.....and they lived happily ever after..

this week also saw prince of wales announcing his upcoming marriage to camilla parker-bowles. despite the need for the royal family to get approval from the public and to have camilla to be well-liked, iss that really necessary? perhaps because they're royalty. at the end of the day, they are meant to be together. charles marrying diana, bearing two heirs to the throne, separation and divorce as welll as camilla's marriage, two children and divorce were just obstacles really. from the very beginning, charles knew that camilla is the one.

i am sure those of you who are married knew for sure when you first met your spouse that that is the person is you are going to spend the rest of your life is. i know i would feel the same way when i met the one but i don't know what the feeling is like because i have not yet to meet the one. but my being single is not the point here.

camilla not being the best looking person in the world(by the way, charles isn't exactly the handsome prince either) but they both have a lot of things in common like the country, horseback riding, etc. they hit off very well and getting along is what really matters, doesn't it? looks are not important... it's a bonus, yes but when you know you are not good looking and you are with someone who is drop dead gorgeous, at some point, you'll become insecure. not a good feeling, i must say. i can state examples but i shall not. ;-)

i attended a wedding of a friend last year and the priest said during the ceremony that it is important that couples are friends too. at the end of the day, when physical attraction are gone i.e. gray hair or no hair, wrinkles, losing teeth, etc.... your friendship is going to keep the relationship going. he has a point there and i feel it is important that you have a friendship with your other half. you don't want to be married to someone and then down the road, when the kids are out of your lives, you don't have anything to talk about anymore. by then, it's too late.

so, i think that is what charles and camilla have - the friendship - and even though they had to go through some rough patches getting to where they are now, i believe that they are going to be happy spending the remaning of their lives together, doing and sharing what they have in common. heck what the media or anybody else has to say about this. i know they are happy - you can see it in their eyes. and as a citizen of the world, i am happy for them. happy valentine's day.

it is not about gender, mind you?

this week, one of the key woman figure in top management resigned... i am referring to the resignation of Carly Fiorina as the CEO of HP. even though i have not followed her career much during her tenure at HP, i must say that for a woman to lead one of the biggest companies in the world has much to be admired and an inspiration for all women.

what's upsetting is that after her resignation, questions about whether she was capable of running the company, what being a female in a male-dominated role!

women has always been taking a back seat since the dawn of time and traditionally, it has been men who would go out and 'save' the world. but let's face it, time has changed. women has played a significant role in this world. during world war II, while men went out there to fight the war (totally unnecessary in my opinion - men were just living out their fantasies when they were boys to play with the toy guns and tanks), women has stayed behind and helped revived the economy. we may be slow in getting our presence felt - slowly but surely. there are not many women holding top management positions but when we do, i believe woman makes a significant impact - just as good as men.

perhaps carly's high profiled rise to the top has made her contributions and what seems to be failures to integrate the merger between HP and Compaq to be over analysed and over publicised. there are other CEOs of other large companies who has failed to turn things around just like Carly did but we don't see much of that being publicised now, do we? why is that? is it because they're men? and men are allowed to make mistakes but not women? did all of you ever considered that the failures to deliver may be due to other reasons like political, culture?

i feel that with women trying to achieve as much as men can, at the end of the day, every little thing that we do are being scrutinised. we are in constantly in perpetual limelight to prove to everyone that we can do it and we fail, it is not because we failed to deliver but because we are a woman. there is no end to this, now is there? i don't know what it takes to get us out of this vicious circle..... may be a matter of decades (it has been decades now) and perhaps centuries before man, woman, gay, lesbians and what nots will be treated equal. i don't think i will live to see that happen.

as for carly, i wish her all the best. deep inside i know that she will succeed elsewhere and make another impact on woman-kind. she has already made an impact on yours truly.