Dusit Thani Maldives launches new range of local experiences

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To deliver meaningful connections for guests while promoting responsible tourism, 

Dusit Thani Maldives launches new range of local experiences

Resort’s ‘Dusit Safeeru’ (Cultural Ambassadors) have been trained to take the Maldivian experience to another level by sharing knowledge of the country’s culture, history, environment and cuisine in special activities designed to create long-lasting memories for international visitors.

Dusit Thani Maldives, a luxury Thai-inspired resort on Mudhdhoo Island in Baa Atoll, has introduced a new range of local experiences specially created to give guests a deeper understanding of the country and its unique heritage, customs and traditions.


As part of the initiative, 10 of the resort’s local employees have been appointed as Dusit Safeeru (cultural ambassadors). Each Dusit Safeeru completed a series of lessons in history and culture with renowned Maldivian scholars and local elders before joining together to create several activities which guests can join to learn fascinating facts about the Maldives.


The activities include, amongst others, a complimentary sunset cruise to learn more about the various surrounding islands, spot dolphins and flying fish, and discover the lesser-known features of traditional dhoni boats; a weekly cultural interactive presentation about Mudhdhoo island and the history, culture and music and sports scene of the Maldives; a Maldivian Fisherman Night featuring the country’s best-loved dishes, such as Valho Mas, with a workshop on how to enjoy locally grown, and famously hot, Mirus chilli (which has a Scoville heat grading of around 250,000). The latter will also feature a Bodu Beru drumming session with local musicians. Dusit Safeeru will be on hand to explain the meaning of the songs.


“With heritage dating back as early as 300 BC, and with a culture heavily shaped by Indian, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, Persian, Indonesian and even African influences, the Maldives is a truly fascinating destination for guests to explore and experience,” said Mr Abbas Ibrahim, Chief Dusit Safeeru, Dusit Thani Maldives. “The Dusit Safeeru initiative gives locals like me the chance to transfer our knowledge and wisdom to our guests to make their stay more meaningful, enriched and exciting. We are delighted to have this opportunity to entertain them with stories of our island culture and traditions while helping to promote responsible and sustainable tourism too.”






The Dusit Safeeru project has been introduced as part of Dusit’s group-wide Dusit Care – Stay with Confidence programme, which includes a new range of services designed to go beyond heightened measures for health and safety to deliver additional convenience, experience and value for guests. Flexible check-in, anytime breakfast, contactless payment options, and the provision of healthy drinks and snacks on arrival are just some of the services offered as part of the programme.

Pacquiao says simple solution to flooding is to dredge rivers

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“It’s a no brainer. Kapag malalim ang ating mga ilog at mga estero, mas maiiwasan ng posibilidad na umagos ang tubig-baha papunta sa ating mga kabahayan,” Pacquiao said.

Yes, its part of the solution, together with reforestation, strict protection of forest from illegal logging, charcoal, mining, real state conversion. 

Reforestation is the primary solution. Kahit ilang dredging ang gawin mo if there are no forest cover, the mountains will erode and lumps of earth will cascade down rivers and become silted repeatedly. Therefore you being in the Senate must see to it that 50% of the budget of DENR should be dedicated to protection and rehabilitation of forest and watersheds. Not building synthetic white "Dolomite" sand beaches like that Manila Bay.

The rivers and other water ways are to be regularly dredged, and create a task force, a police-like organization exclusive to guard the rivers and esteros... and implement very strict rules and heavy penalty for all residences and establishments destroying, clogging, and polluting the water ways.

However, let's do the math and see if this is feasible or even practical. If we are to dredge the Cagayan Valley river (which is 505km long and about 150m wide on average) to increase depth by 10 more meters, that means removing a total of 757 million cubic meter of river material aggregates. Assuming the project is running in full swing and non-stop is able to remove 50k cubic meter of materials per day, it would take us 41 years to complete at total cost of around 151.5 billion. Yearly cost would be less than 1 percent of government annual revenue so it's certainly doable from cost perspective. However, removing 50k cm3 of materials a day from Cagayan Valley river would be almost logistically impossible. On the other hand, we probably don't have to dredge at that level as the total volume of water released by Magat dam that submerged Isabela and Cagayan was only around 400 million cm3 (around 6.5k cms) for 18hrs, so 5 meters deeper would cut it, but it would probably still take us 30 to 40 yrs to complete.

Pushing a simple logic of opinion cannot resolve the deep problems, the system, LGU's  and even national government might be the big sources of such mistakes. But contrary to that, the solution might be on their hand. Change the system, punish the greedy public officials who benifits the destruction of our mother natures and create a solid Laws to protect our mother land.

But see the fact that this senator could only offer just that. Simplistic solutions to complex problems are what this senator can offer. Kaya kailangan talaga matalino ang mga namumuno. Hinde puwede magandang kalooban lang. (Which I also doubt if he has). 

Perhaps the good senator can divert his pork barrel to build underground rivers? That would be a better idea.

Kaya next election yung nakakapag isip naman ang iboto natin. Mayaman naman yang si Pacquiao. Kung gusto talagang makatulong ay hindi na niya kailangan pang maging senador.

Let the ecological scientists and engineers make the study with full support and funding from the government.

Why not simply implement the existing laws concerning building of structures along the river banks, reforestation, etc? And more importantly,  assign DENR personnel who truly will protect the environment. 

The government should fix the drainage system problems. They should have a program to really trace kung saan na ang mga esteros na daluyan ng tubig at ibalik lahat yun as they are connected to the rivers and bays. Lahat ng clogged esteros and drainage should be repaired.

Also, to further emphasize, for the bigger problem the government should stop the illegal logging and to stop allowing businessmen to convert agricultural land to subdivisions. It is okay to develop the mountains as they can provide comfort and good for unwinding but most businesses are abusing as they destroy the mountains and forests but the government is not strictly regulating it. Ang dami pa ring nalakalusot.

We really need true , uncorruptible and armed forest rangers and  environmentalists who will safeguard our forest against evil politicians and greedy oligarchs.

Apart from the garbage, mud and silt from denuded mountains cause shallow rivers and other water pathways. Truly a no-brainer. Pero konting lalim pa ng pag iisip Manny. Go to the source of the problem - deforestation is caused by illegal logging, quarrying, and mining by irresponsible companies. 

Gearing up for the new era of Telehealth

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Is your facility keeping up with the rising demands for Virtual Health?


The current global health crisis has highlighted the value of virtual health through telehealth, telemedicine, or remote patient monitoring. Due to lockdowns and community quarantines, healthcare organizations, ranging from large hospitals to small independent physicians, are now adopting telehealth systems to continue providing services to their patients.

Recognizing the advantages of virtual health, the Department of Health (DOH) and the National Privacy Commission (NPC) released a set of “Guidelines on the Use of Telemedicine in COVID-19 Response” last April. This joint memorandum aims to enable patients to receive health services even while staying at home, except for emergencies or to avail of COVID-19-related health services as per standing protocols.

As the adoption rates continue to skyrocket among healthcare facilities, physicians, and patients, use case applications for telehealth are continuing to expand across the healthcare environment—from mental health providers and physical therapists to small physician offices and large health systems. Healthcare providers utilize virtual health for online video telehealth visits, remote patient monitoring, virtual education, and management of billing and online payments, to name a few.

For Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, the rise of virtual health, on the other hand, is straining the health IT infrastructure and creates new challenges among healthcare providers.

“Now that we currently face a pandemic, most healthcare systems struggle to support the volume of data generated by the virtual health approach. Healthcare providers, including hospitals, retail clinics, outpatient facilities, and physicians, must ensure that their IT infrastructures are built to support the range of virtual health services, being delivered today,” said Jason Lim, the country manager of Vertiv Philippines.

To ensure the seamless delivery of virtual health services, Lim listed three things that healthcare providers must consider in ensuring the successful implementation of virtual health technologies.


Build redundancy into the telehealth infrastructure

Healthcare organizations must ensure that they have dependable internet connection and bandwidth, suitable for the data volume and high-resolution imaging. They also need to establish backup power protection for computers and network apparatus, as well as to consider data sovereignty, data privacy, security, and regulations.


Modernize legacy infrastructure

To support the next generation of computational, storage, and communication capabilities, healthcare organizations may also need to modernize their infrastructures.

As healthcare facilities add hundreds of devices and thousands of sensors to their already overloaded network, it will be vital to assess their existing infrastructure for weak spots that could potentially bring their network down. Many healthcare systems were long overdue for technology updates even before the pandemic. There have also been some inadequacies in management, monitoring, security, and even back up power, which plague the health IT environments.

With the growth of telehealth, there is an opportunity to get the needed funding for upgrading critical infrastructure devices in support of next-generation digital healthcare that delivers increased bandwidth, added security, and added computational, storage, and communications capabilities.



Leverage the power of edge computing

Innovative digital healthcare technologies and the rapid growth of telehealth is generating large amounts of data, from a variety of sources, and at greater velocity than ever before. Leveraging this data can help healthcare providers gain deep insights that can ultimately improve patient outcomes, boost workforce productivity, and improve the revenue streams for healthcare providers.

By leveraging edge computing, an approach where health IT infrastructure or IT network services closer to where their customers are, healthcare providers will be more equipped to collect, analyze, and secure the influx of telehealth data for making faster, more informed decisions at the point of care. Deploying an edge architecture enables data processing close to the source promoting greater security and efficiency while reducing both cost and strain on bandwidth.

As IT becomes an integral part of today’s new era of telehealth, Vertiv aims to bring together cutting-edge Healthcare Solutions that can help healthcare providers to meet the growing demand for always-on connectivity, while managing security and costs, and do it with fewer resources and tightening budgets.



Vertiv’s Healthcare Solutions also help ensure uninterrupted operations, optimal performance, and scalability of data centers, communication networks, and other critical IT facilities. To learn more about how Vertiv supports the continuity of today’s vital business applications, visit Vertiv.com.