THE PHILIPPINE ECONOMY expanded last quarter at a pace slightly slower than expected even as full-year growth fell within the government’s target and cemented the country’s place among Asia’s fastest-growing economies, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported yesterday. Read the full story.
Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Tuesday, January 23, 2018.
DDon’t do it,” said Wren Go, general manager of Made Nice Supper Club—a restaurant in Makati managed by a barkada of millennials who have known each other since their college days in Enderun—when asked about whether or not it’s a good idea to build a business with friends. It was a joke, of course, punctuated by the heavy thud of pasta dough being slammed repeatedly on the table by one of their chefs as the kitchen team tried to come up with its fifth menu. The restaurant changes menus every three months.
“We were fresh out of college when we wanted to open a restaurant in Manila,” Go recalled. Five years of distance as the classmates went their separate ways has made it difficult for him to remember their original restaurant concept. But by October 2016, with the return of chef Jack Flores to Manila with his wife and current pastry chef for the restaurant Gabbi Ramos-Flores Made Nice Supper Club was established in Legaspi Village, Makati.
It was not smooth sailing for our team of cooks and kitchen staff, who are currently between the ages of 22 to 40. “We thought the business plan would be the most difficult part in starting the business,” said Go. “But there’s a lot more to that.” There were disputes over the direction of the business, amplified by the complicated nuances of strong friendships. They made it through. They’re still here and the comforting smell of carrot soup dances in the air as the chefs continued to cook while loudly discussing their new menu concepts. “If you want to start something like this—” Go said, looking back at his friends who stood behind the low cement counter that separated the kitchen from the restaurant, “—then you need to know what you want to do and like what you want to do. If not, it’s going to be really, really hard.”
“It’s really not easy,” he stressed. “I’m not going to say that we don’t have hard times, there are times when we would disagree about something. But we all had a solid foundation, we’ve known each other since college and we already know each other.”
Disagreements were coming from behind the cement counter, but also agreements, and a couple of ideas being tossed around as the chefs in the kitchen continued to brainstorm their menu for the first quarter. That’s all that separates the kitchen from the front of the restaurant, offering guests a clear view of squabbling chefs with their sharp knives and stainless steel ladles, and the chefs a clear view of satisfied guests in wooden communal tables that promotes hearty discussions between friends and family.
Go calls their menu “contemporary American that people mistake for Pinoy… international cuisine with Asian influences.” The simple menu printed on sheets of hard paper does its best to make it not seem intimidating to new customers, naming it after the main ingredient and describing how it’s cooked. Ordering at Made Nice Supper Club os as easy as saying “I’ll have the lamb.”
Speaking of lamb, it’s the experiences of the barkada behind Made Nice Supper Club that helps them come up with their menu. “The lamb dish with arroz negro is a variation of the dish Jack used to cook for Gabbi when they were still dating. Our food is from the heart, it has a story behind it, and well thought of.” The food is visually American (as the Floreses met in America), and without the overwhelming amount of spices Asian cuisine is known for, but with enough to have that taste and feel of home. From juicy steaks, delectable pastas, appetizing vegetable viands and of course, sweet desserts, there’s something for everyone in Made Nice Supper Club.
And like true millennials with allegedly shorter attention spans than the previous generation, the reason why they keep changing their menu every three months is because they don’t want their guests to get bored. The restaurant has gained some loyal customers from it, having a location that’s accessible to members of both the business and residential districts of Makati. Being open for lunch helped too, because the Titas of Makati love their brunch.
Because of this tight knit bond between the founders of Made Nice Supper Club, they have to be hands on when it comes to hiring new people, and you can’t really restrict yourself to hiring just friends and friends of friends.
“We’re really hands on in this restaurant, so we interview potential employees ourselves,” Go said. “We try to look for like minded people so that it will be easier to work together, especially in the kitchen.”
“This is more than just a business, this is a family,” he described. “In most restaurants there’s a divide between the kitchen staff and the front of the house, but here there’s no divide. We eat together at a communal table and we all still work together.”
So maybe it is inadvisable to work with friends, it could be the potential trigger to the destruction of a relationship. But when friends are like family then maybe your potential business has a shot.
Swatches are important for every kind of artist. Those who work with paints and colors can get palette samples and inspiration from everywhere, and there are online tools that can pull palettes from photos. Those who work with cloth can easily get swatches from retaso and from their neighborhood cloth shop.
Those who work with tiles and paneling however might have a more difficult time in getting swatches. Presenting photos from the internet to your client just won’t do when you’re proposing to redesign a studio condominium. You have to show them the actual material, let them feel a sample of their future home.
That’s where Paperwork PH comes in. A co‑working space in New Manila, easily accessible by any jeep passing by E. Rodriguez Sr. Avenue, it provides its customers access to a library of material swatches and product catalogues that they can use as inspiration, present to their clients, and avail with the help of the Paperwork staff. They have a smorgasbord of materials available, from lighting fixture, furniture and fittings, to different kinds of flooring, panelling, wallpaper and surfaces. You can check out their library online, but this is one of those cases where feeling, not just seeing, is believing.
Paperwork also doubles as the office of PaperSpace, a design consultancy company founded by designers from three Southeast Asian countries: Karen Calalec from the Philippines, Sombat Ngamchalermsak from Thailand, and Narita Cheah from Singapore. “The three of them met and worked together in Singapore,” Janine Jayme, general manager for Paperwork PH, told SparkUp. “They got together and formed PaperSpace. It’s our core business, a design consultancy, and it has offices in Singapore, Bangkok and the Philippines. This happened February last year”
“What happened was they needed a physical office and thus we had Paperwork,” Jayme continued. There are currently two Paperwork branches—Bangkok and New Manila—and a future branch in Singapore that will open this March.
“What makes us different from other co‑work places is that we’re for designpreneurs,” said Jayne. “We have a materials library from all our suppliers. We get preferred rates from those suppliers so if you’re a member here—that means that you have a monthly subscription—you have access to our design library and we can help you get preferred rates from our suppliers. Our suppliers are regional.” An individual or starting designer would have difficulty procuring samples otherwise. They can be expensive, and suppliers might be less enthusiastic in dealing with individuals compared to companies that can buy materials in bulk.
There’s an additional perk for freelancers and fresh graduates. “Our partner architects and interior designers love to mentor, and they encourage freelancers, fresh grads and those taking their practicum to go here,” Jayne explained, adding that Calalec enjoys guiding students. “She loves to mentor people… she has the patience to sit down with students and explain the whole design process.”
“We encouage collaboration,” Paperwork Digital Marketing Manager, Arturo Navarro told SparkUp. “Our tagline is ‘make ideas come to work’. For PaperSpace it’s ‘do what you love with people you trust.’” Paperwork refers their tennants to each other to grow the community, with the advantage of connections to other Paperwork and Paperspace branches.
Even the Paperwork office was made through collaboration. Most of the furniture in the space are also from the suppliers Paperspace uses. If a designer or a client wants to use the furniture in Paperspace in their project, then they can buy it through the co‑working space.
The art in display in Paperwork (this January they have the black and white photography of Marlo Roxas) is also for sale. “We’ve sold a few of her works, and we’re bringing her exhibit in the opening of the Sigapore branch.”
“If you’re with us, we will see your potential, and we can see if you can work with our regional offices as well.”
Renting a space at Paperwork costs ₱500 per day, with full internet access and unlimited coffee, or ₱6000 per month. They also have meeting rooms, virtual offices, and workshop venues for rent.
For more information, email Paperwork at info@paperworkph.com or check out their facebook page fb.com/paperworkph
Cancer is one of the greatest causes of health burden all over the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is the second leading cause of death globally, and is responsible for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018. The health agency noted that the economic impact of cancer is increasing. In 2010, its total annual economic cost reached approximately $1.16 trillion.
For Dr. Richard Quek, a senior consultant specializing in Medical Oncology at Parkway Cancer Centre in Singapore, the cancer survival rate today is continuously improving with the advances in diagnosis and treatment options.
“The survival rate has improved,” Dr. Quek said. “There are many reasons behind that. Number one, medical reasons — you have better treatment now and better facilities in terms of surgery, radiation and medication. Second, we are better at detecting cancers. So when you detect it early, you have a better chance; you can get better treatment.”
One of the remarkable breakthroughs in treating cancer today, according to Dr. Quek, is the use of immunotherapy. It is a type of cancer treatment that helps the immune system fight cancer by boosting the body’s natural defenses — just like it would with a germ or virus.
Immunotherapy may work by stopping or slowing the growth of cancer cells, stopping cancer from spreading to other parts of the body, or helping the immune system work better at destroying cancer cells, among others.
“If I take out a patient’s tumor — and put it on my own body — the cancer will never grow because [my] immune system can get rid of it. Because the tumor is seen as foreign to me, it is not mine… However, that same cancer in that particular patient is not seen as foreign — the cancer is able to evade the immune system of the patient, thrive and grow,” Dr. Quek said.
Dr. Quek, however, noted that the immune system cannot be overly strong, it has to be well-controlled. In cases of an overactive immune system, the body attacks and damages its own tissues that can result in various autoimmune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. On the other hand, a weak immune system will leave the body vulnerable to illnesses, including colds, flu, and other infections.
“So to me, immunotherapy is a huge breakthrough in this modern era. Immunotherapy is very promising, and melanoma is leading the way because it’s the first cancer to start with this treatment,” Dr. Quek who has also special interests in the management of melanoma, sarcoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) and lymphoma.
Despite the significant developments in understanding, prevention, and treatment of cancer, Dr. Quek believes that there is still tremendous opportunity to move the field further.
“We have not been able to cure and eradicate all cancers, yet we can prolong and control the disease. I think there are a lot of opportunities for development and improvement on what we have achieved today but it would require a lot of collaboration with all parties involved including clinicians and scientists. Without collaboration, it’s impossible to move the field forwards,” he said.
In terms of modern cancer care, Dr. Quek said that Artificial Intelligence (AI) may play an important assisting role to the doctor in treating patients with cancer but it would be much longer for AI to completely replace humans.
“I think that AI, in time to come, may take on and maybe even replace human doctors. But it would be some decades away before it can replace oncologists,” Dr. Quek said. “AI is impersonal. While cancer is a disease with a deeply emotive human aspect to it in addition to just treatment. The human aspect is the patient and their family.”
For cancer patients, Dr. Quek has a message worth pondering on: “Cancer can be prevented. Cancer can be detected early. And if a person has cancer, it’s not the end of the world because there are good treatments available. A lot of patients have cancer, and a lot of patients are survivors.”
For more information about cancer, please subscribe to http://ph.parkwaycancercentre.com/news-articles/health-news/.
HealthNews is a monthly publication by Parkway Cancer Centre Singapore.
In the Philippines, Parkway Cancer Centre Singapore are represented by CanHOPE Manila. They act as a link with direct access to the Singapore team providing integrated care throughout a patient’s journey.
For information on the centre and their services, please email canhopemla@gmail.com and visit CanHOPE Manila on Facebook.
