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‘STAY@HOME!’ —WHERE? A PHALANX of umbrellas serves as a family’s home on Panaderos Street in Santa Ana, Manila. BERNARD TESTA
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By Estrella Torres*
T 15, Mark has experienced seven evictions of their home, slept on the pavement while getting soaked in the rain with his parents and three siblings, the youngest being just three years old. In one of those evictions, Mark recalled that his family was informed by a community leader that their house will be demolished the next day. The family started packing their belongings, but the demolition team arrived that night. There were also members of the Special Weapons Action Team (SWAT) who gave them two hours to leave. “The demolition team locked the doors of our house and left us on the street,” said Mark. “It rained that night, and we were soaked and had to cover our belongings with plastic.” Mark said a neighbor was kind enough to offer a roof for his mother and three siblings, while he accompanied his father to look after their belongings along the street. “When I returned to class, I felt ashamed because during dismissal, my classmates would pass by and see our things along the street,” said Mark. October 5 is World Habitat Day, and Save the Children Philippines believes that having a secure and adequate shelter has become even more important today with
the Covid-19 pandemic where families are required to stay home. In fact, there is a long-running joke that captures the irony: authorities insist people “stay home” to protect themselves, but can’t look out for those who have no homes to shelter in. In the Philippines, there are 1.5 million informal settler families, based on estimates of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) in 2011. Of this figure, at least 600,000 are in Metro Manila and 220,000 in Calabarzon—coincidentally, two of those regions that registered the highest number of Covid-19 infections. Children who live in poverty are the most exposed to shocks and calamities in urban settings, according to Atty. Alberto Muyot, chief executive officer of Save the Children Philippines. The situation of these children and their families is further aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic as they have to stay in cramped spaces, with limited access to water, clean toilets and hygiene facilities, thus, making it difficult to comply with health Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 48.4580
A shelter and protection amid the pandemic remains an elusive dream for millions of people, especially children, as the world observes World Habitat Day on October 5.
A HOMELESS family living under a foot bridge in R-10, Balut, Tondo, while away their time playing Bingo. BERNARD TESTA
n JAPAN 0.4592 n UK 62.4624 n HK 6.2529 n CHINA 7.1106 n SINGAPORE 35.5551 n AUSTRALIA 34.8122 n EU 56.9236 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.9197
Source: BSP (October 2, 2020)
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‘STAY@HOME!’—WHERE? Continued from A1
protocols of frequent handwashing and social distancing. Save the Children Philippines implements the Building Urban Children’s Resilience against the Shocks and Threats of Resettlement (BURST) to ensure children living in informal settlements are protected from harm, have access to education, health and social services. The project also strengthens coordination of local government units (LGUs) both hosting informal settlers and where the families will be relocated. The child rights organization calls for the enactment of the proposed bills on housing and resettlement, including Senate Bill 1081, or the Just and Humane Resettlement Act (JAHRA), and the Least Displacement of Informal Settler Families Act (LISA) that will help prevent and address the adverse impacts of homelessness, displacement and relocation on the lives of children in informal settlements and relocation sites. The proposed bills also ensure underprivileged and homeless citizens to have access to safe, secure, habitable, sustainable, resilient and affordable housing. The JAHRA bill seeks to establish housing and resettlement
systems and processes that are sensitive to children’s needs and concerns. It prohibits eviction and demolition of informal settler families that do not meet the mandatory requirements. The proposed mandatory requirements before, during and after any demolition or eviction of ISFs will provide venues for communities, especially children, to be fully informed of government housing programs and resettlement plans, and be consulted about their needs and concerns before, during and after relocation. At the same time, the LISA bill gives priority to onsite and in-city resettlement for informal settler families. The bill ensures relocated families have continued access to basic services by mandating the sending LGUs to ensure the delivery of these services. The proposed bill also recognizes children’s right to play by including spaces for children to play and interact with each other as among the basic services that should be provided in relocation sites. The JAHRA bill also prohibits eviction of informal settler families or demolition of the structures, unless the persons or entities occupy danger areas such as esteros, railroad tracks, garbage dumps,
A MAKESHIFT shelter housing a family of three on Delpan Bridge stands in stark contrast to the highrises undergoing construction in the background. NONIE REYES
riverbanks, shorelines, waterways and other public places, such as sidewalks, roads, parks and playgrounds. The initiative also requires the conduct of comprehensive and holistic impact assessment when carrying out evictions due to development project or business venture involving the government. The impact assessment determines whether the development project will serve the public interest and will explore alternatives and strategies to minimize harm and further violation of human rights of the affected communities, particularly the children, women and other marginalized groups. The bills also aim to address the dismal situation in relocation sites that are not adequately prepared for the increased demand for services from relocated families. Save the Children Philippines believes that LGUs that host resettled families should consider them in their plans and budgets. At the same time, child-concerned agencies like the Departments of Education (DepEd), Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Health (DOH) should also look after the children’s needs, concerns and protection during relocation, from self-demolition to actual resettlement. Three days before Luzon was placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), 120 families were evicted from their homes in Pasay City on March 12
and had to stay on the streets, putting them and their children at risk of getting infected by Covid-19 and contracting other diseases. Also during the community quarantine, fire broke out, leaving 60 families homeless, many of them children. The BURST team distributed relief food packages, groceries, fresh produce and hygiene kits to children and their families then staying at the Pasay City North High School, and provided information on protection against Covid-19. The team also conducted a children’s consultation to elicit their views on the situation and identify issues and recommendations. Carla (not her real name), 16, was made to carry her neighbor’s baby and a five-year-old child as she ran for safety after fire broke out in a row of shanties in Pasay City in May. “Our house burnt down. We were not able to save anything but ourselves,” Carla said. She was reunited with her family at a public school, which has been serving as a temporary shelter for the affected families. When asked what she needs to feel safe and secure, she said: “a safe home, where we have food, water and clothing.” A simple dream that every child deserves to see fulfilled—and yet remains elusive for millions of them. Before the pandemic, and even now.
*Estrella Torres is Head, Media and Communications for Save the Children Philippines.
At virus milestone, Italian priest reflects on loss, lessons By Maria Grazia Murru & Nicole Winfield
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The Associated Press
ERIATE, Italy—If there is anything the Rev. Mario Carminati and the traumatized residents of Italy’s Bergamo province remember about the worst days of the coronavirus outbreak, it’s the wail of ambulance sirens piercing the silence of lockdown.
Around the clock for weeks on end, ambulances screamed through Bergamo’s valleys and towns in a terrifying soundtrack of death, as mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers gasping for air were rushed to the hospital. Thousands never came back. As the world counts more than 1 million Covid-19 victims, the quiet of everyday life and hum of industry has returned to Bergamo, which along with the surrounding Lombardy region was the one-time epicenter of the outbreak in Europe. But the memory of those dark winter days, and the monumental toll of dead they left behind, has remained with those who survived only to see the rest of the world fall victim, too.
No pause
“THEY would never stop,” Carminati, the parish priest of the Bergamo town of Seriate, recalled of the ambulances. “They would drive by continuously and you would wonder ‘When will this end?’” Bergamo recorded its first positive case February 23, two days after Italy’s first locally transmitted case was detected. By the end of March, the province of Bergamo had registered a 571-percent increase in deaths compared with the five-year monthly average—the biggest increase in Italy and one of the biggest localized increases in mortality rate in Europe. Many of those deaths don’t even figure into Italy’s official Covid-19 toll of 35,851, the second highest in Europe after Britain, because so many of Bergamo’s victims died at home, or in nursing homes without having ever been tested. Seriate, a town of 25,000 along Bergamo’s Serio river, was
particularly hard-hit, losing 200 residents. Carminati says around half were parishioners whom he knew personally. “This is the thing that made winter more tragic then. There were no leaves on the trees, and it was all gray,” he recalled this week during one of his regular visits to the cemetery to visit with his Covid-slain flock. “I certainly remember it as something gray and dark, something from which you felt like you couldn’t get out: a tunnel that never ended.”
Coffin queue
EARLY on in the outbreak, the first in the West, Carminati opened the doors of one of his churches, St. Joseph’s, to house the coffins that had nowhere to go because local cemeteries and crematoria were full. At first, some 80 wooden coffins lined the central aisle of St. Joseph’s church. Carminati and a fellow priest recited the rite of the dead, with a Psalm and Scripture reading, and gave each coffin a final benediction and blessing with holy water. After a convoy of army trucks took the coffins away to be cremated, another 80 arrived. Then another. “That had a heart-breaking impact on me, something that left me with a great bitterness,” he said. In all, Carminati says, some 260 coffins passed through his modern red-brick church in March and April, evidence of the horrific toll of the virus in Bergamo that continues today. Last month, Carminati buried his own nephew, 34-year-old Christian Persico, after he lost a five-month battle with Covid-19. “We’ll have more because the epidemic hasn’t passed,” Carminati said ruefully during a break
REV. Mario Carminati walks in a cemetery in Casnigo, near Bergamo, Italy, on Sunday, September 27, 2020. AP/ANTONIO CALANNI
“We need to understand we are not immortal, none of us is immortal. The virus ultimately returns to us this dimension, of fragility.” —REV. MARIO CARMINATI in his daily routine rebuilding a parish that lost its gardener, its singer at evening Mass and his friend Pio, who volunteered in the sacristy. The idea to open his church to the coffins, when the parish was otherwise shuttered under lockdown, came naturally after hospital morgues, crematoria and cemeteries filled up. Carminati said he was asked by local authorities if his parish could house the coffins temporarily. “There was a need for space,” he said. But Carminati also felt a need to provide the dead with a dignified farewell, since their families had been denied a funeral and final goodbye. In Italy, funerals were essentially banned during lockdown
and many mourning families were themselves in quarantine, or otherwise prevented from visiting isolated Covid wards.
Fronds for the dead
ON Palm Sunday, Carminati placed an olive frond on each coffin. Other days, he lit a candle. Some parishioners reached out to Carminati after learning that he was taking the coffins in, wondering if he had seen their loved ones pass through. During the peak of the outbreak, some families reported chaotic, days-long efforts to locate their dead mothers and fathers as hospitals struggling to keep people alive lost track of where the dead ended up. Carminati would send photos
of caskets when he could. One day he fielded 10 calls from parishioners reporting deaths in the community. One call came from a nurse with word that his friend Pio had died. She dictated a final message Pio wanted Carminati to pass along to his wife. “He had asked her to report to his wife that he had always loved her, and he still loved her very much,” Carminati said, tears welling up in his eyes. “This was his last farewell that he wanted to send his wife.” As he watches infections and deaths surge elsewhere and the world pass the million-death mark, Carminati wonders why more countries didn’t pay attention to Italy’s tragedy as it was
unfolding so they could be better prepared. Instead, he says, they brushed it off as typical Italian “exaggeration” and believed somehow they would be spared. “Initially, they lost a lot of time, and then some took some absurd decisions like ‘herd immunity,’” he said. “For those of us who were in the middle of it, hearing these things at that time, we said: ‘These people are crazy. They have no idea what’s coming their way.’” While the numbers of daily new infections and deaths in Italy today are nowhere near the peak, Carminati knows how quickly things can change. His hope looking forward is that the world learns lessons from the pandemic, both big and small. “We need to understand we are not immortal, none of us is immortal,” he said after visiting the cemetery on a glorious, quiet autumn Sunday. “The virus ultimately returns to us this dimension, of fragility.”
www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Angel R. Calso
The World
Coronavirus is putting Britain’s next industrial revolution on ice
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n the country that pioneered the world’s first industrial revolution in the 18th century, its latest one is looking very much on hold. The global shift toward robotics and artificial intelligence across advanced economies is currently in a go-slow phase in the UK—where both Covid-19 and Brexit have hampered progress. That threatens to harm Britain’s competitiveness against rival economies, which are already retooling more aggressively to be more productive. It could also mean greater longterm pain in the UK labor market, delaying the inevitable adjustment for workers who need to retrain as jobs in industries from manufacturing to retail become obsolete. “Eventually, businesses will have to automate because it is just cheaper and better—better for employees as well,” said Tera Allas, director of research and economics at McKinsey. “In sectors that are competitive, either we automate them and we continue to be competitive, or someone else automates them and we ship in those goods from some other country.” Britain has long been a somewhat slow mover in the so-called fourth industrial revolution harnessing the potential of robots and artificial intelligence. That was the conclusion of a report by lawmakers last year calling on the government to develop a strategy to accelerate that shift. In manufacturing, for example, the UK has just 89 robots per 10,000 workers, compared to over 900 in Singapore, according to the International Federation of Robotics. That’s the lowest level of any major economy. One reason for that is subdued investment provoked by Brexit uncertainty and the redefining of Britain’s trading relationship with the European Union. The transition in place when the UK did finally leave the EU in January provided some encouragement— with spending intentions on plants and machinery rising to a two-year high, according to a Confederation of British Industry survey. Robot orders reached the highest since 2012, another study showed. But then Covid struck. Business investment plunged more than 30 percent as a nationwide lockdown shuttered firms, kept employees out of workplaces and broke international supply chains.
Not enough action
Since then, the virus has created a new incentive for businesses to shift away from human employment, and find more reliable workers and processes that can’t succumb to illness. But that has yet to translate into new orders for Brian Palmer, the chief executive officer of Tharsus. His company creates and commercializes robots for clients such as
online grocery giant Ocado Group Plc and jet-engine maker Rolls Royce Holdings Plc. “People are still trying to figure out what this new normal looks like,” he said. “There’s more interest, but is there investment and action? Not yet.” Such news might come as a faint relief for millions of UK employees already facing the threat of layoffs as government wage support winds down. The advent of automation and robotics has long been a specter hanging over labor markets that could displace as much as 50 percent of the global work force, Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane said in 2018. That respite may not last forever. In a survey of European business leaders by EY, more than 80 percent said the shift to automation technology will probably accelerate because of the pandemic. The UK government must take action to spur a technological revolution that will create a “faster and smarter” economy and equip companies for the post-pandemic world, Haldane wrote in a joint paper with former John Lewis Partnership Chairman Charlie Mayfield for the The Mail. “It is now just much more expensive to employ people because you have to worry about social distancing, you have to worry about safety equipment, you have to worry about testing and tracing,” said McKinsey’s Allas. “Covid itself has massively changed the playing field between capital and labor.” Guildhawk, a company that provides translation and content management systems for companies like KPMG and Hitachi, is confident that Britain’s fourth industrial revolution won’t stay on hold for long. The company has unveiled two new products since the coronavirus struck—including one that automates the process of checking and correcting large volumes of translated text. “Now we can see what technology can do for us, people are really pushing forward,” said founder Jurga Zilinskiene. “Instead of looking at tech as some kind of monster to take away your job, now the tech is the hero.” Still, the risk if businesses don’t respond to the shifting landscape is that the UK will lag further behind peers when it comes sowing the seeds of future growth by adopting technology to boost poor productivity. That could not only delay the labor market’s adjustment to the new reality, but also curtail work prospects for future generations of employees. “The UK have missed the opportunities to invest in automation over a long time,” said Susanne Bieller, general secretary of the IFR. “If you don’t use robots, why would you create the skills around them?” Bloomberg News
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Deepening virus economic pain: One day, thousands of job cuts
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By Olivia Rockeman & Scott Lanman
ens of thousands of job cuts announced by blue-chip companies in a 24-hour period are a warning sign for the world’s recovery and emerge just ahead of two key reports forecast to show limited progress in the US labor market. In one of the biggest layoff announcements since the pandemic caused widespread economic shutdowns, Walt Disney Co. said late Tuesday that it is slashing 28,000 workers in its slumping US resort business. In the hours that followed, the pace of job cuts at some of the world’s biggest companies—across in a range of industries from energy to finance—quickened. On Wednesday, Allstate Corp., the fourth-largest car insurer in the US, said it will cut 3,800 jobs, roughly 8 percent of its work force. And Bloomberg reported that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to cut roughly 400 jobs after temporarily suspending job reductions at the beginning of the crisis. A nnouncements like these point to further challenges in a rebound that’s already slowed after an initial bounce back in May and June. “Job losses were at first concentrated in service-sector jobs, but in any economic downturn you’re bound to get some more
pruning as corporations are trying to protect profit margins,” said Brett Ryan, senior US economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. “You’ll see larger companies that may have been on a certain revenue trajectory before the downturn start to reevaluate.” The fallout isn’t contained to American firms. Royal Dutch Shell Plc announced it will cut as many as 9,000 jobs as crude’s crash forces billions of dollars in cost savings, while German auto-parts supplier Continental AG’s supervisory board approved a restructuring plan that will cut or shift 30,000 jobs worldwide.
Office workers
The latest layoffs stretch beyond hourly workers, who were among the hardest hit at the start of the pandemic in industries such as restaurants and hospitality, to office and managerial positions. While Shell didn’t provide a full breakdown of the cuts, a spokesperson said that positions in the
top 3 layers of the company would be reduced by one-fifth. “In many places, we have too many layers in the company: too many levels between me, as the CEO, and the operators and technicians at our locations,” said the oil major’s chief, Ben van Beurden. The rout in the oil sector has been so swift and severe that oncesacrosanct corporate positions are being trimmed. Exxon Mobil Corp., which long prided itself on weathering crude-market crashes without resorting to job cuts, shocked investors and analysts in recent months when it targeted as much as 10 percent of US office staff for layoffs. At Disney, the layoffs impact domestic employees in its themepark, cruise line and retail businesses. While two-thirds of the workers are part-time, the cuts also involve executives and salaried employees, the company said. Halliburton Co., the world’s largest fracker, is eliminating an entire layer of management, while Marathon Petroleum Corp., the biggest independent US crude refiner, has embarked on its second round of job cuts that will affect about 2,050 employees, and is targeting salaried positions at plants in Texas, California and Louisiana.
More support
With the pandemic still raging and US lawmakers having failed so far to extend federal help for the unemployed and small businesses, many key measures in the world’s largest economy look set to remain weak for some time.
T he re w e re s i g n s e a r l ie r Wednesday that the outlook may have helped revive stimulus negotiations, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi failed to strike a deal during a 90-minute meeting on Wednesday and said they will continue negotiating. US airlines are preparing to lay off tens of thousands of workers starting Thursday unless they get additional federal aid. American Airlines Group Inc. has warned that it could furlough 19,000 employees, while United Airlines Holdings Inc. is planning to cut about 12,000. There are signs, however, that the labor market is gradually improving in certain areas as demand rises from the depths of the pandemic. US companies added 749,000 jobs in September, according to ADP Research Institute data released on Wednesday. ADP’s numbers, though, have diverged widely from official government figures in recent months. Indications the economy is recover ing factored into A l lstate’s decision to announce its job cuts Wednesday. The insurer held off on layoffs at the start of the pandemic. “We waited a little bit until we could see that the economy was starting to pick up some,” Chief Executive Officer Tom Wilson said in a phone interview. “We could have done this earlier, but we waited a little bit to get ourselves aligned and to build a set of programs out which help people get new jobs.” Bloomberg News
Trump blocked from restricting visas for highly skilled workers
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he Trump administration was blocked from restricting H-1B visas that highly skilled foreign technology workers rely on to work in the US. The ruling conflicts with a pair of decisions in September in similar cases. US District Judge Jeffrey S. White in Oakland, California, agreed with several big US business groups, which argued President Donald Trump exceeded his authority by imposing the immigration restrictions. The order, at odds with the conclusion reached by a federal judge in Washington, means the fight will likely move to an appeals court. White said his order doesn’t apply nationwide but only to the members of the plaintiff organizations. Those members, which include giants like Amazon.com and Microsoft Corp., comprise
hundreds of thousands of US businesses of all sizes and from a cross-section of economic sectors. Trump declared in a June proclamation that foreign workers pose a threat to the US labor market amid the downturn caused by coronavirus pandemic. His decree froze new H-1B and H-4 visas, used by technology workers and their families, as well as L visas for intra-company transfers and most J visas for workand study-abroad programs, including au pairs, through the end of the year. Thursday’s order also blocks restrictions on J and L visas.
Foreign affairs conduct
In his ruling, White distinguished the visa ban from Trump’s earlier travel ban restricting nationals of six predominately Muslim countries from entering the US, which was upheld by the Supreme
Court as a legitimate exercise of the president’s power to conduct foreign affairs. The visa ban “deals with a purely domestic economic issue—the loss of employment during a national pandemic,” the judge wrote. “This court rejects the position that the proclamation implicates the president’s foreign affairs powers simply because it affects immigration.” W hite added: “ T here must be some measure of constraint on presidential authority in the domestic sphere in order not to render the executive an entirely monarchical power in the immigration context.” The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manu fact u rers a nd t he Nat ion a l
Retail Federation sued to block the restr ictions, say ing they impede the hiring of engineers, executives, IT experts, doctors, nurses and other critical workers who help drive the American economy. The Chamber is a longtime supporter of high-skilled immigration and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which provides legal status for some migrants who entered the country as children. T he r e a r e a p p r o x i m at e l y 580,000 foreign workers with H-1B visas in specialized jobs in the US, according to the suit. Almost 160,000 L visas were issued in 2019 for executives, managers and employees with special experience and their dependents, and about 300,000 exchange visitors enter the US annually on J visas, the Chamber said. Bloomberg News
India’s contracting economy rebooting from Covid-19 blow N
EW DELHI—Millions of distressed Indian manufacturers and traders are counting on the eagerly-awaited October-December festive season to rescue them from their coronavirus catastrophe. But spending may be the last thing on the minds of many Indians who have lost their jobs or businesses in the pandemic downturn, and pressure is building for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to do more to regain the momentum of growth that, at 8.2 percent in 2016-2017, made India one of the fastest-growing major economies. The Hindu Dussehra, Diwali and Durga Puja celebrations that extend through the Christmas and New Year holidays are an occasion to splurge on big-ticket items like gold, homes and cars, as well as clothing, smartphones and electronics. This year will likely lack the customary pomp and show, given the need for masks and social distancing with the pandemic still raging and no vaccine yet available. The government began easing a stringent twomonth-long lockdown in June, but business still is only a quarter to a fifth of usual and customers are scarce, said Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary of the Confederation of All India Traders.
In August, Modi announced $1.46 trillion in infrastructure projects to boost the sagging economy and allocated $2 billion to upgrading the country’s overwhelmed health system. That followed a 1.7 trillion rupees ($22 billion) economic stimulus package announced in March, including delivering rations of grain and lentils for 800 million people, some 60 percent of the world’s second-most populous country. Other subsidies included a meager cash grant of 6,000 rupees ($80) a year each for 86 million poor farmers and free cooking gas cylinders for 83 million poor women until the end of September. The economy still contracted an unprecedented 24 percent in the April-June quarter, with another downturn forecast for July-September. The government needs to do more, said Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, such as direct cash transfers for the poor and others severely affected by the prolonged lockdown. India’s pandemic assistance has amounted to only about 1 percent of its GDP, he said, compared with the US’s package in March of about 10 percent of its GDP. Modi’s administration is hard strapped to push out more stimulus, however, given the financial demands of dealing with the pandemic on top of military
tensions with China along a disputed border in the mountainous Ladakh region, where both sides have amassed tens of thousands of troops. Defense analysts estimate India may need up to 1 billion rupees ($13 million) a day to run its military machine at an altitude of 16,000 feet (4,875 meters) if the two countries fail to defuse their months-long faceoff. The lockdown imposed in late March cost more than 10 million impoverished migrant workers their jobs in the cities. Many made grueling journeys back to their hometowns and villages. Now they face the ordeal of trying to get back to their factory jobs. “There is almost no work,” said Ram Ratan, 46, who was working in a printing company before he returned to his home village in April. “We keep roaming around, looking for some steady work, but most factories don’t let us in.” Mansoor Ansari is among hundreds of workers who wait every day on what is called a “labor roundabout,” in an industrial area, hoping to get picked up by employers. Before the pandemic lockdown, Ansari had a steady job at a garment factory in the industrial town of Manesar near New Delhi, earning $200 a month, he said. He was able to pay rent and send money to his
wife and five children in a village in eastern Bihar state. As Ansari’s factory shut down, he joined a caravan of workers who walked several miles before jumping on to overcrowded flatbed trucks to get home. Unable to find work there, and digging himself deeper into debt, after restrictions were lifted Ansari joined the legions of workers returning to Manesar. Deshraj, who uses one name, lost his job as a waiter at a roadside eatery in Surat, a city in western India known for diamond cutting and polishing, in the spring and resumed farming in his home village. But unusually heavy rains in April damaged the crop. “This is a common story in villages where crops have been destroyed by unseasonal rains, leading people to commit suicide,” said Raja Bhaiya, who runs a nongovernment organization to help farmers. Compared to the scale of need, government relief has been “meager,” Raghruram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said in a LinkedIn post. He likened such help to a tonic. “When the disease is vanquished, it can help a patient get out of her sickbed faster,” Rajan said. “But if a patient has atrophied, a stimulus will have little effect.” The government maintains that the worst is behind.
Agriculture overall is growing at a 3.4-percent pace. With good monsoon rains, India might attain a record of 301 million metric tons of food-grain output, including wheat, rice, oil seeds, lentils and mustard, in the 2020-2021 financial year—4 million metric tons more than in 2019-2020. Key sectors such as coal, oil, gas, steel and cement have ben recovering gradually, said the government’s chief economic advisor, Krishnamurthy Subramanian.
“In a V-shaped recovery, it is possible that the slope [of rise] actually may not always be the same exactly as that of the fall, which is a drastic one,”he said. One other bright spot: Domestic brands are getting a boost from a trend to boycott inexpensive Chinese-made statues of Hindu deities, festive LED lights and electronics that have flooded the market, in favor of locally made products, said Khandelwal. AP
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The World BusinessMirror
Sunday, October 4, 2020
A viral march across the planet, tracked by AP’s map in motion A
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A battle rages in South Africa over Nelson Mandela’s legacy
By Ted Anthony
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AP National Writer
n a Thursday night in early January, the disease that would become known as Covid-19 claimed its first victim, a 61-year-old man who succumbed to the newly identified coronavirus in the city of Wuhan, in the People’s Republic of China. Nine months later, the pandemic took its millionth life. And while the vagaries of record-keeping mean we may never know who that victim was, the fact remains: Covid has killed a million people. Tens of millions of things undone. Daughters and sons unborn, works of genius uncreated. Pieces of communities—excised. Entire residential complexes filled with older people—ravaged. Human contribution melted away, with no way of ever knowing or chronicling what was lost. Accounting for what’s missing when people die is never an easy task; now it is one multiplied by an entire million. A new Associated Press interactive map of the coronavirus’ spread—represented by the lives it has claimed—blends data and geography in a way that forces us to see what has happened to the world. And what is still happening to it. Like so many things in the world, it started small. At first, the map shows only one splash of color: China, the place where the coronavirus silently began its march. As it began to move around, the map evolved. Month by month, week
by week, day by day, the coronavirus spread. Pandemic was declared. Hospitals girded. Cities and countries, shut down. The world changed so fast that its people could barely keep up. How did something so contained at first, so localized, upend the routines and activities of huge chunks of human civilization? We all have watched it, lived through it, but the visual is striking. From a world largely unsullied by the virus to one merely touched by it to an entire planet feeling its effects. Choose a place to pause. Each juncture offers a window into that moment. n March 18, 2020. China still leads the world in deaths. In the United States, President Donald Trump has just declared a state of emergency. The United States has lost 191 people. The wide belief among Americans: This can still be contained. n April 6, 2020. Italy is being ravaged; 16,523 have been lost. China has dropped out of the top 5 when it comes to deaths. The United States is second by now at 14,199 dead. n May 22, 2020. The United
In this August 5, 2020, file photo, recently filled graves are seen in the Olifantsveil Cemetery outside Johannesburg, South Africa. The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed 1 million, nine months into a crisis that has devastated the global economy, tested world leaders’ resolve, pitted science against politics and forced multitudes to change the way they live, learn and work. AP/Jerome Delay, File
States has shot ahead of the rest of the world and sits on the cusp of 100,000 dead—99,166. It, like the United Kingdom (35,440), Italy (32,616), Spain (28626) and France (28,292), is rendered in a darker forest green, along with Brazil. The march is accelerating. n July 26, 2020. In the heart of the summer, the United States remains the country with the most dead: 147,656. Brazil, whose president has just tested positive for coronavirus, is second at 87,004. Darker greens are starting to fill the map, including in India. In China, blamed by Trump for the virus in terms some deem racist, the hue is light after strict and protracted containment measures. n September 27, 2020. This past Sunday. India is third in the world with 95,542 deaths. The United States, still No. 1 and criticized for its haphazard efforts at containment, has just passed the 200,000 mark. Brazil sits at 141,741, with no apparent detrimental political effect
on its leader. Russia is now darker green. Africa, Australia and much of Asia are lighter, though swaths of Southeast Asia are showing higher death rates. This map tells the story of an invisible virus that upended the world. It tells of first responses and fear and decisions good and bad. Stories of valiant women and men who tried to stop it, and were sometimes claimed by their efforts. It tells stories of leaders who measured up and leaders who didn’t. And how simple human touch ended up killing. Most of all, it tells of the 1 million dead and gone. These are the stories of the human beings who, had they been able to stick around, might have done things we’d all remember—or might have done things just as important that only a few people they loved would remember. The map contains their stories, too, and even amid the elegant lines of the map and the illuminating contours of the data they should not be forgotten. AP
At UN, nations urge overdue reckoning with colonial crimes By Angela Charlton
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The Associated Press
ARIS—Leaders of countries once subjugated to Western powers sent a pointed message at this year’s UN General Assembly: For those who think the word “colonialism” evokes a long-ago, no-longer-relevant era, think again. Several leaders raised this year’s global protests inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States and renewed demands for reparations for the slave trade, calling them just one step in a still-unfinished reckoning with crimes of former empires. The onetime French colony of New Caledonia—still run by Paris, more than 10,000 miles and 10 time zones away – is voting Sunday on whether to break free. “The global movement for racial justice and equality is not a passing phenomenon,” said Paul Kagame of Rwanda, once colonized by Germany and Belgium. “What is required is action that builds public trust in the equal dignity of all citizens, as demonstrated in the treatment of those who have historically been most marginalized, and who continue to suffer mistreatment disproportionately.” Both past and present are infusing discussions about the state of the world’s nations at the General Assembly, which wraps up on Tuesday, and where leaders of ex-colonies get equal time with ex-colonizers at the planet’s most important diplomatic event. Sierre Leone’s vice president gave world nations a 10 -year deadline to wrap up the colonial era, once and for all. Vanuatu in the South Pacific and Mauritius
in the Indian Ocean were among those who used the UN event to press territorial disputes left over from colonial times. And the leader of Caribbean ex-British colony Antigua and Barbuda said it’s time for creditor countries—many of whom built empires thanks to slave labor and exploiting colonies’ resources—to forgive poor-country debt amid 2020’s global economic crisis. Since the birth of the United Nations 75 years ago, its ranks have mushroomed from 51 members to 193, as territory after territory shed old-world rulers and proclaimed independence. But the scars and prejudices of colonialism slice deep. “The nature of relations between Africa and countries with a colonial past should be re-imagined, to transform the painful history of colonization into opportunities,” said Evariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi, once run by Germany and then Belgium. But he stressed: “We should not forget the spirit of the conquests to enslave Africa and the strong resistance of the people of Africa to defend themselves against invasion, or to liberate themselves from the colonial yoke that mowed down millions of human lives in Africa and left injuries and wounds that struggle to heal.” Instead of big-power bullying and small powers pleading for outside help, Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh of ex-British colony Sierra Leone called for a new era of “mutual respect and partnership” instead. “If we are to remain true to the fundamental principles of the United Nations that is fit for purpose, then it becomes absolutely
necessary to relegate the chapter of colonialism to history within the period 2021-2030,” he said. Some former colonial powers touched upon that part of their past, but none expressly renounced it in this year’s speeches to the UN. EU Council President Charles Michel, whose native Belgium has faced protests and soul-searching this year over the 19th century king who colonized swaths of Africa, said: “Our two continents have never been so interdependent, for better or for worse.” French President Emmanuel Macron, who has refused to take down statues of colonial leaders, described their era as the “second wave” of globalization: “It was globalization through trade, the first openings, but also the routes of slavery, exploitation, the development of some, the enslavement of others, the first population displacements and a reorganization of our world in the light of these dominions.” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte simply noted “the European and Caribbean parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands,” but left it at that. The United States’s complicated history came in for criticism too, notably from rivals Cuba, Venezuela and Iran. Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla championed Caribbean nations’ efforts to demand reparations for “the horrors of slavery and the slave trade, in a world where racial discrimination and the repression against Afro-descendant communities have been on the rise.” Multiple leaders mentioned territorial disputes that stem from colonial times—spats that occupy a big part of the docket at the UN’s
international courts. The prime minister of Mauritius spoke in front of a map that included the Britain-controlled Chagos Archipelago as part of its territory. Pravind Jugnauth argued that “the decolonization of Mauritius remains incomplete,” and urged the UN to intervene. The leader of Micronesia—colonized in turns by Spain, Germany and Japan, and now dependent on the US for its defense and financial support—described his South Pacific archipelago as “a product of multilateralism” that’s still working toward self-sufficiency 33 years after becoming a free state. This year’s pandemic has sharpened a feeling of economic and historic injustice, as rich countries shut borders, scale back aid, stockpile medical supplies and impose export restrictions. Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines decried “the legacies of underdevelopment left in the wake of European settler colonialism, native genocide, the enslavement of Africans” and warned that “the disastrous economic implications of a global Covid-19 recession threaten to stymie our advances.” Ba rbados m ade news t h is month seeking to drop Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state, and Prime Minister Mia Mottley in her speech marking the UN’s 75th anniversary noted that at its founding, “The vast majority of development states had no seat and no say.... Fundamental decisions about the global security, economic and financial order were taken on their behalf, on our behalf, but not necessarily in our best interests, by the colonial powers of the day.” AP
fight over graft within South Africa’s monolithic ruling party is intensifying, and its outcome could determine whether the continent’s most developed nation prospers or fails. South Africa has labored for the past decade with a level of corruption that’s progressively slowed growth, bankrupted state companies and hollowed out institutions. As party members take to the streets to protest against graft and public outrage grows, President Cyril Ramaphosa is accelerating his anti-corruption campaign in the governing African National Congress. With an economy crushed by the coronavirus lockdown and now in its worst state since the end of apartheid, the party’s own survival may be at stake if Ramaphosa fails to follow through on his pledge. Ramaphosa wrote to ANC members in late August saying the party was “accused No. 1” in the court of public opinion and then exacted a pledge from its top decision-making committee that officials facing disciplinary and criminal procedures must step aside. Pressure is growing to push forward with arrests and prosecutions. “Cyril doesn’t have to worry about stepping on a few toes; the public will defend him,” said Matthew Parks, parliamentary coordinator for the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the 1.8 million-member labor group that’s a key ally of the president. “What we want from the president is decisiveness, throwing people into prison.” So far, that hasn’t happened. The president did dock his defense minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, three months’ pay after she allowed senior ANC figures to accompany her on a formal visit to Zimbabwe, blurring the lines between government and party business. On Thursday, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks, indicted Angelo Agrizzi, a former executive at services company Bosasa, and Vincent Smith, a senior ANC politician who oversaw a parliamentary commission on prisons. Agrizzi previously told a judicial commission Bosasa paid bribes to win government contracts at prisons. Senior government officials were also arrested this week over alleged corruption at a state housing project in Free State province. But aside from Zuma, who’s facing corruption charges that were reinstated after being dropped more than a decade ago, and former Security Minister Bongani Bongo, no major figures have been apprehended. The dilemma for Ramaphosa is that however much the public may support his corruption fight, it’s inside the century-old ANC where the battle is being waged. Until now, his ability to act against graft has been constrained by his wafer-thin victory in the late 2017 party election that left two key allies of former President Jacob Zuma in the ANC’s top six decision-making body, limiting his room to act. With the ANC’s next elective conference set for 2022, Ramaphosa may need to placate the various party factions if he is to serve a second term as president.
The lack of prosecutions has spurred increased dissatisfaction with the ANC as testimony at several commissions of inquiry into corruption has been broadcast almost daily for more than a year. “I don’t see any new moment as far as the ANC is concerned, and as far as the president is concerned, the only new thing is public indignation,” said Ralph Mathekga, a political analyst and author of books about South African politics. “It is a question of who gets arrested; there are people who are disposable. There is still a sense of a face saving exercise.” The extent of the graft within the party became clear when it was revealed the husband of Ramaphosa’s own spokesman had won contracts to supply the government with medical equipment needed to fight Covid-19. ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule was drawn into the scandal when it emerged that his two sons won similar tenders, though they’ve not been accused of wrongdoing. South Africa now finds itself in a very different place than many hoped when it burst forth from the end of apartheid as the so-called rainbow nation, a term coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in reference to the country’s many ethnicities and popularized by its first Black president, Nelson Mandela. With the economy set to post its biggest annual contraction in nine decades and 42 percent of the potential work force that is unemployed or has given up looking for employment, Ramaphosa has no choice but to act. The ANC faces voters in a municipal vote next year and general elections in 2024. “The idea of the ANC losing power is not far fetched,” said Ntsikelelo Breakfast, a political science lecturer at South Africa’s University of Stellenbosch. “It’s an untenable situation; we are stealing out of the mouths of our children and the old and the infirm and the vulnerable,” said Martin Kingston, vice president of Business Unity South Africa and chairman of the local unit of Rothschild & Co. “We are not going to mobilize the capital that’s required domestically or internationally without comprehensively tackling crime or corruption.” That’s key, given that Ramaphosa has staked the country’s economic recovery on an unprecedented plan to attract as much as 2.3 trillion rand ($137 billion) in private investment into infrastructure over the next decade. The national power monopoly is mired in corruption scandals and $29 billion in debt, the state arms company can’t pay salaries and the national airline is insolvent. The result has been state bailouts that have deepened the country’s debt burden and seen it take its first ever loan from the International Monetary Fund, a step the ruling party had in the past deeply opposed. Until Ramaphosa can carry out a decisive strike against corruption, the economy can’t progress, said Claude Baissac, the head of Eunomix Business and Economics Ltd., which advises on political risk. “For South Africa,” he said, “Ramaphosa’s effort right now is the last chance saloon.” Bloomberg News
Here’s how Covid-19 vaccine study works
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ow can I volunteer for a Covid-19 vaccine study? Governments and companies are setting up websites where people can sign up. Enthusiasm is high: More than 400,000 people have signed a registry of possible volunteers that’s part of a vaccine network set up by the US National Institutes of Health. But before raising your hand, it’s important to understand how the research works. Initial studies include only a few dozen young, healthy volunteers, since this is the first chance to see if a shot causes a risky reaction in people. Older adults, anyone with a serious underlying illness, and pregnant women are typically excluded from this testing stage. Mid-stage studies of Covid-19 vaccines recruit a few hundred people, including some older adults. The focus is on comparing how people’s immune systems react to different doses, as well as getting more safety data. In final-stage studies, scientists need tens of thousands of volunteers who reflect the diversity of
the population, including those at high risk of severe illness from the virus. So volunteers can include people who are over age 65 and people with chronic health problems such as diabetes. Enough study par ticipants have to be exposed to the virus for researchers to be able to tell if the vaccine works. That’s why essential workers, such as grocery or transportation workers who come into frequent contact with others, are especially sought after for the last testing phase. It’s also why researchers are recruiting in places where the virus is spreading, not areas that have it under control—so even if you meet the eligibility criteria, you might not be called back, depending on where you live. Volunteers won’t know if they’re getting the vaccine or a dummy shot. The World Health Organization counts 10 vaccines worldwide in this final stage of testing, and dozens more are in earlier stages. A few web sites list vaccine studies for people interested in volunteering. AP
Science
BusinessMirror
www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
Sunday
Sunday, October 4, 2020 A5
Math apps launched for students for new normal
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PHL wins 4th gold in Intl Math Olympiad T
he Philippines won a gold and two bronze medals, and three honorable mention awards in the 61st International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) from September 19 to 28. Andres Rico Gonzales III of De La Salle University Integrated School won the gold medal, his third and last participation in the IMO. In winning the gold, Andres obtained the highest score among all Philippine contestants so far. This was the fourth gold medal that the Philippines has won in the IMO since the country started participating in 1988. The Philippine’s team members who won bronze medals were Raphael Dylan Dalida of Philippine Science High School and Bryce Ainsley Sanchez of Grace Christian College. Immanuel Josiah Balete of St. Stephen’s High School, Sarji Elijah Bona of Palawan Hope Christian School/De La Salle University Integration School and Vincent Dela Cruz of Valenzuela City School of Mathematics and Science bagged honorable mention awards. All five of them are still eligible to represent the country in next year’s IMO. The IMO is the world champion ship mathematics competition for high-school students. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the international scientific olympiads. Originally planned to be held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, this year’s IMO was instead held virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Philippine team was headed by leader Dr. Christian Paul Chan Shio of Ateneo de Manila University and Deputy Leader Carlo Francisco Adajar of University of the Philippines Diliman. They were assisted in grading by Dr. Richard Eden of Ateneo de Manila University and Dr. Jose Ernie Lope of University of the Philippines Diliman. The team’s participation was a joint undertaking of the Mathematical Society of the Philippines and the Department of Science and Technology- Science Education Institute. This year’s competition saw 616 contestants from 105 countries attempt to solve individually six challenging and original problems for a total of 9 hours spread over the two official days of competition. Each country sent at most six contestants. Medals were awarded to students based on the individual scores they earned from their written solutions. A nonmedalist who completely solved one problem was awarded an honorable mention. This year, only one student was able to get the perfect score of 42. China finished with the top team score, followed by Russia and the United States. The Philippines ranked 43rd in the company of Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden (40), and Portugal (44). The complete results and rankings for this year are posted in https://www.imo-official.org/ year_country_r.aspx?year=2020.
IBM’s RoboRXN raises bar in chemistry
eb-based and mobile mathematics applications were announced recently to aid Filipino students to better adapt to online and blended education in the new normal. The free Mathplus apps were introduced during Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU)-School of Science and Engineering’s webinar series titled “Senso Eskwela Pilipinas at Iba pa.” T hey r u n on moderate system requ irements in l aptops, tablets or cel lphones, and a re now read i ly ava i l able for teac hers a nd st udents. The apps are research-based, aligned with the Most Essential Learning Competencies of the official Grade 1 to Grade 11 Mathematics Curriculum of the Department of Education (DepEd), said the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technolog y Research and
By Rizal Raoul Reyes Technology leader IBM raised the bar in chemistry research when it recently introduced RoboRXN for Chemistry, a cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robot, during a virtual news briefing beamed from Zurich, Switzerland. Teodoro Laino, manager at IBM Research Europe, told reporters that RoboRXN for Chemistry was developed in response to the emergence of threatening diseases around the world. “At its most fundamental level, everything is a material. With advanced technologies, we believe we can speed up the discovery of new materials and drugs 10 times, going from $10 million and 10 years to $1million and one year,” Laino said in the virtual news briefing. This means fast drug discovery for personalized healthcare, more efficient bioprinting of organs and rapidly developed vaccines in healthcare and in material sciences, addressing dwindling food supplies with more efficiently produced fertilizer, reducing pollution with carbon dioxide capture and energy storage using more abundant and less hazardous materials, he added. He said the primary objective pressing right now at IBM is to scale up the system and start beta tests with clients. RoboR XN combines three technological components—AI, automation and cloud. According to Laino, AI, the brain of RoboRXN, has been developed and trained to learn the art of synthetic organic chemistry. The automation part synthesizes the procedures by converting chemical recipes to machine-readable instructions. Cloud technology, by design, enables a
scientist’s chemical laboratory accessible from anywhere in the world—especially at this time of personal distancing and working-from-home mode. By launching RoboXN, IBM said it is transforming industrial chemistry into a high-tech business. Moreover, IBM said the combination of AI, automation and cloud eliminates the burden of the chemist from performing tedious repetitive tasks, allowing more time and space for what really matters—design and innovation. Laino pointed out that the emergence of the pandemic has been putting pressure on the world to develop a new treatment or vaccine at breakneck speed exemplified by the “Operation Warp Speed” of the Trump administration. “Tools such as RoboRXN can help because it is like having a really good lab assistant 24/7,” Laino said. “It can make junior chemists better and it can make expert chemists more efficient. So we are making chemistry more accessible particularly with the AI, cloud and automation, which could be interesting for universities and small businesses who don’t have the budget. Now they can access it as a service,” he added. Laino said it is possible for IBM to set up the same type of facility outside Switzerland. Right now, he said, IBM scientists in Almaden, California, and Yorktown Heights, New York, are accessing their system in Zurich for their experiments. “Once the final product is synthesized, we pack it up and ship it to them, which could be sped up with additional systems and thanks to the IBM Cloud and OpenShift, it’s all possible. One could imagine something like a data center, but one step at a time,” he pointed out..
learn mathematics and think by and for themselves in solving mathematical problems. They turned out to become essentia l aids to lear ning in response to the unprecedented urgent need for educational adaptations in the country driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, the news release said. De Las Peñas’s team accomplished this through the project, “ Technolog y Innovations for Mathematica l Reasoning, Statistica l T hink ing and A ssessment ,” f u nded by t he DOST-PCIEER D.
“We are confident that this project can help students to manage their own learning, monitor their progress, think creatively and cr itica l ly, and solve rea llife problems. With that, no one w il l be left behind as students from isolated community w il l a lso have access to these learning resources,” said DOSTPCIEERD executive director Dr. Enrico C. Paringit. During the webinar, ADMU sealed their collaboration with DepEd schools’ divisions in Mandaluyong and Marikina through a memorandum of understanding.
3 books tell the human side of S&T By Lyn Resurreccion
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s their titles connote, these books look they are not easy reading: Science for Scale: Stories of How Companies Embraced Innovation for Growth; Science for Success: Stories of How Science and Technology Can Help Your Business; and Science for Social Change: Helping People Help Themselves. But as the idiom says, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Rightly so, because between the books’ covers are stories that are light-reading and inspiring features of success and best practices in applying science and technology (S&T). They aim for the development of small and medium enterprises, startup companies and local communities. Consider these topics: Nutridense’s Rimo ricemongo curls to fight malnutrition; lagundi herbal cough syrup; Kezar’s affordable 3D printing; low-cost dengue detection kit; coffee farming among the B’laans in South Cotabato and R&D La Union; nata de coco based CocoPatch wound dressing; innovation in local wine making and other food products; use of technology for innovation; and many others.
Another milestone for DOST IBM RoboRXN for Chemistry is a pioneer project combining AI, automation and cloud to accelerate material discovery. IBM.com
Development (DOST-PCIEERD) news release. They were designed to promote mathematical reasoning and visual thinking so that Filipino children can learn to think by and for themselves. The Mathplus Resources team consists of ADMU mathematicians, mathematics educators and software developers, headed by Dr. Ma. Louise Antonette N. De Las Peñas, a professor at the Department of Mathematics and the associate dean for Research and Creative Work of Loyola Schools. The team initially developed the apps to create a digital mathematics learning environment where Fi l ipi no st udent s c a n
The three books were launched recently by the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP), sort of a “detour from the pandemic” and “another milestone of the DOST,” Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña said during the virtual launching. They were part of the first books series “Science for the People” that present the very essence of Filipinnovation, or Filipino innovation, the policy set by the DOST with other government agencies a decade ago to help lead the country to growth and development. De le Peña said “witnessing scientists and engineers working hand in hand with people from business and industry” present a “good combination that leads to better productivity and quality” of products. “The very reasons why we put together our aspirations, inspirations and stories is to present the human side of science as well as the inspiring story of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs taking on the challenges of working together with science, technology and innovation as their common backbones,” he said. More importantly, he added, the books also “tell the story of each Filipino” whose life has been strongly affected by S&T. “In the pages of the books, we see the positive changes in communities and how people learned to help themselves through what we call social innovations,” he said. He expressed hope that the readers “will get inspired and be moved like how a small farmer, or a startup, or a budding entrepreneur was touched by [S&T].”
‘Pictures show how S&T make change happen’
Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara said
that when one read the book, “the building blocks of research, development, innovation and creativity are demonstrated using businesses and examples of entrepreneurs.” “I really love the pictures... they say so much more about how [S&T] make change happen for our businesses and Filipino entrepreneurs,” she said. Guevara added: “By the time you reach the end of the book, you will conclude that indeed science and entrepreneurship will really go a long way for the country’s economic growth, industry competitiveness and a better life for every Filipino.”
The authors
The book Science for Scale: Stories of How Companies Embraced Innovation for Growth was authored by Winston Damarillo, a digital transformation pioneer behind the company Amihan Global Strategies. Science for Success: Stories of How Science and Technology Can Help Your Business was written by the tandem of friends Maret Follosco-Bautista, chairman and president of companies under the CL Follosco Group, and Robina Gokongwei-Pe, president and CEO of Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. On the other hand, Science for Social Change: Helping People Help Themselves was authored by Dr. Segundo Romero, president of the Universities and Research Councils Network in Innovation for Inclusive Development in Southeast Asia.
‘Sparks of transformative change’
In Science for Scale, Damarillo, in his introduction, said, “There is always a better way.... This book talks about the stories of scientists, entrepreneurs and companies in different stages of innovation to drive their growth and success.” The first step to coming up with a gamechanging product, technology or anything, is putting in hours of mental labor and experimentation to arrive at a prototype, he said. “[I]n this book, you’ll definitely meet people
who have achieved success—from a university professor who concocted a cleaning agent in a school laboratory and wound up starting her own company, to a CEO who is putting Philippine manufactured electronics on the map and in self-driving cars of the future,” he said. Science for Success, co-authors Bautista and Pe said that being children of entrepreneurs, the best way to learn a business is from the bottom. “In tough times, entrepreneurs display grit to steer the people they are responsible for toward a stable future,” they wrote. They said the book “tells stories of innovative individuals all over the country who have embraced [S&T] as a strategy for survival and growth.” Through the book, they said, they would like to add another superpower to the business owner’s toolkit: “a focus on [R&D], inspired by innovative individuals all over the country who have embraced [S&T] as a strategy for survival and growth.” In Science for Social Change, Romero said that in writing the book “I learned that there are genuine breakthroughs in poor, rural and marginalized areas, and that there are people trying to improve their living conditions.” He added that always, “creative and highly motivated individuals start the change process,” sometimes, it comes from within the community, sometimes it is introduced from the outside. “These are the sparks of transformative change that we must now apply,” Romero said. The book, Science for Change, however, has yet to be published in November.
Expert reviews
Scientists and communication experts reviewed the books. Dr. Adelaida P. Lucero, former chairman of the Humanities Division of the DOST-NRCP and professor at University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), and Academician Dr. Alvin B. Culaba, past
president of NRCP and Distinguished Full Professor of Mechanical Engineering at De La Salle University Manila, reviewed the book Science for Scale. Lucero wrote that the book “was written for easy reading/understanding, with the ultimate goal of making the public appreciate [S&T].” For his part, Culaba said, “Damarillo did an outstanding work by providing an easy-to-follow and candid real-life account of the significance of science in every aspect of life.” For Science for Success, the reviewers were National Scientist Dr. Lourdes J. Cruz, also a past president of NRCP and professor emeritus of the Marine Science Institute, UPD, and Dr. Elena E. Pernia, vice president for Public Affairs of the UP System and professor at the College of Mass Communication at UPD. Cruz wrote, “The book delivers each lesson through stories that explain the problems encountered, and the S&T-based solutions that resulted in the improvement of a process, product and opportunities.” For the “usual scientist like me with no business sense,” Cruz said, “it can serve and as an eye opener and a primer.” For her part, Pernia wrote: “Science makes good business, and business needs science. This is the main theme of the book, Science for Success—a delightful and engaging reading whether one is an entrepreneur or thinking of becoming one.” Without a doubt, she said, the book is a “valuable contribution to business-cum-science literature,” and “it helps strengthen the advocacy for science communication in the country.” Trade S ecretar y R amon Lopez, DOST Undersecretaries Brenda Nazareth-Manzano and Renato Solidum, and Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion graced the book launching and gave messages on the importance of the link between entrepreneurs and science, technology and innovation.
Faith
Sunday
A6 Sunday, October 4, 2020
Editor: Lyn Resurreccion •www.businessmirror.com.ph
PHL bishops welcome appointment of new papal nuncio
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By Samuel P. Medenilla
this different church. We’re always serving the people and because of this pandemic, there is a new normal, a new way of loving people, a new way of serving people, and we are very thankful [for] having a new nuncio to journey with us to receive guidance from the Pope,” Gaa said. He added that the appointment of a new papal nuncio is important in determining who would be the next archbishop of Manila, which is currently headed by Pabillo as its administrator.
ilipino bishops welcome the designation of Archbishop Charles John Brown as the new apostolic nuncio to the Philippines as they see it as the signal for the appointment of new bishops in the country. Pope Francis on September 28 has chosen Brown to be his next ambassador to the Philippines. It coincided with the feast of Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint. The 60-year-old American diplomat will move to Manila from Albania, where he has served as apostolic nuncio since 2017. Archbishop Brown will succeed Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, who is now the Vatican’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in New York. The country has been without a nuncio after Archbishop Caccia ended his tour of duty in the Philippines in December 2019. As papal envoy, Brown will represent the Holy See to government authorities in the Philippines, while also playing a crucial role in
the selection of bishops.
‘Under the shadow of Peter’
Brown’s appointment was welcomed by Filipino bishops. Bishop Broderick Pabillo, who currently serves as the apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Manila and chairman of the Episcopal Commission on the Laity, said he is praying that the new representative of Pope Francis would have a successful stint in the country for the benefit of the Filipino faithful. “This is good news for us that we have a new nuncio. We are happy to welcome him and we pray that he will have a fruitful work here in the country,” Pabillo said. Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos said it shows Pope Francis’s concern for the country, especially
What is charismatic Catholicism?
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resident Donald J. Trump has nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. Questions have been raised about her alleged association with the “People of Praise,” a nondenominational Christian charismatic community, seen by some as being a potential influence on her legal thinking, particularly concerning abortion rights. The People of Praise leave it to individual members to disclose their affiliation, and Barrett has not spoken about her membership. And so, the question remains: What is charismatic Catholicism?
Pentecostalism in the US Catholic charismatics practice forms of Pentecostalism that embrace the belief that individuals can receive gifts of the Holy Spirit. Modern Pentecostalism in the United States began on Azuza Street in Los Angeles. Starting in 1906, African American pastor William J. Seymour led a congregation in the city that claimed to have received miraculous gifts from God, such as prophecy and the power to heal. The movement came to be known as Azuza Street revival. Members of the Azuza Street congregation believed that they had been given the same blessings as those received by the disciples of Jesus. According to the Bible’s Acts of the Apostles, on the Pentecost—the Jewish Shavuot harvest festival 50 days after Passover—the Holy Spirit came down in the form of flames over the disciples’ heads. Afterward, it is believed, the disciples were able to speak in languages they did not know in order to proclaim “the wonders of God.” In Christianity, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and is associated with God’s action in the world.
Catholic charismatic movement These Pentecostal teachings went on to influence the Catholic charismatic movement that initially took hold in the US in the 1960s. During a 1967 prayer meeting at Dusquesne University in Pittsburgh, a group of students and professors spoke about special “charisms,” or gifts, received through the Holy Spirit. According to firsthand accounts, the faculty were deeply influenced by two books from the Pentecostal tradition, The Cross and the Switchblade and They Speak with Other Tongues . Similar experiences of the Holy Spirit were later reported at prayer meetings
at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Michigan. From these beginnings, the Catholic charismatic movement has spread throughout the world. For Catholic charismatics, the central experience is “the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” The baptism of the Holy Spirit differs from the traditional Catholic infant baptism with water. Adults baptized in the Holy Spirit have their faith reborn and strengthened by members of the congregation laying their hands on them. Often a sign of baptism of the Holy Spirit is “glossolalia,” or “speaking in tongues.” Speaking in tongues refers to using an unintelligible language, which is often interpreted by someone else in the congregation. Usually glossolalia is considered a form of prayer. But other times, glossolalia is believed to contain prophecies about present or future events. Participants in the Catholic charismatic movement also claim spiritual and physical healing associated with the power of the Holy Spirit working through believers. Catholic charismatic prayer services are enthusiastic and involve energetic singing, hand clapping and praying with arms outstretched.
Controversy and support There are also forms of charismatic Catholicism that believe in driving out evil spirits. A Catholic charismatic community in India that I researched practiced exorcism as well as faith healing. The group also had a list of evil spirits that they claimed to have dealt with. Not all Catholic charismatic groups perform exorcisms, especially since the Vatican tightened exorcism procedures by allowing them to be formally performed only by priests. But Catholic charismatic practices remain controversial for some because they differ from mainstream Catholic worship. Recently, Catholic charismatics have found a strong ally in Pope Francis. In fact, at Rome’s Olympic Stadium, the pope once knelt and was blessed by a gathering of thousands of Catholic charismatics, all speaking in tongues. Commentators disagree about whether Barrett’s membership in a charismatic religious community should be an issue in any potential nomination hearings. But charismatic or Pentecostal groups and churches represent the fastest-growing segment of Christianity throughout the world. For this reason, Amy Coney Barrett’s beliefs may be shared by many contemporary Christians.
Mathew Schmalz/The Conversation
Recommend priests
Pope Francis and Archbishop Charles John Brown in the Vatican in December 2018. VATICAN MEDIA
during the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. Santos, the chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People (CBCP-ECMI), said this proves that Pope Francis is keeping a close watch on the welfare of Filipino clergy. “It is a very good news for us. The appointment of new nuncio is a welcome relief and comfort for us in this trying and troubling time of Covid-19. With the physical presence of the apostolic nuncio, we are sub umbra Petri [under the shadow of Peter] as if our beloved Holy Father is not only watching us from apart but walking with us
and working for us,” Santos said in an interview in Church-run Radio Veritas. San Pablo Bishop Buenaventura Famadico, chairman of the CBCPEpiscopal Commission on Clergy, expressed gratitude for the blessing of the new mission of Brown, in coordination with the clergy, in the country. “It’s a blessing from God that we should be thankful for,” Famadico said. Novaliches Bishop Roberto Gaa said he believes that the sending of the new representative of the Holy Father only shows the good relations between the Vatican and the Philippines. “We welcome you [Brown] to
Retired Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes explained that one of the important responsibilities of the apostolic nuncio is to recommend priests for the episcopal office to the pope. Bastes said Brown will be busy upon his arrival in the country to conduct consultations for his recommendations. “Of course, it will be the priority task of Abp. Brown to facilitate the appointment of a new archbishop of Manila. He will soon do a lot of consultation,” Bastes said. Pabillo is the apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Manila after former Archbishop of Manila Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle was appointed as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in the
Vatican last year. Besides the Archdiocese of Manila, other areas, which remain sede vacante, or have vacancies, are the Dioceses of Malaybalay in Bukidnon and Alaminos in Pangasinan, and the Vicarate of San Jose in Mindoro, Taytay in Rizal, and Palawan. “There are other local churches that also need new bishops. Abp. Brown will be very busy as soon as he arrives in Manila,” Bastes said.
Native of New York
Born in New York, Archbishop Brown was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of New York in May 1989. Before coming to Rome, he worked as assistant parish priest at St. Brendan’s Church in the Bronx. In September 2009, he was appointed as adjunct secretary of the International Theological Commission, which helps the Vatican, primarily the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in examining doctrinal questions of major importance. On November 26, 2011, Pope B e ne d ic t X V I ap p oi nte d Fr. Brown Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, elevating him to the dignity of archbishop. Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Brown Apostolic Nuncio to Albania March 9, 2017. With CBCP News and PNA
Vatican defends China bishop negotiations R
OME—The Vatican recently answered its critics and defended its pursuit of an extended agreement with China on bishop nominations, acknowledging difficulties but insisting the effort had achieved limited, positive results. The Holy See articulated its position on the eve of a visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who this month wrote a harsh critique of the Vatican’s 2018 accord with China and suggested the Vatican had compromised its moral authority by signing it. The 2018 accord was aimed at uniting the Catholic flock in China, which is divided between an official church recognized and regulated by the Beijing government, and an underground church that has been loyal to Rome. The agreement, which included a process for nominating new bishops and regularizing the status of seven bishops who weren’t recognized by Rome, was intended as a first step toward thawing decades of estrangement between China and the Vatican. Critics of the accord, including the retired archbishop of Hong Kong, some underground faithful in China and conser vative Catholics elsewhere, accused the Vatican of betraying Catholics in China who for decades refused to join the state-sanctioned church. The critics say the deal also has emboldened the Beijing government in its harsh crackdown on religious believers that has only increased in the two years since the accord was signed. Pompeo criticized the accord in an essay published in the conservative ecumenical magazine First Things , echoing the Trump administration’s overall criticism of Beijing that has grown amid the coronavirus pandemic in an election year. “Two years on, it’s clear that the Sino-Vatican agreement has not shielded Catholics from the [Communist] Party’s depredations, to say nothing of the party’s horrific treatment of Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong devotees and other believers,” Pompeo wrote. Noting that the deal is up for renewal when it expires next month, Pompeo wrote: “Now more than ever, the Chinese people need the Vatican’s moral witness and authority in support of China’s religious believers.” In its first official response to such criticism, Vatican Editorial Director Andrea Tornielli recalled
In this April 18, 2018, photo, Pope Francis meets a group of faithful from China at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican. AP/Gregorio Borgia that the accord only covers bishop nominations, and did not enter into political or diplomatic relations with China. “The Provisional Agreement exclusively treats the process for the appointment of bishops: an essential question for the life of the church and for the necessary communion between the pastors of the Chinese Catholic Church with the bishop of Rome and with the bishops throughout the world,” Tornielli wrote in an editorial appearing in Wednesday’s edition of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano . Tornielli quoted the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, as saying it was worth negotiating an extension to the deal despite unspecified “difficulties” aggravated by the virus outbreak. “Even though contact was blocked in recent months due to the pandemic, the results have been positive, although limited, and suggest going
forward with the application of the agreement for another determined period of time,” he said. The issue of bishop nominations had been the main stumbling block to restoring diplomatic relations that were severed nearly seven decades ago when the Chinese communists came to power. B eijing had long insisted that it must approve appointments as a matter of its national sovereignty; the Vatican has insisted on the pope’s divine authority to choose the successors of Christ’s apostles. Details of the 2018 accord were never released. Francis has said it involves a process of dialogue, including over the nomination of bishop candidates, but that he has the final say. Vatican officials have acknowledged the agreement is far from ideal and represented the best agreement it could get. They said that if the Vatican didn’t hammer out something new, there was a risk of the Catholic
Church in China becoming irrevocably split. The Rev. Bernardo Cervellera, a China-watcher and editor of the Catholic news agency AsiaNews, said the accord hadn’t borne much fruit in the past two years other than preventing a possible schism if China continued nominating bishops without the pope’s consent. “However, the fact remains that during all this time, there has been an increase in the persecution and control of diverse [religious] communities, both underground and official,” he said in an interview. As evidence, Cervellera cited restrictions forbidding children to attend Mass or receive religious education, as well as reports of even official churches in China coming under televised surveillance. “It’s clear that the Vatican wants this [deal] because it hopes that this little, fragile thing can grow into other aspects of the life of the church,” he said. China, for its part, has defended its treatment of religious groups, including restrictions on minors attending religious services. Recent actions that followed Beijing’s longstanding policies on Muslim groups reflect China’s increasingly harsh approach toward all ethnic and religious minorities under the Communist Party’s leader, President Xi Jinping. D e m a n d s t h at m i n o r i t y g ro u p s a d o p t national standards in education and culture have been accompanied by well-documented crackdowns on Tibetans, Uighurs and other Xinjiang Muslims, and the destruction of places of worship, including the removal of exterior crosses from church buildings. The other prong of Xi’s crackdown is aimed at giving new life to the atheist party’s dedication to the eradication of religion in general. One of the Vatican accord’s biggest critics has been the retired archbishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen, who has accused Parolin, the secretary of state, of “manipulating” the pope into agreeing to the deal and selling out China’s underground faithful in the process. Zen was in Rome earlier this week, hoping to meet with Francis to discuss developments in China and Hong Kong, Italian media reported. He left without getting an audience. AP
Bishop deplores killing of red-tagged parish lay leader
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Bishop Joel Baylon of Legazpi. PHOTO FROM THE DIOCESE
ishop Joel Baylon of Legazpi has condemned the killing of two village officials, including a parish lay leader in Albay province. Village chief Luzviminda “Kap Ida” Dayanda and treasurer Albert Orlina of Barangay Batbat in Guinobatan town were gunned down on September 21. The two were killed by unidentified gunmen while heading back home after helping a constituent go to a hospital and meeting with the town’s mayor. The bishop called for an investigation on the murders of the two officials “and speedy disposition
of their cases so that justice may be served.” Dayanda, he said, is also active lay leader in St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in Mauraro village, while also serving as chairman of their village pastoral council. “People who knew her attest to her quiet faith in God, humble service to the Church, and passionate commitment to the people under her care,”Baylon said. “We pray for consolation, peace and safety of their community and the family and loved ones they left behind,” he said. According to him, Dayanda complained of being accused as a New People’s Army (NPA)
supporter by some soldiers who were staying in their village, “a charge she vehemently denied.” The prelate also expressed concern over reports of NPA activities in the village and nearby areas, as well as alleged human-rights violations against civilians by government forces. Baylon asked the warring parties to stop violence, saying that “peace and security cannot be achieved at the expense of justice and human rights.” “When armed groups clash in communities, without regard for rule of law and the dignity of persons, it is the poor and vulnerable residents who suffer the most,” he said. CBCP News
Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror
Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014
Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
Sunday, October 4, 2020
A7
Renewed interest in gardening during the quarantine gave rise to ‘plantitos, plantitas’
New threat to wild plants: Ornamental gardening
M
By Jonathan L. Mayuga
assive destruction of habitats caused by mining, quarrying and land-use conversion from forest to other purposes are not the only threats to biological diversity. Amid the threats of the new coronavirus disease (Covid-19), the hazards to wildlife intensified as the community quarantine put in place by the government since March saw a renewed interest in urban gardening. Sadly, the gathering of rare and wild plant species with high commercial value from the forests is being resorted to. During quarantine, the country’s forests, including protected areas and national parks, are left with very little protection against enterprising Filipinos who saw the opportunity for quick cash.
Rise of ‘plantitos, plantitas’
With businesses closing up shop, many Filipinos who lost their jobs were compelled to start their own little business. While some resorted to online selling of cooked food and other wares, enterprising Filipinos have started making money from what started as quarantine stress reliever—planting ornamental plants, earning them the tag “plantitos and plantitas.” They are now selling online their plants, pots, while some have even opened shops, selling and reselling garden products—from plants and pots, garden soil, tools to fertilizers and pesticides. Sadly, the popularity of urban gardening or home gardening made rare and wild plant species in forests easy targets by those who find the venture financially rewarding. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is well aware of the growing threat posed by this threat to wild plants. DENR Assistant Secretary Ricardo Calderon expressed alarm that the illegal harvesting of plants may be happening in protected areas, and collectors may be unaware that the species they are collecting are endangered or already on the brink of extinction.
Haven for rare plants, too
Protected areas and national parks
are not only a haven for threatened animals. They are also home to some of the country’s unique but threatened plant species, an official of the DENR said. Unlike animals who can escape captivity, plants are easy targets. With the growing demand for rare plants, their prices went sky-high, making harvesting plants in the wild more enticing, said Don Guevarra, chief of the Regional Public Affairs Office of DENR Region 3. He cited the case of Mount Arayat National Park (MANP) in Pampanga, where a new plant species—Pyrostria arayatensis—was recently discovered. The discovery, Guevarra said, only proved that Mount Arayat has sustained its biological diversity, and the more reason for the DENR to communicate the importance of protecting the area against wild plant thieves.
Extinction before discovery
Many plants species are in fact becoming extinct even before they are being discovered. Gueverra said in Mount Arayat, there are more plant species that have not been discovered or recorded. Dr. Marlon Suba, discovered Pyrostria arayatensis, along with his teammates Dr. Axel Arriola, Dr. Grecebio Jonathan Alejandro, Nicolas Raphael Arcangel, Jomari Jalipa, Joaquim Gerardo Jurilla, and Jose Manuel Villasenor in the lowland forest of MANP while conducting a botanical study in 2017. The newly discovered species belongs to the family Rubiaceae and is endemic to the Philippines. Their report, as part of Suba’s dissertation in the University of Santo Tomas, was published in the international scientific journal Annales Botanici Fennici on August 10. It took three years for the discovery to be published in a scientific journal and be recognized as a new plant species because of several factors.
Coral plant Balanophora coralliformis Photos by DN Tandang
Greeniopsismegalantha ES Fernando
Kamraj or tunjuk-langit fern-Helmintosta
Wade’s pitogo or Wade’s cycad
Malaysian Grapes or Malaysian Orchid-Medinilla
Pitcher plant Nepenthes Peltata
Endangered plants are targeted by collectors of rare plants, many of which are endemic to the Philippines. Among these are coral plant, Wade’s pitogo or Wade’s cycad, Greeniopsis megalantha, kamraj or tunjuk-langit fern, Malaysian Grapes or Malaysian orchid and pitcher plant. DN Tandang and ES Fernando/DENR-BMB
In his case, Suba his first attempt to publish his report upon the plant’s discover y was met with a lot of questions during the peer rev iew process. “I also have to focus on work, and this year there’s the lockdow n. Finally, it got recognized,” Suba told the BusinessMirror via telephone inter v iew on September 17. Suba said Mount Arayat is so rich in biodiversity that the area may be home to still undiscovered plant species that may eventually become extinct if they remain unprotected.
Not typical garden plants The wild plants, like animals, are likely to die when taken out of their natural habitat, said Calderon, concurrent director of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB). “There are [environmental] conditions that [make] these plants survive. Like ferns, these species require specific elevation on which to thrive,” Calderon explained to the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview on September 17. A forestry expert, Calderon said some plants survive only under conditions that the forest can provide. The DENR-BMB issues a special permit for those wishing to collect, gather animals or plants in the wild. The gratuitous permit, however, is only for scientific research and not for commercial purposes. Calderon explained that those
who are collecting wild plants without proper training or knowledge may be gathering critically endangered plants, hence, the need to carefully evaluate the application for a collector’s permit. Similar to animals, the plant collectors can gather upon issuance of a permit but they can only sell the propagated plants or progeny, he said. “We have already filed several cases against those who were caught collecting rare plants,” Calderon said. He cited as example the bantigue mangrove that is being collected in the wild and is being sold in bonsai form.
High commercial value Calderon said rare and unique plant species in the forest have high commercial value which entice collectors to violate the law, face criminal raps and even go to jail. He noted that in the time of the pandemic, many have resorted to gathering plants in the forest. “We could not say these plants have no commercial value because they have. These unique plants, when placed in a pot, command high prices,” he said. According to Calderon, plantitos and plantitas are now in the radar of the DENR. “We are reminding the public that protected areas are not only for animals, but also for plants. And the law protects both plants and animals,” he said partly in Filipino.
He said they have alarmed the DENR regional offices about the poaching of plants in the forest.
Jail term and penalty
In Mindanao, DENR-9 Executive Director Crisanta Marlene Rodriguez has publicly warned those into “plant parenting” that illegal collection of wild plants, particularly those threatened and in areas that are set aside for conservation, is punishable by law, specifically Republic Act 9147, or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act. Rodriguez said Department Administrative Order 2017-11 states that “collection and trade of threatened species are prohibited unless such acts are covered under a permit issued by the DENR and the species are found in areas under a valid tenure instrument or a parcel of land covered by a title under the Torrens System.” Besides possible jail terms of from six to 12 years, those found guilty of poaching critically endangered plants may be slapped with a fine of P100,000 to P1,000,000. The DENR-9 Office said the giant staghorn fern or Capa de Leon, and waling-waling are critically endangered. Other threatened species are the green velvet alocasia, kris plant and the zebra plant.
Lucrative trade
Leon Dulce, national coordinator of
the environmental group KalikasanPeople’s Network for the Environment, said it is much more lucrative to forage the country’s remaining forests for unique ornamental flora instead of planting food plants. “A piece of ornamental goes for P2,500 a pot while vegetables range from P25 to P100 a kilo. But plantitos and plantitas may be causing harmful tradeoffs in the long run by depleting the biodiversity in our last remaining forests, Dulce said in an e-mail interview on September 29. “Facing an exponential increase in demand for ornamental plants, the amount of biomass extracted from our forests may disrupt the balance of its ecosystems,” he warned. Accord ing to Du lce, env ironmental authorities should launch a widespread public information campaign on the dangers of unregulated forest-plant trade. “The current crop of plantitos and plantitas are mostly new in the trade during this pandemic season. We must educate the public on which plants are endangered and must be protected, and the ecological consequences if they are uprooted from their natural habitat,” he said. Likewise, besides enforcement of the country’s plant protection laws, there should be an incentives for the propagation of more sustainable and useful alternatives to forest flora, he said.
Growing plants is good, but…
Emerson Sy, a researcher at the wildlife traffic monitoring network Traffic, said the renewed interests in growing plants among urban dwellers in the Philippines brought about by the pandemic is a welcome development. However, he said those who found a new hobby, or a way of life in growing plants, should avoid illegally harvested plants. “Many wild plants are not suitable in urban settings and will just die,” he told the BusinessMirror via Messenger on September 29. Sy agreed to the call to review current policies and regulations on plant propagation and trade. “ L aw enforcement shou ld fo c u s on t hose who a re i nvolved i n l a rge - sc a le pl a nt poac h i ng a nd t ra f f ic k i ng ,” he sa id. “Smuggling should also be addressed since plants could be carrying harmful insects and diseases that can significantly affect our agricultural sector,” he said.
China’s top climate scientists plan road map to 2060 goal Crested serpent eagle turned over to Cenro Guimbal in Iloilo T
he most ambitious climate goal the world’s ever seen now has a road map for how to arrive at it. One of China’s top climate research institutes last week laid out a plan of increasing renewable and nuclear energy and completely phasing out coal power. It’s the first blueprint from a group that works closely with the government showing how the country might become carbon neutral by 2060, a goal laid out by President Xi Jinping last week in a speech to the United Nations. The plan, from Tsinghua University’s Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy, entails a more gradual transition over the next decade-and-a-half, with a rapid acceleration after 2035. The institute works closely with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on projecting long-term goals. It also works with a separate climate research institute at Tsinghua run by Xie Zhenhua, who led China’s climate policies and represented the country in international climate negotiations for more than 10 years. Carbon emissions will peak sometime between 2025 and 2030, and total energy demand will start to decline around 2035, the institute’s director, Zhang Xiliang, said in a Sunday webinar. “We are trying to set the most cost-effective model to push every sector to realize the goal,” he said. Investments needed to meet the 2060 target could total 100 trillion yuan ($15 trillion) over the next 30 years, He Jiankun, another Tsinghua researcher,
Under the plan, coal-fired electricity would be eliminated by 2050, and China’s energy mix would undergo a drastic transformation: Energy source
2025
2060
Percent change
Coal
2.86 billion tons of coal equivalent
110 million
-96%
Natural gas
560 million
140 million
-75%
Oil
980 million
340 million
-65%
Hydro
440 million
660 million
50%
Biomass
110 million
220 million
100%
Wind
240 million
1.07 billion
346%
Nuclear
170 million
820 million
382%
Solar
150 million
1.03 billion
587%
said last week. Power generation would nearly double from 2025 to about 16.4 terrawatt-hours in 2060, with electricity making up 80 percent of total energy consumption by 2060. Wind, solar and nuclear power will have to be boosted to offset the decline of dirty power as total electricity demand keeps increasing. If realized, China’s nuclear power generation is set to quadruple between 2025 and 2060, which will probably mean enough plants to more than double the size of the US’s current fleet, which is the world’s largest. China would need to boost its share of non-fossil
fuel energy to 20 percent by 2025, five years earlier than it planned. Chinese renewable-energy companies have soared in the past few weeks on the possibility. Bloomberg News reported earlier that China is considering formalizing the target in its upcoming five-year plan. The elimination of coal power would call into question dozens of power plants currently under construction. They would be rendered obsolete in 30 years, typically the time needed to recoup capital costs on them. “While this proposal might get China to carbon neutrality by 2060, it would be better for the economy
and the environment if emissions would decline more rapidly,” said Dimitri de Boer, China representative of ClientEarth, a European nongovernment organization focused on environmental law. “China has an opportunity now to boost the strategic sectors of the future, such as renewable energy, hydrogen, electric vehicles, green buildings, and smart grids,” de Boer said. Some of the other key benchmarks Zhang laid out include: n China’s carbon emissions are projected to rise from about 9.6 billion tons a year to 10.2 billion between 2025 and 2030. n Emissions will fall to about 9 billion tons in 2035, and then will decline dramatically to 3 billion per year by 2050, 900 million by 2055 and 200 million by 2060. n Energy demand will peak around 2035 at somewhere between 6 billion and 6.5 billion tons of coal equivalent. n Coal-fired power will be phased out around 2050. The share of non-fossil fuels in total energy demand will grow from about 15 percent last year to 20 percent by 2025, 24 percent in 2030, 62 percent in 2050, and 84 percent in 2060. China will have to apply carbon capture and sequestration or bio-CCS to mitigate the remaining carbon dioxide. Bloomberg News
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crested serpent eagle was turned over to Community Environment and Natural Resources Office in Guimbal, Iloilo, recently. Geerazel P. Nieles, a resident of Barangay Diday in Miagao, Iloilo, found the raptor and turned it over to the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (Menro) in Miag-ao. The wildlife was found in good condition after its initial inspection. It was kept safe at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Wildlife Rescue Center in Barangay Kirayan, Miag-ao, Iloilo. It is now ready for release in a nearby forest in the area. “To save our wildlife species, we should conserve their habitat as its destruction threatens the species,”said DENR Regional Executive Director Francisco E. Milla Jr. “We could help reduce the threats by planting trees, restore wetlands and rivers and clean up the beach or coastal areas. Our environment also needs some tender loving care as we continue the battle to contain the coronavirus disease [Covid-19],” he added. The crested serpent eagle is a medium-size raptor found in forested habitats across tropical Asia. There are several variations of the species and they have large looking head with long feathers on the back of
the head, giving a crested appearance. Its face is bare and yellow, joining up with the beak and has feet that are heavily scaled but has no feathers. Crested serpent eagles would usually hold their wings in a shallow V-shape. Its juveniles are distinguished by a much more white plumage especially around the head. They are usually seen in the edges of forests and river valleys where they can soar and effectively hunt. They are also seen soaring over a territory in pairs and shrill often with a loud and familiar three or two-note call. Serpent eagles can tolerate a great deal of disturbance to their habitat and are primarily found near secondary forests. As its name suggests, serpent eagles feed on snakes and also on other reptiles as well as small mammals and birds. They are apex predators and at the top of their food chain controlling the population of snakes and also other small mammals and birds. Their presence is good indicator of a healthy ecosystem. It was considered Least Concern by the International Union of Conservation for Nature’s Red List. Enhance biodiversity conservation is among the top 10 DENR priority programs and projects of Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu.
Sports BusinessMirror
A8 Sunday, October 4, 2020
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WO former University of Santo Tomas (UST) Growling Tigers expressed their frustration over the Sorsogon City Bubble controversy that continues to hound the team that owns 18 titles in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP). Richard Melencio and Gerard Francisco, members of the UST men’s team that won four straight crowns under the late Head Coach Aric del Rosario from 1993-96, confided to BusinessMirror their sad thoughts over what could be one of the school’s darkest moments in the 82-year-old league. “I feel sad for my alma mater and I hope they make actions for everyone to move on,” said Francisco, son of long-time UST Athletics Director Felicitas Francisco, known to everybody in the UAAP as “Mommy Tiger.” “The best thing to do now for the team is to wait for the decision of the Inter-Agency Task Force [IATF] and the Department of Justice. [DOJ],” Francisco said. The provincial government of Sorsogon, citing a recommendation of the Philippine National Police-Sorsogon Office, cleared resigned UST Head Coach Aldin Ayo of any violation of health and safety guidelines when he brought his team to his native Barangay Capuy in Sorsogon City to train amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph / Editor: Jun Lomibao
FORMER TIGERS WANT TEAM TO MOVE ON The Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Commission on Higher Education, however, stressed their investigation of the Sorsogon City Bubble is independent from the Sorsogon inquiry. The UAAP has already suspended Ayo indefinitely from all its activities even before the Sorsogon police conducted its investigation. “Whatever decision they would come up with, I just hope for the UST to redeem itself,” Francisco said. Melencio, son of the late Olympian and
basketball great Rogelio “Tembong” Melencio, also aired his frustration over what hounds the team that molded his basketball career. “UST is part of my young years in basketball. It’s at UST where I developed as a player with Tatay Aric and Coach Dong Vergeire. It’s just sad to know that our alma mater is going through a tough time right now,” Melencio said. Francisco and Melencio played for the national team in 1998 where they bagged the gold medal in the Jakarta Southeast Asian Games, with the late Vergeire as their head
PETER SAGAN is a man to watch in the Giro d’Italia.
SAGAN MAKES GIRO DEBUT
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E has won three World Championships, a record-breaking seven green jerseys in the Tour de France, and titles at Classics galore, but for over a decade the space in Peter Sagan’s palmares marked Giro d’Italia remained stubbornly blank. On Saturday in Palermo, though, that will change, finally. “Peter, welcome, we’ve been waiting for this moment for so long,” was how one particularly enthusiastic Giro d’Italia journalist prefaced his question to Sagan, 30, in Friday’s press conference. But despite his nine appearances at the Tour de France, and four at the Vuelta Italia, and understandably high local expectations, as the Bora-Hansgrohe pro himself hinted, it would be unwise to make too many zealous predictions of runaway Sagan success. That’s partly because as a Giro novice, his initial plans—to do the Giro d’Italia in May and then go on to the Tour—was already a voyage in the dark. And it’s also relatively rare for him to do two Grand Tours in a year. The last time was in 2018, when he followed a very successful Tour, featuring three stage wins and green in Paris, with an unremarkable if consistent Vuelta a España. But what has really changed matters, of course, are the upheavals in the 2020 calendar that have left the 12-year pro facing utterly new challenges, starting with the fact that less than two weeks ago the Slovakian was battling on the roads of France— unsuccessfully—for an eighth green jersey. “I’ve come in from the Tour de France, I was neither very good nor very bad there, just lacking a bit of luck and I came out of it fine,” Sagan said on Friday. “But I’ve never done two Grand Tours in such a short period. It’s been a strange year, unique.” “I had decided to do the Giro because that was the decision at the start of the year and also I was at the Giro presentation, so here I am,” he said. “I’m going to try to win some stages and then I will look at what I can do in the points jersey competition.” Cyclingnews
coach and Boyzie Zamar as assistant coach. Jomer Rubi, fellow UST player Chris Cantonjos, Romel Adducul, Ralph Rivera and the late Junnel Mendiola were among their teammates. “I just hope they could come up with the right decision for everyone to start over again. And I also hope that whoever coaches the Tigers again, he will defend the reputation of the school of the team and the players, just like what we were with Tatay Aric. We were the lucky ones,” Melencio said. Annie Abad
US cyclist suspended by team after pro-Trump comments on Twitter
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ENEVA—American cyclist Quinn Simmons was suspended by the TrekSegafredo team on Thursday after posting antagonistic comments on social media in support of President Donald Trump. The 2019 junior road race world champion replied to a journalist from the Netherlands who had criticized Trump on Twitter. “Regrettably, team rider Quinn Simmons made statements online that we feel are divisive, incendiary, and detrimental to the team, professional cycling, its fans, and the positive
future we hope to help create for the sport,” TrekSegafredo said in a statement. “[He] will not be racing for Trek-Segafredo until further notice.” The 19-year-old rider reacted Wednesday when Dutch journalist José Been posted on Twitter that she hoped for her American friends that “this horrible presidency ends for you,” adding “if you follow me and support Trump, you can go.” Simmons replied by writing “Bye” with an emoji of a dark-skinned hand waving. When a separate account replied “Apparently a Trumper,” Simmons countered “That’s right” with
a United States flag symbol. Trek-Segafredo, an American team formerly known as RadioSchack-Nissan, later issued a second statement quoting Simmons as saying that he did not mean for the tweets to be offensive. “To those who found the color of the emoji racist, I can promise that I did not mean for it to be interpreted that way,” Simmons said. “I would like to apologize to everyone who found this offensive as I strongly stand against racism in any form. “To anyone who disagrees with me politically, that is fine. I won’t hate you for it. I
only ask the same.” The team added that Simmons “was not suspended because of his political views. He was suspended for engaging in conversation on Twitter in a way that we felt was conduct unbefitting a Trek athlete.” Been later deleted her original post and wrote Thursday that she feels “horrible about the situation and terrible for [at] QuinnSimmons9 to miss his beloved classics. To suspend him would never be my choice.” Simmons is in his first season with the Trek-Segafredo team, which described him on its web site as “at his best in punchy one-day races...he will be a perfect fit for the Classics team.” Team Manager Luca Guercilena said he still thinks Simmons “has a bright future as a professional athlete if he can use this opportunity to grow as a person and make a positive contribution for a better future for cycling. We remain committed to helping Quinn as much as we can.” AP QUINN SIMMONS’S team says it wants him to grow as a person. AP
Japanese swim team captain caught in extramarital affair
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AIYA SETO, captain of the Japanese swimming team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, stepped down from his position after it was revealed he had dived into an extramarital affair. Seto’s resignation comes after a weekly magazine published a story about the 26-year-old meeting a woman who was not his wife at a love hotel. Seto, who is the reigning world champion in the men’s 200 meters and 400m individual medley, released an apology through his management company for his actions. He announced that he visited the Japan Swimming Federation to resign as the captain of the Olympic swimming team for his home Games. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been pushed back from July 23 and
August 8 next year. “I’m very sorry,” said Seto. “I want to do my best to restore people’s trust, so I ask for your continuing support in this effort.” The scandal led to the swimmer losing his image-rights agreement with the Japanese Olympic Committee, as well as the severing of ties with his corporate sponsor All Nippon Airways, upon the airline’s request. “We have been supporting Seto, but this problem does not fit with the image our company hopes to project,” a spokesperson for All Nippon Airways said. Seto, who also clinched a bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics Games in the 400m individual medley, earned a spot at his home Games after becoming a double world champion last year. He was then appointed captain of the team in January. Love hotels are popular in Japan and are
DAIYA SETO steps down as skipper of the Japanese team to the Tokyo Olympics.
used by couples for short periods of times, usually one to three hours. The shorter periods are referred to as “rests” while an overnight room hire is regarded as a “stay.” The organizing committee of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, meanwhile, named Mikako Kotani as its new sports director. She takes over the position on Thursday. Kotani won two bronze medals in synchronized swimming—now called artistic swimming—at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. She replaces Koji Murofushi, who is becoming Japan’s Sports Agency commissioner, a position in the Japanese government. The Tokyo 2020 organizing committee is headed by 83-year-old Yoshiro Mori, a former Japanese prime minister. Kotani is also a member of the executive board of the Japanese Olympic Committee and one of the few women in a sports leadership position in Japan. The cabinet of new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has only two women among its 20 members. Insidethegames and AP
Q&A: How to handle technology issues with online school
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BusinessMirror OCTOBER 4, 2020 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com
YOUR MUSI
RHYTHM & RHYME by Kaye Villagomez-Losorata
TOGETHER AGAIN
James, Nadine, KZ come together for online music concert
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AST Saturday, James Reid and Nadine Lustre got back together—at least for an online concert staged by Smart.
Alongside KZ Tandingan and Curtismith, the ex-couple trended that weekend on Twitter and performed a series of solo numbers for Smart GigaFest Virtual Concert streamed live over the network’s
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official Facebook page and YouTube channel. The online concert underscored how we can get our gig fix these days. Definitely huge and loud on production value, the local music festival sampled viewers with how things are going to be for the long haul. With a set heavy on originals, the performers capitalized on audience glued to their streaming devices while KZ belted out songs like “Labo,” “Imposible, “Darating Din,” and “Nag-iisa Na Naman.” James performed “Fiend,” “I Know You Care,” and “16b” back to back with Nadine’s “I Like It,” “No 3 2,” and “St4y Up.” The concert was part of Smart’s month-long GigaFest series of promos and online events.
Quarantine Baby
I was browsing through Apple Music weeks back and was going through latest OPM releases when
I chanced upon “Quarantine Baby,” a song reuniting two-thirds of the Apo Hiking Society—Jim Paredes and Boboy Garovillo delivering classic feels written in new normal fashioned lyrics. The song definitely takes you back to Apo’s ballad prime because it’s easy on the ears and playfully cheesy on the melody. In an Instagram post, Paredes shared, “Our first recording as a duo. We were in different countries (and) we just sent our digitally recorded voices (to put the record together). One might say it was a transpacific endeavor.” This is how the music industry is moving on despite the pandemic. Like the Filipino’s good old friend, resilience, it’s a relief to see veteran musicians thrive by going fully digital these days.
Reflection 2.0
WHILE we’re on the subject of blasts from the past, “Mulan’s” live action reboot leaked recently and Christina Aguilera returned to talk to her “Reflection” anew. Now 39, the singer told revealed via Twitter that she watched “Mulan” on Disney+ with kids and had quite an experience.
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“They’ve heard the music and they saw me recording it I the studio but they haven’t seen the live action version yet so it was a beautiful thing to share than with my children,” Aguilera tweeted. She went on to tell fans that, “Recording the new ‘Reflection was actually very emotional for me. I teared up many times. (I) had to swallow the emotion because I’m not an accurate singer while crying. I realized how much has changed from the original place and time I recorded the song.” Responding further to a twitter question, she disclosed, “I am partial to the new version although I look back and smile at the version I did as a teen… I can hear the youth of a girl who doesn’t full know herself or the power of her instrument yet.” And if you listen to the two versions, you’ll hear that Aguilera is right. “Two women” performed in the recording of the same song. The 2020 version has more grit, character, depth, and you can almost hear a lot of history to it. We actually noticed this from the song’s teaser weeks before it was officially released.
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BUSINESS
SoundSampler by Tony M. Maghirang
MULING KAGAT Another bite of premium Hotdog
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OTDOG, the band founded and led by the brothers Rene and Dennis Garcia, laid the foundation for Manila Sound, which in turn, gave rise to the now omnipresent Original Pilipino Music aka OPM. Hotdog created a distinct Filipino twang to the Western pop and rock sound exemplified by such popular hits as “Ikaw ang Miss Universe ng Buhay Ko,” “Annie Batungbakal,” “Bongga Ka ‘Day” and “Beh. Buti Nga!” In their prime, it wasn’t unusual for Hotdog to play a college gymnasium in the afternoon then perform at the classy bar of a 5-star hotel in the evening. The band’s firm grasp of Filipino sensibilities simply allowed them to straddle the pop and rock divide of ‘70s Pinoy music and in the process, the social class gap, as well. The early passing of Hotdog’s main men, Rene in 2018 followed by Dennis this year, was deeply mourned beyond their inner family circle, to include fellow musicians of all stripes and music aficionados of all ages. Their untimely deaths were just as deeply felt by 35 year old Paolo, son of Dennis Garcia, who found solace paying homage to the musical legacy of his father and uncle. His tribute titled “Muling Kagat” is a collection of tracks Demnis previously produced for other artists and remixes of old Hotdog recordings from the vault. In conversation with SoundStrip, Paolo said, “The idea project came about when dad passed away last January. I couldn’t bear to let his memory fade away without doing a special tribute album. The idea was to touch on obscure and overlooked tunes and stay away from the hits which everybody already knows anyway.” It’s a compilation album and the various artists who became involved its production are Paolo’s musician friends like Armi Millare, Radha Cuadrado, Project Yazz, Krina Cayabyab, Mike Luis, and Sach Castillo. “We used old Hotdog songs composed and written by Dennis Garcia, Rene Garcia, Mon Torralba,
FRONT and back cover of Paolo Garcia’s Muling Kagat album
SCENES from Hotdog’s Unang Kagat movie
Lorrie Ilustre, etc”, Paolo explained. “I had some help with new arrangements from maestros Emil Mayor, Jireh Calo, and Junno delos Santos, among others.” Recording took place in Analog Heaven, dad Dennis Garcia’s studio in Makati and Paolo’s recording studio in Nuvali, Laguna. The pandemic put the project on hold for a while, but was eventually completed online with musicians recording remotely from home, Paolo added. Paolo calls Muling Kagat a labor of love. Lest it be interpreted to mean a passion for that ‘70s Manila sound, the album actually exudes an eclectic vibe, echoing a diverse musicality that ranges from the ‘30s French cabaret to ‘60s bossa nova to ‘90s acid jazz. In fact, the nu jazz undercurrent gives momentum to the more dance friendly tracks. Paolo recalled, “Dad (Dennis) taught me to always appreciate good music. He introduced me to artists like Stevie Wonder, Sergio Mendes, Earth, Wind and Fire and
all that good stuff from the 70s. As an artist myself, I am forever indebted to him for his guidance and support. Dad was a creative wordsmith who was always full of ideas. His work ethic was ethic unparalleled. I owe him the fact that I am on the same musical path he has taken.” Two songs stand out if only for lyrics that go “Tama na ang dalawang anak at isang asawa” and “Tapos ng ang dalawa’y huminto na tayo.” What’s up with those? “No major significance, really, “Paolo said. “Family planning was an in thing during the 70s. Dad found a way to promote the cause through music and I felt it would be fun to play around with those songs.” Paolo is no stranger to pop music. Aside from filial affinity to music artists. He started out playing drums for the school band in fifth grade then eventually moved to rap in the ‘90s. His rap phase proved enlightening. It got him hooked on vinyl records and
ding! the music-making fever in him rose several notches. He clarified, “Listening to old records from the 70s was like tasting old wine for the first time. I was hooked. I actually didn’t’ listen to hip hop for months after that revelation. It led me into the realm of music production where I eventually found my calling.” Muling Kagat is a tribute album to music of ‘70s icons and Paolo Garcia thinks it should not be seen as a passing reminder of better music before, only to be forgotten when brand new idols parade their fresh stuff. He articulated, “For me, Muling Kagat is a time capsule of the 70s with hints of modern influences. I believe that was the best era for Filipino music simply because everything was so fresh and new then. “I hope future generations will learn to love these songs as much as the hits and continue to make great music.” Muling Kagat is now available on Bandcamp.
Q&A: How to handle technology issues with online school By Tali Arbel The Associated Press
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EW YORK—The pandemic has forced students to attend virtual school to prevent spread of the coronavirus. But the more we rely on technology, the bigger the consequences when gadgets or Internet service let us down.
Technology being technology, all sorts of things can go wrong. Your Internet service may be inadequate for all-day videoconferencing or simply overstressed. Hardware and software can be confusing, can break, and sometimes just fails to work. There can be unanticipated consequences from turning on a new video camera in your home for school lessons. Here are answers to some common questions from parents now forced to manage their kids’ virtual educations. Q: We don’t have a computer/enough computers/fast enough Internet service for online school. What do we do? A: This affects millions of people, and there are no perfect solutions. It’s possible to use smartphones as hot spots for computers, but that’s an imperfect solution at best. Not all plans let you run hot spots off your phone, and if you can, you probably face data caps—which makes it impractical for all-day online school. Some cable companies are offering low-cost service for eligible families, although those programs are typically limited to areas the companies already serve, often provide only minimum broadband speeds and frequently aren’t available to former customers who owe the cable company money.
Kelly Mack works on her laptop to teach remotely from her early 1940s vintage camper/trailer in her backyard at home in Evanston, Ill. AP Schools may provide Internet hot spots or free Internet at home for families without good service. Get in touch with the district or talk to a teacher about how to get help from your schools. They may also be able to send computers or tablets to kids, although there’s a shortage of education-style computers at the moment. Q: Our service slows way down when several people do video calls at the same time. Are there simple ways to fix that? A: Talk to your Internet service provider. It may be time to update your modem or router, and some offer Wi-fi extenders to improve the network. ISPs can also try repositioning your existing equipment to improve the range and strength of Wi-fi connections. Other options include “mesh” style Wi-fi networks that let you position several base stations around a large house, giving you a stronger signal most everywhere. If necessary, it may be time to pay up for higherspeed service. You can also try talking to teachers and coworkers to reschedule calls to go easier on the network. Turning off your own camera during video calls can help, too. Sometimes teachers can record lessons and send them to kids to watch later if live streaming isn’t possible. Q: My kids are anxious about seeing themselves on camera and get frus-
trated in constant video meetings. What can I do? A: Keeping video cameras on is one way teachers try to ensure kids are paying attention and not beaming out to play video games, but not all kids react well. Discuss any anxieties with teachers to work out solutions—for instance, your kid might not need to keep their head in frame at all times. If a child definitely needs to be on screen, practice being on video calls with family members, said David Anderson, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute. Exposure to the scary situation helps children get used to it. Another option: Services like Zoom let you remove your own image from your screen while keeping your camera on. Zoom explains how to do that online. Kids frustrated by having to sit in front of a computer all day and missing their friends may act out, sighing loudly or disobeying the rules, Anderson said. Instead of issuing punishments, try to come up with coping plans—offer breaks and activities they enjoy in return for participating in virtual school. For older children and teens, give them room to do the activities they love independently. “Remind them what they’re working toward and what they can look forward to,” Anderson said. “Build up coping thoughts for kid to get through the rougher part of the day.”
Finding your hybrid workplace sweet spot
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mong the many changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic is a drastic shift in the way companies work. Most businesses, including TELUS International Philippines (TIP), leading provider of customer experience and digital IT solutions, have adopted a hybrid setup, where only a portion of the work force reports to the office at any given time, while the majority works from home. “Whatever the work setup is, we want to bring peace of mind to our team members, whether they work remotely or onsite,” said Andrew Araneta, site senior director for TIP’s McKinley Exchange offices in Makati. Here, team members share how they found a “sweet spot” where they can be most productive as they adjust to TIP’s hybrid workplace.
Set up greener spaces
Plant-loving online communities are sprouting up all over social media. While it’s a good side hustle for many, jumping
on the bandwagon to start your plant collection can greatly improve the ambience of your workspace and also contribute to your good mood. It’s better if you can set it up in a small corner where air circulates freely so, even when you work the night shift, it feels cooler and calmer. Ria Ferariz, TIP team member, said: “It’s true that tending to plants can be relaxing. There is a good flow of energy and it easily brightens up my work area.”
Know and manage your Internet connection
Not all homes are blessed with a strong Internet connection. Know where the Internet is spotty and where the connection is strongest, especially for activities like video calls that need a reliable connection. “I created a workstation in the corner of my room where our Internet connection is strongest,” explained Paulo de Torres from TIP’s HR team. “I also make it a point to tell my housemates whenever I have
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important video meetings, so they don’t eat up the bandwidth by watching Netflix at the same time.”
Take periodic breaks and vacations
Whether at home or at the office, it’s important to remember to take regular breaks from tasks. According to a study1 conducted by health and hygiene company Essity, those who take time off and savor their meal breaks are able to recharge and power through their tasks better than others. “It is important for us to remember that vacations and time to detach from work are vital in enabling us to sustain performance, productivity, creativity and prevent burnout,” said Araneta, the TIP site senior director. “We encourage our team members to talk to their leaders and plan their vacations so they take time off when it makes sense and matters most for their personal well-being.” October 4, 2020
Oversharing: What is not OK to share online
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ith the increase of time being spent online and the diverse activities being posted on different social-media platforms, Kaspersky shares a reminder for parents and those with younger siblings about the risks of children oversharing online. Latest research from the global cybersecurity company Kaspersky confirmed that social media is the top activity for online users in Southeast Asia for the first few months of 2020. Conducted last May among 760 respondents, the fresh study revealed that 80 percent of parents in the region are spending a lot of time on different social networking apps as the lockdown restrictions force them to work at home and look after their kids, all at the same time. “While these virtual networking platforms can be a useful source of knowledge and assistance for parents who are trying to juggle their tasks, it is essential to remember that ill-minded individuals lurk around here, too,” said Stephan Neumeier, managing director for Asia Pacific at Kaspersky. Adults living with children should make sure that sensitive information do not get posted online. One of which is home address or school. Children rarely publish their home address on social networking sites, but very often they name the school they attend. It’s important not only to post this information on the main page, but also not to share it through some comments or photos that would clearly tell what school your child goes to. Posting photos of expensive gifts could also attract cybercriminals. This is a demonstration of wealth or luxury to strangers. Together with your home address and current geolocation, it is a gold mine for thieves searching for victims on the Internet. It is critically important to remember and to teach children that before you click the “Publish” button, take a minute and think. Here are a couple of other ways to keep you and your children safe in the digital space. n Tell your children what must not, under any circumstances, be published on the Internet and why. Explain that posting on a social networking site is like speaking in public—you shouldn’t write anything on the Internet that would be considered dangerous or unethical to “shout” about in the street or in a classroom. n Register on the same social networking sites as your children and add them as friends so you can see their posts and quickly prevent any excessive openness. n Make use of parental control apps such as Kaspersky Safe Kids, which protects your children from inappropriate content and informs you about changes to their social network profiles and friend lists, as well as any potentially dangerous posts. For parents and older siblings who aim to secure children better, the latest version of Kaspersky Total Security, which includes a Safe Kids feature, is available in the Philippines for PC and Mac at leading IT stores nationwide.