Red Dot Pinoys

Pinoy teens bag medals in Singapore Math Olympiad

2012-02-19T00:32:00.000+08:00

Feb 19, 2012

Filipino high school students won four medals in the inaugural Raffles Invitation Mathematical Olympiad held from Feb. 6 to 11 in Singapore.

Mikaela Angelina Uy, third year student of St. Jude Catholic School, won a silver medal in the
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Plan your long leaves for 2012

2012-01-15T23:16:00.007+08:00

Posted on: Jan 15, 2012

Plan your vacations now!!! Here's the list of long weekends for 2012:

4-day weekend on January: from 21st (Sun) to 24th (Tue)
3-day weekend on April: from 6th (Fri) to 8th (Sun)

3-day weekend on August: from 18th (Sat) to 20th (Mon)
3-day weekend on October: from 26th (Fri) to 28th (Sun)

If you take leaves on the working days between Aug 9th(Thurs and National Day) and Aug 19th (Sat and actual Hari Raya Puasa day), you only need to file 6 vacation leaves ;)

The complete list for the 2012 holidays are as follows:

New Year's Day	1 January 2012	Sunday*
Chinese New Year	23 January 2012 24 January 2012	Monday Tuesday
Good Friday	6 April 2012	Friday
Labour Day	1 May 2012	Tuesday
Vesak Day	5 May 2012	Saturday
National Day	9 August 2012	Thursday
Hari Raya Puasa	19 August 2012	Sunday*
Hari Raya Haji	26 October 2012	Friday
Deepavali	13 November 2012	Tuesday
Christmas Day	25 December 2012	Tuesday

* The following Monday will be a public holiday
Source: Ministry of Manpower

The date for Deepavali, November 13, needs to be checked against the Indian Almanac when it is available. The Ministry of Manpower will issue a statement should there be a change of date.

Under the Employment Act, an employee who is required to work on a public holiday is entitled to an extra day's salary at the basic rate of pay, in addition to the gross rate of pay for that holiday. The employer and employee may mutually agree to substitute a public holiday for any other day.

Join 2008's Earth Hour

2008-03-28T10:47:00.008+08:00

Posted on: Mar 28, 2008

On March 29, 2008 at 8pm (local time), say no to global warming.
Turn off all your lights for one hour.
Be part of Earth Hour movement and join Singapore, Manila, Melbourne, Toronto, Chicago, Copenhagen, Brisbane, and Tel Aviv. Since the beginning of 2008, we've had almost 89 days or 2131 hours of electricity --- from using TVs, computers, radios, mp3 players and mobile phones. So why not for just one hour, turn off your lights?

According to some studies, rising sea levels will have major impact on Singapore because it's a small low-lying island. Its highest point is Bukit Timah hill which is just 165 meters above sea level. Most of the business-end of Singapore - its airport, its business district and, of course, its busy container ports, are placed less than two meters above sea level. Coastal areas in the Philippines already sank by 15 centimeters in just 29 years. Every year, waters around the archipelago is constantly rising.

Fossil fuel, found within the top layer of the earth’s crust, is the one of the major ingredients for generating electricity. Burning fossil fuel is the leading cause of increase carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere. Excessive carbon dioxide results to global warming because CO2 absorbs sun's infrared. Global warming has rapidly melted parts of the Antarctic ice and resulted to increase sea levels.

Thus, the more we consume electricity, the more global warming destroys the land we live in.

In 2007's Earth Hour, Australia saw a 10% reduction in use of its power grid. In CO2 terms, that's the equivalent of taking 50,000 cars off the road for an hour!

So please for one hour, contribute to stop global warming.

The following links will take you to sites about Earth hour:

Earth Hour commercial narrated by Jeremy Priven: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_c5K7Jdw9E
In Singapore: http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/asia_pacific/where/singapore/index.cfm
In Manila: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/news/view/20080317-125163/Join-worldwide-lights-out-Filipinos-urged
Be a part of the solution, all day, every day check out http://www.earthhour.org/earth-hour-every-day/at-home

The Papaya Dance

2008-03-25T17:05:00.007+08:00

Posted on: Mar 25, 2008

If you have Starhub's TFC (The Filipino Channel), you're most likely familiar with "Papaya". It's the dance popularized by Edu Manzano's Game Ka Na Ba show.

There have been countless dance fads that have spread all over the country. Otso-otso and Spaghetti to name a few. But I guess, Papaya is destined to be the most popular as it has now reached the US! It was featured in the Good Morning America show:

Araw ng mga Patay (Day of the Dead)

2007-11-01T03:28:00.000+08:00

Posted on: Nov 01, 2007

The Philippine way of celebrating Halloween is unique. It can start a week before Nov-01 as most Pinoys start cleaning graves of their relatives during the last week of Oct. Cleaning includes removing dirt and painting the tombs. On the eve of the Nov-01 (so Oct-31), people go to cemeteries (again) to light candles, bring flowers and meet other relatives who are also there to visit the tombs. This family reunion actually involves food and drinks, and for most Filipinos, are attended not just by the living but also by the dead.

From Oct-26 to Nov-01, Red Dot Pinoys has given you tales about the "other" world and the undead. Thanks to all who have read our posts. Special thanks to those who have commented: Jio, Riza, and Mя Đo™ јuŝт ғøя ғци.

Click here to read all CREEPY posts.

Tabi po

2007-10-31T23:32:00.000+08:00

Filipinos belief in mysticism is so deep that when knocking on a door of somebody's house, we don't say "Hello" --- we say "Tao po" which means "I'm human." It's like saying "I'm not a ghost, aswang, tikbalang, nuno or any other creature. I'm human and I come in peace so please let me in."

You see, nobody wants to see an aswang, a tikbalang, or a nuno knocking on his door.

Aswang is a reclusive person who transforms into a flesh-eating ghoul at night to eat cadavers and small children. A dish prepared by an aswang should never be eaten else you'll turn into one. In case an aswang give it to you as a gift, you must politely accept to avoid offending the aswang and get attack by night. Never consume the dish no matter how tempting it can be... it's of human meat.

Meanwhile, tikbalang has a head of a horse and a body of a man. It lives on mountains and in forests, and often play tricks to travelers. It is said that when you get lost in a forest, wear your shirt inside out to dismiss the tikbalang's spell.

When we also walk through a forest or in any area with lots of trees, we say "Tabi po" which means "Excuse me, old one. I'm just passing by." Its our way of greeting the "nuno" and asking his permission if we can pass. Nuno is a dwarf who lives in an anthill or termite mound around trees. Also when we are in such areas, we avoid pointing our fingers toward the trees or to the ground due to our elders insistent warning of "Huwag kang manuro, baka manuno ka" which means "Do not point your fingers, the nuno might get offended."

I've been living in Singapore for six years but it hasn't erased my belief in Philippine folklore. Once my husband and I got so lost when we were at Sentosa's Dragon Trail. We were walking around for hours, trying to find the way out but we were always coming to a same spot. It was getting dark and we were already so spooked so we decided to wear our shirts inside out then continued our walk while saying "tabi po." And you know what happened next? In just a few minutes we met somebody (a local) who knew the way out.

Manananggal vs. Penanggal

2007-10-27T00:06:00.001+08:00

Of all the characters in the rich Philippine folklore, I find Manananggal to be the most terrifying. It is a beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings to prey on unsuspecting, pregnant women in their homes; using an elongated proboscis-like tongue, it sucks the hearts of fetuses or blood of an unsuspecting, sleeping victim. The severed lower torso is left standing and it is said to be the more vulnerable of the two halves. Sprinkling salt or smearing crushed garlic or ash on top of the standing torso is fatal to the creature. The upper torso then would not be able to rejoin and will die at daybreak. The term manananggal comes from the Tagalog, "tanggal" which means to remove/separate, thus "manananggal" means the one who separates itself from its lower body.

In Malaysian, Indonesian & Singaporean folklore, a similar creature exists and it's called Penanggal or penanggalan.

A notable difference between a Penanggal and Manananggal is that a Penanggal detaches only her head with her lungs, stomach and intestines attached while leaving the body in a pre-prepared container filled with vinegar to preserve the body against rapid decomposition. Also, unlike the Manananggal which uses a proboscis-like tongue, a Penanggal is commonly depicted as having fangs.

Irma Alegre's (one of Philippine cinema's great actresses during the '80s) manananggal in the 1st "Shake, Rattle & Roll" movie scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. I think I was not able to sleep that night.

Pupung's aswang

2007-10-26T00:22:00.000+08:00

Click image to enlarge

Filipino prisoners dancing to MJ's Thriller

2007-09-27T16:53:00.000+08:00

I got this from Perez Hilton :D. Apparently, this video of 1,500 Cebu prisoners is now an internet sensation! Byron Garcia, who oversees the jail and introduced the dance routines last year, loaded the videos onto the internet.

"I want the prison system to learn from this," Garcia said.

"The inmates are after all human beings and the inmates after all, once inside, know that they have committed mistakes, let them enjoy their stay."

Happiness in living a simple life in the Phils

2007-09-09T11:20:00.001+08:00

Posted on: Sep 09, 2007

I know that this is not about Pinoys living in Singapore...but actually...it's ALL about Pinoys living in Singapore and about ALL the Pinoys who have decided to live and take citizenship in other countries to escape the extreme poverty in our "Perlas ng Silanganan".

Meet David Eric Poarch, a young man born to a Filipina mother and an American father. He was having the time of his life as one of the top students of his class and as a recipient of a scholarship in an US Ivy League college...yet he chose not to live this American dream. In 2006, to his parents disapproval, he decided to live a "probinsiyano" life in the Philippines without any financial support from his family --- only with his determination to find independence, happiness and meaning of life.

He has documented his simple Filipino life in his blog where he also explained in detail reasons for doing it. Watch ABS-CBN's interview of David:

Mabuhay! Let's help S'pore get to know Pinoys

2007-08-27T18:49:00.001+08:00

I'm currently cleaning up and trying to throw my old newspapers to the recycling bin. There was an article pala, by a certain Gina Olivares-Jocson (Mar-25-2007 Sunday Times) who according to the newspaper, is of Malay, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish descent. Whoa, so many. What I have is a plain Filipino blood, thank you very much!

I was surprised because how many times do we, Filipinos, have a chance to write for the major daily? THE major daily, THE chief general news source for the country's English-language residents? Very seldom actually...

Anyway, I can really relate to her sentiments unfortunately. Most especially in this statement nya:
"So, is it a stretch to conclude that because of our embarrassment with our country's governance and the dire economic situation that has pushed many of us to look overseas for employment, we subconsciously decided to go around with bowed heads, so to speak?"

When I was also new here, I had a pretty hard time answering the question of "What is your race"? I thought I was a Malay because di ba, iyon yung itinuro sa atin sa school? That Filipinos are of Malay race? Later on, I discovered that for Singaporeans pala, Malay are those indigenous Malays, the original residents of this country. So looking back, na I ticked the box "Malay", napapangiti n lang ako...

Haaay.... Philippines... I really wish na our country will SOMEDAY prosper, so we will not have to be away from our families....