas in idioma (language). OFW Journalism Consortium

This diploma is one of the required documents Filipino workers submit to a nearby Oficina de Extranjeros (Foreigners Office) when irregular migrants apply for regularization, and when legal migrants renew their residence permits or seek Spanish nationality, explains Astillero.

Legal Filipino workers apply for an arraigo social by submitting:

— the language diploma;
— a criminal record certificate (certificado de antecedents penale) from either the origin country or country of work five years prior to arriving in Spain;
— the Philippine passport;
— the empadronamiento which proves they’ve lived in Spain for at least three years;
— a work contract signed by an employer and with at least one year’s work;
— the padron (residence certificate) and some papers attesting family ties with other resident foreigners.

Irregular workers who worked in Spain for at least a year, on the other hand, try to undergo a process called arraigo laboral (individual amnesty).

Apart from the language diploma, arraigo laboral applicants are also required the empadronamiento, the certificado de antecedents penale, and a proof they were not barred from entering any European Union-member country.

Since the Philippines is a former colony of Spain, they are required at least two years of legally residing in Spain should they wish to apply for Spanish nationality "by residence".

The Commission on Filipinos Overseas estimates Filipinos in Spain to number 51,268, including 4,055 irregular migrants. However, the Spain census doesn’t offer a breakdown of the number of Filipinos in Barcelona and other provinces in Spain.

Not the original intention

But handing out diplomas for Filipino workers’ documentary needs wasn’t the original intention of Centro Filipino’s language program.

Astillero said when she and Centro founder Fr. Avelino Sapida started this program in 1991, the aim was to make Filipinos feel they are at the same level as the Spanish people, especially through integration in Spanish society.

In the book titled Brick by Brick: Building Cooperation between the Philippines and Migrants’ Associations in Italy and Spain, Dr. Edelia Soler wrote that the first Filipino settlement developed after politicians, businessmen and students arrived in Madrid and Barcelona.

Later on, Filipinos working as servicemen for United States military bases in Spain added to the community.

Some of them, Soler wrote, were hired for domestic work.

Since many Filipino workers here work in restaurants and hotels as waiters and as domestic workers, learning Spanish is a means for them to defend themselves and their rights, she adds.

"We don’t want to be called a ghetto community," Astillero told the OFW Journalism Consortium, referring to the instance that Filipinos always like to be with themselves only.

The influx of many Filipino workers here, including those who passed through irregular and regular migration channels from other areas, as well as recent documentary requirements by the Spanish government, simply swelled enrolment in the idioma classes.

Classes are held at Colegio Escola Pia in Ronda San Antoni, the Church of San Agustin in Plaza San Agustin, and at Centro Filipino’s office in Carrer Reira Baja.

Over 200 of these Filipino workers, many of whom have expired documents, recently got these diplomas in graduation rites last April 9 at Colegio Escola Pia.

But while many of them have finished nivel (level) 0, Astillero notices the majority still cannot speak fluent Spanish and got stuck at basic words and phrases like me llamo (call on somebody), yo soy (I am), and como estas (how are you?).

Which is why Centro, in recent years, got Spanish teachers for the other classes so that Filipinos are "forced" to speak Spanish.

Filipino and Spanish teachers of these 40-hour, twice-a-week classes are all volunteers: eight Filipinos taught nivel 0 Spanish, three Spanish volunteers for basico 1, one Spaniard for basico 2, and one Spaniard for Catalan (a mix of Spanish, French and Italian that’s spoken in Spain’s Catalan region) for the January to April 2011 batch.

For his part, Fr. Sapida said tongue-tied Filipino workers are like "dead people" given their inability to speak Spanish and then Catalan.

If you learn the language," Sapida adds, "then you can assert yourself and employers won’t bully you anymore." — OFW Journalism Consortium

MFC Bible verse for the Community

janus — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:39:56 GMT

^{What James Said pertaining to the use of our tounge (Taming the tounge)}
⁵Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark⁶The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. (Bible verse James 5:6) N.I.V.

-Sa Berso pong ito ay pinaliliwanag ang kahalagahan ng atin maliit na dila sa buhay at pananalita.

Tayo po ay may kakayahang mgbigay buhay o kamatayan sa maliit na parte na ito ng ating pangangatawan ang ating dila poy binigay ng diyos para gamitin lamang natin sa pagpupuri sa kanya at sa pagkalat ng mabuting balita na nagbibigay buhay. ngunit itoy nagagamit din ng demonyo para ilayo ang ating sarili sa buhay na walang hanggang ipinangako ng ating puong maykapal. Kayat tayo po´y mgiingat sa paggamit ng mailiit subalit mahalagang parteng ito ng ating pangangatawan.
⁹With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. ¹⁰Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. ¹¹Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? ¹²My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.(Bilble vrse James 9:12) N.I.V.

-Sa ating mga dila ay ngbibigay tayo ng papurit pagsamba sa ating puong maykapal subalit ito ri´y ating ginagamit sa pagsira sa katauhan ng ating mga kapatid na ginawa sa kanyang pagkakawangis kayat di nararapat na gamitin ito sa mga bagay na ikakasira ng ating mga sarili`t lalong lalo na kapahamakan ng iba panating kapatid.

M.F.C. post valentines special

janus — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 21:22:16 GMT

M.F.C. post valentines special

Feb. 28, 2010

Majadahonda Filipino Community had successfully held its first valentines special and get together event its aim is for us to build a community with a strong bond and with a great sense of purpose using our hearts through the celebration of this special event. happy celebration of hearts!

-the M.F.C. team

M.F.C. a helping and a working Community

janus — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:38:24 GMT

M.F.C. a helping and a working Community

Feb. 2, 2010
10:00 a.m.

Our ultimate goal as a community is to help and share our blessings not only to the Filipinos in Majadahonda but to all the Filipinos in need we are here to support and help as much as we could because we do understand that We, here living and working in this beautiful Country are already a great blessing from the Lord above. so with this great community of Pinoys here in Majadahonda we would like to extend to you our brotherly love.

Now its time for Us to give back...

We would like to thank the Members and Officers of Majadahonda Filipino Community for extending their help to Mr. Edwin Castro Marte who is in the Philippines with his brother now undergoing Dialysis treatment at the PJG hospital in Cabanatuan N.E. Again, We thank you very much.

Always remember ¨Blessings come to those who share¨ -Admin Pao.

Philippines and Spain are teaming up to upgrade access to Spanish at 50 high schools across the Philippines.

janus — Sun, 02 May 2010 09:21:46 GMT

http://www.english.globalarabnetwork...k-spanish.html

Leaving Nanjing to study in the Philippines, Chinese student Wu Junda chose an unlikely subject – Spanish, an unpopular language of a former colonial power. And therein lies a story of global transformation.

Most Filipinos have long viewed the Spanish language as a useless relic of nearly 350 years of colonial oppression. Indeed, many students cheered back in 1987, when the Aquino administration scuttled compulsory Spanish lessons in the nation’s universities.

But that Chinese student, who now calls himself Rico Wu, parlayed his Spanish skills into a steady job at a Spanish-speaking call center agent in Manila. He worked overtime fielding calls from consumers in Mexico, Puerto Rico and the US – where Hispanics currently comprise 15 percent of the population, the country’s fastest-growing minority group. "I loved Spanish, I just wanted to keep practicing,” Wu explains. Hooking up with a local business partner, Wu then launched a private language school to encourage young Filipinos to don those headsets, too,” says the 30-year-old founder of the Bridge Language Solutions. "The trend in the Philippines is that everyone goes abroad. We want to keep the Filipinos in the country, with a job,”

So far, Spanish has been merely an afterthought in the swift rise of the Philippines as a global doyenne for voice-based outsourcing work. English has been the top ticket to success for these 200,000 employees. Industry analysts say that clients increasingly prefer the Philippines to India in tackling consumer calls due to neutral accents, patience and cultural affinity with Americans. In response to client demand, some Indian outsourcing firms are even establishing units in the Philippines, staffed with locals.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the call center. A vanguard of Filipinos discovered that they can earn double, even triple, the amount that their counterparts receive if they can trill phrases like "¿Puede darme su número de tarjeta?” Or, can you give me your card number? On-line job ads popped up as companies like Stream Global Services, Convergys, Sutherland Global Services and Sykes Asia, Inc. figured that assembling teams of bilingual English/Spanish-speakers would be a worthwhile experiment. Those ads caught the attention of Filipinos hailing from Zamboanga province in the south and Cavite province near Manila, where a thriving vernacular called Chavacano – a mixture of Spanish vocabulary and Tagalog grammar – supports a more convincing accent.

Sneering at Spanish has thus become passé. "I appreciate the fact that Spanish is part of the Filipino culture,” says Zamboanga native Emily Querubia Peji, a 28-year old mother of three who has used her Spanish at three different call centers in Manila. Having soaked up Spanish from her grandfather on his coconut farm, she’s keen to pass it on to her own children. Peji organized internet Meetup sessions around town to practice Spanish and advised friends that they could snag higher salaries if they attended classes at the Instituto Cervantes, which has run classes in Manila tailored to call-center workers and corporate employers since 2008. The nonprofit institution, founded by the Spanish government, draws up to 7,000 students annually for all levels of proficiency. Such classes attract Filipino doctors, nurses and caretakers for the elderly, who aim to broaden job prospects in the US and Europe.

And now governments of the Philippines and Spain are teaming up to upgrade access to Spanish at 50 high schools across the Philippines. In April, the Instituto Cervantes will begin training an additional 100 Spanish teachers and some 8,000 students at those schools, through 2014. In subsequent years, "the program is expected to be mainstreamed to all secondary education in the Philippines,” according to Francisco Javier Menéndez, education advisor to the Embassy of Spain in the Philippines.

"With this initiative, we desire to equip our students with new skills that will allow them to become highly competitive in the global marketplace,” Jesli Lapus, the Philippines’ education secretary, proclaimed in a press release.

Ironically, Spain’s linguistic proselytizing has arrived a bit late. Ruling supreme from the mid-16th to the 19th centuries, the Spanish didn’t bother to teach their mother tongue to the Filipino masses – although they did insist on mass adoption of Spanish names. Catholic services were held in local languages. Fluency in Spanish was primarily confined to elite clans close to the colonial powers, including large landowners and mixed-race, or "mestizo” families. This proved to be a stark contrast to the subsequent American colonial policy, which spread English through a broad network of schools in the archipelago.

Post-independence, Spanish limped along. "Filipinos were taught grammar drills without any attempt to make people communicate in Spanish,” observes Ambeth Ocampo, chairman of the National Historical Institute in Manila. "If we were taught the way Instituto Cervantes teaches today, you would have a big Spanish-speaking population.”

Instead, it’s a drop in the bucket. Among a population of 92 million Filipinos, there are an estimated 439,000 Spanish speakers, according to the Atlas de la Lengua Española en el Mundo, published in 2007. The age spread remains unclear, but those under 35 would be a minority. In addition, an estimated 607,000 people speak Chavacano.

Such constraints have led to mixed forecasts from analysts and clients about the scope for the Philippines to score in the Spanish-speaking market.

Indian players are dubious. "I’d be very surprised if Spanish is outsourced to the Philippines, because that’s not natural,” says Som Mittal, president of NASSCOM, a trade group for India’s IT and business-process outsourcing industry. And while a smattering of call centers and other outsourcing firms hire Spanish speakers, there is no strategy to pump up the numbers – despite the November 2009 launch of a vast Instituto Cervantes in New Delhi. Some Indian companies have been keen to explore new markets in Mexico and Latin America, yet such firms have opted to focus on more lucrative software and maintenance services based in near-shore centers in Mexico, with many looking to exit voice-based processing in the long run, anyway.

An Everest Group analyst dismisses the numbers of qualified Spanish speakers in the Philippines as "negligible.” That view is shared by Duane Cummins, regional vice president for Asia Pacific Operations of Stream Global Services, who cites the difficulties of scaling up in the Philippines and adds that his firm would prefer shifting work to centers in Latin America.

Others, however, are not ready to say "Adios” to aspiring Filipinos. "We think there is good potential. This could turn very quickly, due to a lot of pent-up demand for Spanish work from the US,” argues Vinu Kartha, vice-president of the research firm Tholons. Call center costs in the Philippines are 20 to 30 percent lower than in Mexico. And it could be difficult to scale up in smaller countries like Costa Rica and Colombia. As a rising star in business-processing outsourcing, Kartha predicts that Brazil offers the most formidable competition.

Meanwhile, jitters are noticeable among the Filipinos who now earn a premium for handling Spanish calls. "More people are jumping on the bandwagon and studying the language,” frets a 35-year-old employee in Makati, fearing a glut.

The job offers other perks. Calls from Mexico tend to be mellower than those from demanding, often irate Americans who need services in English. Recalls Wu, the Nanjing native: "I never got yelled at by a Mexican.”

Majadahonda, un espacio para el encuentro

janus — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:31:15 GMT

El Ayuntamiento inicia una gran obra de peatonalización del casco urbano, que afecta al entorno de la Gran Vía

Majadahonda City Council has begun work to extend the pedestrianization of the Gran Via to the Hermitage, which will last for approximately six months.

The aim of this work, as well as others that will be performed in the hull, as Cervantes Boulevard pedestrianization or environment of the Plaza de la Constitución, the city is to provide more spaces for the ride.

The book has been awarded an amount of 1,641,709.33 euros and will run in an area comprising 12,425 meters square from the Plaza de Colon and the eastern half of the foyer to the street Cid from Gran Via street this square until the next road towards Boadilla (not included) and the openings of the Cid Street, Santa Catalina, San Andres Mine Road and Santa Barbara.

The performance will also affect the output of Columbus Park and the outdoor gardens of the Casa de la Cultura, and necessitate the relocation of the ornamental fountain in the current roundabout to the last affected by the work in the beginning of the street leads to the Chapel.

The space in which lies the House of Culture 'Carmen Conde' bands will be surrounded by gardens, where they planted trees and shrubs bearing columnar defining this space well inside estancial clear vocation and relationship.

Furthermore, pedestrianization will expand the tree and placed almost fifty benches for the rest of pedestrians.

The project softens and removes existing slopes steps and curbs, which architectural barriers are removed and the road traffic is allowed by the midway pedestrianized.

SINULOG festival a Success

janus — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:08:25 GMT

SINULOG festival a Success

Jan. 17, 2010
5:30 p.m.

The Celebration of the first ever Sinulog festival here in Madrid, was a success thanks to all who had contributed to it and specially to the organizers of the event. it was a blast having been seen for the first time one part of our great culture specially those to the Cebuanos who started it all, and to those presiding priests who had imparted us with their teachings on what is Sinulog all about we want to thank you in behalf of the Officers and members of Majadahonda Filipino community who had attended. we thank you for inviting us we will see you all again untill the next event.

-the M.F.C. team

Majadahonda Filipino Community Officers pays courtesy:

janus — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:43:26 GMT

Majadahonda Filipino Community Officers pays courtesy:
Nov. 19, 2009
4:30 p.m.

Majadahonda Filipino Community Officers pays courtesy visit to our Ambassador Ana Ines de Sequera-Ugarte at the Philippine embassy in Madrid with our President together with some M.F.C. officers regarding our upcoming Induction ball of officers and Christmas party this coming December.

(M.F.C. officers from left to right:)
Sonny Tan, Sis. Nikkie, Emmanuel Bonoan, Freddie Talbo, Rommel Tadeja, Daniel Martin.

-the M.F.C. team