Just Passing Thru

Child-Friendly Home

9:04 PM

Source: ABS CBN Bantay Bata 163

I never really thought of making our home child-friendly as much as I thought of how I can keep my children safe from all threats of harm. This is why when my sister-in-law Levy asked me if I was willing to have our house featured for a Bantay Bata segment about child-friendly homes, I wasn't actually sure if our house fits the bill. To my delightful surprise, it actually does.

The features that make our home such are quite simple that they can easily be replicated in most homes. To wit:

1. No matter the size of the house, everything should have its proper place so that potential areas of danger for children such as the kitchen because of hot and sharp objects are identified outright and properly avoided.

2. The choice of furniture, equipment, and materials should always be in consideration of the fact that there are young children in the house thus pointed edges and slippery materials such as floor tiles are best avoided.

3. Children should be given a safe place where they can play as they see fit. Children are what they are and giving no such space to them only exposes them to the dangers posed in making do with alternatives such as the streets.

4. Falls, electrocution, bumps and hands getting caught by doors that close suddenly are the most common concerns with young children thus protective features go a long way such as non-slippery mats, outlet covers, corner cushions, and door stoppers.

5. Whenever possible, it is best to give a child his/her own personal place to take care of. If an own room is out of the question, then a particular space in a room will do. The responsibility introduces the children to the need to take better care of themselves especially in situations where parents are not able to respond outright due to distance or time constraints.

My Say

A structurally child-friendly home can be built anywhere but parents will have to exert just a little more effort to make theirs a haven of safety for their own children. Accidents can happen in the best-planned homes but this should not be a reason to compromise our children's safety by willful neglect. Parents have the responsibility to make the home the safest place possible for the family.

That said, our respective homes can be our children's fortress of safety no matter the size and the location.

Blue Rose

1:27 AM

Submitted to the 2011 CANVAS Romeo Forbes Children's Storywriting Competition
based on an Untitled Piece (above) by Liv Vinluan

Felicia was at it again. She was having one of her monumental tantrums when things don’t exactly go her way. For an eleven year old girl, she was unusually and painfully fixated with perfection and especially spiteful of failure.

This worried her mother so much. Her child should be enjoying her youth, she thought, instead of making her life miserable. She could not exactly remember when Felicia started showing signs of this behavior. She had always encouraged her to do her best like any mother would, but never knowingly implied that she is not allowed to fail.

“Felicia, Felicia, come out here in the garden!” her mother called out.

If there is one place that could calm her down, it would be her mother’s rose garden. The garden was bursting with color at this time of the year. With the roses now abloom, color was everywhere – velvety red, pearly pink, golden yellow, creamy white, orange gold, and all possible variations in between except for blue. The closest to blue are the lilac-colored roses with a hint of blue tint.

Felicia came out after a few more coaxing. Her eyes were red and puffy with crying. She was visibly shaking as she tried to control her emotions. Her mother’s heart bled at the sight of her young girl hurting.

“What is it Felicia? What happened?” her mother lovingly asked.

“It’s nothing Mama,” Felicia answered in a whisper, almost as if she was about to cry again.

“You know you can tell me anything, I’ll always be here to listen,” her mother prodded.

That sent the torrents of tears running as Felicia stammered, “I should have won the first prize Mama…I did everything to the letter… My project was perfect… I made sure of that.” “They only gave me the second prize!” she finished.

“There’s nothing wrong with getting the second prize. It means that they also appreciate your work but may have seen something in the other project that made them decide to award it the first prize. You have to understand Felicia that we will not always get what we want in life, but it does not mean that we cannot be happy with what we have. True happiness is hidden somewhere behind love and contentment and not in perfection. We never stop trying to reach our goals but should not hurt ourselves if we sometimes fall short of our own expectations.” Felicia’s mother explained.

“Do you have one dream Mama that you really wish you’ll have?” Felicia asked.

Her mother slowly smiled and said, “Actually I do, I know it sounds petty but I have been wanting to have a blue rose.”

“Then why don’t you plant one in your garden?” Felicia was obviously incredulous at such a seemingly simple dream. “Don’t we have fresh blue roses in our living room everyday?”

"Those are actually white roses dyed blue. Alas, a blue rose does not exist in nature. Roses lack the pigment to produce a true blue color. In fact, its traditional meaning is the never ending quest for the impossible. That doesn’t stop me from enjoying the next best thing – perfectly blue-dyed white roses.”

With an almost childish glint in her eyes, she added, “Do you know that some cultures believe a wish is granted to anyone who gets hold of a true blue rose?” She then took Felicia into her arms and said, “You just might get lucky my child.”

Felicia’s eyes widened in pure amazement. “Really, Mama?” she uttered softly.

*****

It is clearly a struggle for Felicia to follow her mother’s advice. She sees the opportunity to compete in every situation and the desire to be on top at all times. This made her very unhappy but she could not help herself. To her credit, she tried and tried and tried…

During this time, she started having a strange dream. In this dream, she was running in an open field. What particularly struck her about the dream were the blue roses, one tucked behind each ear. The dream came often, showing the same scene over and over again of her running aimlessly and endlessly. In her dream, she felt very tired but could not stop for some reason she did not understand.

In the mean time, life went on as usual for Felicia.

*****

The news came out of the blue.

Felicia’s mother was ecstatic about a true blue rose variety that was successfully genetically engineered and being tested for mass propagation. Being a long-standing member of a rose club in the country, she will get to have a sample which was on its way to her. Felicia saw the genuine joy in her mother’s eyes and wondered how such a simple thing can bring her so much happiness. Her mother looked like a child who was so easy to please while she who was the real child carried grown-up problems which were making her lonely.

The coming of the much-awaited blue rose was welcomed by a small ceremony by Felicia’s mother and her. Beneath the pale moonlight, the rose garden was especially enchanting that night. Every rose in the garden seemed to stand taller than usual enjoining everyone to see the beauty in the simple repetition of its petals and shape. Truly, roses repay affection with their unmatched elegance.

Felicia’s mother took her hand so they can hold the blue rose together. It is beautiful. It is real. What was previously impossible became possible because someone decided to continue trying in spite of earlier failures.

“Felicia, let me make this wish for you,” her mother said as they both closed their eyes intently.

“I wish you happiness that comes from within and from understanding that life is like a bed of roses with thorns intact which could hurt you but should not destroy you. Our lives are not determined by our failures but by how we use them to eventually succeed. You can be happy if you allow it by being not too harsh on yourself. Other people are not judging you so do not be quick to do it on your own. Learn to love and accept yourself.”

Felicia’s eyes opened in clear understanding and for the first time in many years, she felt truly happy. “Yes Mama, I do understand,” she cried softly.

THE END

My Say

I have always thought of writing a story of my own although I haven't done anything about it till now.

That said, I'm glad I did.

back-to-school

Parents, Are You Ready for the Opening of Classes?

7:07 AM

Ambos Mundos

The Ambos Mundos Legacy- Beyond the Marketing Hype of False Claimants

9:25 PM

The Ambos Mundos legal story can already be considered a saga by virtue of the long period that has elapsed since it began. To say that our legal system is quite slow is the understatement of the century. Rights have been trampled on and disregarded without compunction behind the legal gooble-de-gook of appeals and motions that have clearly exhausted their reason and relevance. My only consolation is that my prior right over the trade name is always upheld in each and every venue where the false claimants choose to bring their claim to. I have actually observed an interesting phenomena related to this case. Every time they suffer a legal debacle through an unfavorable decision, they hit back with a frenzy of media blitz.

To see false claimants to the business name selling their story through media and reading them online is both heartbreaking and laughable because of the erroneous details being forcefully peddled on a largely gullible audience who have no access to the facts. They do not even bother to get their history right. Our ancestors are probably rolling in their graves whenever they attribute names to the wrong pictures or reference questionable dates and events whenever they need a story to tell.

For the record:

Ambos Mundos Restaurant has not carried Chinese cuisine from its inception up to the time that the last legally recognized Ambos Mundos was closed. I have nothing against Chinese cooking but to include it in the description of the restaurant today is clearly just an orchestrated effort to explain why people associated with a Chinese restaurant (Wah Sun Panciteria) are laying claim to it. To include it would probably necessitate changing the name to Tres Mundos to accommodate the three cultures of Filipino, Spanish, and Chinese which they are trying to do. History will say that Ambos Mundos refers only to Filipino and Spanish dishes to agree with the English translation of Two Worlds or Both Worlds. Insisting on the inclusion of Chinese influence is just plain hard-sell at this point aiming to lend an air of legitimacy to an otherwise illegal use of a business name.

Ambos Mundos- the trade name does not play any part in the highly-romanticized union between my brother and his wife. There was no agreement, implicit or implied, written or oral, to the effect that the business name will be used by the family of my brother's wife by virtue of the marital union. They should know better since their family is in the same line of business as us. The legal use of a long-established trade name does not come about in such a manner. It was plain and simple taking advantage of an internal problem with our family.

Los Ambos Mundos Restaurant and Ambos Mundos Restaurant Inc. are not authorized to carry the trade name and in fact have been directed by the concerned government agencies to delete the words "AMBOS MUNDOS" from their business name/s which obviously they refuse to follow. It should be noted that these two "registered" names refer only to a single physical entity and the same set of incorporators. The second registration was done within a matter of days after the DTI Office of Legal Affairs released its decision in my favor. My intention to re-register was again frustrated by a "no-brainer" technicality they took advantage of which they in effect blame to DTI and so we brought our case to SEC. The SEC Decision can be viewed through the url provided below as well as the Court of Appeals Decision which I believe is the cause of their most recent marketing hype since it again frustrates their objective.

Come to think of it, the communication between DTI Office of Legal Affairs and the DTI Business Name Registration must be seriously flawed for the latter to render useless the efforts of the former even if they are only floors apart in the same building. My problem started when DTI Business Name Registration allowed my brother to renew my certificate of registration. Common sense tells us that one cannot renew that which is not registered to him in the first place. Instead of correcting an obvious error, DTI Business Name Registration only gave me one option which is to bring a case against my brother to be lodged with the DTI Office of Legal Affairs. I won the case after ten long years of waiting but DTI Business Name Registration again committed a grave injustice against me when they again allowed my brother, now with the family of his wife to register the trade name as a corporation because (take note) the trade name was not registered to anyone at that time they applied. WHAT!!!

Of course, it wasn't registered because they wouldn't allow me as the case was still pending. When the case was resolved in my favor, the other side beat me by several days because apparently I was the last one to know of the decision. Strike 2 for DTI Business Name Registration. Am I missing something here?

It was a good thing that I have already registered the trade name with the Intellectual Property Office or else all my efforts would have amounted to nothing. SEC for its part has already directed the other party to change its business name while the Court of Appeals recently upheld my prior right over the trade name AMBOS MUNDOS.

The issue of ownership of the trade name AMBOS MUNDOS does not get to be settled on television. It will be settled in the legal courts and agencies where they should be. To my mind, the endless motions and appeals are part of a dilatory tactic so I don't get to use the name while they take their time and enjoy the benefit of using it since the case is still under "appeal". My personal appeal goes to the concerned courts and agencies to provide finality to this dilemma and once and for all say that enough is enough. I have suffered in silence for a long time and I want to believe that I will get to live to see the day that such suffering ends.

Setting the record straight.

By Maria Teresa Gaudinez-Martinez

For related story, see: http://just-passing-thru.blogspot.com/2010/10/defending-family-legacy-ambos-mundos.html

SEC DECISION

IPO DECISION

IPO DECISION

Court of Appeals Decision Promulgated on April 25, 2012:

http://ca.judiciary.gov.ph/cardis/SP114231.pdf

Intellectual Property Office (IPO)Trademark Listing

My Say

The first registration of "Los Ambos Mundos Restaurant" and the subsequent registration of "Ambos Mundos Restaurant Inc." in spite of a pending case extended to extraordinary proportions because of their unending appeals and previous decisions in my favor speak of the callousness of its incorporators in trying to wrestle a trade name which they had no hand in building, from myself and my family who are the rightful owners, seemingly at all costs. The Leung siblings identified with Wah Sun Panciteria have no business meddling with our trade name. If the situation was reversed and my siblings and I established a "Wah Sun Panciteria 2" because one of us and one of them just happened to be married, I don't think they will allow us. I know as well as they should that it doesn't happen that way.

They cannot even claim that they do not know the real score since the one appearing in our last hearings was one of the Leung siblings already and no longer my brother.

That said, for the nth time, these people have again lodged an appeal hoping that there will be one agency or institution that will take their side. They have been hiding for the longest time behind the loopholes of the human justice system where cases drag on for years. I hope to God that no agency or institution will allow this injustice to prevail. So far, our cause has been supported and strengthened by all legal entities involved but justice remains overdue.

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