Business/World
B3
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019 CESAR BARRIOQUINTO, Editor mst.daydesk@gmail.com
New fires rage as outrage over Amazon grows P
THE PROTEST CONTINUES.
Protesters gather in Kwai Fong in Hong Kong on August 24, 2019. The city has been gripped by three months of street protests that started against a proposed extradition bill to China but have spun out into a wider pro-democracy movement. AFP
ORTO VELHO, Brazil―Hundreds of new fires are raging in the Amazon rain forest in Brazil, official data showed Saturday, as thousands of troops were made available to help fight the worst blazes in years following a global outcry.
HK braces for fresh rally after night of clashes HONG KONG―Protesters gathered at a sports stadium Sunday as Hong Kong braced for more anti-government rallies, a day after clashes returned to the city’s streets following several days of relative calm. Hong Kong has been gripped by three months of street demonstrations that started against a proposed extradition bill to China, but have spun out into a wider pro-democracy movement. Beijing has used a mix of intimidation, propaganda and economic muscle to constrict the protests in a strategy dubbed “white terror” by the movement. The MTR―the city’s metro―is the latest Hong Kong business to be rebuked by the public, after appearing to bend to Chinese state-media attacks accusing the transport system of being an “exclusive” service to ferry protesters to rallies. On Sunday the MTR shut stations near the main demonstration area in
Tsuen Wan, the second day of station closures in a row. Despite this, protesters continued to gather at Kwai Chung sports stadium in the pouring rain before beginning the march to Tsuen Wan. A second rally of a few hundred, some of them family members of police, was also held on Sunday afternoon. One relative, who said she was the wife of an officer, said they had received enough criticism. “I believe within these two months, police have got enough opprobrium.” “I really want you to know even if the whole world spits on you, we as family members will not,” she said, giving her surname only as Si. “Remember, your job is to serve Hong Kong residents, not be the enemies of Hong Kong.” The city’s officers are often the focus of protesters’ anger because of their perceived heavy-handling of the rallies.
Ten people were left in hospital after Saturday’s clashes―two in a serious condition―staff said, without detailing if they were police or protesters. Saturday’s clashes saw police batoncharge protesters and fire tear gas, while demonstrators threw rocks and bottles later into the night in a working-class neighborhood. The city had appeared to have pulled back from a sharp nosedive into violence, with the last serious confrontation taking place more than a week ago, shortly after protests paralyzed the financial hub’s airport. Demonstrations started against a bill that would have allowed extradition to China, but have bled into wider calls for democracy and police accountability in the semi-autonomous city. Protesters say Hong Kong’s unique freedoms are in jeopardy as Beijing tightens its political choke-hold on the city. AFP
Multiple fires billowing huge plumes of smoke into the air were seen across a vast area of the northwestern state of Rondonia on Friday when AFP journalists flew over the area. Several residents in the capital, Porto Velho, told AFP on Saturday that what appeared to be light clouds hanging over the city of half a million people, was actually smoke from the blazes that had scorched swaths of land and left tree trunks smoldering on the ground. “I’m very worried because of the environment and health,” Delmara Conceicao Silva told AFP. “I have a daughter with respiratory problems and she suffers more because of the fires.” The fires in the world’s largest rain forest have triggered a global uproar, and are a major topic of concern at the G7 meeting in Biarritz in southern France. Official figures show 78,383 forest fires have been recorded in Brazil this year, the highest number of any year since 2013. Experts say the clearing of land during the months-long dry season to make way for crops or grazing, has aggravated the problem. More than half of the fires are in the massive Amazon basin, where
IN BRIEF
200,000 Rohingya rally to mark ‘Genocide Day’ in Bangladesh KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh―Some 200,000 Rohingya rallied in a Bangladesh refugee camp to mark two years since they fled a violent crackdown by Myanmar forces, just days after a second failed attempt to repatriate the refugees. Around 740,000 Rohingya from Myanmar’s Rakhine state escaped in August 2017 during the brutal offensive, joining another 200,000 who fled earlier persecution in vast camps in southeast Bangladesh. Children, hijab-wearing women, and men in long-skirt lungis shouted “God is Great, Long Live Rohingya” as they marched at the heart of the world’s largest refugee camp to commemorate what they described as “Genocide Day”. Under the scorching sun, thousands joined in a popular song with the lyrics “the world does not listen to the woes of Rohingya.” “I have come here to seek justice for
the murder of my two sons. I will continue to seek justice till my last breath,” 50-year-old Tayaba Khatun said as tears rolled down her cheeks. Myanmar had said they were conducting counter-insurgency operations against Rohingya extremists after they attacked police posts, but the UN last year called for Myanmar’s top generals to be prosecuted for genocide over the crisis. Rohingya leader Mohib Ullah said the stateless minority wanted to return home, but only after they were granted citizenship, their security was ensured and they were allowed to settle back in their villages. “We have asked the Burmese government for dialogue. But we haven’t got any response from them yet,” Ullah told the rally. “We were beaten, killed and raped in Rakhine. But still that is our home. And we want to go back.” AFP
South Korea begins annual war games SEOUL―South Korea Sunday began two days of war games to practice defending disputed islands off its east coast against an unlikely attack from Japan, further stoking tensions between the Asian neighbors. The annual drills come just days after Seoul terminated a military intelligencesharing pact with Tokyo, with the countries at loggerheads over Japan’s use of forced labor during World War II. The two-day exercise will involve warships and aircraft, the South Korean navy said in a text message without providing more detail. The drill-re-named “East Sea territory defense training”―will solidify the military’s resolve to defend the Dokdo islands and the area surrounding the Sea of Japan, the navy said. Japan criticized the “absolutely unacceptable” drill and “strongly” demanded its suspension. Tokyo’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the exercise was “extremely regrettable,” adding it had lodged a protest at Seoul via diplomatic channels. While a Japanese attack is deemed highly unlikely, South Korea first staged the drills in 1986 and has conducted them twice a year―usually in June and December. AFP
RITUAL.
Hindu women take part in a ritual known as ‘Sakha’ puja as they offer prayers to the deity Mahakali at the Sri Ujjaini Mahakali Temple in Secunderabad, the twin city of Hyderabad, on August 25, 2019. AFP
Returning the favor Pokémon Go was a test case, apparently. REAL CARPIO SO
Green LiGht USING location tracking and mapping technology, players catch Pokémon characters in real locations. The objective, as well as the fun, is in physically going to the area to capture them. As players walk around the real world, pocket monsters (Pokémon) appear on the game map. And players catch the monsters by throwing Poke balls at them. Introduced in 2016, the globally popular game app was seen as harmless and fun. To a certain extent, it was somewhat commended for nudging people to move around, for increasing physical activity, and for encouraging people to explore their neighborhood and community. While everybody was having fun, hardly anybody noticed that it had been an effective way to influence and change human behavior, and to collect vast amounts of data from millions of people. Harvard Business School Emerita Shoshana Zuboff wrote that while the use of the app is free, technology firms have found a way of turning our behavior into “raw ma-
terial that can be used to make predictions about our future behavior.” In her 2019 book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, she cites Pokémon Go as one example of a new form of capitalism. This new form “trades predictions about our seemingly innocuous behavior, such as where we’ll go, what we’ll see on our way and what we’ll do, for profit.” Surveillance capitalism exists in a market where “the commodity for sale is our personal data, and the capture and production of this data relies on mass surveillance of the internet.” This is performed by companies that provide us with free online services. Google captures and analyzes the trend of our searches; Amazon and Apple track our browsing and purchase history, while Facebook remembers which photo we liked or disliked, even that feed or meme that we spend a second longer looking at. These data are collected and controlled, and are used to produce “behavior prediction products” that can be used for commercial purposes. This is done without our knowledge that they were doing it and without our understanding of the extent of what they were doing with it. It is not anymore sending us a recommendation or targeting us with online advertising. Rather, the “real-time flow” of our daily lives is being sold to third-
more than 20 million people live. Some 1,663 new fires were ignited between Thursday and Friday, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. The new data came a day after Bolsonaro authorized deployment of the military to fight the fires and crack down on criminal activity. Seven states, including Rondonia, have requested the army’s help in the Amazon, where more than 43,000 troops are based and available to combat fires, officials said. Firefighters and planes are also being deployed. Six aircraft, including two Hercules C-130s equipped to carry 12,000 liters (3,170 gallons) of water each, have been sent to Rondonia to fight the fires. They are expected to be joined by 30 firefighters on Sunday. US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, both attending the G7 summit, have offered their countries’ assistance in fighting the fires. “Any help is welcome in respect to the fires,” Brazil’s Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva told reporters on Saturday. The blazes have stirred outrage globally, with thousands of people protesting in Brazil and Europe on Friday. More demonstrations are planned in Brazil on Sunday. AFP
party corporations for profit. The jeans we bought, the coffee we drank, where we go after work and on holidays, the people we know and those we interact with. These are all turned into something that can be monetized, primarily for directly influence and modify our behavior. In the case of Pokémon Go, “in choosing where to place the Pokestops where the creatures gather, the company was able to ‘herd game players to specific places: establishments, bars, restaurants, pizza joints, service establishments, places where they might fix your car, or retail shops.’” In Facebook, subliminal cues are fed into News Feed and on Facebook pages. Results show that one, they can modify real-world behavior. And two, it can be done “while bypassing user’s awareness.” Just recently, The Wall Street Journal published an investigation of a “whole range of apps that people use to which they’re feeding very intimate data.” These include health and fitness apps that are built in sensor-based wearables. Smart watches, fitness trackers, microphones, cameras, temperature and motion sensors, and others are data sources that are increasing the quantity and variety of available data. In 2015, Zuboff’s paper “Big Other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization” quotes an anony-
mous data scientist, “The goal of everything we do is to change people’s actual behavior at scale. When people use our app, we can capture their behaviors, identify good and bad behaviors, and develop ways to reward the good and punish the bad. We can test how actionable our cues are for them and how profitable for us.” We were using free services. In turn, we were being used as raw materials for free. As one scientist put it, “we are learning how to write the music, and then we let the music make them dance.” Hal Varian, chief economist of Google, Inc. and University of California Emeritus Professor of Economics is quoted, “... everyone will expect to be tracked and monitored, since the advantages, in terms of convenience, safety, and services, will be so great... ” Apparenty, we’re returning the favor. Real Carpio So lectures at the Ramon del Rosario College of Business of De La Salle University. He is an entrepreneur and a management consultant. Comments are welcomed at realwalksonwater@gmail.com. Archives can be accessed at realwalksonwater.wordpress.com. The views expressed above are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.
Nauru president loses seat in election WELLINGTON―Nauru’s president, a strong supporter of Australia’s hard-line policy of detaining refugees on the tiny Pacific island nation, has lost his seat in a general election, official results showed Sunday. Voters went to the polls on Saturday and selected two rival candidates over Baron Waqa in his electorate of Boe, ending the 59-year-old’s six years in office. His successor will not be known until the 19-member parliament meets to choose a new president, with finance minister David Adeang considered a favorite after being re-elected. Waqa proved a controversial leader at times and Australia’s Lowy Institute think tank last year said the country of 11,000 “lurched towards authoritarianism” under his leadership. His government has made it difficult for international media visiting Nauru to report on conditions facing asylum seekers. It also introduced laws carrying heavy jail terms for political protesters and at times curbed access to sites such as Facebook, which critics said was aimed at curbing dissent. Australia’s policy of processing asylum seekers on Nauru―and the equally remote Manus island in Papua New Guinea―has proved an economic lifeline for a country which exhausted its previous source of wealth: phosphate deposits used as fertilizer. AFP