Stories & Photographs by Jofelle Tesorio

The recent devastating typhoon that hit central Philippines has illicited international response and pooled resources from different countries and individuals, much like the earthquake in Haiti and tsunami in Japan. Too much have been said about the enormity of the typhoon and the effects it brought to the affected. My heart bleeds. Blaming the Philippine government's slow response was the order of the day. The social networking sites have become a platform of motivating more help and of course discussions and bickering on what went wrong, who to blame and what should have been done. Facebook and Twitter have become a stage for heated debates and surely Filipinos don't run out of opinions to say online. Filipinos seem to be good at making their points of view highlighted online than face to face. A truck lies on it's side after the typhoon in Borbon town, Northern Cebu, Philippines. Photo by C. Baldicantos If you are caught on the other side of the debate and who does...

Every Prime Minister in Thailand has his/her own very unique challenges. After the controversial Thaksin Shinawatra was forced out of power by a coup more than 6 years ago, politics has been topsy-turvy in this Kingdom. The Democrats, with the backing of the generals, successfully put Abhisit Vejjajiva at the helm, only to be disturbed by a massive Red Shirt protests that put to test his mantle as a statesmen. The handling of the Red Shirt protests and the assassination of the former military officer leading them sunk Vejjajiva and his Democrats' popularity. Another election followed and it was time for the Red Shirts, known alternatively as Thaksin's thugs (or band of brothers), to take a revenge. The newly-formed Phuae Thai party (after Thaksin's party was dissolved due allegedly for election violations) fielded Thaksin's loving sister Yingluck. And the rest was history. She is Thailand's first prime minister. It was not because the Thai people were ready to hav...

The Philippines has overtaken India as the new call-center capital of the world. This means that when you’re on the phone to a call-center in the US, you’re most likely talking to a Filipino agent. They’re working all night long, while everybody else is asleep. New Filipino Heroes Wanted Why has the Philippines overtaken India in voice services? Jana Kleibert, a lecturer from the University of Amsterdam, says it is about the talent pool. “The main attraction lies in the fact that there is a very large talented work force that is English-speaking and English speaking with an accent that is very understandable especially to North Americans,” Jana says. “The second thing is the work force is also well educated which makes it easier to transfer service-based tasks. And there’s a cultural affinity with North America that also helps in communicating and performing customer services.” Rory Zachs, the general manager of a US-based company, PCM, says the company has a largely young...

The year 2012 was filled with challenges and adversities.  As the region faced major political and social changes, personalities defied odds and rose above. Here are contemporarysia.blogspot.com’s Asians of the Year. Psy  (and his Gangnam Style) It’s hands down for South Korean Psy or Park Jae-Sang for 2012 Asian of the Year. From obscurity, Psy catapulted to international fame for his Gangnam Style (from the famous fashion district in Seoul), the first song to ever reach more than 1 billion hits on YouTube and his famous horsy dance step is just irresistible that even famous personalities tried to do it. What makes him and the song ticked last year is understandable. The song is so danceable, the lyrics so simple (no English but the phrase Gangnam style sticks) and the dance steps so easy to follow. But in a country that has made Hallyu (Korean Wave) its biggest export (besides Samsung and Kia), Psy is not your typical boy-next-door performer. In fact, he is...

Now that the ASEAN Summit ended, the chairmanship of Cambodia also ended and passed on to Brunei until the end of 2014. The recent summit marked important milestones for the bloc but also left some lingering issues.   United front but divided on China Sea territorial dispute. (AFP Photo) First, the leaders adopted the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration that raises the standards of human rights in the region. But many believe that the declaration has missed a lot of important issues and not even at par with the international standards. NGOs and activists are calling for a more realistic look at the human rights situation in the region. As the ASEAN Summit took place in Phnom Penh , more than 4,000 human rights activists, NGO workers and victims of forced eviction from land grabbing in Cambodia  protested near the venue at what they called a rampant human rights violations in the country. US President Barack Obama, who attended the summit after visiting Burma and T...

Fresh from his second term victory, US President Barack Obama flies to Southeast Asia to strengthen his country’s engagement with the region. This is seen as a pivotal move for the US that focused too much on Pakistan and Afghanistan and gained nothing more but anti-US sentiments from those countries. I wrote on this blog previously about what the US President’s second mandate mean to Asia this time . Immediately after Obama’s victory speech, the White House announced that he will visit Burma , Thailand and Cambodia at the end of November.  Obama on his way to Bangkok . Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP The choice of countries to visit in Southeast Asia has rubbed nationalist sentiments of some ASEAN countries, notably The Philippines, Viet Nam and Indonesia that have long been seen as allies but often side-swiped by the Obama administration. The President only visited Indonesia (where he spent some years as a child) once but was never followed up. News reports said the v...

Asians are happy people. They smile, sing and dance a lot and have a carefree and positive attitude. So it is not surprising that Asia is relatively a ‘happy region’ according to some happiness index surveys. The World Database of Happiness study indicates that Asian countries are within the middle range of happiness—how long and happy people live. Asians’ response to the question “how happy do you feel as you live now?” has been fairly high with communist Viet Nam topping the list. In a recent study called Happy Planet Index (HPI) by a British think-tank New Economics Forum (NEF), Viet Nam (2), followed by Bangladesh (11) and Indonesia (14), have been cited as the happiest in Asia, even happier than the United States (105). Conspicuously missing is  Bhutan , which has been cited as the happiest country in Asia and the only country in the world that uses Gross National Happiness rather than Gross Domestic Product as indicator. The previous overall topnotcher Pacific Islan...