Filipina Honored for Accomplishments in Nursing

Myrna Elma Ricarte, Registered Nurse at Orange County Healthcare Agency, has been recognized by Cambridge Who’s Who for demonstrating dedication, leadership and excellence in nursing. 

Ms. Ricarte has 50 years of overall professional experience, and has been with Orange County Healthcare Agency for 16 years. As a registered nurse, she is responsible for educating patients on sexually transmitted diseases and drug interactions, administering vaccines and inoculations, and charting patient’s irregularities and progress. Additionally, she and her husband founded the General Artemio Scholastic Foundation of the Philippines. They help the underprivileged in the Philippines achieve an education through grants and scholarships if they prove themselves in school. She became involved in her profession because of the inspiration she received from her aunt, who was a nurse.

The Green Alternative: Painting An Air Pollution Solution

Editor’s note: This is not a paid advertisement.  This is a call for everyone to take a conscious stance in reducing their environmental impact.

I am entering my seventh-month of cycling to work (on a regular basis).  Most weeks since I started this activity, I ride my bike to and from the office at least three times in a five-day work week.

In exchange for the sweat, I get to save on money that I would have otherwise used to pay for petrol and parking, save on time that I would have used to go the Fort and jog for at least 30 minutes, and more importantly, conserve on resources and lower my carbon footprint.

The concern here is lessening your impact on the environment and the way to address this is by incorporating environmentally-conscious activities as alternative.

Going green is not just a fad.  It’s a necessity that all of us, individuals and corporations, need to partake in.  Take a look at Boysen Paints below as an example. 

New developments in nanotechnology have produced the most unlikely weapon to reduce NOx and air pollutant levels – paint. Working with Cristal Global, the world’s leading ultrafine titanium dioxide (TiO2) producer, Boysen has developed KNOxOUT. A revolutionary paint that converts noxious air pollutants into harmless substances in an environmentally safe process called photocatalysis… 

…Boysen Paints is currently conducting the world’s largest depolluting paint trial at an urban rail transit station along the busiest avenue in the Manila Metropolitan Area . The trial involves painting  over 5,200 sq. meters with close to 1,000 liters of KNOxOUT.  This trial will further confirm the depolluting results of the European trials. Given the high amount of sunlight, humidity and air pollution in the vicinity of the trial, this area is ideal for photocatalysis…

Social Entrepreneurship - a growing movement in Asia Pacific

This write up by Yvonne Li explains the underrepresentation of Asians in the global social entrepreneurship scene.  Nonetheless, social entrepreneurship in Asia is gaining firmer ground and it’s only a matter of time when the rest of the world applies the SE innovations from this region. 

As a response to Social Edge’s provocative piece entitled “Are the only innovations in social entrepreneurship Anglo-Saxon?”, Avantage Ventures would like to present eight case studies of sustainable social enterprises in the Asia Pacific region. These case studies provide evidence of innovative and progressive social enterprises in Asia and will present valuable opportunities for evaluating the state of social entrepreneurship in the East. The eight case studies will be presented over a period of four months to encourage dialogue and discussion.

CITEM: Local Companies Committed to Building a Green Future

In recent years, the quest for sustainable living has redefined conventions, including the way we view our public and private structures. This has paved the way for the growth of more breathable and environment-friendly “green” buildings in the country, sites that aptly demonstrate that nature and architecture can work together well.

Green building as defined by the Philippine Green Building Council (PhilGBC) is the practice of creating structures that are designed, built, renovated, operated or re-used in an ecological and resource-efficient manner. (more…)

Outstanding awards garnered by Filipinos

Txtmania.com has compiled a list of awards and recognitions bestowed upon extraorindary Filipinos from different fields and professions.

Filipino Magsaysay Awardees
Since 1958, 26 Filipinos and seven Philippine-based institutions have received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, which is widely acknowledged as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize. The Filipino awardees included Hilario Davide Jr., Jose Vasquez Aguilar, Arturo Pineda Alcaraz, Francisca Aquino, Alfredo Bengzon, Jesse Robredo, and Miriam Santiago for government service; Rosario Encarnacion, Silvino Encarnacion, Eva Fidela Maamo, and Pablo Torres Tapia for communist leadership; 

Angel Alcala, Fe del Mundo, Antonio Fortich, Benjamin Gaston, Cecil Guidote-Alvarez, Gilopez Kabayao, Pedro Tamesis Orata and Rosa Rosal for public service; Lino Brocka, Nick Joaquin, F. Sionil Jose, Raul Locsin, Bienvenido Lumbera, and Zacarias Sarian for journalism, literature and creative communication; and Corazon Aquino for peace and international understanding. 

Radio Veritas was awarded for journalism while the Asian Institute of Management, Bayanihan Folk Arts Center, College of Agriculture of University of the Philippines-Los Banos, International Rice Research Institute, Operation Brotherhood+ and Press Foundation of Asia were recognized for peace and international understanding.

Architect of Brunei’s Palace
Architect Leandro Locsin designed Istana Nurul Iman, the palace of the sultan of Brunei, which has a floor area of 2.2 million square feet.

Most Decorated Filipino
Carlos P. Romulo was perhaps the only Filipino who received 82 honorary degrees from different universities and international institutions and 74 decorations from foreign countries, including the U.N. Peace Medal, the World Peace Award, the Four Freedoms Peace Award and the US Presidential Medal for Freedom. In 1945, the African former colonies nominated Carlos P. Romulo for the Nobel prize for peace for espousing “independence” for the former colonies of Asia and Africa.