New Year | The Adobo Chronicles

Manila, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – Forget the ‘shock and awe’ that Baghdad experienced when the U.S. launched its first airstrikes that began the war on Iraq. It is no match to what Manila saw on New Year’s eve: widespread ground and air strikes.

‘Shock and awe’ (technically known as rapid dominance) is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness and maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy’s perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight. The doctrine was written by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade in 1996 and is a product of the National Defense University of the United States.

Filipinos were getting ready to wish family and friends a happy and peaceful New Year when at the strike of midnight, the whole metropolis was hit with shock and awe a hundred times the intensity that Baghdad experienced in 2003.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police were unprepared for the invasion and were unable to pinpoint exactly where the strikes started or who the perpetrators were. But it was a chaotic scene that lit Manila’s sky for seemingly endless minutes.

But as usual, the calm and peace-loving Filipinos took the attack in stride then proceeded to partake of their Media Noche, the family midnight meal that is the tradition on New Year’s eve.

Bentonville, Arkansas (The Adobo Chronicles) – Last October, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon announced future plans regarding wages at the big box giant chain store so that no worker is paid the federally mandated minimum of $7.25 an hour.

In an interview on Wednesday morning, he appeared to have set himself a deadline of early 2015 for this change.

“We’re going to make changes in a few months that will create a situation where no Walmart associate in the United States makes federal minimum wage,” McMillon told ‘CBS This Morning’ co-host Charlie Rose in a rare, fairly wide-ranging sit-down discussion.

McMillon, who at 48 is the youngest CEO of Walmart since founder Sam Walton, agreed with Rose’s assertion that the perception of Walmart — as a low-wage, dead-end employer, doubtlessly — differs from the reality of the business he runs.

McMillon’s announcement angered thousands of Walmart associates who, along with their allies in the labor movement, have been protesting working conditions and wages at the world’s largest private employer for the last three years. “Now we’ll even be paid below the federal wage,” they said in protest.

It was, of course, a misunderstanding of what McMillon said during the interview. What he really wanted to say was that no Walmart employee will be paid the minimum wage and that instead, they will be paid above the minimum wage.

It looks like McMillon’s communications manager is not doing a good job.