BusinessMirror June 09, 2019

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY

2018 BANTOG DATA MEDIA AWARDS CHAMPION

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A broader look at today’s business n

Sunday, June 9, 2019 Vol. 14 No. 242

2018 EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS

BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR

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TECH ADVANCEMENT PAVES THE WAY FOR BIRTH OF NEW ELECTRONIC NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS

DEMYSTIFYING

VICHAI VIRIYATHANAPON | DREAMSTIME.COM

CRYPTO CURRENCY By Bianca Cuaresma

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N the recent decade, technological advances have been a boon to the financial industry—with the sector experiencing several breakthrough advancements by the turn of the year.

Among the most recent advances to global financial services is the rise of crypto currencies, particularly the so-called bitcoins. Virtual currency—bitcoins in its most popular form—is a form of digital money that rose to popularity only in recent years. Unlike electronic money that is backed by cash for the entirety of its val-

ue, bitcoins are not backed by any commodity but by the ability of the holder to exchange them for goods. As bitcoins become a buzzword in the financial technology world and strong demand has been seen for this type of virtual currency, its prices have been effectively propped up at an amazing speed. Because of the quick rise in bit-

coin prices, several fraudsters have come in to lure people to invest in bitcoins with a promise of “getting rich” fast. This does not only create financial instability to the investors of bitcoin scams, but it also spreads an uneducated “fear” of using and getting involved in crypto currencies in general, thereby, missing out on the opportunities

brought by the new financial technology advancement. In his book entitled Bitcoins and Blockchains for Beginners, Earl Dorado claims that bitcoin is not a scam and that people need further awareness and education for them to reap the benefits of this new technology. Continued on A2

Mass shootings transform how America talks, prays, prepares By Sharon Cohen & Lindsey Tanner | The Associated Press

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HICAGO—Pardeep Singh Kaleka has surveyed the landscape of an America scarred by mass shootings. Seven years ago, a white supremacist invaded a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and killed six worshippers—among them Kaleka’s father, who died clutching a butter knife he’d grabbed in a desperate attempt to stop the shooter. Now, whenever another gunman bloodies another town, Kaleka posts a supportive message on social media. Then later, either by invitation or on his own initiative, he’ll journey to the community to shore up others who share his pain. He’s been to Newtown, Connecticut. Charleston, South Carolina. Pittsburgh. “We’ve become kind of a family,” Kaleka says.

It’s true. The unending litany of mass shootings in recent years—the latest, last Friday, leaving 12 dead in Virginia Beach, Virginia—has built an unacknowledged community of heartbreak, touching and warping the lives of untold thousands. All the survivors, none of them unscathed. The loved ones of the living and the dead. Their neighbors, relatives and colleagues. The first responders, the health-care workers, the elected officials. The attacks have changed how America talks, prays and prepares for trouble. Today, the phrases “active shooter” and “shelter in place”

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 51.7720

IN this October 26, 2016, file photo, first responders hold a flag on the court as the national anthem is played during a tribute to the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting prior to a National Basketball Association basketball game between the Orlando Magic and the Miami Heat in Orlando, Florida. The attack left 49 people dead; the shooter was killed after a three-hour standoff with the police. AP

need no explanation. A house of worship will have a priest, a rabbi or an imam—and maybe, an armed guard. And more schools are holding “lockdown drills” to prepare students for the possibility of a shooter. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was once largely associated with combat-weary veterans; now some police and firefighters tormented by the memories of the carnage they’ve witnessed are seeking professional help. Healing centers have opened to offer survivors therapy and a place to gather. Support groups of survivors of mass shootings have formed. Mayors, doctors, police and other leaders who’ve endured these crises are paying it forward—offering comfort, mentoring and guidance to the next town that has to wrestle with the nightmare. Former Oak Creek Mayor Stephen Scaffidi, who’d been on the job just four months at the time of Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4776 n UK 65.7608 n HK 6.6034 n CHINA 7.4934 n SINGAPORE 37.9672 n AUSTRALIA 36.1161 n EU 58.3885 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.8059

Source: BSP (June 7, 2019 )

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A2 Sunday, June 9, 2019

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Mass shootings transform how America talks, prays, prepares Continued from A1

the 2012 Sikh temple attack, remembers a call that night from the mayor of Aurora, Colorado, where 12 people had been fatally shot at a movie theater less than three weeks earlier. “He gave me the best advice I could ever receive in that moment: ‘Be calm. Reassure your community. And only speak to what you know. Don’t speculate, don’t pretend to be an expert on something that you’re not,’” Scaffidi recalls. Last year, two days after the fatal shooting of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Christine Hunschofsky, mayor of Parkland, Florida, met the mother of a 6-year-old killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School who offered a road map into the future. “She forewarned me of many of the things that we would encounter,” Hunschofsky recalls. “She said at first it will seem like everyone comes together. Then it seems like a tsunami that hits the community. People become very divided. This is all normal after a mass trauma.” Three months later, it was Hunschofsky’s turn. She sent a message to the incoming mayor of Santa Fe, Texas, where a school shooting left 10 dead. “She told me this is not going to be the hardest day and harder days are coming,” recalls Mayor Jason Tabor. “‘Prepare for that.’ She was 100 percent right.” The two mayors have since become fast friends and Hunschofsky visited Santa Fe. “We’re bonded for life,” Tabor says. Mass shootings account for a tiny percentage of homicides, but their scale sets them apart. In 1999, the Columbine shooting shocked the nation with its unforgettable images of teens running from the school with their hands up—scenes repeated in other similar attacks years later.

Today, the public sees and hears about these events as they unfold, through live-streamed video or tweets. Each tragedy is horrifying, but the sense of it-can’t-happen-here has worn off. “We’re a desensitized society,” says Jaclyn Schildkraut, a criminologist at the State University of New York at Oswego. “There is an element of mass shooting fatigue where we’ve gone from ONE MORE,” she says, her voice rising with exasperation, “to add another one to the list. Everybody immediately goes for the gun argument ... and maybe throw a little mental health in there, but we really don’t have a consistent, prolonged conversation about these events and how to prevent them.” Studies have offered some hints of their emotional wallop. The National Center for PTSD estimates 28 percent of people who have witnessed a mass shooting develop PTSD and about a third develop acute stress disorder. Laura Wilson, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia conducted a meta-analysis— an examination of data from 11 studies of PTSD symptoms among more than 8,000 participants who ranged from those who’d witnessed shootings to those who just lived in the communities in a 20year period. She found the greater the exposure—someone who was at the scene or who lost a friend or family—the greatest risk of developing PTSD. But, in her work, Wilson has found other factors, too, including previous psychological symptoms and a lack of social support, also played a role in increasing the likelihood. “Mass shootings are a different type of trauma,” Wilson says. “People are confronted with the idea that bad things can happen to good people.... Most people have a hard time recon-

ciling the idea that a young, innocent person made the good decision to go to school, was sitting there, learning and was murdered. That does not make sense to us.... It just rattles us to our core.” And yet, some people don’t fully appreciate the lasting psychological wounds of those who escaped physical harm. A study conducted by a University of Nevada-Las Vegas professor after the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting that left 58 people dead found PTSD levels for those at the concert remained elevated at least a year later. Most of these people had a friend, family member or co-worker asking—as early as 1½ months after the event—why they were still troubled. “Almost everyone had someone say, ‘Get over it. Why are you letting this bother you?’” says Stephen Benning, a psychology professor who conducted the research. Those kinds of remarks were associated with increased levels of PTSD, which lasted longer than depression. April Foreman, a psychologist and board member of the American Association of Suicidology, likens exposure to mass shootings to a flu epidemic that affects the entire community in different ways. “When we have these mass casualty events it’s like an outbreak of a virus,” she says. “Some people might be immune or not susceptible to that strain. Some people are going to get a little sick, some people are going to be very sick. Some people might have compromised immune systems and if they’re exposed they have a very high risk for life-threatening illness. Suicide is like the extreme outcome.” In one week in March, two student survivors of the Parkland school shooting killed themselves. Around the same time, the father of a 6-year-old killed girl in Newtown died of an apparent suicide. He had created a foundation in

his daughter’s name to support research on violence prevention. Austin Eubanks, a Columbine student who was shot and watched his best friend die in the school massacre, died last month, possibly of an overdose. He struggled with opioid use after the attack and later became an addiction recovery speaker. A memorial fund established in his name is seeking funds for a traumainformed program for families and victims of mass violence. After the Parkland suicides, Hunschofsky says, many people sought mental health help for the first time. “They just told me, ‘I thought I was OK, but after this happened, maybe I’m not. Maybe I do need to talk to someone.’” The community’s wellness center, established after the Parkland shooting, extended its hours. A similar program, the Resiliency Center of Newtown, is an informal gathering place for those grappling with anxiety, depression and PTSD. Though the school attack occurred 6½ years ago, the center still gets new clients and after every mass shooting, more people stop by. “Your heart hurts every time a new tragedy happens because you know what those people who are impacted are going to have to go through and what the community is going to go through, and that’s hard,” says Stephanie Cinque, the center’s founder and executive director. “You don’t just get over it and move on.” In Florida, Orange County Sheriff John Mina, Orlando’s police chief during the 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub, realized that when he reached out to law enforcement peers—former chiefs of Aurora and Newtown—afterward. “‘What do you think I should be doing six months, a year from now?” he asked. “They said, ‘John, you’re not going to be dealing with this a year. You’re going to be dealing with this five or 10 years.’ That was like a punch in the gut.” There were some immediate lessons learned, he says. Among them: improved communications with the fire department and better equipment. After the Pulse shooting, officers were given Kevlar helmets and an extra layer of body armor that will stop rifle rounds. Mental health debriefings were held six months and a year after the shooting rampage for

Orlando officers who went to the nightclub that morning. Some have reached beyond the department to UCF RESTORES, a clinic at the University of Central Florida that helps trauma victims. It was originally designed to serve the military, but has expanded to include first responders and sexual assault victims, among others. Deborah Beidel, the clinic’s director, says first responders called to mass shootings face trauma similar to those in combat. About 50 firefighters, police and paramedics who were at Parkland and Pulse have been treated, most in a three-week outpatient program that exposes them to the sounds, smells and sights they encountered that caused their PTSD. For those inside the Pulse, Beidel says, “the sound of cellphones ringing and ringing and ringing and no one answering them became a trigger for many people. Afterward, any time they heard a cellphone, particularly that Marimba ring on the iPhone, they would have a flashback.” Beidel says the goal isn’t to make workers forget but to “put that memory in a file where it no longer affects every other aspect of their life, so that they no longer are restricted in what they can do because...of flashbacks or panic or whatever they might be experiencing.” Jimmy Reyes, a 35-year-old Orlando firefighter, enrolled in the program about five months after Pulse. He’d been haunted by the memory of tending to more than two dozen bloody, wounded people carried from the club, sprawled over a parking lot, screaming in agony. After more than four stressful hours caring for the wounded, not knowing who’d live or die, he returned home. As he and his wife watched the TV news, he began sobbing. She held him. “We did the best that we could,” he told her. Less than a week later, Reyes had a panic attack while working a second job—he was on a safety team in a jet ski race. “I couldn’t breathe,” he says. “I kept telling myself, ‘You’ll be fine. It’ll pass.’” It didn’t. He dreaded another big call at work. Firefighters, he says, “kind of bury a lot of stuff. It gets put in a file in the back of your head. That’s what I thought this was going to be.” But it didn’t stay there. He was short-tempered with his family. He had little interest in doing any-

thing but sitting at home. Finally, Reyes decided to seek help. For three weeks, he relived his experiences, answering questions from a therapist as he told his Pulse story over and over, recalling everything he saw, including one man talking on his cellphone who’d been shot in the head and another critically wounded who asked, “Am I going to die?” At certain points, the therapist would cue up sounds he’d heard—gunshots from inside the club, the wail of the sirens, an explosion. At first, he says, he cried. By the end of the sessions, he was dryeyed and calm. Reyes is better now and remains a firefighter. He never considered quitting. But he’s changed. “I felt like I was normal before Pulse,” he says. “I was a very happy guy, no problems, no issues with mental health. Now I still deal with depression. I still deal with anxiety.... I look back at those days.... June 11th, I was normal. Then June 12th happened. I’m a completely different person.” So is Las Vegas trauma surgeon Dave MacIntyre. He talks in a rapid-fire, breathless way about the chaos 19 months after the Route 91 shooting. More than 90 severely injured patients in 113 minutes. He repeats that phrase as if it still hasn’t completely sunk in. After 20 years, he’s now a part-time trauma surgeon looking to get out of the operating room completely. MacIntyre enrolled in January in an executive MBA program for doctors, with plans on becoming a consultant for helping hospitals deal with similar challenges. He’s trying meditation, too. MacIntyre didn’t realize he had PTSD until an MBA program coach picked up on his symptoms—anxiety, stress, short temper, avoidance. His marriage has suffered. His work, too. “I find it very hard to talk to family members and give them bad news...much more so than before,” he says. After the shootings, his hospital brought in therapy dogs and counselors for the staff but not everyone participated. “As physicians we’re not going to want to show weakness. We’re not going to want to go into an auditorium full of people or get on the floor and pet dogs,” he says. “A lot of physicians internalize. You get to the point where it’s unbearable.”

Demystifying crypto currency Continued from A1

“The reason why bitcoin is so hard to fully explain and appreciate is because one needs knowledge in computer science, information technology, finance and economics. That is why, I have written this book to be understood by people without such backgrounds,” he said. Dorado said rather than focusing first on bitcoin’s increasing price in the market, people should understand why it is more globally adopted and that it gives solutions to current electronic money limitations. “With the reach of the internet and increases in electronic and mobile commerce all over the world, it is inevitable that various forms of electronic money will be created. Before bitcoins existed, such commerce was done in the form of electronic remittance transactions among banks and payment providers to facilitate movement of dollars or other currencies across the globe faster than physical means,” Dorado said. “However, there are limitations to this. One, the transactions heavily rely on the trust of a common third party as transactions will normally pass through an institution which must be trusted by both parties all the time—like a bank—to ensure that the transaction is correct and complete,” he added. Among the other limitations the author discussed are the risks of hacking attacks to electronic commerce.

The built-in defense

BSP’s guidelines

DORADO said bitcoin offers solutions to the existing problems of electronic commerce because of the crypto currency’s nature: bitcoin transaction records are decentralized, which means that the network itself has copies of the ledgers of transaction records and is spread across multiple computers. This means that even if one computer is hacked and a copy of its records gets tampered with, that ledger will be invalidated by those from the other places in the entire network. “What do these mean for people? This means that because of the introduction of bitcoin, it is now possible to reliably transfer money to any other place in the world without a central third party like a bank or remittance company checking it,” the author said. “Since everyone in the network has a copy of such verified transactions, hackers will need to tamper with records from so many computers around the world just to be successful [and no one has successfully done so as of this writing],” he added. Cheaper transactions are also expected from bitcoins as there is no central, or a third party, to perform validation and trust. Thus, the overall cost of transactions is lowered, according to the author. He also said bitcoins provide faster and more reliable transactions compared to traditional remittance centers as the bitcoin network is always running to process transactions 24/7.

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) recognizes the potential of crypto currencies in lowering the cost of remittances to and from the country. In 2017, the central bank launched a set of guidelines on virtual currency—a first of its kind in Asia—seeking to “balance the interests” of welcoming technological advancements in the monetary sector and proactively address the risks that come with such innovations. Part of the requirements upon registration to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as a virtual currency exchange is the submission of periodic reports to aid the central bank in monitoring virtual currency usage in the country—which is estimated at around $6 million per month for certain major players. While other countries have taken a more hostile stance on virtual currencies circulating in their jurisdiction, the BSP said it has adopted a more positive approach to virtual currencies that do not equate to more relaxed monitoring and surveillance of risks. “We want to maximize the benefits from this technological innovation while adequately managing the risks that come with it. Virtual currencies can help accelerate the delivery of financial services [e.g., payments and remittance] and lower the cost of transactions, which is consistent with our broader financial inclusion agenda,” the BSP said.

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Sunday, June 9, 2019

Editor: Angel R. Calso

Trump’s currency war plan puts Treasury and Commerce at odds

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RESIDENT Donald J. Trump is poised to turn the $5.1 trilliona-day global currency market into the next battlefield in his trade war with a proposal that has set two US government agencies on a collision course. A Commerce Department proposal to impose countervailing tariffs on countries that it determines have devalued their currencies has alarmed officials at the Treasury Department, according to four people familiar with the matter. They are wary of market disruptions and a politicization of foreign-exchange policy, among other concerns, the people said. An initial draft of the plan included what some officials considered misguided economic assumptions and was too blunt an approach to the issue, the people said. Part of Treasury’s job is to monitor US trade partners for currency manipulation. The proposal is part of a dramatic escalation of Trump’s trade war. Last week, the president said he’d impose escalating tariffs on all Mexican goods unless the country curbs illegal migration to the US. On May 10, Trump raised tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese goods after he said Beijing reneged on provisions of a tentative trade deal. “The Trump administration has clearly signaled that currency conflicts are the next front in the trade war against countries with whom the US runs large trade deficits,’’ said Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University. China has blamed the US for the impasse in trade talks and has vowed to retaliate for the increased tariffs. Mexican officials are in Washington this week to tr y to stave off tariffs

that Trump said will be imposed on Monday.

Dollar repercussions

THE Commerce Department proposal risks adding uncertainty to an already volatile US trade policy, with additional repercussions for the dollar. Historically, presidents and their administrations have promoted the mantra of a strong dollar being in the nation’s interest in part to bolster foreign demand for US debt. Yet pressuring trade partners who are seen as devaluing their currencies could have the effect of weakening the greenback. “The US is implicitly moving towards a weak dollar policy with its unwillingness to condone other currencies’ weakness against the dollar,’’ said Prasad, author of The Dollar Trap. In a report to clients on Thursday, Morgan Stanley analysts said this week’s meeting in Japan of Group of 20 finance chiefs “could see the dollar coming under early selling pressure.” Commerce says that the purpose of its proposal is to “provide relief ” to American workers, farmers and businesses “injured by unfairly subsidized imports,” according to the regulatory filing in which it was announced. It doesn’t expect that this type of countervailing duty, or CVD, would deter trade with any country, according to the proposal. But current and former Treasury officials aren’t so sure. While there is value in the

US addressing harmful currency practices, tactics such as tariffs “could disrupt global trade and capital flows, create currency wars and damage the international monetary and financial system,’’ said Mark Sobel, a former Treasury official. “The harm would only worsen if others retaliate in kind,’’ he said. Sobel was a senior-level civil servant at Treasury in 2007 when Congress unsuccessfully pressured the George W. Bush administration to impose a similar countervailing duty, with China a key target.

Treasury and Commerce

TREASURY representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment on the conflict between the two departments. A spokesman for Commerce declined to comment. Commerce’s proposal doesn’t identify any individual country as a target. It would allow American companies to seek anti-subsidy tariffs on products from countries considered to be engaging in competitive devaluation. The US government could also initiate an investigation, according the May 23 regulatory filing. The regulation, if implemented, would be administered by the enforcement and compliance unit inside of the Commerce’s International Trade Administration, an agency spokesman said. A decision to apply a countervailing duty on exports would rely on a framework for analysis to be developed by Treasury, the proposal said. Criteria for the framework would be decided after a public comment period closes on June 27, a senior Treasury official said in a briefing with reporters before Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin left for the G-20 gathering in Japan. Treasury aims to make the framework public and keep it consistent with its semiannual foreign-exchange report to Congress, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of

anonymity. The US government has used that report to signal action against countries suspected of manipulating their currencies. But in deciding whether to impose countervailing tariffs, Commerce could disregard Treasury’s analysis if it “ has good reason to disagree,’’ according to the proposal.

Paper trail

TREASURY officials fought to include language in the proposal that would require Commerce’s currency assessments become part of the public record, people familiar with the matter said. Publicly pitting two US agencies against each other is “highly unusual’’ and risks leaving the administration in an “awkward position,’’ said Doug Jacobson, a trade lawyer at Jacobson Burton Kelley in Washington. If Commerce overrides Treasury’s assessment of a country’s currency practices, that paper trail could land the US government in court with companies seeking to avoid tariffs, Jacobson said. Currency traders, meanwhile, say they’re wary of any kind of government intervention in the market—especially by the largest and most important economy in the world. “We would much prefer currencies to trade based on fundamentals of monetary policy and economic data than tweets’’ and other kinds of political intervention, said John Doyle, a currency strategist at Tempus Inc. Trump has an unlikely ally in suggesting an aggressive currency policy to achieve economic goals: Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren. In a plan released earlier this week, she called for “actively managing’’ the dollar to bolster US jobs and growth Warren, a Massachusetts senator, blames foreign investors and central banks for having “driven up the value of our currency for their own benefit. Bloomberg News

From loss to liberation: Germany’s evolving postwar attitude

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ERLIN—When Chancellor Angela Merkel thanked the Allies for the D-Day invasion and the “liberation” of Germany in World War II, she might have raised some eyebrows internationally. To those at home, the statement was unremarkable. There’s no denying that the machine guns and howitzers firing at the Allied forces landing in Normandy 75 years ago were manned by German soldiers. But over the decades, Germans’ attitudes toward the war have evolved from a sense of defeat to something far more complex. While the leaders of France, Britain, the United States and Canada went to England to commemorate the troops’ sacrifice and duty on Wednesday, Merkel listened quietly. After the ceremony was over, she told reporters that she considered her invitation “a gift of history.” When those other leaders went to Normandy for ceremonies on D-Day itself on Thursday, Merkel was back in Berlin, holding a regular meeting with governors and discussing bilateral relations with the prime minister of Kosovo. As the generation that elected Adolf Hitler and

fought his genocidal war dies away, most Germans today see World War II through the prism of guilt, responsibility and atonement. And almost all agree that the defeat of the Nazis was a good thing. That hasn’t always been the case. Many Germans who survived World War II had supported Hitler and the Nazi race ideology that led to the murder of 6 million Jews in Europe—and they were devastated by the downfall of the Third Reich. “After 1945, Germans first referred to the end of World War II as ‘collapse,’” said Johannes Tuchel, director of the German Resistance Memorial Center. Their children, however, were faced with rebuilding the country from the ground up from the total defeat of the Nazis, and they saw potential rather than defeat. “In the 1950s, it became ‘hour zero’”—a new beginning, Tuchel said. After the country was back on its economic feet, younger Germans started to question their elders, culminating in the “1968 movement” in which students confronted their parents with the atrocities committed during the Third Reich. Out of that era has grown today’s complex attitude. “It has been a process to the point today where it is seen as Germany’s liberation from the Nazis by the Allied forces,” Tuchel said. German leaders have largely followed the changing attitudes—and in some cases led them. In 1985, then-West German President Richard von Weizsaecker called the Nazi defeat Germany’s “day of liberation” in a speech marking the 40th anniversary of the war’s end. His words were supported by most Germans, and to this day it is often cited by politicians and taught in schools. Merkel praised his speech when he died in 2015, calling it “a necessary, clear statement

that was significant for our German self-image.” Another key moment came in 2004, when then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder marked the 60th anniversary of Col. Claus von Stauffenberg’s failed attempt to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb. Schroeder called von Stauffenberg a hero—erasing the Nazis’ “traitor” label that had lingered after the war. Merkel, who at 64 is the first chancellor born after World War II, has taken the new German self-image even further. On Tuesday in Portsmouth, the embarkation point for the Allied force that invaded Nazioccupied France in 1944, Merkel called D-Day a “unique, unprecedented military operation that eventually brought us in Germany the liberation from National Socialism,” the Nazi political movement. She noted that the war’s end brought Germany’s rebirth as a leading European democracy, saying it was D-Day that set in motion the “reconciliation and unification of Europe, but also the entire postwar order that has brought us more than 70 years of peace.” Unlike the many grand monuments to the Soviet and western Allied troops who fought against the Nazis, German tributes to its troops are typically understated. Fallen soldiers are commemorated in humble memorials on village squares across the country listing the names of the dead—often grouping the casualties of World Wars I and II. In schools, the military history of World War II is rarely a focus of instruction, with lessons instead concentrating on Holocaust education and the Nazi dictatorship. When there are tributes, they tend to be more for members of the German resistance

who were executed by the Nazis—the students who distributed anti-Nazi flyers at Munich University; the Red Orchestra network bent on sabotaging the Nazis’ war machine; or those like von Stauffenberg who tried to assassinate Hitler. And next year, Berlin has declared a holiday for May 8, marking the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender. Of course, not all in Germany see the Nazi era the same way. Alexander Gauland, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany, recently played down the Nazi period as a “speck of bird poop” in Germany’s history. Bjoern Hoecke, another party leader, suggested it’s time for the country to stop atoning for its Nazi past. But a vast majority—even among those who were born decades after the war—believe it’s essential for Germany to keep alive the memory of the country’s inglorious past. “In school and at home I learned that the Allies—especially the Americans—liberated us,” said Laetitia Zinecker, an 18-year-old business student at Berlin’s Free University. “Our history shapes who we are still today. It’s important that schools continue to teach about the past so that it will not be forgotten.” On Thursday, some German newspapers ran photographs of the ceremonies in Portsmouth, or black-and-white images from 1944 of US soldiers reaching the shores of France. The top-selling Bild published a front-page picture of US President Donald J. Trump, Queen Elizabeth II, Merkel and others looking upward, with an inset picture of a D-Day veteran recreating his Normandy parachute jump with an American flag in tow. Its headline? “The world celebrates its liberators.” AP

IN this April 14, 2018, file photo, then-Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie speaks during a media availability at the Pentagon in Washington. McKenzie, the top commander of US forces in the Mideast, says Iran appears to have decided to “step back and recalculate” in response to a US military buildup in the Persian Gulf area. AP

Mideast troop buildup prompted Iran to step back–US commander

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AGHDAD—Iran has chosen to “step back and recalculate” after making preparations for an apparent attack against US forces in the Persian Gulf region, but it is too early to conclude the threat is gone, the top commander of American forces in the Mideast said on Thursday. In an interview with three reporters accompanying him to the Gulf, Gen. Frank McKenzie said he remains concerned by Iran’s potential for aggression, and he would not rule out requesting additional US forces to bolster defenses against Iranian missiles or other weapons. “I don’t actually believe the threat has diminished,” McKenzie said. “I believe the threat is very real.” McKenzie, the head of US Central Command, and other military officials are trying to strike a balance between persuading Iran that the US is prepared to retaliate for an Iranian attack on Americans, thus deterring conflict, and pushing so much military muscle into the Gulf that Iran thinks the US plans an attack, in which case it might feel compelled to strike preemptively and thus spark war. Tensions between the US and Iran have worsened since President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and several world powers, and reinstated sanctions on Tehran. Last month, in response to what American officials characterized as an imminent threat, the US announced it would rush an aircraft carrier and other assets to the region. The US also blamed Iran for last month’s attacks on oil tankers in a United Arab Emirates port. On Thursday, United Nations ambassadors from the Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Norway told UN Security Council members that investigators believe those attacks were led by a foreign state using divers on speed boats who planted mines on the vessels. They did not name Iran. Earlier, the Saudi ambassador to the UN, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, said Saudi Arabia also blames Iran for the sabotage. In Baghdad, McKenzie told reporters from The Associated Press and two other media organizations that US redeployments to the Gulf have “caused the Iranians to back up a little bit, but I’m not sure they are strategically backing down.” The general said the US is showing enough force to “establish deterrence” without “needlessly”

provoking its longtime adversary. “We’re working very hard to walk that line.” He said he is confident in the moves he has made thus far. “We’ve taken steps to show the Iranians that we mean business in our ability to defend ourselves,” he said, referring to the accelerated deployment to the Gulf area of the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, four Air Force B-52 bombers and additional batteries of Army Patriot air-defense systems. Tr u m p , s p e a k i n g b e s i d e Frenc h P resident Em m a nue l Macron in Caen, France, said US sanctions are crippling Iran’s economy, possibly y ielding a diplomatic opening. “And if they want to talk, that’s fine,” the US president said. “We’ll talk. But the one thing that they can’t have is they can’t have nuclear weapons.” Speaking at the Baghdad headquarters of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, McKenzie said he also has repositioned surveillance aircraft to more closely monitor the situation in the Gulf and in Iraq, where the US has 5,200 troops on the ground, and has given Iran a “new look” by introducing more aerial patrols by land- and carrier-based fighters. “Cumulatively, all of these have caused them to sort of step back and recalculate the course that they apparently were on,” he said. McKenzie did not mention it, but other officials have said that in early May Iran had cruise and perhaps short-range ballistic missiles configured for potential use aboard a small number of dhows sailing off its coast. More recently, those missiles, which were deemed a potential threat, were offloaded, officials have said. McKenzie stressed that the danger of conf lict with a decades-old American adversary has not passed. “I hesitate to say that deterrence has been established,” he said. “We continue to see possible imminent threats” of a potential Iranian attack. He said he could not be more specific due to the classification of the intelligence, which he said is as clear and compelling as any he has seen in years. McKenzie, a veteran of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, took command of Central Command in late March, shortly before the onset of the latest surge in tensions with Iran. He previously directed the staff that supports the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. AP

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

Sunday

Muslims hail freedom of religion in Iloilo

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LOILO CITY—With the Muslim festival of breaking the fast after the monthlong Ramadan, or the Eid al-Fitr, this past week, an official of the Iloilo United Muslim Community thanked the Ilonggos for respecting their rights to freely practice their religion in both the city and in other parts of the province. “We can practice our faith here in Iloilo, 100 percent without fear because we see how Ilonggos respect us as Filipinos,” Sultan Sammy Hadjimanan, the group’s

spokesman, said in an interview. Around 800 Muslims in the city and in neighboring towns gathered at the public plaza of this city’s La Paz district for the prayer to mark the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Besides the prayer in La Paz Plaza, Muslims who participated in prayers and gathering in mosques and open spaces in the towns of Pavia and Duenas. The Eid is also a time to congratulate each other and share prepared food for the celebration,

MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH By Corazon Damo-Santiago

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HERE were 162 statues of saints in Saint Peter’s Square but not one image of Our Lady. This was Msgr. Josemaria Escriva’s side remark to Pope John Paul II during gathering of university students from different part of the world in Rome in 1980. Pope John Paul II answered, “Then, we should finish the square.” Msgr. Alvaro Portillo, who succeeded Escriva, requested Javier Coleto, a Spanish architect for solutions, to the remark of Pope John Paul II. A window of a building between Saint Peter’s Square and Cortile di San Damaso was chosen as a site of the mosaic since it could be seen as part of the square. On December 7, 1981, the mosaic Mater Ecclesiae (Our Lady, Mother of the Church) was installed—the “last stone in Saint Peter’s open field to finish the square.”

On February 11, 2018, Pope Francis decreed that the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, be inserted into the Roman Calendar and celebrated on Monday after the Pentecost every year.

Mother of God

THE debate if Mary would be honored as Theotokos (God bearer), or Christokos (Mother of God), was decided during the third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431. It was agreed that Mary would be given the title Theotokos, for to deny her this title would imply Jesus has two separate personhoods. Theotokos affirms Jesus’ undivided divinity and humanity. To commemorate the event, Pope Sixtus III (432-440) had the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the largest church in Rome, built. The Basilica enshrines Salus Populi Romani (Salvation of the Roman People), a famous

Hadjimanan said. He said there are around 3, 000 Muslims living in the province. About 90 percent to 95 percent of the Muslim community r uns k iosks of mobile-phone accessories and ready-to-wear garments in shopping malls and business centers. Muslim children also go to schools in Iloilo, he added. “Ilonggos are peace-loving people. We do not feel any discrimination, and we can exercise our rights to religion and conduct our

worship services freely,” he said. He also noted an increase in the number of Muslims in the city after the siege of Marawi. He said there were Muslims who decided to transfer to Iloilo because besides having their relatives here, Muslims also recognize the peace and order in the city. Hadjimanan said there are three mosques in Iloilo—the Masjid Molo in Molo district, Iloilo Pioneer Masjid in La Paz district, and Masjid Al-Khabeer in Pavia town. Gail Momblan/PNA

icon of the Blessed Mother. It was painted by Saint Luke the Evangelist using a wooden table in Nazareth.

during the closing of the third session of the Second Vatican Council on November 21, 1964, by Pope Paul VI. Pope John Paul II, in summary, said Mary is the Mother of Christ whom Christ, “in the mystery of Redemption, gave to humanity in the person of the apostle John.” In his encyclical Redemptoris Mater on March 25, 1987 he said, “Mary in the life of the Pilgrim Church embraces each and everyone in the church and embraces everyone through the church.” Pope Benedict XVI elucidated that “the church is Virgin and Mother, she is Immaculate and carries the burdens of history.... Mary is her mirror and is carrying the mystery of the church.”

Birth of the Church

REGARDED as a “perfect pattern of a church in prayer,” the church is traditionally portrayed as the apostle and disciples, members of the church who prayed together with the Blessed Mother during the Pentecost (Acts 2:1-12). They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And the apostolic mission of the church started. They were “commissioned to preach to the people” the words of God (Acts 10:42) on the birthday of the church—that first Pentecost. The title Mater Ecclesiae was used by Saint Ambrose of Milan as early as the fourth century, and used by many bishops and saints through the centuries. Pope Leo XIII, in encyclical Adiutricem Populi (Helper of the People) in 1895, invoked Mary as Mother of the Church. The title Mother of the Church was, however, officially given the Mother of God

Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Depar tment of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna and Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.

Sunday, June 9, 2019

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PENTECOST SUNDAY: ‘JOHN 20:19-23’

BEING AWARE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S PRESENCE MSGR. JOSEFINO S. RAMIREZ SUNDAY GOSPEL IN OUR LIFE

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ODAY we commemorate the sending forth of the Holy Spirit to the first Christians, as promised by Christ. The Lord had gone up to heaven. But He promised the disciples that He would not leave them alone. He would send the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity. The Holy Spirit would enlighten them and give them the power to carry out the redemptive work that Jesus had accomplished. The gospel of today emphasizes the fact that Jesus Christ gave the Holy Spirit to the apostles. Because of this, the apostles were endowed with a divine power—that of forgiving sins. “Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained” (John 20:23). Nowadays, there is a growing awareness of the presence and the role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life. This is a very positive sign. But we cannot fall into the mistake of thinking that it is only now that the Holy Spirit is being duly recognized. Nor can we think that the presence of the Holy Spirit is only recognizable in extraordinary manifestations such as speaking in tongues or miraculous healing. The gospel of today is significant in this regard. The power of forgiving sins, found in the Church and exercised by the successors of the apostles, is rooted in the presence of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the primary manifestation of the Holy Spirit is the life of the Church itself. Since the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Mystical Body of Christ.

The Holy Spirit is present in the Church. The marvelous life and history of the Church is a constant proof of the vivifying action of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is present in the persons and structures of the Church. She is continually helping the bishops, who are the successors of the apostles. It is the Holy Spirit that gives effectiveness to the seven sacraments of the Church. The Holy Spirit moves the hearts of the followers of Christ, urging them to a fuller Christian life. We have to be more aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the ordinary manifestations of the Christian life. Every time we go to confession to have our sins forgiven, it is the power of the Holy Spirit that is acting to wash away our sins. Whenever we pray or offer up a sacrifice to God, it is the Holy Spirit that moves us to do so. And the subsequent improvement in our Christian life is also the work of the Holy Spirit. The inspirations we may receive to be more generous with God also come from the Holy Spirit. He enlightens our minds to be more receptive to the teachings of Christ, proposed to us by the Church. He strengthens our will to carry out the moral demands of the Christian life. We do not have to look for special effects or extraordinary manifestations, to be aware of the activity of the Holy Spirit. He is always there, just as the soul which continually gives life to the body is present in a man. Let us thank Jesus Christ for sending the Holy Spirit. And let us not waste His presence in the Church and our lives.

A6 Sunday, June 9, 2019

Science

BusinessMirror

Sunday

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

Seaweed farming face dilemma with ice-ice disease

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Story & photos by Stephanie Tumampos

ARRAGEENAN, a food enhancer which has been used in processing food, such as in thickening sauces, emulsifying and preserving, and even used in cosmetics, is sourced from a vegetable that grows in the sea—the seaweed. The Philippines is known to have more than 800 species of seaweeds, two of which are used in farms to extract the carrageenan. These are the Eucheuma and Kappaphycus, both locally known as guso, tambalang or kanot-kanot. Farming of Eucheuma and Kappaphycus has been a source of livelihood for Filipinos in coastal areas. The seaweeds’ economic use has definitely benefited not just the industry but most especially the farmers. In a report by the Southeast A sian Fisher ies Development Center, seaweeds made up 67 percent of the total aquaculture production in 2015, producing 1.57 million metric tons (MMT). In Central Visayas region alone farmers have generated 876 MT of dried seaweed in the first quarter of 2019 with Bohol as the top producer in the region because of its access to Danajon Bank, according to Ronald Simbajon, director of the Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines. With the statistics and a growing demand for carrageenan, it is expected that farming and harvesting of seaweeds should increase in the next years. However, seaweed farmers are shying away from this source of livelihood because of lower yield caused mostly by the ice-ice disease. Another sad development is that only a small number of researchers in the world have sought

to study the disease and how seaweeds can resist it.

Ice-ice disease and climate change

WHEN seaweeds are stressed because of a change in climate conditions, it causes them to produce a substance that attracts bacteria in the water and induces the hardening of the seaweed tissues, therefore, turning them white. According to Dr. Danilo Largo, director of the Office of Research of University of San Carlos in Cebu City and who has researched about seaweeds in his entire academic career, there are two main causes of ice-ice disease. The first is the unfavorable seawater conditions, wherein “it is caused by high water temperatures, accompanied by high light intensity or irradiance, slow water movement and salinity.” Largo explained that the optimal temperature of farmed seaweeds must be between 22°C to 31°C range. “Ice-ice starts to manifest when temperature reaches beyond 31°C,” Largo said during the Farms and Industry Encounter through Science and Technology Agenda (Fiesta) organized by the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development in Tagbilaran City, Bohol, on May 29 and 30. The salinity range must also

18-YEAR-OLD FILIPINO STUDENT WINS IN U.S. ENGINEERING DESIGN COMPETITION

CARL VINCENT CAMILON CUYOS (second from left) wins in the 2019 State Championship in MesaNEDC University of California Los Angeles in early May. With him (from left) are his teammates David Pulido, programmer; Jenna Huynh, business; Sara Centeno, research; and Nicholas Peterson, teacher and adviser. Their winning entry is an air-quality sensor, called Re-LAQS.

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ROM his grandparents’ roots in Mauban and Perez, Quezon, a Filipino student has joined the crop of technology achievers. Carl Vincent Camilon Cuyos, 18, represented the Oxnard High School (OHS)-University of California Santa Barbara, as over-all winner of the 2019 State Championship in Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement-National Engineering Design Challenge (Mesa-NEDC). It was held at the renowned University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in early May. The triumph was focused on the design created by Cuyos. It was ably supported by Sara Centeno, research; Jenna Huynh, business; David Pulido, programmer; Nicholas Peterson, teacher and adviser. Other nine competitors were students from UCLA, San Jose State University, California State East Bay, California State University Fresno, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Davis, San Diego State University and Imperial Valley College. Cuyos and his team’s winning entry was AirQuality Sensor, called Re-LAQS (Respiratory Local Air-Quality Sensor). The sensor was invented to bring information and awareness to the public, who are vulnerable to air-quality changes, such as potential harmful gases in times of crisis. It can be recalled, the 2018 California wildfire, was considered the deadliest and destructive season. It burned 7,100 structure, 117,000 acres, and number of people died. During the blaze, citizens received conflicting and inaccurate data.

Thus, aggravated their condition, especially those with upper respiratory tract infection like asthma. “Hence, the Re-LAQs innovation, aimed to protect 91 percent of the globe’s population, who live in polluted areas identified by the World Health Organization. To reduce air-pollution threat and health cost, people can use RE-LAQs, to measure air quality and take appropriate action,” Cuyos said. He explained it is ready to use for indoor and outdoor. A gas sensor, it is run by a 9 voltage rechargeable battery, flashing LED alert and app compatible by the use of Bluetooth. From June 19 to 21, the team will participate in the prestigious Mesa-NEDC USA National Championship, to be held at the University of Arizona. It will bring together the top middle and high-school Mesa teams around the US. They will showcase projects using a Human-Centered Design Approach, to develop an Arduino based solution. Previously, the OHS topped the preliminaries at UC Santa Barbara and later won the regional championship held at UC Riverside. Son of a registered nurse, the former Catherine Camilon, Cuyos is an upcoming university grant student of the University of California SantaCruz, to pursue a Bachelor of Science major in Robotics Engineering. “I am proud of my apo [grandson] and the team’s achievement. May they continue to be an instrument for a better environment and a wonderful world,” said Esperanza Camilon, a retired school teacher in Perez, Quezon.

DR. Danilo Largo, director of the Office of Research of University of San Carlos in Cebu City

SEAWEEDS

be between the 32 practical salinity unit to 35 psu because ice-ice starts to manifest when salinity is below 30 psu. Another issue is the opportunistic microorganisms that thrive when seaweed’s resistance is at its weakest. “Bacteria can be abundant when seaweeds are stressed,” Largo said.

Decrease in the number of seaweed farmers means decrease in yield, price

WITH the ice-ice disease persisting in seaweed farms, farmers have been discouraged to continue in this source of livelihood. According to Florencio Aparri, Central Visayas seaweeds coordinator of Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the attack of the ice-ice disease has caused deterioration of seaweed plants and decrease in yield. It was recommended to have an expansion of seaweed farms in other parts of the Philippines. “There are traditional farms in the country, such as in Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Palawan but we want other areas to be developed, too,” Simbajon said. “In normal growing period, there is a 70 percent harvest of healthy seaweeds,” Aparri told the BusinessMirror. During the 45 days of culture, a seaweed farm can be affected by

wind, floating debris or tide fluctuations. Hence, the 30 percent of the plants fall from the hanging lines, he explained. “But when there is ice-ice disease outbreak, we are lucky to get around 40 percent only of healthy seaweeds from the farm,” Aparri said. The rest would be a loss. Some seaweed farmers also attribute the decrease in yield to the aftermath of the 2013 Bohol earthquake. “The shaking of the seabed has caused speculations that upwelling of deposits of hydrogen has also affected the farms,” however, Aparri quickly dismissed and said, “it remains to be proven as we routinely check water conditions in farms twice a year.”

Recommendations to control ice-ice

CITING parameters, Largo insisted, through his paper titled, “Impacts of Climate change on Eucheuma-Kappaphycus Farming,” that the warming of the climate has played a definite role

in the disease outbreaks but he told the BusinessMirror that ice-ice can still be prevented. “We need to have a deeper understanding of the disease,” Largo said. “It is not contagious as it is caused by climate parameters.” As it happens mostly during summer, Largo suggested that farmers should go to deeper waters that have optimal conditions for seaweed farming. On the other hand, Aparri suggested that farmers should have at least two farming areas as part of some management interventions that BFAR Central Visayas has given to seaweed farmers. “Our advice is not to stick in one area. Farmers are aware when ice-ice breaks out so they just need to transfer the seaweeds, if they are not yet harvestable, to another area that they have prepared,” Aparri told the BusinessMirror.

Research for another strain of seaweeds

APARRI said there is a 60 percent return on investment in a normal

When there is ice-ice disease outbreak, we are lucky to get around 40 percent only of healthy seaweeds from the farm.”—Aparri

production of seaweeds, but “it would decrease if we don’t find a way to stop or control ice-ice disease.” With the uncontrollable climate change and other causes, there is no other solution but to do mitigating measures. As the head of the recommendatory board for seaweed production, Simbajon told the BusinessMirror that the organization suggested to do a research on new strains of seaweeds. “We need a new variety of seaweeds that are resistant to this disease,” Simbajon said. “This is what we are working on because this is our recommendation to DOST and BFAR because the current variety of seaweeds we are farming today is the same seaweed 40 years ago.” Another thing to look into also is the way farmers plant seaweeds. Simbajon said the type of farming has always been asexual or using parts of the seaweed to grow. “We need to do more research on the way we farm since we also need to produce seaweed that can grow fast and encourage other farmers to go back to seaweed farming.” In addition, Simbajon said that other than research, farmers should also be encouraged as price of seaweeds have went up to P80 per kilo of raw dried seaweed from P40.

3 Pampanga students recognized in 2019 Intel Isef

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HREE students from Pampanga added to the pride that Filipino students have been giving to the country by receiving recognitions abroad. Grade 10 student E’van Relle Tongol, together with Grade 11 students Shaira Gozun and Neil David Cayanan of Angeles City Science High School bagged an honorable mention at the recent 2019 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Isef ) in Phoenix, Arizona. They were recognized for their project, titled “Hibla,” a sound-absorption material made from locally available fibers abaca, bamboo and water hyacinth. Their research was one of the Philippines’s six entries to the prestigious science competition. The recognition was given by the Acoustical Society of America, which aims to “generate, disseminate, and promote the knowledge and practical applications of acoustics.” The team got their inspiration for their project from the noise that they observed in public schools. Many public schools divide one room to accommodate two or more classes, where noise has been inevitable. They also found out that the main cause of the annual flooding in their home province Pampanga is the overabundance of water hyacinth. “We thought: How do we solve one problem

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initiative of the EU Delegation to the Philippines, and SM in partnership with the Manila Street Astronomers and the Philippine Astronomical Society. Admission is free. The title of the event is based on “The Starry Night,” one of the popular works of Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. It was painted in June 1889 and shows the view from the east-facing window of his room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. This stargazing event was inspired

from the Copernicus Programme of the European Commission. Copernicus is the European system for monitoring the Earth. The development of the observation infrastructure is performed under the aegis of the European Space Agency for the space component, and by the European Environment Agency and EU countries for the in situ component. The program was presented to Philippine interlocutors in a national conference in March 2019.

PHILIPPINE delegates to the 2019 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona, are (from left, front) Alpha Acain, Kathleen Chloie Antonio, Lia Denise Tan, Maria Isabel Layson, Maryjoise Karla Buan, Shaira Gozun and Anna Beatriz Suavengco; and (from left, back) Nathaniel Reyes, Lester Sabadao, E’van Relle Tongol, Neil David Cayanan and John Eric Aggarao. LESTER SABADAO/PHILIPPINE DELEGATE 2019 INTEL ISEF

with another problem?” Tongol said in Filipino. “Hibla” was sent to Isef after it won as Best Team Research in Physical Science during the 2019 Department of Education National Science and Technology Fair. The researchers’ dedication was also recognized when they received the first Gokongwei Brothers Foundation (GBF) Award. The award is given by GBF to students who exhibit excellence in Science and Technology.

‘One Starry Night:’ Meet EUr astronomers HAT lies beneath the skies? This will be answered during the “One Starry Night: Meet EUr Astronomers,” an event with astronomers to be held by the EU Delegation to the Philippines at Skypark, Fifth Level SM Aura in Bonifacio Global City on June 10, from 6 to 9 p.m. Among the astronomy experts are EU Delegation’s Giovanni Seritella, Prof. Jun Cajigal of the Philippine

Besides the award, GBF also supported the team, and the other nine Philippine delegates, with an all-expense paid trip to Arizona. “We are proud to have supported these brilliant students to this year’s Isef. Their victory is a testament that Filipino students, despite having limited resources, are capable of developing ingenious products and highquality research,” said GBF Executive Director Grace Colet.

“This inspires us to stay true to our thrust of advancing STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] education in the Philippines. We hope that with this victory, more students will be motivated to pursue a STEM track and develop their own research projects,” Colet added. Besides “Hibla,” the Philippines has two other team entries and three individual entries to the international competition. Taguig Science High School’s John Eric Aggarao, Kathleen Chloie Antonio and Anna Beatriz Suavengco studied the possible organic solution to brown eye spot disease attacking Kapeng Barako plants. Meanwhile, Alpha Acain, Lester Sabadao and Lia Denise Tan of Cagayan National High School designed a prototype that can assist farmers in drying and storing their rice harvests. For the individual research, Maria Isabel Layson of Iloilo National High School presented the antidiabetic properties of aratiles and how it can help produce dietary supplements. Quezon National High School’s Nathaniel Reyes also demonstrated how cornstalk biochar composite can treat algae infestation in lakes and fish ponds. At the same time, Maryjoise Karla Buan of Pangasinan National High School invented a device that can detect illegal logging activities in forest areas.

Astronomical Society, and Coleen Santos and Christopher Lu of the Manila Street Astronomers. Telescopes and other gadgets plus an interesting interaction with astronomers shall await the participants who will get educated about stars, and be mesmerized as they gaze at the stars and the moon. This event is being presented as part of Viva Europa 2019, an

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Sunday, June 9, 2019

A7

Paradise on Earth: Ancient gardens in Iran

FIN Garden, a fully functioning ancient Persian garden situated along the Silk Route

THE watercourses and tall trees of Eram Garden in Shiraz

The Qavam pavilion of Eram Garden and two Iranian ladies

INTRICATE Qajar-period art adorns the dome of a fountain pavilion in Fin Garden.

THE original 500 BC stone watercourses of the Persian garden at Pasargadae

popular activity that I still find excitement and satisfaction in doing. Indeed, no other tourist paid any attention or interest in the ruins of the garden. This is despite the fact that the garden is a very interesting case: While the garden is a Unesco World Heritage Site in its own right, it is located inside yet another WHS. Pasargadae is also included in the prestigious list as a testimony to the first capital of a true global empire. The recognition given to the ruins of the Persian garden in Pasargadae is an unambiguous nod to the provenance of the Persian garden tradition that is still widely being practiced today.

Shah, as well as pavilions. The garden is enclosed by a high and thick mud curtain wall, isolating the tranquil and green inside from its arid surroundings. The present garden was constructed in the late 16th century, under the reign of the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas the Great. It reached its full extent, however, during the subsequent Qajar period.

Story & photos by Bernard Joseph Esposo Guerrero

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HILE different civilizations and cultures developed their own interpretations of gardens, one should wonder where the concept of a garden originated. The Bible containsthe earliestmentioned garden, the Garden of Eden, which is believed to have flourished near present-day Tabriz in Iran. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, in Iraq, are also too legendary—so much so that they, too, cannot really be ascertained if and where they existed. What is clear, however, is that the ancient Persians were the earliest people to develop a tradition of planned gardening. Here, I am referring to the famed Persian gardens whose timeless charm and balance influenced other gardening traditions later on such as those of the Mughals and the Moors. What makes them more impressive, moreover, is that the remains of first Persian garden constructed still exist today. The word “paradise,” in fact, came from pairideiza, an old Iranian word meaning “walled garden.” A Persian garden is simple in style. It follows the “Charbagh” layout, dividing the property into four sections, and is characterized by a

great mastery in the use and control of water sourced from several miles away. In our trip to Iran in 2017, we managed to see three outstanding examples of this thousand-year old heritage.

The garden at Pasargadae

THE earliest known Persian garden was the one that was built in Pasargadae, Persia’s first capital, around 500 BC. The glory of the former city is a bit hard to grasp as it is largely in ruins. The garden, as with most structures, is, therefore, already an archaeological site. Here, only the remains of the stone layout, watercourses and several fountain pools are visible.The river that once cut through the city used to supply the water needed in the garden via canals. This garden was the realization of Cyrus the Great’s desire to recreate paradise on Earth. With the relics available on site, one can, however, only re-imagine how the garden might have looked like back in its heyday—a very un-

The oldest extant persian garden

THERE is a 2,000-year gap between

The best place to experience the Dragon Boat Festival

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HE Dragon Boat Festival is a major celebration in the Lunar calendar. Being the birthplace of modern dragon-boat racing and a city boasting a rich festive culture, Hong Kong celebrates the festival with a series of competitive races and cultural activities. For a total experience combining the sport and the tradition, look no further than the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival, an annual event organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) and co-organized by the Hong Kong China Dragon Boat Association (HKCDBA), which is taking place for the 10th time this June with an action-packed program.

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Herald the summer with the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival

DRAGON Boat Festival celebrations in Hong Kong are heated. In addition to well-known races in Stanley, Shatin and Aberdeen on June 7, the Hong Kong Dragon-Boat Carnival will push the festivities to the summit in the weekend that follows on June 14 to 16. One can expect to witness vigorous

HONG KONG Dragon Boat Carnival

battles among some of the world’s strongest dragon-boat teams at the three-day carnival. Previously a Hong Kong dragon -oat team member and coach, Chung said that it is no easy feat to paddle in Victoria Harbor. “The deep, wavy water poses a great challenge. That said, the atmosphere is wonderful, especially when you see spectators lining the harbor front to cheer on the teams.” This year, the Philippines will once again be represented in the race as the Cebu Pink Paddlers Dragon Boat Team, the first and only all-women breast-cancer survivors’ dragon-boat team in the Philippines, joins the festivities. Founded in January 2017, the team was organized to spread awareness for early detection of breast cancer, to advocate for healthy lifestyles, physical fitness and a better quality of life, to inspire those currently fighting the battle, honoring the survivors and remembering those who lost their valiant fights with breast cancer and to send a loud message of hope that there is life after diagnosis. In dragon-boat paddling, they have shown a

new face of survivorship. The strong and beautiful women of Cebu Pink Paddlers come from all walks of life—some are housewives, professionals, businesswomen and mothers ranging from 30 to 60 years old. Despite the hardships and challenges in adjusting to their “new” lives after diagnosis, the ladies have banded together as a team, worthy to be called athletes. The team has won several competitions in the country and abroad namely at the Keelung International Dragon Boat Festival 2017 in Taiwan, DBS Marina Regatta 2018 in Singapore and the Boracay International Dragon Boat Race 2018. This 2019, the team will be competing at the Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Festival to represent the Philippines in the Cancer Survivors category. Aside from the conventional races, there will be a “Fancy Dress Competition,” while a fun-filled playground with a man-made beach, a “Splash Area,” the Street Food Gala, the newly introduced Artisanal Market and more will be set up at the Central Harbourfront—and entrance is free for all!

Continuing gardens of learning

THE Eram Garden in Shiraz is much bigger than the one in Kashan. Due to this, there are more spaces to explore and more recent features added such as an adjacent rose garden. Today, this historic Persian garden is encompassed within the bigger botanical garden of the Shiraz University. The iconic Qavam pavilion,

which serves as the quintessential backdrop to the garden, is largely considered as an impressive work of Qajar art. What we enjoyed the most there, however, was an abundance of many local plants and tall trees, some of which were then even in bloom. Unfortunately, unlike Fin Garden, the watercourses and fountains were dry. Nevertheless, Eramgarden provided something that the earlier two failed to offer: a pleasant and relaxing walk in and around a premier Persian garden. While the Persian garden-inspired gardens in India might be more popular to most, the pleasure derived in visiting the Persian gardens in Iran lies in the fact that they represent the pure form of this unique, beautiful and enduring gardening tradition.

Regal Hotels offers select-service brand for the no-frills traveler By Gelyka Ruth R. Dumaraos

An international sport descended from a centuries-old tradition

THE dragon boat, a long canoe carved with a decorative dragon head and tail and painted with totems, embodies the venerable creature in Chinese mythology. HKCDBA Chairman Arnold Chung Chi Lok elaborated, “Traditionally, dragon boats and paddles are made from teak and camphor wood, and there are three different boat sizes. Today in international races, the stronger fiberglass is used, and the boats are standardized in size.” While dragon-boat racing is practiced throughout the world year-round nowadays, Hong Kong is the world’s first to organize invitation races, and has been hosting a major carnival since 2010 to promote the sport. Like Chung said, “Hong Kong is the veritable home of dragon-boat racing!”

the first Persian garden and the oldest surviving one of its kind. Visiting the attractive Fin Garden in the desert city of Kashan on a Friday was like visiting an amusement park on a Sunday back at home: It was packed with weekendgoers. Despite the massive crowd inside, the garden proved to be a good example of a fully functioning Persian garden: water was flowing, all the gravitydriven fountains were working, the pools were not empty and the lush quadripartite landscape was wellkept. Also, the original water source, the Solomon’s spring, can be seen at the back, still pumping water in since the beginning. There are other historic elements inside such as the “hamman,” or bathhouse, where a chancellor was assassinated in 1852 in the order of King Nasereddin

EGAL Hotels International, one of Hong Kong’s largest hotel operators, is looking forward to more Filipino millennial travelers booking for its newly opened iClub hotel, a select-service brand specially dedicated to the young generation. Peter Martin, group director of Regal Hotels, said that the hotel chain is looking into the booming Filipino tourists’ arrivals in Hong Kong as one of its market, a large percent of which are young travelers. Usually traveling as a couple or in very small group, Martin adds that the iClub hotel services fit their way of traveling. “They travel light,” he told in a Manila press briefing.“They didn’t want to pay for facilities they rarely will use. They want to explore the city. Hong Kong is one of the cities you can explore.” Designed for optimum functionality for self-sufficient and techsavvy travelers, Regal Hotels’s iClub Hotel has a specially tailor-made guestrooms with smart services such as Wi-fi Internet access, express checkout service and mobile key. The hotel also features a fitness facility, an urban garden and a business corner equipped with touch computer and Internet access. Martin revealed that Regal Hotels has acknowledged these young traveler’s preference of exploring Hong Kong from day till night and

just returning to their hotels to rest. He described the no-frills travelers to be those who prefer not to book travel tours and walk around or take the train. He added, “There are so many things to do in Hong Kong without having to pre-organize it or have an agent to talk or try to tell you what to do.” While the iClub hotels do not have a large array of hotel facilities such as swimming pools. Martin believes that the iClub brand gives their guest a value for their own money. “The quality of product for iClub is exceptional. This is not a cheap hotel. We have less facilities, but they are of high standards.” The iClub Mong Kok Hotel, the fifth hotel under the iClub Hotel brand of Regal Hotels, is located in the heart of Kowloon. With neighboring entertainment, dining and attractions, guests can easily reach their preferred destinations in just a few minutes. The hotel is located in shopping malls such as Langham Place and MOKO, and key transportation infrastructures include Hong Kong West Kowloon Railway Station, Airport Express Line Kowloon Station, MTR MongKok Station and cross-border bus within 10 minutes’ walk. Even before launching its first iClub hotel in 2009, Regal Hotels has been holding the title of being one of the major hotel operators in Hong Kong with over 12 hotels. It also has 12 more hotels sprawled in different China provinces. For Filipino guests who are trav-

ICLUB Hotel in Kowloon

eling with families and prefer a wide array of hotel features, Martin added that over 12 Regal Hotels are situated in various parts of Hong Kong, most of which are located in MTR stations and tourists’ attractions. Their full-service hotels are located in key districts such as Causeway Bay, Kowloon, Shatin and Chek Lap Kok. The Hong Kong Tourism Board reveals that the country ranks fifth in the number of tourists arrivals last year under Hong Kong’s short haul markets, excluding mainland China. It recorded over 894,821 Filipino tourists from January to December 2018. Just last December, the Philippines has 101,242 tourist arrivals, showing a 10.7-percent growth from 2017.

A8 Sunday, June 9, 2019

Sports BusinessMirror

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

FAT AND FURIOUS! J

By Tim Dahlberg The Associated Press

UST when things were starting to make sense in boxing and the heavyweight division was shaping up nicely, a fat guy with blazingly quick hands wiped away most of the preconceived notions of where it would all eventually lead. Andy Ruiz Jr. didn’t just upend heavyweight boxing. He threw it a body punch that left the division gasping for air. Whether that is good news or bad for boxing depends on where you live and how it plays out. If nothing else, though, Ruiz scored one for the ordinary guy when he shocked Anthony Joshua and the rest of boxing with the fight of his life Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. He not only beat the man most considered the best heavyweight in the world, but he gave him a beating in the process. When it finally ended after a flurry of punches in the seventh round that had Joshua unable—or simply unwilling—to go on, there was a new world order among the big men in boxing. Now the task is sorting it all out again. On one side of the pond is a new heavyweight champion, with belts big enough to fit his portly frame. Ruiz is an American from the California border town of Imperial who claims Mexican heritage, and as the first Mexican heavyweight champion he can pretty much write his own ticket to fame and fortune. Down in Alabama is Deontay Wilder, who holds one of the big belts himself. Wilder is coming off a first-round knockout of Dominic Breazeale last month and has not been shy about setting his own schedule no matter what competing promoters might want him to do. There’s Joshua, of course, who hadn’t lost before being upset by Ruiz and is a national hero of sorts in England. Joshua has a tremendous following, and the odds are he will get a chance to regain his title at home in a November rematch with Ruiz. And then there’s Tyson Fury, who claims to be the lineal heavyweight champion and might be the most interesting of them all. The 6-foot-9 Brit suffered an emotional breakdown after beating

Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 and seemed to be out of boxing before fighting to a disputed draw last December with Wilder. In a perfect world, both the Joshua-Ruiz and Wilder-Fury rematches would take place, with the winners fighting for the undisputed heavyweight title. But this is boxing, and nothing is ever that simple. It’s a story as old as the sport, with competing promoters and broadcast outlets all battling it out for the millions of dollars the heavyweights generate. It’s why Joshua was facing the unknown Ruiz instead of finding a way to fight Wilder in the bout boxing fans really wanted to see—a fight that now has lost some of its allure after Joshua’s defeat. In a division where one punch can change everything, one punch did. Ruiz landed a punch to the top of Joshua’s head after getting knocked down himself in the third round, and from then on, it was simply a matter of when the fight would end. “It’s boxing,” Fury told me last week. “You can’t go swimming without getting wet.” No sooner had Ruiz’s hand been raised in victory than some in boxing began comparing the magnitude of the win to Buster Douglas beating Mike Tyson in Japan in 1990 as a 42-1 underdog. But Joshua was no Tyson, and Ruiz was talented enough to make some boxing experts wonder why Joshua’s promoter picked him as a late replacement for Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller, who tested positive for steroids. And while Douglas ate himself out of boxing after his big win, Ruiz already packs 268 notso-well-placed pounds on his frame and hasn’t seemed worse for the wear because of it. Joshua had a rematch clause in his contract with Ruiz, and promoter Eddie Hearn said Tuesday on Twitter that the rematch would take place in November or December. It likely will be in Britain, though it’s also possible it could be a pay-per-view event in the US. In the meantime, Fury fights Germany’s Tom Schwarz next week in Las Vegas and Wilder has announced a rematch with Luis Ortiz for September. No, it’s not one mega fight for all the

ANDY RUIZ JR. will be wearing a lot of belts. AP

marbles, as it was shaping up to be. The greed of promoters and broadcasting outlets kept that from happening, as it often does in boxing. But all the heavyweights want to be active, and all have a case they want to make. They can all talk a bit, too, which should make it even more fun. Actually, the fact people are talking about the heavyweights once again is fun all by itself.

Bruins singer Boston Garden’s busiest worker

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TODD ANGILLY has unique double role with the Bruins this season. AP

Close call for famed Indian climber

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EW DELHI—To Manmohan Singh Kohli, who led the first Indian team to the peak of Mount Everest, modern mountaineering bears little resemblance to the expeditions he headed decades ago. Operators’ tight schedules and climbers’ lack of experience has added risks, diminished the adventure and resulted in more casualties, said the 88-year-old retired navy captain. With Everest becoming a bucket-list item that more and more people pursue, serious climbers are looking to less popular peaks to prove their skill. That may have inspired an expedition that went missing in the Indian Himalayas to try an uncharted summit in a less traversed area. The eight members of the multinational team led by a veteran British mountaineer are presumed dead in an avalanche. After Kohli led nine Indian climbers to the top of Everest in 1965, he became a celebrity. He joined India’s state-owned airline to travel around the world to speak about the endeavor, which, at the time, had only been attempted by a handful of people. Fifty years later, a bustling commercial climbing industry has sprung up in Nepal, pushing down costs and providing services—like porters from the ethnic Sherpa community who carry oxygen tanks, fix ropes and pitch tents.

It’s turned what once was a rare and incredible feat into “high-altitude tourism,” said Kohli, who nearly died on Everest in an unsuccessful ascent in 1962. “The adventure part of climbing has disappeared,” he said. The government of Nepal issued 381 Everest permits this year, a record number that resulted in climbers getting caught in “climbing jams” on the world’s highest peak. Nepal estimates 700 climbers including Sherpas were on the mountain this May. The crowding caused delays in the so-called “death zone” from Camp 4 to the peak where, because of the altitude, climbers have just hours to reach the top before they are at risk of a pulmonary edema, when the lungs fill with liquid. Eleven climbers died this season, the biggest death toll on Everest in four years. “There are crowds there, so many teams going, that feeling of being lonely and planning your own adventure, that instinct has disappeared,” Kohli said in an interview. AP

MANMOHAN SINGH KOHLI earns a celebrity status after leading nine Indian climbers to the top of Everest in 1965. AP

OSTON—Todd Angilly’s coworkers have gotten used to him showing up late. The TD Garden bartender often arrives after the opening faceoff when the Boston Bruins are playing at home, but he has a good excuse: He is two floors down, singing the national anthem on the ice. When he’s done, Angilly hustles back up to the suite-level sports bar to resume pouring drinks. “The adrenaline’s definitely getting me through it,” Angilly said during a break at his full-time job as a probation officer in the North Shore suburb of Salem. “I mean I definitely wanted to stay in bed a little bit this morning. “But just knowing that, you know, my night is going to be pretty cool. That we’re hopefully gonna be a part of something really special here,” he said. “So, yeah, got to see what happens. Let’s ride it out.” The National Hockey League has had a number of well-established and beloved anthem singers over the years, from Paul Lorieau (Edmonton) and Roger Doucet (Montreal) to Karen Newman (Detroit) and Jim Cornelison (Chicago). Some sing professionally. The son of two music teachers, Angilly grew up participating in chorus and band before going to college to study education. While at Plymouth State, he performed in community shows and operas, and met a judge during a voice competition who was on the faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and recommended he apply. Angilly went for his master’s degree and tried out for a bunch of roles. He met some famous singers—including award-winning mezzo soprano Marilyn Horne—but never could break through as a performer. “Somehow real world and dream world kind of split,” he said. “Nothing ever panned out.” So Angilly began working in kitchens. He wound up at Fenway Park, the new Boston Garden shortly after it opened in 1995 and eventually landed his unique double role with the Bruins this season. “It’s definitely been a wild ride,” Angilly said. “I can’t even fathom it. I mean, like today I’m in the courtroom doing my work and all of the sudden I’m thinking, ‘Gee, I’ve got Game Two of the Stanley Cup finals tonight.’ Like, it’s just blowing my mind.” AP

Young Filipinos taking a liking to sailboats, go build many By Roy Espiritu Contributor

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HE Balangay sailboats used by pre-colonial Filipinos for maritime trade inspired them.

These are the merchant marine cadets of the Saint Joseph Institute of TechnologyMaritime Education and Training (SMET) in Cubi-cubi, Nasipit, Agusan del Norte, who learned not only to sail. They also learned to build their own sail boats. Building and sailing their own boats will not only boost seamanship, it will also hone environmental awareness and onboard watercraft troubleshooting which are essential maritime skills. The landmark initiative was initiated by the proponents of the Balangay Marina Sailing and Yacht Club (BMSYC), SMET, in partnership with the PHBYC. Project sponsors were Pioneer Adhesives, Broadwater Marine, Duckworks Boat Builder’s Supply, Hyde Sails and Polymer Products; while logistics support was provided by Active Boating and Watersports Magazine and Teekay Shipping Philippines. The maritime industry aims to be carbon-neutral by 2025. The industry is looking at using renewable forms of energy to propel ships such as solar-assisted and wind-assisted propulsion either through sails, kites or Flettner rotors. More than 30 percent of the world’s maritime personnel are Filipinos. Maritime professionals with a good background in sailing will have an edge over their competition as well as open opportunities in the leisure and competitive yachting sectors.

SJIT-MET President and CEO Leticia Salas sprinkling champagne on builders of sailboats. “Through basic boatbuilding and sail training through competitive racing, our cadets can expect to improve not only their credentials but also improve their seamanship skills and situational awareness, two essential traits of a maritime professional,” according to BMSYC cofounder and Teekay Shipping’s Captain Gilbert Maturan. The cadets of SMET will also deploy and maintain the fleet of 20 Oz Goose sailboats of BMSYC. “Fleet management is another essential skill maritime professionals need to know,” Maturan said. “Although the boats are simple, they will no doubt teach the essential basics to our cadets.” Designed by Batangas-based Australian small boat designer Michael Storer,

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SMET cadets busy assembling Oz Gose sailboats that they will be using for sail training and racing.

JUNE 9, 2019

the Oz Goose was designed to be efficient but simple to build by anyone using materials readily available in the Philippines, such as marine plywood and epoxy. “The SMET cadets were very enthusiastic in learning to build and sail the boats they built, they were eager to learn everything we taught them,” Storer said. “I am confident that these new Oz Goose sailors will do well in competitive racing, especially now that sailing will be part of SMET’s curriculum.” The Oz Goose sailboat is the fastestgrowing racing dinghy class in the Philippines where there are now more than 70 such sailboats. The class holds regular monthly races at the Taal Lake Yacht Club in Talisay, Batangas, home port of the largest Oz Goose fleet of more than 25 boats. Visitors connected with the replica Balangay expedition project and Subic Sailing were on hand at the inauguration of BMSYC and the launch of 10 of the 20 BMSYC Oz Goose sailboats. “This initiative can help accelerate the revival of the country’s sailing culture, and contribute immensely in stirring and reawakening our maritime consciousness, which centuries of colonial rule almost succeeded in erasing from our memory,” Arturo T. Valdez, former undersecretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said. Subic Sailing Club Executive Director Zedrick Avecilla said he was “amazed but not surprised at how these kids learned to sail so quickly.” “I suppose since this area is the birthplace of the Balangay, it is most likely that the people from here have ‘sailing’ in their DNA,” Avecilla said. “It was really heartwarming to see the enthusiasm of these young cadets and their eagerness to learn how to sail.”

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SUGAR HICCUP FINDS ‘CLOSURE’ WITH VINYL RELEASE OF LAST ALBUM

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by Rick Olivares

REAM pop band Sugar Hiccup released the vinyl version of their fourth and last album “Closure”, last Saturday, June 1, at 70s Bistro in Quezon City. Closure was released on December 30, 2017, at 12 Monkeys in Pasig City, supposedly, the last show ever by Sugar Hiccup. The

sales from the compact disc and the merchandise funded the production of the vinyl version that was pressed in Ohio, USA.

The quartet—guitarist and vocalist Melody Del Mundo, guitarist and vocalist Czandro Pollack, bassist Iman Leonardo, and drummer Mervin Panganiban— have returned for their last set of shows before the band’s official retirement from the music scene. “It’s not only a bucket list thing for us to release Closure on vinyl,” explained Pollack. “We realize how weird it sounds, we released an album on the second to the last day of 2017, then, disappeared. The sales of the album that day aside, it isn’t the best way to go out.” “This is the best way,” he added. “With a series of shows (at 70s Bistro, Route 196, and in Cebu)

with the vinyl, compact disc, and merchandise for the fans. And the album sounds really great on vinyl with all our music really coming more alive—or so Iman tells me.” It seems that the stop-starts have been a part of the band’s history. Sugar Hiccup released two best-selling and criticallyacclaimed albums in the 1990s— Oracle in 1995 and Womb in 1998. The band, however, seemed to end at the height of its popularity when Del Mundo went to the United States. Eight years later, in 2006, the band returned with their third album, and a new lead singer in Bea Alcala, Continued on page 5

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JUNE 9, 2019 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

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FRIDGE LAUNCHE

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OUR-PIECE alternative postrock band, Fridge, had just released a lyric video for their debut single “This Is Not A Lovesong (But The Most Gorgeously Stupid Thing I Ever Cut In The World)� on Friday, May 31, which was uploaded on their official Facebook page and official YouTube Channel. Formed in January 2019, Fridge started its musical journey by playing inside and outside the metro. The band also performed in one of the biggest music festivals in the Philippines, Dickies Stage of Rakrakan Festival 2019: 2 Days Of Peace, Love, & Music. Eventually,

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soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | JUNE 9, 2019

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ES DEBUT SINGLE they released their debut single entitled “This Is Not A Lovesong (But The Most Gorgeously Stupid Thing I Ever Cut In The World)”, which was mixed and mastered by Jam Bumanlag of Nineworkz Productions, with Evil Eye Studios doing their lyric video. Coming up with the band

Sugar Hiccup...

name wasn’t just about switching from “Ball is Life” to “Food is Life”, but they also mean that every great thing that can make a person happy, specifically food and beer, comes inside the refrigerator, thus them settling on “Fridge”. Despite having different musical influences as individuals

ranging from indie, pop, new wave, math rock, emo, and metal, their common denominator is their love for rock music serving them an advantage to mix and match their own tunes which amazingly blends well on and off the stage. Fridge is composed of Franz

Santiago on guitars and vocals, Mateo Santos on lead guitars, Steve Ducay on bass, and Bryan Estandian on drums. You can listen to “This Is Not A Lovesong (But The Most Gorgeously Stupid Thing I Ever Cut In The World)” by Fridge at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Dl1YBp1p09I.

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for Tongues and Thoughts. Not soon after the album was released, the band went through another implosion with some internal issues and the album. The reunion then came with Del Mundo and new bassist Leonardo and Closure. “This is really it though,” pointed out Pollack with a smile. Whether the tone is with finality is anyone’s guess. After all, just when we thought we had seen the last of Sugar Hiccup, they returned. “But I am working with Melody on some new things.” Pollack says the music they are making is quite similar to Sugar Hiccup, but it has a different twist. Saturday night at 70s Bistro, the vinyl flew off the tables with fans packing the venerable old rock club along Anonas Street. “Three hundred records were pressed, and we hope that we have enough for the remainder of our shows,” said Del Mundo. One new fan, Reddy Galang, who literally lives a stone’s throw away from 70s Bistro, went home to listen to the record and returned to have the band sign the album jacket. Beaming, Galang gave it a quick review, “I went there to buy the record for my brother who couldn’t attend. I can hear some ticks and pops and the volume isn’t that loud. Other than that, I like what I hear. Bass is tight, especially on ‘Brushed Away.’ Vocals are at the center of the mix, and all instruments are balanced. Overall, a very good pressing...I decided to get one myself.” When told of the fan’s reaction, Pollack smiled back. “Then, this is a really good way to say goodbye.”

PHOTO FROM SUGAR HICCUP’S FACEBOOK PAGE

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JUNE 9, 2019 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

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MUSIC ON PRINT

SoundSampler | by Tony M. Maghirang

.Wendil and Tidal Go Alt.OPM; Bad Religion & Steel Pulse Revisit College Rock

STEEL PULSE Mass Manipulation

The rootsy Caribbean take (in tribute to Bob Marley and the Wailers) on opener “Rize” gets across the full message to stand up and rise, plain and simple. “Higher Love” shunts the reggae beat to the background in favor of a Stevie Wonder shuffle to amplify its petition for love, peace, and understanding. “Mass Manipulation” is a well-crafted album that can resurrect reggae for a new generation of fans. Just stay grounded in the flesh and blood issues that make the music still matter in this day and age. (Find music on Bandcamp and Spotify)

at times whispering. However, you’ll notice these quirks only if you choose to ignore the enveloping waves of downy melodies. .Wendil’s finest moments are still waiting to be found.

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LONG 14 years separate the release of Steel Pulse’s latest album from ‘African Holocaust’ of 2004, itself seven years removed from its predecessor. Hailed as one of the greatest reggae outfits to come out from the United Kingdom, Steel Pulse started as a collective of hardcore Rastafarians. However, they are now down to original members (circa 1978) David Hinds (vocals, rhythm guitar) and Selwyn Brown (keyboards, backing vocals). Additional musicians lend extra heft, color, and bounce to the traditional reggae riddim. “Stop You Coming” glides like a psychedelic garage gumbo. Soul puts unmistakable passion to “Thank You Rebel” and a jazz-funk collision lifts “Justice in Jena” to a potential dancefloor hit. The glossy, gaily decorated production values dilute the tragedies projected in the lyrics. How can a bouncy ambiance make sense in a track titled “Human Trafficking”? In “Don’t Shoot,” the perky melodies run rings around David Hinds’ plea: “The bigots are out there with their weapons too/Yes, they’re aiming just to gun down our children.” A similar confusion happens in “Cry, Cry Blood”, the first single of the album. The dazzling music takes a lot of sting from patois that goes: “In dis ya land we live where dog eat dog/And some a dem just a gwaan like hog/ Cry blood, I got to cry blood.”

experience but “Chaos From Within”, “Faces of Grief” and “The Approach” will send blood rushing to the punky head and heart. Don’t worry, tuneful midtempo rockers “Downfall” and “Lose Your Head” will help decelerate your pulse to normal before the next blitzkrieg attack comes around. In a world that’s going mad, according to lead vocalist Greg Graffin, Bad Religion stands at the right place at the right time, with the right amount of righteous indignation.

BAD RELIGION Age of Unreason

.WENDIL Nighttime Fire

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HE first song flies in on wings of rock guitars while Linn drum rolls, and it’s easy to categorize selfproclaimed wandering ghost of the city .Wendil as a child of 80s new wave. Follow-ups, “Maturity”, sashaying on sha-la-la soul harmony, and “Circles”, moving to the unmistakable saccharine flow of a slow song, scrape the bottom of the easy rock barrel. Just as you’re ready to growl, Mika Manikan burns away the looming stupor with the fireball flash of “Sincerity”. It rocks for real in sync with lyrics, shunning the pretensions of the cookie cutter generation. Catch this dis for good measure: “You canonize your introversion and vainglorious depreciation?/You fetishize what is authentic!” “Leave” sounds like her studio mates messing with their own experimental affectations and “At Year End” caps the EP with another ballad where Mika seems to be testing the limits of her voice―sighing, hiccupping,

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AKING its cue from melodic punk pioneers Stiff Little Fingers and Descendents, Bad Religion fused catchy melodies, punk-metal backbeats, and angry political polemics to attract a pan-generational audience. Now a five-piece outfit, these veterans unleashed their seventeenth album of criminally attractive punk rockers and verbal assaults on the state of the world today. To the cynical listener who deems everything has been said and sung before, the American band will not probably make much of a difference. Think of the electronica fans who refuse to give up the ghost of their dated music which has already been co-opted by mainstream channels. It’s the same deal with music listeners who are still dreaming of the next pop idol or the return of Miley Cyrus and her brand of tolerable belligerence. Bad Religion is beyond bearable to the majority and even passé to past generations of wannabe punks. Still, hard cases who find joy in reminiscing the ferocity of their younger selves and the inflammatory rhetoric of their time will take to heart this nth recycling of punk rock’s heady bash and bang. It may be a vicarious

TIDAL Life After

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OT to be mistaken with Jay-Z’s music streaming service, Quezon City-based four-piece Tidal summons the shifting tides of metalcore in what the band describes as a “short record of long histories.” The rich textures of their six-song debut EP stretch the listening pleasure with ample extracts from classic hard rock, emocore, skate punk, and garage rock. The boys fold them magnificently in the mash and grind of “78.” Memories of Railroad Records, sonic chronicler of the ‘90s Sta. Rosa, Laguna hardcore punk scene, turn up in “Calendar”. On the other hand, despite the senior high wankery of its title, “My thoughts are the sea” is a slow rock that builds a tsunami worth raising a fist to. Nonetheless, nothing beats the outburst of coiled energy in the final track, “Dog Days.” It could start a riot even on lazy hazy Sunday afternoon in June. A full album is eagerly awaited in these parts.

SX MANILA KICKS OFF MUSIC FEST WITH FETE AT THE PARK O

NCE a year, there comes a day that the streets, bars, and event places all-around the metro and beyond are filled with musicians and music-lovers alike. People from all walks of life stand together to celebrate the diversity and beauty of different genres of music. This is what Fete de la Musique is exactly about. Being an annual festivity celebrated in the month of June, it has never failed to make itself present and known among the Filipino community. Fete de la

Musique started in France back in 1982 and is now celebrated in over 120 countries and 700 cities, including Manila, Laguna, Palawan, and Makati among others. This June 15, SX Manila brings to you the stage which will kick off all the rest at Fete at the Park. Purposefully held at the hub of Filipino culture, Rizal Park (Rizal Open-Air Auditorium), where music would be accessible. Fete at the Park has free admission and will start at 4 pm. Indeed, anyone can go! Fete at the Park would

feature premier acts and bands from different musical backgrounds. The stage is headlined by the 90’s music icon Dong Abay, founding member and lead vocalist of the band Yano, composing and performing rock classics such as Perpekto and Banal Na Aso, Santong Kabayo. The lineup for Fete at the Park is star-studded. The likes of the pop-influenced Mojofly, the funky Red Horse Muziklaban champions Shotgun Combo, the Warner Music-signed indie crowd-

favorite Jana Garcia, the alternative musically-gifted youth SplendioTritus, the folk busking queen Eloisa, the hard-hitting rock and roll band Gin Rum & Truth, the rough and truthful punk band Bonifacio Republic, and the underground Calebral, will all be performing on the Rizal Open Air Auditorium stage. Not to mention, the band who will open the event is none other than the winner of the SXManila Fete at the Park online poll, an OPM rock band, Nobita.

To develop local gig economy, IT firm to tap 20-M user base

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LOBE Fintech Innovations Inc. (GFII), the operator of GCash, targets what it claims to be its 20-million user base composed mostly of young, working Filipinos in tailoring its mobile financial platform to fuel the growth of the country’s gig economy. GFII President and CEO of Mynt Anthony Thomas said the company sees a huge opportunity in the gig economy and continually innovates to address the needs of freelancers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). “Most of our businesses are microbusinesses, and the gig economy is alive and well,” Thomas said at the In_Pact Asia 2019 forum held on May 28 at the ADB headquarters in Manila. “A lot of opportunity comes from freelancers or businesses that employ just a few people. GCash could be a very convenient disbursement platform for them.” GFII’s GCash is a micropayment service that transforms the mobile phone into a virtual wallet for secure, fast and convenient

ANTHONY THOMAS speaking at the ADB In_Pact Asia 2019 money transfer. The company also operates Fuse, a technology-based lending company that enables Filipinos to get microloans to business loans without the traditional requirements set by banks and other lending institutions. “GCash provides an efficient end-toend payroll-to-payout solution for Filipinos operating outside the usual employment schemes,” Thomas said. “It also allows payment acceptance through QR transactions, and InstaPay transfers, which let users send money to any bank in the Philippines for free.”

He added that the company makes “it very easy to accept payments offline through QR codes, or online with minimum to no cost so entrepreneurs, small businesses and freelancers can really focus on what they need to do rather than worrying about administrative problems in their lives and businesses.” The Philippines, which has one of the youngest work forces in Asia, is an emerging hub for social entrepreneurs, numbering nearly 165,000, according to GFII. Online freelancers are now estimated to be around 1.5 million. Self-employed Filipinos make

up 26.9 percent of the country’s 41.2 million labor force, the second-biggest category of employed workers, GFII said, citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority. Still, financial inclusion remains a challenge as 2 out of 3 Filipinos do not have access to bank accounts, and 9 out of 10 do not have access to loan credit, according to GFII. “But the smartphone penetration is good, and the Philippines is an increasingly social media-savvy country. What we’re doing is incentivizing people to go online,” Thomas said. “We’re not stopping at just creating payment convenience in your day-to-day lives. We are ultimately a financial services platform where we collaborate with lenders, asset managers, banks and insurance companies. And we’ve already launched a way where we’re giving people a digital identity,” he added. United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative Titon Mitra, who was also a guest speaker at the forum, recognized that the most impressive social innovations were coming from emerging economies. “In a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, innovations are imperative,” Mitra said. “It’s not just about fostering social innovations but fostering social innovations with a coherent purpose. If we’re going to drive social innovations the right way, we have to make it everyone’s responsibility.”

Young Britons barred from better jobs by high housing costs

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IGH housing rents are stunting career prospects and damaging productivity by making it hard for young Britons to move to better-paying parts of the country, according to the Resolution Foundation. The number of 25- to 34-year-olds moving home to start a new job has fallen from 30,000 in 1997 to just 18,000 last year, the think tank said in a report published last May 30. Sharp increases in rental prices in cities such as London and Bristol mean that people moving from low-paying areas are seeing no financial gain, whereas two decades ago they would have been as much as 25-percent better off. “Young people today are often stereo-

LONDON’S shaky housing market starting to hit homebuilders. BLOOMBERG NEWS typed as being footloose when it comes to work, but in fact they are moving around for new job opportunities far less frequently than they used to,” said Lindsay Judge, senior policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation. “There are real advantages to moving when it comes to trying new roles and developing skills—and housing should not be a barrier that prevents them doing this.”

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The loss of labor mobility is also bad news for companies, which are finding it hard to fill skills gaps, the report warned. In a separate analysis last Thursday, the Affordable Housing Commission, set up by the left-wing Smith Institute think tank, warned that one in five households in England now faces “grave” housing affordability problems, with the squeeze most acute in the private rented sector. JUNE 9, 2019

“The term ‘affordable’ has become a much-abused word in housing circles,” said AHC Chairman Richard Best, a member of the House of Lords. “Successive governments have taken it to mean rents or purchase costs which are lower than in the open market. But paying rents of, say, 80 percent of the market level is still far beyond the means of many who need a home.” Bloomberg News

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DON’T BLAME MILLENNIALS FOR EXPENSIVE LIFESTYLES

BLOOMBERG OPINION By Ramesh Ponnuru

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Y favorite reader email in months came in response to my column on a new book that sticks up for millennials. My verdict: They’re having some economic problems that deserve policymakers’ attention, but the author goes too far in arguing that they are suffering because Baby Boomers have stolen from their economic futures. Into my inbox came the comment: “Stop making excuses for millennials. I have two and they are entitled whiners.” The libertarian writer David Harsanyi may not share that exact sentiment, but he too thinks that there is a lot of misplaced sympathy for millennials, a view I hear often from conservatives. In a recent column in the Federalist, Harsanyi made a wide-ranging case

that millennials don’t have much ground to complain about the economy. I fully expect the millennials to end their working lives with higher net worths and living standards than their parents, so I agree with Harsanyi that the group’s economic problems should be put in perspective. But I think he’s overcorrected. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that millennial households “had an average net worth of about $92,000 in 2016, nearly 40 percent less than Gen X households in 2001, adjusted for inflation, and about 20 percent less than baby boomer households in 1989.” Harsanyi comments: The driving reason for this disparity is the millennial penchant for delaying traditional adult milestones. As a group, they are prone to choose short-term happiness and independence over long-term wealth accumulation. I suspect that the real driving reason for the disparity is that 1989 and 2001 followed stronger periods of economic growth than 2016 did. Median family income and per capita income, both adjusted for the PCE deflator, grew more rapidly in the two earlier periods. Harsanyi then mentions one of the millennial choices he has in mind: the decision to go into debt for college, often in pursuit of degrees that turn out to be worthless. He notes that college is too expensive and that markets have been hampered in this area: “If there were a healthy, properly incentivized economic structure in higher educa-

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tion, banks wouldn’t be handing out loans to students without any thought to their future earning potential.” But to the extent we have built a system that encourages young people to go to college and fails to use market signals to guide them, isn’t that a reason for them to be discouraged rather than for the rest of us to dismiss their concerns? To the extent millennials enrolled in college in the hope, however misguided, of making future gains, they were displaying the opposite of a short-term orientation. Another millennial choice, Harsanyi writes, is to live in expensive urban areas with a lot of amenities, “far better iterations of cities than previous generations encountered.” That’s certainly relevant to an assessment of their material welfare. But to the extent that attractive jobs are increasingly clustered in certain cities and restrictions on land use have made housing there increasingly expensive, the “choice” to live in these places begins to look less and less like a choice. Harsanyi also objects to what he considers an excessive emphasis on the recession of 2007, now “used as a crutch to explain the alleged unique hardships of an entire generation.” Other generations went through worse, he writes. While conceding that the unemployment rate does not capture everything important about an economy, he notes that it has run lower since 2000 than it did from 1970 to 2000. Unemployment is often an acute hardship. But since most people at any time JUNE 9, 2019

are employed, other statistics may offer a better gauge of their welfare. Those other measures suggest the 2007 recession was especially severe. It lasted longer than any other postWorld War II recession. The Minneapolis Fed has a handy tool showing that no postWorld War II recession saw as sustained a depression in output: The economy was producing less 45 months after the start of the recession, compared with what it had been producing at the start, than after earlier downturns. The combination of a decline in the rate of growth during booms and the severe 2007 recession has meant that millennials have spent many years in an economy that did not deliver the gains their elders had experienced. Median family income in 2014, again adjusting for the PCE deflator, was slightly lower than it had been in 2000. There was no other long stretch of decline since the statistic started to be collected in 1953. So while we shouldn’t exaggerate the millennials’ economic travails, older folks—in my experience, especially older conservatives dismayed by the voting patterns of younger Americans—tend to make the opposite mistake. And recognizing the headwinds they have faced is not an excuse for poor decisions that some of them (like some people in every generation) have made. One thing about those decisions, though: If my letter-writers’ kids really are entitled whiners, what does that say about the people who raised them? Bloomberg News