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EDITORIAL

Adelle Chua, Editor / Joyce Pangco Pañares, Issue Editor

Opinion mst.daydesk@gmail.com

‘Cheerleading killings’

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AST week, President Rodrigo Duterte signed an administrative order that created the Presidential Task Force on Violations of the Right to Life, Liberty and Security of the Members of the Media.

According to the order, the duty of the task force is to ensure a safe environment for media workers.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been an encouraging development.

The practice of journalism in the Philippines is seen as one of the most dangerous in the world, next only to conflict zones.

Unfortunately, the President’s antagonism toward members of the media, which he perfectly articulated in the ear-

ly days of his administration, gives us reason to wonder how sincere he is in protecting the lives, liberties and security of media workers.

Who would, for instance, be able to brush aside his comments implying that murdered journalists likely had it coming because they were corrupt?

A few days later, Mr. Duterte qualified these incendiary statements saying that there were various groups of media workers in the Philippines: the true advocates, the paid hacks and the corrupt.

He meant to say that his previous statements applied only to the third group.

Media workers and organizations will not deny that some among us do give the profession its bad name. Measures are being done to address this at the core. Nonethe-

less, it does not give anybody any reason to justify their killing—something that has entered a gray area like many other things in this organization.

Already international watchdog Human Rights Watch, through a statement by its deputy Asia director Phelim Kine, said journalists have reason to be skeptical about the integrity of a Duterte government inquiry.

Kine said: “Not just because Duterte has himself justified the ‘assassination’ of journalists he deems ‘corrupt’ but also because the government has been cheerleading killings without consequence in its so-called ‘war on drugs’...”

And indeed since the start of the Duterte administration until the first week of October, more than 3,000 have been killed via

either ‘legitimate’ police operations or vigilante-style assassinations.

We can almost hear how the now-notorious presidential mouth will respond to this latest expression of doubt by a representative of an international body—if he has not, already. But Mr. Duterte cannot blame Kine, or anyone for that matter, for thinking that the belated creation of the task force may just be some form of damage control given the earlier damning statements the President has issued on the matter.

He may choose to respond to this latest reaction in another way, for a change. We wonder if it is really beyond the President to not take offense and instead assure journalists and the entire public that he respects forthrightness and constructive criticism.

POP GOES THE WORLD JENNY ORTUOSTE

Should Bob Dylan have won the Nobel for literature?

you show that you care about results more than your image or ego.”

Follow through. Overnight success is not success at all. A 1985 study of 120 world-class pianists, neurologists, swimmers, chess players, mathematicians and sculptors showed that just a few of them were regarded as prodigies by teachers, parents or experts in their younger years.

“Rather, accomplished individuals worked day after day, for at least 10 or 15 years, to reach the top of their fields.”

This is akin to the minimumrequirement rule described by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. To be really good at something, he posited, you have to work on what you do for no less than 10,000 hours.

Resilience. Author Andrew Zolli defines resilience as “the ability of people, communities and systems to maintain their core purpose and integrity among unforeseen

THERE is no doubt that Bob Dylan has had tremendous impact on the development of music and musicians over the years.

His plain style of folk music that melds lyrics sympathetic to the common man with melodies plucked from an acoustic guitar was an inspiration to activists in the 1960s who took some of his songs as rallying anthems, and to subsequent generations who read messages of hope and encouragement in his music.

Dylan has received many accolades over five decades, including 12 Grammys, an Oscar, and a special Pulitzer in 2008 for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.”

On Oct. 13, the Swedish Academy bestowed the Nobel prize for literature on the musician for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

This is the first time in 112 years that a songwriter has been so honored. The last American to win a Nobel for literature was novelist Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye, Beloved) in 1993.

This is not the only Swedish prize Dylan has received. In May 2000, King Carl XVI of Sweden gave him the Polar Music Prize.

The announcement of Dylan as the Nobel winner was a shock to many. A week before, on Oct. 6, New Republic news editor Alex Shephard wrote a piece with the head “Who Will Win The 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature?” The subhead was, “Not Bob Dylan, that’s for sure.”

Shephard shared Ladbrokes’ list of personalities in the betting.

Syrian poet Adonis drew odds of 6/1, Haruki Murakami 4/1, Joyce Carol Oates weighed in at 14/1, and our own F. Sionil Jose was at 100/1. Dylan was another longshot at 50/1.

The furor erupted immediately. Critics debate whether song lyrics can be considered as poetry of a literary nature. That’s going to be discussed far into the future by ivory tower academics, but putting poetry and lyrics side by side on paper, it’s clear the lyrics take the form of poetry, albeit intended to be set to music and sung. This was the

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Hail the gritty LONG STORY SHORT ADELLE CHUA ALL parents want their children to be successful in their chosen field.

This is why we work hard —so we can create an environment and give them the tools we think they need to achieve just that.

We want to know what exactly what predicts success. Is it talent?

IQ? Being born in a certain socioeconomic class? Attending a good (expensive) school? Having a conventional, relatively peaceful, family life?

All these do bear on how children eventually turn out, but recent research shows there is something else that is a far better predictor of whether children will actually find meaning and happiness in what they do. It is called grit.

Grit is defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals.

It is carrying on despite distraction, temptation and failure.

“Grit entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over the years despite failures, adversity and plateaus in progress. The gritty individual approaches achievement as a marathon; his or her advatage is stamina. Whereas disappointment or boredom signals to others that it is time to change trajectory and cut losses, the gritty individual stays the course,” so say Angela Duckworth, Christopher Peterson, Michael Matthews and Dennis Kelly in their paper “Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-term Goals” published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2007.

One of the authors, Duckworth, has gone on to become a more vocal advocate, publishing her own book, Grit, and becoming a famous TED Talk speaker.

*** So why do different people, of generally equal intelligence or talent, achieve different levels of success? The answer lies on good old grit, which characteristics are summarized by Forbes Magazine’s Margaret Perlis as courage, conscientiousness, follow through,

Grit predicts success more than talent or IQ can. resilience and excellence.

Courage. Courage, we say, is not the absence of fear. It is pushing ahead despite it. Fear of failure, for instance, is debilitating— many would rather not try than risk trying and thereafter failing.

But gritty people know that we

are all bound to fail at one point, or several. They acknowledge that failure is part of the learning process and that the important thing is, as the song goes, is to “pick [themselves] up, dust [themselves] off and start all over again.”

As parents, we often try to shield our kids from the consequences of their actions or omissions. We don’t want them to feel pain or frustration. What this tells us is that we just might want to adopt the “let them fail” approach, not so that we can punish them and say “I told you so!” but so that they can learn to deal with failure which is, they will eventually find, inevitable.

Conscientiousness. To be conscientious means to be careful, painstaking and meticulous, and being accountable for one’s actions no matter what. Travis Bradberry writes for The Huffington Post: “By holding yourself accountable, even when making excuses is an option,

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The fiesta saved from terror

By Arizza S. Nocum IN JUST a few moments, my excitement turned into fear.

My mother, my father, and my five-year old brother— our bunso—boarded a plane from Manila headed to our hometown, Zamboanga City, a few days ago to join the mad festivities of the yearly Zamboanga Hermosa festival.

Each October spent in Manila is torture for our family when the closest thing we can come to the festival is through Facebook. It was not enough just to see the flood of photos and videos of the extravagant vinta races, the wild street parties, the Chavacano song concerts, the colorful parades, and—most importantly—the delectable abundance of seafood and native delicacies. We had to be there.

Naturally, when my parents and brother freed up their calendar this year to fly to our beloved city, I was terribly excited for them.

Unfortunately, that excitement evaporated when news came in of an imminent terrorist threat right at the peak of the month-long festival. Last October 8, authorities discovered an improvised explosive device in Plaza Pershing—one

of the city’s central landmarks.

Threats purportedly came from Abu Sayyaf, the internationally linked terrorist organization that has recently been making headlines due to its kidnap-forransom activities.

Since the device was discovered to be designed for remote detonation, local authorities requested the National Telecommunications Commission to shut down all telecommunication services—including mobile phones—to prevent communication among terrorists that could lead to tragedy. Starting Sunday, signal lock-downs have been going on for several hours in a day.

If anything, the incident highlights the very real threat of terrorism that continues to persist in Zamboanga. It pains me to imagine what could have transpired had the explosive device detonated right in the middle of a celebrating crowd.

Zamboanga is not blind to these threats, and neither is the national government. Thousands of troops have been sent to Sulu and other parts of Mindanao to combat the Abu Sayyaf as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s mission to completely annihilate its membership base.

However, not many understand that the problem of ter-

rorism in particular areas of Mindanao is linked closely to the 400-year-old struggle for self-determination of Muslim Filipinos. After several colonial governments, a number of administrations, the rise of groups such as MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) and MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front), the establishment of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), various military campaigns to squash the insurgency, and the bid to create the Bangsamoro entity, there is still no clear end in sight to the violence.

If these political and military solutions have not been working so far, then that must mean they are not enough. A multi-dimensional problem such as this conflict begs an equally multidimensional solution that cuts across the economic, social, historical, cultural, and religious aspects of the challenge as much as the political and military aspects.

For instance, killing off Abu Sayyaf members one by one may squash the group effectively, but this may also create more grievances and revenge plots that will merely lead to an Abu Sayyaf spin-off group. Rather than relying on a responsive campaign in the aftermath of these terrorist

attacks, we should be focusing on preventing the recruitment and radicalization of terrorists in the first place.

One question that the government should be asking is, what motivates people to fight for the Abu Sayyaf? Answers will range from following a jihadist mission to heeding the call of the groups’ charismatic leaders.

However, one oft-overlooked answer is economic in nature.

With Muslim Mindanao experiencing extremely low per capita income and lacking ample access to attractive opportunities in education and employment, many may simply want to join to get a piece of the milliondollar price tag on each kidnap victim’s head.

Another angle that the government should be looking at is age. While Abu Sayyaf’s leaders are relatively old, its membership will be strikingly young.

In my hometown, many will agree that groups such as the Abu Sayyaf are notorious for recruiting child soldiers. With this piece of information, surely the government can create counter-terrorism programs in schools and local government units to prevent young people from falling into the cracks.

The response to terror cannot be one that relies solely on

war and violence. That way, we are merely fighting fire with fire. Asking the right questions, understanding people’s needs, and designing creative solutions should be able to attack the problem at its roots and make sure the Abu Sayyaf’s job advertisements go unanswered.

Ultimately, fear—and hatred of the enemy—must be replaced with empathy.

My own fears became a forgotten interruption as the grandiose fiesta celebrations continued in Asia’s only Latin City.

I breathed a sigh of relief (and envy) upon seeing my parents post pictures of themselves on Facebook celebrating in Zamboanga’s iconic Garden Orchid Hotel, eating fresh crabs and spicy Satti, and enjoying the breezes of Paseo del Mar. There is really no place like Zamboanga, and that gives me even more reason to fight for its safety and protection from any modicum of terror.

Arizza Ann S. Nocum graduated this year from UP Diliman, BS in Industrial Engineering (magna cum laude). She is overall director of KRIS Library, one of the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines and has represented the country in various international youth forums.

Why we are all prisoners facing a dilemma

By Pecier Decierdo THIS is the story of two prisoners with a dilemma. But this is also the story of all of us, so listen closely.

It starts with the story of two prisoners. Let’s call them Pedro and Maria. The authorities have enough evidence to implicate Pedro and Maria in a minor crime. They suspect them of committing a greater crime.

However, they can only implicate Pedro and Maria of the greater crime if either provides testimony against the other.

How can the authorities make them rat each other out?

One clever prosecutor came up with the solution—give them an offer they cannot refuse. To understand the beauty of this offer, let us analyze the situation using game theory.

Game theory is the study of how different rational actors will decide on a situation given the possible outcomes.

(In game theory, the situation is called a ‘game,’ the actors ‘players.’) In game theory, the situation Pedro and Maria are in is called the prisoners’ dilemma. It goes like this.

If Pedro and Maria both refuse to testify, they each serve five years for the minor crime.

In the language of game theory, we say that they cooperated with each other. Now, if Pedro cooperates and Maria rats on him, then Pedro rots in jail for 20 years while Maria goes free after 3 months. In the language of game theory, we say that Maria has defected. If Pedro defects and Maria cooperates, then Pedro goes free after three months while Maria spends 20 years in jail. If both defect, each will spend 10 years behind bars for their major crime.

But what if they both keep mum? Let’s look at the options open for Maria. If Pedro cooperates, Maria is better off defecting because spending three months in jail is better than serving five years. If Pedro defects, Maria has even more incentive to defect, because serving 10 years is better than serving 20.

Whatever Pedro decides to do, Maria is always better off defecting. And the same is true for Pedro. Hence, by pursuing their best interests, Pedro and Maria

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shocks and surprises.” Grit, or hardiness, he says, has three marks: the belief that one can find meaningful purpose in life, the belief that one can influence one’s surroundings and the outcome of events, and the belief that both positive and negative experiences will lead to learning and growth. It’s all a mix of optimism, confidence and creativity.

Excellence. Gritty people are not perfectionists. They recog-

will testify against each other and end up serving 10 years.

But surely serving five years is better than serving 10. Why wouldn’t the prisoners agree to cooperate? After all, mutual cooperation brings them to the win-win deal of serving five years. The answer is simple and has already been given—each prisoner is always better off defecting. In other words, the rational decision for each prisoner is to defect.

Letting the prisoners talk to each other just makes it worse, because then Maria will just think that Pedro is trying to get her to cooperate so that he can go free after three months while she rots in jail. In game theory, the technical term for a person who cooperates against his best interest is ‘sucker.’

But what if one prisoner loves the other? Then he will be a sucker for love and potentially serve 20 years. At any rate, his decision will not be a rational one.

But how is the prisoners’ dilemma important if few of us will ever be Pedro or Maria? This is where the power of game theory comes to the fore. Game theory is not interested in the content of the game, only its form. From the standpoint of game theory, prisoners’ dilemma is not about the prisoners but about a game whose structure is such that players who act on their best interest end up in a situation that is less than ideal for everyone involved.

Here’s one example. If both you and your roommate clean the room, then you both get a very clean room. But if you clean but your roommate doesn’t, then he gets a clean room without exerting the effort. To avoid being the sucker, you don’t clean the room. If he cleans, then good. If he doesn’t, then at least you did not waste your effort serving a free loader.

The examples are not always as mundane. Sometimes, it can be explosive. For instance, if both United States and Russia disarm their nuclear warheads now, then the world becomes a safer place. That’s a win-win.

But, acting on their best interest, both US and Russia keep their nuclear warheads; both countries defect, because they are better off doing so. The

world is less safe as a result.

Similarly, our roads are clogged with cars, our forests are disappearing, and our seas are running out of fish, all because no one wants to be the sucker.

Even the biggest challenge of our time, addressing humanmade climate change, is made even more challenging because of its prisoners’ dilemma structure. This explains why countries are slow to act on climate change despite the fact that our survival depends on quick action. In the competitive global economy, no one wants to be the sucker who cooperates while the rest goes on business as usual.

How do we beat the prisoners’ dilemma? By changing the game. Specifically, we beat it by making the rational decision the one that also leads to the best possible outcome. We design the outcomes so that cooperation will not be for suckers, and defection will not go unpunished.

That’s easier said than done.

It’s also easier to say in broad strokes than to outline in detail.

But we know that with some effort and political will, it is possible. For example, the US and Russia have found a system to simultaneously decrease their number of live nuclear weapons. Some cities have found regulations that work to discourage car use and encourage the use of public transportation, biking, and walking.

When it comes to climate change, we’ve discovered a few game changing strategies. One would be to make renewable energy cheaper. However, we still have a long way to go, and to reach our goal we need more strategies to convince more countries to cooperate on the goal of saving the world. (How funny it is that the world needs encouragement to save itself, but that’s the way it is.)

One step in figuring out what those strategies are is to learn game theory. Only once we realize that we are prisoners of the prisoners’ dilemma can we begin to hack at bars that keep us from being free.

nize that there is so much imperfection in the world, and pursuing perfection can just lead to negative, counterproductive results like low self-esteem, obsessivecompulsive tendencies, depression and sometimes substance abuse.

What the gritty aim for is excellence—which they see as an attitude, a disposition, and not an end in itself. Excellence is a way of life, done every day in the big things and the small. *** But how do parents instill grit

in their children, especially given the penchant of today’s generation to work “smart” instead of working hard, their apparently limited attention span, the abundance of distraction, and the general tendency to tread the easy path?

Duckworth shares that she and her husband enforce The Hard Thing Rule in their home for their teenage daughters—and themselves as well. All members of the family have to be doing a difficult thing. They should be interested in that endeavor, sure, but it re-

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

Don’t throw it away. Bloomberg

The cashless society is a creepy fantasy

By Elaine Ou IT’S fun to imagine a world without cash.

Liberated from the burden of physical currency, consumers could make purchases from the convenience of a mobile device. Every transaction would come equipped with fraud protection, reward points and a digital record of its time and location. Comprehensive tracking could help the Internal Revenue Service reclaim billions of tax dollars lost to unreported income, like the $80 I made selling a used refrigerator on Craigslist. Drug dealers, helpless without an anonymous medium of exchange, would acquire wholesome professions. El Chapo might become a claims adjuster.

Such is the utopia recently described by Nathan Heller in the New Yorker and by a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Kenneth Rogoff, in a new book, “The Curse of Cash.” But this universe is missing one of the fundamental aspects of human civilization. A world without cash is a world without money.

Money belongs to its current holder. It doesn’t matter if a banknote was lost or stolen at some point in the past.

Money is current; that’s why it’s called currency! A bank

deposit, however, grants custody of money to the bank.

An account balance is not actually money, but a claim on money.

This is an important distinction. A claim is only as good as its enforceability, and in a cashless society every transaction must pass through a financial gatekeeper. Banks, being private institutions, have the right to refuse transactions at their discretion. We can’t expect every payment to be given due process.

This means that politically unpopular organizations could easily be deprived of economic access. Past attempts to curb money laundering have already inadvertently cut off financial services for legitimate individuals, businesses, and charities. The removal of paper currency would undoubtedly leave similar collateral damage.

A cashless economy violates the basic laws under which currency has operated since before the Industrial Revolution. The justification for giving up a fundamental freedom is that it would clear the way for an experimental policy designed to place a tax on currency.

Money may be a shared illusion, but cash abolitionists are in a hallucination all their own. Bloomberg

quires sustained daily effort and they are not allowed to quit for a given period just because they are bored or frustrated or feel they are no good at it.

Some parents bombard their children with “reminders” that they should be doing this or that, but experience tells us this hardly works especially since it is so easy for children to just tune out, however valid and priceless the message is.

Some try to simply set a good example by exhibiting the traits associated with grit, in the hopes

that the kids will pick up the clues and live them, themselves. But this could be all too subtle.

The challenge to instill grit in our children—and the consequent feeling of confidence that because they have it, they will be fine when we are gone and wherever they eventually choose to go—is in itself a goal that requires perseverance and passion on the part of parents. And so we try, shunning the fearing of failure, carrying on despite stumbling blocks, and tirelessly beginning anew each morning.

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work of bards such as Homer, also recognized as a poet and historian.

Dylan’s lyrics are inarguably poetical. In “Tambourine Man,” he sings, “Though I know that evening’s empire has returned into sand / Vanished from my hand / Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping / My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet / I have no one to meet / And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming…”

However, if one posits that song lyrics are also literary verse, then Dylan’s lyricism can be matched by Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, and other musicians who similarly have the gift for loading meaning in a turn of phrase.

In “Queen of the Slipstream,” Morrison sings: “You’re the Queen of the slipstream with eyes that shine / You have crossed many waters to be here / You have drunk of the fountain of innocence / And experienced the long cold wintry years / There’s a dream where the contents are visible / Where the poetic champions compose / Will you breathe not a word of this secrecy/ And will you still be my special rose…”

Cohen’s “Alexandra Leaving” is expressive and elegant: “Suddenly the night has grown colder / The god of love preparing to depart / Alexandra hoisted on his shoulder / They slip between the sentries of the heart / Upheld by the simplicities of pleasure / They gain the light, they formlessly entwine / And radiant beyond your widest measure / They fall among the voices and the wine / It’s not a trick, your senses all deceiving / A fitful dream, the morning will exhaust / Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving / Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost…”

The difference among the three, perhaps, is the theme of their content—the latter two, more often than not, are troubadours of romantic love, while Dylan is a historian of social issues.

This reflects what many perceive the Academy’s new direction to be, as evinced in recent years—a moving toward artists who have political themes in their work, and a moving away from the elitism they have been criticized for. Once the field for writers of note, the Academy’s broadening of the definition of literature can be hailed as a step toward inclusivity.

There is no dispute that Dylan’s powerful hold on the imagination that has lasted for decades is worthy of recognition. But the Nobel was envisioned to honor and incentivize writers of books. There are other, equally prestigious prizes for musicians, and Dylan has won them all and more. (Dylan himself has not yet commented on his Nobel.)

This year’s choice by the Swedish Academy is controversial. While awarding the prestigious prize to a doyen of pop culture widens the Nobel field, it also withholds the honor from writers whose bodies of works are overdue for recognition.

Dylan is known the world over as a musician. The prize is for writers; as stated in prize founder Alfred Nobel’s will, the award for literature is to be given to “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.”

Altering the definition of literature this year calls into question the Academy’s credibility and judgment.

Here’s novelist Gary Shteyngart’s reaction: “I totally get the Nobel committee. Reading books is hard.”

Facebook: Jenny Ortuoste, Twitter: @jennyortuoste, Instagram: @jensdecember *** The Homeschool Association of the Philippine Islands, HAPI for short, is holding its annual Philippine Homeschool Conference this Saturday, October 22 from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the SMX Convention Center, SMX Aura Premier in Taguig.

This year’s theme is “From Roots to Wings: Homeschooling through the Stages.”

Visit www.educatingforlife.co for details. adellechua@gmail.com

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

TODAY

2 Sino films top Busan fest B

USAN—Chinese movies have taken the two main prizes at Asia’s premier film festival, with judges lauding their portrayal of two very different versions of modern reality in their country.

Wang Xuebo’s “The Knife in the Clear Water” and “The Donor,” from Zang Qiwu, were Saturday morning announced as winners of the New Currents award at the 21st Busan International Film Festival.

The directors are set to collect the two prizes of $30,000 that come with the award when the festival officially closes on Saturday night.

“These films were incredible,” said veteran African director Souleymane Cisse, New Currents jury head.

“They were very ambitious

and out of the ordinary.”

Wang’s first feature presents a lyrical look at the often-stark realities of life in a mountain village and judges praised the debut director for his “extremely photogenic” production that “serves as a backdrop to a poetic parable on grief and freedom”.

For what is also his first film as a director, Zang--who for a number of years worked alongside acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou (“Curse of the Golden Flower”)--turned his attention to the controversial is-

sue of organ transplants.

“The filmmaker creates a portrait of humanity and sacrifice that is restraint yet boiling with underlying emotion,” said Cisse.

“The excellently scripted film plays as much on the images as on the immaculate timing and superb acting. The conclusion is heartbreaking: when you fight destiny you will lose.”

The decision to hand the awards to two Chinese films comes as relations between Beijing and Seoul appear strained following moves in South Korea to set up a missile defense shield with the aid of the United States.

Korean television shows-wildly popular in China--have since August vanished from broadcast in China while a se-

ries of planned K-pop events have been canceled.

There were 11 films from sevens nations and territories in the running this year for the New Currents award and Cisse said judges had been impressed by them all.

“We could really feel the passion of the directors,” he said.

The strength of the main competition this year proved the perfect tonic both for the festival and the thousands of film fans who make the annual trek to South Korea’s second city.

BIFF had arrived looking to rebuild its reputation after two years marred by accusations of political interference, and with former festival head Lee Yongkwan facing sentencing for his

charges of embezzlement on October 26.

There were shows of support throughout the 10-day event for the beleaguered Lee. A photo wall in the main festival building displayed messages to him from around the world and many guests wore badges decrying what some in the film industry have labeled persecution following his decision to screen a controversial documentary about the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014.

Despite those troubles--and a slashed budget--the BIFF program managed to reflect the growth of an Asian film industry that seems, on this evidence, to be in rude health.

Hollywood stars Miles Teller (“Whiplash”) and Aaron Eck-

Chat with White House via Facebook WASHINGTON--It’s now easy to chat on Facebook Messenger with the White House--or more accurately through the presidential “bot” released by the Obama administration on Friday.

The White House unveiled what was touted as “the firstever government bot” on the messaging application--bringing the US government into the age of artificial intelligence.

“Hi, it’s great to hear from you--and we’re excited to learn what’s on your mind,” the bot tells users signing up to chat.

Users can send messages, 10 of which will be read each day

by President Barack Obama, according to the White House.

Jason Goldman, chief digital officer of the White House, said the new bot is another way for the public to communicate with the administration and the president.

Monet’s haystacks to be sold

“While receiving messages from the public isn’t a recent phenomenon--every day, the White House receives thousands of phone calls, physical letters, and submissions through our online contact form--being able to contact the president through Facebook has never been possible before,” Goldman said in a blog post.

“Today, it’s able to happen because of the first-ever government bot on Facebook Messenger.”

Goldman said the White House has gone a step further by making the bot open-source for other developers to use.

“We’re open-sourcing this White House technology, with the hope that other governments and developers can build similar services--and foster similar connections with their citizens--with significantly less upfront investment,” he said. AFP

Bangkok’s parties out, black clothes in BANGKOK—With soldiers closing down Bangkok’s notorious go-go bars and tourists forced to sneak sips of beer from paper cups, Thailand is dialling down its raucous party scene out of respect for the country’s late monarch.

Furthermore, Thailand’s government has warned of a national shortage of black clothing, which is flying off shelves as a distraught nation mourns beloved late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The passing this week of 88-year-old Bhumibol Adulyadej has thrust the Buddhist nation into a period of profound mourning, with masses of tearful Thais filling the streets to pay respect to a king worshiped as an exemplar of moral virtue.

Like nearly all of their compatriots, Thai bar girls swapped their normally racy attire for more modest black dresses and shoes when they showed up to work Friday night.

In Bangkok’s Soi Cowboy--a famed alleyway of luridly lit gogo bars and a barometer of the city’s adherence to temperance during coups, street protests and religious days--patrons who trickled through were soon disappointed.

At around 10pm soldiers pulled the plug on the blinding neon lights as they enforced an

early closing time in compliance with government orders to “tone down” celebrations as the nation grieves.

“Suddenly the army came. It was a group of five guys,” said Geroem Bonami, a 31-year-old tourist from Belgium.

“We were asked to pay and they started to tidy up everything and the girls disappeared.”

Minutes after the ailing monarch’s passing was announced on Thursday, Thailand’s junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha took to national television to declare a one-year official mourning period.

He also asked the public to refrain from celebrations for at least 30 days, and dozens of events -- from concerts to fun runs, wedding parties and religious festivals--have been canceled since.

Television networks are also under orders not to broadcast any overly joyous images--such as dancing--with one major channel saying it would not be airing its roaringly popular soap opera series.

While the military regime has not issued an all-out ban on alcohol, which is common on Buddhist holidays, many shops have opted to stop selling drinks and bars around the capital are taking special measures to show that no one is having too much fun. AFP

MOURNERS. Buddhist monks pray for the late Thai King Bhumibol

Adulyadej in Thailand’s southern province of Narathiwat on Saturday. AFP

hart (“The Dark Knight”) were in town with the Ben Younger-directed boxing biopic “Bleed For This”--and sent the fans wild-but much of the focus was split between engaging art house fare and commercial Asian films that look set to travel the globe.

Na Hong-jin’s thriller “The Wailing,” all murder and mystery, was a case of the latter, flying the flag for Korea’s ever-growing industry, while a preview screening of this year’s closing film--Iraqi’s director Hussein Hassan’s family drama “The Dark Wind”--was an example of the former, and left critics buzzing.

“We have had some hard times but we have remained focused on identifying Asian talent,” said BIFF executive director Kang Soo-youn. AFP

MINSTREL. Scottish singer Rod Stewart stands with his wife Penny Lancaster, as he poses for a photograph with his insignia of Knighthood medal, after being presented with it during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London on October 11. AFP

Greenhouse gases banned soon KIGALI—World envoys were Friday putting the final touches to a deal in Rwanda to phase out potent greenhouse gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners, a major step in curbing global warming.

Tough negotiations have seen major developing nations such as India put up a fight over the timeline to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and the financing of the transition.

However some delegates were already praising an early agreement in principle, and were hammering out the final details in late night sessions.

“Country representatives are now negotiating the final details of the amendment,” read a tweet from Rwanda’s natural resources ministry.

“This is a huge win for the climate. We have taken a major concrete step in delivering on the promises we made in Paris last December,” said Miguel Arias Canete, a commissioner with the European Union in a statement ahead of the adoption of the agreement.

“The global phase-down we have agreed today could knock off up to half a degree of warming by the end of the century.”

However thrashing out the nitty-gritty of the deal could take talks into the early hours of Saturday.

HFCs were introduced in the 1990s to replace chemicals that had been found to erode the ozone layer, but turned out to be catastrophic for global warming.

However swapping HFCs for alternatives such as ammonia, water or gases called hydrofluoroolefins could prove costly for developing countries with sweltering summer temperatures, such as India.

These countries want a later date for the phase down to begin.

“There are issues of cost, there are issues of technology, there are issues of finances,” said Ajay Narayan Jha of India’s environment and climate change ministry.

“We would like to emphasize that any agreement will have to be flexible from all sides concerned. It can’t be flexible from one side and not from the other.”

Last month, a group of developed countries and companies offered $80 million (72 million euros) to help developing countries make the switch away from HFCs. AFP

NEW YORK—The Christie’s auction house in New York will offer for sale one of Claude Monet’s celebrated “haystack” paintings, valued at an estimated $45 million, which should reconfirm collectors’ appetite for Impressionist art.

With wealthy Chinese collectors expressing keen interest in such works, the painting--part of a series of haystack pictures painted

by Monet during the winter of 1890-91 from his French home in Giverny--will first be presented next week in Hong Kong. It will then be shown in London before returning to New York in early November.

This canvas, representing a simple cone-shaped haystack at dusk, is one of the rare works in this series to still be in private hands, Christie’s said.

Most of the others are in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, or the Art Institute of Chicago. This painting, to be auctioned on November 16, was acquired in September 1891 by the Knoedler & Co. art gallery, which brought it to the United States.

In recent years, prices for works by Monet or other celebrated Impressionists have shot through the roof.

The record for a Monet was set in June 2008, when a work from his “Water Lilies” series-”Le Bassin aux Nympheas”-was sold by Christie’s in London for 40.9 million pounds ($80.1 million). AFP

SECURITY PLANT COMPLEX (SPC) DISPOSAL COMMITTEE NOTICE OF AUCTION The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), through its Disposal Committee, invites bidders to participate in the auction for the sale of the following: Item ITEM DESCRIPTION LOCATION FLOOR PRICE No. 1 1 Unit Komori Sheet Fed double PHP47,503,698.85 deck 6 x 6 colors offset printing press with rainbow printing device 2 1 Unit Automatic Assembly and Bldg. B 13,809,284.57 Finishing Machine 3 1 Unit Automatic Folding Machine 318,897.00 4 5

2 Units Fornigrafica Pressing Machine 1 Unit Special double semiautomatic book pressing machine

4,960.00 301,339.42

The schedule of activities is as follows: 1. Issuance of Bid Documents Room 405, 4th Floor, Building A, Starting date: 17 October 2016 BSP SPC, East Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City Date/Time : 17 October 2016 to 2. Inspection of Items for Auction 21 October 2016 at 9:00 am and 1:00 p.m.

Date/Time: 20 October 2016 3. Pre-bid Conference at 9:00 am 4. Opening of Bids 3/F Staff Dining Date/Time: 26 October 2016 Room at 10:00 a.m.

The BSP reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to declare the bidding a failure, to annul the bidding process and to reject all bids at any given time prior to award of contract, without thereby incurring any liability to the bidders.

Furthermore, the BSP reserves the right to waive any minor defect or formality and to accept the proposal most advantageous to the Bank.

(MS-OCT. 15,16 & 17, 2016)

(SGD) ROUENA L. ROSAL Chairperson