The Hong Kong Wetland Park, New Territories, Hong Kong

When we think about Hong Kong, we associate it with Ocean Park and Disneyland. A nice family place to  go to in the New Territories Area is the Hong Kong Wetland Park. It is a 61 hectare wetland reserve that have been set aside by the Hong Kong government as a educational, recreational ,ecological  and conservation zone. It has a mangrove , mudflat, riverside and fishpond zone, with boardwalks, viewing decks and bird hides to enable the visitor an opportunity to experience wild life at a closer range. There are also exhibits, workshops and ecology training available on a regular basis. The discovery center was constructed following green building principles and highlight a  a huge living / green roof and natural daylighting.

at the entrance

wetland zone

the boardwalk

view from the bird hide

the mangroves

the living  roof with a pond

natural daylighting

the green roof

The Vigeland Sculpture Park, Oslo, Norway

Public spaces are very important for a city to be considered livable. Public art  and public spaces are an excellent cultural experience for city residents. It becomes a place to hang-out, reflect and at the same time get into the world of the featured artist.

In Oslo, the Vigeland Sculpture Park is a place one can wander around for hours. Gustav Vigeland spent many years of his life conceptualizing,  developing the park and giving us 200 sculptures in bronze, granite and wrought iron. The park is the biggest sculpture park in the world made by a single artist.

The Helsinki Tram, Finland

Helsinki ranks 6th  in The Economist's  2010 Most livable city survey. The criteria for being a livable city include the ff: safety, education, hygiene, health care, culture, environment, recreation, political- economic stability and public transport.

The Helsinki Tram and Metro make up the Helsinki public transportation system. The Helsinki Tram is a city icon and it is used in the inner city of Helsinki. These trams serves about 200,000 passengers every day.

waiting for the tram

The Bike Commuters of Copenhagen, Denmark

bike lane and bike parking at the train station

If the world had no boundaries, I would most likely want to live in Copenhagen, Denmark. Why? Because I would like to be a bike commuter. What a life that would be...  Hop on a bike to go to the market, work, town square, etc. How lucky the Danes are for the quality of their life...

early morning traffic

racing to work

bikes everywhere

safe and easy riding in a bike lane

bike parking everywhere

bike commuter counter 

bikes for public use

MTR (Metro Transit Railway), Hongkong

What makes a city livable? It is compact, walkable, safe, mixed use, auto free. One way to make this possible is by having public transport. In HongKong, The MTR system carries about 4 million people everyday.

Hong Kong ranks as 31st in the 2009 Economist Livable Cities Survey. One of the reason for this is the presence of an extensive, affordable and accessible public transport system provided by the MTR Corporation. This company was started in 1975 and its sole shareholder was the Hong Kong government. Now it is a public traded company.

mtr system is user friendly

proud commuters

let's hop on the train

make room, pls

not yet our stop

modern and clean stations

finally , a seat for us

made it to our destination

The Lapida (Tombstone) Makers at Carreta Cemetery, Cebu

A few steps from the Bio-integrative Center is the Carreta Cemetery. A very good reminder of where we can end up if we don't take control of our own health. Ok, we will heed the warning.

I have featured micro-entrepreneurs in this blog. There are many kinds of entrepreneurs. Today, I will feature the skilled micro-entrepreneur: the Lapida or Tombstone Maker. What do they do? They carve the names of the dearly departed, their date of birth and death and a few kind words that the living would like to say to the departed to be set in stone- in this case, in their tombstone. Basically, they are like stone carvers, but they also cut stainless steel plates and bronze.

The most common words they carve  are:
Eternal rest grant unto him o Lord
We love you and will miss you

There is actually a brochure that you can choose from with the corresponding types of dedication which you would like to put in stone. So, they do some customer care and marketing as well.

They are also like industrial designers because the tombstone markers now come in glass, granite and the classic: marble, in gray, pink and beige. There are uniquely colored tombstones like green, pink, blue, white, etc. The prices of these tombstones range from P3,500 to P5,500 depending on the kind of stone and the number of words you want to put.

The Lapida Makers are trying to negotiate with the Archdiocese of Cebu to let them stay at the Carreta cemetery because they have been asked to leave the premises. Although the church is suppose to be a not for profit organization, it can still serve them well if they adopt a corporate social responsibility project of supporting these Lapida micro-entrepreneurs. A win-win situation would be to create a stall space that is clean and decent for these skilled micro-entrepreneurs, let them pay a just and reasonable rent, let them serve the grieving client and in turn, the church can proudly say that they practice what they preach, and the craft of lapida making can be passed on to the descendants of these noble craftsmen who respectfully serve the grieving at their time of deep pain and loss.

The Weekend Market at Escario, Capitol, Cebu

Every Friday night, the corner at Escario near the Capitol building  goes on a faster pace. A big truck loaded with chickens, fruits, vegetables and charcoal becomes the center of all the commotion. Ever since the time of Governor Ting-Ting de la Cerna, vegetable entrepreneurs from Catmon have made their weekly pilgrimage to the Capitol. After his term, the vendors were moved to the parking lot in front of the Capitol post office and later to their current site at the Corner of Escario across Villalon Road.

So, the neighborhood has been blessed with easy access to fresh vegetables every weekend. However, these vegetables are not organically grown. No need to go to Carbon Market or head to the grocery. I think every neighborhood should have a local weekend market were people can come together and sell their produce or products. In Makati, they have a weekend organic market at the Salcedo Village.

pepino/cucumber and peppers

dalandan

bananas

bananas for frying

cantaloupe

carrots, camote, ahos, sibuyas, okra

coconut

cabbage, sayote

talong, batong, sibuyas dahunan

potatoes, gabi, luy-a, malunggay

tomato and beans

paliya, sikwa, camote tops

Palit na, ug pag-utan na, para mahealthy ta...

The Bio-Integrative Center of Cebu

What do we have in Cebu that we can be proud of? Well, in my opinion, one treasure we can be proud of is the Bio-integrative center at the corner of M.J. Cuenco, Cebu.

As seen on the sign, the goal of the center is to empower people to take control of their health. Sounds cliche... Sounds too simple... Well, their prescriptions are easy to understand... But...

To be empowered means...

Drink lots of water, stop drinking soft drinks, what? is that a death sentence...
Exercise and don't just sit around watching tv or surfing the web, now that is lethal...
Be positive, you mean, I can't complain anymore about my lunatic nocturnal karaoke singing neighbor...
Eat lots of fruit,  eat less meat or stop eating meat, ok , that is easy to do...
No preservatives, toxic chemicals, etc.

The doctor's role is to enlighten the patient to think and act differently in order to change destructive habits that cause common health problems associated with lifestyle diseases like hypertension and diabetis.

To be empowered  is a choice.

doctors at the center

vegetarian choices

prayer therapy

bio intergrative store

alternative therapy