Focus: 10 Reasons to go to Belgium (BusinessWorld)

 Originally published in Businesssworld Weekender on August 5, 2016 (click here for original story)

Focus: 10 Reasons to Go to Belgium

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By Jennee Grace U. Rubrico

Belgium, a tiny country in western Europe, is easy to overlook. Nestled among bigger and more popular travel destinations, the de facto capital of the European Union rarely comes out as the first — or second, or even third — option of holidaymakers when they plan a trip to the continent.

Few seem to know what Belgium can offer that its neighbors do not already do better. It has a fashion capital in Antwerp, for instance, but it is Paris that is widely recognized as the City of Style.

Belgium is overshadowed by other European countries in terms of tourism readiness. In the 2015 edition of the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Rankings, which looks at countries’ tourism environment, infrastructure and cultural resources, Belgium takes the 21^st spot out of 141 countries, lagging behind most of the countries with which it shares borders. France comes in second, Germany, third, and the Netherlands 14^th. The UK, at fifth place, also outpaces Belgium. The only neighbor that Belgium overtakes is Luxembourg (26^th).

The recent terrorist attack on Zaventem airport and the Maelbeek subway station in Brussels have not done the country’s tourism sector any favors.

But if Belgium is eclipsed by the tourist magnets that are its neighbors, it is because the country is judged on standards that play on the strength of others. Enveloped in an irreverence that borders on flippancy, Belgium revels in its role as the eccentric sister in a family of aristocrats that is Europe.

Belgium’s reputation of being cold, apathetic and boring is contradicted by its graffiti-embellished walls, famous comic strip characters, and a beer-making industry that has spawned hundreds of beer varieties. When a country’s national mascot is a little boy urinating, it cannot be completely oblivious to fun or devoid of personality — even if this can be on the unconventional side.

VIEW OF the canal and buildings in Bruges, about an hour away from Brussels. — FREEPIK.COM

Here are 10 reasons to visit Belgium: 

Terengganu’s understated charms (BusinessWorld)

Originally appeared on the March 27, 2015 issue of BusinessWorld. Posted late because I only just discovered that this story came out last year. Click here for the original article and more photos

By Jennee Grace U. Rubrico

Terengganu’s understated charms

Posted on March 27, 2015

SCULPTING a section of wood that will form part of the hull of a 50-foot boat, the shipwright says that the vessel, when completed, can travel the seas for up to a century.

  

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Terengganu sights: a shipwright builds a boat at Pulau duyong

“It is made of cengal,” the man, whose withered face makes it difficult to ascertain his age, declares through Syed, our tour guide and translator, as he dusts off wood shavings. “Yes, (it will last) up to 100 years.”

The boat maker from Pulau Duyong (Mermaid Island) in Terengganu cannot tell us what makes cengal (pronounced che-nguhl) special. But Syed, a staff member of the local campus of Malaysian university UCSI who used to work for the tourism board, says that the hardwood, endemic to Malaysia’s forests, has been the timber of choice of the state’s shipwrights for generations.

Duyong Boatyard builds yachts and fishing boats, the shipwright says as he takes out pictures of the vessels they completed over the years. It takes a year and a half to build a big vessel, three months for a small one.

Patrons pay a premium for their work. “The price of one fishing boat is 800,000 ringgit,” Syed says, adding that a yacht can go up to 5 million ringgit. The shipwrights build the boats one at a time.

Two relatives join the boat maker at the dry dock. He mentions that the shipwrights of Terengganu build boats from memory and do not use plans. The trade, he says, was learned from their fathers and passed on to their sons.

Nowadays, orders come in trickles. The artisans say that only one other family still makes boats on the island. “They are closed right now, because they don’t have projects.”

In Brunei, Filipinos take part in the month-long Eid celebrations (BusinessWorld)

Originally published in Businessworld (click here)

By Jennee Grace U. Rubrico

In Brunei, Filipinos take part in the month-long Eid celebrations

Posted on July 14, 2016

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei -- On the second day of the Muslim holiday of Eid, Liza, the wife of a Filipino journalist working in Brunei went to the residence of reigning monarch Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah to attend a royal banquet.

Dressed in blouse and jeans on that sunny day, she and her teenage daughter Zaki got off at the gates of the Istana Nurul Iman, the Leandro-Locsin designed royal residence, and boarded a shuttle that took them to an area within the palace grounds that was prepared for the feast.

“We arrived at 9:30 a.m. We only got delayed when we were boarding the bus. There was some pushing, but when we got inside, there was no queue for the food,” said Liza, whose family is experiencing Eid in Brunei for the first time.

After getting their fill of the traditional Malay dishes prepared by the royal caterer, the mother and daughter pair joined the queue to the Palace halls, where guests were to meet the monarch and his wife, Queen Saleha. By tradition, adults were to receive souvenirs, and children, green money packets at the meet-and-greet session.

Just a few meters shy of the entrance, however, Liza and Zaki were asked to leave the queue.

“We were not able to get in, because we were in jeans... Everyone else was in their traditional outfits,” Liza said.

Missing the chance to rub shoulders with Bruneian royalty during her first visit to the Istana, Liza nevertheless has other opportunities to meet them in the future: the session that she and thousands of residents and tourists in Brunei attended that day was the first of six that were organized for the three-day Istana Open House, which the Royal Family hosts annually to celebrate Eid, the Islamic holiday that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadhan.

Perhaps underscoring the importance of Eid in the sultanate, it is only during these three days that the 200,000-square meter Istana, which holds the Guinness world record for being the largest residence of a state head, opens its doors to the public. Every year, more than 100,000 people visit the Istana over the three-day period to see the Royal Family, take part in the banquet, and receive gifts.

Buying peace of mind (Entrepreneur Philippines)

Came across this old article that I wrote for Entrepreneur Magazine. Great editing by Maricris Carlos.

Click here for the original story. 

Buying peace of mind

You may never actually use it, but that is the beauty of buying insurance.

By Jennee Grace Rubrico | Mar 31, 2016

For many business owners, buying insurance is an afterthought. Who can blame them? The benefits of buying insurance may not always be as obvious as in more tangible purchases—say, raw materials or inventory. Getting business insurance tends to feel a little less pressing, as buyers hope they never use it.

Yet, business insurance can be just as important to an enterprise as any other consideration. In a country like the Philippines, where unpredictable natural and man-made calamities happen all too frequently, insuring one’s business from risks could be the best thing for entrepreneurs to do: If or when disaster strikes, they will not have to worry about business-related expenses that are covered by insurance.

“Insurance is an excellent risk management tool, especially for catastrophes or calamitous events which are difficult to program for or plan ahead for. Insurance mitigates risk by transferring particular risks or exposures to an insurer in consideration of a payment or premium,” said Nico Lacson, chief operating officer of Lacson & Lacson Insurance Brokers Inc. “Aside from protecting your assets, you also protect your income statement by converting an unknown risk or exposure into a fixed or predictable expense,” he added.

Hence, getting an insurance policy cannot really be compared with buying off-the-shelf products, said Scott Judy, AIG’s head of distribution. “With an insurance policy, you are buying a promise—a promise to pay in the event of a future claim,” he said. That promise, Lacson added, is kept only when a claim is made and settled.

Business insurance typically provides risk cover over a 1-year period, but some insurance companies provide flexibility based on the operations of the business. AIG, for instance, has 45 different products only for business insurance. “Policies can also be contract specific, which would typically mean longer term policies to match the contract duration,” said Judy.