Nature's call
A student asked a thought provoking question during a briefing on the Papal Visit. He said: "The newspapers say some 5 to 6 million people are expected to flock to Rizal Park during the Papal Mass...Should even just a dozen of these millions feel the urgent need to answer the call of nature, how could they answer being trapped amid those millions?"
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The student said this was a serious and legit question but the answer he got was laughter. He said no one could give him a sensible answer. "Hindi ito biro," he said.
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MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino has been reported to be giving away free adult diapers. But not for the millions of Papal Mass attenders. Only for some 2,000 traffic enforcers and street cleaners so they could answer the call of nature on the spot without their work being interrupted.
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Have you realized that the coming Papal Visit is a boon to business? Already news reports have it that souvenir items ranging from T-shirts, coffee/beer mugs, bandanas, umbrellas, lapel pins, ballpens, hats, etcetera with pictures of Pope Francis are now on sale in Manila, particularly around the Quiapo-Plaza Miranda area. I heard some of these souvenir items have already reached Cebu.
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Even non-Catholics are cashing in on the Papal Visit souvenir trading. There are even papal skull caps from Maguindanao being sold in Manila.
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When Peter Soon Hock, a Malaysian carpenter, was assigned to work in a construction project in Cebu, his favorite snack food was fishball. Last year his job here was over but the fishball remained in his mind. Upon his return to his hometown in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, he thought of going into the fishball business.
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Peter texted me last January 1, to greet me Happy New Year and let me know about his fishball business. He said he was grateful for having stayed in Cebu where he learned about the fishball business.
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OVERHEARD... (January 8/15) The peso-dollar exchange rate yesterday was 45.045 to the dollar. Meaning the peso went down a bit. Bad in the mind of the economic experts, but good to the OFW relatives at home. It means more peso bills to one dollar. I once had a neighbor whose husband was (still is) a construction worker in Saudi. She would rush to the nearest bank to have her dollar bills encashed when the peso rate went down saying: "Puno lagi pitaka ko basta mo-us-os ang peso."
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