Denice

At age four, I sense that Kyle’s interest revolves around automobiles, books and magazines (still about automobiles and robots), and techno gadgets which include laptop, a desktop, cellphone, headphones and yes, a camera (I’m not so surprised because photography happens to be among the favorite hobbies of his dad and mom). His lola and titas are happy that most of their recent photos where they look great were taken by Kyle.

In this photo, Kyle the music aficionado shows the world he is his mother’s son.

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Whenever “adult” problems creep in which can swing anywhere from the deadlines to meet at work, the presentation materials to prepare, the bills to pay up to the clothes to wear, I make sure to take a longer look at my son Kyle David and my niece Gabrielle.

These angels on earth remind me, by how they live their lives, to minimize my worries because Almighty Yahweh is in fact, the One in-charge.

“Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”, the disciples asked Yahshua in Matthew 18: 1. Yahshua called a little child to himself and set him in the midst of the disciples and told them, with certainty, that “unless they were converted or changed and became as little children, they would not only fail to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, they would not even enter into it!” Matthew 18: 2-3.

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After a round of coffee that goes with my lunch (on a habitual basis), I was ready to pull the drawer of my desk where I’ve been keeping tons on chocolates of various kinds.

Today I felt like munching on choc nut. Hmmm… the thought of how good it tasted makes me forget how much sugar it contains. I figured that probably, the entire pack of each choc nut is 80-90% sugar.

My “guesstimate” came from my sister actually. She is president of the culinary club of the company she works for and one time, they made polvorons (a fragile cake of sweet, buttery powder). She was amazed that the preparation entailed 90% of sugar!

Sugar is bad for you — it’s evil to one’s health in sweet disguise, I have been told. Because of this, a lot of people nowadays resort to artificial sweeteners to keep their sweet indulgences minus the calories and other health concerns that can be blamed for sugar.

While the U.S. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) says that artificial sweeteners are safe across types (these include aspartame, saccharine, acesulfame K, sucralose and neotame), one cannot dismiss the numerous cases that link these to cancer.

One popular example is that of saccharin. In 1977, it was concluded among Canadians that saccharine caused bladder cancer in animals tested. Since then, the FDA required that any saccharin products carry a warning label about cancer. The actual warning reads: “Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin, which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals.”

The last time I bought Sweet n’ Low, however, I noticed that it doesn’t carry this label anymore and I learned that it’s only due to popular public demand that the brand continues to be in the market and the FDA was not able to ban the brand.

I remember my uncle who told me that you don’t get ills of sugar when you use artificial sweeteners, but you’ll “get something else.” I also read a health book recently where it is advising readers to avoid artificial sweeteners “completely:”

I think that at the end of the day, it is up to the person to choose who to believe — the facts or the cases that are not concluded by the fact but then came from reliable sources/persons as well…. Haay…

So which risk should one bravely take as a consequence of having a sweet tooth: diabetes or cancer?

I stared at my unopened choc nut for a little while… and… thinking about the sweet debate …. I decided to put it back to my drawer. Unopened.

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Some kids are quite advanced for their age, some are somewhat behind compared to their contemporaries. I have yet to meet “normal” kids though, technically speaking. “The only normal people,” it has been said after all, “are the ones you don’t know very well.” Children are unique in their own way (and I hope and pray teachers remember this).

Parents who are blessed with kids (no matter which category their children belong) should remember that kids will be kids and need all the guidance they can get. I top the list of parents I need to remind about this lesson.

A few days ago, my heart was jumping for joy about what my four-year-old son’s skills and abilities. We were on the supermarket’s cashier lane when we forgot Kyle’s favorite canned tuna. His dad said without mentioning which isle, “Kyle, can you please get a can of tuna in the shelf.” Kyle took his adventure and went back with the can of tuna and the specific variant we always buy for him. Lo and behold, this is another manifestation of my son’s abilities in geography!

Yesterday morning, however, Kyle accidentally broke our neighbor’s clay pot which contains our neighbor’s plant while playing ball. He rushed to me while on the verge of crying (as if to tell me, “yes mom, I know what guilt feels like”). If it were intentional, he would have certainly heard from me. But I was watching him all along to know that it wasn’t. So I asked the caretaker to clean up the mess and we headed to the nearest wet market to buy a replacement pot.

Thankfully, we were able to purchase a clay pot quickly and we asked the caretaker to re-install the plan using the replacement pot. I attached a note of apology to the pot and as soon as the neighbors were awake, it was his dad who personally apologized and Kyle followed suit. Thankfully too, the neighbors have forgiven him.

I’m hoping that as Kyle gets older, he’ll learn the message that goes beyond “if you break it, fix it.” What I hope this will instill in him is that “if you break it even if you don’t mean it, fix it and don’t forget to make amends with the person who owns it.”

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An interview with DENICE by the BALITANG ATIN, Official Publication of The Nielsen Company (formerly ACNielsen Philippines)

3 things that other people don’t know about you:

1.) I have an insatiable curiosity. That’s probably one reason why I enjoy working in the field of research: the job of finding out — what’s new with the market at a certain point in time, what works and what doesn’t — and then mining valuable insights out of it.

2.) I’m a big fan of European films, particularly Italian and French. I used to attend all Cine Europa festivals held here in Manila before I gave birth because the critically acclaimed films being featured are watch-worthy. They transcend time albeit the amazingly small cast, and it wouldn’t take high tech special effects for the viewer to come out of the theatre with mouth hung open in the air, wondering how the film could to tell a whole lot — and as powerfully — out of a very simple plot. Primo Nuevo Cinema Paradiso (Italy), Hasards ou Coïncidences (Chances and Coincidences – France), and Y aura-t-il de la neige a Noel? (Will it Snow for Xmas - France) are some of those that have left me haunted long after I’ve stepped out of the theatre.

3.) During 4th Grade, I dreamed of becoming President of the Philippines so that during my term, basic utilities (electricity & water), public transportation and tuition fees would be free, and that every Filipino citizen would be guaranteed P1 million cash retirement gift from the government upon reaching 60 years old (employed or unemployed). Several nightmares after, this naïveté finally woke up to find that there are far better avenues than being in a grandiloquent position to reach out and make someone’s world a little better place to live in, one little good deed at a time. And one of which is in anonymity.

Who are the persons who have influenced and inspired you the most and why?

My mother’s strong faith in our Heavenly Father Yahweh has a significant influence in my Spiritual foundation. Above all things, she has taught me to acknowledge Him in everything I do, and to have the Bible as an indispensable roadmap to a life worth living.

My husband’s kindness, great sense of humor and his being a caring father could be parts of his X factor I have unearthed. My son Kyle David inspires me to be more grateful to our Heavenly Father Yahweh for every single day, and to take both life and work with optimism, drive and passion.

I also admire my two sisters’ aptitude, sense of purpose and 24-hour availability especially when I’d need a sounding board and honest critic. Of course, there are a lot of other people within and outside my family that I also look up to and they are too many to mention.

An embarrassing or humorous experience that you have experienced in your career (at ACNielsen):

I still remember the first UAI presentation I did for an overseas-based client — also the first time for me to experience having every English statement I’d make to be translated in Japanese by our key client contact who also served as translator to some 5 other Japanese senior officers present in that meeting. There were no issues raised and everything went well, except that the presentation lasted for nearly 5 hours (OK, that’s roughly 4.5 if we excluded the 15-minute sumptuous merienda courtesy of their local ad agency), because every question that the audience would have had to be translated back in English to me. J

What legacy would you like to impart to Nielsen?

As a market research professional, it would be a customer-centric approach to addressing the marketing issues of our clients and obtaining solutions from their point of view, as they impact not only the company but also the industry. As an employee, I would be happy to be an active participant to the league of those who demonstrated with commitment and teamwork the Nielsen’s vision, core values and purpose.