"Ich bin ein Berliner"

That's what John F. Kennedy said when he visited Berlin in 1963 during the Cold War, 22 months after the Soviet-supported communist state of East Germany built the Berlin Wall. The wall was 155km long and the height was 3.6 meters. He said "Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was civis Romanus sum. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is Ich bin ein Berliner."
After biking around the city, I must say that Kennedy would be thrilled to see Berliners enjoying their freedom. The country was reunified after the tearing down of the wall on November 9, 1989.
I dared cross Check Point Charlie to see DDR or then, the dreaded Deutsche Demokratische Republik, when I was backpacking around Europe in the 1980s. I remember it being grey and gloomy, a complete contrast to the punk, vibrant and rebellious West Berlin. I was frightened when the border police wouldn't let me cross back since I didn't use all the DDR money. I had to go back to spend every Deutsch Mark and panicking when it was nearing dark.
Now there is not much left of the wall except in the East side where it it is now fenced (right photo) to fend off rummaging souvenir hunters and in the Freidrichshain area where the open air gallery called The East Side Gallery use the remaining part of the wall to exhibit about 100 paintings (murals) by artists from all over the world.
This year 2009 is a great time to visit Berlin as it marks its 20th anniversary of the peaceful revolution that led to the fall of Berlin which precipitated the reunification of East-West Germany and Europe and the end of the Cold War.
Some paintings from the East Gallery:

Knowledge Channel turns 10!!

Knowledge Channel, the country's only all-educational TV channel on cable kicked off its 10th anniversary last Friday in Strums. It was a fun, relaxed gathering of friends and partners in education.
A lot of people still think that Knowledge Channel is another Discovery or National Geographic channel. What they don't know is, it is the flagship program of Knowledge Channel Foundation Inc. (KCFI), a Filipino non-stock, non-profit organization. Knowledge Channel is a curriculum-based and life skills programming channel made accessible primarily to public schools for free through broadcast (cable TV).
Rina Lopez-Bautista, co-founder and president of KCFI said "we believe that EDUCATION provides HOPE. For every school reached and with each Filipino student benefiting from Knowledge Channel, they are provided a better chance to extricate themselves from a life of poverty. This educational intervention paves the road towards the realization of their dreams for a better way of life."
Right now Knowledge Channel is already in 2,000 public schools in 52 provinces, benefiting about 2.6 million students in the public school system all the way up North in Itbayat, Batanes down to Sitangkay, Tawi Tawi. I am very fortunate to be part of KCFI’s 3-year USAID-assisted program called Television Education for the Advancement of Muslim Mindanao or TEAM-Mindanao for short where some 78,529 students located in the remotest and isolated areas of Mindanao are now getting the quality education they rightfully deserve. I've been to “No man’s land and where no one dared to tread” in North Cotobato (Nov 2007), Tawi Tawi (2006) and Maguindanao (2005).
There will three more intimate gatherings for the next first Fridays of the month. 21-year old preppy-rocker Yeng Constantino sang the new theme song of Knowledge Channel "May K ako!" and I think will be present in the next shindigs.
With a target of more than 40,000 public schools and 17 million student beneficiaries all over the country., there is still a long way to go and I hope you can help KCFI keep it going for another decade or so!
Here's Yeng singing "May K ako":

All roads lead to La Salle, to Tita Cory

Its a sad sad day in in Manila and the heavens are mourning too with this downpour. The traffic in my hood in Greenhills has been bad since this morning where it seems like everyone is headed to La Salle to pay tribute to Tita Cory.
The remains of the former president of the Philippines and national hero is now in the school for public viewing.
She passed away this morning at 3:18am of cardio-respiratory arrest. She has been suffering from colon cancer for more than a year.
I remember this People Power icon, great woman-power role model, my hero who was hurled into politics when her husband ex-Senator Ninoy Aquino was murdered at the tarmac of the airport. I was studying in Brussels then and would be glued on TV to find out what's going on back home while my sisters would march to EDSA and be part of history.
Quotable quotes of Cory (from Boo): “I could have rigged the 1992 elections for my successor. Instead, I directed the chiefs of the military to do the country proud by assuring a fair and free election, whatever the result. Better still, I could have run myself. The constitutional limitation of a single presidential term did not apply to me. But that limitation was a cornerstone of the new Constitution I had caused to be drafted and for which I vigorously campaigned. How could I serve as the first example of its moral violation?”
"June 30, 1992 was therefore one of the proudest moments of my life. I was stepping down and handing the presidency to my duly elected successor. This was what my husband had died for; he had returned precisely to forestall an illegal political succession. This moment is democracy's glory: the peaceful transfer of power without bloodshed, in strict accordance with law.”
She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for championing democracy and human rights in 1986 but lost to Elie Wiesel. We will surely miss Tita Cory!

Reset, five tips to keep glycemic index down

Have you noticed that growing tire around the middle of your waistline? Or are you having a hard time trying to lose that last five pounds? Or maybe even suffer from memory lapses? Liz Pascual (left), a New York-based holistic food expert, dietary therapist and a low glycemic index practitioner said in a lecture last week, that the leading cause of weight gain, low energy, mood swings and hormone imbalance is sugar which comes from carbohydrates.

First some definitions. Glycemic index is a measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion are referred to as high glycemic index foods and those that break down slowly are low glycemic. All carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars. These sugars are absorbed into the bloodstream. As the sugar level rises, the pancreas release a hormone called insulin, which is needed to move sugar from the blood into the cells, where the sugar can be used as a source of energy.

A high glycemic diet may increase a person's risk of developing health problems. Liz described four stages: Stage one is if you are experiencing fatigue, headaches, insomnia and daytime sleepiness. Stage two is if you are suffering from aches and pains, PMS, migraines and weight gain. Stage three is when you are having trouble loosing weight, waistline bulge, high blood pressure, memory loss, high triglycerides, mood swings and even nervousness. And lastly, stage four may lead to heart disease, breast cancer, uterine cancer, diabetes, kidney stones, hypertension, arthritis, incontinence, polycystic ovary disease, gallstones and stroke.

Sharing with you some five tips (she actually has eight!!) to keep your blood sugar down:

1. Eat five small meals a day consisting of good carbs, protein, fat and fiber. The good carbs are the low glycemic foods such as wholegrain bread and non-white rice. As a general rule, try to avoid anything white, that goes for white rice, white bread, white pasta, white cakes etc. There is a variety of non-white rice available and if you are to choose, the healthiest would be black rice over red, red over brown. The good grains are Quinoa seeds and barley. For vegetables, avoid potatoes and corn and choose kamote instead. For fruits, oranges contain the most sugar and also kiwi, mango, pineapple and papaya. The best would be fruits with no seeds like berries and even Yakon. And if you will eat bananas, go for the local “saba”. The best source for protein would be organic, hormone-free meats, or smoke salmon from Norway.