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EDUCATING CHILDREN MAY YET HOLD KEY TO ROAD SAFETY, END TRAFFIC WOES

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By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

O develop a patriotic, responsible and concerned citizenry that can contribute to national development and in addressing the problems on traffic and road safety, several lawmakers are pushing for the passage of measures educating Filipinos on proper road use.

“Well-being and safety should be instilled in every person through holistic, formal education.”

—Villafuerte

cation is needed to prepare young citizens, both those availing themselves of a license or not, to be better knowledgeable on road-sharing rules and basic road safety.

“This mandatory integration in the curriculum will also include the rights and responsibilities of drivers to better equip our future motorists on rules and regulations on driving safety and car passenger safety,” he said.

Villafuerte said this bill will convene the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education, the Department of Transportation, the Land Transportation Office, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority

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According to Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, road traffic injuries are a global problem, affecting about 1.25 million people around the world each year.

In the Philippines, he said, road accidents were the fourthleading cause of mortality from 2008 to 2013, with the working age group—15 to 64—as the most vulnerable to these types of accidents.

“The common causes of these accidents are speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol, nonuse of motorcycle helmets, seatbealt and child restraints, and distracted driving,” he said.

The lawmaker said a truly welldesigned system would accommodate the tendencies of human error, as well as take into account the welfare of those involved.

“Well-being and safety should be instilled in every person through holistic, formal education,” said Villafuerte.

That’s why he filed House Bill 6223, or the Road Safety and Comprehensive Driver’s Education Act, which seeks to include a comprehensive driver’s education in the latter years of the enhanced basic education K to 12 program.

The lawmaker said formal edu-

into an ad hoc curriculum committee to construct a syllabus on basic road safety and a comprehensive driver’s education subject.

1-Ang Edukasyon Party-list Rep. Salvador Belaro is also pushing for the passage of his HB 4247, or the proposed Basic Road Courtesy and Appropriate Street Behavior Education Act.

Belaro said his proposal seeks to integrate lessons on basic road courtesy and appropriate road behavior in the curriculum of basic education.

“We have heard of several crimes arising from road rage. It has also become a common street scene how disrespect is shown not only to motorists and pedestrians,”

he said.

“Now, more than ever, there is a need to correct such inappropriate behavior in our roads and streets,” he added.

According to the lawmaker, the first step should come from “our very own homes, but it should be reinforced by our formal education system by including lessons

thereon in the appropriate subjects in the school curriculum.”

Davao del Sur Rep. Mercedes Cagas also wants to teach students traffic rules and proper behavior and road safety by including in the curricula of elementary and senior high school a subject on road safety and traffic education.

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n JAPAN 0.4896 n UK 66.5022 n HK 6.7204 n CHINA 7.6568 n SINGAPORE 38.5899 n AUSTRALIA 36.8480 n EU 59.9925 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.0311

Source: BSP (January 4, 2019 )

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Safe Steps Road Safety

Cagas’s HB 1614, or the Student’s Road Safety and Traffic Education Act, mandates the DepEd to include a subject on road safety and traffic education.

In the Philippines, she said, the increasing number of traffic accidents can be attributed mainly to ignorance and a flagrant disregard of laws on road safety.

“Data on the attempts to curb traffic law violations have been dauntingly ineffective,” she said.

Citing the World Health Organization (WHO), she said the Philippines got a 5 out of 10 rating in the implementation of the Seatbelt Use Act of 1999; and a 6 out of 10 rating in the implementation of the Motorcycle Helmet Act of 2009.

Also, she added, the country got a dismal 1 out of 10 rating in the implementation of the AntiDrunk and Drugged Driving Act of 2013.

“The WHO report also pointed out that the Philippines still lacks a law banning the use of mobile phones and other gadgets while driving,” she said.

It is unclear why the WHO report did not count the anti-distracted driving law as legislation for this purpose.

Education is an integral part of solving the stark disregard of road safety and traffic rules and regulations, Cagas stressed.

“If the government is bent on curbing the problems on road safety and ignorance of traffic rules and regulations plaguing the country, one of the major keys toward this goal is to change the mindset of the students by educating them and inculcating in their young minds the importance of road safety, the proper use of roads, the different laws on driving and other

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measures that ensure safe road travel,” she said.

Thus, this bill aims to integrate a separate subject to be called Road Safety and Traffic Education in the curricula of the elementary and senior high-school students.

Another lawmaker, Rep. Ruffy Biazon, also seeks to mandate the inclusion of road use and safety in the elementary education.

Biazon said his HB 1249, or the Proper Road Use Education Act, is intended to inculcate the value of proper use of roads during the formative years in order to develop discipline and concern for others among our people while using our roads.

“This, in turn, is envisioned to contribute in improving our traffic situation and accidents,” he said.

He added precious resources are wasted due to the worsening traffic situation in Metro Mania and other major urban centers.

Biazon, quoting Japan International Cooperation Agency, said traffic congestion cost the Filipino people around P2.4 billion in 2012 and this is projected to rise to about P6 billion daily in 2030 if nothing is done to address it.

“The lack of discipline in our roads has also given rise to the issue of their safety. In the National Capital Region alone, there were about 95,615 road accidents in 2015, according to the Road Crash Statistic Report of the MMDA. This may also reflect at how easy one can get a driver’s license in our country,” he added.

Biazon quoted some experts listing three major factors which influence road safety—the state of the roads, mechanical conditions of the vehicles and the behavior of road users—be they motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, vehicle passengers and passengers of public transport.

“It is the behavior of road users that is the subject of this bill, as it intends to instill discipline in the road among our people at an early stage,” he said.

“It is hoped that through this proposed measure, we will be able to inculcate in our people at the stage where we are still molding their characters, that they should not only be concerned with themselves when using roads. Concern for the well-being and safety of others should be primordial to anyone using our roads,” he added.

ACCORDING to the group Safe Steps Road Safety, globally 1.3 million people are killed on roads every year, while 500 children are killed on the road every day.

It said road crashes are the No. 1 cause of deaths of 15 to 29 year olds.

“This continues to be a lifethreatening issue to individuals and their families, not just in Asia, but across the world in both developing and developed markets,” the group added.

Safe Steps Road Safety aims to raise awareness and provide easy-to-understand educational messages on road safety to help save and protect as many lives as possible.

Traffic, transport management

FOR its part, the MMDA said its Institute of Traffic Management (ITM) is offering courses focused on producing well-rounded traffic personnel in every road and corner, and raising the level of consciousness and awareness on road safety of the drivers, children and the general public.

The MMDA said the ITM seeks to professionalize and continuously upgrade the competence level of traffic and transportation management professions, including traffic law-enforcement officers, road safety practitioners, highway engineers and planners.

Also, it added the ITM envisions to become the premier educational institution for training and continuing education for traffic law-enforcement officers, road safety practitioners, emergency and traffic incident responders and other knowledge seekers in the country.

Included among its courses are Traffic Management Course for Traffic Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) of Local Government Units, Special Course in Traffic Law Enforcement and Management, Special Course in Traffic Incident Management, Special Course for Road Construction Workers/Flagmen and Special Course in Traffic Engineering and Management.

On Road Safety Education Courses, the MMDA said the ITM offers Road Safety Education for Drivers of Public Transport Services, Road Safety Education for Government Drivers, Road Safety Education for Drivers of School Transport Services, Road Safety Education for Corporate Drivers, Road Safety Education for Drivers of Freight Transport Services, and Road Safety Education for Children.

“ITM promotes road safety awareness by undertaking continuous information and education campaign among children drivers and general public,” the MMDA said.

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Gold bursts above $1,300 level as slowdown tremors spur rally

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old pierced the $1,300 level to extend a New Year rally. Investors flocked to the metal with global equities in retreat, signs of a slowdown stacking up, and the oldest of havens showing its mettle as exchange-traded funds draw in increased flows.

Futures spiked as much as 0.4 percent to $1,300.40 an ounce on the Comex, the highest price since June, and were at $1,297.80 at 11:21 a.m. in Singapore. Spot prices were not far behind, hitting as much as $1,298.60. Silver also surged, hitting the highest since July.

Gold has become the go-to commodity in the opening days of 2019, as investors contemplate a deteriorating worldwide outlook and factor in fewer, if any, Federal Reserve interest rate hikes this year. On Thursday, a gauge of US manufacturing sank by the most since the 2008 recession a day after Apple Inc. cut its revenue outlook, fueling concern that the trade war with China is taking a bigger-than-expected toll on growth. The partial US government shutdown has also spurred a risk-off mood. “ This rally in gold is based on investors increasingly realizing that gold is ‘safe money,’” Rainer Michael Preiss, an executive director at Taurus Wealth Advisors Pte., said before prices broke $1,300. Preiss cited the potential downturn in the global economy, possible central bank policy mistakes, and rising US debt burden among factors spurring demand.

Bad EFTApple

Earlier this week, a report showed a contraction in China’s manufacturing, while factor y gauges in Italy and Poland also

sank. With equities faltering, global gold-backed exchangetraded fund (ETF) holdings added 67 tons last month, and in the opening days of the year rose further to the highest since June.

The rally past $1,300 is considered an important psychological hurdle that could spur additional buying, according to analysts including George Gero at RBC Wealth Management. “The market has major worries about the economy, the stock market and political events,” including Brexit, said Gero. “If investors keep looking for havens, the price could reach $1,350,” he said.

Fed Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan said on Thursday the central bank should put rates on hold as it waits to see how uncertainties about growth, weakness in interest-sensitive industries and tighter financial conditions play out. “We should not take any further action on interest rates until these issues are resolved, for better, for worse,” Kaplan told Bloomberg’s Michael McKee. Among data due for release later Friday are payroll figures for December. While the final report for 2018 is forecast to show employers added 180,000 jobs to cap a 2.45 million annual increase, the most since 2015, that monthly estimate is the lowest median projection since last January. “ The dollar is showing some signs of weakness, especially against the yen, stocks are under pressure, yields are coming dow n, Fed rate e x pectations have been coming down, as well,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S. “If that trend continues, then gold will continue to assert its role as a safe haven.”

Bloomberg News

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Oil’s well

The standout feature in commodity markets last quarter was crude’s swoon from four-year high into a bear market. The drivers of the reversal were record US shale output, a clutch of sanctions waivers on Iranian flows, and a supply cut from Opec+ deemed by some as too little. Concern about a deteriorating global economic outlook gave bears further ammunition.

After that drama, prices may recover, with supply risks underappreciated.

In 2019, watch for more losses in crisishit Venezuela as supply risks tumbling below 1 million barrels a day. On top of that, waivers granted by the US on Iranian cargoes are temporary, and not all may be renewed in May. Last, don’t underestimate the resolve in Saudi Arabia to make the cuts stick. Opec’s next meeting is in April, and prices may have regained some ground by then. The median Brent forecast tracked by Bloomberg is $68, compared with about $56 at present.

Golden opportunity

Gold bulls seized the initiative in the final months of 2018 and there’s plenty to suggest that the haven may hold up. Look for support for prices that are already at a six-month high as the Federal Reserve goes slower on rate increases, and investors seek protection

from equity market turmoil and slowing global growth.

There may be more supportive headlines in the near term. A golden cross — with the 50-day moving average topping its 200-day counterpart—is close, and a few more tons added to exchange-traded funds will lift holdings to the highest since 2013.

A December 11 to 19 Bloomberg survey of 20 analysts and traders reflected a positive tone, with the median estimate of $1,325 an ounce. Spot bullion was last at $1,294.

Wired for success

Copper dropped every quarter last year in the worst run since 2015. The metal was hurt by concerns that global growth is slowing, and the US-China trade fight.

Still, investors may this year focus more on the supportive backdrop offered by industry indicators. Among these are global stockpiles tracked by exchanges, with holdings in London Metal Exchange sheds at a decade-low.

That drop has come as demand tops supply by some margin: 595,000 tons in the nine months to September, according to the International Copper Study Group.

Miners also highlight lower grades. And just as trade-war blows hurt copper in 2018, the same could be true in 2019— but on the upside. Should Washington and Beijing settle some issues, copper could get a boost. The median of forecasts tracked by Bloomberg puts the metal, which was last at $5,736 a ton, back above $6,400.

Slowing ships of soy

Soybeans get a boost from any inkling of improving trade relations between the US and China, and that narrative should continue to dominate trading in 2019.

The oilseed rallied in late 2018 after a meeting between US and Chinese leaders resulted in the Asian nation resuming some impor ts of American beans.

Traders, though, were disappointed by the magnitude of the purchases.

Farmers in America are hopeful the two nations will reach an accord before the end of a 90-day truce. The key question for trading desks remains whether China,

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China, US talks to resume as trade war starts to bite

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hina said a US delegation will visit next week for trade talks, confirming the two sides will have their first face-to-face negotiation since President Donald J. Trump and his counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to a 90day truce in their trade war last month.

Deputy US Trade Representative (USTR) Jeffrey Gerrish will lead the US delegation for the talks on January 7 and 8, the Commerce Ministr y said in a news statement. Vice ministers from the two countries talked on the phone on Friday, and will discuss how to implement the consensus reached in Argentina when the two leaders meet in Beijing, it said. Bloomberg News reported earlier that US officials would head to Beijing the week of January 7.

The talks add to signs that the world’s two largest economies are looking for a way to cool trade tensions. The S&P 500 Index tumbled 2.5 percent on Thursday, amid mounting indications that American business is starting to feel the pinch from the trade conflict.

Apple Inc. plunged the most since 2013, in part due to slowing iPhone sales in China, where the economy has slowed.

“The negotiations next week are important because they will establish expectations, but we shouldn’t expect major breakthroughs,” said Myron Brilliant,

What to watch in commodities in ’19: Winners, losers lineup ommodities took a kicking in 2018—with deep losses in everything from oil and copper to coffee and sugar—so what’s in store for the 12 months to come? The inaugural What to Watch of the year offers a selective run through of prospects and pitfalls for some of the top raw materials, and it’s a reasonably positive picture that emerges.

The road map for the year comes ahead of what’ll be a busy week. The US-China trade fight will be in the news, with a US delegation due in Beijing for talks.

In addition, there’ll be more pointers on the macroeconomic outlook, with the World Bank updating its Global Economic Prospects report on Tuesday and a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday.

Sunday, January 6, 2019

the hitherto top US soybean buyer, will agree to reduce tariffs on US agricultural products. Brazil’s coming harvest is also a major factor: farmers there are looking at yet another bumper year and that rush of supply would further suppress US prices, especially if China stays closed.

Porcine potential

In other farm commodities, it’ll pay to weigh the outlook for hogs. China has more than 400 million pigs, over half the world’s herd; the country also has a serious outbreak of African swine fever that’s been spreading since emerging in 2018. While it doesn’t harm human beings, the disease can be 100 percent lethal for pigs. This week brought news of more infections, with an outbreak confirmed January 1 at a farm that had about 73,000 hogs.

There’s concern the outbreak will get a stronger grip within Asia’s top economy, and may jump to neighboring states, imperiling producers across the region.

Should that happen, China may go overseas to supplement supplies, benefiting the US even as the trade war drags on. That may also benefit chicken demand and prices.

That sinking feeling

After averaging almost $70 a ton last year, iron ore is at risk of a drop. The staple, dominated by flows from Brazil and Australia, will face headwinds from a slower pace of expansion in China, with steel output likely at best to plateau. Policy decisions from Beijing—especially additional stimulus, amid the trade war and conduct of the anti-pollution drive—remain wild cards.

Adding to downward pressure, more supply is on the way, with Brazil’s Vale SA adding tons from the ramp-up of its S11D mine and as Anglo American Plc restarts Minas Rio. Keep a close watch on China mills’ profitability and industry data from the mainland.

Profitability tanked in the final quarter of 2018 and the purchasing managers index is back at depressed levels.

Heading into the year, Morgan Stanley was among the bears, warning of a return to global oversupply and prices at $62 this year. Bloomberg News

vice president of international affairs at the US Chamber of Commerce.

The talks will be divided into groups dealing with non-tariff measures, intellectual property, agriculture and industrial purchases, people familiar with the matter said. Other Trump administration officials at the talks will include Gregg Doud, USTR’s chief agricultural negotiator, and David Malpass, the Treasur y Department’s undersecretar y for international affairs, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information is private.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is expected to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He,

Robert Lighthizer (left) and Liu He Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg, Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Xi’s top economic adviser, sometime later this month, one of the people said.

Chinese officials have been in constant contact with the US to try to determine what else is needed to move things forward, people familiar with the talks said separately last month. It appears to them that the US itself isn’t clear on what it wants, said the people, who asked not to be named because the negotiations are private.

People familiar said other attendees on the US side include

The negotiations next week are important because they will establish expectations, but we shouldn’t expect major breakthroughs.”

—Brilliant

Gil Kaplan, undersecretary of commerce for international trade; Ted McKinney, undersecretary of agriculture for trade and foreign agricultural affairs; and Merry Lin, director for global and Asia economics at the National Security Council.

Trump reported “big progress” in trade negotiations after a phone call with Xi last week. Beijing also announced a third round of tariff cuts, lowering import taxes on more than 700 goods from January 1 as part of its efforts to open up the economy and lower costs for domestic consumers.

After meeting Xi last December 1, Trump agreed to put on hold a scheduled increase in tariffs on $200 billion in annual imports from China for 90 days while the negotiations take place. In response, China temporarily lowered tariffs on US car imports for the same period. Bloomberg News

Trump sees leverage dwindle as shutdown pushes toward 3rd week

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resident Donald J. Trump has gained little leverage with Democrats two weeks into the partial government shutdown of his own making, with fewer possible escape routes and a more treacherous path ahead as the GOP relinquishes control of the House.

The President made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room with border patrol agents on Thursday, hours after Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, to make his case. But he took no questions from reporters who assembled expecting a news conference by Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

“Without a wall you cannot have border security,” Trump told reporters. “It won’t work.”

He invited leaders of the National Border Patrol Council, a labor union that represents 18,000 border patrol agents and other federal workers, to speak briefly in support of building a wall on the border with Mexico.

Earlier, Trump invited Democratic and Republican congressional leaders to resume talks at an 11:30 a.m. Friday meeting at the White House, according to White House Spokesman Hogan Gidley.

Trump turned to the bully pulpit this week with a stream of tweets and an extended televised Cabinet meeting on Wednesday to press his case for funding further construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border. Later, he and top congressional leaders met for what was billed as a briefing on border security issues in the Situation Room at the White House.

T he W hite House meeting quick ly devolved into political posturing. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said

the chamber will vote on two measures to reopen government that mirror legislation that the Senate had already passed with Republican support only to be rejected by Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said the shutdown could last weeks.

Trump accused Democrats of political gamesmanship, saying in a tweet on Thursday that the shutdown “is only because of the 2020 Presidential Election” and “strictly politics.”

“I have never had so much support as I have had in the past week over my stance for border security, for border control,” he said in the briefing room. His approval rating was 39 percent in the week that ended December 22, the most recent for which polling results are available, according to Gallup.

Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have signaled they see an opportunity to gain further leverage against the White House. The legislation Pelosi intends for the House to pass would reopen the affected government departments, provide $1.3 billion for border security on a pro-rated basis and give time for further negotiations on the issue.

The measure would only fund the Department of Homeland Security until February 8, and wouldn’t include money for the construction of the border wall.

That’s not enough for Trump, and Democrats will cast the president as holding federal workers hostage for the wall. The White House threatened that the president would veto the bills ahead of the House votes.

The Democrats’ approach—and their underlying intransigence— has been made easier by a president

who has repeatedly misplayed his hand during negotiations.

Trump’s most severe misstep was self-inf licted. In a meeting with Pelosi and Schumer last month, the president defiantly boasted that he would be “proud” to “take the mantle” of shutting the government down if he didn’t get the more than $5 billion he was seeking for building the wall.

That would cause political trouble for even the most popular of politicians—and poses a particular hazard for one whose approval rating regularly hit historic lows even before the latest personnel turnovers at the White House, and market swings fueled by ongoing trade disputes.

“The president said, ‘I am going to shut the government down,’” Schumer said. “They are now feeling the heat. It is not helping the president, it is not helping the Republicans, to be the owners of this shutdown.”

Trump also hasn’t cultivated an image as a person ready to seek common ground. On Wednesday, he said he wasn’t willing to budge on his wall funding demand.

He also appeared to rule out a broader compromise that could offer protected status for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children.

“As long as it takes,” Trump said when asked how long he would hold out. “Look, I’m prepared—I think the people of the country think I’m right.”

Fifty-seven percent of Americans wanted Trump to compromise on the wall before the shutdown, and nearly seven in 10 said the wall wasn’t an immediate priority, according to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll published last December 11.

Bloomberg News

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Biggest pharma deal ever faces aging patents and tough politics N

Pelosi returns as House Speaker with Democrats newly empowered

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record pharmaceutical deal between Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Celgene Corp. will face obstacles on several fronts, including expiring patents on Celgene’s cornerstone drug, critical politicians and investors wondering if the takeover is the right move.

Bristol-Myers said on Thursday that it would pay $74 billion in cash and stock for Summit, New Jersey-based Celgene, grabbing a blockbuster cancer drug and what it described as a promising pipeline of experimental therapies that will help broaden its business. But with at least six months before when the companies expect to complete the deal, plenty could happen.

Shareholders from Celgene and Bristol-Myers will have to approve the transaction, and there are early signs they have doubts. There’s an almost $15 spread between where Celgene’s stock is trading and Bristol-Myers’s offer—the thirdwidest spread among more than 100 active deals being tracked by Bloomberg. Options trading is also indicating a potential snag.

“Given where Celgene is trading, there has to be some sizable discount that the deal doesn’t get done,” said Brian Skorney, an analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co. Both companies said on Thursday that they expect the deal to rapidly add to earnings. “My focus is on creating shareholder value for the long term and I think this deal does that,” Bristol-Myers Chief Executive Officer Giovanni Caforio said in an interview.

Patent risks

Celgene’s biggest drug is Revlimid, a cancer blockbuster that in 2017 brought in an estimated $9.7 billion in sales—almost twothirds of the company’s revenue.

While it has a thicket of more than 20 patents that could protect it until as late as 2028, they’re under assault by generic-drug makers eager for a slice of Revlimid’s sales.

Celgene reached a settlement with generic-drug maker Natco Pharma Ltd. to allow for a limited number of Revlimid pills starting in March of 2022. But there’s a risk that another generic-drug maker, India’s Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., could upend that agreement and flood the market with cheap rivals much sooner.

Dr. Reddy’s has been locked in a legal battle with Celgene over its own generic form of Revlimid, arguing that its version doesn’t

Bob Kelsey displays his afternoon medication for a photograph in Kissimmee, Florida, on December 16, 2017. Jayme Gershen/Bloomberg

infringe Revlimid’s patents. If a judge agrees, Dr. Reddy’s could be in a position to launch a generic drug as soon as late 2020, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Aude Gerspacher. In that case, Natco would likely be able to start selling their version sooner too, she said.

“Everyone thought they were going to settle over a year ago and they haven’t,” Gerspacher said, calling the Dr. Reddy’s litigation “the big legal overhang for Celgene right now.”

Bristol-Myers said on Thursday that it had modeled for a variety of scenarios around Revlimid and was using conservative assumptions about the drug’s future.

with a flurry of bills and hearings.

Celgene’s name often comes up in the drug-pricing debate given tactics it’s taken to protect its blockbuster cancer drug Revlimid from generic competition while repeatedly raising its price.

“Revlimid is a prime example of the unsustainable path that drug prices are on,” said Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the likely incoming chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “I plan to take a hard look at the entire process to determine why drug companies continue to raise the prices of critical drugs at the expense of the American people.”

Politics in Washington

Closing surprises

The megadeal could also get caught up in the national debate over drug prices.

President Donald Trump isn’t the only one in Washington who has targeted drug makers. While Congress doesn’t have power to stop the merger, it can call in chief executive officers (CEO) for hearings, subpoena documents related to the deal, or take other steps to paint the companies in a negative light. Hours after the merger was announced, senior Democrats in Congress were criticizing it. “ Mergers t h at mea n more money for drug company CEOs while patients pay the price are not a solution to skyrocketing drug costs,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said on Twitter. The Massachusetts Democrat is exploring a run for the Democratic nomination for president.

Democrats, now the majority in the House of Representatives, are expected to pressure pharmaceutical companies over drug costs

The takeover still has to be approved by shareholders, and the 14-percent drop in Bristol-Myers’s shares on Thursday—the biggest one-day loss since August 2016— is an indication they may not love the idea of making Celgene a part of the New York-based drug maker.

But they might be open to a different option, said Alex Arfaei, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets—Bristol-Myers becoming a target for an even bigger buyer.

“We could see competing offers for Bristol-Myers before the shareholder vote,” Arfaei said in a note to clients. “Other companies that may have previously looked at a merger with Bristol-Myers now have a window given the stock’s weakness and upcoming shareholder vote.”

Bristol-Myers has faced struggles with its own drugs, and its stock was down 15 percent last year.

“Did Bristol do this deal as a poison pill and to prevent them from getting acquired?” said Skorney.

I plan to take a hard look at the entire process to determine why drug companies continue to raise the prices of critical drugs at the expense of the American people.”—Cummings

“Could someone like Pfizer come in and appeal directly to Bristol shareholders and say your share price is down, we will take you out but you have to vote against the Celgene deal?” He called such a scenario unlikely but not impossible.

Laura Hortas, a spokesman for Bristol-Myers, declined to comment on that speculation. The deal has a $2.2-billion breakup fee, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because it hasn’t been disclosed yet.

Antitrust

M ergers b e t w e e n b r a n d name drug makers usually sail through Washington’s antitrust authorities.

While the deal will be investigated by antitrust enforcers in the US and EU for any potential harm to competition, merger investigations in the pharmaceutical industry follow a familiar playbook and are typically resolved by selling product lines where the two companies compete. That was the case, for example, when Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. agreed to sell 79 products in order to win US approval in 2016 to buy Allergan’s generic-drug business.

Yet, not everyone in Washington is satisfied that enough is being done. Antitrust enforcers at the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission have faced a barrage of complaints from lawmakers about market power wielded by pharmaceutical firms leading to rising prices for consumers.

Rep. Peter Welch, the lead sponsor of an effort to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, plans to circulate a letter for lawmakers to sign on asking the US Federal Trade Commission to “look really skeptically at this proposed merger.”

“It has to be with conditions to keep the company from raising prices on drugs,” Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, said in an interview. “My hope is that President Trump will be our ally on this,” said Welch, who met with the president on the issue in 2017.

Bloomberg News

ancy Pelosi was elected speaker of the House of Representatives in a triumphant return to the post on Thursday, pledging to reach across the aisle to Republicans and make transparency “the order of the day” as Democrats took power.

The California Democrat, the only woman to hold the speakership, won the partisan election with 220 Democratic votes, as 15 members of her party cast their ballots for someone else or voted present. Most Republicans backed Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

“Let us pledge that when we disagree, we respect each other and we respect the truth,” Pelosi said in an address to the House chamber. “We will debate and advance good ideas no matter where they come from.”

President Donald Trump, at an impromptu White House briefing, congratulated Pelosi on her “tremendous achievement” while he also pushed for funds for a border wall.

“Hopefully, we are going to work together and we are going to get lots of things done like infrastructure and so much more,” the president told reporters. “I think it will be a little bit different than lots of people are thinking.”

The House will turn to business with a vote later Thursday on Democrats’ plan to reopen federal departments that have been closed since December 22. But the Trump administration said the president would veto the two measures, and GOP leaders in the Senate already have said the chamber won’t act without his support, so the shutdown is likely to drag on.

Pelosi, 78, clinched the speakership after weeks of whittling down opposition from some fellow Democrats seeking a new generation of leadership. The deal to win over holdouts put an expiration date on her tenure: she promised not to stay more than four years in the job.

In her speech, Pelosi ticked off an agenda for the House: an infrastructure plan, more transparency in government, less influence for special interests, gun control and measures to protect minorities.

She said Democrats would support laws to “protect our borders” while keeping the US welcoming for immigrants.

“We have heard from too many families who wonder in this time of globalization and innovation if they have a place in the economy of tomorrow,” Pelosi said. “We must remove all doubt that they do, and say to them individually that we will have an economy that works for you.”

Diverse House

Democrats won the House majority in November’s election, gaining a net 40 seats, by riding a surge of suburban and female voters’ anger at Trump. Pelosi leads an emboldened and diverse Democratic caucus, which includes rising progressive stars, as well as moderates who captured traditionally conservative districts. Pelosi will have to balance bipartisan compromises on legislation with oversight of a president whose inner circle and business dealings are under scrutiny.

Democrats control the House 235199, with one seat in North Carolina not yet decided, giving them authority to launch new investigations of the president and his administration. A record number of women—89 Democrats and 13 Republicans—will hold seats in the chamber.

Among them are the first two Muslim women elected to Congress and two who are the first black representatives from New England.

Pelosi becomes second in line to the

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California holds the gavel at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday. AP/Carolyn Kaster

presidency, after the vice president. She also served as speaker from 2007 to 2011, and is the first person to return to the position after losing the majority since Democrat Sam Rayburn in the 1950s.

Government shutdown

One of House Democrats’ first acts on Thursday will be to vote on legislation to end the partial US government shutdown without adding funds for Trump’s border wall. The plan is to pass two separate bills, one reopening eight departments—which have been closed since December 22— through September 2019 and another temporarily reopening the Department of Homeland Security through February 8.

This would allow negotiations over Trump’s request for $5 billion for a border wall to continue while the rest of the government would continue operating.

Republicans have rejected this plan, even though it’s based on bills passed in GOPled Senate committees, and a White House meeting among Trump and congressional leaders on Wednesday yielded no progress.

Trump suggested another meeting on Friday to restart negotiations after the leadership elections.

Trump previously said he relishes the opportunity to confront Pelosi and sees her as a convenient foil for his 2020 reelection campaign. Pelosi, who touted her legislative acumen as her top qualification for returning to the job, will be the country’s most high-profile Democrat as the party chooses a presidential nominee to oppose the president in 2020.

The Republicans’ strategy of defeating Democrats in November’s election by tying them to Pelosi largely failed. Now she will be more than an image in a campaign ad; as House speaker she needs to create an agenda bold enough to keep progressives animated without alienating swing voters willing to consider alternatives to Trump.

One early skirmish with progressives in her own party occurred later Thursday when the House voted 234-197 to pass part of its package of legislative rules, normally a routine matter. But progressives Ro Khanna of California and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said they opposed the package because it contains a “pay as you go” austerity provision supported by Democratic centrists.

Only a handful of Democrats wound up voting against the measure.

Much of the tenor for the 116th Congress could be set by a report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Some Democrats in Congress, bolstered by outside groups, say there’s already proof that Trump has committed the “high crimes and misdemeanors” that would justify his removal from office, but most party members are waiting for Mueller’s report.

Top China state think tank sees population shrinking by 2027

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top C h i nese resea rc h institution projected the population could start shrinking as soon as 2027—three years earlier than expected—underscoring growth concerns in the world’s second-largest economy.

A report by the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said the country’s population would start declining within eight years if the birth rate held steady at 1.6 children per woman.

The population—at 1.39 billion in 2017, and the world’s largest— could fall to 1.172 billion by 2065, according to the report released on Thursday.

The estimate was one of a flurry of alarming demographic projections spurring debate about the impact of China’s restrictive

birth limits on the countr y’s long-ter m g row t h prospects.

The China Times newspaper cited two demographers last week saying that the country’s total of number of births probably fell below 15 million last year— a figure that would speed the population drop beyond even the updated CASS projections.

The forecasts were circulated on social-media platforms including Weibo, leading users to question if policy-makers had been too optimistic in assuming a baby boom would follow China’s 2016 policy change allowing parents to have as many as two children, instead of one. China is slated to release official birth estimates for 2018 on January 21.

In August, China’s parliament

removed “family planning” policies from the latest draft of a revised civil code slated for adoption in 2020, a signal population control measures would eventually be eliminated. The State Council, China’s cabinet, has commissioned research on the repercussions of ending the roughly four-decadeold policy and intends to enact the change nationwide, Bloomberg reported in May, citing people familiar with the matter. “ T he t wo - c hi ld pol ic y fel l short of expectations, and the effect of accumulated fertility desires has faded,” China Evergrande Group’s chief economist Ren Zeping said on his official WeChat account on Tuesday, calling for an immediate end of birth limits to boost the fertility rate.

A figure of 15 million births would be the third-lowest total since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, He Yafu, one of the demographers cited by China Times, told Bloomberg News. It would only exceed 1960 and 1961, when the country was hit by natural disasters and famine.

On Thursday, the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper reported new births last year were expected to range from 15 million to 16 million, the lowest since 2011, citing an official researcher affiliated with the National Health Commission—which sets China’s population policies. The National Health Commission didn’t reply to a fax seeking comment.

Bloomberg News

A young girl blows bubbles with a bubble gun at the Lu Xun Park in Shanghai, China, on October 24, 2015. Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Bloomberg News

Faith

Sunday

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Sunday, January 6, 2019

A5

After China deal, two underground FOLLOWING THE STAR bishops step down at Vatican’s request THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD: ‘MATTHEW 2:1-12’

MSGR. JOSEFINO S. RAMIREZ SUNDAY GOSPEL IN OUR LIFE

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HE episode of the three Magi has many lessons for us. The Gospel tells us that they came from the East to Jerusalem seeking the God-child because a miraculous star had appeared to them.

Some fathers of the Church explain that they must have received an inner light in order to conclude, from the apparition of the star, that here was an important event, for which it was worth making such an important trip at the cost of a lot of sacrifice. “ We...have come to worship Him” (Matthew 2:2). Their use of the word “worship” means that they were seeking God. We are all God-seekers. As Saint Augustine said, “Lord our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Only God can satisfy the human heart. And that is why, until we do not orient our life in this search for God, we shall never attain the happiness we all seek.

But at a point of time, the Magi lost the star. There may be times in a man’s search for God that he may lose his initial light and inspiration.

It is not the time to throw away the towel. At such a moment, we should not give up the journey and think of the whole adventure as if it were a nice dream and nothing more.

The Magi did not decide to go back to the east just because they lost sight of the star. They did the most reasonable and logical thing to do. They asked the persons who were in the position to know.

The Gospel tells us that Herod

“sent them to Bethlehem” (Matthew 2:8). Herod had the means to find out, and he found out that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. He sent the Magi to the right place in spite of his limitations and even in spite of his bad will.

During moments of darkness, we should seek the advice of the right person. We should realize that God’s grace works through the proper channels established by God and in times of spiritual difficulties, we should look for these channels and trustingly adhere to them.

Some people have the bad habit of asking advice but conditioning their acceptance of it to their own whims. Some people may go from confessor to confessor until they find one that will tell them what they wanted to hear in the first place. They are not really looking for advice. They are only looking for support for a conclusion they have already made.

It is as if the three Magi had decided beforehand (for any number of reasons) that they wanted to go to another town. And when told that they had to go to Bethlehem, since they had not thought of that, they would keep on asking around until they find a Jew who would tell them finally to go to were they had wanted. Is this not foolish?

Let us follow the advice and the way of acting of the Magi in the Gospel. They had the courage to undertake their journey in search of God. And they had the common sense to pursue it to the end.

Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God Conclusion

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EING a disciple means having the conviction to follow a shepherd, like the frail sheep entrusting themselves to the One who reveals Himself as the Good Shepherd.

Imagine a flock of sheep following its shepherd. Among them, somewhere in the end, is one limping and dragging its feet slowly with much difficulty. The rest are running behind the shepherd, but one, though obedient, is always the last in the herd.

The shepherd calls them, and the rest run faithfully to him, but the last sheep arrived much later than the others. Jesus knows the desires and frailties of each sheep—each of them. He knows the uniqueness of each of his sheep.

Saint Therese said that if you want to walk in the path of the helpless sheep, you do not have to force yourself to be like an eagle.

By imitating the attitude of the helpless sheep, you can be the highest model of sanctity—the one whose only desire is to be a servant-slave of the Lord.

The Blessed Virgin Mary lived per fectly the likeness of the helpless sheep. She believes that with God, everything is possible.

Her divine “yes” is like an “abyss of helplessness but also an abyss of trust in God.” W hen one begins to imitate Mary, realizing her limitations and weaknesses but trustfully yearn to be the Good Shepherd, one will be able to follow God w it h muc h persevera nce. He shepherds each one, even the lost and the least. For every person is unique. And God loves everyone. —Sr. Fatima Zarsuel, SITH, Mother of Perpetual Help

“Fiat” is t he beg inning of all graces poured on mankind.

“Behold, I am the Handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word.”

Mary becomes the mother of Jesus. She gave herself entirely to God and to the work of her Son. This world, a place of selfgratification, is rightly called a valley of tears.

But we can turn to Mary who is a mother to every soul in need of enlightenment. “The angel revealed to Saint Bridget: “As a rose grows among thorns, so did the Blessed Virgin grows among tribulations.”

In the heart of Mary echoes all that Jesus suffered in body and soul and her willingness to share in her Son’s redeeming sacrifice.

Indeed, she united her own motherly suffering to his priestly sacrifice because Mary’s hope at the foot of the Cross shined forth more radiantly than the darkness that reigns in many hearts.

The hope of the Church and humanity is born in the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Thus, we became the children of Mary. How then can she leave us on our own to ask God for favors? We can rely on her intercessory prayers.

As a mother, she knows the sufferings of her children. She stretches out her hand to reach out to those who are in great need to help. We must trust in her powerful intercession because her Son Jesus entrusted us to her maternal love that even in the most painful moments in life, we know we have a mother to rely on. Being the mother of Jesus, Mary embraced humanity as her beloved children.

Let us entrust ourselves always to the mother of God. She will never abandon us. She will be with us while we are on our journey to eternity. We have a great hope that she will one day welcome us in paradise.—Sr. Fatima Zarsuel, SITH Corazon Damo-Santiago

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EIJING, China—Two underground bishops in China have agreed to step aside in favor of bishops of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), in the wake of a deal signed between the Holy See and the Chinese government.

AsiaNews reported recently that Bishop Vincent Guo Xijin of Mindong (Ningde) has agreed to become auxiliary bishop and that Bishop Vincent Zhan Silu will become Bishop of Mindong.

The agreement was made at a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, in the presence of Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

At the same meeting, Archbishop Celli announced that Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian of Shantou would give way to Bishop Joseph Huang Bingzhang.

Both Bishop Zhan and Bishop Huang had been excommunicated, and were reconciled to the Holy See as part of a September agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China.

According to AsiaNews, at the meeting Archbishop Celli gave Bishop Guo a letter from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, and from Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, asking that he give up his role as bishop of Mindong in favor of Bishop Zhan.

“Also according to the report of the priests of Mindong, Msgr.

Celli would have told Msgr. Guo that Pope Francis himself asks for this gesture of obedience ‘and of

sacrifice for the general situation of the Chinese Church,’” the news outlet reported.

AsiaNews also noted that in previous cases in which a bishop of the CPCA was reconciled to the Holy See, he would become auxiliary bishop to an existing bishop of the underground Church.

Bishop Guo, 59, was detained by the Chinese authorities overnight in March. While he was released after only a short detention, he was ordered not to officiate as a bishop while presiding over Mass because he is not recognized by the government.

He was taken away because he refused to concelebrate with Bishop Zhan at a Chrism Mass.

Bishop Guo was also detained ahead of Holy Week in 2017.

In January, AsiaNews reported that a Vatican delegation asked

ARCHBISHOP Claudio Maria Celli, who met recently with Bishop Vincent Guo Xijin to secure his retirement, presides over Mass in Rome on January 22, 2016. DANIEL IBANEZ/CNA

Bishop Guo voluntarily to accept a position as coadjutor bishop under Bishop Zhan. This was also among the conditions Chinese officials had proposed to Bishop Guo during his 2017 detention.

Bishop Guo told the New York Times in February that “we must obey Rome’s decision,” and that “our principle is that the Chinese Catholic Church must have a connection with the Vatican; the connection cannot be severed.”

But he also indicated that, while “the Chinese government doesn’t say explicitly that we need to disconnect” from Rome, “in some circumstances it has such an implication.” In March,

Also according to the report of the priests of Mindong, Msgr.

Celli would have told Msgr. Guo that Pope Francis himself asks for this gesture of obedience ‘and of sacrifice for the general situation of the Chinese Church.’”—AsiaNews

at the Chinese Communist Party’s annual meeting, Bishop Zhan told China’s Sing Tao Daily: “There are no obstacles [to a China-Vatican deal] if everyone just thinks of the benefit of the church for the sake of peace.”

Bishop Zhuang, 88, was asked to retire in late 2017 by the Holy See, but he reportedly refused the request at that time. He was consecrated a bishop in 2006, with the approval of the Holy See. In December 2017 Bishop Zhuang was reportedly escorted to Beijing, where he met separately with leaders of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, officials from China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs and the Vatican delegation.

If Bishop Zhuang resigned, the Holy See delegation reportedly said at that time, he could nominate three priests, one of whom Bishop Huang would choose as his vicar general.

“Bishop Zhuang could not help his tears on hearing the demand,” AsiaNews’s source said, explaining “it was meaningless to appoint a vicar general, who is still a priest that Bishop Huang could remove him anytime.”

Catholic News Agency/CBCPNews

which is on February 2. The Wiseman saw Jesus not in the animal shed but with his parents, “a family living in a normal house in Bethlehem or Judea” (www.christmas.com).

They took another route home in compliance to an angel’s advice. Then an angel appeared to Joseph to flee with Jesus and Mary to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-14), a journey of about 100 miles.

Queen Helena found the bodies of the three kings in her pilgrimage to Palestine.

She brought them to Constantinople and laid them in Saint Sophia Church, according to Paul William Roberts in Journey of the Magi.

The gifts THE Three Magi, Byzantine mosaic c. 565, Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy (restored during the 18th century). As here Byzantine art usually depicts the Magi in Persian clothing, which includes breeches, capes and Phrygian caps. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM, OUR STAR, TOO

By Corazon Damo-Santiago

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HE star, the bright light that heralded Jesus’ coming, is the light that has risen “on the people who sit in darkness...in a land overshadowed by death” (Matthew 4:16).

The light has continued to shine on all men since then. God explicitly said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Matthew 8:12).

But the colorful and glimmering light of the materialistic world now overpowers the light of tabernacles and altars. Too, the burning issues of our time—abortion, euthanasia, divorce, lust for power and money, among others, have dimmed the lights in our hearts and minds.

At the start of 2019, let us pray for the light to help us discern what we cannot see in darkness and open possibilities for a God-filled life.

May the star that guided the kings to Jesus, direct us in genuine attentiveness as children of God.

the gospel of Matthew without details (Matthew 2:1-2), how many they were, their gifts and day of arrival.

The kings

The journey

A BRIGHT distinct star appeared on the firmament. The Magis who probably belonged to a caste of Zoroastrianism knew that the King of the Jews was born.

In Eastern Christianity, especially Syriac churches, the Magi, from the word magupati, is composed of 12 persons.

Considered wise and held in high esteem, they interpret the pattern of stars. They are called astrologers in modern times.

The Magis decided to pay homage to the newborn King. Christian tradition acknowledged the three kings: Balthazar of Tarse and Egypt, Gaspar of Sheba, and Melchor of Arabia.

The gospels are silent about how many kings journeyed to see the newborn King.

The Nativity scene can only be read in

EACH of the Magi followed the bright star and met during the journey since they come from different kingdoms. They met during the journey, became friends and traveled together over desserts and mountains, waded the waters of Chaldea and Syria and crossed the Jordan River to reach Jerusalem.

They asked King Herod where to find Jesus of Bethlehem.

Greatly troubled, the king assembled his chief priests and scribes who confirmed what had been prophesied. He told the kings to inform him about Jesus should they find Him so that he, too, can pay homage. For Jesus is a threat to his kingship and he intended to kill Him. The kings saw the Holy Family but not on Christmas Day but after the 40th day,

SINCE there were three kings, the gifts were assumed to be their personal gifts.

The prophecy explicitly said that the newborn baby is a King. Since gold is a measure of wealth associated with nobility, King Melchor gifted Jesus with gold. The walls of holy places like tabernacles and the altar was completely overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:20-22).

King Gaspar offered frankincense, an aromatic gum, burned during ceremonial worships. The only incense allowed during rituals to honor the newborn King is frankincense. Balthazar’s offering was myrrh, a costly perfume. It is mixed with wine and given to criminals condemned to die on the cross to ease suffering.

The gifts were prophetic. Gold praised Jesus’ divinity, frankincense acknowledged his humanity and myrrh foretold his sufferings.

Fr. Ray Ryland wrote that some of the gifts must have been used to fund the holy family’s journey to Egypt, and the balance was used to construct Joseph’s carpenter shop. And the incense must have been offered by Jesus at the temple when he was 12 years old.

Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Depar tment 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.

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Science

BusinessMirror

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Sunday

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph

DISTANT PLANETARY BUILDING BLOCK, FROZEN IN TIME

Ultima Thule: ‘A place beyond the known world’

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AUREL, Maryland—Ultima Thule, an icy world 4 billion miles from the sun, looks like a big snowman.

At a news conference this past week, scientists working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa) New Horizons mission released several images that the spacecraft took as it flew by on Tuesday, New Year’s Day. Planetary scientists have never before seen a close-up of a body like Ultima Thule. It is likely a fragment that coalesced more than 4.5 billion years ago and that has remained in the deep freeze of the solar system’s Kuiper belt ever since.

Building block of the planets

IF it is indeed a pristine planetesimal, a building block of the planets, studying it will offer clues to how Earth and its neighbors formed.

On Tuesd ay, scientists released a blurr y picture of this sm a l l world , a l so k now n by its of f icia l desig nation 2014 MU69, taken before the f lyby from a distance of half a million miles. It sort of looked like a fuzzy bowling pin then.

“That was so 2018,” Stern joked.

Now, much more has come into focus.

mel said in an interview. “They all wanted to see it. The picture goes up and everybody applauds and cheers. Immediately, the chatter starts.”

A second shift of scientists worked on the data overnight, presenting more detailed analysis during a science team meeting on Wednesday morning.

Contact binary

THE scientists now say w ith confidence that Ultima Thule long ago was what they call a “contact binary.”

“Two completely separate objects that are now joined together,” said S. Alan Stern, principal investigator for the mission.

It consi st s of t wo a l most spherical lobes, one with about three times the volume of the other. To tell them apart, they named the larger one Ultima and the smaller one Thule. “Being scientists, we are not all that creative with words,” Stern said.

Such contact binaries appear to be common in the outer solar system, but, Stern said, “This is the first object that we can clearly tell was born this way.”

By contrast, he sug gested, scientists did not know for sure whether other t wo-lobe bodies—most notably the rubber ducky-like Comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko—were t wo objects that came together or one larger body that had eroded into its current shape.

A contact binar y fits w ith some theories of how the planets

Controversy over the nickname

IN an image provided by Nasa, the first clear image of the object nicknamed Ultima Thule, beamed back after the New Horizons spacecraft’s flyby on January 1, 2019. The snowman-like body is the most distant object ever visited. NASA VIA THE NEW YORK TIMES

formed—that clouds of pebbles clumped together into larger lobesize bodies, and then these two lobes gently bumped into each other and stuck.

“It’s actually gratifying to see these almost perfectly formed contact binaries in their native habitats,” said Jeffrey M. Moore, leader of the mission’s geology and geophysics team.

In at least the general outlines, he added, “our ideas of how these things form seem to be somewhat vindicated by these observations.”

No craters visible

HE said the two lobes must have hit at very low speeds, a few miles per hour at most. Moore said that the mottled appearance of the surface with dark

streaks were suggestive of hills and ridges. As yet, there are no obvious craters visible.

“We see no unambiguous evidence,” Moore said. “I’d be surprised if there are not at least a few.”

Because these images were taken with the sun directly behind the spacecraft, there are no shadows to highlight the topography.

New Horizons did not detect variations in Ultima Thule’s brightness as it approached.

Typically, an irregularly shaped object will have a rhythmic pattern of brightening and dimming as it rotates. But here, the spacecraft was looking down at one of the poles, so essentially the same side of Ultima Thule was facing the spacecraft the entire time.

Reddish color

First batch of data

COLOR images show that Ultima Thule is reddish. A ring of brighter, less reddish material circles the connection between the two lobes, possibly loose material that rolled down and piled up at the bottom of the slopes.

The details of the shape conclusively answer the mystery of why

YEAR IN FITNESS: HOW EXERCISE KEEPS US YOUNG In this study, aerobic exercise appears to have lengthened people’s telomeres, almost dialing back time.

If that finding doesn’t motivate all of us to want to move more, several other studies from this year that looked at exercising and aging using a wider lens probably should.

Immune systems, youthful muscles

ONE, from March, showed that older cyclists had immune systems that resembled those of much younger people, as well as muscles that retained a youthful size and fiber content, even among the riders who were well into their 70s.

So, too, older recreational athletes displayed the muscles of much younger people in another study I covered, this one from November, and it found, too, that people who had been working out for decades had the aerobic fitness of whippersnappers 30 years their juniors.

RUNNERS at East River Park in New York on September 22, 2018. Scientists are beginning to understand the many microscopic changes that occur when we exercise. JEENAH MOON/THE NEW YORK TIMES

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Not too late

OME of the biggest news in exercise science last year concerned the tiniest effects from physical activity, which does not mean that the effects were inconsequential. It means they were microscopic.

We learned this year, for instance, that exercise changes how our cells communicate with one another, as well as how rapidly they age. This new research began to detail the many, pervasive ways in which working out alters the inner workings of our bodies and contributes to better health.

There were other, broader themes, too, in 2018’s fitness-related science, including about how older people can be enviably youthful if they are active and the unexpected roles that weight training may play in our health.

with a dye that glows, they tracked where they went and discovered that most homed in on the liver. There, the vesicles entered the organ, dissolved and delivered a load of biological stuff, including snippets of genetic material that can supply messages to other genetic material.

In this way, the scientists speculate, the vesicles probably delivered a biological alert to the liver, letting it know that exercise was underway, and it might want to start releasing stored energy for use by other, working tissues, like the muscles.

This study is a bracing reminder that multiple far-flung bodily systems are involved when we move and they all must communicate, but the process is bogglingly complex and, for the most part, still to be mapped.

Biological alert

Molecular level

BUT for me, the most exciting exercise research in 2018 went small. A study that I wrote about in January, for instance, found that people’s blood contained more of certain vesicles, which are tiny bubbles filled with biological material, after aerobic exercise.

When scientists subsequently isolated these vesicles in mice and tagged them

A SIMILAR message emerged from other studies I wrote about this year, although they delved into how, at a molecular level, exercise makes us healthier. It does, of course. People who exercise tend to live longer and with far fewer diseases and disabilities than people who do not.

But we do not fully understand the many underlying biological steps involved.

A study I wrote about just last week examined one small piece of this puzzle, involving the levels of hundreds of different proteins in the bloodstreams of people who regularly exercise or not.

And there were differences. People who exercised had more and less of multiple proteins, which matters, since proteins spur other biological operations throughout the body. In effect, aspects of the exercisers’ everyday physiology appear to be unlike those of people who are sedentary.

So, too, the look and to some extent the “age” of their chromosomes may be different, according to another study I covered this year.

Exercise and telomeres

IT found that sedentary, middle-aged people who took up aerobic exercise for six months developed longer telomeres in their white blood cells. Telomeres are the tiny caps on the ends of chromosomes that protect our DNA from damage during cell division.

Telomeres shorten as a cell ages, until they are so abbreviated that the cell cannot function and often dies. Lengthy telomeres, on the other hand, are thought to denote relative cell youth and vigor.

PERHAPS most encouraging, a study published in July tells us that it is not too late to benefit if we have managed to avoid exercising into midlife. In that experiment, middle-aged people who began a two-yearlong program of regular aerobic exercise reversed the age-related stiffening of their cardiac arteries.

Almost all of this research focused on aerobic exercise. But a few studies this year also provided a plug for resistance workouts.

One found that they were associated with a substantial reduction in the risk of experiencing or dying from a heart attack or stroke, even if people did not undertake aerobic exercise.

Another showed a very strong link between lifting weights and avoiding depression.

And a third, my favorite, indicates that weight training can be quite brief but still beneficial.

In this experiment, one set each of seven different resistance exercises led to the same overall gains in muscular strength and endurance as two or even three sets of the exercises, as long as people pushed themselves. The full, fast routine required only 13 minutes.

So, look for me in 2019 on the bike paths and running trails and, at least for 13 minutes at a stretch, in the gym.

New York Times News Service

THE first batch of science data from the flyby arrived on Earth on Tuesday afternoon. More than 100 scientists, including Heidi B. Hammel, a planetary scientist and a media liaison for the science team, gathered in the evening for a look.

“Everybody was there,” Ham-

STERN highlighted the precision that was required for the rendezvous with Ultima Thule.

“It’s only really [the] size of something like Washington, D.C., and it’s about as reflective as garden-variety dirt,” he said. “And it’s illuminated by a sun that’s 1,900 times fainter than it is outside on a sunny day on Earth. So we’re basically chasing it down in the dark at 32,000 mph.”

He also addressed a controversy over the nickname that the New Horizons team had chosen.

Ultima Thule is a Latin phrase that means “a place beyond the known world,” but it was also adopted by Nazis to refer to the birthplace of the Aryan race. “ T he ter m, U lt i m a T hu le, which is ver y old, many centuries old, possibly a thousand years old, is a wonderful meme for exploration, and that’s why we chose it,” Stern said. “Just because some bad g uys once liked that term, we’re not going to let them hijack it.”

New York Times News Service

Garbage, feces take toll on national parks amid shutdown

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ASHINGTON— Human feces, overflowing garbage, illegal off-roading and other damaging behavior in fragile areas were beginning to overwhelm some of the West’s iconic national parks, as a partial government shutdown left the areas open to visitors but with little staff on duty.

“It’s a free-for-all,” Dakota Snider, 24, who lives and works in Yosemite Valley, said by telephone this past week, as Yosemite National Park officials announced closings of some minimally supervised campgrounds and public areas within the park that are overwhelmed.

“It’s so heartbreaking.

There is more trash and human waste and disregard for the rules than I’ve seen in my four years living here,” Snider said. The partial federal government shutdown, now into its 11th day, has forced furloughs of hundreds of thousands of federal government employees. This has left many parks without most of the rangers and others who staff campgrounds and otherwise keep parks running.

Unlike shutdowns in some previous administrations, the Trump administration was leaving parks open to visitors despite the staff furloughs, said John Garder, senior budget director of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association.

“We’re afraid that we’re going to start seeing significant damage to the natural resources in parks and potentially to historic and other cultural artifacts,” Garder said.

“We’re concerned there’ll be impacts to visitors’ safety.”

“It’s really a nightmare scenario,” Garder said.

Under the park service’s shutdown plan, authorities have to close any area where garbage or other problems become threats to health and safety or to wildlife, spokesman Jeremy Barnum said in an e-mail.

“At the superintendent’s discretion, parks may close grounds/areas with sensitive natural, cultural, historic or archaeological resources vulnerable to destruction, looting or other damage that cannot be adequately protected by the excepted lawenforcement staff that remain on duty,” Barnum said.

In the southern Sierra Nevada in Central California, some areas of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks were closed. In Sequoia, home to immense and ancient giant sequoias, General Highway was closed because overflowing trash bins were spreading litter and posed a threat to wildlife and the icy, jammed roadway was seeing up to three-hour delays, according to the National Park Service.

Also closed was the Grant Tree Trail, a popular hiking spot, because the government shutdown halted maintenance and left the path dangerously slick from ice and snow, with at least one injury reported, the park service said.

Campers at Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California’s deserts were reporting squabbles as different families laid claims to sites, with no rangers on hand to adjudicate, said Ethan Feltges, who operates the Coyote Corner gift shop outside Joshua Tree. AP

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Sunday, January 6, 2019 A7

Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific bags major awards in 2nd Sports Tourism Awards

WINNING for two consecutive years the award of International Event of the Year, Princess Galura (third from left) of Sunrise Events Inc. leads Lapu-Lapu Tourism Officer Hembler Mendoza and Cebu province officials Atty. Mark Tolentino and Grace Paulino and DOT 7 Regional Director Shalimar Tamano (second from right) in receiving the award for Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championships from Bob Zozobrado (left), chairman of Pacific Area Travel Association-Philippine Chapter, and Charles Lim (right) founder and chairman of Philippine Sports Tourism Awards.

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By Gelyka Dumaraos

Photos from Philippine Sports Tourism Awards

NTERNATIONAL sports event Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific once again clinched major awards at the second Philippine Sports Tourism Awards (PSTA) on December 5, 2018, held at Savoy Hotel Manila.

The triathlon event won the International Event of the Year award and the Destination Marketing of the Year, which aims to highlight the City of Lapu-Lapu, Province of Cebu and the Department of Tourism Region 7, under partnership with Sunrise Events Inc. Sunrise Events Inc. also won the Organizer of the Year (Private) title.

Princess Galura, general manager of Sunrise Events Inc. accepted the awards for Ironman 70.3. Galura said that the triathlon event has been vital in positioning Cebu as one of the primary destinations for sports tourism for both local and international enthusiasts.

“We have been with PSTA since

Day 1, and we are honoured that Ironman Asia Pacific has been recognized once again, making Cebu and the country as a whole the No. 1 sports destination,” Galura said.

She added that the triathlon event saw a major boost in tourism, with spectators coming from international markets.

Sunrise Events Inc. have also been hailed in the first PSTA in 2016 as Organizer of the Year, and Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific as International Event of the Year.

Meanwhile, Cobra Ironman, also organized by Sunrise Events Inc. clinched the Event Sponsorship of the Year award, while Tabuelan 111, an event hosted by the municipality

PHILIPPINE Sports Tourism Awards and Sports Tourism Forum Founder Charles Lim

of Tubuelan, was also cited twice as Organizer of the Year (Government) and Domestic Event of the Year.

This year, PSTA welcomed two new categories—Airline of the Year, which was given to the Philippine Airlines, and the Hotel of the Year to Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa. Other awards given were Subic Bay for the Destination of the Year Award, while the City of Dumaguete was awarded Organizer of the Year (Government).

Dumaguete City Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo said that the city has seen growth in tourism arrivals

SHANGRI-LA’S Mactan Resort and Spa Director of Sales and Marketing Myra Regner, accompanied by Director of Business Development Pershen Cruz and Assistant Director of Events Management Mara Liboro, receives the award for Hotel of the Year from Arturo Aro of the Philippine Olympic Committee (left) and Charles Lim (founder and chairman of Philippine Sports Tourism Awards).

when they started organizing events.

“This award will top off all the tourism awards we got this year.

Recently, we were awarded the Retirement Area Deemed as RetireeFriendly for 2018 and one of the Best Places to Retire in the World according to the Retire Overseas Index.

“I always believe that the sports is a great equalizer. Sports in Dumaguete unites the people.

There was a time when we hosted beach volleyball, there was no traffic. Truly, sports is also a great unifier,” Remollo added.

Other awardees were: Event of the Year (Domestic)—Visit Davao Summer Festival; Destination Marketing of the Year—Cebu Pacific for its promotions of Siargao; National Sports Association of the Year—Philippine Football Federation for initiating the home and away Philippine Football League; Airline of the Year—Philippine Airlines; Event Sponsorship of the Year—Century Tuna Ironman; and Charity Event of the Year— Fundlife International.

The awardees were selected by a panel of judges from different sports tourism sectors, including the Department of Tourism (DOT), Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee.

According to Charles Lim, chairman and founder of the PSTA, the

Taiwan hot-spring seasons kick off

TAIWAN is also known as “a treasure island with hot springs.”

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AIWAN situates in CircumPacific Seismic Belt, which provides it with an abundance of volcanic and geothermal resources. The abundance of geothermal resources creates a large variety of spring kinds, making Taiwan ranked within 15 in the world,

and also praised as “a treasure island with hot springs.” When the weather is cold, being soaked into a hot spring is extremely comfortable. What’s more, going to a hot spring in a long term brings your body multiple benefits. Besides, you can also enjoy hot spring delicacies from different plac-

es. Thus, we sincerely welcome people from the Philippines to travel to Taiwan for quality hot springs, local delicacies and a delightful stress-relieving hot-spring town experience.

The season of hot springs is around the corner. Tourism Bureau of Taiwan holds series of events to

promote the journey of hot springs, delicacies and culture in Taiwan.

In 2018, the bureau hosted a contest and had selected “Top 10 hot springs” in Taiwan, which are “Guanziling Hot Spring,” “Xinbeitou Hot Spring,” “Jiaoxi Hot Spring,” “Jhihben Hot Spring,” “Kukuan Hot Spring,” “Taian Hot Spring,” “Jinshan Wanli Hot Spring,” “Wulai Hot Spring,” “Ruisui Hot Spring” and “Baolai and Bulao Hot Spring.” Each of them embrace different kinds of spring quality, landscape and local foods, and they are all worth visiting for overseas tourists around the world to relieve their stress.

The hot-spring towns in Taiwan not only have great hot springs but also offer healthy hot-spring menus taking advantage of “local and seasonal ingredients.” By that, it is expected to attract worldwide travelers to experience a soothing journey in Taiwan.

AirAsia announces new Clark-Seoul, Korea route

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IRASIA continues to expand its network from Clark International Airport with the addition of three times weekly flights to Seoul, South Korea, starting on January 19.

AirAsia Philippines Chief Executive

Captain Dexter Comendador said, “It is an exciting time for travelers from Metro Manila, Central and Northern Luzon wanting to experience winter in Seoul as we begin to offer new flights from Clark in January. AirAsia is expanding our

network in Clark to provide the much-needed connectivity and convenience.”

AirAsia offers several flights from Clark to Cebu, Davao, Puerto Princesa, Caticlan (Boracay), Tacloban, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro and Taipei, Taiwan.

AirAsia in the Philippines started with only two aircraft in 2012 when the airline began its commercial operation in Clark, Pampanga, and currently operates a fleet of 21 Airbus A320s from hubs in Manila, Cebu, Kalibo and Clark.

awards event is a fitting tribute for stakeholders who had vastly contributed to the promotion of sports tourism in the Philippines, making the country a world-class destination for sports.

“Once again the awardees are of par excellence, and this event honors them for their efforts and professionalism in creating and hosting the sports events which have encouraged more visitors, locally and from overseas, to participate,” he said.

PSTA awards were the result of the Sports Tourism Forum (STF) that started in 2014 in Cebu City.

The STF encourages local sports organizers, government agencies, sports clubs, schools, associations and companies to organize sports events to promote tourism in their respective regions through a series of seminars and workshops. STFs have been held in Cebu, Davao, Manila, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Laoag, Clark Freeport, Puerto Princesa and Subic.

Lim noted that sports tourism is in line with the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) goal of introducing new tourism products such as medical tourism and faith tourism.

“The Philippines, as a sports destination, holds a lot of potential,” he said. “A lot of tourists come here, although they may not join to compete,

they come here because of sports activities like scuba diving.”

Lim added that the PSTA is a timely recognition as well as a boost to popularizing sports tourism since the country will be hosting the 2019 Southeast Games in several cities in Luzon. To be organized by the Philippines SEA Games Organizing Committee, eleven countries from Southeast Asia will be competing in Luzon, particularly Subic, Manila, Tagaytay/ Batangas, and in Capas, Tarlac.

Nominations for the third PSTA is already open until March 31.

The second PSTA was supported by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., SaVoy Hotel Manila, JG Summit, Coca-Cola Femsa and is presented by Selrahco and Primetime Group. The STF and PSTA were also supported by the DOT, Philippine Sports Commission and the Pagcor.

Organized by Selrahco, a tourism marketing and public relations group, the PSTA are given to different entities, event organizers, hotels, airlines, government agencies, sports associations, destinations, corporate sponsors and charities for their efforts in promoting sports tourism in the Philippines.

Founded in Cebu, Selrahco has been in the public relations and events management industry since 1997.

BAMBANTI FESTIVAL 2019 GEARS UP WITH ‘VICTORY OF ISABELA SPIRIT’

THIS year’s week-long Bambanti festival will start on January 21.

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ICKING off 2019 is the much-awaited Bambanti Festival of Isabela province with its theme “Victory of Isabela Spirit” (Tagumpay ng Pusong Isabela) highlighting all the victories the province has achieved through creative concepts and images.

Spearheaded by the Provincial Government of Isabela, the weeklong festival will be celebrated from January 21 to 26, featuring its community life, history and heritage, as well as its various indigenous world-class products, lifestyle merchandise items and cuisine as pride of place. The province has seen and realized a tremendous growth in its economic, social, political and cultural development, and celebrates this feat through the said festival.

Hyping up the festive celebration are entertaining programs and competitions such as the Giant Bambanti Showcase, Bambanti Streetdance and Showdown Competition, Search for Bambanti Festival King and Queen, Bambanti Village and Isabela’s Master Kusinero Cooking Competition.

Bambanti is an Ilocano word for scarecrow, which the province considers as protection despite the common notion that it rouses fear. Created with colorful straws and grasses wrapped in farmer’s clothing, bambanti has always been the icon and mascot of the festival. The Bambanti Festival is 2018 Aliw Award’s Hall of Famer for Best Festival Practices and Performance by being a three-time winner from 2015 to 2017.

A8 Sunday, January 6, 2019

Sports BusinessMirror

Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

THOMAS VS. FROOME IN TOUR DE FRANCE T

GERAINT THOMAS (left) and Chris Froome set the same goal as they ride under one Team Sky.

POULTER PAYS DUES

By Doug Ferguson The Associated Press

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APALUA, Hawaii— Part of Ian Poulter’s punishment for violating a Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour policy is spending two weeks in Hawaii to start the new year.

That would be a most literal interpretation of the penalty.

And it only tells part of the story of how Poulter chose to make up for missing a tournament he was supposed to play.

Along with adding two tournaments he had not played in the last four years—one of them, happily, was the winnersonly field at Kapalua—Poulter hosted eight tournament guests for a round of golf at his home club in Florida, lunch and a tour of the house where he keeps his Ferraris and Ryder Cup memorabilia.

“I would say it was beyond what we would consider an acceptable make-good,” said Andy Pazder, the tour’s chief officer of tournaments and competitions. “To do what he did...was just terrific.”

The violation was failing to play a tournament where he had not been in the last four years.

What got Poulter into this position was winning.

The PGA Tour has a policy that players who don’t compete in 25 events must play a tournament where

What’s for dinner?

K

APALUA, Hawaii—Patrick Reed, who says he can’t please everybody, is sure going to try when he hosts the dinner for Masters champions in April.

His menu starts with ribeye steaks, macaroni and cheese, creamed spinach and creamed corn.

But he wants options in case some Masters champions don’t like steak. Reed said he also plans to serve grilled chicken, seafood and a couple of healthier options.

“I want to please everyone there. It’s not just for me,” Reed said. “It’s for all the past champions, and I want everyone to have a great time.”

One thing about this menu is certain.

“I’m definitely going to fatten everyone up,” he said. AP

they haven’t been in the last four years. Life members (20 or more tour victories) and veterans (45 years or older) are exempt. Poulter is neither.

The policy wasn’t a problem until the 42-yearold from England won the Houston Open. Suddenly, he was eligible for the

Masters. His movement in the world ranking got him into the US Open and British Open.

The victory took him to No. 20 in the FedEx Cup, all but assuring him at least three playoff events. And it put him squarely in the mix to make the Ryder Cup team for Europe.

“Winning was going to put me in default,” Poulter said.

Jordan Spieth also violated the policy

when he didn’t reach the Tour Championship, and it received plenty of attention because the three-time major champion carries plenty of star power.

Poulter, however, was the first culprit, and he saw it coming not long after his Houston victory. He met with the tour at Hilton Head a week after the Masters.

“I told them, ‘How do you want to go about it?’ I’m going to be the first person, and it’s going to be sensitive,” Poulter said. “I want to give something back so I can fulfill an obligation.”

The actual penalty is unclear, and it was badly misinterpreted, especially relating to Spieth.

It falls under the “major penalty” category, which is a fine of at least $20,000 and suspension from more than three tournaments. But that’s ridiculous. Why punish a player for not playing enough tournaments by making him sit out even more?

Besides, the commissioner has the final say on any

tournament regulations.

Poulter told the tour he would be at the Sentry Tournament of Champions for the first time since 2013 (it had been that long since his last tour victory), and stay an extra week for the Sony Open.

“That would tick two boxes,” he said.

And then he offered a day with tournament guests. The Wyndham Championship was one Poulter could have played under normal circumstances, but that would have given him nine straight weeks

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HE first meeting of a committee created to probe boxing’s Olympic future may not happen this month, despite a request sent to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by the president of the crisis-hit International Boxing Association (Aiba) Gafur Rakhimov.

An IOC spokesman did not confirm or deny if the invitation from Rakhimov had been accepted when asked by insidethegames.

The Inquiry Committee being chaired by IOC Executive Board member Nenad Lalovic was formed in November following serious concerns with Aiba’s governance, financial management and the integrity of its competitions.

It followed the election earlier that month of Rakhimov as Aiba President despite him being labeled by the United States Treasury Department as “one of Uzbekistan’s leading criminals.”

On top of that, as first reported by insidethegames, Aiba is also reportedly unable to maintain or open a bank account in Switzerland, another serious issue for the IOC. The federation is currently using a bank in Serbia.

Further concerns are anti-doping and the integrity of judging.

As a consequence, the IOC have frozen all preparations for the Olympic boxing tournament at Tokyo 2020.

leading up to the Ryder Cup. So he let Wyndham select who they wanted to send to Orlando, Florida.

“We had a great time,” Poulter said. “I played nine holes with each group, we had a bite to eat, and a few of the guys wanted to see the car museum and my Ryder Cup office-homage. I took them through that.”

He built this “museum” as part of a guest house so it could serve as corporate entertainment and charity functions, and this served the purpose.

Poulter says some of the guests were pure “petro heads” who can’t get enough of the cars.

They all like golf, and his office is all golf, mostly the Ryder Cup. That includes a text message that European captain Jose Maria Olazabal sent to Poulter on Christmas Day in 2012, three months after Poulter nearly single-handedly led Europe on a comeback victory at Medinah. He framed the text on a silver board. He won’t say what the message is.

“They get to see that when they’re there,” he said.

There are Ryder Cup trophies (five of them for Poulter), letters from Arnold Palmer, 60 tour bags filled with clubs that he has used in his 20-year career, notes from when he taught juniors as a fledgling club pro in England, and yardage books from a few significant moments.

“The report we got back was it was an exception day,” Pazder said.

And so Poulter has paid his dues, devoting some eight hours of his time—and his home—to guests of a tournament he didn’t play. And he is in Hawaii for two weeks.

All is well.

EAM Sky has confirmed the major targets of their three key Grand Tour riders with Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas set to focus on the Tour de France in 2019, while Egan Bernal will lead his first Grand Tour at the Giro d’Italia.

Both Froome and Thomas had toyed with the idea of heading to the Giro d’Italia this season but did not go through with it. Froome rode the Giro in 2018 for the first time in eight years. He won the race after a dramatic fight back on the Colle delle Finestre but the race took its toll and he finished third at the Tour de France behind Thomas and Tom Dumoulin.

Froome decided that it was better to skip the Italian race as he looks to enter his name into the history books with a fifth Tour de France title.

“I’m getting to the point in my career now where I’m starting to think about what kind of legacy I want to leave behind and if I am able to win the Tour de France for a fifth time and join that very elite group of bike riders—only four other people have ever done that—it would just be incredible,” Froome said.

“It’s been a hard decision to figure out exactly what to do in 2019 and figure out which Grand Tours to focus on, especially having won the Giro last year and having had such an amazing time out there with the team—but for 2019, my No. 1 objective is going to be the Tour de France.

“It was definitely a difficult decision not to go back to the Giro d’Italia and defend the maglia rosa. I’ve got some amazing memories from last year, but I think, with the Tour de France as my main objective, it’s probably better that I skip the Giro d’Italia in 2019.”

After taking his first Tour de France title last summer, Thomas was eager to be in top form for when he gets the opportunity to ride the race with the No. 1 on his back.

Thomas won two stages and spent half the race in yellow, beating Dumoulin by 1:51 in the end. As well as his bid to defend his Tour de France title, Thomas is also targeting the World Championships in Yorkshire at the end of September.

“The main goal for me will be to go back to the Tour de France for the best result I can,” explained Thomas. “Maybe if I hadn’t won the Tour in 2018 I might have looked at a Giro/ Vuelta program but, having won the Tour, I’ll have the No. 1 on my back and it would be sad not to go back and not to go back at 100 percent, as well.

“The year will be geared around that, but I’m also looking forward to a slightly different programme as well, and obviously after the Tour, the Worlds in Yorkshire will be massive.”

Bernal had hinted at the chance that he would ride the Giro d’Italia earlier this week, and the team has now confirmed that he will be the leader for the race. The 21-year-old Bernal made his Grand Tour debut at the 2018 Tour de France and finished 15th overall as he worked for Froome and Thomas.

“The Giro is a race that I really, really like.

I lived in Italy for three years, so I have a lot of friends there and I really like the Italian fans.

I know the roads, I really like the Giro, and I want to do a good race there,” said Bernal.

Bernal will make his season debut at the Tour Colombia, where Froome is also due to begin his season. Froome is also scheduled to ride the UAE Tour at the end of February.

The 2019 Giro d’Italia will begin on May 5, while the Tour de France is set to start in Brussels on July 7. Cyclingnews

Aiba’s fate remains uncertain Although they still hope to hold boxing in the Japanese capital, it could go ahead without Aiba’s involvement.

Rakhimov has always denied any wrongdoing and earlier this week wrote to Lalovic suggesting a “kick-off meeting” in early January to get things underway.

According to a statement released by Aiba, Rakhimov also confirmed that “he and the entire Aiba leadership look forward to collaborating with the Committee and to providing clarity regarding any questions that the IOC may have following the latest progress report submitted to the IOC.” He also reportedly asked that “in the spirit of transparency,” any hearing conducted as part of the inquiry be open to the public.

Aiba has pointed to the official Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) rankings, which now places them in the top-half of summer International Federations, as a sign of their progress.

They have argued Aiba is now fully compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency Code and has signed agreements with the International

Testing Agency, while they claim to have introduced “revamped” refereeing and judging systems to promote transparency and fair play.

Aiba have also reported that their financial situation is “stable” with “positive cash-flow” due to a “significant increase in revenues.”

However, despite all this, in response to a request for comment from insidethegames the IOC have said they are still reviewing documents provided by Aiba in November.

“We will not comment before the IOC EB [Executive Board] has taken a final position,” they said, making no reference to the January request.

“But we can emphasise that Aiba’s right to be heard will be respected.”

The IOC Executive Board is not due to meet again until March 26, meaning the likelihood of Rakhimov’s request being granted appears slim.

Elsewhere, despite the looming possibility of boxing’s Olympic axe, in his December newsletter to Aiba members Rakhimov suggested 2018 has been “a very good year for our organisation.”

“We have come a long way and we have a lot to be proud of,” he said. Inside the games

BOXING federation president Gafur Rakhimov is being labeled by the United States Treasury Department as “one of Uzbekistan’s leading criminals.”

NUVOLANEVICATA | DREAMSTIME.COM

Single doesn’t mean being lonely or alone Arizona State University

A

S the holidays transition to the New Year, singles may face questions from friends and family: “When are you getting serious about dating?”

In many families, seasonal festivities draw lines between who’s coupled and who’s not. Romantic partners are invited to holiday meals, included in family photographs, and seen as potential life mates—while “mere” friends are not. These practices draw a line between relationships seen as significant—and those which aren’t.

As I’ve argued in my research on the ethics and politics of the family, these practices reflect widespread assumptions. One is that everyone is seeking a romantic relationship.

The second is more value-laden: living in a long-term romantic, sexual partnership is better than living without one. This fuels beliefs that those living solo are less happy, or lonelier, than couples.

These assumptions are so prevalent that they guide many social interactions. But research shows they’re false.

Why more Americans are living single THE truth is that more Americans are living unmarried and without a romantic partner.

In 2005 the census for the first time recorded a majority of women living outside of marriage. Although, of course, some unmarried women have romantic partners.

By 2010, married couples became a minority in the United States. The percentage of unmarried adults is at an all-time high, with more young adults choosing to live unmarried and without a romantic partner.

Personal finances likely play a role in such choices. Millennials are worse off than earlier generations. There is a proven connection between economic resources and marriage rates—what legal scholar Linda McClain calls “the other marriage equality problem.” Lower incomes correlate with lower rates of marriage.

But changing family patterns are not simply the result of financial instability.

They reflect choices: Not everyone wants romantic partnership and many singles see solo life as more conducive to flourishing and autonomy.

Single by choice AS I show in my book Minimizing Marriage,

people have many different political or ethical reasons for preferring singlehood.

Some women become single mothers by choice. As sociologist Arlie Hochschild has argued, marriage brings extra work for women, making it less attractive than single life for some.

For other people, being single is simply a relationship preference or even an orientation. For example, there are those—referred to as “asexuals” and “aromantics”—who lack interest in sexual and romantic relationships.

Who are asexuals and aromantics?

DATA from a 1994 British survey of more than 18,000 people showed 1 percent of the respondents to be asexual. Because asexuality is still little-known, some asexuals might not identify as such. And so, it’s possible that the true numbers could be higher.

Asexuals are people who do not feel sexual attraction. Asexuality is not simply the behavior of abstaining from sex, but an orientation. Just as straight people feel sexual attraction to members of a different sex, and gays and lesbians feel attraction to members of the same sex, asexuals simply do not feel sexual attraction. Asexuals can have romantic feelings, wanting a life partner to share intimate moments with and even cuddle—but without sexual feelings.

But some asexuals are also aromantic, that is, not interested in romantic relationships. Like asexuality, aromanticism is an orientation. Aromantics may have sexual feelings or be asexual, but they do not have romantic feelings. Both asexuals and aromantics face a lack of understanding.

Angela Chen, a journalist writing a book about asexuality, reports that her asexual interview subjects suffered from a lack of information about asexuality. As they failed to develop sexual attractions during puberty—while their classmates did—they asked themselves, “Am I normal? Is something wrong with me?”

But while asexuality is sometimes misunderstood as a medical disorder, there are many differences between an asexual orientation and a medical disorder causing a low sex drive. When asexuals are treated as “abnormal” by doctors or therapists, it does them a disservice.

Since the early 2000s, asexuals have exchanged ideas and organized through online groups. One such group, The Asexual Visibility and Education Network, for example, promotes the understanding that lack of sexual attraction is normal for asexuals, and lack of romantic feelings is normal for aromantics.

Asexuals, like aromantics, challenge the expectation that everyone wants a romantic, sexual partnership. They don’t.

Nor do they believe that they would be

2 BusinessMirror

SOMMERSBY | DREAMSTIME.COM

By Elizabeth Brake

better off with one.

Single and alone —or lonely?

FAR from the stereotype of the lonely single, lifelong singles are less lonely than other older people, according to psychologist Bella DePaulo, the author of Singled Out. Nor are singles alone.

Many singles have close friendships, which are just as valuable as romantic partnerships. But assumptions that friendships are less significant than romantic partnerships hide their value.

JANUARY 6, 2019

Understanding the reasons people have for remaining single might help to handle family stresses. If you’re single, you could take unwanted questioning as a teachable moment. If you’re the friend or family member of someone who tells you they’re happily single—believe them.

(This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Read the original article here: http://theconversation.com/

BusinessMirror

MUSIC

PRINT

‘DATE’ TIME with Miguel Villasis

PAGE

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Sound BusinessMirror

JANUARY 6, 2019 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

MUS

MIGUEL VILLASIS INVITES

FEMALE FANS: ‘DATE TAYO’

by Leony R. Garcia

H

E has a striking resemblance to the tall, dark, hunky and handsome Richard Gomez.

And like the latter in his younger days, Miguel Villasis is very much into basketball. His love for

the sport and the adoring fans perhaps made him realize that he wanted to be in the limelight.

Thus, through some connections in show business, Villasis grabbed the opportunity to do a short film and launch a single entitled “Date Tayo” via online platforms.

“Date Tayo” happens to be an endearing piece of musical work to the millennials, which he cowrote and sung together with singer-artist CK, with music composed by “fliptop” sensation Rapido and arranged by Von Magno Florida.

This early, Villasis struts

his talent and artistic side by helping create the song, into where he poured his emotions and personality.

The single is produced

by PSR Studios, the sister company of entertainment news portal, Philippine Showbiz Republic (www.

PSR.ph).

It was also used as a soundtrack of the short film Two Strings Down, with the rising star himself as the main character. Shot in Hong Kong, the film will be shown in local film festivals and abroad.

As a newbie artist, Villasis wants to explore the world of local showbiz. Gifted with a model’s height, he has joined a number of male searches,

where he won first runner-up in a recent one.

In an interview, he said he has been attending acting workshops, which enhances his timing and acting delivery.

This early, Villasis is also learning to memorize the faces and names of showbiz people, including the members of the media covering the beat.

"Date Tayo" is currently making waves through musicstreaming sites.

And sooner than we could expect, the music video will be available in YouTube.

Watch out for Miguel Villasis as he prepares for his wonderful date with destiny— one that seems to teem with success.

d trip

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | JANUARY 6, 2019

SIC ON PRINT

Up-and-coming artists collaborate for ‘Sana May Forever: The Love Album’

by Leony R. Garcia

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HE CD of the digital release “Sana May Forever, The Love Album” is now out and available.

This collection of various artists received several recognitions in this year’s Philippine Movie Press Club Star Awards for Music, where it bagged the 2018 Best Compilation album. Jingle Buena was declared the Best Female Acoustic Artist of the Year, while Brenan Espartinez was adjudged R&B Artist of the Year.

The disc contains 12 songs: “Sana May Forever” (Arnold Reyes), “Bakit Mahal Pa Rin Kita” (Espartinez), Our Shadows Can’t Lie (Buena), “Kung Malayo Ka” (Lharby Policarpio), My Heart Aches (Suy Galvez), “Hindi Na Ba” (Renz Verano), You Color My World (Buena), “Wala Lang Ba Talaga” (Pat Cardoza), “In Love Ako Sa ‘Yo” (Raynald Simon), “Hindi Ko Kaya” (Chivas Malunda), “Ikaw ‘Yun” (Laarni Lozada), and “Mahal Kita” (Faith Cuneta).

This fresh, light-hearted album, with songs mostly composed by Reyes and songwriter Lorna Tobias, is under the music label of LST Music & Production. It is also available on all digital platforms worldwide like iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Deezer, and Spotify.

If the name of Reyes rings a bell, it’s because he is the award-winning movie/TV actor who, together with Dream Academy winner Laarni Lozada and upcoming actor/social media influencer Policarpio, also dished out modern pop-OPM ditties during the press launch, to the delight of the entertainment press on-hand.

Reyes invited everyone to “please listen to the album. I wrote most of the songs, at yung iba ay collaboration namin ng executive producer [Lorna] Tobias. I’m the songwriter, producer and composer.”

Like and share the LST Music Production Facebook fan page and follow on Instagram: @ lstmusicproduction. For album purchases, text or call Ranjo Isip at 0917-8822773.

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JANUARY 6, 2019 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

Sound trip BusinessMirror

MUSIC ON PRINT

SoundSampler | by Tony M. Maghirang

Rock the new year with The Strange Creatures, Genjitsu Stargazing Society, The Geeks PH, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and easy and accessible as the band’s Aussie forebears The Go-Betweens. This is one serious fever you won’t be aching for an antidote any time soon.

THE STRANGE CREATURES Phantasms

F

EW OPM albums roam freely between genres, and fewer still have the audacity to graf t micro-inf luences within the chosen genre…

Freshman band The Strange Creatures is one such fearless alchemist. Within their debut entitled “Phantasms,” the f ive-piece Filipino crew presents their master y of an infec tious brand of dream pop that ’s equally nostalgic and thrilling in its templateshaking adventurousness.

The album ac tually exists in a swirling intersec tion of sounds. Best of the lot, Stargazer, has to be one of the f inest local distillations of fuzz tones, power chords and glitter y psychedelia in recent memor y.

It ’s made even more magical by the dynamic swings in male and female lead vocals.

The entire af fair star ts with Moonstruck, levitating on the lush guitars of rising new idol Megumi Acorda. “Palipad Hangin” is the per fec t follow-through, suggesting The Cure heading to a vapor trail. At the midpoint of I Feel Like I’m On Drugs, the guitars, synths and vocals come together on a celestial meeting of musical minds.

Four tracks later, Dreamy Eyes begins on a classic new-wave mood which, bit-bybit, dissolves into some kind of midnight shoegaze noir.

To be sure, there are echoes of past and present shoegaze-dream pop craf tsmen.

Let ’s give it up for The Strange Creatures for retrof itting an ageless genre to sound fresh and new again.

GENJITSU STARGAZING SOCIETY The Universe Is Ours: A 2018 Sampler

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HE band describes itself as a counterculture society with a roster of creators who share a common philosophy and outlook in life. It’s also a music label owned, managed and curated by Kurvine Chua.

The eclectic label has just released an 18song sampler that serves as a foretaste of its inclinations. It’s available on Bandcamp for streaming only.

Lucena City’s post-rock firebrand Tim Awa is among the favorite acts in the compilation.

Washington Drama Club’s Lucid Dreams is another choice cut, with muscular, dream pop guitars overlain by sweet female pop singing about “setting fire to your fate.” The Cohens’ Looking For Luh navigates seamlessly between ‘80s pop-rock and full-bodied rock.

Na Mo is one fierce mofo whose I’ve Got Issues on Your Issues reinvents The Cult as a Gothic post-rock anomaly in the 4AD stable. Ozzga serves up a shoegaze stew that reminds of The Smashing Pumpkins in instrumental mode. Only Zoë Rosal comes on as natural and gloomy as a walk in an empty beach after the rains.

Some tracks like Kino1998’s Casiotonesounding See U and Saved History’s I thought it would be nice to write you a song appear like sketches for future compositions given their brevity. Memoryville, on the other hand, build on a solid hook and melody to transform Don’t Leave into an electro-pop in the mold of classic Ultravox.

The label boasts of selling out many of its releases, mostly in cassettes, so Kurvine and his assorted bunch must be doing something good, with a solid market to go with it.

ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER Hope Downs

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LASSIC rockers, particularly jam bands, were once sidelined by punk rock which alluded to their bloated physique and long-winded performances as too much bull signifying nothing.

Time and punk’s troubled history have allowed jam music to ooze back into the mainstream. Hereabouts, jam bands never left the scene and continue to attract audiences in venues like the ‘70s Bistro and quite recently, The Roadhouse Manila Bay—a premier blues venue.

It’s a pleasure to introduce Australia’s Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, whose new full-length album “Hope Downs” revitalizes classic jam rock in today’s so-called synthetic post-punk landscape. The key to Rolling Blackouts C. F. is the amazing telepathy of traditional guitar-drum-bass cooperation. It’s all about excellent bonding among five players, as opposed to shocking listeners to submission with the novelty or the extreme noise pouring out of the speakers.

As album title, “Hope Downs” does not exactly invite confidence. But once opener An Air Conditioned Man gets going, you’ll be hopelessly hooked by the simplicity of the bass-and-drum collaboration and soaring guitars that have as much appeal in them as an adrenalized REM song. As critic-speak goes, you’re down to the music beyond repair.

Three guitar players share vocal duties, which they dutifully do as naturally as they can, without unnecessary effects. The entire thing therefore becomes an organic venture, as free

THE GEEKS PH Weirdly! Relatable! Content!

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OPHOMORE slump. Sappy songs. Old-andtired formula. Commercial failure. They’re the textual backdrops that accompany OPM band The Geeks’ third and latest release.

If you stumble upon the band for the first time, all of those unfortunate self-criticisms don’t make any sense. Fact is, The Geeks PH have a knack for producing music that catches instant attention.

Weird? There’s a bunch of unusual song titles like, I Hate This Place as Much as Liz Hates the Winchester, which in execution happily suggests the pop-punk of Siakol enveloped in warm fuzz.

Relatable? Listen to how the band easily transitions from ‘60s pre-Beatles beat in Janice, This Hurts to an exquisite indie pop jangle to embrace across generations. Content? The Pinoy Geeks certainly sing about physical connection, but given quirky song titles especially Hello Coolio (Tru Feelings), you gotta stay happy with melodic tunes which press the right buttons to entertain you for three minutes or less.

And these musical attractions are not nuanced. They are easily recognizable, making The Geeks’ personal experience highly accessible to every Juan.

(Author’s note: All albums reviewed are available for listening or purchase on the Bandcamp music platform.)

Zcentido sends first album into circulation P

INOY SKA band Zcentido has just launched its initial offering “UnangHakbang,” which has five original songs, a cover in “Mamang Sorbetero,” as well as the carrier single, “Ikaw, Ako, Tayo.”

Bannered

by Richard Cruz as bandleader and drummer, MJ Cruz as lead singer, Gary Ragay handling bass, Christoph

Alday on guitars, Joseph Jamorol jamming on keyboards, Patrick Blanco on trumpets and Jericho Garcia manning the trombone, they recently performed live at the PhilSka Music Festival 2018, Another exciting experience for the band is that they will soon be sharing the stage with two international SKA bands: Beat Bahnhof and Red Stripes.

Millennial voters are the face of Asia 2019

YOUNG women attending a ceremony marking the 85th anniversary of the Nahdlatul Ulama organization at a stadium in Jakarta. ADEK BERRY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Andy Mukherjee Bloomberg Opinion

I

N the first half of 2019, a billion Asians will elect the next leaders of the region’s two largest democracies.

Half—400 million in India and 79 million in Indonesia—are from the millennial generation, born roughly between 1982 and 2001. Many will cast ballots for the first time. Although the threat of sectarian hatred looms large over both the Indian and Indonesian elections, economics will still take center stage.

The issue that will resonate most with younger voters is jobs.

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo will seek a second term on April 17, promising to “re-industrialize” the economy. The commodity boom that helped ameliorate high unemployment after the 1998 Asian crisis has faded. Without pushing into large-scale manufacturing and adding more value to the country’s raw-materials exports, it’s hard to see how municipalities with 9-per-

cent-plus joblessness in West Java can close the gap with the national average of around 5 percent.

Jokowi, as the president is known, wants to keep spending on infrastructure, even though foreign direct investment is set for its first annual decline since he came to power in 2014. But his opponent, the former general Prabowo Subianto, is striking a more nationalistic pose by vowing to review Chinese belt-and-road investments, including a signature high-speed rail project, if he comes to power. Prabowo’s solution for attracting more private investment is to slash taxes and government spending.

Lack of jobs and widespread agrarian distress are also the main campaign issues for Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.

He’s looking to unseat Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his disastrous currency ban and a botched goods and services tax— moves that have hurt small firms and their workers disproportionately.

Since it’s politically suicidal to cut fuel subsidies in an election year, both Modi and Jokowi will hope global oil prices stay low.

Indonesia’s cash handouts to the poor will double in 2019. But with revenue growing strongly, the budget deficit is still expected to come in below 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The same isn’t true for India, though.

Encouraged by his party’s wins in recent

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state polls, Gandhi is putting pressure on Modi to waive farmers’ loans. Meanwhile, the prime minister is wooing the middle class by pruning the list of items taxed at 28 percent, the highest of the five GST (Goods and Services Tax) rates. Even without the additional burden, the budget deficit in the fiscal year ending in March would struggle to meet the goal of 3.3 percent of GDP. Elections will be held by May. For both countries, the biggest “known unknown” of 2019 is the US Federal Reserve’s policy. If the Fed takes a pause only after three interest-rate increases in 2019, the Indian rupee and the Indonesian rupiah, Asia’s two worst-performing currencies this year, could remain under pressure.

In Indonesia, the risk is from the currentaccount deficit, which at about 3.4 percent of GDP is already large. With prices of palm oil and natural rubber slumping, exports may be slow to revive. In India, an abrupt change of guard at the central bank could lead to more relaxed financial conditions— perhaps even interest-rate cuts—to stoke credit-fueled growth ahead of the elections.

If the Fed sets the backdrop for the 2019 Asian polls, Facebook Inc. could determine their tone, even outcomes. The social-media platform has been under scrutiny ever since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, when it emerged that personal data of 87 million Facebook users were obtained by the con-

JANUARY 6, 2019

sulting firm that had, among other things, helped get President Donald Trump elected.

Analysts are dreading a repeat of the role social media played in securing a victory for far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. WhatsApp, the messaging service owned by Facebook, has 250 million users in India, which has seen murders and lynchings triggered by fake news.

Indonesian Communications and Information Technology Minister Rudiantara* told me last year of his frustration over socialmedia firms’ slow and inadequate response to requests to take down offensive content.

A third of his countrymen use Facebook.

How a billion Asian voters navigate around misinformation, fake news and a hardening of majority sentiment against minorities (Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese and India’s Muslims) on their way to the polling booths will be worth watching. There will be a third important Asian election next year. Thailand’s military junta, in power since May 2014, has decided to hand over power in polls scheduled for February 24. Considering that elected leaders keep getting unseated by the courts or the army, a durable democracy in Thailand would be a huge positive for investors. At this juncture, though, that may be too much to expect from 2019.

*Like many Indonesians, he uses only one name.

Young actor leads crypto company inspired by father Chavit’s deeds

By Rizal Raoul Reyes

T

HE Singson name has been synonymous with politics for at least five decades.

Led by its patriarch, former Ilocos Sur governor Luis Crisologo Singson, the clan has become a mover and shaker in Philippine politics.

Furthermore, the clan has made a significant move to be active in the digital economy. It has recently launched the Gold Chavit Coin (GCC) cryptocurrency. The cryptocurrency 2.0 app is primarily based on the sharing first concept, allowing its users access to the multimillionaire’s private jet, luxury cruiser and high-class hotel.

GCC can also be used as convenient payment for casino high rollers.

Luis Christian Singson, the 23-year old son of Singson, is the founder and the chief executive officer of GCC. Singson told reporters in a recent interview that the establishment of the GCC “was inspired by his father’s achievements,” Christian, also the team owner of the Mandaluyong Tigers, said.

“To give tribute to my father and respond to the fast-paced lifestyle of the current generation of Filipinos, my business

LUIS CHRISTIAN SINGSON, founder and chief executive officer of Gold Chavit Coin: “Blockchain in the Philippines remains in its infancy, but it has tremendous disruptive potential that can help not only individuals, but also the economy as a whole by further expanding e-commerce access in the country.” partner Kasuyoshi Irizuki and I established GCC,” Singson added.

The elder Singson is the honorary chairman of the GCC. Singson said his father would also play a prominent role in the operations of GCC as “his reputation and track record in the business will be our major leverage in our dealings and transactions.”

He explained the GCC seeks to provide convenience to shoppers starting from the Singson-owned Metrowalk mall in Pasig City, and will eventually expand its pay-

MILLENNIALS UNIVERSE

By Vernon Velasco

I

WAS interviewed for a freelance writing position and Betty, the editor-cum-examiner, asked me about my personality type.

“You tell me,” I said. This was after I made it clear that my hobbies include contemplating world domination by figuring a way to launch a nuclear missile from a suitcase and that I’m more impressed with perfectly sculpted toenails than a world-class vagina.

She gave me a pie-eating grin and—in the same manner one might wonder if in my life I’ve been to a dentist or received an ass shot or if I have ever taken the Myers-

Briggs Type Indicator—a short quiz that figures which of the 16 personality types you possess.

“What personality is my boy Jesus?”

I asked, whereupon she made me sit the exam on the spot.

The test revealed that I’m a Logician (INTP—Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Perceiving), a.k.a The Thinker. Betty asked how I identified with the result. She prompted me on to the description and I answered the way I might after reading my horoscope: “This is so me!” (Curious, I went down to other personalities and read their descriptions. “They’re also so me!”)

Would the results have been altered if the test included the following questions: • “What do you do with a few foot pound of extra energy after work?”

• “Is violence a choice or just a momentary loss of muscular coordination?”

• “Do you own up to the deed or come up with a watertight alibi?”

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ment area to cover other malls in the near future.

Singson and his partner Irizuki will also tap the overseas Filipino workers (OFW) market to enable them to avail themselves of more affordable rates in their remittances of foreign currencies for their dependents in the families.

“Many Filipinos still have no access to a bank account, which prevents them from saving for their future and participating in basic financial transactions, such as simple payments,” Christian said. “GCC aims to change all that by offering a ubiquitous currency that they can use for nearly all types of transactions, both in the country and abroad.”

Christian said GCC will be based on ERC20, a standard for smart contracts used exclusively in the Etherium blockchain network. Virtual currencies following ERC-20 standards can be shared or exchanged with other tokens and crypto-assets that use the same standard.

GCC has formed a partnership with Hallohallo Inc., an e-commerce company involved in online shopping, property services, and classifieds. It has more than 2.9 million users, and may start using GCC on their purchases as early as the first quarter of 2019.

“We are delighted to have this opportunity to be part of the Gold Chavit Coin project,” Hallohallo Inc. CEO Yasunari Okada said. “As our company and market continues to expand and change, there is a need to provide a service that will offer our customers an innovative way to settle bills.

Through this project, our clients will now

have another payment method option that will make all their transactions hassle-free, easy and fast.”

Blockchain transactions are secure because they are not stored in a single server, but distributed across a network of computers. Each blockchain transaction requires the consensus of the network, making it difficult for a single entity to tamper with the data.

In mid-2019, LCS will list GCC in local cryptocurrency exchanges, where it can be traded for fiat money or other digital currencies.

Singson said a phone application for GCC payments will be introduced that enables bill payments and online and in-store purchases with affiliate retailers and banks, beginning with transactions among companies owned

by LCS. The app is being developed with Billing System Corp., a Japanese financial technology company that previously developed the PayB payment app.

“We plan to leverage the entire LCS network, in addition to partnerships with other vendors and firms, to drive mass adoption, which in turn will increase GCC’s market value,” Christian explained. LCS is involved in several industries, including banking, mining, transportation, renewable energy, and, most recently, telecommunications.

“Blockchain in the Philippines remains in its infancy, but it has tremendous disruptive potential that can help not only individuals, but also the economy as a whole by further expanding e-commerce access in the country,” Christian said. “GCC is our contribution to that effort.”

Sh-t hits the fan • “Would you rather have your partner spit or swallow?”

• “A daisy or a dandelion?” “Islay or Speyside?” “Stirred or shaken?”

• “Is God a starfish or an alien?”

They would count, wouldn’t they?

I’m an INTP, the same personality as that of Einstein and Keanu Reeves’s character in The Matrix. So? Betty said it has nothing to do with anybody’s writing career. The nut said they just wanted to know, which I took to mean as a code for “Bitch, we’re just making sure,” or “I’m sorry, your application is fubar.”

I mean, do my results call for a precaution that I put my hands where Betty could see them? Should I doubt my mental stability? Do they recommend that I take radical measures to drive the psychosis out?

I tried to recall if earlier in the interview I did something off. Did I sit properly? Was I remorseless in my comment that Betty’s accent was a sham (because it’s true)? Would the

JANUARY 6, 2019

situation have been better if, say, I didn’t roll up my sleeves and wore the tie my mom said I should wear to impress a client?

I was deploring over such unfortunate happenstance when Betty revealed that they were trying to assess if, writer or not, I was actually crazy enough to be part of their league.

“We hire crazy people here,” she said.

“Are you?”

I said, “That I didn’t know of,” but her magazine is the only place my byline wants to be and I couldn’t afford to lose it and that, while we’re at it, I was itching to make mincemeat of her idea of a Christmas tree brain and point out that she should get out of my way because she’s “a useless wanker f------g cunt.” “You w---e.”

I cringed a little at my forwardness—she didn’t look pleased—and in no time at all I was out before she could even summon her imps to make sure I wouldn’t make it alive.

Turned out, they’re not as crazy enough.