From rags to riches: Filipino entrepreneur’s journey to success in UAE

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Updated 26 January 2023
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From rags to riches: Filipino entrepreneur’s journey to success in UAE

  • Jenny Segalowitz arrived in Emirates in 2003 to work at a fast-food chain for less than $300 a month
  • After years of hard work, she now owns popular Mukbang Shows Restaurant in Abu Dhabi

MANILA: When Jenny Segalowitz arrived in the UAE two decades ago, she started with a minimum wage job, working hard to help her family, and with a resilience that years later saw her flourish as one of the most successful Filipino entrepreneurs in Dubai.
Segalowitz spent her childhood in a poor household in the suburbs of Las Pinas city, near the Philippines capital, Manila. Her home had no electricity and no running water. To sustain the family’s nine children, Segalowitz’s father worked as a carpenter and her mother earned money as a tailor.
The entrepreneur started work at just six years old after her father had an accident and her mother became the family’s sole breadwinner.
“When I was a kid, every Saturday and after school, me and my siblings would collect trash that we could sell,” she told Arab News.
“When we had nothing to eat, at the age of six I learned to earn money already. I was selling ice.”
Later, she would also become a ragpicker, laundress or housemaid — working and at the same time attending classes in school.
Segalowitz worked her way through to college and made it to the Philippine Normal University in Manila, which specializes in teachers’ education. Her dream was to become a teacher, but she was dealt another cruel blow when her father died.
In 2003, while still in college, Segalowitz received a job offer from a fast-food chain in Abu Dhabi. It did not take her long to make the decision to move and she was soon climbing an airstair for her UAE-bound flight.
“I will never forget when I was crying while climbing the steps to get into the plane. I was crying because of joy,” Segalowitz said.
She only that knew she would be employed in a service crew, with a salary of 1,000 dirhams ($270).
“I told myself I will use this as a stepping stone ... I prayed and thanked the lord, and I asked him to help me not to waste the opportunity he has given me.”
Working 11 hours a day was sometimes tough, but Segalowitz knew that she had to carry on.
“When I got very tired, I would mop the floor in the toilet, and then I would kneel down to pray.
I would ask the lord to bless my life,” she said.
“My only desire at that time was to get an additional 1,000 dirhams or for my salary to double.”
But her salary did not increase and as she married and had children, Segalowitz would take on two full-time jobs — at a salon and as a house cleaner. Then she had an idea to manage apartments, rather than clean them.
“I think being an entrepreneur runs in my blood,” she said.
“That was in 2008 to 2015 ... I started with just one unit, but not long after, it became 10 apartments. So, from the 2,000 dirham income that I was praying for, I was already making 35,000 dirhams.”
But when everything seemed to be finally going great and Segalowitz could guarantee her loved ones a good standard of living, her family life suffered.
She divorced her abusive husband and became a single mother, solely responsible for her three children.
When the market suffered a downturn in 2016, Segalowitz had to close her apartment business and began investing money in other companies, often taking big risks.
“I was a risk taker, so I was investing millions,” she said.
“I was also praying that if the lord will give me a new partner in life, let him be a good man.”
That prayer was answered in 2019, when she met her now husband, Douglas Segalowitz, an American IT professional and a man in whom she found support — both in family terms as well as in her endeavors.
It was her new partner who encouraged Segalowitz to pursue her dream of opening a restaurant.
The business officially launched in January 2021, with one outlet in Abu Dhabi’s Muroor Road, but as strict COVID-19 restrictions were still in place, it took one year for the restaurant to fully open.
The all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue and seafood outlet, Mukbang Shows, became a hit last year. Its second branch opened in Electra Street, also in Abu Dhabi. A third is scheduled to open in Dubai later this year.
“The concept of mukbang was my husband’s. He is a jolly person, and he just wants to be always happy. He loved to do mukbang,” Segalowitz said, referring to Korean-style live-streamed videos featuring people eating large quantities of food as they address fans.
“We were surprised with its immediate success. There was always a long queue of customers outside. Others are making advance bookings. Some even drove for 1.5 hours just to try our food ... our blessings were overflowing.”
To give back, Segalowitz is now trying to help fellow Filipinos, sponsoring children’s education back home and giving employment to those in the UAE, her second home, which she calls a “land of opportunity.”
At the same time, the Filipino never forgets where she came from, and makes it her main advice for others who dare to aim higher.
“I didn’t expect to get this far, from collecting garbage to being a restaurant owner ... in life, nothing is impossible as long as you trust yourself,” she said.
“Dream, endure and persevere. Do not give up on life.”


Singapore PM urges voters to re-elect his cabinet to deal with US, China

Updated 59 min 13 sec ago
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Singapore PM urges voters to re-elect his cabinet to deal with US, China

  • PM Wong urges voters to stick with his team in face of US tariffs, US-China tensions
  • Last day of campaigning ahead of May 3 election

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans need to vote for candidates who have built up trust and close relationships with counterparts in the US and China, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Thursday, urging voters to re-elect his cabinet at a May 3 poll.
Addressing a 1.4 million-strong labor union on the last day of campaigning, Wong warned of economic turbulence and job losses if US tariffs slow global growth. His government has warned the trade-reliant economy may face a possible recession.
“We must expect more pressure on us and to navigate these pressures, it will take experience and skill. It will take people in government who have built up trust and close relationships with their counterparts in both America and China,” Wong said.
He said voters needed to re-elect his whole team to effectively deal with these economic headwinds.
“I have backups, I have reserves, sure. But everyone knows that the team cannot function at the same level. It’s the same in any organization, and it will be so in our next cabinet if we end up with such a loss,” he said, referring to the possible loss of his deputy prime minister.
Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party, in power since 1959, is widely expected to be easily re-elected, but there is growing unhappiness with its governance in the face of rising costs of living.
Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong was nominated at the 11th hour in a hotbed contest in a ward in northeast Singapore in an effort to stop the main opposition Workers’ Party, which won 10 seats in the last parliament.
Campaigning in recent days has zeroed in on Gan being new to the area, after an incumbent ruling party candidate called the opposition team strangers. The opposition fired back, asking if Gan was the real stranger to the constituency.
Wong has thrown his weight behind Gan, calling him his “taskforce man” because Gan co-headed the COVID-19 taskforce and is now chairing the “economic resilience” taskforce dealing with the impact of US tariffs.
“The key person in charge of this work is no stranger to you. He is no stranger to the whole of Singapore,” Wong said on Thursday.
This is the first electoral test for Wong, who took over from long-time premier Lee Hsien Loong last year as leader of the People’s Action Party.
Six political parties and an independent candidate have rallies scheduled for Thursday night.
Parties get to fire their last salvos on Thursday before 2.76 million voters go to a compulsory poll on Saturday after a short nine-day campaign season. Friday is designated as a “cooling off” day, meant for voters to decide on their ballot, and parties are not allowed to campaign.


Former VP Harris says Trump’s America is ‘self-serving’

Updated 58 min 10 sec ago
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Former VP Harris says Trump’s America is ‘self-serving’

  • Critics have been appalled at what they say is a vengeful administration carelessly overstepping democratic and constitutional norms
  • Recent polls have shown a majority of the country is becoming disenchanted with the political and economic tumult

SAN FRANCISCO: Former US vice president Kamala Harris hit out at Donald Trump and his backers on Wednesday, in her first major speech since losing November’s election.
The defeated Democrat told supporters the apparent “chaos” of the last three months was actually the realization of a long-cherished plan by conservatives who are using Trump to twist the United States to their own advantage.
“What we are, in fact, witnessing is a high velocity event, where a vessel is being used for the swift implementation of an agenda that has been decades in the making,” she told an audience in San Francisco.
“An agenda to slash public education. An agenda to shrink government and then privatize its services. All while giving tax breaks to the wealthiest.
“A narrow, self-serving vision of America where they punish truth-tellers, favor loyalists, cash in on their power, and leave everyone to fend for themselves.”
Trump’s first 100 days in power have been marked by a dizzying array of executive orders tackling everything from immigration to foreign aid to showerhead pressure.
Critics have been appalled at what they say is a vengeful administration carelessly overstepping democratic and constitutional norms, including clashing with the courts.
While Trump’s supporters have cheered some of the rapid-fire changes, recent polls have shown a majority of the country is becoming disenchanted with the political and economic tumult, particularly from his oft-changing tariffs.
Harris, who is thought to be mulling a run for the governorship of her home state of California in 2026 or a possible White House run in 2028, has largely stayed out of the limelight since leaving Washington in January.
On Wednesday she was a guest speaker at an event run by Emerge, a political organization that recruits and trains Democratic women to run for public office.
She told the crowd that Trump was targeting universities and courts because he wanted to cow the opposition.
“President Trump, his administration, and their allies are counting on the notion that fear can be contagious,” she said.
“They are counting on the notion that, if they can make some people afraid, it will have a chilling effect on others.”
But, she said, there were judges, academics, politicians and regular people who were standing up to the government.
“Fear isn’t the only thing that’s contagious. Courage is contagious,” she said.
“The courage of all these Americans inspires me.”


South Korean prosecutors indict ex-President Yoon for abuse of authority

Updated 01 May 2025
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South Korean prosecutors indict ex-President Yoon for abuse of authority

  • The indictment is in addition to an ongoing trial on insurrection charges
  • The latest indictment is without arrest, Yonhap said, citing the prosecutor’s office

SEOUL: South Korean prosecutors have indicted former President Yoon Suk Yeol for abuse of authority, Yonhap said on Thursday.
The indictment is in addition to an ongoing trial on insurrection charges, brought against Yoon over his brief imposition of martial law in December.
The latest indictment is without arrest, Yonhap said, citing the prosecutor’s office. An official at the prosecutor’s office could not be immediately reached for comment.


Indian FM says Kashmir attackers ‘must face justice’

Updated 01 May 2025
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Indian FM says Kashmir attackers ‘must face justice’

NEW DELHI: India’s foreign minister said Thursday that those who planned and carried out an attack in Kashmir last week that left 26 men dead “must be brought to justice.”
New Delhi blames Pakistan for the gun attack on civilians at the tourist site of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22.
Islamabad has rejected the charge and both countries have since exchanged gunfire in Kashmir and issued a raft of tit-for-tat punitive diplomatic measures.
“Its perpetrators, backers and planners must be brought to justice,” India’s top diplomat Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in a statement following a conversation with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday evening in which they discussed the attack.
Rubio also spoke to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and in a US readout of the call, told Sharif of the “need to condemn the terror attack” in Kashmir.
Indian and Pakistani soldiers fired at each other overnight along the Line of Control, the de facto border in contested Kashmir, the Indian army said.
It was a seventh straight night gunfire was reported by India.
“During the night... Pakistan Army posts initiated unprovoked small-arms fire across the Line of Control opposite Kupwara, Uri and Akhnoor,” the army said in a statement.
“These were responded proportionately by the Indian Army.”
There were no reported casualties and there was no immediate confirmation from Pakistan.
Indian police have issued wanted posters for three men accused of carrying out the Kashmir attack — two Pakistanis and an Indian — who they say are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, a UN-designated terrorist organization.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the military “complete operational freedom” to respond to the attack during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, a senior government source told AFP.
Pakistan’s government has denied any involvement in the shooting and vowed that “any act of aggression will be met with a decisive response.”
 


Stay as long as you want, Trump says as chief disruptor Elon Musk eyes exit

Updated 01 May 2025
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Stay as long as you want, Trump says as chief disruptor Elon Musk eyes exit

  • At a Cabinet meeting, Trump hinted at Musk giving up his DOGE role “to get back home to his cars”
  • Musk's Tesla car company had been hit by boycott calls over his role in gutting the US bureaucracy

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Tesla boss Elon Musk could stay working for the White House as long as he wanted but understood the tycoon wanted to get back to his businesses.
Musk last month said he will step back from his role as the unofficial head of the administration’s cost-cutting “Department of Government Efficiency” to focus more on his troubled Tesla car company.
“The vast majority of the people in this country really respect and appreciate you,” Trump told Musk during a White House cabinet meeting, which could be his last before giving up his DOGE role.
“And you know you’re invited to stay as long as you want,” Trump said, though added that Musk may want “to get back home to his cars.”
Musk, the world’s richest person, has seen his Tesla car company, which is the major source of his wealth, suffer significant brand damage from his political work.
Tesla showrooms have been hit by vandalism and boycott calls in Europe and the United States in a backlash against public service cuts introduced by Musk in his role as a close adviser to Trump.
“You really have sacrificed a lot. They treated you very unfairly,” Trump said of opponents to Musk.
“They did like to burn my cars, which is not great,” Musk responded.
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that Tesla’s board had begun procedures several weeks ago to find a successor to Musk as CEO.
The outlet reported — citing people familiar with the matter — that the board had met with Musk and told him that he needed to spend more time with the company, rather than in Washington.
David Sacks, a close Musk ally who is also a member of the Trump administration, last week said that Musk would not be leaving DOGE but reducing his role.
This was the same plan he carried out during his takeover of Twitter in 2022, he said.
“Once he felt like he had a mental model and he had the people in place that he trusted, he can move to more of a maintenance mode,” Sacks told the All-In podcast.