Ms sect b 20170326 sunday

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SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 2017 Adelle Chua, Editor

Opinion

Joyce Pangco Pañares, Issue Editor

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

EDITORIAL

POP GOES THE WORLD JENNY ORTUOSTE

WHY EVERYONE SHOULD KEEP A SKETCHBOOK

A FAIRER WORLD M ARCH is women’s month. Every year the world “celebrates” women in all societies— paying tribute to the ones who have made a difference despite the odds, and committing to help all those who have yet to find their voice, much less pursue their potential.

It should not be a token celebration.

Unfortunately, many people mistake Women’s Month celebrations for exalting women, asserting that they need protection, and that they must be treated with flattery and be subject to special rules and considerations.

We all know this isn’t so. Just recall that viral video of a professor being interviewed on BBC about South Korean politics. In the middle of the telecast, his children storm into his home office and

approach the screen. When the professor learns about this, he tries to distract his daughter into doing something else; it is only when his wife gets the children out of the room and closes the door that he becomes visibly relieved.

Another video surfaced a few days later. This time it is a female professor being interviewed. When her daughter walks into her home office, she picks up the child lovingly while continuing to talk serious matter with the interviewer.

She gives a bottle of milk to the toddler.

She entertains the other, younger child with a rattle. She does other household chores—preparing a meal, ironing a shirt, cleaning the toilet, even defusing a bomb—while carrying on the conversation on the fate of the Korean president with a straight face, hardly looking overwhelmed. Finally her husband comes and asks where his other sock is, and she concludes the interview before she proceeds to tell him where it is.

The second one is a parody, of course, but there is truth to what it shows us.

And this is exactly why women are seen in awe not just in the month of March

but every day—they are able to take on multiple roles even under the direst of circumstances. Often, they do so with flair.

In homes saddled with extreme poverty, for instance, the woman finds ways to still feed her family. In conflict areas, a woman’s first concern is that her children are safe and well-fed. Female corporate executives or top officials, tasked with making high-impact decisions, are not tied to their office desks—they are able to enjoy personal and family time as well.

But perhaps the best role that women can take on is to help others realize their economic status, religion or gender does not define them. A woman inspires others to speak out when everybody else cowers, or to break patterns when it is so much easier to go with the status quo.

Unfortunately, she has to deal with harsher backlash when she dares speak her mind.

Women’s Month is not a time to speak patronizingly about the “fairer sex.” Every day, instead, is a challenge to build a fairer world for everybody— regardless of gender.

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JUNIORS’ JOURNEY LONG STORY SHORT ADELLE CHUA

THIRTY-SIX young musicians have collectively qualified to represent the Philippines in the Summa Cum Laude International Music Festival in Vienna in July.

These members of the Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra will compete against similar youth groups from Austria, Germany, China, United States, Ja-

pan, Australia, Thailand, Spain, and Italy.

The contest will be held at the prestigious Golden Hall of the Musikverein.

The MSJO, whose members are between nine and 21 years old playing the violin, viola and cello, has also been invited to play in concert venues in Salzburg, Munich and Prague. They will go on to

the Sound of Music tour and undergo tutorials and workshops by the best music teachers in Europe.

The trip does not come free. The tour fee and airfare will be shouldered, partly by the families of the children and partly by the orchestra through scholarships.

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I’VE always been a great believer in Joan Didion’s advice on keeping a notebook.

In her essay named exactly that, included in her “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” collection of essays, she says it is “in order to remember, of course, but exactly what was it I wanted to remember?... So the point of my keeping a notebook has never been…to have an accurate factual record of what I have been doing or thinking,” but rather “how it felt to me.”

Notebooks—and diaries and journals— are, therefore, a way to experience the world and to express that experience. We take an event, say, “lunch with Adelle on Thursday,” and write it down in our planner.

In our notebook or diary we expand on that, noticing some things and not others, and sometimes remembering things wrong, but that was how the lunch was for us.

A sketchbook has the same purpose. But what relevance does it still have today, in the age of mobile phone cameras, which are more convenient to use and accurate as to image quality?

But that is exactly the difference between photography and drawing. Photos are too detailed, too perfect, when sometimes what you want to capture is an emotion or an impression. Making marks on paper, however tentative or hesitant, is still more special than a photograph because a drawing is your own interpretation of what you saw.

Keeping a daily sketchbook is like keeping a notebook, but primarily in drawings rather than words. You might say, “But I can’t draw…” Did that stop us, when we were children, scribbling merrily all over our Grade 1 pads and squabbling over the gold and cornflower crayons?

We can all draw, and sketching is a way to tap into the potential to develop that skill while creating and preserving memories— “create” because we choose what to remember, and “preserve” because those drawings are safe in a book.

It’s not only memories we can keep pressed between the pages of a sketchbook, but flights of fancy as well.

An officemate saw me scrawling in my sketchbook when we were away at a training.

“My nine-year-old daughter draws a lot,” she said, “those anime characters and robots, but on loose sheets of paper that get misplaced or thrown away.”

I said, “Get her a sketchbook so you have a record of her progress. It’ll be great for you both to see later on how her skill and imagination have developed.”

For some, sketching is a way to communicate what’s inside them that they cannot, or will not, express verbally. In her graphic novel One Hundred Demons, cartoonist Lynda Barry advises putting down on paper all the demons you’ve wrestled with in your past—in her case, a lice-ridden boyfriend and a stereotypeaddled grandmother (who was Filipina).

Writer and visual artist Jay David has his own 100 Demons project, a Moleskine notebook populated by a vampire Voltes V and a Frankenstein Mazinger Z, among other creatures.

Artist Al Rio (IG: @artistmonk) says she keeps a sketchbook because “Ideas tend to pop up, sometimes at inconvenient times.

So I…sketch it for later reviewing. Also, sketching notable moments—reunion dinners, road trips, beach with friends— sometimes captures the spirit of that point in time better than photographs.”

Art can also be used not only to remember, but as a remembrance or souvenir. Another artist, Rica PalomoEspiritu (IG: @ricaespiritu) says, “I do keep several [sketchbooks], in a vain attempt to organize my drawings—one would be for doodles, zen doodles, urban sketches, people sketches…” In high school, people admired her skill and would ask for her artworks, which she gave away freely, tearing pages from her sketchbooks. “I’d buy one every two weeks and give it away.

That alone gave me the incentive to draw.”

Like a notebook, a sketchbook is an intensely personal artifact that can be shared if you wish, as Rica did and Didion, too with the material in her notebooks (she went on to use her jottings in her work).

Similarly, neither notebook nor sketchbook need be expensive, unless the allure of quality art materials tempts you—then go for it. Other people, perhaps even you, have spent money on less useful things.

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GENDER GAP IN DRUG POLICIES

By Werner Sipp I WILL never forget the visit I made to the women’s outpatient treatment service at Pereira Rossell Hospital, in Montevideo, Uruguay, in November 2015. I was in the country in my capacity as president of the International Narcotics Control Board and had the chance to participate in a group therapy session with some of the drugdependent women at the hospital.

Many of them spoke about how they had become estranged from their families and communities as a result of their drug dependence, some had been living on the streets; many held their children in their arms.

I met Ana-Paula, a mother in her twenties, whose optimism and warmth I admired, given her ongoing struggle. I was deeply moved by her story of how she had sought treatment for her coca paste dependence upon discovering she was pregnant. She realized she had lost control of her life and wanted nothing more than to have a healthy baby. She had succeeded in not using coca paste for the past few months, found a place to live in a housing center for women and a job—the money from which she entrusted to her friend for safe-keeping out of fear that she may be tempted to use it to buy coca paste again. Her main concern now was raising her son and planning for his future, and she told us that coming to the treatment service had allowed her to regain control of her life.

Unfortunately, unlike Ana-Paula, many drug-dependent women do not have the opportunity to access treatment and shelter, or are prevented from doing so. All over the world drugdependent women are ostracized from their communities and left without support. Although women and girls account for one-third of global drug users, only one in five drug treatment recipients is female. Women who take drugs are often stigmatized and discriminated. For this reason the International Narcotic Control Board’s Annual Report for 2016 emphasizes the need for drug policies and programs that take women into account.

For drug policies to be truly effective, we have to consider the distinct situations of men and women.

Governments need to take the specific needs of drug-dependent women into account to make sure their rights and those of their families are protected.

Unfortunately, many drug-related policies and programs worldwide still fall short in this regard.

Our Report shows that female prisoners and sex workers are at particularly high risk of drug use.

If we look at the past 15 years we see a major increase in the number of women arrested for drug-related offenses and, once imprisoned, female prisoners are much more likely to become drug users than men. When women are imprisoned, family life is often greatly disrupted.

There is a strong link between sex-work and drug use; women may turn to sex work as a means to support a drug-dependent lifestyle, while sex workers may use drugs to cope with the demands and nature of their work. Sex workers in many parts of the world are prevented from accessing treatment due to stigma, judgmental attitudes as well as the discomfort felt by the women themselves in predominantly maleattended treatment centers. Drugdependent women with children may also be reluctant to access treatment out of fear that they will be seen as unfit mothers and that their children will be taken from them.

One-size-fits-all drug policies are not enough. We need betterinformed policies, a more efficient allocation of sorely-needed resources and prevention programs which are targeted specifically at pregnant women, sex workers, people living with HIV/AIDS and prisoners.

All this is essential if we want to protect and improve the health and wellbeing of women and move closer to a solution to the world’s drug problem. It is my hope that this will ultimately give more women like AnaPaula the chance to regain control of their lives and provide brighter futures for them and their families.

Werner Sipp is the president of the International Narcotics Control Board, which is the independent, quasi-judicial body that monitors implementation of the United Nations international drug control conventions.

WHY THE NUMBER PI IS WORTH CELEBRATING

By Pecier Decierdo MARCH 14 is celebrated all around the world by geeks and nerds as Pi Day because 3-14 are the first three digits of pi.

Pi was first discovered by mathematicians as the ratio between a circle’s circumference and its diameter. It is named after the Greek letter that is first in the Greek word perimitros, which means perimeter.

If you get any circle and divide its length around (its circumference) and its length across (its diameter or what can be thought of as its “width”), you get pi. That’s true for any circle, no matter how big or small. Any circle at all. In fact, this fact is so essential to circles that if the ratio of a shape’s width and its length around is not equal to pi, then that shape is not a circle.

That the ratio between any circle’s diameter and its circumference is always this constant, which can be approximated as 3.14159 to the fifth decimal place, has led people to endow this special number with cosmic, sometimes even mysterious, spiritual, or religious significance.

A moment’s thought would make you appreciate part of the mystery that the ancient mathematicians, philosophers, and mystics have attached to pi. Just think about it: we haven’t gone measuring the circumference and diameter of every single circle all around the world. Such a thing is not possible. And yet if we say that for every single one of them the ratio between the circumference and diameter is the same—3.14159 and so on— we would be saying something true.

In fact, we can say such a thing not just for all circles that exist in the world, we can say it for all possible circles. That is an astounding fact!

There are so many circles that exist in the world. How many? It’s hard to tell, but we know that it’s a ridiculously large number.

Still, it is a finite number. On the other hand, there are infinitely many possible circles!

For every single one of these infinitely many circles, the ratio between the circumference and diameter is equal to 3.14159 and so on.

Give your self a few more moments to let that sink in.

The Pythagoreans, the followers of the Greek mathematician Pythagoras, held mystic beliefs about numbers. They believed that the world is made of numbers, that numbers are the fundamental building blocks of reality. But for many of them, it wasn’t just any numbers, it was whole and natural numbers—0, 1, 2, 3, and so on. They thought that all numbers could also be constructed from natural numbers. For example, 0.5 can be written as ½, the ratio between 1 and 2. Meanwhile, 0.25 can be written as ¼, the ratio between 1 and 4. Even the negative numbers can be written in terms of the negative counterparts of the natural numbers.

Pi baffled the Pythagoreans. They tried to figure out which natural numbers pi was a ratio of. Two of them—22 and 7—are close, but these are only good approximations because 22/7 is not pi. They tried and tried to look for the pair of natural numbers whose ratio will give them pi. They tried ratios of ratios—repeating fractions. It

seems they have to keep to taking ratios of ratios forever and ever to get pi. It seems a finite set of natural numbers does not exist that can capture the essence of pi. It seems that pi was beyond reason, contrary to reason. Pi was “irrational.”

The Pythagoreans’ search for the natural numbers whose ratio was pi was, of course, a journey to the end of the rainbow. That is why pi can never be written as a finite set of decimals. The digits of pi will go on and on forever, without repeating or exhibiting a pattern; without rhyme and, if the Pythagoreans are to be believed, without reason.

The ancient Indians computed to about five digits, the ancient Chinese to about seven. In the 14th century, the Indian mathematician Madhava and the European mathematician Gottfried Leibniz independently came up with a formula that can spit out as many digits of pi as desired (or as can be quickly computed). Some NASA engineers said that, for the purposes of sending spacecraft to distant worlds within the Solar System, 15 or 16 digits is sufficient.

We celebrate pi because it is a great starting point to the wonderland of wonders and shapes that is mathematics. So next year, take the time to celebrate pi day by seeing how many digits you can memorize, learning about the history of mathematics, writing a piku (a poem whose stanzas have 3 syllables, then 1, then 4), or maybe just eating some pie.

Pecier Decierdo is resident physicist and astronomer of The Mind Museum.

A REPUBLICAN FIASCO YEARS IN THE MAKING

By Jonathan Bernstein AFTER seven years of pledging to repeal and replace Obamacare as soon as possible, Republicans pulled their bill from the House floor just before a scheduled vote—because it was going to go down in flames.

We should pause and realize what a big deal this is. The number one agenda item for years, the one that most House Republicans campaigned on when first elected, and they couldn’t manage to even get an initial bill out of the House. Not only that, but it was clear this week that even though most of them were willing to vote for it, practically no one was enthusiastic about what they had produced.

It also polled terribly, and conservative health care wonks hated the bill.

Who was responsible? A president with a short attention span and no grasp of either process or policy didn’t help. A speaker of the House with little experience or, so far, much in the way of demonstrated legislative ability wasn’t helpful, either. Then there is the rejectionist House Freedom Caucus, who have shown again and again that they are willing to let the perfect (from their very small minority point of view) be the enemy of the good. This time, that wasn’t hard, since no one really thought the House’s product was any good.

Really, however, this is only the latest climax of a long cycle of Republican dysfunction which dates back to George H.W. Bush’s administration, when House radicals upended Bush’s budget deal with Democrats in a dramatic floor vote.

JUNIORS’...

From B1 MSJO’s executive director and conductor Jeffrey Solares is hard pressed to raise at least P2.5 million for the orchestra’s share in the expenses. He has explored numerous ways to come up with the funds. He has been talking to potential sponsors, institutions and individuals both, and has begun on online crowd funding campaign through gogetfunding.com.

On May 27, the children will have a fund-raising concert at the Manila House at Netpark, Bonifacio Global City.

Meanwhile, the families of the young musicians are also doing their best to provide their share, realizing that this is an opportunity that does not come by often to just anyone. *** The young musicians have to play from among a list of pre-selected pieces that would best show their skill and technique.

They rehearse on weekends especially now that most of them are on summer vacation from school. Yes, they are typical teenagers who must

Those radicals, led by Newt Gingrich, eventually took over the Republican conference in 1995, and promptly shut down the government twice. They stripped the House of the resources it needed to legislate, and committees of their institutional memory by termlimiting their chairs. They capped it off with an irresponsible impeachment of a popular president. After that, Gingrich was gone, but the Republican House just got worse, with a decade marked by repeated mismanagement and corruption.

When Republicans regained their House majority in the 2010 election, they had a chance to change their ways, but they showed they were no different, even shutting down the government again.

Meanwhile, despite pledging as soon as they took office to write a bill to replace Obamacare, they never bothered to do the hard work of actually putting together a policy. Oh, there are real conservative health ideas out there. But the party as a whole, and the House in particular, just didn’t bother. And it’s not just health care: They can’t, or won’t, create viable policy. There’s no Republican immigration bill, no Republican replacement for Dodd-Frank, and on and on. They rarely even manage to talk policy beyond clichés and symbols.

So here we are. Two months into Trump’s presidency, he’s signed almost nothing into law. His presidency is in disarray, and Trump’s inability to move votes confirms that everyone in town has figured out he’s a paper tiger with

attend regular school, play games, spend time with their friends and families. When they get their instruments out of their cases, however, and sit in front of their sheet music, they are transformed into another set of youngsters altogether.

It’s a set that does not mind long hours of rehearsals and traveling to different venues for their performances. Usually, they practice at the mall, at the space near the MSO Academy branch in Glorietta, Makati City.

Last November, they had their debut, Strings Like Teen Spirit, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

They made the rounds of Ayala malls during the Christmas season. They play regularly at Concert at the Park, Luneta.

What do they play? It’s a mix of classical pieces, original Pilipino music and even arrangements of modern rock and pop songs—think Coldplay. Think Nirvana.

But the Summa Cum Laude competition is a different challenge altogether.

Rehearsals are more punishing—and it is to the credit of their parents who tirelessly bring them to these venues and wait for them that they are able to do

very limited influence.

The House isn’t in any better shape.

Whatever they choose to tackle carries the strong possibility that Speaker Paul Ryan can’t find enough votes between relatively moderate conservatives who won’t sign on to extremist legislation and the House Freedom Caucus, which thrives on opposing very conservative bills because they’re not conservative enough.

Better skills would help, to be sure. It’s still not too late for Trump to clear out the White House, hire a real chief of staff, and start over. And on the Hill, it’s possible that the health-care fiasco will have taught Ryan and his committee chairs a little bit about how to legislate, although it’s hard to see how they can solve decades of dysfunction overnight.

If they do move to taxes next, it’s certainly possible they can manage to pass a big, budget-busting tax cut. Especially if they keep it simple. If, however, they really try to do something that deserves the name “tax reform”—that is, major legislation that will change how the individual and corporate tax systems are structured, rather than just slashing rates—then it’s likely they’ll run into the same problems they faced with health reform.

True tax reform is almost impossible in the best of times, since it basically involves harm to small, well-organized groups with abundant resources in order to provide general benefits to large, unorganized groups. And this is hardly the best of times. Bloomberg

what they do. And derive some fun out of it, in the process. *** It will be a great experience, no doubt.

But the cost of the travel is prohibitive.

Many of the young musicians come from lower- or middle-income families who, while able to provide for basic needs, no longer have additional funds to cover a European trip.

This is a call for help for all those who support the arts and believe in the ability of children to bring pride and honor to the country.

The MSJO members are talented and hardworking. Their years-long study of music has given them discipline to balance orchestra work with other aspects of being a teenager.

Going on this trip will no doubt hone their skills, strengthen their camaraderie and develop their passion for music.

They will serve as good examples to their peers and other young people to pursue their dreams and work hard at them, no matter the obstacles.

Why support music? It feeds the soul.

It inspires us to do better. It tells us there is nothing we cannot do. adellechua@gmail.com

WHY...

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There is something meditative and calming about pulling out a pen and notebook, and, while waiting in traffic or at the dentist’s office, drawing what you see in front of you, or what you wish you did. Reduced anxiety and stress is a good payoff for a few minutes of your time, right? And like other skills, the more you practice, the better you get at it. Now that’s an incentive to start.

For guidance on technique and style, these Instagram accounts are truly inspiring: @ urbansketchers, @paulwang_sg, @leighpod, @ lizsteelart, @parkablogs, @artwalk, @pwscully, @ simoneridyard, @larrydmarshall. These are but a few of the many talented sketchers whose works are online. Their accounts are a great resource for sketching tips and inspiration, and as you dig deeper, you’ll find more sketchers and discover those whose styles resonate with you.

In any case, the thing is to start. Right now.

You just might find it very rewarding.

Dr. Ortuoste is a California-based writer.

Follow her on Facebook: Jenny Ortuoste, Twitter: @jennyortuoste, Instagram: @ jensdecember

World GENDER-BENDING FASHION GAINS TRACTION ON TOKYO RUNWAY TOKYO—If gender bending fashion is suddenly all the rage in the West, think Pharrell Williams promoting Chanel’s new unisex handbag, then nowhere has the look excelled more than in Tokyo.

Japan, for decades a pioneer of the androgynous look in the style of Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto and Kenzo, is spawning young designers blurring the lines expertly between masculine and feminine.

Genderless-looking boys are gaining traction in fashion circles and on the streets of Tokyo – gay but mostly straight men who dye their hair and wear make-up – not in an effort to pass themselves off as women but to create a new standard of beauty.

“Our big theme has always been ‘unisex’,” says Takeshi Kitazawa, one half of the design duo behind trendy label DRESSEDUNDRESSED, sold by dozens of stockists in Japan and abroad. “’Genderless’ is now really common,” he explains after his show at Tokyo Fashion Week, a parade of eight male and four female models each wearing interchangeable clothes.

Staying true to its brand name, it was a half-dressed, half-undressed look of coats and trousers slashed at the side with deep splits and men – rather than women – parading down the catwalk in bare legs. AFP

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CITIES TO DIM LIGHTS IN A NOD TO EARTH P

aris—From Sydney to New York, cities and monuments dimmed their lights on Saturday in a show of solidarity against the threats being faced by the planet from humankind.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Earth Hour, an annual bid to raise awareness about global warming caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas to power cars and power plants.

Since it was first held in 2007, in Sydney alone, great strides have been made in highlighting the dire state of the planet, according to the

conservation group WWF, which organizes the event.

Earth Hour, said its coordinator Siddarth Das, must show that “each individual can help turn the page towards a sustainable, climate-resilient future for all.”

Following the path of the sunset around the world, Saturday’s events kicked off with the Sydney Opera

House dimming its lights, then moved westward through Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

Monuments including the Empire State Building, the Kremlin, Big Ben, the Tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower and Egypt’s pyramids will go dark to mark the event.

Lisbon hosted a concert by candlelight while Singapore held a “carbon-neutral run.”

Last year, scientists recorded the Earth’s hottest temperatures in modern times for the third year in a row.

Nations agreed in Paris in 2015 to limit average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees

Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial temperatures.

That is the level at which many scientists say humankind can still avoid worst-case climate outcomes in terms of rising sea levels, worsening droughts and floods, and increasingly violent superstorms.

“Climate change is visible proof that our actions can have a ripple effect beyond physical borders,” Das said.

“It is up to each of us to ensure the impact we create helps instead to improve the lives of those around us and elsewhere, at present and in the future.” AFP

TILLERSON TO MEET ALLIES AS NATO RACES TO SAVE TALKS WASHINGTON—US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet with NATO members next week in Brussels, as alliance diplomats worked to nail down the date.

“We are currently planning to hold the meeting of NATO foreign ministers on March 31. Consultations on scheduling among Allies are ongoing,” a NATO official in Brussels said.

The NATO foreign ministers meeting had been planned for April 5, but that was thrown into chaos on Tuesday when Tillerson revealed he would not be attending.

US officials now say Tillerson will head to Brussels on Friday.

“The Secretary of State will visit NATO in Brussels, Belgium,” acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, without revealing any details of planned meetings.

Officials suggested that a complicating factor might be the agenda of Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who might not be able to make it to Brussels on March 31.

NATO member Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has already announced that he expects to meet Tillerson in Ankara on Thursday, March 30. AFP

UNIVERSITY SETTLES LAWSUIT OVER HEZBOLLAH SUPPORT

BEIRUT—A Lebanese university will pay $700,000 to settle a US lawsuit over allegations it provided “material support” to entities linked to Hezbollah, US officials said.

The American University of Beirut confirmed it was settling the lawsuit, which charged it had violated the terms of grants it received from US Agency for International Development.

The US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan announced the deal on Thursday, saying AUB would be required to pay the US government $700,000 and revise its internal policies to ensure future compliance with US law.

“For years, the American University of Beirut accepted grant money from USAID, but failed to take reasonable steps to ensure against providing material support to entities on the Treasury Department’s prohibited list,” said Acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon H. Kim said.

“With today’s settlement, the University is being made to pay a financial penalty for its conduct, and importantly, it has admitted to its conduct and agreed to put proper precautions in place to ensure that it does not happen again.”

The civil lawsuit charged that AUB violated US law by providing media training between 2007-2009 to representatives of two media outlets—Al-Nour Radio and Al-Manar television—under US sanctions for their ties to Hezbollah. AFP

POWWOW. Native American dancers participate in the Grand Entry during the Denver March Powwow in Colorado. Held over four days, the event attracts an estimated 55,000 participants, made up of dancers, drummers, vendors, and spectators. AFP

POPE HEADS TO MILAN HINTERLAND TO RALLY POOR VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis visited Milan Saturday where he met families on a housing estate, break bread with inmates in a local prison and held a mass for hundreds of thousands of believers in nearby Monza.

Bells in church towers across over 1,000 diocese rang when Francis got off the plane at Milan-Linate airport outside the northern Italian city.

The Argentine made his first stop at the Case Bianche (White Houses), a run-down, soulless collection of concrete tower blocks from the 70s on the fringe of a wealthy city better known for its football clubs and fashion weeks.

“It is a symbolic choice. The pope wanted to arrive at the heart of Milan by passing first through the outskirts,”parish priest Augusto Bonora told AFP, saying the parishioners were “wildly excited” when they heard Francis was dropping by.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church popped into three homes for a chat, sitting down with an elderly couple, a family where one member suffers from a serious illness, and a Muslim family with several children.

“The Case Bianche is a suburb like many others, with all the associated problems, from security to small-time trafficking,” Bonora said.

With its dirty stairwells, broken mailboxes and defective lifts, the neighborhood has become “a little ghettoised,” said Mirella, 68, whose son lives on the estate in one of the forgotten corners of the country’s economic capital.

Bonora admits that “like all suburbs,

it’s been somewhat forgotten by those in charge,” but insists that there social programmes in place to help the young or care for the elderly.

After visiting the families, the pontiff performed a blessing near a small Virgin of Lourdes sanctuary in front of over 8,000 locals.

Francis’s visit is “a unique occasion.

Many people, non-Christians included, came to ask for passes (to attend the blessing),” said Cesare Nera, who lives in a nearby neighborhood and has taken part in the preparations.

“Pope Francis inspires confidence, he says that the church must go out and that is what we are trying to do in our little parish,” he said, referring to the pontiff ’s call for Catholics to leave their pews and get their hands dirty.

After a meeting with religious leaders, Francis headed to the 19th century San Vittore prison where he sat down with 100 inmates and staff for a lunch of risotto, escalope Milanese and panna cotta prepared by the prisoners themselves.

“Sometimes, a certain hypocrisy leads to people considering you only as wrongdoers, for whom prison is the sole answer,” he told jailbirds in November at a special audience for prisoners at Saint Peter’s Basilica.

“We don’t think about the possibility that people can change their lives. We put little trust in rehabilitation … into society.

But in this way we forget that we are all sinners and often, without being aware of it, we too are prisoners,”he added. AFP

BLESSED. A young girl hugs Pope Francis during a visit in the ‘Case Bianche’ neighborhood on March 25 in Milan. AFP

B4

SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 2017 Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor

World

/ Joyce Pangco-Pañares, Issue Editor

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

AIR STRIKE ON SYRIAN PRISON KILLS 16

PURIFICATION. Balinese people walk along Kuta beach to attend prayers for the Melasti ceremony on the Indonesian resort island on March 25. AFP

OBAMACARE REPEAL BID COLLAPSES

W

ASHINGTON— President Donald Trump faced the biggest blow yet to his young presidency as his bid to repeal Obamacare went down in flames at the hands of rebel Republican lawmakers.

Barely two months into his term, Trump was forced to withdraw an embattled Republican health care bill Friday, moments before a vote, leaving his campaign pledge to dismantle his predecessor’s health care reforms unfulfilled.

The stinging defeat showed the limits of Trump’s power to deliver on an ambitious legislative agenda despite Republican control of both houses of Congress.

Already rocked by a string of damaging reversals and controversies, Trump must now consider how to move forward in the face of a fractured, rebellious Congress.

“Trump will have a very hard

time dealing with these divides because he does not understand them,” said John Pitney, a professor of American politics at Claremont-McKenna College.

On Trump’s agenda are a major overhaul of the tax system and a bill to upgrade infrastructure like roads and bridges.

“We were very, very close” to securing enough support for the bill, Trump said in the Oval Office.

But with no Democratic backing, “we couldn’t quite get there.”

Trump had thrown his full political weight behind the measure, spending days arm-twisting recalcitrant Republicans, and he declared himself “disappointed” and

a “little surprised” by the defeat.

The battle was an eye-opening experience for Trump, a billionaire real estate tycoon who entered the White House with no experience in politics or government, including the delicate navigations of Congress.

The bill’s defeat marked a second major policy setback for the new president, who has seen his attempt to curb travel from Muslim-majority countries twice frozen by the courts.

Instead of projecting humility, Trump went on the offensive, branding Democrats as the real “losers” of the failed repeal bid because “now they own Obamacare.

They own it, 100 percent.”

The president met with House Speaker Paul Ryan earlier in the day, then spoke with him by telephone when it was clear the party did not have the votes to get its plan across the finish line.

“I told him that the best thing I think to do is to pull this bill and he

agreed with that decision,” Ryan said.

But while Trump was quick to blame Democrats for not giving “a single vote” for his plan, Ryan owned up to the failures.

“I will not sugar coat this. This is a disappointing day for us,” said the top Republican in Congress.

The Trump-backed plan, intended to expand free-market competition in the insurance industry and lower the cost of premiums for most Americans, would also have slashed public assistance to people who have no health coverage through their employer.

Some 14 million people stood to lose their coverage starting next year, according to congressional forecasts, if Trump’s pet measure was passed.

Basic benefits covered under Obamacare – such as maternity care and emergency room visits – would no longer have been considered essential and required for insurers to provide. AFP

STEM CELL HELPS SOME MEN WITH ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION PARIS—Men unable to have an erection after prostate surgery enjoyed normal intercourse thanks to stem cell therapy, scientists reported Saturday at a medical conference in London.

In first-phase clinical trials, eight out of 15 continent men suffering from erectile dysfunction had sex six months after the one-time treatment, without recourse to drugs or penile implants.

The positive result showed no signs of flagging during a subsequent yearlong monitoring period.

“As far as we know, this is the first time that a human study with a 12-month follow up shows that the treatment is lasting and safe,” said Lars Lund, a professor at Odense University Hospital in Denmark who took part in the trials.

“That is much better than taking a pill every time you want to have intercourse,” he told AFP. The results were promising enough to convince Danish health authorities to authorize so-called phase III “doubleblind” randomized trials in which one group of men is given stem cell therapy and another placebos.

Only men recovering from prostate cancer and able to control their blad-

ders will be enrolled in the new experiments, Lund explained by phone.

To perform the procedure, doctors remove fat cells from a patient’s abdomen via liposuction.

The cells undergo a brief treatment and emerge as all-purpose stem cells, meaning they can mutate into almost any specialized cell in the body.

“We do not cultivate the cells or change them in any way,” said Lund’s colleague Martha Haahr, head researcher and lead author of a study detailing preliminary results, published last year in EBioMedicine.

The stem cells are then injected with a syringe into the penis, where they spontaneously begin to change into nerve and muscle cells, as well as the endothelial cells that line blood vessels.

Men are under general anaesthesia while all of these happen, and are discharged from the hospital the same day.

Prostate surgery is responsible for about 13 percent of erectile dysfunction cases. Up to 80 percent of men experience difficulty having sex immediately after an operation, previous research has shown.

WHO’S A GOOD BOY? A member of the Royal Malaysian Police K-9 unit performs during the 210th Police Day parade in Kuala Lumpur on March 25.

AFP

BEIRUT—At least 16 people were killed overnight in air strikes on a prison in the rebel-held city of Idlib in northwest Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Saturday.

It said the dead included prisoners and prison guards, but did not have an immediate breakdown of the toll.

The strikes were believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes, which have been flying sorties in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s government since Moscow began a military intervention in September 2015.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information, says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.

It added that guards opened fire in the aftermath of the strike on fleeing prisoners, and there were initial reports of additional casualties in that fire. AFP

MYANMAR REBUFFS UN PROBE ON ROHINGYA YANGON—Myanmar on Saturday rejected the UN rights council’s decision to investigate allegations that security officers have murdered, raped and tortured Rohingya Muslims, saying the probe would only “inflame” the conflict.

The Geneva-based body agreed Friday to “urgently” dispatch a fact-finding mission to the Southeast Asian country, focusing on claims that police and soldiers have carried out violations against the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

The army crackdown, launched in October after militants killed nine policemen, has sent tens of thousands of Rohingya fleeing across the border to Bangladesh.

Escapees have given UN investigators gruesome accounts of security officers stabbing babies to death, burning people alive and committing widespread gang rape. AFP

LAPTOP BAN HITS DUBAI FOR 1.1M WEEKEND TRAVELLERS DUBAI—Dubai International Airport and its flag carrier Emirates began implementing a ban on laptops and tablets on direct flights to the US Saturday, on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

At least 1.1 million people are expected to pass through the busiest international airport as the city marks UAE spring break, Dubai Airports’ senior vice president for communications Anita Mehra said.

An estimated 260,000 travellers were expected to pass through each day from Friday through Monday. Dubai International Airport expects 89 million passengers this year.

The United States announced a ban on all electronics larger than a standard smartphone on board direct flights out of eight countries across the middle East.

US officials would not specify how long the ban will last, but Dubai-based Emirates told AFP that it had been instructed to enforce it until at least October 14.

Travellers using 10 airports across the Middle East and North Africa are subject to the ban. AFP