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A poem lovely as a tree www.businessmirror.com.ph
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Sunday, August 11, 2019 Vol. 14 No. 305
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 16 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
A visionary Rotarian lends a modern spin to Kilmer’s tribute to the tree, sharing its mind-boggling benefits —and why re-greening the country is a most urgent task.
P3M worth of fruits in a 50-year lifespan
P23,800 worth of captured carbon dioxide annually
ROTARY Club of Manila President Joaquin “Jack” Rodriguez ROY DOMINGO
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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
P28,200
FTER winning the war on polio, the Rotary Club of Manila (RCM) is eyeing to win the battle against deforestation. And, RCM plans to do this by pushing for legislative measures to raise awareness and mandate young Filipinos to plant trees in order to “re-green” the country, which has lost as many as 3.7 billion trees. “We will be moving toward re-greening the country. And the initial strategy is the creation of laws and creation of awareness and consciousness [among Filipinos],” RCM President Joaquin “Jack” Rodriguez told the BusinessMirror in a recent interview. “The widespread tree planting will come out automatically when the correct laws are in place,” Rodriguez added. Rodriguez explained that they are pushing for four legislative measures related to re-greening
worth of oxygen produced every year
P900
the country in the current 18th Congress. One is providing a P100 incentive for every tree that a Filipino will plant anywhere in the Philippines. This measure, Rodriguez pointed out, would entice Filipinos, especially the so-called tambay (idle folk), to earn extra money. Another measure is the mandatory teaching of ecology and environment in the fifth grade. The third measure is requiring every single barangay nationwide to dedicate at least 10 square meters of land to become a seedling bank. The last one is to require students to plant a number of trees prior to getting their diplomas. The last measure would require a graduating elementary student to
worth of fertilizer from dropping leaves
700,000 gallons of water in its root system
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Even Saudi Arabia’s most conservative heartland is starting to sing
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By Donna Abu-Nasr | Bloomberg News
HE taxi driver’s question was barely audible. Prodded to repeat it a few times, he mustered enough courage to raise his voice and ask if he could play music. He sought permission because he was driving in Buraidah, the capital of Saudi Arabia’s conservative heartland, where music is widely frowned upon as un-Islamic. That he dared to do so is a sign of the subtle liberalization taking root in Qassim province, a bastion of Islamic orthodoxy, years after
the big cities of Riyadh and Jeddah embraced change. To the strains of a Lebanese singer urging his lover to “Hug me tenderly,” the taxi glided past restaurants and shops with sleek, modern exteriors and Western names like Meaty Buns and XOXO. Inside one of the cafes, Haifa
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 52.2300
Abdullah celebrated the newfound freedoms—as she sat swathed head-to-toe in black, her eyes peeking out from a veil.
Changing times
“WE’RE happy with this new openness and want more,” said Abdullah, a 21-year-old university student who sat in the cafe with two women friends. She laughed when asked about Buraidah’s reputation as an ultra-conservative city resistant to change. “That was in the past. People’s mindset is changing,” she said. “They saw there were changes in Riyadh and Jeddah, that nothing happened to the girls and they’re slowly coming around.” Demographic statistics help to
explain this quiet evolution in the kingdom’s most conservative region. Half of Qassim’s population of 1.4 million are under 30. Their parents grew up at a time when the country’s rigid doctrines were being enforced by the government, and their prime outlet to the outside world was satellite TV, which didn’t arrive in the kingdom until the 1990s.
Exposure
BUT younger Saudis are a techsavvy group that’s been exposed to the rest of the world through the internet and travel, and wants to be part of it. “You call it openness? I want us to be normal,” said Tamim alContinued on A2
SAUDI women take pictures of a mascot at a locally owned rural resort in Buraidah, the capital of Saudi Arabia’s conservative heartland. TASNEEM ALSULTAN
n JAPAN 0.4925 n UK 63.3759 n HK 6.6612 n CHINA 7.4133 n SINGAPORE 37.8013 n AUSTRALIA 35.5164 n EU 58.4036 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.9250
Source: BSP (August 9, 2019 )
NewsSunday A poem lovely as a tree BusinessMirror
A2 Sunday, August 11, 2019
Continued from A1
plant five trees, a high-school graduate candidate to plant 10 trees, and a graduating college student to plant at least 20 trees. Rodriguez said he presented these measures to Senate President Vicento C. Sotto III in the 17th Congress and is confident that these would get the approval of the current Congress. “If there are 4 million graduates a year and they plant at least 20 trees, then that would be 80 million trees in a year. After 10 years that would be 800 million,” he said. “We lack about 3.7 billion trees. We cannot do it in one year or 10 years but we have to start somewhere,” he added.
Value of a tree
RODRIGUEZ said the value of one tree goes beyond the value of its fruit. Take for example a mango tree, with its fruit selling at P30 per piece, he added. Citing expert estimates, he outlined the quantifiable socioeconomic benefits from planting a mango tree: P3 million worth of fruits in a 50year lifespan; P23,800 worth of captured carbon dioxide annually and P28,200 worth of oxygen produced every year. “That same tree would also produce P900 worth of fertil-
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izer above ground from dropping leaves. And its roots system would hold 700,000 gallons of water,” he said. “And I if I am going to a build a system that would hold the same amount of water for me, it would cost me around P2 million to P3 million,” he added. A mango tree has more economic benefits which are unquantifiable such as the fertilizer it produces underground, Rodriguez said. “We always have two choices when we eat a mango: either we throw the seed away or plant it,” he added. “I will have all those benefits in five years’ time after planting one seed.” Rodriguez said he presented the same breakdown of benefits from a single tree to Sotto, who was left in a state of awe afterward.
Programs
THROUGH RCM’s The Rotary Economic and Ecological Stratagem (TREES), Rotarians are planting trees and advocating the activity not only nationwide but also globally. TREES is Rodriguez’s brainchild program. Aside from TREES, the RCM is also kick-starting this August its forest park project (FPP) that seeks to build a forest park in every town nationwide. The project will be launched in General Tinio, Nueva
RCM President Joaquin “Jack” Rodriguez. Through RCM’s The Rotary Economic and Ecological Stratagem (TREES), Rotarians are planting trees and advocating the activity not only nationwide but also globally. ROY DOMINGO
Ecija, some time this month. “We want to create lungs for the country in every single town by putting 5- to 20-hectare forest parks,” Rodriguez said. Under the FPP, RCM will partner with local government units to provide the land for the park,
while Rotarians will prepare the schematics of the place, Rodriguez explained. “And then we will sell the naming rights to the park to anyone for about a million or two,” he added. The envisioned forest parks will contain at least an area for
playground, walkways, jogging paths, picnic place, and will house various trees such as guavas, mangoes, narra, molave and kamagong. “We don’t care if it takes 30 years for the forest park to bloom. Some day our children will play there,” he said.
Saudi Arabia… Continued from A1
Ayed, a barista at one of Buraidah’s restaurants. The Qassim region where his generation grew up gave the Arab world one of its oldest love stories: that of the pre-Islamic knight Antara ibn Shaddad and his love, Abla. Their “love stone,” a rock 40-minute-drive from Buraidah, is one of the region’s main attractions. But Qassim also gave Saudi Arabia one of its most extremist figures, Juhayman al-Otaybi, who led the 1979 siege of the Grand Mosque in Mecca by Islamists seeking to shift the country to a more conservative course. The government responded by adopting a more austere interpretation of Wahhabi Islam that still prevails in Qassim, making the region an important testing ground for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s drive to loosen social restrictions and return the country to moderate Islam.
Ending ‘guardianship’
THE prince pushed the envelope further last week by announcing women will be allowed to travel abroad without permission from a male relative, a major step toward ending a controversial “guardianship” system that renders women legal dependents of men throughout their lives. “The advancement of social reforms has shown that MBS’ risky strategy of quick change has more support than traditionally assumed,” said Ayham Kamel, head of Middle East and North Africa research at Eurasia Group, a consultancy. He wants to succeed in places like Qassim to “ensure that his program is a national program that changes society at large rather than creating limited pockets of openness.” One of these pockets is Riyadh. After the crown prince clipped the powers of the nation’s religious po-
lice, who for decades had harassed women for showing a bit of hair and kept genders strictly separated, social codes suddenly softened.
Wardrobe change
DOTS of color appeared on the streets as some women traded the black cloaks they’re ordered to wear in public for bright greens, purples, reds and blues. Some women even wear their abayas open now, revealing jeans and colorful tops underneath. A few Saudi women have gone so far as to throw off their headscarves. Couples can even sit together in restaurants playing loud music. In Buraidah, the changes are much more nuanced, and travel between the two cities offers stark evidence of the obstacles liberalization faces there. Almost all of the women on board a train were cloaked in black abayas and wore the niqab, a piece of black cloth that covers the face, leaving only a slit open for the eyes. A woman who didn’t wear a niqab received a tongue-lashing at the airport by a man who told her she’d be damned. Yet change is inching forward, mostly visible on the city’s main thoroughfare, Al-Bukhary Boulevard, which is lined with trendy restaurants. At one place off the boulevard, large-screen TVs aired sports programs with women athletes in skimpy bikinis. It’s one of the few places in Buraidah that plays music, and a waiter hummed along with the hit song “Despacito” and “Love Me Like You Do” from the erotic movie Fifty Shades of Grey. The thirst for a more open life is being slaked outside the main drag, too. At a date farm that’s developed a side business by opening its doors to picnickers, Fatima Abdul-Aziz sat on a blanket with friends under a string of colored lights, savoring homebaked sweets as the sun set. “There was a lack of entertain-
ment options that were suitable for families,” said Abdul-Aziz, a 42-year-old math teacher. “We’ll stay until midnight. It’s a safe place. My children can run around without my worrying about them.”
Opposition
BUT small as they may seem, these changes aren’t going unchallenged. At one restaurant, a diner stomped over to a group of three women and demanded they cover their heads, the manager said. He wouldn’t leave them alone until they complied. A woman in her 30s who identified herself only as Hussa said she worries that young women will cast off Islamic values with their veils. “I’m very disturbed by the sight of young women who remove their niqabs in a restaurant, laugh loudly and then put on their niqabs before leaving for home,” she said. “How can you do that?” At the cafe where al-Ayed works, customers have accused management of promoting idolatry because of the decorative figures on display. Some men have hustled their families out after discovering there was no wall separating the single men’s section from the staircase leading to the family seating area, he said. “The ones you see here,” he added, pointing to Saudis in the cafe, “make up the one third of Buraidah residents, tops, who want openness,” al-Ayed said. Prince Mohammed knows it will take a long time to neutralize the influence of religious and tribal establishments who oppose his agenda, said Kamran Bokhari, founding director at the Center for Global Policy in Washington. But it’s happening, he said. “In the short term, he’s trying to secure whatever level of change he can get,” Bokhari said. “But the question is what kind of backlash will he face? So far so good.”
The World BusinessMirror
Editor: Angel R. Calso
Report: Facebook offering ‘millions’ to news publishers
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AN FRANCISCO—Facebook is reportedly in talks with news publishers to offer “millions of dollars” for the rights to publish their material on its site. The move follows years of criticism over its growing monopolization of online advertising to the detriment of the struggling news industry. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Facebook representatives had told news executives that they’d pay as much as $3 million a year to license stories, headlines and other material. Facebook declined to comment but confirmed that the company is working on launching a “news tab” for its service this fall. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg began talking about a news section on the service in April. A person familiar with the matter confirmed that Facebook has approached News Corp. about paying to license Wall Street Journal stories. The person requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The Journal report was not clear as to whether Facebook was offering $3 million to individual publishers or in total to all news organizations. Many in the news industry have long blamed Facebook and Google for using their content for free while the social network slurped up the majority of digital ad dollars, imperiling the news industry. A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress this year would grant an antitrust exemption to news companies, letting them band together to negotiate payments from the big tech platforms. The Washington Post, which was also named in the report as a company Facebook approached, declined to comment. The Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, did not immediately respond to a message for comment. AP
Sunday, August 11, 2019
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Trump’s assault blunts China’s yuan tool as economy slows
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HE yuan’s slide to a decade-low is adding a new dimension to China’s balancing act: How to support the economy while avoiding a currency policy that widens its rift with the US on trade. The yuan steadied on Thursday when the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the daily reference rate higher than expected— even though it was fixed at a level that’s weaker than 7 per dollar for the first time since 2008. That signals that traders are convinced that the yuan won’t be allowed to fall precipitously, even amid pressures from the trade war with the US and slowing growth. In theory, letting the currency fall without triggering panic allows the PBOC to ease policy as needed domestically. In practice, the labeling of China as a yuan “manipulator” by the US this week—and the surprise interestrate cuts by global central banks— means Beijing risks a global currency conf lagration and even
slimmer chances of a trade war resolution. “The PBOC’s tolerance of a weak renminbi that is driven by market forces may result in an unintended consequence of a currency war by stealth,” said Chi Lo, a greater China senior economist at BNP Paribas SA’s asset management arm, using the yuan’s official name. “If the tension escalates, it will throw anyone’s dollar-yuan forecast out of the window.” The PBOC set its fixing basically in line with the market’s expectations on Friday.
Export rebound
CHINA’s export growth rebounded in July and imports shrank less than forecast, according to data released on Thursday, showing that there had been some brighter
signs for the economy before US President Trump announced the addition of 10 percent tariffs to the remainder of Chinese imports to the US last week. The gloomy, and uncertain, outlook will make PBOC policy makers’ decisions about how best to support the nation’s slowing output with the exchange rate in mind more difficult. For some analysts, the central bank now has more room to act, whether that’s through outright interestrate cuts or more targeted, smallscale measures. “The central bank was in a very difficult situation in the middle of last year—you didn’t want the yuan to weaken significantly, but the economy was slowing, and the Fed was raising interest rates. The PBOC was caught in between,” said Huang Yiping, a former adviser to the central bank. “This year, so far, the room for monetary policy has expanded.” Like any central bank, the PBOC will ultimately be steered by how much support, or otherwise, the domestic economy needs. The risks associated with that include a rush among companies and savers to get money out of the economy.
During a previous bout of yuan volatility over 2015 and 2016, China spent billions of its foreign reserves to support the currency. Since then the authorities have doubled down on strict rules around moving money out of the country that have helped control unwanted outflows. China is already taking measures to rein in bets on depreciation. The nation is more capable of keeping the yuan stable now, compared with when it devalued the currency in August 2015, as the exchange rate is more flexible, PBOC adviser Ma Jun said in an interview with Financial News. This came after Yi Gang, the chief of the central bank, said earlier this week that Beijing wouldn’t use the yuan as a tool to deal with trade disputes.
Reserve ratio
SINCE the beginning of 2018, the central bank has attempted to keep cash flowing to the economy without unduly pressuring the exchange rate by using cuts to the amount of money that banks have to hold aside, instead of broad-based reductions in the cost of borrowing. Regardless, uncertainties over
the yuan and trade war risk delaying a key reform of China’s interest-rate framework that PBOC’s Yi hopes can make monetary policy more effective. “The interest-rate reform will likely be delayed due to the yuan’s depreciation, as now the priority for policy-makers is to limit risks of capital outflows with macroprudential measures,” said Xing Zhaopeng, a markets economist at ANZ Bank China Co. It could also impact economists’ forecasts for the central bank to lower interbank borrowing costs by the end of September. The weaker yuan may postpone that. “We think Chinese policies will become incrementally easier, but a large new stimulus remains unlikely in the near future,” Wang Tao, chief China economist at UBS AG in Hong Kong, wrote in a note. She expects the PBOC to continue to cut reserve ratios, and ease funding for infrastructure in the coming months. “I think the PBOC will go for stability, but ultimately your guess is as good as mine,” said Mingze Wu, a foreign-exchange trader at INTL FCStone in Singapore. Bloomberg News
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Sunday, August 11, 2019
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says Trump ‘fanning Not a season of good yield for some Biden flames of white supremacy’ export crops grown in Mindanao B
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By Manuel T. Cayon | Mindanao Bureau Chief
AVAO CITY—Contraction in crop production across the country in the second quarter has a more telling effect in Mindanao, where at least three major crop exports were planted to a wide portion of the island. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) placed the contraction at 5.7 percent, which affected total agricultural output during the period, as crops account for almost half, or 47.42 percent, of total output. Total agricultural output declined by 1.31 percent on the same period. Insufficient rainfall was blamed for the 0.76-percent contraction in production of coconut. In Davao region, lack of rain during the fruiting stage resulted in fewer number of mature nuts harvested,
as it was also noted in the lesser nuts produced in another major producing region in Luzon, in the Mindoro-Marinduque-Romblon and Palawan area. In the Caraga region in northeastern Mindanao, the decline was traced to low-buying price of copra, hence farmers refused to sell their produce. Production of bananas dropped by 4.15 percent and the Davao region, the largest producer, reported lower production due to the occurrence of “moko” disease. Smaller
bunches harvested were also blamed on insufficient rainfall during the fruiting stage, from March to May. Further, smaller sizes and lower quality of fruits were reported in the plantations of South Cotabato-North Cotabato-Sultan Kudarat-Sarangani-General Santos City (Soccsksargen) region because of the dry spell during the first quarter of this year. It’s the same for coffee, as overall production declined by 6.32 percent. Alarming for the coffee industry was the reported cutting of old robusta coffee trees, as farmers shifted to banana. The Soccsksargen was one of the areas of attention given by the coffee industry, which has been scouting for more areas to plant and where some of the prime production areas could be found in this region and in the rest of Mindanao. Aside from crop conversion, the Soccsksargen farmers also complained of smaller berries harvested due to dry spell. However, production of pineapple was one bright spot for crop production in Mindanao,
as production expanded by 0.69 percent. While bigger fruits were harvested in Bicol region, the Soccsksargen area said adequate fertilizer application during the crop growth stage and increased area harvested helped a slight increase in production. Mango also reported recovery from last year’s production decline as it posted a 5.37-percent increase in second quarter. Good production in Luzon was traced to lesser occurrence of cecid fly pests and anthracnose disease but in Soccsksargen, more trees bore fruits as a result of sunny weather condition. P ro du c t ion of a b a c a a l s o inched up by 0.13 percent, the PSA data indicate. More stripping activities were observed in Caraga because of high demand from assemblers and in Zamboanga Peninsula, there were more harvesting activities because of the sunny weather condition. The increased production output was also noted in the Davao region as it traced to the increased number of bearing hills.
In sharp reversal of role, countries issue warning about travel to US
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A R AC A S, Vene z ue l a— The United States often takes a leading role in calling out the world’s most dangerous places, warning its people about the risks of traveling to countries that are at war, under terrorist threats, experiencing civil unrest or displaying significant anti-American sentiment. The latest mass shootings have triggered a sharp role reversal, with three countries warning their citizens about the risks of traveling to the US. Venezuela, Uruguay and Japan issued warnings to varying degrees following the deaths of 31 people over the weekend in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas. Each warning noted US gun violence, and at least one was laced with a dose of political payback. Without directly naming President Donald Trump, the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro blamed the surge in violence on speeches emanating from Washington that are “impregnated with racial discrimination and hatred against immigrants.” It urges Venezuelans to postpone US trips. The socialist Maduro is ruling over the worst economic crisis in Venezuelan history amid an escalating political battle with the White House, which backs opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s bid to oust him. Travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt said Venezuela’s warning came off more like a “political jab” than a genuine concern for its citizens’ safety. It came hours before Trump signed an executive order that hit Maduro’s government with yet another round of punishing financial sanctions designed to end his rule. “Venezuela certainly has more than a little political motivation
IN this August 7, file photo, demonstrators gather to protest after a mass shooting that occurred in Dayton, Ohio. The latest mass shootings in the United States have triggered multiple countries to warn their citizens to be wary of travel conditions there. AP
to issue its advisory,” said Harteveldt, president of San Francisco-based Atmosphere Research Group. “I think people will see there’s a tit-for-tat going on.” Countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands have not issued new warnings in recent days, but they have long-standing advisories for travelers of mass shootings and gun violence. The State Department is obligated to inform the public about potential threats under a “no double standard” rule that calls for such information to be shared equally with government employees, as well as the public. The US denies that any of its travel warnings are politically motivated, but that does not stop frequent complaints from foreign countries. The impact of an advisory that warns Americans against traveling to a certain country can be significant, particularly if that country relies heavily on tourism for revenue. US tour agencies, colleges and
universities often cancel group trips to countries that the department has warned against visiting, largely because it can become more difficult or expensive for them to get insurance. I n t he St at e D e p a r t me nt travel advisor y system, ever y country gets an advisory ranging from level one, recommending Americans exercise normal precautions, to the maximum level four, which unambiguously warns: “Do not travel.” Thirteen countries are currently under the highest US travel advisory, including Afghanistan, North Korea and Syria. Venezuela also advanced to this highest warning level in April, after the US evacuated its embassy. American Airlines, the last US carrier to make the three-hour trip between Caracas and Miami, suspended its flights, citing concerns by the pilots’ union. Uruguay’s foreign minister on Monday urged people traveºling to the US to avoid large gatherings, such as amusement parks
and sporting events “given the authorities’ inability to prevent these situations” involving firearms. It’s unclear whether there’s a political motive behind Uruguay’s advisory, but three days earlier, US officials raised the advisory for travelers visiting Uruguay to level two, which urges citizens to “exercise increased caution.” The advisory warns of thugs—often two on a motorcycle—rushing unsuspecting victims for a quick robbery outside grocery stores and restaurants. For its part, Japan’s consulate in Detroit issued a more general warning to its citizens in the United States following the shooting in Dayton. It noted the potential for gun violence given the prevalence of weapons, calling the US a “gun society.” Japanese citizens are advised to pay attention to the potential for gunfire “ever y where” in the US Guns are highly restricted in Japan, a countr y with one of the lowest rates of gun crime in the world.
URLINGTON, Iowa—Joe Biden on Wednesday accused President Donald Trump of “fanning the flames of white supremacy” in his most aggressive attack yet on the character of the man he would like to defeat in 2020. “Trump offers no moral leadership,” Biden declared in Burlington, Iowa. The president “seems to have no interest in unifying the nation.” Biden’s remarks, which have been echoed in some form by most of the Democratic presidential candidates, signaled how sharp and bitter the nation’s cultural and political divides will be on the long road to Election Day. They also marked a moment of unity for Biden and his presidential rivals, who have turned on each other in recent weeks. But on Wednesday, they were nearly unanimous in their support of an aggressive plan to confront gun violence just days after another series of mass shootings elevated the issue to the forefront of the party’s presidential primary. Virtually all of them vowed to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, while some, like Cory Booker, called for requiring all gun owners to obtain licenses. Hours before Biden lashed out against Trump in Iowa, Booker spoke in Charleston, South Carolina’s Mother Emanuel Church, where a white supremacist shot to death nine black parishioners four years ago. The New Jersey senator demanded bold action to stop gun violence. “We must act to get weapons of war off our streets, out of our grocery stores, our bars, our temples and our churches by banning assault weapons once and for all,” a solemn Booker said. While many Democrats have yet to take a firm position on licensing, their willingness to lean in on gun control marks a definite shift for the party. Democrats with national ambitions have traditionally feared alienating millions of gun owners by embracing plans to enact dramatic changes to the nation’s gun control laws. As recently as 2013, President Barack Obama’s White House released a photo of the Democrat shooting a rifle. Former Democratic presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were also eager to be photographed holding firearms. But on Wednesday, even redstate Democrat Steve Bullock, the Montana governor, backed gun control measures, insisting in a Washington speech that gun owners are worried about their families’ safety just like everyone else. He called for universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons, and so-called red flag laws aimed at restricting gun ownership from high-risk individuals. “I am a hunter and a gun owner,” Bullock said. “And let me say as a hunter, no real hunter needs a 30-round clip. No real hunter needs a weapon of war.” Such positions may not be so politically risky. Even before mass shootings over the weekend in Ohio and Texas left at least 31 dead, national polls found strong majorities of voters favor stricter gun laws. More than 90 percent of voters supported mandatory background checks for all gun purchases, according to a May poll conducted by Quinnipiac University; another 77 percent favored mandatory licenses for all gun purchasers and 63 percent support a nationwide ban on assault weapons. “The 2020 aspirants on the Democratic side are all outmuscling each other to see who can have the most aggressive program
on the issue of gun safety. That’s a seismic shift from past presidential cycles,” said John Feinblatt, president of Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns, which is hosting a presidential forum on gun control in Iowa this weekend. The organization, backed by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, spent roughly $30 million to shape the 2018 midterm elections and will again spend a “significant” amount up and down the ballot in 2020, Feinblatt said. John Anzalone, a veteran Democratic pollster who is advising Biden, acknowledged the party’s sudden willingness to embrace gun control. “It’s no longer radical,” he said. “No one’s afraid of the NRA anymore.” Despite the shifting political dynamics and surge in mass shootings, Republican leaders in Congress have blocked efforts to enact significant gun control legislation, including a relatively modest plan to require universal background checks. Trump has periodically expressed support for gun control measures, but his administration has not followed through, and his political party in Congress has shown no appetite to address the issue. There were early signs this week, however, that a bipartisan proposal by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., to adopt “red flag” laws is gaining some traction. The stillemerging plan would create a federal grant program to encourage states to adopt laws to take guns away from people believed to be a danger to themselves or others. A similar bill never came up for a vote in the GOP-controlled Senate last year, but both parties express hope that this year will be different. Trump has signaled support for the plan. On Wednesday, Trump was visiting the Ohio and Texas communities that were still grappling with the fallout of the weekend shootings. The president and first lady Melania Trump began their visit at the Ohio hospital where many of the victims of Sunday’s attack were treated. Outside Miami Valley Hospital, at least 200 protesters gathered, hoping to send a message to the president that they want action on gun control. Democrats are eager to oblige. In addition to pledging action on guns, many are linking the violence to Trump’s racist rhetoric, which includes warnings of an immigrant invasion. The man accused of killing at least 22 in an El Paso, Texas, Walmart on Sunday referenced similar language in a manifesto before the deadly spree. Biden promised to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, reminding voters that he helped enact the now-expired law in the 1990s that originally outlawed such weapons. He also signaled support for a federal program to buy back assault weapons from gun owners. Turning to the president, Biden said, there was “no evidence that the presidency has awakened his conscience in the least.” Trump “has more in common with George Wallace than George Washington,” he added. Trump derided Biden’s remarks on Twitter as “sooo boring!” Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a South Carolina state legislator, who has been critical of Biden at times, said it’s beyond time for elected leaders to embrace gun control, even if it turns off some rural voters. “I want to see Democrats take a stand on this issue,” she said. “Enough with the words. It’s time for action.” AP
Faith
Sunday
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Sunday, August 11, 2019 A5
New massacres: A jolt for clergy who coped with past attacks
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S Americans reel from backto-back massacres in Texas and Ohio, religious leaders who have experienced violence in their houses of worship are venting their anger at the persisting violence and trying to help their congregants persevere.
NOAH’S Thanksoffering (c.1803) by Joseph Anton Koch. Noah builds an altar to the Lord after being delivered from The Great Flood. God sends the rainbow as a sign of His covenant. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Abrahamic Covenant
By Corazon Damo-Santiago
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BRAHAM is a son of Terah, one of the three sons of Noah. Terah is the first and greatest patriarch of Israel. Terah left Ur of Chaldea (Tall al Mugayar, Iraq) with son Abram, his wife Sarah and Lot, a son of his brother Haran for Canaan (Israel, West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and Southern portions of Syria and Lebanon). But when they reached Haran (Tall of Mugayar, Iraq), Terah decided to stay there and died at 145.
Called by God to migrate
GOD directed Abraham to leave Haran for Canaan with Sarah and Lot when he was 75 years old. “Go to a land I will show you. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:1-2). When they reached Shechem (Nablus City, Palestine) the Lord appeared to Abram to tell him that this is the land he will give to his descendants. Abram built an altar for the Lord, proceeded to Bethel (Baytin, Palestine) built another altar and journeyed to Negeb (Negev, Israel). A severe famine prompted him to leave for Egypt. In Egypt, Lot and Abram parted ways. Lot settled in the Jordan plain and Abram stayed in Canaan.
To father many nations
AFTER Lot had left, the Lord again appeared to Abram. He was told to look as far as he could see in all directions, and said: “All the land that you see, I will give to you and your descendants forever” (Genesis 13:15). God, likewise, promised him descendants that cannot be counted like dust of the Earth (Genesis 13:16). For more than a decade, Abram saw the rise and fall of kings. When his nephew Lot, his possessions, along with women and 318 of his retainers were seized, Abram went after the captors and won. The king of Sodom and Melchizedek, king of Salem became his friends (Genesis 14). Because they had no son, his wife offered Hagar,
their maid-servant to be his concubine. So, Abram at 86 had a son—Ishmael.
Covenant of circumcision
WHEN Abram was 99 years old the Lord again appeared, changed his name to Abraham, to render him “exceedingly fertile...be your God and the God of your descendants...the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession and I will be their God ” (Genesis 17:5-8). Aware that Sarah and he were childless, he answered that all of God’s gifts will simply be inherited by Elliezer, the steward of his house. Although Abraham prostrated himself before the Lord, he laughed to himself for he is 100 years old. Even Sarah, 90, laughed so aware she is old with an older husband. And the Lord answered: “Is anything too marvelous for the Lord to do?” (Genesis 18:14). After a year, Isaac, which means God smiles, was born. And what is expected of Abraham and descendants? “Ever y male among you shall be circumcized when he is eight years old. Circumcize the f lesh of your foreskin and that shall be the mark of the covenant between you and Me. T hus, My covenant shall be in your f lesh as an everlasting pact” (Genesis 17:9-13). “Abraham, his son Ismael, all the male members of his household, including the slaves born in his house or acquired, were circumcized with him” (Genesis 17:26). But the Lord already informed him what will happen to his descendants. “They shall be aliens in a land not their own, enslaved and oppressed for 400 years” (Genesis 15:13). Isaac married Rebecca and their son, Jacob, became the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.
At the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, where a gunman killed 11 worshippers during services last October, emotions ran high last week as trustees of one of the synagogue’s three congregations held their monthly meeting just hours after the shootings in El Paso and Dayton that claimed more than 30 lives. “Some people were very unnerved, crying and needing to be comforted,” said Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of the New Light Congregation. He said the trustees discussed plans to donate funds to survivors of the new massacres. “We really need to stop the madness,” Perlman said. “We need to identify people who are extremists around this country and hold them under a microscope.” At First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where more than two dozen people were killed by a gunman in 2017, Pastor Frank Pomeroy sought to boost his followers’ resolve with upbeat remarks at Sunday’s service. He urged them not to live “in a spirit of fear.” “Especially those of us who were here and know what happens in the midst of such a tragedy,” said Pomeroy, whose daughter was among those killed. “We didn’t politicize, we didn’t say, ‘Oh poor me.’...The pain is always going to be a part of who we are, but we chose to look up and look out and look beyond ourselves.” In Charleston, South Carolina, the Rev. Eric Manning said he did not evoke the new shootings during Sunday’s service at Emanuel AME Church, where eight black parishioners and their pastor were killed in a racist shooting attack in 2015. Manning told The Associated Press on Monday that he and the church would be responding forcefully this week, likely with calls for tighter gun control and restricting hate speech “ The country is always expressing thoughts and prayers. I
believe it’s time we allow our actions to match our words,” Manning said. “After events such as this, we have a meaningful pause but then a few days later we go back to business as usual. We can’t afford to keep doing that.” Manning referred to some of President Donald J. Trump’s recent rhetoric on Twitter: telling four congresswomen of color—three of them born in the US, all of them American citizens—7/8 to “go back ” where they came from and calling the majority-black city of Baltimore a “rodent-infested mess.” “If you use those type of words to demoralize fellow human beings, fellow Americans, some white supremacist will pick that up and allow that to fuel their fire,” Manning said. Manning spoke to the AP shortly before Trump, in remarks at the White House, declared “hate has no place in America” and suggested that a bill to expand gun background checks could be combined with his effort to toughen the US immigration system. Manning is the replacement for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney,
Be always ready
MSGR. JOSEFINO S. RAMIREZ SUNDAY GOSPEL IN OUR LIFE
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The copresident of the New Light Congregation in Pittsburgh, Stephen Cohen, expressed frustration at the state of the US gun control debate. “We value the rights of gun owners over the rights of citizens to be safe and secure,” he said. “As long as we keep electing folks who believe that, that’s what we’re going to get.” Cohen did voice hope that sur vivors of the El Paso and Dayton shootings would eventually benefit from psychological support ser vices, such as those provided to sur vivors of the synagogue massacre. “Right now, everyone is feeling lost, in shock,” he said. “But there comes a point in a month, two months, maybe even longer, where these types of services can help them come to terms with their ability to move forward.” L eaders of se vera l of t he t a r ge t e d hou s e s of w or s h ip have tea med up to sha re t heir e x per iences w it h ot hers. In May, public safety officials in Washington, D.C., hosted a discussion at the National Cathedral featuring Manning, Pomeroy and Alan Hausman, vice president of Tree of Life synagogue. In June, the Tree of Life’s rabbi, Jeffrey Myers, par ticipated w ith Manning in a forum on race relations in Charleston. I n a subsequent appea ra nce on the Today show, Myers said his sy nagog ue was compiling a g uidebook to help communities cope w ith f uture mass shootings. “We hope it gets dusty and never used,” Myers said then. “But we all know too well this is going to happen again somewhere.” AP
If we are in the state of grace, that is to say, we are in the friendship of God and we have renounced sin, which separates us from God, then we are ready to face the eternal judgment of God. But if we are in the state of sin, which separates us from God, if we not have been reconciled to God by the sincere contr ition and confession of our sins, then we have much to dread at the moment of death. Now death is a certainty that we will have to face. But although death is a certainty, the moment and the manner of death is something we can never be sure of. Therefore, it would be foolish to take the attitude of a man who deliberately delays being ready to face death. If we know that we are not in the grace of God right now, let us not postpone our reconciliation with God to an indefinite future by postponing to receive the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. There is a story of a man who
was leading a very immoral life, and his friend was trying to convince him to change for the better. The man agreed that he was doing wrong, but wanted to postpone his conversion and, so to speak, be able to get the best of both worlds. He told the friend that, when he would be very old or sick, then he would call for a priest or, at least, piously invoke the holy name of Jesus and, thus, be saved. A few days later, the friend heard that the immoral man had died. Did he call for a priest? Did he at least invoke the mercy of God in his last moments? After careful inquiry, the friend ascertained the circumstances of the immoral man’s death. While crossing a bridge, his horse suddenly bucked and jumped into the gushing river. What were his last words? Did he repent? Unfortunately, the last words heard from him as he was carried by the water, were curse for the stupid horse.
RABBI JEFFREY MYERS (right) of Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha Congregation hugs Rabbi Cheryl Klein (left) of Dor Hadash Congregation and Rabbi Jonathan Perlman in this October 28, 2018, photo during a community gathering held in the aftermath of a deadly shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. AP/MATT ROURKE
19TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: ‘LUKE 12:32-48’
HE Boy Scouts have a very wise motto that we could all very well imitate—“Laging Handa.” They are supposed to be prepared for any possible emergency, whether it be saving a drowning child or helping an old lady cross the street. In the gospel today, Jesus Christ proposes to us a similar motto, but He applies it to even more serious and crucial matters. “You must be ready, because at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man is coming” (Luke 12:40). When people are really interested in succeeding in a task, they
who was among those killed in the 2015 attack. Pinckney’s widow, Jennifer, posted on Twitter about the two new massacres. “Make sure you talk to your children or young people in general about these shootings,” she tweeted. “This morning I had se pa rate conversat ion s w it h my girls. Eliana the oldest said, ‘This is crazy. It makes no sense.’ Malana the youngest said, ‘This makes me sad.’” By coincidence, Monday was the seventh anniversary of a massacre at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek, where a white supremacist killed six parishioners on August 5, 2012. Pardeep Kaleka, whose father was among those killed, learned of the El Paso and Dayton shootings as he was participating in weekend events commemorating the 2012 attack. Kaleka is now director of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee; its participants include Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews and Sikhs, among other faiths. “It’s within all of our respective faiths to be optimistic in times of tragedy,” Kaleka said. “At the end of the day we’ll persevere, but it’s hard to see that when these things are happening on such a frequent basis.” Personally, K aleka believes tighter gun control is needed. “Some others talk about mental health [as a cause of the mass shootings]. Some talk about the hate coming out of the White House,” Kaleka said. “I think there’s room at the table for all those conversations.”
prepare well for it. A surgeon at the operating table has prepared himself long before the actual operation. As he operates, he is ready for any emergency. After all, a human life is at stake. In the gospel today, Christ tells us to be always ready; but what is at stake is something much more important and valuable than our human life. What is at stake is our eternal salvation and happiness. How can one be prepared in this matter? At the moment of death, the state of our soul will remain basically what it is for the rest of eternity.
Science
BusinessMirror
A6 Sunday, August 11, 2019
Sunday
HERBANEXT DENGUE SUPPLEMENT TO UNDERGO CLINICAL TRIAL FOR MEDICINE
PHL experts developing drugs against dengue
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By Lyn Resurreccion
HILIPPINE health authorities declared a national dengue epidemic in the country last week after 622 people died of the mosquito-borne disease and 146,062 cases were recorded since January. Amid this scenario, Filipino e x per ts have been doing re searches for a cure against the fatal disease. T he good news: medicines are now being developed in the country against dengue. This is on top of the supplement that will released by the middle of the month. A drug that can cure dengue is being developed by a team of researchers led by pharmacologistepidemiologist Dr. Rita Grace Alvero from the De La Salle Medical and Health Sciences Institute and Pharmalytics Corp. Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña said the team has started the Phase 1 of the clinical trial for the medicine. Up to Phase 3 clinical trials are required for certification and approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, de la Peña told the BusinessMirror that the team would initially apply with the FDA to have the capsule approved as supplement so it can be used immediately by Filipinos who are suffering from dengue. Supplements do not require a doctor’s prescription. Research for the medicine started from three herbal plants but the final medicine was extracted from just two plants. De la Peña estimated that the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has provided an estimated P8 million for A lvero’s project. He said the DOST is helping Alvero’s team to hasten FDA’s approval for their supplement so that the people could immediately benefit from it. He said clinical trials for medicines take years—around two years for preclinical trial using animals, and another two years for clinical trial with humans. “Although the process [in the clinical trials for the medicine] might hasten because of the current big number of dengue cases [from where the clinical trial could be based] so we can have the medicine soon,” he said. The herbal has multiple mechanisms of action: antiviral activity against the dengue virus; can elevate the platelet levels which are seen in the complicated cases
of dengue responsible for bleeding; and reduction of plasma leakage which contributes to the lowering of blood pressure among the dengue patients.
Herbanext’s supplement also to undergo trials for medicine
AT the same time, the Science chief told the BusinessMirror in a phone interview that Herbanext will still pursue the clinical trial of its TawaTawa antidengue supplement under the brand Daily Apple “to ultimately develop into a medicine.” He said it has already undergone preclinical trial with rats. He explained that although more than 200 people have initially given their testimonies on the increase of their platelet count, these will not be admitted as a clinical trial, which should be administered by medical doctors.
Inspired by the breakthroughs
DE LA PEÑA said he is “inspired by the breakthroughs” in making the supplements and drugs against dengue because of the absence of a cure for the dengue worldwide. “There is already a dengue epidemic in the country. Now we can give our people the supplement, and the medicine in the near future,” he said. De la Peña said an article from a scientific journal written by Sri Lankan scientists, who searched 867 articles, said the herbal plant tawa-tawa (Euphoria hirta) has “conclusive” effects against dengue
because it elevates platelet counts and has antiviral properties. He said this confirms the research of the Filipino experts and shows much hope for the development of the anti-dengue medicine.
‘Tuklas Lunas’
THE Science chief said the researches on dengue cures “ justified” the “Tuklas Lunas” program of the DOST. Tuklas Lunas is the study of a wide range of Philippine plants with folkloric application and background. “They are now harnessed systematically with the use of extracts as concentrates and not just used as the traditional dry leaves,” he said, citing the use of lagundi, the first herbal medicine in the country against cough. He e x pl a i ne d t h at her ba l plants have tree pathways. They can be developed as herbal supplements, as nutraceuticals, or as medicine. The plants’ active ingredients are extracted and undergo clinical trials until they qualify as medicine. “However, not all can me made into medicine. It depends on their efficacy,” he said.
Dengue supplement
DE LA PEÑA said the anti-dengue capsule supplement Tawa-Tawa from Herbanext would be available at P15 per capsule on August 12 from the outlets of its Daily Apple brand in Quezon City and the cities of Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Bacolod and General Santos. He explained the supplement will not prevent one from having dengue, but should just be taken by people who are ill with dengue in order to increase the number of their platelets. “It is like taking paracetamol when one already has fever. It is not taken when one has no fever,” he explained. He said he was informed that the Herbanext supplement can be taken with two capsules three
A MEMBER of the Santiago City Health Office in Isabela trains his fogging machine on the Villa Gonzaga Elementary School building in the city in an operation against the dengue-carrying mosquito in the campus in 2011. The rise in the number of dengue cases has compelled the city government to conduct city-wide fogging and spraying. LEONARDO PERANTE II
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Aeronautic and Space Administration climate scientist Cynthia Rosenzweig, a report coauthor. “The threat of climate change affecting people’s food on their dinner table is increasing.” But if people change the way they eat, grow food and manage forests, it could help save the planet from a far warmer future, scientists said Earth’s land masses, which are only 30 percent of the globe, are warming twice as fast as the planet as a whole. While heat-trapping gasses are causing problems in the atmosphere, the land has been less talked about as part of climate change. A special report, written by more than 100 scientists and unanimously approved by diplomats
from nations around the world at a meeting in Geneva, proposed possible fixes and made more dire warnings. “The way we use land is both part of the problem and also part of the solution,” said Valerie Masson-Delmotte, a French climate scientist who cochairs one of the panel's working groups. “Sustainable land management can help secure a future that is comfortable.” Scientists in Thursday’s press conference emphasized both the seriousness of the problem and the need to make societal changes soon. “We don’t want a message of despair," said science panel official Jim Skea, a professor at
Filipino takes helm of Asian society for breeding research
times a day for adults and half of this dose for children.
Dengue research a priority
DE LA PEÑA said “dengue resea rc h a nd development has always been one of the priority research areas” in the DOST-led Harmonized National Research and Development Agenda. Through the DOST-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development it has funded a number of research projects—such as that of Herbanext's and Alvero's—and programs consistent with the multiprong approach in the control of dengue that address different aspects, such as diagnosis and treatment. He said the DOST has funded the development of a rapid diagnostic test (Biotek M) for dengue to diagnose the disease as early as two to three days after the onset of illness. “This will be very helpful in making the early diagnosis of dengue so that prompt management can be done to prevent complications. This will also help decongest the hospitals that are constrained to keep the dengue suspects confined in the hospital for monitoring until the diagnosis is established, as well as to alleviate the anguish of patients and their relatives as to the confirmation of the diagnosis of dengue,” he said. This diagnostic kit is already ava i lable in a number of pub lic hospita ls and w i l l be made avai lable to the deng ue af fected areas in cooperation w it h DOST reg iona l of f ices and t he Depar tment of Hea lt h.
Use of radiation to sterilize, reduce dengue mosquito population
ANOTHER research that is being done buy the DOST is the use of radiation to sterilize mosquitoes. The DOST-Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) scientists are starting to develop the sterile insect technique (SIT) to reduce the population of Aedes aegypti, which serves as the vector for dengue, chikungunya and zika virus. PNRI scientists rear male mosquitoes in the laboratories to be exposed to gamma radiation which sterilizes the insects. After which the mosquitos will be released to partner with females in the target areas. Mating with sterilized male mosquitoes produces no of fspring, and when sterile males are continuously released in the target area, the population of mosquitoes can be reduced. Researchers aim to use the SIT, along with other conventional methods of pest control, which unlike pesticides, sterilizing male mosquitoes does not pollute the environment and affects only the target insect while sparing many other natural mosquito predators.
NEW U.N. WARMING REPORT: HUNGRY FUTURE CAN BE AVOIDED ASHINGTON—On the ground, climate change is hitting us where it counts: the stomach—not to mention the forests, plants and animals. A new United Nations scientific report examines how global warming and land interact in a vicious cycle. Human-caused climate change is dramatically degrading the land, while the way people use the land is making global warming worse. Thursday’s science-laden report says the combination is already making food more expensive, scarcer and even less nutritious. “The cycle is accelerating,” said National
www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
Imperial College London. "We want to get across the message that every action makes a difference" The report said climate change already has worsened land degradation, caused deserts to grow, permafrost to thaw and made forests more vulnerable to drought, fire, pests and disease. That's happened even as much of the globe has gotten greener because of extra carbon dioxide in the air. Climate change has also added to other forces that have reduced the number of species on Earth. "Climate change is really slamming the land," said World Resources Institute researcher Kelly Levin, who wasn't part of the study but praised it. And the future could be worse. AP
DR. Glenn B. Gregorio (left), Searca director and new president of Sabrao, with outgoing Sabrao President Prof. Dr. Sang-Nag Ahn of Chungnam National University, South Korea.
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FILIPINO has been elected president of an international society dedicated to basic and applied aspects of breeding research in economically important plants. Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, National Academy of Science and Technology, Academician and director of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca), is the new president of the Society for the Advancement of Breeding Research in Asia and Oceania (Sabrao) from 2019 to 2023. He succeeds Prof. Dr. Sang-Nag Ahn of Chungnam National University, South Korea. Formed in 1968—at a time when many countries did not have strong government agencies
focused on agricultural research or national programs for major crops—Sabrao holds conferences and its general assembly every four years in collaboration with a national breeding society. Its 14th International Conference on Plant Breeding for Sustainable Development was held last July in Gwangju, Korea. It was jointly organized by Sabrao and the Korean Society of Breeding Science and coincided with the 50th anniversary of KSBS. First published in 1969, the Sabrao Journal of Breeding and Genetics is the official publication of the society. The journal operates on a not-for-profit basis and focuses on plant species or topics that are relevant to developing countries in Asia and Oceania.
Starbooks for PHL Science Centrum and traveling exhibits
PRESENT during event are (from left) Engr. Nicanor S. Villaseñor III, PFST vice president; Engr. Daniel H. Valeriano Jr., member, PFST Board of Trustees; Atty. Ernesto L. Albano, PFST Board secretary; Dir. Richard P. Burgos DOST-Science and Technology Information Institute; Engr. Rodolfo C. Salazar, PFST president, Maret F. Bautista, PFST treasurer; Executive Director Erika A. Aquino of Infinit-O Foundation; Engr. Filemon T. Berba Jr., PFST chairman of the board; Dr. Corazon PB. Claudio, member of PFST Board of Trustees; May M. Pagsinohin, PFST executive director and ARD chief for Technical Operations Arman P. Bionat of the DOST-National Capital Region.
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NFINIT-O Foundation, under its program, Project Aquila, donated 20 computer units to the Philippine Foundation for Science and Technology (PFST). They will be used in the Science and Technology Academic and Research Based Open lyOperated K iosk s (Starbook s) program of the Department of
Science and Technology. They will be a special feature in the Philippine Science Centrum and its Traveling Exhibition sets. The event was witnessed by the Board of Trustees and members during the PFST ’s Annual General Membership meeting held at Metropolitan Club in Makati in June.
Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror
Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua
Sunday, August 11, 2019
A7
Lakbay Museo: The Philippines in a nutshell Story & photos by Benjamin Locsin Layug
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OR those who want to travel and experience 11 regions of the Philippines without having to leave Manila, then you should visit the IG-worthy Lakbay Museo within Conrad Manila, Mall of Asia Complex. Prior to its official opening to the public on July 12, we were allowed a sneak preview of this unique and new destination that describes itself as the “first PH interactive millennial museum.” A project of The Millennial Concept Factory Inc., headed by President Lawrence Li Tan, Lakbay Museo offers, in one massive space, a chance for young Filipino millennials to travel, within two hours inside the museum, across the Philippines’s best vacation spots, and know more of the country’s unique history, food, music, arts and culture. Before we entered the museum, we were dressed up with authentic handwoven fabrics with colorful designs, by staff wearing traditional Filipino attire. To enter the museum, we were given the choice of entering via a vinta, hopping on a distinctly Filipino and colorful jeepney, or climbing a unique airplane display (where you slide down to enter the gallery), a reminder of the many options for traveling around the Philippines—by land, water or air. The museum, boasting 1,000 square meters and divided into 11 areas with well-trained guides, is filled with interesting portals, displays and interactive stations which you can explore and experience through different senses. Lakbay Museo also offers 14 unique experiences plus 10 freebies for tasting experiences. At the Luzon Exhibit, you’ll find Luzon’s gorgeous traditional houses (Batanes’s Ivatan house, the Ifugao bale, etc.) and festivals, including the life-size display of the gorgeous and colorful Pahiyas Festival of Quezon province.
A PAIR of moriones and dancers at the Pahiyas Festival
PORTAL to PHL’s first interactive museum.
AN array of dried fish and local vinegar.
One of the highlights in the museum is the miniature display of a replica of Mayon Volcano and the Cagsawa Ruins. A small tunnel, under the volcano, is filled with mirrors and lights you can play with, perfect for photo experiments and extraordinary shots. The Visayas region, known for its beaches and seas brimming with life, showcases the Philippines’s one-of-a-kind underwater world. The amazingly vibrant and colorful Mindanao Exhibit display depicts the island’s dances, traditional instruments and local cuisines. A section of Lakbay Museo is dedicated to a fabric collection of colorful traditional textiles (t’nalak from Lake Sebu, inabel from Northern Luzon, etc.) and original tapestries, created by actual ethnic and indigenous groups from all over the Philippines that comes with local stories and whose textures you can touch.
LIVE performances of traditional dances.
There are also over 120 synthetic mannequins wearing authentic Filipino fashion. The museum holds hourly and live cultural performances of traditional dances (Pandanggo sa Ilaw, Tinikling, Cariñosa, Sayaw sa Bangko, Ifugao Kaloob dance, Maguindanao’s Sagayan, etc.) from Luzon to Mindanao, performed by dance troupes on the big stage. A puppet show also educates children on Philippine heritage. Learning about Philippine culture is, of course, not complete without learning about the variety of dishes in the country. Lakbay Museo, housing a large collection of Philippine staples has, literally on exhibit, over 600 known Filipino dishes in the collection. A replica of Cebu’s famous Taboan Public Market displays an array of local fruits and dried fishes (palad from Samar, bisugo from Ilocos, labahita from Batangas, etc.). However, since what they
GAILY decorated carabao of Baguio’s Panagbenga Festival.
have on display are just life-like replicas, you won’t end up smelling like tinapa. For the full experience, you can smell the real deal inside sealed jars on shelves. They include different kinds of local vinegar with different strength levels (sukang Iloco, sukang paombong, etc.), delicious bagoong or shrimp paste (bagoong alamang, bagoong sisi, etc.), coffee beans and roasts (kapeng barako, kapeng alamid, etc.) and rice grain varieties (from the Ifugao’s Minaangan to the Mountain Province’s Ominio). While most of the displays are replicas, you can also try some snacks using the 12 tokens that come free with the admission fee. These, you can use to buy full meals and Pinoy street food from the carinderia and chips, candies, native treats and more from the sari-sari store. As Filipinos love sawsawan, you can try the local vinegar with their fish crackers.
Lakbay Museo, built on the foundation of environment conservation, aims to raise environmental awareness. Most of its displays were made from recycled materials (4,560 old and used rubber slippers, 328 old tires, 453 old car mats, plastic bottles, etc.). The museum also provides job opportunities to the marginalized sectors of the society—out-of-school youth, nonprofessionals, disabled persons (PWDs) and senior citizens. Local artists also lovingly handcrafted the thousands of realistic, life-size and perfectly flatlayed replicas of various market produce, multitude of fish species and a variety of vegetables and fruits on display. We ended our tour and exited the museum at the museum shop, which sells local products and unique souvenir items, in partnership with 189 micro-, small- and medium-scale enterprises in the country.
Duty Free Philippines opens first supermarket inside airport
P GYUDON
DINING area
HOMARE roll
Homare offers authentic Japanese dining experience
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N July 30, The Bellevue Manila switches up its food scene as it rebrands its in-house Japanese dining outlet Hatsune, now to be known as Homare Japanese Restaurant and Grill, where locals can enjoy all the Japanese dishes they’ve come to love. Homare, which means “Glory, honor, reputation” signifies the five-star hotel’s mission to glorify the exquisite taste of Japanese cuisine, to honor their culture’s traditions, and to leave its reputation untarnished by offering authentic specialties with world-class service. The new name comes with a new and im-
proved menu featuring a vast selection, including classic Japanese set meals, Teishoku and Gozen; healthy hot pots filled to the brim with noodles, fresh vegetables, meat and rich stock; Japanese noodles, such as Soba and Udon; a variety of Sushi, Sahimi, Nigiri and Ippin Ryori; filling rice bowls, Donburimono; fresh salads; crowd-favorite crispy golden Tempura; tender Teppanyaki; and Japanese desserts, such as match pastries, dango and dorayaki. Homare is especially proud to introduce yakiniku on its menu with US Angus Beef and A5 Wagyu beef cuts. As for the Japanese drinks, the sake list
includes Nihon Sakari Nama, Ginjo and Geikkeken sake. The recently renovated Zen-inspired restaurant has a total seating capacity of 130 diners, with the main dining hall accommodating over 100 diners and two private rooms with eight to 12 seats each where guests can enjoy a different barbecue experience with newly installed yakiniku grills. Be among the first to experience Homare’s vast menu of authentic Japanese specialties at Homare Japanese Restaurant and Grill. Homare is open daily from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch, and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. for dinner at The Bellevue Manila.
ASSENGERS passing through Ninoy A qu i no I nter n at ion a l A i r por t (Naia) Terminal 3 will be treated to a wide selection of products from chocolates, perfumes, apparel, home furnishing, wines and liquors, cigarettes, sporting goods—and even groceries. Duty Free Philippines has opened its first supermarket inside an airport at the DFP Arrival Mall, South Arrival Lobby, Naia Terminal 3, making traveling and shopping much easier. The over 800-square-meter supermarket boasts a complete section of grocery items for mass consumption such as laundry detergents, shampoo, condiments, canned goods, frozen foods and snacks. It also has shelves for cereals, baby care, pasta and noodles, cheese, yogurt and other items.
According to DFP Chief Operating Officer Vicente Pelagio A. Angala, the supermarket offers a complete section featuring dedicated wall bays and an increased product assortment to serve the travelers better with a fully stocked supermarket right at the airport. “We came up with this idea to raise the bar of the Duty Free pasalubong shopping experience. Instead of buying grocery items abroad that will add up to their baggage fees, they can shop the same brands when they arrive at the airport at a dutyfree price,” said Angala. “Other than keeping yourself from paying unnecessary baggage fees, this also adds convenience. Imagine arriving at the airport after a vacation or working abroad, one can just conveniently grab groceries or do grocery shopping with their family,” he added.
A8 Sunday, August 11, 2019
Sports BusinessMirror
A VICTORY FOR WOODS, A TRIUMPH FOR THAIS J
By Avery Yang
The Associated Press
ERSEY CITY, New Jersey—Tiger Woods’s first vacation to Thailand was a lot different than when he goes there for work. “No one knew who I was,” Woods said Wednesday with a smile. That might be true when no one’s trying to bother him at a resort with his mother, children and girlfriend. Still, there’s no question Woods is one of Thailand’s most lauded sports heroes. His mother was born and raised in Thailand. Since his first Masters win in 1997, Woods’s face has been plastered across Bangkok’s newspapers and television stations throughout his highs and lows. Woods identified himself “Cablinasian”— Caucasian, Black, American Indian and Asian— on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1997. Even so, he has always reciprocated the special kinship he has with his Thai roots. “We wanted to have at least one time where
the kids got a chance to experience Thailand with my mom, and so it was special for all of us,” Woods said. “The fact that my kids got a chance to be with my mom in her home country was pretty special considering that that may never happen again.” Woods has won his share of tournaments in the Southeast Asian country—he won the 1998 and 2000 Johnnie Walker Classics in Phuket and Bangkok. The 1998 victory was the most memorable—he started the final round eight shots behind Ernie Els, shot 65 and beat him in a playoff. That remains his greatest final-round comeback. And it was at the 1998 tournament in Phuket that Chuah Choo Chiang, senior director of communications for the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour who has spent most of his career involved in the Asian Tour, truly realized the impact Woods had on the region. “As Tiger was about to win the tournament, one of the Thai players said, ‘Hey, it’s no problem, it’s a
Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph
TOKYO TURNS TO SNOW AS TEMPERATURE RISES A
DEMONSTRATION of an air-conditioning system using snow has been launched in front of Saitama Stadium, one of the football venues for next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. It comes amid growing concerns over the health threat of heat to athletes and fans during Tokyo 2020 with soaring temperatures having killed at least 57 people across Japan in the week from July 29 to August 4, according to the Disaster Management Agency. As reported by The Japan News, the system uses icy water made from natural snow saved in Saitama’s friendship city of Minamiuonuma in Niigata Prefecture. The cold air from the water is blown by fans
TIGER WOODS’S mother, Kulthida Woods, holds up an advertisement in Bangkok for the Honda Asian Classic which pictures her son in January 1997. Woods and Thongchai Jaidee, meanwhile, sit on a bench in the 17th tee box during the fourth round of the Memorial tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, in June 2010. AP
win for Thailand as well,’” Choo Chiang said. “And this was a professional on the Asian Tour.” It was like that beyond the borders of Thailand, stretching all over the world. Woods has played in every continent except Antarctica—and returned with a trophy from each. his appeal is massive, and it is particularly strong across Asia. Woods has played in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Turkey, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The two tournaments he hosts have title sponsors from South Korea and India. He returns to Japan in October for an exhibition and for the Zozo Championship, the first PGA Tour event in Japan. He played in his mother’s home country for the first time in 1997. According to a Sports Illustrated story, Woods landed in Bangkok after a 20-hour flight from Los Angeles. The plane’s first-class cabin was bombarded by cameras and journalists from four of the five national TV stations, who began broadcasting live. This was two months before he won the Masters, which set off the first phase of “Tigermania.” Woods was exhausted from the flight and his hectic start to the season. In the delirium, one reporter asked what Woods would like to say to the Thai people. “I’ll sign everything outside,” a bleary Woods said, according to the story.
To this day, Thailand’s frenzy for Tiger continues. According to Choo Chiang, the excitement levels are the same—if not higher—especially since Woods won the Tour Championship at the end of last season and the Masters in April. It was his first major in 11 years. “You see young kids in Thailand having the same reaction as to what kids had 20 years before,” Choo Chiang said. “They’re emulating his swing. They’re just in full awe of Tiger.” Thai’s own world-standing in golf is rising. Four Thai women were among the top 50 on the LPGA Tour money list last year, led by Ariya Jutanugarn, who won the US Women’s Open and ended the year at No. 1 in the world ranking. Kiradech Aphibarnrat, the first Thai PGA Tour member, is sometimes referred to as the “Asian John Daly” for his power and girth. Next on the horizon could be 23-year-old Atiwit “Jazz “ Janewattananond, who played in the penultimate group at Bethpage Black in his PGA Championship debut. He is on the cusp of cracking the top 50 in the world ranking. Aphibarnrat and Janewattananond have talked in length about the effect Woods has had on their lives. It’s evident his profound impact is a part of every Thai golfer. “I could bet you my last dollar every single one has been inspired by Tiger—110 percent,” Choo Chiang said.
IOC issues stern warning to Coni over potential charter breaches
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HE International Olympic Committee (IOC) has sent a letter to the Italian National Olympic Committee (Coni) raising serious concerns for its role in the future of Italian sport and issued a warning of suspension should the issues not be rectified promptly. The letter, which insidethegames has seen, served as a stark reminder of the IOC’s power to a National Olympic Committee which, just six weeks ago, celebrated a successful bid campaign to host the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
At the end of 2018 the Italian Parliament approved a law that would see a separate Government-controlled organization setup to distribute funds to the country’s national governing bodies. This body, called “Sport e Salute”—or Sport and Health—would allegedly reduce Coni’s role to only handling preparation for the Olympic Games. The Italian Parliament plans could also see Coni’s annual budget reduced from $453 million to just $45 million. In January, Coni President Giovanni Malagò
MEMBERS of the delegation of Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo 2026 Winter Olympics candidate city react after the cities were selected to host the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
to circulate in a 9-meters-long tent-like covered passage that arches up to about 2.5m tall. According to the organizer, the temperature outside was almost 40 degrees Celsius but the temperature inside the tent was kept at 30 degrees Celsius or below. “Beating the heat with snow will be the perfect ‘omotenashi’ hospitality for visitors from overseas,” a Saitama city official was reported as saying by The Japan News. Both Saitama and Minamiuonuma are due to examine the results of the demonstration before deciding whether to introduce the system for Tokyo 2020. Temperatures have been stuck above 31 degrees Celsius in and around Tokyo since July 24, the date the Olympics are due to open next year in Japan’s capital. More than 1,800 people have been taken to hospitals in Tokyo during the past week. Since 1976, most Summer Olympics have been held in the Northern Hemisphere summer due to international broadcasting and sports schedules. In June, Tokyo 2020 published an overview of countermeasures being taken to minimize the risk of heat on athletes and spectators. “Weather conditions were often organizers’ challenges in past Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Tokyo 2020 Spokesman Masa Takaya was reported as saying by Reuters. “We also understand that top-tier competitions can sometimes be observed in cities with even tougher weather patterns than in Tokyo.” Concerns over heat rose last year after Japan suffered a record heatwave. Temperatures reached 41.1 degrees Celsius just north of Tokyo, which hosted its first Summer Olympics in the much-cooler month of October in 1964. Among the measures being considered is allowing spectators to bring their own bottled water into venues under certain conditions, which had previously been prevented at past editions of the Olympic Games due to security and sponsorship. A Tokyo 2020 cooling project has been launched, with the aim to promote heat countermeasures led by the Japanese organizers with the support of 13 sponsors. This will include providing cool spaces and items, which can be sampled to mitigate heat. In a bid to counter the searing heat, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has also been installing special coatings on the city center’s roads, including areas of the marathon course, with materials that are expected to suppress temperature rises by as much as 8 degrees centigrade. It has also been confirmed that the Olympic marathons will start at 6 a.m. local time, an hour earlier than scheduled, with the women’s event on August 2 and men’s on August 9—the last day of competition. At last month’s beach volleyball test event in Tokyo, misting sprays and air-conditioned tents were among features trialled to combat the effects of rising temperatures. “We will keep working closely together with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the National Government and relevant stakeholders to ensure the successful delivery of the Games,” Takaya added. Insidethegames warned it was important that Coni worked with the Italian Parliament to find a quick solution to the approved law changes but seven months on, nothing appears to have been resolved. In the three-page letter, signed by James Macleod, the director of Olympic Solidarity and National Olympic Committee (NOC) Relations, the IOC raised issue with the impact of Italian Parliament approving plans to set up a Government-controlled organization which would distribute funds to the country’s national governing bodies. The preservation of Coni’s autonomy, a basic foundation of the Olympic Charter, is the key issue at stake for the IOC. Addressed to Malagò, the letter expressly noted article 27.9 of the Olympic Charter: “The IOC Executive Committee can take the most appropriate decisions for the protection of the Olympic Movement in the country of a NOC, including the suspension or withdrawal of the recognition of such NOC if the constitution, the law or other rules in the nation in question. “The IOC Executive Committee will offer this NOC the opportunity to be heard before making such a decision.” The Italians were reminded that “belonging to the Olympic Movement requires respect for the Olympic Charter and recognition by the IOC” and the letter reiterated the role of NOCs to ensure compliance with the Olympic Charter in their own countries. It served to reinforce Coni’s responsibilities with an additional warning that NOC’s could collaborate with nongovernment organizations, provided they did not take an action contrary to the Olympic Charter. Insidethegames
CREATE WEALTH IF YOU CAN, YOUNG Beverage-maker cites EXEC SAYS help in social media growing bottled fruit, veggie juice biz
Create wealth if you can, young exec says
By Leony R. Garcia
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VERY time Marvin Tiu Lim sees a sardine can, he thinks of a van. It was 2014 and he was inside one, behind the steering wheel, as a driver. Lim, vice president for sales and marketing of Mega Global Corp., said that was how he started with the company. He said he had to join Mega Global in 2014 “when my brother who was doing this job migrated to Canada.” Unlike most millennials, especially those born with the proverbial golden spoon in their mouth, Lim chose to learn first from the outside. Right after graduating from college in 2010, he started working for SM for a year as Management Trainee until he was assigned in mall operations. In 2011, he started his own business, the AutoKid Truck. His brother’s departure for work overseas, however, prompted his entry into the company founded by his father William Tiu Lim. His first job was as a van salesman, the people who go to sari-sari stores and sell every day.
“So I started from that. Then I handled the distributors, then I went up and up and up; then I started marketing,” he said. He fully took the helm of sales and marketing around 2016.
From the bottom LIM admitted he really didn’t want to start immediately as a boss. “I didn’t want everyone to think that just because of the COO, I would become their boss. So I needed to earn their respect.” He believed he earned the respect “by knowing and experiencing first hand what they [employees] did and knowing their hardships, as well.” Being the company’s vice president, Lim is very hands-on in the distribution of the products. “I handle 30 distributors nationwide who get in touch with the sari-sari and market stall owners and different trade channels,” he said. His team also handles directly all the modern key accounts. “We make sure our products are widely available in all distribution points.” In this business, distribution is the name of the game, he explained. “Even if you’re very well-known and even if your product is very good, but if your distribution is not there in line, and your people aren’t living out the same
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sales values that you have, it would be not a good process,” Lim said. “Distribution is really the name of the game when it comes to selling.”
Targeting millennials
TARGETING his fellow millennials, Lim believed it’s “important for us all to be geared toward the millennials by becoming more trendy and creative, and speaking in their language.” “We make sure we understand them, what their needs are for the products, what they want to change in our products,” Lim said. “We believe that this segment is a growing base of mass consumption users for our products. We really hope to drive more consumption from them in the future.” William, the family patriarch, has indeed run his company well for all those 45 years. And Lim can proudly say that his nearly three-year stint has already made a difference. “Now, all our products are growing. We are experiencing a good surge of demand across all the categories we have, primarily driven by our promise to deliver value for money with the food products to the Filipino people that have remained consistent over the past 20 years since we’ve started with [the] MEGA Sardines [brand],” Lim said. AUGUST 11, 2019
“People are catching on,” he added. “They really believe in our brand promise, our brand’s story. We are truthful in everything we advertise and we believe that because of the great nature or the great taste, the great benefits of our products, people are really consuming it.”
New role
WITH Mega Global’s products properly placed in the market, Lim has found a new role in the company. “Right now at my position, my primary job is to make sure that people are happy in this company [because] it’s really hard to find a company wherein you treat it as a second family and you really love going to work and working for the founders. So that’s primarily what I try to do,” Lim said. “I try to give my employees the best that we can, in terms of compensation benefits and make sure they have fun and they love it here in Mega Global.” A young visionary, Lim isn’t resting on his accomplishments. A believer in wealth creation, he plans to take Mega Global public in the next five years. “I believe it’s a company worth sharing to the Filipino people. We believe that our plans and programs can be maximized more, given the more resources. We believe in the team that we have. Sayang kasi [It’s a pity] if we don’t share it.”
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MUSIC
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BEST OF ANIME 2019
ENJOY ANISONG, JAPANESE POP AND ROCK MUSIC VIA BEST OF ANIME 2019
BY Ysabel Andrei Rodriguez
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N its 10th year, the Best of Anime 2019 will bring again Japanese artists to serenade Japanese music fans in the Philippines. The Best of Anime 2019 is an annual anime convention for anime, manga and Japanese music enthusiasts and one of their greatest highlights is their Japanese music guests. This coming August 31 and September 1, Japanese artists like STARMARIE,UCHUSENTAI:NOIZ, Yumeoi Syoujyo, and BACKON will grace the event. Many Filipino fans are looking forward to meeting STARMARIE and UCHUSENTAI:NOIZ and witness their magical and outer-space
music once again. Performing in BOA for the first time are new idol group Yumeoi Syoujyo, and BACK-ON, who had been featured in many anime like “Air Gear,” “Eyeshield 21” and “Fairy Tail.” Also, our very own Filipino idol group Aidoru Sozai will also entertain the crowd on stage.
STARMARIE currently has five members. These are Kishita Nozomi, Takamori Shino, Nakane Monya, Matsuzaki Hiroka and Watanabe Kaede. This idol group is known for anime themes for Cardfight!! Vanguard G and Onigiri. STARMARIE was originally a 3-member group with Arai Kaori, Sekine Saya and Aoki Shiori as the original members. Kishita Nozomi joined as the fourth member in August 2008. Meanwhile, Takamori Shino joined after the graduation of Arai Kaori. On June 8 this year, STARMARIE released their new concept album called SAYONARA OBENTO. It contains 11 tracks with “Sayonara Obento” as the title track. UCHUSENTAI:NOIZ is very close to the Filipinos. Aside from their lively out of the world music, the band is greatly known for
their humanitarian work in the Philippines. UCHUSENTAI:NOIZ is a Japanese indie visual kei band that was formed in 1996. The group also released three covers of popular Filipino songs such as “Liwanag sa Dilim” by Rivermaya, “Superhero” by Rocksteddy and “Pino Ako” by Orange and Lemons which were greatly loved by Filipinos. They also joined and competed in the local TV show I LOVE OPM, a contest for foreign acts who can sing OPM songs. Yumeoi Syoujyo debuted in April 2016 in Shibuya Ruido K2. Since May 2016, they have been performing at Kichijoji, Tokyo every Tuesdays. Yumeoi Syoujyo had their first one man live at AOYAMA RIZM last April 2017. They also had an international Continued on page 4
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AUGUST 11 , 2019 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com
MUS
Enjoy...
YUMEOI SYOUJYO
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guesting in Kuala Lumpur for the JAPAN EXPO MALAYSIA. Their first single is “TEKINA SUNRISE” and their music is produced by michitomo and Carlos K, the known music producers of Nishino Kana and Momoiro Clover Z. Another Japanese rock band to look forward to in The Best of Anime 2019 is BACK-ON! The group has two members named Kenji03 who is responsible for the vocals and Teeda who raps for the band. Active since 2002, BACK-ON is known for their anime songs such as “Chain” for Air Gear, “Hikari Sasuhou” for Murder Princess OVA, “Blaze Line” for Eyeshield 21, “Strike Back” for Fairy Tail, and “Nibun no Ichi” for Continued on page 6
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soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | AUGUST 11, 2019
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BICOL-BASED BAND 5:48 ON THE MAGIC OF URAGON NIGHT & PLAYING IN MANILA
by Rick Olivares
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ometimes… one needs to take that leap of faith.
For folk rock band 5:48 out of Bicol (Tabaco City and Tiwi in Albay province to be exact), Paggimata: Uragon Night 3 on August 17, 2019 at Saguijo in Makati City is like that first date, that first ever gig. It will be 5:48’s first ever show outside their native Bicol region. And what a way to make that leap… in one of the more famous gigging joints in the bustling Metro Manila music scene. This will be the third year Uragon Night is hosted in Manila and this coming August 17 and slated to perform are Manila-based Bicolano bands We Are Imaginary, Guira, Ashfall, St. Cockpit and rising pop act, This Band. First time Manila performers include blues outfit Mang Groove, ska crew Skalibers, alt rockers Idlepitch, folk-pop rock band 5:48, and emo band Anesthesia. Paggimata means “awakening”
in English and while the goal of the evening is to generate awareness of the Bicolano talent, it is also to give that baptism of fire local bands. For 5:48 vocalist and guitarist Jhasmine Villanueva – and the rest of her band mates that include drummer David Joshua Casquejo, bassist Prosper James Casquejo, violinist Paul John Cope, percussionist Alfie Mikko Contante, guitarist Ravenly Llunar, and keyboardist Japhet Keen Chavez – Uragon Night qualifies as a first and they have butterflies in their stomach. “We are thrilled to be a part of Uragon Night,” gushed Villanueva. “This is our first time to play outside Bicol and we are nervous. This is a huge blessing for Bicolano artists to Continued on page 6
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MUSIC ON PRINT
SoundSampler | by Tony M. Maghirang
Here we go again with Paosin The Well, Barbie Almalbis, Violent Femmes. Russian Circles and Hide At Six
PAOSIN THE WELL Bliss Obviously a play on the name of American punk band Poison the Well, the solo act Paosin The Well hardly traffics in dissonance or anxiety. He counts as influences the likes of Brian Eno, Trent Reznor, Bjork, and Sigur Ros and his releases rub shoulders with socalled outsider musicians under the post-internet, post-apocalyptic label Cult Shit Media Blackout. On his latest album entitled Bliss, Paosin The Well aka Paulo Dejon does project the relative serenity after an apocalypse. A lone lounge piano figure tinkles across the album’s five tracks shadowed occasionally by hot sax streaks (“For Cherie”) or trip-hop drum beats in “Coffee and Doughnuts.” The last cut, “The Evening Rush,” captures the cacophony of early morning EDSA in Year 2025 when the dream of reaching Makati from Cubao in 5 minutes will be realized. Despite his affiliation with a badass-named Internet label, Paosin The Well shows little affinity with shit or blackout. In fact, those who still carry a torch for ‘70s jazz fusion can listen to this affair as a rockist’s revisit to the period when The Crusaders stood for something eclectic, innovative and groovy. “Bliss” is a 24K pick in a mounting heap of fool’s gold.
BARBIE ALMALBIS Tigre
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Titles don’t make an album so no worries, the kittenish Barbie Almalbis isn’t about to show some sharp fangs on her latest EP. She said in an interview, it’s about her cat and the three songs on “Tigre” play cat and mouse with love’s emotional range. Barbie’s latest songs retain the band dynamics and textures the singer-songwriter picked up with her previous trio set-up. With three songs in all, her new album doesn’t go beyond the usual boundaries of easy listening pop-rock. “Tigre” even undulates in a lounge jazz progression. On closer listen, the title track hints at impending trouble between two lovers. The phrase “Umiiyak sa isang tabi/Naghahanap ng kayakap” expresses a deep need for company. That is, until Barbie drops the line “Ang bango bango ng pusa ko” followed by an abrupt silence. This should be a cool introduction to millennials to a well-loved musician named Barbie.
VIOLENT FEMMES Hotel Last Resort The band that folk rocked the synthetic ‘80s new wave scene is back. Those who remember “Blister in the Sun” will be glad to know that the irrepressible Gordon Gano still proclaims a quirky vision of humanity to transport the listener to the same hallowed ground of the Femmes’ early days. Opener “Another Chorus” reprises Beck at his most slacker beatnik phase probably demonstrating to all and sundry that Gano can still deliver what the other faded alt-rock icons can do in their prime. However, that appears to be a passing conceit because for the rest of the new album, Gano and his new partners who include Television’s legendary guitarist Tom Verlaine build upon the Femmes’ groundbreaking sound to create a few things above and
Seven albums into a critically-acclaimed career, American post-rock titans Russian Circles produce a new album that matches majestic guitar patterns with the gloriously propulsive backbeat. Where before, the prog-rock chords eclipse all others, the rhythm and beat, this time, are on the same page and pace as the spiraling riffs. “Kohokia” starts on an eerie note then surges midway to a symphonic avalanche and the bass-drum axis seamlessly upholds the obligatory ebb and flow in guitarist Mike Sullivan’s layered dynamics. More of the same effortless partnership shines through in the turbulence-laden “Sinaia,” the clanking drag that shoves ”Quartered” to a thrash metal shred showcase and “Arluck,” where crystalline chords ride out some of the stormiest backbeat on “Blood Year.” Before, much of the pleasure in listening to Russian Circles comes from the exuberance and intelligence of the collective performance. Now, with “Blood Year”, there’s the added excitement that the
Bicol... as Spotify Philippines. Aside from guests from Japan, there will be a film showing, and performances from guest cosplayers Momo, Chihiro and King from Taiwan. There will also be a karate demonstration from the Best of Anime team. Contests like anime idol dance battle, battle of the bands, all-star cosplay competition, and anime sing off will also happen in the two-day event. The Best of Anime 2019 is scheduled on August 31 to September 1 at the SMX Convention Center Manila, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Chicago trio are hacking out a brand now path to a more vigorous, combative post-everything.
HIDE AT SIX Good Times and Goodbyes
RUSSIAN CIRCLES Blood Year
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Gundan Build Fighters. Their song “Butterfly” was also featured in a Japanese TV series Shinjuku Swan. Aside from these four Japanese groups, Filipino idol group Aidoru Sozai will also grace the event. This 7-member idol unit is composed of Jash, Aira, Vivi, Yana, Mika, Sara and Hayaka. The group’s passion to perform was inspired from Japanese idols, thus Aidoru Sozai wants to convey the magic of Japanese idol music to the Filipino audience. Their original songs such as “Ashita Wonderful”, “Sora mo Hareru” and “~ Kono Yume wo Shinjite Yokatta” can be streamed online on different platforms such
beyond the Violent Femmes canon. The titular track is driven by energetic acoustic guitar strums as if enticing you to dance merrily to a tune about botched chances and regret. A distinct Velvet Underground tension sustains the dread in “Everlasting You” while “This Free Ride,”powered by ‘50s-style rockabilly, carries the allure of topnotch power pop. “I’m Not Gonna Cry” is a barn dance number founded on punky French can-can. Gordon sings of being invisible and becoming nothing in a couple of songs. He shouldn’t be allowed to fade away. His unique artistry deserves a few more rounds of millennial appreciation.
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be given the opportunity to showcase our music.” “The Manila music scene is amazing,” Villanueva segued about the vibrant music scene in Metro Manila. “Small artists are given a chance to perform in clubs, bars, and coffee shops; busking is starting to get appreciated and is becoming normalized in the metro.” There are over three dozen clubs and performance venues in the Metro Manila area that regularly feature performances by a host of performers. Saguijo, located in San Antonio Village in Makati is one of the more popular venues that is home to some of the big bands such as Sandwich and Imago to name a few. 5:48 is looking forward to not only make their mark on the venue
The name of the six-piece group from Malabon City seems carelessly chosen but probably apt given their self-promotion as an easycore band, a description as lame as easy rock. But don’t shoot this messenger just yet. These guys are actually armed to the teeth with great-sounding riffs this emo side of pop-punk. The emo part of the musical equation refers to the overwrought lyrics about young love and its pursuit emoted by an overeager frontman. Second track “Nice To Meet” while powered by Blink-182 worthy blitz opens with these lines: “You’re like an angel in disguise/First time I saw You there’s a spark in my eyes.” Like, duh? Whatever happened to “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker,” or “I’m So Bored With the USA?” One particular track, “Better Without You” offers “When everything is lost and can’t be found /I will find a way” yet such miserable songwriting is somehow rescued by captivating guitar riffs that fancy The Dawn on a hard rock trip. Arguably, the same riffs can be re-arranged into a power metal movement ala UK’s Dragonforce and catapult Hide at Six a step ahead of the dwindling emo/pop-punk miserablists. The band can continue writing gnarly love notes and varying the mechanics of execution beyond easycore will only help extend their stay in the harsh limelight. *Listen to the music on bandcamp and spotify.
but to also present their songs that tackle relevant social issues. “Our song ‘Kumilos’ wants to send a message to the youth that they have this traditional and historical role in playing a part in the future of our country. It also sends a message that during times when voices of dissent are being repressed, the masses are all the more motivated to carry on the fight.” The band doesn’t have any album out, however, one of their songs will be featured in the album, Songs from the Camp of the Dawani Project, Inc. “We hope that Manila music fans take the time to check out the diverse talent that we have,” said Uragon Night 3 co-organizer Ahmad Tanji of the band We Are Imaginary. “They will see the talent and hear some really good songs and terrific performances.”
Oil has a millennial problem as talent pipeline trickles
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IL companies have a problem, and his name is Robert Paver. This 22-year-old graduate, along with his fellow students of earth sciences at the University of Oxford, should be natural recruits for an industry that has a long and lucrative history in the UK but instead of contemplating a career at an offshore driller, he’s planning to become a management consultant. Out of Paver’s cohort of 28 students, only one is going into the oil and gas industry. “Twenty or 30 years ago, oil was definitely very popular for students, but there seem to be a lot fewer people going into it these days,” Paver said in a phone interview. “A lot of alumni went into BP and Shell in the past, more than currently.” For decades, science and engineering graduates have followed a well-worn path from top UK universities into the oil and gas industry, supplying the skilled work force that’s needed to discover and develop resources all over the world. In recent years, the flow of talent has slowed to a trickle, raising fundamental questions for an industry that remains a vital cog in the global economy. The decline began in earnest after 2014, when the price of oil went into free fall and the petroleum industry hemorrhaged jobs. Companies slashed graduate recruitment, with the number of hires halving in two years. Yet, that’s not the whole story. Crude prices have recovered and the industry has found its feet again, but the number of British graduates going into the sector has continued falling to the lowest since records began in 2012. There are growing signs that the once-desirable industry isn’t the employer it used to be.
Future fears “PEOPLE are worried that there aren’t going to be as many jobs in the future, especially geology-related jobs because of a movement away from fossil fuels,” Paver said. “With oil companies making fewer discoveries and not wanting to invest as much in exploration, they’re worried in the future it’s maybe not going to be viable.” The industry is facing recruitment challenges all over the world. In a survey of more than 33,000 people working in oil and gas conducted by oilandgasjobsearch.com and NES Global Talent, almost 90 percent said skills shortages were damaging productivity, with gaps
widening in every sector of the industry. To combat this, companies are going further than a high starting salary to attract graduates. Some are grooming talented students before they even finish their degrees. BP offers 3,000 pound a year ($3,600) scholarships to science, technology, engineering and mathematics students at Oxford, with the recipients being “fast-tracked” to a job interview at the end of their studies, according to the university’s web site. These incentives aren’t always enough to attract the best talent. Big Oil’s association with climate change and environmental damage is affecting graduate recruitment, said Lucy Williams, geoscience manager for Rockhopper Exploration Plc. and chairman of the UK Geological Society’s Petroleum Group.
Turning away “UNIVERSITY petroleum courses are being asked to take petroleum out of their name, because people think petroleum is the devil,” Williams said in an interview. “I suspect some people who start on it in their education and then get turned away from it.” According to data compiled by the Higher Education Statistics Agency the number of graduates going into oil and gas exploration in 2017 was at its lowest since records began in 2012, having fallen by 61 percent in four years. Trendence
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UK, a market research firm, found that 91 percent of surveyed students cared about working for an ethical company, and 67 percent considered doing a job that contributed to climate change to be unethical. “Environmental concerns are the overriding driver putting people off going into the energy industry,” said Mads Huuse, professor of geophysics at the University of Manchester. “A lot of geoscience students in the UK don’t work in the industry, they work in insurance companies and banks. Just a few years ago petroleum was a selling point. Now it’s dwindling.” To tackle their recruitment problem, some oil companies have tried to add a youthful sheen to their public image. One example is Connor Tann, a petrophysicist and “data revolutionary” at BP. He stars in the company’s promotional material as a fresh face to demonstrate that it thinks about its future. At 26 years old, he’s young for the industry, which has an average age of 42.2 according to a report by Oil and Gas UK, a trade association. As part of the BP’s mentoring program, he gets access to the company’s top executives, including upstream chief Bernard Looney, who hopes to learn how to keep recent graduates from turning instead to cooler start-ups or tech giants such as Facebook Inc. With the generous salary and benAUGUST 11, 2019
efits the oil giant can offer, BP should have reason to be confident of retaining his services for a long time. But Looney said earlier this year that he fears the company may lose people like Tann if it can’t find a way to make them enthusiastic about the careers it offers. “What we’re hearing from young applicants is that they want to be part of the energy transition and to make a difference in working on solutions to the challenges that the world faces,” said a BP spokesman. The company isn’t finding it difficult to attract graduate or intern applications, she said. Oil companies’ recruitment challenges could deepen as the industry returns to financial health after the price slump, which saw international benchmark Brent plunging in January 2016 to an almost 13-year low of under $28 a barrel. In the first half of this year Brent averaged over $66 a barrel. While recruitment should start to ramp up again, graduates may not fill the gap left by years of job cuts and spending restraint. “Since the last crash, most of the older people thought ‘Bugger it, I’ll go and play golf and take my retirement package,’” said John Howell, professor in geosciences at the University of Aberdeen. “That creates a vacuum at the bottom. Companies will try to recruit, and I’m not convinced they are going to be able to fill that niche.” Bloomberg Opinion
Want to hire a millennial? Better help repay their student debt
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IKE millions of her peers, Nicole Read graduated with thousands of dollars of debt. Unlike most of them, she’s getting direct help from her employer to pay it back.
tax relief to firms that do so. It has bipartisan sponsors, including Democratic presidential candidates Seth Moulton and Amy Klobuchar. Other Democratic contenders, like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, have proposed more sweeping fixes that include writing off loans.
‘Win-win’
The 26-year-old’s job at event organizer Live Nation Entertainment in Beverly Hills, California, comes with a benefit that may be starting to catch on at US companies: Contributions to her student loan bills. Offering such an incentive helps businesses lure prospective employees as they grapple with tight labor market conditions marked by a jobless rate near its lowest in almost five decades. In Read’s case, it’s $100 a month. As a result, “I’m paying like $30 over my minimum payment every month, so it’s gotten me to pay off my interest a little quicker,” she said. “It just kind of gives me a bit of breathing room.” Such plans are spreading. They were on offer to staff at about 8 percent of US employers in 2019, more than double the 2015 level, according to an April survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.
Pronounced competition ANOTHER study by business adviser Willis Towers Watson found that 32 percent of firms are considering introducing a similar benefit by 2021. “If you have a young demographic, offering benefits like student loan repayment could be the way to go,” said Alex Alonso, chief knowledge officer for SHRM. Pronounced competition for talent and the elevated debt burden for a generation of Americans making their way into the work force are driving the
change. Millennials make up more than half of Live Nation’s US labor force. The balance on outstanding student loans reached $1.6 trillion at the end of the first quarter, and more than a quarter of that is held by people younger than 30. The effects reverberate through their social and economic lives,
making it harder to start a family, buy a home or purchase big-ticket items, research shows. The federal government is considering giving companies a break for helping employees with their debt. The Employer Participation in Repayment Act, introduced in the House and Senate in February, would provide
“HELPING employees get out of debt faster is a win-win, both for the employee and for our productivity,” said Katie Wandtke, director of human resources at Cybrary, a cyber-security firm based in College Park, Maryland. It’s not just smaller shops adopting the benefit. Larger companies, including professional services powerhouse PricewaterhouseCoopers, are catching on too. Live Nation began offering the benefit in early 2017 and has helped employees save over $4 million. More than 80 of the company’s workers have been able to completely pay off their loans, according to Live Nation. The event organizer works with start-up Tuition.io, which specializes in helping companies set up such programs and has clients including Fidelity Investments and Staples. There are other platforms in the market too, including Goodly, which works with Cybrary, and Gradifi, used by PwC since 2016. Paying an extra $30 a month more than the minimum, like Read says she does with her employer’s help, makes a difference. For example, for a 10-year loan of $50,000 at 5 percent, it would save close to $1,000 in interest payments over the life of the loan—allowing the borrower to clear the slate eight months early. “Jobs in the entertainment industry like this one, they’re not high-paying jobs necessarily,” said Read. “So this kind of help offset that wage difference and it’s really helpful for people like me.” Bloomberg Opinion
Prunes rebranded as millennial superfood amid US trade war
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N early 2018, the US was the leading exporter of prunes into China. The trade war ended that, and now producers are pushing an upbeat campaign to broaden their use domestically. Exports into China last year fell by 24 percent compared with 2017, according to data from Rabobank, which has a focus on agriculture. Meanwhile, US consumption remained flat. To counter the loss and broaden the product’s appeal, the California Prune Board is encouraging snack companies to use prune puree as a
sugar alternative in processed foods. The message to millennial and Gen Z climbers, backpackers and skiers: This isn’t your father’s dried fruit. The product known best in the past as a natural laxative, is now being marketed for its ability to build bones and muscle, and make the heart stronger. “Here’s an ingredient that’s been around forever, that’s higher in antioxidants than any other dried fruit on the planet,” said Kevin Webber, cofounder of Four Points, a company that
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makes prune-based energy bars advertised as non-GMO, gluten free and high in protein. The push comes as consumers—and particularly millennials, with roughly $4 trillion in spending power—increasingly lean toward food unsullied by preservatives and sweeteners. Donn Zea, executive director of the Prune Board, says the product should now be considered as a good option for the performance athlete. Go the Four Points web site, and you’re AUGUST 11, 2019
met with a picture of healthy-looking mountain climbers. Their energy bars have been around since 2015, but are being pushed anew by a collaboration with the California Prune Board this year, driven by Chinese tariffs as high as 60 percent. Even though tariffs might lift or lessen if trade talks between China and the US are successful, getting market share back in China now that other producers like Chile and Europe have moved in will be an issue, Zea said. Bloomberg Opinion