|
|
Singapore's PR Academy
Michael Alan Hamlin
Recruiting bright people is faster than growing them...
With a name like PR Academy , the natural assumption is that this organization is a private-sector training institute, or perhaps a PR consultancy. It is a training institute and it is a consultancy. But it is not a private-sector organization. Instead, it’s an agency of the Ministry of Information, Communications, and the Arts in Singapore whose mission is “to raise the professionalism of Singapore government communicators.”
Like most industry-leading private-sector organizations, the Singapore government understands the value of public relations in building its brand and generating goodwill among target markets. The PR Academy has trained more than 5,000 government officials through workshops, conferences, and special programs since it was established in 2001.
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/31/2007 3:08:56 PM |
|
|
|
Headlines
Michael Alan Hamlin
Which view is true?
The contrast in perspectives exhibited by civil society and business of the May 14 Philippine national election is dramatic both locally and internationally. Locally, civil society complained bitterly about alleged cheating and intimidation, the unconstitutional perpetuation of political dynasties, and a surprising level of election violence compared to earlier elections in recent years.
Business, in the meantime, reacted with optimism to the “mostly peaceful” polls by boosting the stock market and the peso to new highs. At least one investment bank rode that wave of enthusiasm, advising investors to increase their holdings. JP Morgan Securities strategist Adrian Mowat reportedly told participants in an investor conference that “investors are waking up to this market and people are increasingly getting on a plane and coming to Manila.”
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/25/2007 11:28:59 AM |
|
|
|
The poverty trap
Orly Mercado
Slum tourism is fine
Child development is an amazing thing. My son Renzo, who is now five and a half years old, is suddenly interested in my childhood. He just can’t get enough of my stories of living in poverty in the slums behind the Paco railroad station in Manila. I enjoy telling him these sob stories, knowing that in a few years, the same will be greeted with the rolling of eyes and a groaned “I heard that before.” He listens wide-eyed as I tell him I had no toys. I made my own.
Today, the story he liked was about how I made my public high school proud, when I was chosen to represent the Philippines in the New York Mirror Youth Forum. But we had a big problem. I had nothing to wear for my first ever plane trip overseas. The school authorities decided to pass the hat around to raise money for my trip. It was not easy. Most of my classmates were just as poor as we were.
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/21/2007 2:13:41 PM |
|
|
|
Land of contrasts
Michael Alan Hamlin
Turn to the business section, please
In the aftermath of this week's mid-term elections, the contrast in mood on the front pages of newspapers and the business pages is startling. Front-page headlines generally rant about dagdag-bawas, or vote shaving and padding, and violence mostly in far-flung areas of the country. In contrast, the business pages report that confidence is up as evidenced by the strong showing of the stock market, the currency, and investment inflows following the mostly peaceful elections.
It's as if we are living in two different countries at the same time. And come to think of it, we are.
|
Posted
5/18/2007 5:40:58 PM |
|
|
|
SMART(MATIC) elections
Michael Alan Hamlin
Will the Philippines follow the example?
I learned a great deal about electronic elections last week in Cebu from Jonji Villa. Villa is a Filipino expatriate, and has spent his career primarily in Hong Kong and Malaysia. A 10-year resident of Kuala Lumpur, he holds two positions with two different companies. Villa is chief executive of Intelbay, a corporation he founded in Malaysia that specializes in developing software solutions for the insurance industry.
He is also a director for SMARTMATIC , a Boca Raton, Florida company that Villa says is probably the number one provider of electronic election solutions in the world. Officially, the company says it develops embedded and enterprise software that links many kinds of devices from a wide range of networks, allowing them to quickly connect and simultaneously execute millions of tasks.
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/16/2007 6:16:49 PM |
|
|
|
A different perspective
Michael Alan Hamlin
Sticking together...
I want to thank you for your responses to last week’s column. Your expressions of concern were incredibly thoughtful, and deeply appreciated. This week, I intended to return to strategic marketing communications issues, my usual turf, but then decided instead to provide a different perspective of the trip - that of my daughter, Bea (Bea has two dads, lucky girl, her birth father, and me.). A big part of communicating is understanding events from varying perspectives, so hopefully my decision to turn over the column this week, with permission from my editor, to Bea doesn’t stray too far from my communications brief. In Bea’s words,
“Most kids appreciate it (very much) when their parents go on long business trips or when they decide they want to go overseas on vacation. This usually means no curfews, long late-night-telephone calls, and parties - lots of them. Our dad was away on a sudden, sad trip to the United States last week because his dad, Grandpa Jerry, passed away. But this time, having one parental unit on a long trip was not appreciated, nor was it enjoyed, by any of the kids - and especially Mom.
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/9/2007 5:38:28 PM |
|
|
|
Wiretapping Cory Aquino
Orly Mercado
The news from Manila that a listening device was discovered connected to the telephone line of former Philippine President Cory Aquino did not come as a surprise. I was more saddened than indignant, almost resigned to the realities of politics at home. But it reminded me of one of the rare visits I had to her office, when she was President.
I remember then Press Secretary Teddy Locsin, in his jogging attire, giving her the latest developments on the most important news of the day: her firing her Secretary of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile. It was the time of coup plots and coup attempts. She reveled in the fact that the announcement got Enrile by surprise. “That only means that my telephones here are not tapped” she told then Executive Secretary Joker Arroyo.
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/4/2007 6:35:03 PM |
|
|
|
Sudden, sad trip
Michael Alan Hamlin
Growing up on weekends with Dad
Early last week I received a call from my younger brother, Mark , that my father had been admitted to the hospital in Oklahoma City. Mark had spoken with the doctors, and told me somberly that the prognosis for our father was bleak. Although he would have been 77 years old on May 18, the news came as a shock because our father had continued to live a very active life after recovering from lung cancer - minus his right lung - several years earlier.
In fact, just days before Mark’s call Dad had been in his element, on the golf course he loved just across from the humble duplex in which he lived. That day, he shot a very respectable 85. As my brother said, “He couldn’t hit the ball very far, but he never, ever went out of bounds, and invariably put the ball pretty much where he wanted it to go.” Our father and his golfing buddies typically played together two to three times a week when the weather permitted.
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
5/2/2007 8:53:52 PM |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
