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A MILLION GUNS By Rene Acosta
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HE government’s campaign against loose firearms spearheaded by the Philippine National Police (PNP) is “barreling through” as part of the overall peace and order effort.
PNP Spokesman Col. Bernard Banac said the drive to recover illegal firearms in the hands of unauthorized individuals has not stopped, even after the elections, stressing that the drive is a continuing effort. The campaign, which is part of the anti-criminality effort of the police, is now being conducted with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), the PNP’s foremost investigative unit, at the helm.
A million more to go
THE PNP is working to recover at least more than a million loose firearms, most of which are in the hands of individuals in Mindanao. Part of the bulk is also with criminal syndicates and private armed groups. Before, during and even after the midterm elections, the PNP seized or confiscated a miniscule 5,304 firearms during its conduct of focused police operations implemented partly through the conduct of checkpoints around the country. “What is more significant is the fact that we were able to take away 5,300 instruments of violence from the hands of criminal and terrorist elements, and that could have resulted in more deaths,” Banac said. “This cache of 5,000 guns is enough firepower to arm an entire division-size armed force,” he added.
Other deadly weapons
THE police spokesman said the seizure of firearms has, in part, contributed to the campaign to recover loose firearms. Of the number, 4,018 were considered as small arms, 120 are light arms and 1,166 are improvised or homemade guns. The PNP also recovered at least 50,386 other deadly weapons and even explosives, which included 366 fragmentation grenades and 649 various types of improvised explosive devices, or homemade bombs. At least 74,072 varying types of ammunition were also seized. The focused police operations were implemented from January 13 up to June 12, which is the end of the election period for the midterm polls.
PNP still struggles to seize loose, unregistered firearms
5,304
The total number of firearms seized during the last election period
Checkpoints
BANAC said the election-geared operations, which were carried out jointly with the Commission on Elections and with the Armed Forces of the Philippines, resulted in the implementation of 838,133 operations. These included checkpoints, police patrol response and Operational Plan Apprehension (“Oplan Sita”). “But we also carried out raids through the implementation of various search and arrest warrants,” Continued on A2
Halliburton and other drillers fight for new life in a world of cheap oil
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By David Wethe | Bloomberg News
OR the oilfield services industry, it’s no longer about merely navigating a downturn. It’s now about survival. er Ltd. and Halliburton Co., the two biggest, have each fallen by more than 65 percent since crude started tumbling, and Weatherford International Plc. on Monday filed for bankruptcy. Contrast that with the oil producers, collectively down less than 50 percent. It’s a model that “definitely needs to be changed,” said Luke Lemoine, an analyst at Capital One in New Orleans, in a phone interview. “It’s just been capital destruction for 20 years.”
CHRISHARVEY | DREAMSTIME.COM
Five years after crude began its plunge to less than $30 a barrel from more than $100, the companies that drill and frack wells are living in a new world. The producers they work for have become increasingly efficient and cost-conscious, reacting to shareholder demands for payback and a crude market that’s recovered only part of that brutal decline. Meanwhile, the service companies that handed out discounts in the downturn are barely holding on. Schlumberg-
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PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 51.0960
n JAPAN 0.4740 n UK 64.2890 n HK 6.5623 n CHINA 7.4362 n SINGAPORE 37.6870 n AUSTRALIA 35.8643 n EU 57.6669 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.6256
Source: BSP (July 5, 2019 )
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Oilfield service providers have a long history of riding the ups and downs in the energy market. They ramp up rigs, workers and prices when oil is more expensive, and cut back when the market drops.
Gear pile-up
WHEN crude began recovering in March 2016, the servicers started refortifying. But with their customers keeping a lid on spending, the gear began to pile up. In February, Rystad Energy, an industry consultant, estimated that supplies of US fracking gear—the pumps that blast water, sand and chemicals underground to release crude in what has become the most expensive part of drilling—will exceed demand by about 68 percent by year’s end. At the same time, producers have enjoyed an output boom in recent years, doing more with less by using new methods and technology. Shortened horizontal drilling times and longer laterals that require fewer wells to be drilled are taking a toll on servicers. In June 2014, the US pumped 8.4 million barrels of crude using 1,545 drilling rigs. Last month, it produced about 12.2 million barrels, 45 percent more, with just 788 rigs. “I have an industry that’s built for way more work than we are currently doing, or that we think will be done in the foreseeable fu-
ture—or at least the next three or four years,” said Richard Spears, an industry consultant who’s also worked in and around the oil patch for decades. The gear glut is taking a toll as service companies are jockeying to defend their share of an increasingly lean market. The prices charged by service companies are at their lowest levels since September 2016, with more companies dropping prices than raising them, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The servicer price index hasn’t risen for at least a year, the bank’s quarterly surveys show. While large companies such as Schlumberger and Halliburton are struggling, smaller companies are facing dire consequences. Weatherford, in filing for bankruptcy, is seeking protection at a time when its debt load has topped $8 billion. National Oilwell Varco Inc., meanwhile, is cutting expenses to the bone. “A major value transfer is under way between oilfield service companies and E&P entities,” James West, an analyst at Evercore ISI, wrote in a report earlier this year. “Rather than seek to preserve value, companies sought greater market positioning despite the structural predicament. Intense competitive conditions exist in almost every major oilfield service product line.” Over the last decade in par-
ticular, oil servicers went from a 13-percent lead over exploration and production companies when it comes to returns on capital employed, to a 7-percent deficit to the E&Ps last year, according to slides from Evercore ISI in February, when the bank called on service companies to take its pledge to generate returns for shareholders.
Earnings drop
DURING the same period, the biggest oilfield service and equipment companies have spent $88 billion, while earnings have dropped by $5.8 billion, and net debt has climbed by $24 billion, according to Evercore. Companies are reacting to the crunch in different ways. Schlumberger sold its landrig unit in the Middle East and its global tool-rental business. Precision Drilling sold its Mexican operations. Keane Group Inc. and C&J Energy Services Inc. agreed to combine in a pact valued at about $746 million to become the third biggest frack provider. A Schlumberger spokesman said the company wouldn’t discuss
the industry outlook before it released second-quarter earnings this month. A Halliburton spokesman declined to comment, and Weatherford didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Some analysts and investors, meanwhile, are seeking more widespread consolidation. “The oilfield services industry has fundamentally changed,” Carin Dehne-Kiley, an analyst at S&P, wrote in a report to investors. “Companies will no longer be able to generate the high operating margins they did in 2014.” Even a single company cutting back on its lesser-performing service lines would help, according to Evercore’s West. “You’re starting to
see companies look at their portfolios and pruning in order to drive overall better corporate returns,” he said. Servicers need to focus more on digital technology, switching from diesel-powered frack equipment to electric and generally improving the quality of their gear, said Jud Bailey, an analyst at Wells Fargo. Doing so could lower costs by 25-35 percent over the next five years, he estimates. The companies that are winning are the ones “doing one to three things extraordinarily well,” Bailey said. “The ones who do 10 things—and do one or two of them really well and the rest mediocre—those are the ones who are struggling.”
A million guns PATRICIA HOFMEESTER | DREAMSTIME.COM
Continued from A1
PICHIT BOONHUAD | DREAMSTIME.COM
A WORLD OF CHEAP OIL
Continued from A1
Banac said, noting that a total of 1,304 individuals were taken in out of the servicing of the warrants where firearms were also seized. Banac said that during the conduct of the focused police operations, at least 31 members of various threat groups and nine members of private armed groups were arrested. A total of 3,362 individuals were arrested during the whole conduct of these focused police operations.
More guns, more killings
THE PNP believes that the proliferation of loose firearms could be tied to the cases of killings and the commis-
sion of crimes in the country, and this has prompted PNP chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde to always remind police regional directors to recover all unregistered firearms. Most of these guns are in the hands of criminals, members of syndicates, crime groups, private armed groups and even lawless armed groups in Mindanao. The PNP said the martial-law declaration in Mindanao should help in the recovery of firearms in the region, adding that their seizure is necessary in order to bring peace and order there. Albayalde said the campaign against loose firearms is an integral part of the anti-criminality measures of the police, and it also includes the breaking or neutral-
ization of private armed groups. He said loose firearms are more dangerous in the hands of these private, gun-for-hire and other outlawed groups. That danger cannot be overstated. And, at a time when the government and the PNP keep defending their record against accusations of extrajudicial killings in the war on drugs, having a million loose guns out there may only fuel suspicion that the situation is being tolerated in order to make it easy to get “proxies” to do the job of rubbing out drug suspects. Unfair as that may sound to the authorities, the suspicion will linger for as long as it’s quite easy to find guns—and the group to wield them—to do the dirty job.
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Vietnam moves to ease U.S. tension with trade, FX monitoring
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ietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered government officials to intensify their crackdown on fraudulently mislabeled products for exports and closely monitor US reactions to the nation’s monetary policy to avoid drawing rebukes from the Trump administration. Phuc directed Vietnamese officials to pay close attention to US reactions to net purchases of foreign currencies as the nation continues to build reserves. He also told officials to maintain frequent communication with American counterparts to blunt negative reactions to monetary policy, according to a transcript of a teleconference on Thursday between Phuc and government leaders. “Attention needs to be paid to US comments on net buying of foreign currencies,” Phuc said. “It is essential to maintain regular communication with US agencies so that they see the issue objectively and cautiously.” Vietnam is coming under increasing scrutiny from President Donald Trump’s administration, amid a surge in exports to the US and growing evidence of Chinese and other manufacturers diverting their goods via the Southeast Asian nation to bypass higher tariffs. Trump described Vietnam last week as “almost the single-worst abuser of everybody” when asked if he wanted to impose tariffs on the nation. Bloomberg News
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Japan export curbs take effect as S. Korean officials protest S
EOUL, South Korea—Tightened Japanese controls on exports of key materials used to make semiconductors and displays took effect Thursday, as South Korean officials vowed to fight back. The Japanese government ordered the more stringent approval process for shipments of photoresists and other key chemicals as relations with its neighbor and fellow US ally deteriorated due to issues related to forced labor during World War II. The president’s office said South Korea’s National Security Council met Thursday in Seoul, with members vowing to pursue diplomatic countermeasures. It said the move is viewed as an “explicit breach of international law, including World Trade Organization [wto] regulations.” Japanese officials insist the decision to end preferential treatment
for such exports to South Korea was required because of a lack of trust that poses a risk to national security. Yoo Myung-hee, minister for trade at South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said the revised rules not only hurt ties with Japan but also might disrupt global supply chains. “Japan’s move to impose stronger export restrictions based on an arbitrary claim of ‘damaged trust’ fully goes against the spirit of the [international arrangement] to control exports of strategic commodities,” Yoo said in a meeting with trade and technology industry officials on Thursday. She said the Japanese measures go against both WTO rules and an agreement called the Wassenaar Arrangement, a 42-country armscontrol pact aimed at governing weapons trade and the dissemination of sensitive technologies that
can be used both for civilian and military purposes. Japan and South Korea both are members of the pact, which requires that export restrictions should not be directed against a specific country and also not impede “bona fide civil transactions,” the ministry said. The ministry earlier said the Seoul government plans to file a complaint with WTO over the Japanese measures. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim In-chul on Thursday reiterated Seoul’s demand for Tokyo to “immediately” withdraw the trade restrictions. “The measure is an irrational economic retaliation and goes against common sense,” Kim said. “It’s very regrettable [that the measure went into effect].” A Japanese government spokesman reiterated Tokyo’s insistence
that the tighter controls were needed on national security grounds, even though officials have not given any examples of specific problems. “Export controls with South Korea have been challenging. Inaccurate and inappropriate cases have occurred, so stricter, tougher export controls are needed,” Yasutoshi Nishimura, a deputy chief Cabinet secretary said. South Korean tech company LG Display said it’s not affected by the Japanese trade restr ictions. But officia ls from Sams u ng E le c t ron ic s, t he world ’s big gest maker of memor y chips and smartphones that competes closely with LG for the top spot in displays, and SK Hy nix, another major chipmaker, said the companies were assessing the potential impact to their businesses. The export restrictions on fluorinated polyimides, which are used in
organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens for TVs and smartphones, and photoresist and hyd rogen fluoride, which are used for making semiconductors, will not have a major impact on South Korean companies. Analysts said Samsung and SK Hynix both have sufficient supplies of the materials for now, given the slowdown in demand for semiconductors. The trade curbs may give them a chance to reduce their chip inventories and negotiate better prices, said Kim Yang-jae, an analyst at South Korea’s KTB Investment and Securities. One concern is that Japan might expand the restrictions to include other key semiconductor materials, such as wafers and “blank masks,” which are also predominantly produced in Japan, Park Yu-ak, an analyst from South Korea’s Kiwoom Securities, said in a report Thursday. AP
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Sunday, July 7, 2019
The World BusinessMirror
Strongest earthquake in 20 years rattles Southern California
PRESIDENT Donald J. Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Karen Pence and others stand as the US Army Band performs and the US Navy Blue Angels fly over at the end of an Independence Day celebration in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday, July 4, 2019, in Washington. AP/ALEX BRANDON
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Trump celebrates ‘greatest political journey’ in history
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ASHINGTON—President Donald J. Trump celebrated the story of America as “the greatest political journey in human history” in a Fourth of July commemoration before a soggy but cheering crowd of spectators, many of them invited, on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial. Supporters welcomed his tribute to the US military, while protesters assailed him for putting himself center stage on a holiday devoted to unity. As rain fell on him, Trump called on Americans to “stay true to our cause” during a program that adhered to patriotic themes and hailed an eclectic mix of history’s heroes, from the armed forces, space, civil rights and other endeavors of American life. He largely stuck to his script, avoiding diversions into his agenda or re-election campaign. But in one exception, he vowed, “Very soon, we will plant the American flag on Mars,” actually a distant goal not likely to be achieved until late in the 2020s if even then. A late-afternoon downpour drenched the capital’s Independence Day crowds and Trump’s speech unfolded in occasional rain. The warplanes and presidential aircraft he had summoned conducted their flyovers as planned, capped by the Navy Blue Angels aerobatics team. By adding his own, one-hour “Salute to America” production to capital festivities that typically draw hundreds of thousands anyway, Trump became the first president in nearly seven decades to address a crowd at the National Mall on the Fourth of July. Protesters objecting to what they saw as his co-opting of the holiday inflated a roly-poly balloon depicting Trump as an angry, diaper-clad baby. Trump set aside a historic piece of real estate—a stretch of the
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Mall from the Lincoln Monument to the midpoint of the reflecting pool—for a mix of invited military members, Republican and Trump campaign donors and other bigwigs. It’s where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I have a dream” speech, Barack Obama and Trump held inaugural concerts and protesters swarmed into the water when supporters of Richard Nixon put on a July 4, 1970, celebration, with the president sending taped remarks from California. Aides to the crowd-obsessed Trump fretted about the prospect of empty seats at his event, said a person familiar with the planning who was not authorized to be identified. Aides scrambled in recent days to distribute tickets and mobilize the Trump and GOP social media accounts to encourage participation for an event hastily arranged and surrounded with confusion. Back at the White House, Trump tweeted an aerial photo showing an audience that filled both sides of the memorial’s reflecting pool and stretched to the Washington Monument. “A great crowd of tremendous Patriots this evening, all the way back to the Washington Monument!” he said. Many who filed into the sprawling VIP section said they got their free tickets from members of Congress or from friends or neighbors who couldn’t use theirs. Outside
that zone, a diverse mix of visitors, locals, veterans, tour groups, immigrant families and more milled about, some drawn by Trump, some by curiosity, some by the holiday’s regular activities along the Mall. Protesters earlier made their voices heard in sweltering heat by the Washington Monument, along the traditional parade route and elsewhere, while the VIP section at the reflecting pool served as something of a buffer for Trump’s event. In the shadow of the Washington Monument hours before Trump’s speech, the anti-war organization Codepink erected a 20-foot-tall “Trump baby” balloon to protest what activists saw as his intrusion in Independence Day and a focus on military might that they associate with martial regimes. “We think that he is making this about himself and it’s really a campaign rally,” said Medea Benjamin, the organization’s codirector. “We think that he’s a big baby.... He’s erratic, he’s prone to tantrums, he doesn’t understand the consequences of his actions. And so this is a great symbol of how we feel about our president.” The balloon remained tied down at the Mall because park officials restricted the group’s permission to move it or fill it with helium, Benjamin said. Protesters also handed out small Trump-baby balloons on sticks. Molly King of La Porte, Indiana, a 13-year-old Trump supporter in sunglasses and a “Make America Great Again” hat, happily came away with one. “They’re making a big stink about it but it’s actually pretty cute,” she said. “I mean, why not love your president as you’d love a baby?” A small crowd gathered to take pictures with the big balloon, which drew Trump supporters and detractors. “Even though everybody has different opinions,” said Kevin Malton, a Trump supporter from Middlesboro, Kentucky, “everybody’s getting along.” But Daniela Guray, a 19-year-old from Chicago who held a “Dump Trump” sign, said she was subjected to a racial epithet while walking along the Constitution Avenue parade route and told to go home.
She said she did not come to the Mall to protest but ended up doing so. “I started seeing all the tanks with all the protests and that’s when I said, ‘Wait, this is not an actual Fourth of July,’” she said. “Trump is making it his day rather than the Fourth of July.” Trump had sounded a defensive note Wednesday, tweeting that the cost “will be very little compared to what it is worth.” But he glossed over a host of expenses associated with the display of military might, including flying in planes and tanks and other vehicles to Washington by rail. Not since 1951, when President Harry Truman spoke before a large gathering on the Washington Monument grounds to mark the 175th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, has a commander in chief made an Independence Day speech to a sizable crowd on the Mall. Pete Buttigieg, one of the Democrats running for president, said, “This business of diverting money and military assets to use them as a kind of prop, to prop up a presidential ego, is not reflecting well on our country.” Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is a Navy Reserve veteran who served in Afghanistan in 2014. Two groups, the National Parks Conservation Foundation and Democracy Forward, want the Interior Department’s internal watchdog to investigate what they say may be a “potentially unlawful decision to divert” national parks money to Trump’s “spectacle.” Trump has longed for a public display of US military prowess ever since he watched a two-hour procession of French military tanks and fighter jets in Paris on Bastille Day in July 2017. Washington has held an Independence Day celebration for decades, featuring a parade along Constitution Avenue, a concert on the Capitol lawn with music by the National Symphony Orchestra and fireworks beginning at dusk near the Washington Monument. Trump altered the lineup by adding his speech, moving the fireworks closer to the Lincoln Memorial and summoning the tanks and warplanes. AP
OS ANGELES—The strongest earthquake in 20 years shook a large swath of Southern California and parts of Nevada on the July 4th holiday, rattling nerves and causing injuries and damage in a town near the epicenter, followed by a swarm of ongoing aftershocks. The 6.4-magnitude quake struck at 10:33 a.m. Thursday in the Mojave Desert, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles, near the town of Ridgecrest, California. Multiple injuries and two house fires were reported in the town of 28,000. Emergency crews were also dealing with small vegetation fires, gas leaks and reports of cracked roads, said Kern County Fire Chief David Witt. He said 15 patients were evacuated from the Ridgecrest Regional Hospital as a precaution and out of concern for aftershocks. Kern County District Supervisor Mick Gleason told CNN there were some structural issues with the hospital and some patients had to be moved from one ward to another and that others were taken to a neighboring building. Gleason did not say what the structural issues were. Ridgecrest Mayor Peggy Breeden said that utility workers were assessing broken gas lines and turning off gas where necessary. The local senior center was holding a July 4th event when the quake hit and everyone made it out shaken up but without injuries, she said. “Oh, my goodness, there’s another one [quake] right now,” Breeden said on live television as an aftershock struck. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Kern County. The declaration means that the state will help the county and municipalities in it with emergency aid and recovery efforts. Ridgecrest Mayor Peggy Breeden praised Newsom for declaring the emergency. She also noted at a news conference that other nearby governments have offered to help the recovery effort. President Donald Trump said he was fully briefed on the earthquake and that it “all seems to be very much under control!” Police and fire officials said at a news conference Thursday afternoon that they have enough resources so far to meet needs in the wake of the earthquake. Ridgecrest Police Chief Jed McLaughlin said
at a news conference that “we have plenty of resources.” California Highway Patrol Lt. John Williams says officials have found cracks on several roads in the county, but overpasses and underpasses are in good shape. A series of aftershocks included a 4.5-magnitude temblor, according to the United States Geological Survey. “It almost gave me a heart attack,” said Cora Burke, a waitress at Midway Cafe in Ridgecrest, of the big jolt. “It’s just a rolling feeling inside the building, inside the cafe and all of a sudden everything started falling off the shelf, glasses, the refrigerator and everything in the small refrigerator fell over.” Video posted online of a liquor store in Ridgecrest showed the aisles filled with broken wine and liquor bottles, knocked down boxes and other groceries strewn on the floor. Flames were seen shooting out of one home in the community. Lucy Jones, a seismologist with the California Institute of Technology’s seismology lab, said the earthquake was the strongest since a 7.1-magnitude quake struck in the area on October 16, 1999. “This has been an extremely quiet abnormal time,” Jones said. “This type of earthquake is much more normal.... The long-term average is probably once every five or 10 years somewhere in Southern California.” Jones said that the 6.4-magnitude quake centered near the town of Ridgecrest was preceded by a 4.2-magnitude temblor about a half hour earlier. She said vigorous aftershocks were occurring and that she wouldn’t be surprised if a 5-magnitude quake hit but that they were striking in a remote area, sparsely populated area. “This is an isolated enough location that that’s going to greatly reduce the damage,” she said. People from Las Vegas to the Pacific Coast reported feeling a rolling motion and took to social media to report it. Local emergency agencies also took to social media to ask people to only call 911 for emergencies. “We are very much aware of the significant earthquake that just occurred in Southern California. Please DO NOT call 9-1-1 unless there are injuries or other dangerous conditions. Don’t call for questions please,” the LAPD said in a statement published on Twitter. AP
Envoy says Sudan rivals reach power-sharing agreement
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H A RTOUM, Sudan— Sudan’s ruling militar y council and the country’s pro-democracy movement have reached a power-sharing agreement, including a timetable for a transition to civilian rule, an African Union envoy said early on Friday. Mohammed el-Hassan Labat said both sides agreed to form a joint sovereign council that will rule the country for “three years or a little more.” The sides agreed to five seats for the military and five for civilians with an additional seat going to a civilian with military background. The emerging deal could break weeks of political impasse since the military ousted autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in April. Talks on a power-sharing agreement had collapsed when security forces razed a protest camp outside the military headquarters in Khartoum on June 3. The AU and Ethiopia made intensive efforts to bring the generals and the protesters back to the
negotiating table. Negotiations resumed earlier this week, following massive protests last weekend in which tens of thousands of demonstrators f looded the streets of Sudan’s main cities in the biggest show of numbers since the razing of the protesters’ sit-in camp. At least 11 people were killed in clashes with security forces, according to protest organizers. The UN High Commissioner for Hu m a n R i g ht s M ic he l le B ac he let on Wed nesd ay h ad called on Sudanese authorities to lift restrictions on the Internet and properly investigate all acts of violence and allegations of excessive use of force. Over 250 people have been killed since an uprising erupted against al-Bashir in December, according to protest organizers. The military overthrew the longtime ruler in April, but protesters remained in the streets, fearing the generals intended to cling to power or preserve some form of authoritarian rule. AP
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Sunday
DOST chief: Focus on regional needs to address growth disparity
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CIENCE Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña underscored the need for the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD), one of the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) sectoral councils, to focus on regional needs to address growth imbalance. “The most important challenge for the council is addressing regional needs. We have to do something about the growth imbalance or inequality that the President aims to address,” he said during the recent eighth anniversary celebration of DOST-PCAARRD, themed “PCAARRD at 8: Addressing Regional Needs through Sustained Partnership,” at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City. Speaking on the importance of partnership to accomplish this goal, de la Peña said agencies should work together to achieve complementarity, synergy and do away with duplication in research activities. He also explained the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and how the department addresses them. SDG Nos. 14 (Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development) and 15 (Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss) will be addressed during PCAARRD’s exhibit in the upcoming National Science and Technology Week from July 17 to 21 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. .
S&T Awards
PCAARRD’s anniversary was highlighted by the conferring of S&T Awards and Recognition Ceremonies, including the Pantas, Tanglaw and Dr. Elvira O. Tan Awards. n Dr. Carlito P. Laurean, vice president for Research and Extension of Benguet State University (BSU) and director of the Cordillera Consortium for Agriculture, Aquatic
THE Visayas State University is this year’s Tanglaw awardee. ERIC E. PEREZ/PCAARRD
SCIENCE Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña delivers the keynote address during the recent eighth anniversary of PCAARRD. GIAN CARLO D. CAMACHO/PCAARRD
and Resources Research and Development (CorCAARRD) was bestowed the Pantas Award. The Pantas Award recognizes outstanding scientists/researchers and research administrators. n The Visayas State University (VSU) was recognized with the Tanglaw Award, which honors laudable research institutions. Laurean was recognized for his leadership in research and extension at BSU and at CorCAARRD, particularly through the development of agriculture and natural resources in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR). Laurean continues to strengthen the strategic alliance and enhances the collaboration and cooperation between CorCAARRD and the regional Research, Development and Extension (RDE) Network. He has also enabled BSU to generate increased external funds for RDE, and produce, verify and commercialize technologies that contributed to the income of the university and the improvement of farmers’ socioeconomic
DR. Carlito P. Laurean, vice president for Research and Extension of Benguet State University and director of the Cordillera Consortium for Agriculture, Aquatic and Resources Research and Development, wins the Pantas Award for Outstanding Research Administrator. ERIC E. PEREZ/PCAARRD
well-being. His effort addresses concerns on food security amid the emerging effects of climate change. On the other hand, VSU was able to generate a budget of more than P1.2 billion for R&D, resulting in 154 technologies/significant information that have enormously contributed to Eastern Visayas region and the country’s economy. VSU has implemented innovative researches and projects on environment protection and biodiversity conservation, leading to higher yield of agroforestry crops, such as cacao, pomelo, jackfruit, bamboo and root crops. The technologies of VSU are creating impacts in terms of improving farmers’ socioeconomic well-being and contributing to food security.
Dr. Elvira O. Tan Awards
THIS year’s Dr. Elvira O. Tan Awards honor three papers in agriculture, aquatic and natural resources. The award pays tribute to Filipino scientists and researchers for their exceptional publication of R&D
results, which support PCAARRD’s mission to advance the country’s national economic and food security. n For the agriculture category, Dr. Rosemarie d. R. Josue of the Mindanao State University-Maguindanao was awarded the outstanding published paper. Her paper titled, “Mass rearing and dispersal of biological control agents [BCAs] as interventions in coconut scale insect calamity areas in Basilan, Philippines,” focuses on the development and transfer of massrearing and dispersal technology of biological control agents to address the CSI infestation among coconut plantations/farms in calamity areas in Basilan, Philippines. The said technology has been transferred directly to 1,160 farmers through capability-building activities and farmers’ involvement in actual field applications. It helped farmers to recover from the massive losses due to CSI infestation. n For the aquatic category, Drs. Ronaldo V. Pakingking Jr., Evelyn Grace de Jesus-Ayson, Ofelia Reyes and Norwell Brian Bautista of the
Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center were awarded the outstanding published paper in the aquatic science category. The paper was titled, “Immunization regimen in Asian sea bass [Lates calcarifer] brood fish: A practical strategy to control vertical transmission of nervous necrosis virus during seed production.” The study provided results that clearly illustrate that annual immunization regimen with the inactivated NNV vaccine is an efficient method of sustaining NNV-specific-free sea bass broodfish reared in land-based tanks. It is also proven efficient in circumventing the risk of vertical transmission of NNV from asymptotic broodfish to their offspring under stress of repetitive spawning. n For the natural resources and environment category, Drs. Jose Alan A. Castillo, Armando A. Apan, Tek N. Maraseni and Severino G. Salmo III of the Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources were awarded the outstanding published paper in natural resources. Their paper, “Estimation and mapping of aboveground biomass of mangrove forests and their replacement land uses in the Philippines using Sentinel Imagery” provided results that showed Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel 2 multispectral imagery can provide satisfactory results in the retrieval and predictive mapping of the above ground biomass of mangroves and the replacement of non-forestland uses. Rose Anne M. Aya/S&T Media Services
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IPR protection, commercialization program enters year 2
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EY people from 14 state universities and colleges (SUCs) and two research and development institutes (RDIs) from various parts of the country have recently learned how to correctly protect their organizations’ intellectual property and commercialize their technologies. This, after one year of implementation of the program “Developing the Intellectual Property and Technology Business Management [IP-TBM] Operations in Consortia Member Agencies-Batch 2.” The program is funded by the DOST- Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, Foresty and Natural Resources and Development, and headed by Grecelda A. Eusebio of the DOST-Forest Products Research and Development Institute. Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind that have commercial or moral value. It includes copyrights, patents and trademarks. Artistic works like music and literature, as well as some discoveries, inventions, words, phrases, symbols and designs, can all be protected as IP. Protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) boosts economic growth by encouraging the creation of a wide variety of intellectual goods. It achieves this by giving people and businesses legal rights to their creative output. Technolog y commercialization, on the other hand, is the process of moving technologies from the research laboratories to the market. One way to do this is to ensure that inventions are converted into products and services that benefit the public. Since the IP-TBM program started in July 2018, it has already trained 69 people under the Intellectual Property Master Class and Technology Commercialization Mentorship Series, a 12-module intensive seminar on IPR protection and technology commercialization. According to Eusebio, “ The program seeks to strengthen and capacitate the IP-TBM operations of the agencies involved—making sure they are sustainable to help contribute to the country’s social and economic competitiveness in the global rankings.” Exceeding its expected outputs for Year 1, the program has so far facilitated 254 IPR applications at the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, the establishment of IP-TBM offices, and the conduct of a Technology Pitch Day. Muriel B. Dizon & Rizalina K. Araral/S&T Media Service
PHL team set to compete in IMO, the world’s toughest math contest D.O.S.T. APPROVES 18 R&D GRANTS
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IX high-school students are set to represent the country in the 60th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) from July 11 to 22 in Bath, United Kingdom, after they went through a series of competitions and intensive training. The six students are:
Immanuel Josiah A. Balete (Saint Stephen’s High School)
Vincent U. de la Cruz (Valenzuela City School of Mathematics and Science)
Andres Rico M. Gonzales III (De La Salle University Integrated School)
Dion Stephan J. Ong (Ateneo de Manila Senior High School)
Bryce Ainsley A. Sanchez (Grace Christian College)
THE members of the Philippine Team to the 60th International Mathematical Olympiad in Bath, United Kingdom, from July 11 to 22 are (from left) Immanuel Josiah A. Balete (Saint Stephen’s High School), Bryce Ainsley A. Sanchez (Grace Christian College), Andres Rico M. Gonzales III (De La Salle University Integrated School), Dion Stephan J. Ong (Ateneo de Manila Senior High School), Vincent U. de la Cruz (Valenzuela City School of Mathematics and Science) and Sean Anderson L. Ty (Zamboanga Chong Hua High School).
Sean Anderson L. Ty (Zamboanga Chong Hua High School) Team Leader Dr. Richard B. Eden and Deputy Leader Dr. Christian Paul O. Chan Shio, both of Ateneo de Manila University, and Observer Russelle H. Guadalupe of the University of the PhilippinesDiliman will guide the students in the competition.
The IMO, held annually in a different country, is dubbed as the most prestigious and most difficult high-school mathematics competition in the world. This year, it will see 636 students from 113 countries. The national team was selected at the end of the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Camp
(MOSC), a rigorous training program led by the Mathematical Society of the Philippines (MSP) from February to May 2019. Invited to the program were the National Finalists of the 21st Philippine Mathematical Olympiad (PMO). Sanchez, Ty and de la Cruz placed first, second and third, respectively in the National Stage of
the 21st PMO held last January, while Gonzales and Ty each won an Honorable Mention Award in the 59th IMO. Last year, the Philippines won a gold medal, a silver medal, two bronze medals, and two honorable mentions, and ranked 38th in the Competition participated in by 107 countries. In a message at the team’s send-off program last June 29, Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOSTSEI) Director Josette Biyo thanked the team and everyone else who has been instrumental in their training and participation. “We wish you all the best in the upcoming weeks. Already, you are winners in the eyes of our people,” Biyo said. While the prospect of winning gold for the country is the team’s ultimate goal in joining the IMO, “being part of the 2019 IMO team is already its own reward,” said Ong. “The IMO has been my source of fun and leisure throughout my high-school life. While I may have been different from my peers in school, the IMO has taught me lessons that I would not have learned elsewhere, and I do not regret spending four years of my high-school life preparing for it,” Ty said. The country’s participation in the IMO is a project of MSP and DOST-SEI, with support from major sponsors Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. Foundation and Manulife Business Processing Services. S&T Media Service
FOR SMEs, UNIVERSITIES
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IGHTEEN small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are now stronger in their partnership with universities and research and development institutes (RDIs) through the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) funding assistance for research and development (R&D) purposes. The Collaborative Research and Development to Leverage Philippine Economy (Cradle) is a program specifically designed to catalyze partnerships in R&D between academic institutions, RDIs and SMEs. It provides financial grants from DOST to enable SMEs to partner with higher educational institutions or RDIs to find viable solutions to an existing research and development problem in industry. Among the 18 beneficiaries is the Batangas Egg Producers Cooperative. It is aided by the University of the Philippines in its development of chicken egg white powder and granules from low value edible shell Eggs. Another beneficiary is the Carolina Bamboo Garden, as it partners with the University of the Philippines-Los Baños in researching about micropropagation of select genetically verified, superior bamboo to protect the environment and develop an alternative wood industry. There is also the partnership between the University of Mindanao and Monde Nissin Corp. in the fermentation and purification research to produce food-grade, pharmaceutical-grade and polymer-grade lactic acid. Another is the University of Southeastern Philippines and Hijo Corp. in its research to improve productivity through development of banana diseases-surveillance system.
Through Cradle, the SME states its concern and the academic institution or RDI will solve the problem in partnership with the SME. A Cradle project can have a maximum funding of P5 million, and implemented for a period of one year to three years. Another financial assistance program is the Business Innovation through S&T for industry. BIST is designed to assist Filipino-owned companies, particularly SMEs, to innovate and develop competitiveness and adapt to changing global dynamics. It will facilitate the acquisition of strategic and relevant technologies by Filipino companies for immediate incorporation in their research and development activities. Through BIST and Cradle, the DOST aims to invigorate the Philippine innovation ecosystem as it presents the opportunity for collaboration between researchers, scientists and engineers in the academe and local private companies. The DOST also aims to help the industry gain competitive edge in the market, through the development of innovative products, processes and/or services that are responsive to changing and global dynamics. The DOST is accepting proposals for the BIST and Cradle Program until July 16. Interested parties may send their inquiries to the Project Management Office, Science for Change Program, at Department of Science and Technology 2/F ADMATEL Bldg., DOST Compound, General Santos Avenue, Bicutan, Taguig City. They may also send an e-mail at s4c.ousecrd@ dost.gov.ph, or call the S4C PMO at (+632) 8372943 or visit the S4C Facebook page at @dost.s4cp.
S&T Media Service
Faith A6
Sunday
Sunday, July 7, 2019
Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph
PRIESTS, BISHOPS CAN REGISTER WHILE MAKING PLAIN THEIR LOYALTY TO THE VATICAN DOCTRINE
Pope offers clergy way to register under Chinese law
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ATICAN CITY—The Holy See last week instructed the Catholic clergy in China to profess loyalty to Catholic doctrine when signing a document, required by a new Chinese law, which obliges them to accept the principle of a state-sanctioned Catholic Church that doesn’t recognize supreme papal authority to appoint bishops. China’s estimated 12 million Catholics are split between those belonging to the official church and an underground church loyal to the pope. Pope Francis is seeking to heal decades of estrangement between the Vatican and China’s Communist authorities. Tensions have largely been fueled by Beijing’s insistence that
it has the final say over papal appointment of bishops. The guidelines noted that many Catholic pastors are “deeply disturbed” by China’s insistence that bishops and priests civilly register in order to carry out pastoral duties, and that some had asked the Holy See to indicate a “concrete” approach to their dilemma. But the Vatican guidelines also
14TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: ‘LUKE 10:1-12,17-20’
Fostering vocations for the harvest MSGR. JOSEFINO S. RAMIREZ SUNDAY GOSPEL IN OUR LIFE
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HE h a r vest i ndeed is great, but the laborers are few. Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into His harvest” (Luke 10:2). This observation and plea of Christ applies to the Philippines in a very special way. There is such a shortage of priests in our country, that many of the Christian faithful are left without much spiritual nourishment. T he good shepherd s, who should be going out to look for the lost sheep, are sometimes overwhelmed, just trying to keep track of those that are not lost. They have to provide them with good grazing grounds and clear potable water. The Church needs many vocations. And this includes not only priests, but religious and dedicated laity, as well. What can each one of you do about it? Because you should not think that it is a problem only of the leaders of the Church. It should be everyone’s concern. In the first place, we should pray for vocations as Our Lord adv ises. A sk God for it. God counts on the prayers of the good Christian faithful in order to send them pastors worthy of their prayers. Second, we should all foster vocations. Everyone can do this by creating an environment that is conclive for heeding a divine calling, especially in the home and in the school. The pope referred to this by saying that we should try to create “an environment of faith, generosity and service.” At home, the traditional practices of piety, such
as the family rosary, the grace before and after meals, the prayer of the Angelus, can contribute to the faith of the children. Generosity and service can be fostered by good example and by giving household responsibilities to each one. Needless to say, inputs which are negative, such as frivolous shows and readings, should be avoided in the family environment. In school, the example of Christian faith of the teachers has a very strong impact. A teacher who prays can be a great stimulus for the young children to increase their faith in God. We should firmly convince that following a divine call is the best thing that can ever happen to anyone. It is never a losing proposition, although it entails much self-denial. Dedicated persons are not old bachelors or spinsters who have missed their chance. They are people in love, and they have chosen the best possible love—God Himself and His service. Their hearts are wide open to take in all persons, because they are completely free and available. That is why parents should be generous to God with their children. If God calls a son or daughter of yours, do not be afraid of giving them up. They will bring the greatest joys in the future if their vocation is genuine and they are faithful. And if you are a young man or woman and sense the call of God, be generous. A vocation is a divine adventure, and he who embarks upon it will have a life full of meaning, purpose and unspeakable joys.
BOOK ON THE PHILIPPINE JESUITS BAGS I.A.B.C. GOLD QUILL AWARD
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COFFEE-TABLE book on the mission of the Jesuits in the Philippines has earned for the country a Gold Quill (Award of Merit) from the prestigious International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) this year. The book On the March, with Fr. Jose S. Arcilla, SJ, as principal writer, edited by John Nery and copublished by Manuel P. Engwa and Ramoncito Ocampo Cruz of Media Wise Communications/Muse
Books, was recognized for “exhibiting high-quality writing and superior production values,” according to the IABC awards committee. The book chronicles the Jesuits’ ministry of education and the many aspects of their apostolate in the Philippines as they bring the faith to the most remote corners of the archipelago. “On the March presents memories of the struggle and glory of the Jesuits who came by boat, hiked up
POPE Francis celebrates a Mass where he bestowed the Pallium, a woolen shawl symbolizing their bond to the pope, to new metropolitan archbishops, in Saint Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, on June 29. AP/GREGORIO BORGIA
recognize some of the clergy loyal to the pontiff don’t want to register at all, saying, “the Holy See
does not intend to force anyone’s conscience.” “On the other hand, it considers
The Holy See does not intend to force anyone’s conscience.” —Vatican guidelines
that the experience of being clandestine is not a normal feature of the church’s life and that history has shown that pastors and faithful have recourse to it only amid suffering, in the desire to maintain the integrity of their faith.” The guidelines spell out how priests and bishops can register while making plain their loyalty to the Vatican doctrine. A ccord i ng to t he Vat ic a n, registration almost always requires declar ing “acceptance, among other things, of the principle of independence, autonomy and self-administration” of the church in China. The Vatican instructed clergy to specify in writing, or, when that’s not possible, orally, preferably before a witness, that despite registering, they remain “faithful to the principles of Catholic doctrine.” Some conser vat ive Roma n Catholic prelates have criticized Francis’s drive to resolve the Chinese dilemma in general. They insist that strict loyalty to Rome, even at the price of imprisonment and other persecution, is the only
possible approach. In past decades, many bishops and priests were imprisoned for years by Chinese authorities in retaliation for their unwavering support for the Vatican. But the guidelines stressed recent “consolidated dialogue” between Beijing and the Vatican, asserting that current relations differ from the tensions of the 1950s, when Communist authorities sanctioned the so-called official Patriotic Church for Chinese Catholics. Under the 2018 agreement, hailed by Francis, China would presumably recognize a papal right to select bishops. But skeptics have questioned how Beijing would react if it doesn’t approve of the choice. Although there have been some easing in Vatican-China tensions, the Chinese government in general in past months tightened controls on all religions, especially Christianity and Islam. The crackdown has been described as the harshest anti-religion campaign in China since the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. AP
Saint Anthony Maria Zaccaria, Confessor By Corazon Damo-Santiago
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HE Holy Shroud is the cloth that was used to wrap Jesus’ dead body after his crucifixion. It is a 4.4 meters by 11 meters material made of linen. It was first shown for public viewing on May 7, 1536, on the balcony of Castello Sforzesco by Saint Anthony Maria Zaccaria. Pope Benedict XVI, in a preface for a book about him, praised the saint as “one of the great figures of Catholic reform in 1500, involved in the renewal of Christian life on an era of profound crisis.”
Healer of body and soul
SAINT Anthony Maria Zaccaria was born in Cremona, Italy, in 1502, probably on December 8. His father, Lazzaro, of Italian noble family, died after his birth. Lazzaro’s young bride, Antonietta, barely 18 years old, did not remarry and devoted herself caring for Anthony and doing charitable work. Anthony grew up with compassion for the poor. A fter his Philosophy studies in Pavia, Anthony studied medicine at the University of Padua. At 22, the young doctor returned to Cremona to practice his profession. But he realized he was more interested in healing souls, so he pursued theology in Bologna. He received his tonsure (head left bare on top by shaving off the hair) on June 6, 1528, and was ordained priest on February 20, 1529, at Saint Joseph Chapel. As a new priest he realized the widespread “spirit of corruption and religious neglect” among Christians. So sad he was on the “widespread ignorance about the Catholic faith and indifference among the lay persons.” The doctor of soul and body extended pastoral care. He preached the mountains, rode rickety rafts, went on horseback and then on foot to reach distant and sometimes treacherous missions,” said Cruz, copublisher and Media Wise president and CEO. While there were setbacks and unexpected twists and turns, there was always a sense of constant movement in the Jesuit mission, Cruz added. Cruz received the award on June 11 during the 2019 IABC World Conference in Vancouver, Canada. On the March is a fund-raising project for the Philippine Jesuit Aid Association, which helps elderly, retired and infirm Jesuits. PJAA is headed by Fr. Jose Quilongquilong. “This honor is not just ours alone,” Cruz said. “It shows that Filipino firms, even small ones,
SAINT Anthony Maria Zaccaria
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
tirelessly about the faith, which dramatically changed the “moral character of the city.” ENCOUR AGED to be of better service to Holy Mother Church, he went to Milan. He joined the Oratory of Eternal Wisdom, where he met Bartolommeo Ferrari and
Glacomo Antonio Morigia. They founded the Clerks Regular of Saint Paul, which became known as Barnabites, after Saint Barnabas Church which was entrusted to the group. The purpose of the group was to enliven the Catholic faith through frequent preaching and administration of the sacraments.
have the talent and the discipline to deliver world-class results.” Media Wise is one of only five Filipino teams to have been given the Gold Quill by IABC. The other are Jollibee Foods Corp. and Stratworks Inc., Aboitiz Group, PAGEONE Group and Center for Health Solutions and Innovations Philippines Inc., and ABS-CBN Corp. This is Media Wise’s second Gold Quill from the San Francisco-based IABC, with this year’s winners coming from 10 countries. Two years ago, Media Wise received its first Merit Award for yet another book on the Jesuits, Jesuits In Mindanao: The Mission. The book also won the Philippine Quill
Award of Excellence for Publications under the Communications Skills Division at the 2013 Quill Awards, and another at the IABC Asian Pacific Silver Quill Awards held in Singapore in 2017. IABC’s Gold Quill Awards have recognized excellence in strategic communication worldwide for the past 40 years. Since 2008, there have been 4,451 projects entered in the Gold Quill Awards. “Only exceptional work earns an IABC Gold Quill Award,” said Cindy Schmieg ABC, IABC fellow and chairman of the awards committee. “Gold Quill Award winners demonstrate a mastery of all elements of strategic communication and have measurable business results to prove their success,” said Stephanie Doute, CAE, executive
Christian way of life
North Italy, too, was in deplorable condition. The country was devastated by wars. There was famine and plague, and a state of misery abound. It was the advent of Lutheran efforts to sow “contempt for everything Catholic.” As early leaders of the Counter Reformation, Anthony led the group, preaching to revive the Christian way of life, love for divine worship and frequent reception of sacraments. A task added under his watch was the designation as spiritual director of a non-cloistered community, Angelics of Saint Paul. To instill awareness among the people, he introduced the ringing of church bells every Friday at 3 p.m. to commemorate the passion and death of Jesus Christ. Then, he introduced the 40-hour adoration to the Blessed Sacrament in the Cathedral of Milan, which was approved and supported by Pope Paul III. Although sick, he was sent by the pope to restore peace in Guastalla in northern Italy. After two months of exhaustive activities, he felt death is near and requested to be brought home to his mother in Cremona. He was loaded on a boat used by dealers who make mandatory stops in Cremona, on June 20, 1539. On July 5, 1539, he died on the arms of his mother, surrounded by friends. He was 36 years old. Nearly three decades after his death, his body was found incorrupt. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1890 and canonized on May 15, 1897. Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija. director of IABC. This year, On the March is the only entry from the Philippines under the publications category, which falls under the Communication Skills division. “The book is well-organized, consistent.... from the beginning to end. It flows well. It’s clear that [Media Wise] brought together the right mix of interviewers, writers, designers and publishers to produce a high-quality communication vehicle,” said the committee. “Its heavy use of photography, art work, and postproduction treatments make most of the spreads in the book an invitation to dive in and learn. This book is easy to flip through and dive into the stories on every page.”
Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror
Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua
Sunday, July 7, 2019
A7
JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH OF TAIWAN
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Story & photos by Lorenz S. Marasigan
WAS roused from my deep sleep by the blaring ringing of the telephone at 3 a.m. Almost instantly, I opened the lights of my huge hotel room in Alishan House and immediately donned my pseudo-hiking attire. AFTER a sunrise viewing at Alishan, visitors may opt to walk back to their hotels and marvel at the lush green forests that surround the mountain.
THE sunset view from Alishan House’s rooftop deck looks almost unrealistic with mountains and trees as foreground.
HOUSES converted into stores and experience halls at Yuyupas, a cultural park run by the Taiwanese indigenous tribe Tsou.
Outside my comfortable, cold forest cabin, there were no signs of light—only the sound of leaves rustling in the wind. Six floors down was a queue snaking from the driveway up to the lobby of the hotel. The people in line quickly got on the minibus and headed over to the Alishan Forest Railway to catch the 4:30 a.m. train going to Zhushan Station. The locomotive ride was pleasant. Lucky were the people who found seats for the 40-minute ride atop the mountain, they were able to get a few more minutes of shuteye before the feast of the eyes’ view of the sun caressing the Jade Mountain. Rays of light slowly started to unravel the beauty of Alishan with densely covered forest mountains and magnificent peaks that were
too beautiful, I swear I thought it was painted by a Chinese master artist. From hues of purple, pink, and deep orange, the sky slowly turned to gold and blue, hugging the foggy mountains and foregrounded by lush vegetation. The air was crisp and cold— tasty for an urban dweller that is used to the busy and noisy streets tainted with carbon dioxide. To me, this was the highlight of my recent trip to Taiwan, where we spent five days exploring the south of the East Asian nation. We only spent about a day-and-ahalf in Alishan, where we also visited a tea farm and had a taste of Taiwan’s various tea varieties. Taiwan has a colorful tea culture, and tea masters take the art of brewing tea seriously. They even have a competition for the best brew every year.
Alishan is also home to Yuyupas, a cultural park run by the Taiwanese indigenous tribe Tsou. There, we got to feast on traditional tribal food paired with a crazy enormous bowl of rice—which we weren’t able to finish—and enjoy cultural presentations from the tribesmen. Found in Chaiyi City, Alishan is accessible by a 30-minute highspeed rail ride from Kaohsiung City, which is directly connected to Manila via various flights each day of the week.
3D chopper ride
APART from the famed attractions like the Fo Guang Shan Buddha, Kaohsiung offers tourists with attractions and experiences that are unique and imaginative. For instance, we visited the iRide Experience Center, which allows tourists to tour around Kaohsiung through a 360-degree 3D ride. I am no stranger to numbers ending in “D” and I’ve experienced similar attractions in the past. What sets it apart from the oth-
ers is, Kaohsiung’s 3D ride gives an almost real-life, bird’s eye view experience of flying across the city aboard a helicopter. Kaohsiung also has a romantic gondola similar to Venice. We took the ride at night, and got to see the play of colorful city lights while the Taiwanese gondola captain sings and steers the boat across the Kaohsiung Canal, which took the reputation of being a “Love River.”
Cultural gem
SPEAKING of love, falling in love with the beauty of southern Taiwan is almost too easy. About 40 minutes away by bus is Tainan City, one of Taiwan’s best-kept secrets that is teeming with cultural experiences that will surely immense visitors to the Taiwanese culture. In Tainan, tourists can visit Shennong Street, which used to be the entrance to Tainan’s river ports during the Qing Dynasty. Today, Shennong Street entrances tourists to a mix of traditional and modern with old and new merchants lined up selling
MEMBERS of the Tsou tribe perform for guests at Yuyupas.
art to tourists. Visitors can also tour around the Ten Drum Culture Village, a 5-hectare old sugar factory that was converted to be the dwelling place of Taiwan’s world-famous Ten Drum Band. The performance we watched during our visit was spectacular, it reminded me of how I imagined war drums sounded. The 16-warehouse facility also features a variety of rides and attractions such as the rooftop swing, which had me praying for my life, two giant slides, which had me screaming at the top of my lungs, and a flying lantern experience, among others. A full day at the Ten Drum Culture Village is enough to really make the most out of the facility.
Blue ocean
TAIWAN is fast becoming a preferred destination for Filipinos, thanks to the visa-free entry to the country, which is just two hours away from Manila. Abe Chou, who heads the Taiwan Tourism Bureau for the Philippines,
said his group would like to further encourage Filipinos to visit Taiwan. “We want Filipinos to visit Taiwan, not only for the first time, but to visit Taiwan again because Taiwan has a lot of beautiful scenery to offer,” he said. “Visa-free entry is very important, and it has helped us in increasing Filipino visitors to Taiwan.” Last year, 419,105 Filipinos visited Taiwan, representing a 44.13-percent increase from 2017. This year, Chou said it is expected to reach 500,000 Filipino visitors backed by the increasing demand for tourism. Taiwan Representative to the Philippines Michael Peiyung Hsu noted that Taiwan and the Philippines have a wealth of opportunities for tourism. He noted that 246,641 Taiwanese visited the Philippines in 2018, making Taiwan the top 6 source of foreign visitors to the Southeast Asian nation. “We can confidently conclude that the tourism market in Taiwan and the Philippines is a blue ocean with tremendous potential,” he said.
CITY OF DREAMS PRACTICES ECO-EFFICIENT URBAN GARDENING Lima Park Hotel enters By Gelyka Ruth R. Dumaraos
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ITY of Dreams (COD) Manila is taking a step toward long-term sustainability with its vermicomposting and plant propagation in a bid to lead as a self-sustaining and eco-responsible luxury resort. Situated on the casino’s rooftop parking where their herb garden and greenhouse nursery are housed, these eco-friendly practices enable the property to reduce expenses on fertilizer and ornamentals, Paul Bruce, the property’s director of Engineering, said. The property’s vermicomposting helps in the resort’s waste management by notably reducing the organic wastage gathered from vegetable trimmings, fruit peelings and eggshell remains. Used coffee grounds are collected as well to be used as food for the worms at their vermicomposting chambers. Since it has started in 2016, both practices have recorded a total of P573,374.28 monthly savings on the integrated luxury resort’s expenses on fertilizers, and indoor plant rental and maintenance for the overall landscape features of the property. A g r ic u lt u r i st a nd C it y of D re a m s M a n i l a’s L a nd s c ap e Manager Cirilo A lerta said that on an ever yday basis, about 63 kilos of used coffee grounds, 20 kilos of fruit and vegetable peelings, and 3.35 kilos of eggshell remains are being gathered from the different kitchens and
COD Manila’s vermicomposting facility turns waste materials into organic fertilizers for herbs and ornamental plants.
COD Manila Landscape Manager Cirilo Alerta tending to the herbs at the Greenhouse Nursery.
outlets of the property. These are then delivered to the vermicomposting area composed
of six chambers. These chambers have a total of 9 cubic meters of capacity that are able
to produce about 380 kilos of vermicast and about 452 liters of vermitea a month. Alerta added that there will be additional four vermicomposting chambers with 12 cubic meters of capacity to be set up. With the expansion, Alerta said that increase production in vermicast and vermitea shall be shared with local farmers as part of its corporate social responsibility program. Meanwhile, Alerta also highlighted the growing number of herbs in COD’s rooftop garden. “Since we started in 2016, we have a variety of herbs here in our garden which we deliver for our kitchen supply needs which helps in reducing our supply costs.” Alerta added. The garden has growing herbs, such as peppermint, coriander, sawtooth herbs, betel leaf, kaffir lime, Thai basil, holy basil, Vietnamese mint, onion chives, calamansi and curry tree. Kevin Benning, City of Dreams Manila chief operating officer, said that these efforts are part of COD’s commitment to not only bring in eco-efficient operations on property but also to make the luxury integrated resort leave a mark with its sustainable practices. “ Toget her w it h t he proactive participation and spirit of volunteerism of our employees, we are taking bold and forwardlooking initiatives to be agents of change for the people within our organization, the communities we partner with and for the environment as a whole,” he said.
TripAdvisor Hall of Fame
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IMA Park Hotel has just entered the TripAdvisor Hall of Fame as it earned its Certificate of Excellence for the fifth straight year. The achievement celebrates Lima Park Hotel’s consistently excellent performance—having earned great traveler reviews on TripAdvisor over the past five years. Certificate of Excellence recipients include restaurants, accommodations and attractions located all over the world that have continually delivered a quality customer experience. “TripAdvisor is excited to announce the recipients of the 2019 Certificate of Excellence, which for nearly a decade has celebrated businesses that have consistently received positive ratings from travelers and diners on the world’s largest travel platform,” said Neela Pal, vice president of Brand, of TripAdvisor.“This recognition allows us to publicly recognize businesses that are actively taking into account customer feedback to help travelers confidently experience the most highly reviewed places to eat, stay and explore.”
For its part, Lima Park Hotel Resident Manager Edilberto P. Evangelista said, “This recognition inspires all of us to do even better. Now more than ever, we are committing ourselves to exceed our previous best.” In January of this year, the four-star Lima Park Hotel received the Travelers Choice award, cited as No. 16 in the Top 25 Hotels for Families in the Philippines. This recognition effectively puts Lima Park Hotel in the exclusive 1 percent of top performing hotels worldwide as listed on the biggest hotel review site. In its efforts to consistently deliver exceptional guest experience all the time, Lima Park Hotel launched two new F&B outlets: PLUM featuring pan Asian cuisine; and Garden Room that serves western lunch while offering calming views of a lush garden and a mountain range. The hotel also offers a romantic sunset cruise on Taal Lake. Arguably the best MICE venue, Lima Park Hotel is in the Lima Commercial Estate which is just 60 minutes away from the Magallanes interchange in Makati via Slex and Star Tollway.
Sports BusinessMirror
A8 Sunday, July 7, 2019
Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph
TECHNOLOGY&THE TOUR P
By Joe Reedy
The Associated Press
HIL LIGGETT remembers the early days of Tour de France coverage in the United States, which would involve him traveling to Paris at the end of a stage, recording voice-overs all night and then rejoining the circuit for the next stage. Those days, though, are ancient history. The Tour has been aired live in the US since 2001 with Liggett providing play-by-play. The coverage has also evolved to include prerace and nightly highlight shows. The NBC Sports Group will air more than 250 hours of coverage across NBC, NBCSN and the NBC Sports Gold online streaming package. Despite the challenges of live coverage, Liggett said it is a lot easier compared to the weekend highlight shows that used to be the only way to view it. “There is nothing that beats doing it live,” said Liggett, who will be covering his 47th Tour when it begins Saturday. “Sitting in the commentary box is like being in a 727. You can’t wait to take off and see where things land at the end of a stage.” As technology has evolved, broadcasters have found it easier to add new elements. This year’s Tour will include cameras on the bike of up to eight riders that can transmit live. They have been tested the past four years, but would only show footage at the completion of a stage. Cameras can be mounted under the rider’s saddle and on the front under the handlebar. The cameras could provide additional insight into late-race moves or crashes. Steve Porino will also have a camera focused on him as he reports during each stage while traveling aboard a motorcycle on the course. Commentator Christian Vande Velde will ride several key stages in advance, wearing special raptor sunglasses to preview critical course points. The sunglasses will also show Vande
AS technology has evolved, broadcasters have found it easier to add new elements to the Tour de France. AP
Velde’s speed, how much energy he is using and the rate of pedaling. The sunglasses utilize the same technology US fighter pilots have in the visors of their helmets for telemetry. NBC will also use a virtual graphics Telestrator, which will produce augmented reality graphics that will allow commentators to move around and analyze cyclists. Depending on
its use, it is the type of technology that could be extended to coverage of other sports. Joel Felicio, who is the coordinating producer for NBC, said planning for the Tour begins in October. Most of the video that Felicio uses comes from France TV Sport, which provides the main feed, but his challenge each year is figuring out how to
introduce new elements to the broadcast. Felicio also has a challenge that few others have, which is producing live broadcasts from 21 different locations. “There’s trying to figure out commercials, when to go to commentary and using different elements but not missing the key move. There’s also trying to keep everyone
interested for six hours,” he said. This will be the first Tour since 1985 that Liggett has not done with Paul Sherwen by his side. Sherwen died on December 2 at age 62 due to heart failure. Bob Roll moves into the commentary box along with Jens Voigt, who competed in the Tour from 1998 through 2014. Chris Horner, who competed in the Tour
seven times, will also debut as an analyst. Horner is the most recent American Grand Tour champion after capturing the Tour of Spain in 2013. “I think this is the most open race in years,” Liggett said. “There are a lot of young riders that have the potential of this being one of the best Tours in recent memory.”
DEMAND FOR TICKETS FOR TOKYO 2020 SOARS T
OKYO—Overwhelmed by unprecedented demand, Tokyo Olympic organizers said Thursday they hope to run another ticket lottery next month for residents of Japan who got nothing the first time. Millions of Japanese were let down last month when they came away empty-handed in a lottery for next year’s Olympics. The bad news is that—despite a lastminute change of plans—most applicants will be disappointed again. There simply aren’t enough Olympic tickets to go around with demand soaring in Japan and elsewhere as Authorized Ticket Resellers—the Olympic agents contracted to sell tickets outside Japan—have also opened sales worldwide. “The demand from the general public indeed exceeded our expectations,” Tokyo Spokesman Masa Takaya told The Associated Press. He said organizers were “absolutely pleased” by the interest. Takaya said another lottery—open to all Japan residents—would be held by the end of the year as organizers rejigger their plans. Greg Harney is the senior adviser for Cartan Global, the authorized reseller for much of Latin America and the Caribbean. He’s attending his 19th Olympics, and this is a first. “I’ve never, never seen interest in attending the Olympics like we have in Tokyo,” Harney told the AP. Takaya did not say how many tickets had been purchased in Japan so far. He said he would give the number on Friday. Organizers say there are about 7.8 million tickets for all events. However, an estimate from one previous Olympics suggests that up to 25 percent of these are off the table immediately, going to sponsors, international federations, 200 national Olympic committees, dignitaries and so forth. In addition, Tokyo says between 20 percent and 30 percent are set aside for foreign buyers. An informal estimate by the AP suggests there may be 4 million to 5 million tickets for Japan residents. And that’s probably generous. Organizers said last month that 7.5 million residents of Japan registered to apply for tickets in the lottery. If each applied for only six tickets—and that seems low—demand would be 10 times oversupply. “This is probably going to be the most popular Olympics, and possibly one of the most popular events of all time,” Ken Hanscom, the chief operating officer of TicketManager, told the AP in an interview. His Los Angeles-based company does not buy or sell Olympic tickets, but manages tickets for corporate clients.
Alexander Dmitrenko, a Canadian lawyer with residency in Japan, said he applied for 24 tickets—and got two. And was thrilled. “I’m lucky. I’m going,” he said. CoSport, an Authorized Ticket Reseller that handles sales for the United States and other countries, has delayed its ticket allocations and acknowledged a shortage in an e-mail to customers. “Thank you for your record-breaking interest in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which necessitated delayed processing time to help ensure stable and open access to limited national ticket allocations.” The demand is sure to drive scalping. Japan passed a law last month that prohibits ticket scalping with the penalty of
a ¥1-million ($9,100) fine and a one-year jail term—or both. However, the law has large loopholes and does not apply to tickets distributed for free or given away as gifts, or tickets without a purchaser’s name. This applies to many tickets coming from the IOC, the 200 national Olympic committees or major Olympic sponsors. Japanese organizers have lined up more than 60 local sponsors who kicked in over $3 billion to the local operating budget. In addition, three famous Japanese companies are major, longtime Olympics sponsors: Panasonic, Toyota and Bridgestone. The organizing committee hopes to raise about $800 million from ticket sales, a large chunk of its operating budget. AP
CATCH THAT STREAKER! A security officer jumps to restrain a streaker who
ran into the field during the Cricket World Cup match between New Zealand and England in Chester-le-Street, England, on Wednesday. Security appears very slow to react as the spectator jogs toward the wicket and dances about in front of New Zealand batsmen Tom Latham and Mitchell Santner. He then weaves around security staff as they attempt to stop him before he is brought down to the ground. AP
Farm advocate expects more youth becoming agripreneurs
T
Rizal Raoul Reyes
HE Filipino farmer is going to be a vanishing breed in the next few years, unless the Philippines develops a new breed of farmers to enhance the country’s food security program. With an average age of farmers at 57, doing so will definitely be a Herculean challenge. However, there is a silver lining in Philippine agriculture as Filipinos, like Christine Jodloman, are taking up the cudgels to infuse young blood into agriculture. Jodloman, 23, a native of North Cotabato, Mindanao, will represent the Philippines in the Youth Ag Summit, an international conference funded by Bayer Ag. The 2019 summit will take place in Brasília, Brazil, from November 4 to 6, in partnership with Nuffield Brazil. Jodloman, an agriculture and foodsecurity advocate, has founded two youth movements, namely, Palay and Food Secure Philippines. She is dedicated to empower rural-farming communities to be “foodsecure,” healthy and business-minded through an agriculture entrepreneurship, or “agripreneurship,” program. Jodloman said she is excited about the summit and looks forward to share her ideas with her fellow delegates. “The Youth Ag Summit is a great platform to learn, meet and collaborate with like-minded peers from all over the world who share the same passion and commitment to advancing agriculture,” she said. “I am extremely thrilled to represent my home country, and I look forward to how we can contribute to find solutions and help feed the planet in a safe and sustainable way.”
Engaging the youth
IN an e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror, Jodloman pointed out that programs on agripreneurship, agriculture technology and farm tourism would encourage and engage the youth to get more involved into farming. “Most important, the connection of people [with the] land and agriculture should start at a young age. Integrating agriculture appreciation and experience, in elementary and secondary education, would be a step to engage more young people [to] farming,” Jodloman said, adding she considers “The Garden
CHRISTINE Jodloman Classroom” of Agrea Agricultural Systems International Inc. as “one great program.” Since the country is in the digital age, Jodloman cited the importance of technology as a driver to entice and engage the younger generation to go into agriculture. Nevertheless, she emphasized that the farmer be given more importance in developing and enhancing agriculture. “Yes, technology would be of great help to engage the younger generation in agriculture,” she said. “However, it should not be on the extent of devaluing the best resource the sector has: Human resources or our farmers. Technology should be a tool to advance agriculture and not replace the human resources/farmers in the field.”
Passion for food
ALTHOUGH she observed the current youth generation has little or no interest in agriculture, Jodloman said they are interested and passionate on food. “When there are issues on food, the youth and most people are engaged in it. When people say food, there is a sense of excitement and wonder. But when we say agriculture, it’s not the same,” she explained. “We should see the connection between food and agriculture because there is a big gap.” Although granting scholarships is a lovely way to attract young people to be engaged in agriculture, Jodloman said government must craft mechanisms and policies that would encourage scholars in agriculture-related courses to stay and develop the food and agriculture security of the country. As far as millennials are concerned, Jodloman thinks that “food is life.” “But for farmers and food producers, food is their life’s work.”
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She added that agriculture must be treated as a field and sector of opportunities. “We need fresher lens and [a] fresher world view that agriculture is the gamechanger; agriculture is extraordinary. Here, communicating agriculture in a positive way is the key,” she stressed. Jodloman credited her parents who are farmers for inspiring and motivating her to pursue a passion in agriculture. She added her parents have the heart and good will to other farmers in their community. She said she learned the values of humility, hard work and kindness from her parents.
Role model
JODLOMAN considers Cherrie D. Atilano, 32, as her role model. Atilano graduated with a degree in agriculture (magna cum laude) from the Visayas State University. Perhaps, possessed with a high sense of idealism, Atilano turned down a Fulbright scholarship to study in the United States and chose to stay in the country to help local farmers, instead. Atilano founded and is the current chief executive officer of Agrea, a Marinduque-based social enterprise that aims to help eradicate poverty among farmers and fishing sector, lessen the impact of climate change and facilitate establishing food security in the Philippines. The two agriculture advocates met four years ago in a summit, wherein Atilano encouraged former President Barack Obama to prioritize programs that will make farming cool, smart, sexy and humane for the youth in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region. “From that moment, I know that she’s my icon. Now, I work with her every day in Agrea,” Jodloman said. She believes this is the best time to
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be courageous and be more focused in the country’s food and agriculture sector. She added that more action and a clear vision are needed to develop a solid food security in the future.
Youth Ag summit
THE Youth Ag Summit brings together young change-makers aged 18 to 25 to tackle the challenges of feeding a growing population by 2050. For this year’s global summit, each applicant pitched an idea to tackle food insecurity in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Bayer received over 2,800 applications from more than 140 countries. Among the 100 delegates are entrepreneurs, farmers, students, plant scientists and economists, to name a few. Their ideas focused on tackling challenges as varied as gender equality, sustainable agriculture, youth education, food waste and climate change. Despite their varied interests, all are committed to achieving a world without hunger. “About 800 million people around the world go to bed hungry each night,” according to Liam Condon, member of the board of management of Bayer AG and head of the Crop Science Division. “The delegates headed to Brazil in November; all share a commitment to drive innovation in agriculture, which is vital if we are to both feed the world and ensure healthy ecosystems.” The Youth Ag Summit will function as an idea incubator: Helping delegates turn their ideas into reality and equipping them with the skills needed to realize their projects. They will also hear from expert speakers and participate in field trips to learn more about the agricultural industry in Brazil.
BusinessMirror
MUSIC
CELEBRATING 20 YEARS
OF FIL-AMERICAN BAND VERSUS’ MASTERFUL TWO CENTS PLUS TAX
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by Rick Olivares
OR Filipino fans of the alternative or independent music scene of the 1990s, aside from the local heroes such as the Eraserheads, Color It Red, and Sugar Hiccup to name but a few, they looked to one band based in New York City that putting out some great indie rock music...and that was Versus. The band featured a mostly Filipino-American line-up with brothers Richard, Ed, and James Baluyut, Patrick Ramos, and American bassist Fontaine Toups.
Ed was the band’s initial drummer before Ramos took over and he was on board for the first full length album, Secret Swingers after which Ramos came on board for Two
Cents Plus Tax and then Hurrah. Ed recently returned to record the new extended play album, Ex-Nihilo and the fifth album Ex Voto that will be out this August on indie label Ernest Jennings Records. Versus were like Sonic Youth and Pavement albeit with intoxicating boy-girl vocals and immensely catchy songs. Local fans were ecstatic to have representation in bands such as Moonpools and Caterpillars and the Pixies. But it is with Versus that got fans excited. Many a local band cribbed the guitar riffs of James Baluyut but no one came close to the sarcasm and pain of Richard’s voice and Fontaine’s twee-like vocals. When the band came over about 10 years ago for a series of performances in Manila, it was a virtual who’s who of bands that came to watch them underscoring the influence Versus had on them. Twenty years ago, Two Cents Plus Tax was released.
Indie music site, Magnet called the album, “a lost classic.” Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A- rating and said, “Two Cents Plus Tax delivers both in a wistful song suite about post-cold war blues, romantic betrayal, and love so raw it makes you dizzy. Plus, on ”Atomic Kid,” you get what may be the catchiest reprise to feature the word “Armageddon” ever recorded. The A.V. Club glowed: “Two Cents Plus Tax doesn’t sound like the work of most angry young players. Instead, it sounds like Versus’ smart, strong bid for attention, the band kicking and screaming its way to the top of the heap.” The album averages four or five star ratings over Amazon or Discogs buyers. For those who frequented that curio shop, The Rastro in Shoppesville, Greenhills, a copy of Two Cents Plus Tax on both vinyl and compact disc meant paying Continued on page 4
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a fortune. “Rare,” the bookish shopkeeper reasoned out. If Secret Swingers was a raw and unadulterated emotion captured in a jagged pill, Two Cents Plus Tax, bristled with energy wrapped in a more polished veneer and teased about the future of their music. The secret track, “Oriental American”that precedes the opening track, “Atomic Kid” eventually begat the more experimental, electronic feel of James’ later band, Plus Minus. Soundstrip spoke with the four members of Versus at the time of Two Cents Plus Tax was recorded, Richard, James, Patrick, and Fontaine to look back at the 20th Anniversary of indie rock’s secret gems and one you would do well to hunt down if not bug Teenbeat Records’ Mark Robinson to reissue. RICK: I love Secret Swingers and the raw and heavy sound of it. Was it a reflection of the times given grunge was still popular? What was Versus collectively into at that time because Two Cents Plus Tax is just so different. It sounds more— for lack of a better term ‘’refined or even polished.” RICHARD: Secret Swingers was recorded by Nicolas Vernhes, who was just starting out as an engineer. The aesthetic at that time was to be somewhat unadorned, where the instruments sound “like they sound” and there weren’t many effects used. By the time we recorded Two Cents, OK Computer had come out and changed the landscape for sound. (Our mixing engineer Vaughn Merrick had actually worked on that record!) We were going for a more polished sound, and finally had an advance to spend on a recording. JAMES: Secret Swingers was really just the product of us going to Nicolas Vernhes’ Rare Book Room studio and putting down the songs. He was just getting started. I think he had done one record there before us? It’s the sound of us getting together in a big room and playing the songs. We used to practice there as well so a few of the songs were actually written there. At the time, ‘natural room sound’ was sort of a thing we were after. We didn’t labor over the guitar sounds so much - just going for the sounds we’d get live. Two Cents Plus Tax had a longer process. We wrote everything and then demoed it at a studio.
Then we selected a producer and recorded again at a 2nd studio. I feel like we spent a couple days in the studio just getting the drum sound right. That seems insane to me now. And we took quite a bit more time honing all of the sounds. We ended up not getting along too well with the producer so we ended up back at Rare Book Room for the end of the session. Finally, we went to a 4th studio to mix the record. So you can see, that’s quite a bit more involved. RICK: The secret track “Oriental American” it is a departure from anything done before (with the LP which I also have it is a separate single) and I think it is terrific. Did that track says something about the origins of Plus/Minus? And this was such a prolific time for the band— two albums (from 1994-2000) every two years with a smattering of EPs and singles in between. Yet, each album so different. What can you share about the band’s approach to making albums during this period? RICHARD: Our approach was simply to keep doing records as the songs got written. At this time, we were touring a lot, practicing and writing 3x a week, so it was just natural. There was no grand strategy for world domination. Just to keep doing what we loved. And that’s what we still do, although now it’s stretched to a decade between albums! We finally have an EP and LP coming out in 2019. JAMES: Regarding Oriental American, this was a song that we wrote as an instrumental which is rare for us. I’d bought a sampler and sequencer during this period and I was experimenting with syncing it to the band. I wrote a lot of bits with the sampler during this period, most of which ended up on the first +/{Plus/Minus} album. The period when we wrote and recorded Two Cents Plus Tax was probably the most active period of music making in my life. We’d rehearse and write three times a week for hours on end. We’d tour. We were full-time musicians. I think what you hear on this record is this particular band coming together. Patrick and I brought a much different sensibility to the band. Patrick’s a more straight forward, hard hitting drummer compared to Ed. My presence on guitar allowed Richard to concentrate more on singing. The songs changed as a result. PATRICK: Yes, we added a fresh youthful exuberance. Like a
squeeze of lemon or a pat of sizzling butter to a dish. Actually more like a dash of finishing salt like that Turkish chef, Salt Bae. But with much less....um...style? Also, and much more importantly, it was during this time that I introduced them to the world of NHL Hockey and the Detroit Red Wings in particular who ended their 42 year Stanley Cup drought that year. RICK: Why was the album titled, Two Cents Plus Tax? What is the story behind it? How about the mosaic-like cover—what is the story there? JAMES: Two Cents Plus Tax— that’s Richard’s idea. You should probably ask him about that. I think he thought it was something that Elvis said once, but we can’t find any evidence of that. RICHARD: The album title was something I heard a stoned Elvis blurt out in between songs during a 70’s live performance. I thought it would be hilarious to use as a title. JAMES: The cover shoot was a classic Richard moment. Before a show at a college outside Philadelphia, Richard started taking Polaroids of each of us. I had no idea this was for the cover. He didn’t give any warning. I’d like to have shaved that day! Afterward, he went to Washington DC to work on the artwork with Mark Robinson. They stitched together portraits of each of
us using those photos. Richard, of course, made himself look normal (and good) but he mangled the rest of us. Ha. By the time he got to Patrick, it was cubist. PATRICK: Someone once said to me while looking at my photo on the cover, “This is not how you get girls.” RICK: How long did it take to write and record the album? Any nice stories to share during the process? Was everyone working (day jobs I mean) at this time as well? RICHARD: More like horror stories! Our original engineer for this record turned out to be an evil loser who held our tapes hostage when we tried to get rid of him. Nicolas (who had recorded Secret Swingers) saved us by finishing the tracking of the record. PATRICK: I think we spent most of 1997 writing, rehearsing, demoing and then recording Two Cents while playing a few shows here and there. Aside from the aforementioned original engineer, I remember the recording being mostly fun and especially creative. We had pretty early start times and went late and tried not to settle for anything less than a good performance or a good sound for anything we were recording. We hadn’t really used a sampler much so we had fun finding unusual things to sample. I did work for part of that
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SIC ON PRINT
year at various temporary jobs... ad agencies, the art department on a Busta Rhymes video and on Bobby Flay’s first cable cooking series (lots of retakes for a 22 1/2-minute show). But once we started tracking the album, I quit all of it and it felt so good. RICK: Secret Swingers and Two Cents Plus Tax were out on CD via Caroline, but the LP from Teenbeat. Why was this so? Can Teenbeat put out anniversary editions for the albums? JAMES: The band signed with Caroline after an LP, a compilation and an EP on Teenbeat. I think it was mostly about doing something new. Reaching different people. I think Teenbeat has the rights to release the vinyl so I suppose they could reissue that? But the CD and digital rights are with Caroline and, as far as I can tell, they haven’t bothered to make either available since the initial pressing. It’s sad that these albums are neither in print nor available to stream. RICHARD: Good idea (on the reissues)! RICK: Let’s tackle the songs. Kindly share your thoughts about the songs. Atomic Kid—The one song not about
relationships on the album? Was this in response to India conducting nuclear bomb testing, the war in the Balkans and the US air strikes in Sudan and Afghanistan after the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania? RICHARD: Atomic Kid is about growing up with Cold War dread. When I was in elementary school we had drills where we had to hide from nuclear missile attacks. This was normal. Now my kids have “active shooter” exercises. Dumb Fun—One of my fave tracks. About a troubled real-life relationship? RICHARD: Very few of my lyrics are about actual people... they’re more like composites of people. I do like the “failed apartments” concept though. PATRICK: For drum and Beatles nerds, I was trying to channel Ringo on the chorus. Never Be Ok—A pensive song. Fontaine sings about a missed or failed relationship. Was this about someone in particular—if it can be shared. RICHARD: Unlike me, Fontaine sings about particular people...but that’s all I can say! FONTAINE: It is about a ‘failed relationship’ but, also about the fact that lots of relationships
end in breakups, or divorce, and questioning that. Morning Glory RICHARD: This one is based on my favorite movie In a Lonely Place. About two people who should be together being torn apart by misunderstanding. Radar Follows You—a second straight slow one—mood swings? RICHARD: This is one of my favorites. Another doomed love song. Underground—Love the guitars on this that kicks starts side two. RICHARD: This is one that we played for years before it had lyrics... Spastic Reaction—Love the jingle jangle on this countrified slow rocker of a happy song. At least it sounds like one. Sounds like someone the band knows. RICHARD: I’m not a huge fan of country music, but this one had a sing-song appeal for me. Crazy-Maker RICHARD: The long middle part of this was lifted from an early song about the doomed Amelia Earhart. Jack and Jill RICHARD: We wrote the songs for this album near a bar that had an excellent live salsa scene, which for me inspired the beat and the groove. Mouth of Heaven RICHARD: This was Versus’ first foray into space. Our new album
Ex Voto is a sci-fi concept album. Oriental American RICHARD: The voice on this song was our mixing engineer Vaughn’s girlfriend... we needed someone who actually “sounded” Asian! RICK: And lastly, any stories to share about Two Cents Plus tax? How do you look at the album today? RICHARD: It is a bittersweet look back. It was recorded at the peak of our appeal, but the record company had already moved on to electronic music (Astralwerks) and didn’t release it with any enthusiasm. It’s now out of print, and somewhat lost. Maybe someday we’ll get the rights back and re-release it. JAMES: I’m really proud of this record. We were probably at the height of our well-oiled machine phase here—we’re playing well, writing well and everything is done with purpose. There are a few things recording-wise that I might have done differently but overall, I think the result was good. PATRICK: I appreciate it much much more now, especially after performing it from start to finish for the 20-year anniversary in December. It’s really fun to play and it reminded me of what it’s like to be part of the Versus machine. Made me miss it.
the vowels they orbit
proves longevity at Spotify Philippines’s Viral 50
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FTER less than a month of charting in the upper reaches of the Spotify Philippines’s Viral 50, Filipino alt-rock outfit the vowels they orbit has finally reached the second spot of the streaming chart through their latest song “Selos.” The irresistible earworm vaults from #4 to #2 this week.
Unassuming earnestness
“SELOS” started gaining traction after the band performed the song at iWant ASAP Highlights this month. With its relatable lyrics, melodic pop appeal and lighthearted jazzy chords, it’s easy to see why the band continues to shred listeners’ hearts into pieces without resorting to overwrought sentimentality. Produced by Rye Sarmiento and composed by Darwin Hernandez, the vowels they orbit’s maiden release was recorded at the Backdoor Studio. The song talks about
“one-sided jealousy,” putting into light a normal situation that one goes through in a romantic relationship.
What’s next for the vowels they orbit
NOW signed to Sony Music Philippines, the vowels they orbit are set to release an EP soon. The band, composed of Nikka Melchor (vocals), Jeremy Sayas (drums), Hannah de la Cruz (keyboard), Gene Santiago (guitars) and Patch Javier (bass), is currently being managed by Soupstar Entertainment, which takes pride of its star-studded roster such as Sandwich, Pedicab, Moonstar88, 6cyclemind, Gracenote, Imago and more. “Selos” is now available on streaming and download platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes store, and Deezer via Sony Music Philippines.
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Sound trip BusinessMirror
MUSIC ON PRINT
Get ready to sing your heart out with Megasound Smart Pro
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ELT out your favorite tunes and have fun bonding with family and friends over videoke as Digital Focus Unlimited Inc. has now included Megasound Smart Pro to its roster of premium brands.
GECA Morales
built-in OPM songs via Bluetooth technology. The Colosseum comes equipped with two built-in UHF wireless microphones with full remote functions and two more microphone inputs to allow groups of people to sing together. The Colosseum also allows users to record their favorite songs in their own voice, in high quality 128kbps audio quality via USB.
Established in 2013, Digital Focus Unlimited Incorporated is focused in only offering unique, quality, and technologydriven audio-video products that will perfectly complement their clients’ lifestyle. Given that Filipinos love to sing and enjoy doing even more when surrounded by family and friends, Megasound Smart Pro offers a lot of nice products that are sure to be a big hit at any party. Backed by Korean technology, these new Megasound Smart Pro products don’t just guarantee endless fun but great quality, with up to 2 years of free song updates. Here’s a look at three of their specialty videoke systems that are now available in the Philippines.
Megasound Exodus HDD
A SMART Videoke Player with a mobile karaoke app for effortless song search and remote function capabilities with over 18,000 high quality built-in OPM songs and more than 50,000 International songs. With a built-in 1 terabyte Hard Disk Drive, The Exodus contains a library of music videos and movies that the users may enjoy while on a karaoke break. The Exodus features a system that allows users to record songs that can be saved directly on
Megasound Array SD
MEGAPRO Plus Marketing Corp. chairman Sun Bok-kim (left) and Jonathan Fabian of Digital Focus Unlimited Inc.
their smartphones or to USB. It also allows users to connect to WiFi and turn their television into a Smart TV through built-in apps (YouTube, Netflix, Chrome) for unlimited fun and entertainment. This high-end karaoke system comes with an advanced processor that delivers clear and crisp sound for both Midi and MP3 based songs without distortion to deliver higher bit-
rates than any other brands.
Megasound Colosseum wireless
THE Colosseum high-end smart portable videoke uses the same mobile karaoke app for effortless song search and remote function capabilities. It synchronizes the more than 18,000 high quality
THE ARRAY is the newest addition to the premium smart videoke machines for more discerning users who want a more professional, modern, and memorable singing experience. It comes with more than 18,000 high quality built-in OPM songs that can be synchronized with the mobile karaoke app via Bluetooth technology for effortless song search and remote function capabilities. The Array also allows users to record their favorite songs in their own voice, in high quality 128kbps audio quality via USB. Jonathan Fabian, president of Digital Focus Unlimited Inc. said “We are very pleased to welcome the premium Megasound line to the Digital Focus family and are excited for us Filipinos who are known all over the world for our love for singing, to experience this wonderful new line with the most number of built-in songs to enjoy that allows everyone to simply use a downloadable app on their mobile devices to control the videoke machines from song choice to microphone and sound controls.” For more information, you may check out their Web site www.megasoundvideoke.com.
SYD HARTHA TAKES PRO-WOMEN STAND ON NEW SINGLE
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PCOMING singer-songwriter syd hartha breaks out from the mold with the release of her new single, “ayaw.” Known for her intricate folkpop sketches and disarming vocals, the 17-year-old artist takes a step back from her confessional musings to affirm her stand against sexual harassment and abuse towards women in general. The empowering number, which hartha wrote as a reminder for people to respect boundaries, delivers an
inspiring message that puts into light the importance of consent. “It is undeniable that sexual harassment continues to be a prevalent issue that we face today,” hartha points out. “I feel for the victims of catcalling and rape, and understand how hard it is to talk about their experience. As a musician who some people look up to, I know I have to use my voice in behalf of all the victims and survivors. This inspired me to write ayaw.” A well-conceived effort that embraces her newfound strength as
a singer-songwriter, “ayaw” suggests lyrical confidence and maturity that’s beyond her age. Production-wise, it’s her most sonically adventurous release to date: an excursion to a more bluesy territory, a more organic vibe that gives her personality the spunk and edge it needs. “ayaw” is syd hartha’s third single, and her first official release under Sony Music Philippines. The song is now available on streaming and download platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes store and Deezer.
Changing urban centers
“THE Castro isn’t what it was. The Village isn’t what it was. WeHo [West Hollywood], which has held onto its power the most, is even distanced from a lot of where the community is going,” says ethnographer Nisarg Mehta, citing traditionally gay areas in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles, respectively. Even newish gay neighborhoods— Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen or Seattle’s White Center—are already vestigial echoes of what anthropologists call the less-diffuse Great Gay Migration, a bygone era when gays felt the acute need to live shoulder-toshoulder. (Although walking the so-called “gayborhood” streets on a balmy Friday night, the illusion of togetherness asserts itself convincingly.) Mehta wrote his master’s thesis at the University of Chicago on Chicago’s gay bar scene, centered around Wrigleyville, aka Boystown. He points to what he calls “placemaking,” or imbuing anywhere with the cultural capital of a gay bar. Gay bars have long been problematic in their fusion of gay identity and intoxication; millennials and Gen Z are both drinking less. And so a Chicago outpost of Jerry’s, a sandwich-shop chain, becomes a de facto lesbian bar on Wednesday nights, says Mehta. Or there’s Annie’s, a 70-year-old diner favored by gays in Washington that was anointed an “American Classic” this year by the James Beard Foundation. “We’re still a long way from seeing Dallas or Asheville on their own terms in their own queerness, but we’re getting there,” he says. In Asheville, N.C., Casey Campfield, who owns The Crow & Quill and identifies as queer, flags gay bars’ identity crisis on top of their economic crises. “Everyone who works at the Crow is queer. Half the staff is trans. We have drag nights occasionally, but hardly anyone refers to this as a gay bar. The clientele is well mixed,” he says. “I think all the queers in town are relieved to feel safe enough to have options for their nightlife.” In an LGBTQ world, bars that are merely gay can seem anachronistic. And as much as love is love is love, humans are humans and gay bars aren’t immune to their own bigotry. In 2017 the Philadelphia Commission on Human Rights identified 11 local gay bars for fostering “preferable environments for white, cisgender male patrons.” In May, Progress, a gay bar in Chicago, was broadly criticized for racism after it banned rap music as part of its newfound mission “to promote a positive, happy, energetic, and most importantly … a FUN vibe,” according to an email it sent widely. More plainly, Ryan Lee, a columnist at the gay publication Georgia Voice, recently called Atlanta’s gay scene “100% segregated.” In contrast to broad LGBTQ acceptance by the mainstream, queer culture itself has fought and fractured internally largely along racial lines. The idea of a united gay community in 2019 is as much a fantasy as there ever was for a demographic group whose sole uniting factor is sexual preference and societal
Castro Street in San Francisco. BLOOMBERG marginalization—not, say, age, creed, career, class, color, health, or regionalism, the identities around which Americans often coalesce. So as gay bars embrace bachelorettes and other straight audiences even as they tell trans women they “aren’t real women,” or assert that centering blackness too much is “not good for the businesses,” there is actually more of a need for more vulnerable members of the queer spectrum to have spaces that feel safe to them, and exclusively for them.
Outside the major cities
GAY communities in midsize cities and rural areas are emerging from the enormous cultural shadows of Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Francisco (of a list of 47 dead and dying gay bars compiled by the Advocate in 2018, 37 were in those cities and 8 of the remaining 10 were in Washington). Gay bars’ daring vanguard is now driven less by big-city density and more by small-town urgency. These regional gay bars have a certain
circle of life. When the Wayward Lamb, the only one in Eugene, Ore., closed in February last year, its replacement, Spectrum, was registered by mid-April as a business. In Saint Paul, Minnesota, the closure of Town House was met with the opening of R Lounge. In Reno, Nevada, Splash replaced Tronix and Faces NV, an offshoot of a Sacramento mainstay, opened downtown. And the Back Door, in Bloomington, Indiana, opened in 2016 as the state’s infamously anti-gay governor, Mike Pence, became the country’s vice president. By year’s end, three gay bars will have opened in Seattle since January 2018. Even tiny Lima, Ohio, (population 40,000) has its own gay bar, called Somewhere. The whole point of Syracuse Guerrilla Gay Bar, an LGBTQ meetup group based in Syracuse, NY, is that the entire city should be a safe and accepting space for queer life.
The age of Instagram
SOME gay bar owners think that social media and the apps have actually helped their businesses survive.
“Grindr has been great for gay bars,” says Moore, the Minneapolis bar owner. “Ten years ago, if you’d turned on the lights at the Saloon, we’d be an S&M spot—lots of ‘standing and modeling.’ Everyone was cruising, showing up just for sex. It was creepy, uncomfortable, not quite an addiction, but a little too much of a focus.” Grindr has cut that out, because the searching-for-sex aspect of gay life happens more outside of bars now. “It’s a lot friendlier now, a lot more of a Cheers community.” “And as for young people hypnotized by their phones,” Moore says, “they’re doing their best with the life they were given. In the ’90s, you might see an older gentleman who seemed grouchy or rude, but you had to remember they had seen lots of their friends die and they were doing the best they could. Older gays deserve our empathy for surviving AIDS. Younger gays deserve our empathy for surviving Facebook.” The most popular gay bar in the country, as measured by Gravy Analytics, a location-based marketing platform, is Parliament House in Orlando, a 10-minute drive from Pulse, the gay nightclub where the second-deadliest mass shooting in the US occurred in 2016, killing 49 and wounding 53. And yet marginalized communities—the shooting happened on Latin Night—still need places to come together, safely and joyfully. The phrase “It gets better” wasn’t coined to gloat about progress, rather to offer hope amid despair. “Dance fused us, magical and cleansing. We were all in a swirl of color and light. It was like a rainbow,” wrote Gilbert Baker, who created the rainbow pride flag in 1978 as part of an art collective in San Francisco, about how gay bars inspired the design. Fifty years after gay bars and queer America found their power, they’re now grappling with something far more interesting: their purpose. Bloomberg News
TRAFFIC device worker Darryl Beckles installs a street sign to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. BLOOMBERG
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JULY 7, 2019
The American gay bar is down, but don’t count it out just yet By Richard Morgan
F
IFTY years ago this week, a riot took place at the Stonewall Inn as police raided the New York City gay bar. That story is told so often that Stonewall is enshrined as a national monument and regarded as the birthplace of the modern gay-rights movement. What goes less mentioned is that Stonewall was just two years old at the time, and when the first pride parade— then known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March—was held the following year, the bar had already shut down after timidly limiting its drink selection to juices. The space became a bagel shop, a Chinese restaurant, and a shoe store until its current iteration opened in 1990. As much as Stonewall galvanized the gay community, that community navigated both its 1970s heyday and the apocalyptic throes of the Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (Aids) crisis without it. Pride finds a way. Today, as LGBTQ America reaches unprecedented levels of acceptance, devaluation and violence persists, especially against transgender individuals, and particularly those of color; in 2019 alone there have been 11 violent murders, by the Human Rights Campaign’s count. Concurrently, the gay community’s most common safe space— the gay bar—is in decline. Reports on the state of gay bars nationwide vary wildly, from merely disastrous to full-on dire and doomed. In 1976 there were 2,500 gay bars in the US, according to a history of the Stonewall riots; today there are fewer than 1,400 worldwide, according to Damron, a gay travel guide. In 1973, the year the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders and before the advent of human immunodeficiency virus/Aids (HIV/Aids), there were 118 gay bars in San Francisco; today there are fewer than 30—and only one them is a lesbian bar. Far more social media posts are shared outside of the Stonewall Inn than inside it, despite visits from Madonna, Taylor Swift and Joe Biden. Blame mostly gets shoveled onto
New York’s Club Cumming. BLOOMBERG the rise of dating and hookup apps epitomized by Grindr, the market leader for audience engagement. The reality, as always, is more complicated. Gay identity at its core is about who you have relationships and sex with, so bars have traditionally been the only havens for LGBTQ people to flirt openly, reliably, and safely. (Meeting your future spouse at the grocery store was not ever likely to happen.) So most of gay history has been a fight for sexual identity; it wasn’t until 2003 that a Supreme Court decision legalized sodomy nationwide. Now as LGBTQ identity expands, their traditional spaces are in flux, too. A new generation of next-wave activists are learning to assert something more broad and brash: social identity. John Moore, the owner of the Saloon in Minneapolis since 1980, conducts weekly meetings about the “tribal spirituality” of the LGBTQ community. “We were told for decades that we were just sexual beings,” he says. “We’re just now taking the first steps towards our fuller humanity. It’s an exciting time.”
Alternatives to the bar
“CIRCUIT parties [gay raves] and parades are thriving. Grindr isn’t killing them and Grindr isn’t killing gay bars. Boredom is,” posits Daniel Nardicio, an impresario of gay nightlife in New York who also runs his own gay bar and cabaret, Club Cumming, with actor Alan Cumming. “Ooh, you have drag bingo? Drag brunch? Drag karaoke? Stop. Give me something new, not just a rainbow on a bottle of
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Absolut or a retirement home cliché hosted by a drag queen.” Even as gay bars have ridden the acclaimed historic visibility of television shows including RuPaul’s Drag Race and Pose, they’ve merely become “vessels for viewing parties” of those shows, adds Nardicio. Gay bars are “stuck,” he says, and he has a theory about why. “AIDS killed lots of artists and free spirits, but it also killed people who would’ve grown up to become mentors to everyone under 50 now. We grew up alone and without that sense of connection across generations. We lost them, and we’ve paid the price by slipping from the creative class to the consumer class. We went from radical to basic.” “Basic,” according to the Urban Dictionary of American slang, is one “only interested in things mainstream, popular, and trending.” Consider how derivative 2019 queer culture seems compared with 1967. Gay liberation pulls its punches. What Nardicio is complaining about is a sameness across gay saloons, which is an odd problem for a community that is countercultural by its very definition. It makes the venues less exciting, amplifying a greater generational divide. Older gays who were more ostracized from mainstream America might not feel at home in simulacrums of it, while younger gays may be unwilling inheritors of gay culture’s antiquating heirlooms. In a heightened example of this conventional queerness, No Bar opened this year as a link in a glossy hotel chain. Vogue covered its debut. Clint Jones, owner of Phoenix, a 24-
JULY 7, 2019
hour, gritty, fetish-forward gay bar in New Orleans, agrees about the like-mindedness of most gay bargoers: “They just drink vodka and soda or tequila and soda. Maybe bourbon and coke. You know what these millennials thought up? Puppy parties. They dress like puppies and have masters or owners. That’s the best they can do: being adorable, needy centers of attention.” “When we opened 10 years ago, layout was all about drink rails for cruising,” says Bob Fluet, a co-owner of Boxers, in reference to stand-and-stare strategies of gay hookup culture. “Now it’s tables. People come in groups of 10. They bring their parents.” The sports-bar chain has even been dubbed “the gay Hooters” by the New York Times.
Shouldn’t gay bars be thriving?
The LGBTQ community certainly has plenty of economic power to flex. The combined purchasing—and boycotting—strength of bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender adults in the US hovers at about $1 trillion. The untapped market is considerable: About 4.5 percent of the US population is gay, according to the Williams Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, but only 0.8 percent of US bars are gay. “This is the price of inclusivity,” says Jonathan Lovitz, a spokesman for the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. “There’s not a market or a demand for a place like the Stonewall Inn the way there was before the Stonewall riots.” Fifty years will do that. Continued on page 7