Entrepreneur Magazine

Entrepreneur Magazine

A very good reading material that can really guide and inspire you to become an entrepreneur is the Entrepreneur Magazine.  I've been reading this magazine since the 1990s and been visiting it's website too when it became available online.  I started with the international edition when I was still living in the Philippines.  There was always a story, an article, a feature, or a photo that inspired me to become a budding entrepreneur.  I've started a couple of businesses back home then, some did good and heaps not so good.  My readings enabled me to understand why I made it and why I didn't and also inspired me to carry on with the next business project.  The start-up stage is very stressful and challenging.  And getting to know the entrepreneurs who have had the same struggles and emerged triumphant made my journey bearable.  I would strongly recommend this magazine for those who are aspiring to become entrepreneurs. because from within the pages of this magazine are the stories and the people who will inspire you!

Filipino Migrant News

The Festival a new show on TV 3 will showcase a little bit of the Philippines airing on May 17 at 10:25am.  This will be the 2nd episode in this 10-part series taking an authentic look of NZ's different ethnic communities.

Tune in on that day as Filipino Migrant News brings the beauty, pageantry and taste of the Philippines!  Mel Fernandez (publisher) and Sheila Mariano (editor) are the dynamic duo behind this amazing project.  For a number of years now they have been responsible for documenting and reporting on the news, issues, features events and personalities of the Filipino communities in NZ.  With this new development, they have set the pace for mainstream NZ media to finally recognise that the Filipinos in NZ have a wonderful, colourful and fantastic culture ready to share with all Kiwis.

Bananas appeal to Kiwis

On any given day, in a veggie shop, dairy or the supermarket, you will find heaps of people buying bananas.  The ones we find in NZ usually come from the Philippines (71%) or Ecuador (29%).  Unlike Australia, we can't grow bananas in our backyards, so hence the importation of this tropical fruit.  It's quite interesting to note that Kiwis really love bananas.  According to the 2009/10 Household Economic Survey, an average of $88 per year was spent for bananas, while the closest rival apples was only $61 per year.  Please click on Statistics New Zealand to know more about this. 

I was raised in a country with a diet heavy on bananas: boiled, fried, sweetened, cooked, fresh, banana flour, banana cakes, as well as eating the other parts of the banana: flowers and stalks.  I even got to know of someone who has started making "vegemeat" out of banana peelings, calling it banana burger patties.  Alas, I didn't get the chance to taste it.

The kind of bananas we get here in NZ are limited in terms of variety.  I think they're the Cavendish-type.  I miss the ones that I grew up with.  I can still recall the days spent on the farm carrying the banana trunks for replanting up the hill.  After nine months they begin to show flowers and fruits.  There is even a red-skinned colour banana, the one my grandmother used to make into sweet cakes.  Another variety is really very sweet and very small too, just over the size of a thumb.

The next time you meet a banana, just think and remember where it came from.  And that it took a very long journey just to be with you!