We are almost in the last quarter of the year ... let's see how My City did well 

this year ... we'll check this out on what year-ender stories will gonna be tackled.  

This year I wrote this story when the year started based on the projection of a  

Feng Shui expert ....and I'm sharing you this ...

Feng Shui expert says 2012 good year for DC

DAVAO CITY, Jan. 23 (PNA)  -- The Year of the Water Dragon 

for 2012 is a good year for the island Mindanao and the City 

of Davao.

Feng Shui expert Master Richard Yu, who flew in this city on 

Monday courtesy of SM Davao to conduct forum about the classic 

school of thoughts on Feng Shui and the Chinese Lunar New Year, 

said "lots of good things will happen in Mindanao area and there 

will be less disaster here".

But he said there are lots of work to be done especially pertaining 
to issues of attaining justice and peace.

And because of hard work that Davao City will be doing this year, 
a lot will happen more next year.

He said things will start here especially in Davao City because in 
this city will be the start off point with many good things that will be realized in the southern part of the country this year.

"And next year you will reap the fruit because of your hard work this year," he said.

Yu has been conducting fora and consultancy for the past 9 years. 
He worked formerly at the National Statistics Office, Manila with his educational background in Engineering, but decided to come up 
with his own and landed in Feng Shui analyses, which he had been exposed to when he was a kid where he said his father also practices 
the craft.

Meanwhile, he said for as long as gambling will not be tolerated 
here like what is going on in Las Vegas and Macau where gambling 
is legalized, then peace is going to happen in your city.

“Just pay particular attention to symbols 1, 6, 8 and 4 with 1 which 
stands for the start that is going to happen this year in Davao City, 
6 stands for wealth where many could be found in Manila and 
Davao is very near to that source and 8 symbolizes tremendous 
wealth happening in China, an area very near our country and 4 representing investments which Davao City 
is going to corner this year,” Yu said.

He said for as long as the people work for it and believe in it, then something positive is going to happen and because of change peace 
will be achieved here.

Davao, which is an agriculture base area, he said is perfect in the 
Year of the Water Dragon because of the combination of water, 
earth and wood.

He said more food production will be achieved here as against other 
areas in the country like Luzon which will be threatened with lack 
of supply.

Yu, who follows and studies symbols, culture and tradition that 
was passed on from the olden Chinese, said his analyses of the 
Feng Shui are computed based on Science and Math.

He also said this year is also good on anything cultural as well as 
on education.

But prayer he said complete one's luck as luck has three parts, 
the God Luck that could be achieved through prayers, Man Luck 
through interaction with other people and Nature Luck that is 
brought about by plants.

On the other hand, Davao City celebrated the Chinese New Year 
with rituals, prayers and the countdown which celebration happened 
at Magsaysay Park until midnight of January 23.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, who led the Chinoy in the celebration here, took the opportunity for thanking the Chinese 
community for the unceasing support to the people of Davao 
most especially during calamities and disaster.

The activity at the Park was capped with the release of 290 Chinese lanterns where the Mayor, who took part in the lighting and releasing 
of her lantern, accompanied it with her wish for prosperity and 
peace in Davao City.

The releasing of the Chinese lanterns last night was for the first time 
held in Davao City. (PNA) rsv/Prix Digna D. Banzon/ldp 

Chinese lantern photos courtesy of Bing Gonzales ... thanks !

 (Included in my articles about My City) 

Three-day Cyber Expo, a success; to link world cyber events

The conduct of the three-day Davao Cyber Expo turned out successful with five events held simultaneously in one exposition held from July 23 to 25 at the Event Center of SM City Davao.

Kitsi Avila, of E-Squared Events and organizer of the exposition, said it was not just a mere show of gadgets and push their advocacy to make Davao City as the leading Cyber City in the Philippines but keep the youth be responsible while in the cyber space.

Avila said they are strongly advocating on anti-pornography and piracy saying that these two concerns need to be controlled and avoided.

"Our campaign is continuing and we make sure that our members follow and observe our policy and position," he said.

Avila said the Cyber Expo featured five events namely, the Cyber Games where a sports Olympics was held on DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) with top eight teams competing during the expo after they went through a pre-elimination among 45 competing teams.

The players were mostly college students and out-of-school youths; the E Games where this group also held their own tournament. The exhibitors where from Manila; the LPX or LAN Party Extreme where 80 members displayed their customize PCs costing over P100,000.

In this PC show the units were given awards as to performance levels and speed in terms of high-end games; and the Costume Players who were inspired by Anime; and Forum on Responsible Gaming.

He also said part of the expo was the Tech Extreme Exhibits where 15 companies joined.

Meanwhile, Avila said Cyber Games like DOTA is not just about playing the game. It's about sports where players develop quick decisions, reflexes and competitiveness.

"One could be able to develop the mind and reflexes and those over 22 years old are too old for the game," he said.

On the other hand, Avila said DOTA is a customer scenario for the real-time strategy video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne based on the "Aeon of Strife" map for StarCraft.

He said the objective of the scenario is for each team to destroy the opponents' Ancients, heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map.

Players use powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied heroes and AI-controlled fighters called "creeps".

As in role-playing games, players level up their hero and use gold to buy equipment during the mission.

He said playing DOTA will also develop their relation as a team.

The Davao Cyber Expo was able to also change the perception of adults and their hosting an exposition gave them mileage where people would understand and know better the cyber space.

He said their next move is to link with World Cyber Events and they will continue to hold more events on cyber games. (PNA) LOR DDB/lvp

Mayor Sara leads storytelling for Davao kids at SM City

posted @ http://www.pia.gov.ph/

by Prix D. Banzon

Davao City (23 July) -- City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio led the storytelling for Davao school children at SM City Davao Entertainment Center in time for the National Children's Book Day celebrated nationwide on July 20, 2010.

The mayor who came with her daughter Sharky took time out of her busy schedule of reading a story to children coming from 8 public elementary schools of mixed grades level from 1 to 6.

The story entitled "Emang Engkantada at ang Tatlong Haragan" is about how kids could also help protect the environment. The storytelling was accompanied by live performance adopted from the story portrayed by selected school children depicting a healthy environment and later destroyed by people.

In her brief message, Mayor Sara said she is pursuing her advocacy on school children learning not only to read but of reading and comprehension. The stories we read to our children are good source of information where they could pick some lessons.

"It is important that at a young age kids already know how to read with comprehension because I would like to share to them my experience that at age 3, I already know how to read and I want them to be taught early," she said.

She said part of her advocacy is for the teachers in the preschool under the supervision of the city government where to undergo seminar on how to teach reading to the kids.

In partnership with some private schools here our preschool teachers underwent seminar on this and I would expect them to teach what they learned to their respective students.

She said considering that the Davao City School Board is under her supervision they make sure that education for the kids will be given focus and this will be part of her priorities.

SM Davao mall manager Lynette Lopez said the storytelling is part of SM Cares project which was done simultaneously in 34 malls nationwide. The event was held in coordination with the National Book Development Board, Vibal Publishing, Inc., Department of Education and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

She said corporate-wide SMs tenants numbered to 12,000 with 25,000 employees plus 3 million shoppers nationwide, they will continue to embark on projects inline with their corporate social responsibility and this includes among others activities that would encourage children to read.

"Every third Tuesday of July they will hold regular storytelling for the Davao kids. "This is our way of encouraging kids to love reading and welcome them to the wonderful world of books," she said.

Meanwhile teachers from the Magallanes Elementary School also joined the event to support their students who rendered a number on smart reading. They were trained following a specialized reading program.

Teacher Alona Tomboy who handles storytelling and Readers Theater said their school has organized the Communication Arts where this program is offered by the school during summer. It is a workshop open to students for both private and public schools of Davao City. "And we had a good number of enrollees last summer," she said.

In their school alone, she said are 400 pupils trained under ComArts mostly belonging to the honors class. These pupils are taught the right pronunciation, intonation, accent, phonetics and others.

She said it really needs discipline and focus and these kids learn fast as they too are excited to join in competition. And because of their ability, talent and performance they won in contests either on team reading, theater reading and readers reading.

"Exposing children this early is of their advantage and it gives them better opportunity especially that they had developed their self-confidence," she said.

She also said that the school reinforced the reading habit of their pupils by allocating more time on reading. Every Wednesdays pupils for both the morning and afternoon sections are given 30 minutes more for reading session. The Magallanes Elementary School has 6,000 pupils enrolled this school year.

The other teachers that hold specialized reading are Rosalina Caballero for Team Reading, Ma. Teresa Nacion for Readers Theater and Francis Tarsog for Smart Talking/Team Reading. (PIA) [top]

Dabawenyos bring recyclables @ SM

With SM City Davao initiating the waste market or the "Trash to Cash" project, the people of Davao City have a place to bring unused but recyclable materials and earn some cash from it each month. SM City Davao's bid of increasing environmental awareness and Earth campaigns has inspired a lot of individuals and supported the campaign. SM City Davao responded to the planet’s cry for help and made conscious efforts of reducing the company’s carbon footprint and also encourage employees and costumers alike to be more discerning in their actions and choices with partiality to the planet’s welfare. The Trash to Cash promotes recycling as a way of fighting global warming. It corrects the common misconception that recycling is expensive as mall goers are able to sell their recycleables (paper, cartons, plastics, metals, batteries, etc.) to DENR-accredited scrap buyers during the fair ensuring them of proper disposal and earning them cash at the same time! In less than 2 years, the SM City Davao has organized 22 waste market fairs. The paper collection alone, reaching to almost 63,000 kilograms is estimated to have saved 1,258 trees, 188.75 cubic yards of landfill space, 125.83 barrels of oil- enough to fuel an average car for 79,274.88 miles, 257,957.93 kilowatts of energy- enough to power an average household for 31 years, and 3,774.99 lbs less air pollution! The next Trash to Cash is scheduled on February 6 and 7 at SM City Davao’s Parking C. So start collecting your trash and turn them into cash only at SM!