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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2016

Opinion

Adelle Chua, Editor mst.daydesk@gmail.com

EDITORIAL

LONG STORY SHORT ADELLE CHUA

TEMPESTS

Manila film festival 2016

REVENGE and bitterness on the one hand, and loss and guilt on the other.

The Philippine Educational Theater Association, together with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the British Council and The Japan Foundation, merges two stories, centuries apart, into a third one that tells of redemption, forgiveness and resilience as it transcends time and space.

The Tempest Reimagined, well, reimagines The Tempest of William Shakespeare and intersperses it with stories of survivors of Typhoon “Yolanda,” which swept the Philippines in November 2013.

A fisherman, Jaime, acts as narrator.

The duke Prospero engages the help of the spirit, Ariel, in causing a tempest that would break a ship apart. It is no ordinary ship; it is one that contains his sister Alonsa and her companions on whom he wants to exact revenge. They plotted to throw him out of power 12 years ago just because he was too wrapped up in his books to actually rule. Alonsa and the queen of a neighboring city put Prospero and his daughter Miranda on a leaky boat which they set off into the unknown.

It was a miracle father and daughter reached the island alive; they have been living on it ever since.

On the same island are trapped four survivors of typhoon Yolanda, each with harrowing stories of destruction and loss. They confront their memories of that terrible, terrible day when the water rose and swept everything along its path.

Talk about how they were caught unprepared even as they, being fishermen from Leyte, are supposed to have been used to typhoons all their lives. Discuss how the term “storm surge” was never explained to them. Remember what they were doing and how they felt amidst the storm. Come to terms with how they are gripped with terror at the softest sound of rain or thunder.

Ponder why they may have survived when thousands died: What made them any better, worthier?

They also behold the “gods”— representatives of the private sector, the national government and the local government—who so pointlessly discuss the matters of providing aid in terms of shelter, fishing boats, sanitation kits, and functioning kitchens and bathrooms.

The survivors try to elevate their issues to these gods but they get so taken up with blaming each other that the issues are never resolved.

These experiences are not imagined. They are culled from the accounts of actual people who participated in PETA’s Lingap Sining Project. Established in 2014, it is “geared towards developing safe schools and resilient communities using art- and culture-based approaches.” *** Finally the characters from Shakespeare and from Yolanda meet.

The four survivors first chance upon Miranda and her newfound love, which turns out to be Ferdinand— her cousin and Alonsa’s son whom everybody thought perished in the

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INDEPENDENT CHOICES Y ear after year, cinema-going Filipinos find themselves with not much choice of movies to watch over the Christmas holidays.

Among the usual titles are franchises of movies that have aired for decades, with versions and actors changing but the stories revolving around the same themes.

Usually they take the form of fantasy films. There is a hero who slays enemies, and the hero is funny and virtuous and frail all at the same time. The villains are eventually defeated—and the hero gets the beautiful girl, as well.

Sometimes there are horror movies even if what is truly scary is the gall with which these pass themselves off as genuine entertainment.

Yet other movies thrive on sentimen-

ies, which surprisingly do not include the usual titles that producers have imposed on us over the years. Instead, the festival’s organizers, the Metro Manila Development Authority—perhaps during a lucid break from the maddening traffic situation here— have chosen eight independent movies made by emerging filmmakers.

The eight entries approved by the selection committee, chosen for their quality and representation of all genres, are “Die Beautiful,” “Vince & Kath & James,” “Seklusyon,” “Kabisera,” “Sunday Beauty Queen,”“Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank 2,”“Oro,” and “Saving Sally.”

The producer of one of the usual film outfits notorious for feeding the public junk has aired her grievance on the matter—and it is amazing how just a few words betray the industry’s extremely low regard for the Filipino audience.

tality—playing on the Filipino’s penchant for melodrama, stereotypes and tried-and-tested formula.

In recent years, other means of watching movies have emerged. Technology has allowed us to still be able to see movies of our liking without necessarily waiting for what is playing at the cinemas. Then again, this is for those Filipinos with home entertainment systems or at least personal computers and internet access. The rest of the population, though, is consigned, for a full week, to choose from the inane offerings during the Metro Manila Film Festival.

Comes now the list of this year’s mov-

“All these poor people, they have bonuses. Once they get their bonus, they bring their whole family to the movies to watch. It’s just a pity—I feel sorry for the children,” said Regal Films’ Lily Monteverde.

As far as we know, squandering one’s hard-earned bonus is not enough reason to inflict an entire bad movie on one’s family.

On the contrary, we feel great about the children and the entire viewing public, whether they get their bonuses or not, who will this year be able to have a better range of movies to choose from. It’s a festival worth looking forward to, indeed.

Woe to those who insult the people’s intelligence by thinking they are shallow, uncritical viewers who just want a quick fix. It’s time to prove them wrong and, with any luck, put them out of business.

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THE LIMITS OF FIRSTHAND REPORTS AND IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE AND HISTORY

By Pecier Decierdo RECENTLY, it became common to hear people belittle the discipline of history.

To understand a past event, some say, you must have been there. It is said that the opinions of people who weren’t alive at the time are null.

At first glance, this sounds like a tempting notion. We humans, after all, have firm confidence in the accuracy of memories, which is why we put a premium on the stories told by firsthand witnesses. Reading about something in the news or from an academic source just doesn’t feel as convincing

as hearing it from someone who was really there in the thick of it, especially if that someone is a person you know and trust.

The science, however, is clear: eyewitness reports, on their own, are never as reliable as hard data.

Before we return to that point, let us

first look at how absurd the claim that only those who witnessed a past event can understand it. If we only relied on firsthand reports, both science and history would not be possible in the first place.

Think for a moment about the fact Turn to B2

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Opinion

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

THE...

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that no one alive today was there to witness most of history. Worse, no one alive today was there to witness the evolution of humankind, the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, or the formation of the Solar System.

Both science and history are possible only because we can connect the evidence and indirect observations in a logical way to form consistent and testable stories. We understand past events not because we have lived through them, but because science allows us to act like good detectives.

Like good detectives, we arrived at the scene some time after the event. There, we collect the evidence and piece them together to form a scenario that best fits the evidence.

Treating science and history as detective stories rather than as firsthand narratives becomes even more important in cases when there are eyewitness reports available. Firsthand accounts can be very convincing.

However, their accuracy is very limited.

Ever since the 1990s when DNA testing was first introduced, an organization called the Innocence Project has been collecting data on court convictions and DNA evidence.

The results of their research are devastating. Just to give one example, they found that out of 239 court convictions that were overturned

by DNA evidence, 73 percent were based on eyewitness testimony. In other words, nearly three quarters of those first found guilty and later found innocent were pronounced guilty because of the testimony of witnesses.

Research has shown that the testimony of eyewitnesses, especially confident ones, can have a very strong influence on the decision of jurors.

However, given the data from the Innocence Project, that is worrying.

What makes it even more worrying is that other researches have shown that the confidence of an eyewitness is not a predictor of the accuracy of their testimony.

Because of these findings, there are many moves today to educated jurors of the limitation of eyewitness reports and the importance of other sources of evidence such as the forensic sciences.

There are many reasons why careful investigation, even by people who have never witnessed an event firsthand, can be more reliable than eyewitness reports.

First, the human senses and their recording into memory are flawed.

Second, recalling a past event is also a deeply flawed process.

Many of us imagine recalling a past event as something comparable to playing a recorded video. We now know that this is wrong. When we try to remember things, our mind actually reconstructs our memory.

Decades of research by psychologists have found many biases and flaws in this process of reconstruction. For example, we tend to recall only facts that agree with our beliefs and forget those that don’t. We also tend to remember events that put us in a good light and forget events that put us in a bad light. The emotions we felt at the time of an event also affect how we remember it.

Even more damning, research has shown that people can be easily given false memories. In one well-known study researchers asked respondents to recall the details of four events, three of which were true and one was fictional. Close to one-third of the respondents reported remembering the false event. In a follow-up study, 25 percent still reported remembering the untrue story.

Equally damning, other studies have shown that the way we are asked about a past event affects how we remember it, how our brains reconstruct our memories of that event.

All this should make us take a somber view of the accuracy of eyewitness reports and make us appreciate the power of the methods of science and historical analysis. Our grandparents’ stories have value, but they alone do not constitute history.

Decierdo is resident astronomer and physicist for The Mind Museum.

TEMPESTS From B1 storm. They build a home for the lovers, despite the fact that they have just lost their own homes recently.

Prospero laments how he has lost everything. Even Ariel the spirit, whom he bids to do whatever he wants, desires to be free from him. He has also lost Miranda, his daughter. He feels alone and rejected; hatred and bitterness fill his heart.

But what of loss, the Yolanda survivors tell him. Tell us about

LAWYER PRODUCES PETA PLAY FOR THE DELIGHT OF MARGINALIZED CHILDREN CONGRATULATIONS to lawyer Roy Allan Magturo on the success of his Nov. 25 production of the play “The Tempest Reimagined,” a presentation of the Philippine Educational Theater Association at the PETA Theater in Quezon City.

The sold-out show is a PETA production in collaboration with the British Council, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and Japan Foundation.

Directed by Nona Sheppard, with script by Liza Magtoto and stage design by Marsha Roddy, the play is a modern adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” based on the real stories of super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) survivors.

Many members of the audience were public high school students and special needs children from marginalized families. Magturo and physician Lorraine Marie T. Badoy worked together to ensure their attendance and provide them with a rare experience that for some could prove to be transformational: “For one moment,” said Badoy in a Facebook post, “it will be as it should be—a world where there is no ‘us’ or ‘them.’”

She describes the reaction of the kids from the National Orthopedic Hospital School for Crippled Children upon learning about their “field

trip” to PETA: “Nabingi ako (I was deafened) from the wild cheering that happened when pandemonium broke out. And I was pulled this way and that from all the hugging that happened. I wish you had been there to see and hear and smell and taste their joy. A joy so pure, it felt like rain on my face.”

This is truly an instance when Magturo combined his passions for theater arts, music, charity, and social justice (he is a staunch activist as well).

Take note of this rising impresario’s future projects. Magturo is deeply cause-oriented by nature and anything he organizes or produces is certain to be in aid of some worthy advocacy. *** Last Thursday was my first Thanksgiving in the United States, and I have to admit that I didn’t understand the hype that surrounds this oh-so-American celebration.

Sure enough, it was a public holiday, and work was suspended for most. Many took Wednesday off to travel to their homes and be with their families. I would compare it to the way we Filipinos observe Undas— All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days—when a vast chunk of Manila’s population makes for the provinces, leaving the

cities quiet and traffic-free.

In the US—specifically San Francisco and Los Angeles, which I had the opportunity to observe— traffic jams were prevalent the day before Thanksgiving, especially in LA. The airports were crammed and flights to and from many destinations on the mainland were nearly impossible to get unless one had bought tickets well in advance.

Many hotels and budget inns were likewise fully booked.

Contrary to popular belief, turkey isn’t always on the menu; it is the tradition, but quite a few folks here are practical and they feast on what they want. A roasted Butterball is too big even for our family of six to consume, so we had a honey-baked ham and prawns halabos-style.

Dessert was my mom’s homemade leche flan, made with 12 egg yolks that contain no traces of white, not even the chalazae—strings of white tissue—nor the thin film that covers the yolk and holds it together; she picks them off carefully with her fingers, and each swallow of that flan represents a great deal of labor and attention to detail.

My teenage daughter doesn’t feel Thanksgiving yet either; she covered a fellow partner’s shift at their Starbucks branch, moved by

POP GOES THE WORLD JENNY ORTUOSTE his imploration and tempted by the time-and-a-half pay and healthy holiday tips. She also argued, “Why should we celebrate it when that marks the time the Pilgrims wrested this land from the Native Americans?”

We have not embraced this holiday yet because we are so new here, so raw, that at the moment we are Filipinos who are strangers in a strange land. It will take years before we are acculturated, before we feel, as Americans do, that Thanksgiving is bigger than Christmas, if we will at all. We might come to understand this phenomenon, but not fully subscribe to it, not when our souls tingle more to the jingle of carols and church bells in the cool dark mornings.

Filipinos, moreover, are always grateful. “Ay, salamat, masarap ang ulam!” or that we were able to get that last seat on that bus, or our child comes home safe from a field trip. For each thing, no matter how little, we give thanks. Every day is, and should be, Thanksgiving Day. Dr. Ortuoste is a Californiabased writer. Follow her on Facebook: Jenny Ortuoste, Twitter: @jennyortuoste, Instagram: @ jensdecember

KENYA’S UNFORGETTABLE ELEPHANTS

A herd of elephants walk in front of Mount Kilimanjaro in Amboseli National Park. AFP

By Carl De Souza AMBOSELI National Park, Kenya— Elephants are such magnificent creatures. They are always fascinating to photograph. Especially since the logistics involved usually make things even more interesting.

One of my favorites is to accompany a collaring, when conservationists collar an elephant, which helps them gather data on them. They are fitted with a heavy-duty collar with a tracking device inside it. The information that’s gathered has really expanded our knowledge of these animals, who in recent years have come under increasing threat, poached for their tusks that are in high demand in Asia.

For example, the elephants that roam the Amboseli Park in Kenya were generally assumed to have mostly stayed within the park’s confines. But data from the last collaring have shown that in fact they wander much, much further, as far as the Masai Mara, near the Serengeti, and the Tsavo National Park.

The last time I accompanied a collaring was in 2013 and it was unforgettable. I went with the same group as this year, the International

losing everything, says the man who witnessed his home—and 15 members of his family—swept by the water. He narrates how he sat on a waiting shed for many, many days after the tragedy, saying nothing, doing nothing, just staring out into the distance contemplating his grief.

In the end, Prospero forgives those who have wronged him. They are not evil, after all—just people who have made bad judgments. He reconciles with his sister Alonsa and gives away Miranda in marriage.

The storm people also come to their

Fund for Animal Welfare, better known as IFAW. At the time, among the target group of elephants they wanted to collar was a juvenile elephant.

To collar one, you go up in a helicopter to look for the animals. Once you’ve identified the one you want, you get as close as possible and tranquilize them.

There’s a whole ground team waiting to collar them, take some blood samples and measurements and administer an antidote to revive them.

You have limited time—15 minutes—to do this from the time the tranquilizer dart penetrates their skin.

If the animal stays under the influence of the tranquilizer too long, there could be complications, including death. On operations like this, there has to be military precision and speed, there is always someone with a stopwatch, who starts the timer as soon as the dart goes in.

So on that day, we found our juvenile and shot the dart. He lay down. So far so good. But then the complications started. His mother, who was with him, became agitated. Understandable—as far as she was concerned, her child has just collapsed. So she began to try and raise him. She tried again and again. It

Shakespeare meets Yolanda own resolutions. The man who lost everything finds himself marrying one of the other storm survivors, a teacher who wishes she could do more to help other people recover from the typhoon. A double wedding ensues; everyone dances.

It is not, however, a purely happy

was really heartbreaking.

Meanwhile we’re running against the clock. We had no choice but to drive her away, to give the vets a chance to collar him and, more importantly, administer the antidote in time. Usually you drive the elephant away by bringing the helicopter a bit closer—they get spooked and leave. But this was a mother with her child. She just wouldn’t leave, she kept trying to raise him.

At one point we had to get so close, the helicopter was nearly level with her.

If I wanted to, I could have stepped onto her back. And still she kept trying and trying. I didn’t realize this at the time, but one of the guys who was watching from the ground said later that at one point she lifted her trunk and it looked like she was going to wrap it around the helicopter skids!

Eventually we managed to drive her away and collar the offspring and revive him in time. They were reunited shortly afterwards. But it was definitely scary.

That’s when you thank your stars for the pilots involved in these operations. They are usually super, super professional and what they can do with the chopper is just amazing.

I never tire of photographing them.

Because every time is different. You’re looking at different elephants, the scenarios are different, it’s different terrain, light, circumstance.

It’s fascinating, really. You can shoot it 10 times and you’ll always get different angles, different images. Plus of course being in a helicopter so close to them and flying over beautiful terrain never gets old.

They’re really very fascinating animals. They’re very, very smart.

They are capable of teaching each other things and working together. I remember some footage that I saw of elephants who would go to people’s farms and find ways around the electrical fences. They would rip them up so they could go over. The footage showed them working together to do it and has helped conservationists studying human/animal conflict in areas that have been newly developed and were once only the elephant’s habitat.

The thing about them never forgetting? I’ve never witnessed it firsthand. But I may be leaving Africa soon and I know that I won’t forget the moments I had photographing these emblematic creatures. AFP

ever-after. The characters retreat, knowing there will be more storms, stronger ones, coming their way.

They will prepare to face them better.

Sometimes we conjure our own tempests because of our own naivete or, to use a fashionable term, frailty.

At other times, the tempests come anyway despite our best intentions.

They take on a life of their own, whack us on the head when we least expect it, make us re-evaluate who we are and what our negotiables and nonnegotiables are.

Oh, some storms do kill. They throw others onto the sea or crush them with their power. For the rest of us, the pounding eventually stops. It does not rain forever. When the heavens quiet down, when the water recedes, when the wailing stops and when the debris settles, our tempests leave us with a fresh, just-washed feeling that gives us clear vision and emboldens us to begin again. We become stronger, wiser— and blessed with greater capacity to forgive and love. adellechua@gmail.com

World

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

DRUG GANG’S KILLING FIELD HAUNTS MEXICAN MOUNTAIN

Z

itlala, Mexico—At the end of a rocky mountain road lined with pretty fields of corn, marigolds and palm trees, a Mexican drug gang turned a picturesque hill into a gruesome cemetery.

PLAYING HARDBALL. A picture taken on November 25 shows Russian President Vladimir Putin playing with an official match ball for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, named “Krasava,” after a meeting with FIFA officials at the Kremlin in Moscow. AFP

SUICIDE ATTACK KILLS TWO SOLDIERS IN PAKISTAN ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—A suicide attack on Saturday killed two Pakistani soldiers and wounded 14 others in a restive tribal region near the Afghan border, the military said.

At least four suicide bombers attempted to enter the Ghalani camp in Mohmand tribal region and attack a mosque in a residential area where a large number of soldiers were attending morning prayers.

“Wearing suicide jackets, the attackers opened fire and tried to rush inside the mosque,” the military said in a statement.

“Security forces surrounded the attack-

ers. Two of the attackers blew themselves up while two others were shot dead,” it added.

The latest incident comes a month after an overnight militant attack on a police academy on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta killed 58 people, mostly cadets, on October 25.

The army launched an operation in June 2014 in a bid to wipe out militant bases in northwestern tribal areas and so bring an end to a bloody insurgency that has cost thousands of civilian lives since 2004. AFP

POLLS OPEN IN KUWAIT AS OPPOSITION RETURNS KUWAIT CITY—Polls opened in Kuwait Saturday for the oil-rich Gulf state’s seventh general election in a decade, at a time of sharp disputes over subsidy cuts due to falling oil revenues.

Analysts are expecting a large turnout in the snap polls triggered by the return of the opposition, which boycotted the previous two elections to protest the government amendment of the electoral law.

The emir dissolved the last parliament after MPs called for ministers to be grilled over

Between Tuesday and Thursday, investigators pulled 32 bodies from 17 shallow graves hidden among small trees and rocks in the southern state of Guerrero. They also found nine heads stored in coolers.

Alejandro Toriz, coordinator of the health department’s morgue in Chilpancingo, said the human remains were in various states of decomposition.

Many of the victims found in the pits had been strangled, suffocated, struck violently in the head or their throats were slit, Toriz said. Bloods stains and bullet casings found at the site suggest some were executed on the hill.

The victims included 29 men and three women.

Forensic experts were trying to determine whether the nine heads, which were still “fresh,” belonged to nine bodies that were dumped on a roadside near the town of Tixtla last Sunday, he said.

The grim discovery near the village of Pochahuizco, in the municipality of Zitlala, put another dark spotlight on the brutal violence perpetrated by drug gangs battling for supremacy in Guerrero.

For families of scores of people who have disappeared in the area in recent years, it revived fears that their loved ones may have been killed.

Half a dozen people flocked to the morgue at the state capital, Chilpancingo, on Friday, only to

be told it would take a few days to identify the victims.

“I felt bad, I felt nervous. I don’t want to find my husband here. I want to find him alive,” said Beatriz Zapoteco, 44, with tears running down her cheeks after leaving the morgue without an answer.

On January 5, around seven masked men with assault rifles burst into her home and snatched her husband, Santiago Tixteco, a former town councilman who defended the rights of local farmers.

“That day was as if the world collapsed around me when they kidnapped my husband,” said Zapoteco, who doesn’t know who took her husband, or why.

Authorities say the Ardillos drug gang and rival Los Rojos have been battling for control of opium poppy production in the region while both terrorize the population through murders, kidnappings and extortion.

The Rojos have also waged battles with the Guerreros Unidos drug gang, which has been implicated in the disappearance of 43 students in September 2014 in Iguala.

Violence is on the rise: official figures show 1,832 murders have been committed in Guerrero in the first 10 months of this year, compared to 1,651 over the same period in 2015. More than 1,300 people have been reported missing across the state since 2007.

AFP

TRUMP TAPS NATIONAL SECURITY VETERAN FOR WHITE HOUSE ROLE US President-elect Donald Trump has hired as a senior adviser a Republican national security veteran who first worked in the White House situation room under Richard Nixon.

As deputy national security adviser, 65-year-old Fox News commentator Kathleen Troia “KT” McFarland, will return once again to the executive mansion as number two to former general Mike Flynn.

“She has tremendous experience and innate talent that will complement the fantastic team we are assembling,” Trump said, in a statement issued from his luxury Florida

golf resort.

White House national security roles do not need to be confirmed by the Senate, so McFarland will take up her duties when President Barack Obama passes Trump the baton on January 20 next year.

She would, in any case, have been an uncontroversial choice, with decades of experience under three former Republican presidents and as a former aide to foreign policy heavyweight Henry Kissinger.

She has never herself held elected office, but in 2006 was defeated in a bid to seek the Republican nomination to challenge then New York

senator Hillary Clinton’s successful re-election bid.

Her most prominent roles before joining Fox News were as deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs under president Ronald Reagan and between 1982 and 1985 as defense secretary Caspar Weinberger’s speechwriter and spokeswoman.

McFarland’s appointment came as Trump was ensconced with senior advisors in his Mar-a-Lago resort drawing up transition plans.

A spokesman said no more major decisions are expected before Monday. AFP

subsidy cuts, in a state with a traditionally generous cradle-to-grave welfare system.

Female voters were lined up to cast their ballots at the women’s polling station in Jabriya, just south of the capital Kuwait City.

Voting is taking place at 100 polling stations set up in schools, with separate centres for men and women, and some 483,000 people eligible to cast their ballots.

The government’s austerity measures, mainly hiking petrol prices, were the top issue at election rallies. AFP

HURRICANE KILLS 9 IN COSTA RICA SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica—A hurricane that churned its way across Central America before sweeping into the Pacific on Friday killed at least nine people in Costa Rica and caused millions of dollars in damage, officials said.

President Luis Guillermo Solis declared three days of mourning, starting Monday.

In neighboring Nicaragua, officials reported no casualties but dozens of homes were damaged in low-lying areas.

Hurricane Otto had sparked red alerts

in both countries when it spun in from the Caribbean on Thursday with winds of up to 175 kilometers (110 miles) per hour.

A Costa Rican police official, Walter Espinoza, told a news conference: “The number of people killed is nine. We have recovered eight bodies, only one remains.”

Solis said the storm dumped a month’s worth of rain in just a few hours in Costa Rica. Authorities said it caused around $8 million in damage to roads. AFP

Kathleen McFarland (from the US Naval Academy)

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2016 mst.daydesk@gmail.com Joyce Pangco-Pañares, Issue Editor

World

CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY ICON FIDEL CASTRO DIES H

avana, Cuba—Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, a towering figure of 20th century history, died Friday aged 90, his brother, President Raul Castro, announced.

END OF AN ERA. This 01 May 2002 file photo shows Cuban President Fidel Castro waving a Cuban flag during a May Day rally in Havana. The Cuban revolutionary icon died late November 25, his brother, President Raul Castro, announced on national television. AFP

One of the world’s longest-serving rulers and modern history’s most singular characters, he defied successive US administrations and assassination attempts.

He crushed opposition at home to lead the communist Caribbean island through the Cold War before stepping aside in 2006.

He eventually lived to see the historic restoration of diplomatic ties with Washington last year.

“The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening,” the president announced on national television just after midnight Friday (0500 GMT Saturday).

Raul Castro, who took power after his elder brother Fidel was hospitalized in 2006, said that the revolutionary leader’s remains will be cremated early on Saturday, “in compliance with his expressed will.”

The bearded, cigarpuffing leader, renowned for trademark army fatigues and hours-long public tirades, grabbed power in a January 1, 1959 revolution.

Living by the slogan “socialism or death,” he kept the faith to the end, even as the Cold War came and went.

His rule endured numerous assassination attempts and the disastrous US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion attempt in 1961.

“If I am considered a myth, the United States deserves the credit,” he said in 1988.

AFP

UK CITIZENS COULD PAY TO RETAIN EU PERKS LONDON—Britons wanting to retain benefits of European Union membership after the country leaves could pay Brussels for individual citizenship, European Parliament’s lead Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt told The Times on Saturday.

“I like the idea that people who are European citizens and saying they want to keep it have the possibility of doing so. As a principle I like it,” he said.

Prime Minister Theresa May has vowed to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty by March, setting the ball rolling on two-years of negotiations to set the terms of the divorce.

Trade and immigration are set to be the key issues, with European leaders saying they will not compromise on open borders within the bloc.

Brexit-supporting MP Andrew Bridgen accused Verhofstadt of trying to sow division in Britain.

“It’s an attempt to create two classes of UK citizen and to subvert the referendum vote,” he told the Times. “The truth is that Brussels will try every trick in the book to stop us leaving.” AFP

AUSTRALIA ASKS TURKEY: EXTRADITE TOP ISIS TERRORIST SYDNEY—Australia is seeking the extradition of its most wanted Islamic State terror suspect who was thought to be dead but has been caught alive by Turkey, the government said Saturday.

The announcement followed a New York Times report that so-called Islamic State group operative Neil Prakash had been caught by Turkish forces several weeks ago as he tried to enter their country from Syria.

“An individual we believe to be Neil Prakash has been arrested and detained in Turkey,” a government spokesperson said in a statement. “Prakash is subject to a formal extradition request from Australia.”

Prakash was a senior recruiter for Islamic State and has been linked to terror plots to kill Australians.

In May Prakash was reported dead by Canberra on advice from Washington that he had been killed in a US airstrike in northern Iraq. However, the Times said he was only wounded, not killed, in Mosul on April 29. AFP

LOVING: HOW AN INTERRACIAL COUPLE’S LOVE CHANGED US HISTORY JUST as a caustic election has laid bare loose threads in the US social fabric, a new film has returned to the country’s all-toorecent era of deep racial segregation.

“Loving” – which entered wide release in time for the US Thanksgiving holiday – follows the romance of a black woman and a white man in mid-20th century America, when laws in some states forbade interracial marriages.

The historical drama is based on a decade-long legal battle that culminated in a landmark Supreme Court decision, declaring unconstitutional legislation banning interracial marriage, known as anti-miscegenation laws.

After they wed in Washington DC, Richard and Mildred Loving returned to the US state Virginia – part of the secessionist confederacy during the Civil War – where marrying across the racial divide was forbidden.

Childhood sweethearts, Richard and Mildred wanted little more than to build a home – but in the eyes of Virginia law, the lovers were criminals.

The Lovings ultimately found themselves

on the front lines of a civil rights case that would change the course of US history.

Half-a-century later, the 1967 ruling’s impact is still reverberating: the historic judgment helped pave the way toward legalizing gay marriage in 2015.

The film, which received critical acclaim following its premiere at Cannes, stars Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga whose portrayal of Mildred Loving has her tipped as a possible Oscar nominee.

The lead actors portray the couple not as militants or intellectuals, but as a shy, working-class pair determined to defend their right to love.

According to Robin Lenhardt, a law professor at Fordham University, antimiscegenation laws existed in 30 states at one point, which many people saw “as a crucial dividing line between whites and blacks.”

“For that to be removed was a bitter pill for many communities,” she said.

“The film is a reminder of the need to guard against the kind of racial bias that we’ve seen in the distant past,” Lenhardt said, “but also our recent.” AFP

Irish-Ethiopian actress Ruth Negga and Australian actor Joel Edgerton portray Richard and Mildred Loving whose interracial marriage was declared illegal. The case reached the US Supreme Court in 1967. AFP