AUTHOR

Datu Jamal Ashley Abbas is a freelance writer since 1998, former columnist and Managing Editor of Mr. & Ms. Magazine, awardee of the Manila Rotary Club Journalism Awards 2001, Media Studies specialist, former lecturer at the University of the Philippines’ College of Mass Communication (Communication Studies and Film Studies) and Kalayaan College (Communication and Journalism). He is currently teaching Film Studies at Far Eastern University's (FEU) Mass Communication Department.

He has a degree in Petroleum Engineering (B.Sc.) from the top engineering school in the Middle East, the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (UPM) in Dhaharan, Saudi Arabia. He is the first Filipino petroleum engineer.

He did graduate studies in Business Economics — the top-level Strategic BusinessEconomics Program (SBEP) of the University of Asia and the Pacific, a top Catholic institution known for its economic researches / studies.

He finished his M.A. in Media Studies (Film major, Journalism minor) from the country’s “national university”, University of the Philippines (U.P.). He was the top of his class (GPA of 1.0 = equivalent to 4.0 in the US) and won the Best M.A. Thesis of the College. He is the first Filipino to graduate with an M.A. Media Studies degree from U.P. He was also the President of the College's Graduate Students' Association for two years.

He also has Diplome in French Language from Alliance Francaise. He attended classes in Paris and Manila.

He was born in 01 Dec. in Davao City, Philippines. Dickens, Kafka, Hesse and Dostoievsky rank among his favorite writers. Among contemporary authors, he prefers Mailer, Capote, Vidal and Irving. He also dabbles in short-story writing as well as playwriting. He is also a film buff. Truffaut, Buñuel, Resnais, Bergman, Kubrick , Kurosawa, Bertolucci, Figgis, Greenaway, and Almodovar are among his favorite film directors. He is a “’netizen”. He develops and maintain several websites and newsgroups in the World Wide Web. And he loves traveling. He has been to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Pakistan, India, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Algeria, U.S.A. and Mexico.

Jamal Ashley writes for various publications and does editorial consultancy, editing and ghostwriting on the side.

IF YOU NEED A FREELANCE WRITER / EDITOR / GHOSTWRITER, JUST POST IN THE COMMENT SECTION BELOW OR SEND ME AN EMAIL – jamalashley@gmail.com!