Sonnie's Porch » Stories that Coach

Make 2009 A Better Year

Sonnie — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 08:30:13 +0000

As we celebrate the new year with festivities, in another part of the world, they are observing it with air raids, bombs, fear, and uncertainty.

Blame it not on Israel for it’s continued air raid and ground assault, neither the Hamas for the rockets fired. This conflict had it’s root from the decisions made by one man.

A look at history will help us make better and conscious decision for 2009.

Both the Arabs and Jews look at Abraham as their father, and [...]

Blog Hack & A Wedding

Sonnie — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:47:45 +0000

Finally, this blog is up and kicking again after 2 or 3 days in hiatus. This site was hacked and malicious scripts were injected to it’s root folders resulting to missing php’s. Thanks to Jez for his assistance.

As you probably noticed, Sonnie’s Porch was in semi-hibernate mode for about 2 weeks, providing only short updates and picture sharing. Blame it to budget preparation and business planning, blogging & work, at times, don’t blend well. I hope [...]

Shaken To The Core

Sonnie — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:52:55 +0000

I am not talking about the global economy, which I planned to blog about with the recent effect of the crisis to Asian markets and currencies.

Rather, I’m referring to myself who was rattled when our little princess was admitted to a hospital for suspected dengue fever. If confirmed, she’s the first case in our condo/community. I also suspected that she was bitten by a dengue carrying mosquito in their school, where my daughter spent 60% of [...]

The Prejudices Of Life

Sonnie — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 08:49:19 +0000

While most are reeling from the effects of fuel increase, not all are bothered.

Having started my profession in people management, I was introduced to the different mindset of people from different social status.

In marketing, for example, to reach the poor, the price of a product or service must be extremely affordable. Earn by the volume, quality is secondary. On the other hand, the middle class gives strong consideration on quality, price may not be the issue, but the product or [...]

The Hatred Towards The Poor?

Sonnie — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:55:09 +0000

Poverty violates every human rights there is.

If you are poor and seriously sick, going to a private hospital is not an option. Try going to a public hospital and if you’re lucky, they will give you the run around.

I happen to know how two patients in need of immediate medical attention, whose guardians were asked to sign a waiver, before turning them away for lack of available room. I heard one of the 2 patients died before reaching another hospital. [...]

Love and Generosity

Sonnie — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 14:28:52 +0000

Yesterday, my staff and I had one memorable experience as a group after our Christmas activity at The Block, SM City North EDSA.

Instead of celebrating Christmas the traditional way, we opted to pool our resources to “adopt-a-family.” Each of my staff, though earning between US $ 6-8/day, donated US $ 3.52 each, and as a group, we came up with almost US $73.00. Good Samaritans who heard of our project added US $ 17.00 to the fund and [...]

Shooting Our Own Foot

Sonnie — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 02:13:59 +0000

The rebellion that was crushed yesterday is kinda frustrating and tiring. For a moment, though, I was anxious that blood will shed.

We have a buoyant economy which grew 6.6% on the third quarter and expecting more growth before the year ends. But as financial analysts have observed, “just when everything was looking good … we again shot ourselves in the foot”.

The political adventurism yesterday draw little, if no sympathy at all, from all sectors. No crowds came [...]

Will To Win At Mandalay

Sonnie — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 06:04:13 +0000

I just finished watching the rematch of Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao against Marco Antonio “Baby Face Assasin” Barerra live via sattelite at SM Cinema. As expected, Manny won the fight, unfortunately, it was not via knockout but unanimous decision.

I thought this was a boring and dirty fight courtesy of Barerra. Barerra’s battle plan is not to engage but to hit and run, thus, it became boring. And when Barerra is about to be knocked down, Barerra hit Pacquiao with a hook [...]

Believe It Can Be Done

Sonnie — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 10:51:11 +0000

More than 2 months ago, a bunch of young professionals and entrepreneurs, who barely know each other, worked on a goal that we thought to be close to impossible. And that is to host a national gathering of HR Philippines members.

And exactly, who do we think we are? An HR e-group whose members only know each other via email and blog, with no money.

All we have is the common desire to mentor younger generation/entry level HR practitioners, and that [...]

The Battle For Respect

Sonnie — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 01:00:22 +0000

I was one of the Filipinos who mourned on the loss of SMC-Pilipinas All Pro National Basketball team to Jordan, that also extinguished our dream to return to Olympics Basketball, an opportunity that some believed, is gone forever.

I also lost interest following the succeeding games, but hey, after that loss, SMC-Pilipinas went on a rampaging 4 winning streak and beating China for the 2nd time to gain 9th place finish.

Respect they gain indeed, because most people, after that devastating blow, [...]