BusinessMirror August 22, 2021

ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDS

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BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR (2017, 2018, 2019)

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS

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DATA CHAMPION

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A broader look at today’s business n

Sunday, August 22, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 312

P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 12 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK

TEAM PHL IN TOKYO (Front row, from left) Martin Gregorio, Chef de Mission

Mariano “Nonong” Araneta, Jarryd Bello, Dinah Remolacio and Magnum Membrere. (Middle row, from left) Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) Secretary General Atty. Edwin Gastanes, boxers Eumir Felix Marcial and Nesthy Petecio, POC President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, boxers Carlo Paalam and Irish Magno and nutritionist Jeaneth Aro. (Back row, from left) boxing coaches Elmer Pamisa, Marcus Manalo, Ronald Chavez, Nolito “Boy” Velasco and Reynando Galido.

THE INDISPENSABLES E

By Jun Lomibao

LMER PAMISA was teary eyed as he talked about Carlo Paalam one breakfast morning at the Conrad Tokyo. Why shouldn’t he? Only the night before, his erstwhile scavenger ward clinched a silver—one of four medals Filipino athletes bagged at the Tokyo Olympics.

Working constantly behind the scenes, the trainers, nutritionists, counselors and support staff who helped the Philippine athletes survive the Tokyo Olympics deserve their own medal of sorts.

TEAM HD Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz (second BOXING consultant Don Abnett

TEAM Doctor Randy Molo

“That boy really proved his promise, he fulfilled his dream,” Pamisa, who has never fought in the Olympics but was a many-time national boxer representing the nation in the Asian Games, Southeast Asian Games and dozens other international competitions, told Filipino reporters.

Paalam was born to a poor family in Bukidnon and was forced to move to Cagayan de Oro City with his father and siblings to find a living. At 10, he was scavenging at the city landfill for anything he could sell in order to put food on the table.

Until one day, because of the

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.5130

from left) with (from left) Chinese coach Gao Kaiwen, strength and conditioning coach Julius Naranjo, sports nutritionist Jeaneth Aro and sports psychologist Karen Trinidad.

terrible circumstances his family was in, he tried his luck in a local boxing competition for kids his age.

And the rest is history. He showed full potential with his fists and Pamisa took notice and took the boy under his wing and trained him to become one lethal machine

on the ring. He is now 23, facing a long and bright future ahead of him to finally nail his own gold medal, even medals, just like Hidilyn Diaz did.

“Coach Pam [Pamisa], thank you so much. If not for you, if you didn’t discover me, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Paalam, also

breaking into tears, consistently tells media interviews. “This silver medal represents the life that I came from, this is for you, Coach Pam, and for God, my family and my country.”

Unsung heroes

PAMISA was and will always will

be the oft-branded unsung heroes for every success, may it be in sports or in other endeavors. If not for the coaches, assistant coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, nutritionists, psychologists, what have you, the Diaz-PetecioPaalam-Marcial quartet could not have possibly gone down the annals of Philippine sports.

Their success is equally traced to the men and women who toiled behind the scenes to mold them to championship form.

The list is that long. Gone are the days when it was a one athleteone coach relationship reminiscent of the fabled Lydia de Vega-Francisco “Tatang” de Vega tandem. With the advent of sports science and technology, the so-called sportslab trained athletes, the athletic landscape has fully changed.

“It’s sort of a 24/7 task that even though you don’t get to see the athlete on a daily basis, you’re always on your toes monitoring his or her intake,” said nutritionist Jeaneth Aro, a vital member of the now famous Team HD for Hidilyn Diaz.

It wasn’t Diaz alone who was under the care of Aro, a taekwondo blackbelt. She also made sure the Olympian boxers, including Irish Magno, were eating not only the right kind of food, but as importantly, the right amount and calorie intake.

Then there’s psychologist Karen Trinidad.

“It’s not only during games time when athletes need to be attended to. The pre- and post-competition periods are as vital,” said Trinidad, who, in tandem with Aro, established a routine for the Tokyo Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4603 n UK 68.8997 n HK 6.4844 n CHINA 7.7776 n SINGAPORE 37.0194 n AUSTRALIA 36.1067 n EU 58.9941 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4690

Source: BSP (August 20, 2021)

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, August 22, 2021

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Among France’s poorest, once-lagging vaccine rates jump

By Constantin Gouvy

L

and make sure that we get their correct medical information.”

Anusuya Thangavel, a 32-yearold business manager also from Sri Lanka, acknowledged it was reassuring to her and her relatives that they could speak in their native tongue to medical workers.

The Associated Press

E BOURGET, France—The poorest region in mainland France has managed to dramatically speed up its Covid-19 vaccination campaign in recent weeks, notably by opening walkin pop-up centers to reach out to people where they live and work.

The multicultural, workingclass region of Seine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris, initially struggled in getting the word out about vaccines to a population where many are immigrants who don’t speak French or lack access to regular medical care.

But offering vaccinations at a highly visible location with easy access seems to be doing the trick.

Manuela Buval, 53, was waiting for her teenage son, who was getting his first vaccine shot Friday in a public park in Le Bourget.

“Everybody in the neighborhood walks through the park… whether on their way to work or to come play with their children,” she said.

Without the Red Cross pop-up vaccination center, Mona Muhammad, 24, said she would have had to leave her children at her sister’s on the other side of Paris in order to get to a large vaccination center outside of town.

“But thankfully, I can get my vaccine here in the city center while my kids play in the park,” she said.

Dealing with the ‘illegals’

This region on Paris’ northeast edge, where over a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, had registered the highest rise in mortality in the country when Covid-19 first spread in France last year.

Moving up

AFTER trailing below the national vaccination rate average for months, the region is now three points above it, with 71 percent of its population having received at least a first dose.

About 57 percent of people are fully vaccinated in France.

The success story is, in great part, the result of local initiatives.

Since June, the Red Cross has vaccinated over 10,000 people at walkin pop-up vaccination centers it set up across the region.

Immigrants and people staying in the country with no legal permission form a majority of those the Red Cross has vaccinated in its center in Le Bourget.

“Regular vaccination centers are like huge factories. We have a more local approach. Our goal is

A MAN who presents himself as Michel Michel, shows signs of joy as the Red Cross volunteers activated his sanitary pass on his phone in Le Bourget, north of Paris, Friday, August 13, 2021. He planned to travel that same day to see his family, and was unable to use the pass, even though he has received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. The impoverished Seine-Saint-Denis region is facing many challenges to provide vaccines to a population where many don’t speak French and lack access to regular medical care. AP

to bring the vaccine to people who would otherwise fall through the cracks of the system,” explained Roger Fontaine, the president of the Red Cross in Seine-Saint-Denis.

For Le Bourget Mayor JeanBaptiste Borsali, French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement on July 12 that a health pass would be required for many daily activities has been an important factor in driving up vaccination rates in the region.

‘R

egular vaccination centers are like huge factories. We have a more local approach. Our goal is to bring the vaccine to people who would otherwise fall through the cracks of the system.”—Roger Fontaine, the president

of the Red Cross in Seine-Saint-Denis The pass shows proof that people are fully vaccinated, have recently tested negative or have recovered from the virus. It is needed to enter restaurants, bars, sports arenas or get on long-distance trains, planes and buses, and many younger people have realized that the pass is vital to maintain a social life.

“We saw a real difference from one day to the next,” Borsali said, and many of those visiting the vaccination center last week confirmed that the new health pass requirement played a role in their decision to get a shot.

Up to 75 percent of the region’s population are immigrants

or have immigrant roots, and its residents speak 130 different languages. Le Bourget is no exception, being home to a large Sri Lankan community, some of whose members don’t speak French.

Anandarajah Rishi, a 42-yearold insurance expert and Red Cross volunteer with Sri Lankan roots, was called in at the pop-up center over his lunch break on Friday to translate for those who needed help filling in their medical forms.

“I always keep my [Red Cross] uniform in my car, just in case,” he explained. “When it comes to health, it’s important that we are able to speak with them in their mother tongue, to establish trust

POP-UP vaccination centers also play a crucial role in reaching people with no legal documents allowing them to stay in France. While the French health-care system is meant to provide accessible medical treatment for all, those without a valid government-issued ID and proof of enrollment in the country’s social security system cannot be vaccinated at regular centers.

Fontaine realized the scope of the problem after a person delivering food to the vaccination team initially turned down their offer to get the shot.

“We quickly understood he was staying illegally, but we vaccinated him regardless. The next day, he came back with all of his friends who were in the same situation,” he recounted. “We don’t turn anyone away here.”

The Red Cross walk-in centers have also been a “game-changer” for people who work long or unusual hours and cannot make it to large vaccination facilities during traditional work hours, Borsali said.

Many, like Hibach Noureddine, a 50-year-old taxi driver, said taking time off work to go out of town and wait in line for a vaccine shot was a loss of income they simply could not afford.

For Macina Sira, a cleaner in her 40s, the pop-up center was a big relief. “For those who work long hours and have children like me, going to the larger vaccination centers is complicated,” she said.

“They’re far away, and you can’t bring your children out there.”

While Seine-Saint-Denis is overcoming vaccination barriers, inoculation rates and demand for vaccines remain low in France’s most impoverished lands of all: its overseas territories.

The French Caribbean islands, Martinique and Guadeloupe in particular, have seen sky-rocketing infections in recent weeks, mainly among the non-vaccinated, prompting France to send in more medical assistance to cope with the problem.

The Indispensables Continued from A1

Olympians’ campaign, the result of which is now written all over the wall.

Team Philippines had 19 athletes—all of whom threaded the needle’s eye to get to Tokyo—with the delegation almost breaching 80 pax.

Junketeers? Hangers on?

There were none of them in Tokyo.

Each and every one on Team Philippines had his specific task made tedious by what the Olympic organizers called Playbook—that thick document that specified the dos and don’ts in the Games played under an existing and uncontrolled Covid-19 pandemic.

Each athlete had at least one coach, one conditioning coach, one trainer, and so on and so forth.

Count the team manager and team leader, those who should be attending team and coaches’ meetings and other administrative chores.

On top of the back office are Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino and Chef de Mission Mariano “Nonong” Araneta.

Tolentino made sure everyone on Team Philippines, particularly the athletes, were accorded Olympic-standard treatment, while Araneta took charge of all administrative functions—and these were a lot.

“There were daily CDM meetings, monitoring, etc., set by the

organizers just to make sure everything’s well and the Playbook’s being followed,” Araneta said. “The pandemic made everything difficult because [the concern was] not only on sports, but on the health and safety of everyone.”

A typical day for Araneta at the pandemic Olympics started just after an early breakfast and wound up when the last Filipino athlete who trained or competed for the day has already eaten his dinner and ready for bed at the Olympic Village (OLV).

Araneta said he’d be lucky if he takes his dinner at the hotel, which was his second full meal for the day.

“I preferred to get me a sandwich almost every day from the OLV grab-and-go [food] stand,” he said. “That I preferred because I avoided the mess hall which was always filled with athletes and coaches.”

Leanest secretariat

THE Philippine secretariat goes down as the leanest. Dinah Remolacio (General Manager) was Araneta’s seconds, attending to administrative work; Martin Gregorio (Games Management Officer and Deputy Covid-19 Liaison Officer) was all around, and so were Jarryd Bello (Activity Monitoring and Protocol Officer) and Magnum Membrere (Administration and Logistics) who also had to attend to rower Cris Nievarez.

Of course, Team Doctor Randy

Molo, although he didn’t have the luxury of a nurse or therapist, was thankful all medical needs were provided for by the Games organizers at the Olympic Village.

Boy, were their tasks beyond the eight-hour jobs they have back home.

Billy Sumagui is a veteran lawyer, but in Tokyo, he went beyond his legalese career. He was the team’s Covid-19 liaison officer, a task that’s not exclusive to a doctor or nurse, but carved for someone who’s a stickler and who knows how to interpret rules.

There was also Marc Velasco, Philippine Sports Commission Chairman William Ramirez’s chief of staff who made sure government kept an eye on each and every athlete in and outside of competition.

The coaches—Julius Naranjo for Diaz and Ronald Chavez, Nolito “Boy” Velasco and Reynaldo Galido for the boxers, plus psychologist Marcus Manalo. They were outside the glare of the klieg lights but behind the scenes, long before their athletes wake up in the morning and long after they have gone to sleep, still burned the midnight oil strategizing for the next day.

Unsung heroes. Hardly the primary subject of interviews or photo-ops. Hardly if not all seen.

But they were all part and parcel of the Tokyo Olympics success.

Call them indispensables.

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Angel R. Calso

The World

China’s welcome for Taliban meets sharp criticism at home

C

hina is struggling at home to sell the Taliban as a suitable partner for a country waging a war on alleged Islamic extremism, as it prepares to embrace an Afghanistan led by the militant group.

State media and diplomatic attempts to paper over the group’s past and present it as the “people’s choice” have met sharp criticism at home from those familiar with militant organization’s history of violence and repression of women. Beijing has long linked the Taliban with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which it has blamed for terrorist attacks in Xinjiang.

Now, in the wake of the chaotic exit of US troops, China is embracing the group’s return to rule, a strategic U-turn that has left many at home feeling whiplashed. Further instability in Afghanistan could impact neighboring Pakistan, where China has $50 billion in Belt and Road investments, and send extremism over its border.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying appeared to moderate the official messaging at a news briefing Thursday, pointing to foreign commentary characterizing the Taliban as “more clear-headed and rational” than during its first period in power 20 years ago.

“Some people stress their distrust for the Afghan Taliban. We want to say that nothing is unchanged forever,” Hua said. “We need to see the past and present. We need to listen to words and watch actions.”

Later Friday, she attempted to refocus the conversation on the failure of America to impose democracy on Afghans. “As facts have shown, democracy has no set model, just like cold milk doesn’t agree with the Chinese people’s stomach, and Americans are not used to using chopsticks,” she said.

The People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, posted a brief video history of the Taliban on Monday without mentioning its links to terrorism. The 60-second clip said the group was formed during Afghanistan’s civil war by “students in refugee camps” and expanded with the “support from the poor,” adding that it “has been in a war with the US for 20 years since the September 11 event.”

The post, which was later deleted, became the fifth-ranked trending top on Weibo, after prompting a huge backlash from users questioning why party newspaper tried to whitewash the group. Some cited its violent past, including beheading people in the streets, destroying the famed Bamiyan Buddhas and banning women from work and study.

Foreign Ministry comments professing China’s respect for “the will and choice of the Afghan people,” suggesting the Taliban had popular support in the country, similarly raised questions. A post on the WeChat blog “Philosophia” asking “Is Taliban the choice of the Afghanistan people?” was read more than 100,000 times, and widely shared on social-media platforms, before it was censored Thursday.

The possibility of Afghanistan women losing hard-won opportunities to study and work hit at a sensitive time in China.

Sexual assault allegations against celebrity Kris Wu and an Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. executive have fanned a new wave of criticism against the entrenched patriarchy.

After a female Afghan filmmaker’s plea for the world to pay attention to her country was scrubbed from Chinese social-media sites, some users lashed out. “The voice of Afghan people have all been censored by you!” one woman wrote.

Even the state broadcaster has found it hard to carve a single narrative—but appeared to have adopted a dual track for domestic and international audiences.

“People in Afghanistan are scared and some women are choosing to stay home,” the state-backed China Global Television Network said in an English report targeting Western audiences on Wednesday. “The Taliban has not given specifics on what respecting women’s rights within the framework of Islam will entail.”

On the same day, a Chinese-language report in CCTV4, the state broadcaster’s channel for international news, spun a more optimistic picture. While acknowledging some women expressed worries for future, the report said the situation in Kabul was “gradually returning to normal” and the Taliban had made multiple promises, including protecting women’s rights, including allowing them to work and study. Bloomberg News

BusinessMirror

Sunday, August 22, 2021

A3

Western groups desperate to save workers left behind in Afghanistan

By Colleen Barry & Kerstin Sopke

M

The Associated Press

ILAN—The Italian charity Pangea helped tens of thousands of Afghan women become self-supporting in the last 20 years. Now, dozens of its staff in Afghanistan are in hiding with their families amid reports that Taliban are going door-to-door in search of citizens who worked with Westerners.

Pangea founder Luca Lo Presti has asked that 30 Afghan charity workers and their families be included on Italian flights that have carried 500 people to safety this week, but the requests were flatly refused. On Thursday, the military coordinator told him: “Not today.”

Dozens of flights already have brought hundreds of Western nationals and Afghan workers to safety in Europe since the Taliban captured the capital of Kabul.

Those lucky enough to be rescued from feared reprisals have mostly been Afghans who worked directly with foreign missions, along with their families.

European countries also have pledged to evacuate people at special risk from the Taliban— feminists, political activists and journalists—but it is unclear exactly where the line is being drawn and how many Afghan nationals Western nations will be able to evacuate.

Pangea’s staff in Afghanistan is getting increasingly agitated. Lo Presti says they are specifically at risk for their role creating the kind of independence for women that is at odds with the Taliban’s tenets.

“Pangea is an enemy because whoever creates awareness and rights is the enemy. We now have to hide,’’ Lo Presti said from his base in Milan. Pangea gave loans to help 70,000 women open their own businesses—hair and beauty salons and bakeries—and many of them support families with at least eight to 10 children.

The Italian Foreign Ministry touted the arrival of activist Zahra Ahmadi and female researchers from the Veronesi Foundation on a Thursday flight carrying 202 Afghan citizens, noting “the special

attention to those who worked for Italy and who is under threat, such as women and young people.”

Yet still unprotected are untold numbers who worked with aid groups and other nongovernmental organizations in the fledgling democracy. Also included are those who assisted US and Nato forces and are now stranded and being hunted by the Taliban. Many are deleting contacts with the West from their phones, or memorizing key numbers to maintain contact.

An Italian-Afghan doctor who worked for Italy’s development agency broke down after arriving on an evacuation flight and offered a harsh assessment of the West’s decision to leave the country.

“We need to save those people in Kabul. We left them in Kabul with nothing,’’ Dr. Arif Oryakhail told reporters, his voice breaking. “They cooperated with us, we trained them as obstetricians, nurses, doctors. They were working and now they are abandoned, our hospitals are abandoned.”

A German network has closed its safehouses for Afghan nationals who worked with coalition forces, calling them “death traps.”

“The Taliban are going door-todoor looking for local forces,’’ said Marcus Grotian, an active German soldier who runs the network.

“This was foreseeable, and there has already been a visit to one of the safehouses by the Taliban.

Thank God it was empty.’’

He is fielding 400-500 calls a day for help from stranded former workers and feels helpless. Afghans who were key to aiding the Nato deployment now “are throwing away their documents, and trying to get by,” he said. “We don’t know how to help them anymore.”

In this August 16, 2021, file photo US soldiers stand guard along the perimeter at the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Hundreds of Western nationals and Afghan workers have been flown to safety since the Taliban reasserted control over the country. Yet still unprotected, and in hiding, are untold numbers of Afghans who tried to build a fledgling democracy. They include Afghans who worked with foreign forces, and who are now stranded and being hunted by the Taliban, along with aid workers. AP/Shekib Rahmani

French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged not to abandon Afghans who worked for the country, from translators to kitchen staff, as well as activists. More than 300 have been evacuated, and Macron’s office says charities want more added to the list.

Over 130 Czech nationals and Afghans were evacuated Monday and Tuesday, and Hungary has begun an evacuation mission for its citizens as well as some Afghans who helped its military.

Lo Presti is calling for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate Afghans who worked with the West. He has been blocked so far from going to Kabul to help identify Pangea workers and their families amid the chaos.

One family who ignored his advice and went to the airport lost sight of their children in the confusion and are unable to locate them, he said.

He acknowledged concerns in the West over “jihadist factions who are brought to the West and pass themselves off for refugees,” making it more urgent that members of his organization get to Kabul to vouch for those who have worked with him.

But he also is cognizant of the risks for those left behind.

“Every night brings trepidation, because roundups like those of the Nazi regime are real, and the fear of being taken and arrested without the possibility of a defense and not knowing the future and imagining that it could be death,” Lo Presti added. “This is terrifying us, and we are here. Imagine the women who are living it.”

A former British Marine, Paul

Farthing, is campaigning to help 25 Afghans who work for the Nowzad animal sanctuary in Kabul and their families to settle in Britain.

They include female surgeons in their 20s who fear forced marriages with Taliban fighters and an end to their careers.

“We gave them hopes, aspirations, dreams for the future,’’ Farthing said. “Thousands of people now have had their lives ripped from them.”

The concern is not only for individuals, but also for the credibility of Western democratic values promoted over the last two decades as well as that of humanitarian organizations, which recruit and rely on local staff in other danger zones.

Grotian says the Afghanistan withdrawal has exposed “that there is no concept of how to stand by people when things go bad.”

The YAAR association for the Afghan diaspora in Germany is being barraged by calls from Afghans desperate to get out. Others, despondent, are deleting cellphone contacts altogether, so they don’t leave a digital trail.

Any failure to evacuate Afghans will have long-term consequences, said YAAR head Kava Spartak.

“It is a sort of an endgame for the morale and for the European ethics. If they leave Afghans behind now, particularly those Afghans who worked with Nato troops and with international organizations fighting for democracy 20 years long, I think there wouldn’t be much left for European values anymore,” Spartak said.

Putin’s Qaddafi comeback gambit sows new conflict with the West

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ibya’s presidential elections this year were meant to be a key marker in the oil-rich North African state’s return to stability after years of civil war.

Instead, they risk unleashing more chaos as outside powers try to leverage their preferred candidates into place.

A decade after the Nato-led overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi, the installation of a government of national unity has brought a fragile cease-fire to Libya, with the December 24 elections the next step in the stabilization process.

Now, however, President Vladimir Putin is challenging the US and Europe as well as rising regional power Turkey with a bid to elevate into power the ex-dictator’s son, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, according to three people in Moscow with knowledge of the efforts.

With the risk of external meddling in breach of April’s United Nations-mandated cease-fire, the US State Department warned of “grave threats to regional stability and global commerce” posed

by “foreign actors exploiting the conflict.” It singled out Russia, expressing concern at its “destabilizing” influence, adding that the Libyan people must decide their own leaders.

Russia is pressuring military strongman K halifa Haftar to support his one-time rival Saif al-Islam in what would be an unbeatable election combination, according to the people. Still, three others in Libya said that Haftar, a 77-year-old general who controls the east of the country, himself wants to contest the presidency.

All asked not to named due to the sensitivity of Libya’s political landscape.

“We haven’t decided yet,” said Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesman for Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army. “The situation depends on the constitutional base on which the elections are held and the election law, both of which have not been issued yet.”

He batted away any suggestion that Haftar was being pressed to back Saif al-Islam, saying that he

didn’t have information on the matter and no one has yet declared their candidacy.

The electoral contest runs a fine line between restoring stability and reigniting violence, and the stakes go beyond just political control. Libya has the largest crude reserves in Africa, and has struggled to produce at anywhere near the level it managed under Qaddafi during years of fighting that put the country’s oil fields, ports and workers in the firing line. Libya pumped 1.17 million barrels a day in July, down from 1.6 million barrels prior to the 2011 revolution and 3 million barrels a day in 1970.

Italy’s Eni SpA, TotalEnergies SE of France and Spain’s Repsol SA have stakes in the country, though they withdrew overseas staff after an attempt to hold parliamentary elections in 2014 led to an escalation of conflict. Russian energy company Gazprom PJSC is also in Libya.

For Putin, who was horrified at Qaddafi’s brutal death captured on

film, Libya is a deeply personal issue and he feels responsibility for Saif al-Islam, said a person close to the Kremlin. Russia’s president at the time, a Putin protege, abstained in a UN vote that paved the way for Qaddafi’s toppling after 42 years in power.

The Kremlin’s ploy, if successful, would boost Russia’s clout in the Middle East after Putin successfully intervened to prop up Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad. While he’s also bolstered authoritarian leaders in Venezuela and Belarus, bringing back Qaddafi rule would mark Putin’s boldest move yet.

“It would mean that Russia is capable of tearing to shreds what the West did,” said Sergei Markov, a political consultant to the Kremlin. A spokesperson for the Kremlin didn’t respond to a request for comment on Russia’s policy on the Libyan elections.

Russia is confident of Egypt’s support for its plan, according to two of the people in Moscow, although there were suggestions in Cairo that it’s too early for Egypt

to decide its position. Moscow also has the tacit acceptance of Italy, which until now had kept closest to the rival Tripoli government, said one informed person in the Russian capital, who added that the UAE and France opposed the

plan. The Italian Foreign Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment. Egyptian officials couldn’t be reached for comment, and the UAE and French foreign ministries didn’t respond when asked about Libya. Bloomberg News

A4

The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, August 22, 2021

World may never reach herd immunity against Covid-19

A

By Michelle Fay Cortez

s Covid-19 surged last year, governments worldwide touted the hope of “herd immunity,” a promised land where the virus stopped spreading exponentially because enough people were protected against it. That’s now looking like a fantasy.

The thinking was that the pandemic would ebb and then mostly fade once a chunk of the population, possibly 60 percent to 70 percent, was vaccinated or had resistance through a previous infection. But new variants like Delta, which are more transmissible and been shown to evade these protections in some cases, are moving the bar for herd immunity near impossibly high levels.

Delta is spurring widening outbreaks in countries like the US and UK that have already been walloped by the virus, and presumably have some measure of natural immunity in addition to vaccination rates of more than 50 percent. It’s also hitting nations that have until now managed to keep the virus out almost entirely, like Australia and China.

This month, the Infectious Diseases Society of America estimated that Delta had pushed the threshold for herd immunity to well over 80 percent and possibly close to 90 percent. Public health officials like Anthony Fauci have drawn controversy by shifting the goalposts over the past year, increasing the number of people who need protection before hitting herd immunity. Meanwhile, vaccine hesitancy and supply issues mean most countries won’t get close to even the original numbers.

“Will we get to herd immunity? No, very unlikely, by definition,” said Greg Poland, director of the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Even a vaccination rate of as high as 95 percent wouldn’t achieve it, he said. “It is a neck and neck race between the development of ever more highly transmissible variants which develop the capacity to evade immunity, and immunization rates.”

Not nature

Nature isn’t going to solve the problem, either. It’s unclear how long natural immunity gained by surviving Covid-19 will last, and whether it will be effective at fighting off new strains. Future variants, including some that could evade immunity even more

efficiently than Delta, raise questions about how—and when—this will be over.

“If it was as simple as getting the infection once means you are immune for life, that would be great, but I don’t think that’s the case,” said S.V. Mahadevan, director of South Asia Outreach at the Center for Asian Health Research and Education at Stanford University Medical Center. “That’s a troubling problem.”

Already there are signs that some people, and some places— like Brazil and other countries in South A merica—are being battered a second time by newer strains.

Without herd immunity, the virus could linger for decades in some form, possibly forcing the world’s most powerful nations to adjust their diverging strategies on opening borders and economies.

Countries like China that have pursued tight Covid-zero policies by attempting to wipe out every infection, may eventually have to consider a looser stance. Others like the US and UK which have opened up despite a resurgence in the virus run the risk of wave after wave of infection.

Vaccines so far haven’t been the quick fix some had hoped for.

Israel, among the most vaccinated countries in the world, has already started administering booster shots, amid evidence that the current immunizations aren’t offering the protection that was hoped.

The most powerful vaccines, including the mRNA shots from Pfizer Inc., BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc., would make it easier to get high levels of immunity since they are so effective. Yet breakthrough infections are possible with even these shots. The benefits of other approaches, including those made by China’s vaccine manufacturers, AstraZeneca Plc and Johnson & Johnson, may offer even less protection.

Herd immunity is a real thing, protecting much of the world against viral threats from the measles to polio. Scientists credit it for helping eradicate smallpox.

Having it as a goal likely helped t he world embrace measures

In this Sunday, July 11, 2021, file photo, a doctor fills a syringe with the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Kabul, Afghanistan. Top officials at the World Health Organization said Monday, July 12 there is not enough evidence to show that third doses of coronavirus vaccines are needed and appealed for the scarce shots to be shared with poor countries who have yet to immunize their populations instead of being used by rich countries as boosters. AP/Rahmat Gul

like wearing masks and social distancing. But it also created a false narrative.

“The focus on ‘herd immunity’ has, in my view, been quite damaging,” said William Hanage, an epidemiologist and expert in communicable disease dynamics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “It presents people with an unrealistic vision of how the pandemic comes to a close and doesn’t account for the evolution of either the virus or the nature of disease in reinfections.”

Some countries learned the shortfalls of herd immunity the hard way. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson originally planned to use it as a primary approach to Covid-19, suggesting some of his constituents could “take it on the chin” with natural infections before the magnitude of the damage became apparent.

Others are now throwing in the towel, with Indonesia most vocally leading the way. The world’s fourth-most populous nation determined that it would be impossible to stop the virus even if everyone in the country was immunized. It’s redoubling its efforts to promote mask wearing and social distancing, while continuing to boost its vaccination rate.

Meanwhi le, Singapore and Australia are easing into opening, promising they will do so as they hit suf f icient ly high vaccination levels.

The end

Despite evidence that it will be difficult or impossible to reach herd immunit y, many publ ic health officials aren’t willing to give up on it. Governments worldwide are focusing on widening inoculation programs.

Yet the indiv idua listic approach by many countries, and vaccine shortages, are contributing to the global problem. The

risk will remain for ever yone, as long as any nation is experiencing massive outbreaks.

The world is unlikely to put the pandemic behind it until 2022 at the earliest, experts say. That target could be pushed back if the virus mounts another metamorphosis to become even more transmissible or even better at evading resistance.

There is hope for new vaccines and other approaches that could stop transmission more dramatically, but none of those are in human trials yet. It will be a few years before this is a real possibility.

Regardless, the end may not come via herd immunity. Instead, the virus has a high likelihood of remaining entrenched globally, causing outbreaks that are hopefully mitigated partly by vaccinations, masking and other interventions.

“Delta is not something we will be able to eradicate,” Hanage said.

“Even Alpha would have been hard.

However, with sufficient immunity, ideally achieved by vaccination, we can expect it to become a much milder illness.”

Revisiting 1918

The Spanish flu of 1918 may show how Covid may play out, the Mayo Clinic’s Poland said. It’s likely that variants will continue to emerge, forcing the use of boosters or routine immunizations, targeted to the newer strains.

“Then, if we are lucky, what is likely to happen is that this will become something more akin to influenza, where we will always have it,” Poland said. “It’ll become more seasonal, just like the coronaviruses that are already circulating, and we will just have to keep immunizing.” If things do play out like the flu, the world may have some version of Covid-19 a hundred years from now. Bloomberg News

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To shake hands or not? Our age-old gesture now in limbo

By Heather Hollingsworth The Associated Press

A

s the pandemic took hold, a Kansas City-area meeting and event planning business began hawking “I Shake Hands” stickers to help ease awkward social encounters.

“We didn’t want the sticker to say, ‘We Don’t Shake Hands’ because that is kind of off-putting,” said John DeLeon, vice president of operations and sales at MTI Events, adding that the idea was that anti-shakers could simply choose not to wear one of the stickers. “But if someone had the sticker on in that group, then that was the indication that it was OK.” Now, as workers return to the office, friends reunite and more church services shift from Zoom to in person, this exact question is befuddling growing numbers of people: to shake or not to shake?

The handshake has been around for centuries. A widely held belief is that it originated to prove to someone that a person was offering peace and not holding a hidden weapon. But hands can be germy—coated with fecal matter and E. coli.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, cautioned last year, “I don’t think we should ever shake hands ever again, to be honest with you.”

On the other side is Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University. He thinks the whole shaking controversy is overblown. The solution, he says, is simple: “If you are worried about Covid, the best way to make handshakes safe is to be fully vaccinated. And for any other things that might be on people’s hands, just wash your hands before you touch your face. That is what hand sanitizer is for.”

The greeting is almost instinctual and hard to deny. But remote workers who have been holed up in makeshift kitchen and bedroom offices have been denied it for months. Meetings, birthdays, retirement parties and even funerals have been shifted onto Zoom. The loss of connections has been heartbreaking, and the resurgence of the Delta variant is raising fresh questions about the return to something resembling normal.

DeLeon isn’t sure the handshake is ever coming back. The stickers his company sold were never hot sellers. Other companies hawked signs and stickers that more firmly discouraged handshaking—including one featuring a skeleton hand and another covered with Covid-19 germs.

“I played golf with a guy the other day, who I had never met and we got along really well. And on the 18th green it is traditional that you stick your hand out and you take your hat off and you shake hands with who you played with,” he said. “And we just kind of stared

at each other and fist-bumped and walked off.”

Not so fast, say etiquette experts and businesspeople like Dave McClain, 52, of Overland Park, Kansas. McClain recalls coming across one of the “I Shake Hands” stickers at a networking event and slapping it onto his shirt.

“You can make phone calls all you want and you can meet with people online via Zoom call but it is just not the same as being able to reach out your hand and shake their hand, look them in the eye and really establish that rapport,” he said.

Diane Gottsman, a national etiquette expert and author of Modern Etiquette for a Better Life, also doesn’t think the handshake will be a casualty of the pandemic but said to take it slowly.

“Don’t be the first to extend your hand, even if you are comfortable,” instructed Gottsman, who lives in San Antonio, Texas.

“Watch the other person and allow them to extend their greeting of choice.”

For mer P reside nt Don a ld Trump, a self-described germaphobe who has said publicly that he dislikes the custom and even described it as “barbaric,” faced criticism in the early days of the pandemic when he continued shaking hands.

The administration of President Joe Biden initially took a much more socially distanced approach to the pandemic. But following the relaxation of federal guidance on masks and more widespread availability of vaccines, handshakes and even hugs have returned.

Lizzie Post, the great-greatgranddaughter of the late etiquette maven Emily Post, said the country is entering an awkward time similar to the start of the pandemic, when people were trying to evaluate how much others were socially distancing before getting close to them.

Now the question is whether family, friends and business associates are vaccinated. Her approach is to announce up front that she is, then ask bluntly whether a hug or handshake is desired.

She doesn’t think the handshake is going away.

“It is a really hard greeting to deny because it has been so ingrained since we were kids or young adults,” said Post, who lives in Burlington, Vermont.

“And I see that being more powerful than the past year of not practicing it because for many people that past year also was spent just so not in contact with anyone they would shake a hand.

It is not like you and your roommate shake hands every time you walk in the door.”

But she said that also is getting questions about how to ditch the shake on the podcast she produces with her cousin, Da n ie l Post Sen n i ng , c a l led “Awesome Etiquette.”

At 60, Peace Corps plots return to world after pandemic hiatus

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EDZ A , M a l aw i — More than a year after Covid-19 began sweeping the world, abruptly cutting short her Peace Corps stint, Cameron Beach is once again living in rural Malawi—this time on her own dime.

The Peace Corps, a US government program marking its 60th anniversary this year, boasted 7,000 volunteers in 62 countries in March 2020. They were given little time to pack before being put on a plane and sent back to the United States that month.

“It was especially painful for me because I was given 24 hours to

leave a place that I’d called home for almost two years,” Beach said during a recent video call from her home in Malawi, a landlocked country in southern Africa.

Beach was trained to speak Chichewa and had been teaching English at the Mkomera Community Day Secondary School in Dedza, located in a compound about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of the capital, Lilongwe. The 25-yearold Greenville, South Carolina, native paid her own way back to her post nine months after evacuation and is living on savings, but says she would “absolutely” rejoin the

Peace Corps if it became possible.

It might be: The organization hopes to begin returning volunteers to the field late this year or early next year.

While Peace Corps volunteers would be required to be vaccinated, sending them back will depend on the situation in individual countries. Initially, about 2,400 evacuated volunteers expressed interest in going back and there are about 10,000 applications on file, Acting Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn told The Associated Press.

“Immediately after the evacuation we had tremendous interest

from volunteers who were evacuated in returning to their country of service,” Spahn said. “Clearly, as time goes on, you know, people do move on with their lives, but I will say we have a robust pipeline of both people who were evacuated as well as those who were invited, but were unable to go and those who are expressing new interest.”

How soon they can be sent overseas depends on the worldwide fight against the virus, complicated by the recent emergence of the more transmissible delta variant and the slow rollout of vaccines in developing countries—many of

which host Peace Corps programs.

Spahn estimates it will be several years before the Peace Corps is back to its full strength. After all, while volunteers in select countries had been evacuated before, March 2020 marked the first time since the organization was founded by President John F. Kennedy that it had to evacuate all its volunteers at the same time.

Since its creation in 1961, more than 240,000 Americans have served as Peace Corps volunteers in scores of countries. The goal is to help the countries meet their development needs with a wide

variety of programs—from education to health and agriculture programs—while helping promote a better understanding of Americans.

Typical service lasts two years after a training period, the length of which depends on the country and the program. During the pandemic most Peace Corps staff, both US citizens and local hires, remained in place and, in some cases, kept up some programs. Some former volunteers even worked remotely on development projects from the United States, receiving a small stipend for their work. AP

Science

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Sunday

Sunday, August 22, 2021

A5

DOST-FNRI: 1 in 5 Filipino pregnant, lactating women lacks iodine in the diet

T

he intake of iodine among Filipino pregnant and lactating women is insufficient and that iodine deficiency is common in these groups.

This was revealed in the 20182019 Expanded National Nutrition Survey (ENNS) of the Department of Science and Technology-Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOSTFNRI) which showed that One out of five, or 21.1 percent of pregnant women suffer from iodine deficiency, as indicated by urinary iodine (UI) level less than 50 micrograms per liter (µg/L).

The same survey showed that the median urinary iodine concentration (UIC) among pregnant women

was only 122 µg/L, which is less than the 150 µg/L cut-off for determining insufficient iodine intake.

Similarly, among lactating mothers, the median UIC was 99 µg/L, which is less than 100 µg/L cut-off that indicates insufficient iodine intake.

Iodine deficiency was seen in 1 out of 5, or 22.0 percent, of lactating mothers or those with UI level less than 50 µg/L. In the same survey period (20182019 ENNS) it was also found that

Innovation addresses feeding challenges during disasters

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By Rizal Raoul Reyes

nnovation in food is one of the components being implemented by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) as part of its Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation (DRR-CCA) in Health Program.

Citing the World Risk Index 2020 report, Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peňa recently said the country is the ninth most affected by extreme weather events. In November 2020 alone, four typhoons entered the country.

The Science chief underscored the important role of research and development in addressing the risk in disaster risk and management.

De la Peña said innovations in food is one of the components to address the challenges of feeding the victims of natural disasters the right food in the evacuation centers.

Besides the usual congestion and vulnerability to diseases, he said malnutrition is a big problem in evacuation centers.

“We launched food innovations to mitigate the nutritional and dietary effects of disasters,” de la Peña said in his presentation during the recent Talakayang HeaRT Beat that discussed the DRR-CCA in Health.

The DOST's Philippine Council on Health, Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) launched the program and conducted research to ensure the reduction of adverse health consequences during disasters.

De la Peña said the project will focus on the development of ready-toeat food products for children aged 1 year to 5 years old.

“We will develop four ready to eat emergency products from abundant fresh produce in the Davao region,” he said.

Project Leader Maria Christina Ramos of the Philippine Women’s College of Davao said the four food products include fruit-veggie leather with puffed rice and peanuts, all veggie-monggo meal, all-veggie cornmeal porridge and seed-enriched whole grain biscuit.

Ramos said the team has completed the formulation of fruit-veggie leather with puffed rice and peanuts, and seed-enriched whole grain biscuit.

Meanwhile, the development of all veggie-monggo meals and all veggie cornmeal porridge are still ongoing.

Moreover, de la Peña said the team has also conducted sensory evaluation for the completed formulations among residents of target barangays.

“The development of production processes and food safety tests are ongoing,” Ramos said.

She added that the team has identified 14 municipalities in Nueva Vizcaya for the field testing of the device prototypes.

With the limited access to food during disasters, she pointed out that proper nutrition remains a challenge especially for the vulnerable children. “ T his project aims to address the nutrition of children during disasters,” she said.

De la Peña said there is a need to boost innovations in science and technology to improve the government’s health services during disasters.

He said the DOST has allotted P90 million in the DDR-CCA since its start in 2017.

“Right now, we have five completed projects, 11 ongoing projects and four new projects. empower residents of Region 4-B," he said.

The health development index in Region 4-B provides a health vulnerability reduction system containing information on environmental quality of specific areas in the province.

DOST-SEI welcomes new 800 science scholarships qualifiers

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e are excited to welcome you to our growing DOSTSEI Family.”

These are the words of Director Josette T. Biyo of the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) when she greeted the 2020 Junior Level Science Scholarships (JLSS) qualifiers during the Virtual Orientation on Scholarship Policies and Procedures on August 18.

Earlier this month, the institute announced nearly 800 new qualifiers in the JLSS, 170 of which are based in the National Capital Region (NCR).

DOST-SEI, which normally hosts a series of face-to-face orientation with NCR qualifiers, did it virtually this time to talk about scholarship policies, terms and conditions, and other issues. This is done prior to their signing the Scholarship Agreement.

“The difficulties brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic have led many institutions to cease the holding of mass gatherings, which include the conduct of the face-to-face scholarship examination and the scholarship orientation,” Biyo said.

“The virtual conduct of the orientation shall kick-off the partnership between the DOST-SEI and the scholarship qualifiers,” she added.

This year’s orientation featured discussions on the provisions of the Scholarship Agreement, access to the Scholar’s Portal, and an open forum.

The JLSS is among DOST-SEI’s undergraduate scholarship programs, which aims to support the education of third year college students enrolled in priority science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses from identified academic institutions. S&T Media Services

The adverse effects on the newborn may include neuro-developmental deficits and intrauterine growth restriction, impaired cognitive development, cretinism, or severe hypothyroidism.

insufficient iodine intake was common among pregnant women across wea lt h qu inti le, whi le lactating mothers in the poorest households have insufficient iodine intake.

Why is iodine important in our body?

Sources of iodine

Iodine is an essential micronutrient needed by the body for the production of thyroid hormones.

Thyroid hormones control the body’s metabolism and many other important functions.

Iod ine requirements increase during pregnancy to help in the proper brain and bone development of the fetus.

Signs and symptoms of iodine deficiency Insufficient intake of iodine may cause iodine deficiency disorders resulting in inadequate production of thyroid hormones.

Iodine is naturally present in tuna, seaweeds, shrimp and other seafoods, and iodized salt.

There are also supplements but must be taken with a prescription or as per advice from a medical doctor.

DOST-FNRI's responses A Filipino mother feeds her newborn baby. Facebook photo Iodine deficiency during pregnancy may result in miscarriage and stillbirth, or may cause irreversible effects on the newborn.

The DOST-FNRI developed 10 messages in the Nutritional Guidelines for Filipinos to serve as guiding principles towards good nutrition.

The seventh message of this Guidelines emphasizes the importance of using iodized salt "to prevent Iodine Deficiency Disorders.”

Iodized salt is a product of food

fortification that was a strategy to enhance or add the nutrient value of a food or beverage.

Another effort of the Institute is the developed technology called Iodine-Rich Drinking Water, or “Tubig Talino”.

Tubig Talino is a blend of purified or ordinary potable water and Water Plus I2, a premix of water and iodine.

A 5-milliliter (ml) Water Plus I2 can enrich 20 liters of drinking water with iodine.

Five 250 ml glasses of Tubig Talino can meet 33 percent of the daily iodine requirement of the body.

DOST-FNRI is encouraging micro, small, and medium enterprises, as well as the local government units to become adoptors of Tubig Talino and supply their respective communities with a drinking water that is rich with iodine which can be used in nutrition intervention programs, disaster relief, and other health or civic projects.

R&D on flavors, fragrances from PHL forest products set in 5-year project A fi v e-y ear resea rc h a nd de ve lopment (R & D) projec t is set to produce f l avors a nd f rag ra nces f rom t he Ph i l ippi ne forest.

The Forest Products Research and Development Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-FPRDI), through its Flavors and Fragrances from the Forest Technology Program (F3TP), will explore and utilize non-timber forest products (NTFPs) by conducting and producing R&D innovations, technologies and products, the DOST-FPRDI said in a news release.

Among the forest species to be studied in the P229.5-million project include the Philippine cinnamons, eucalyptus, Canarium

species, select species from the families of Myrtaceae and Fabaceae, as well as some fruit trees and agroforestry crops that have potentials for flavors and fragrances.

"The institute is currently implementing projects that are expected to deliver healthcare and aromatherapy products, such as essential oils, salves, hand soaps [bar and liquid], spray mist, massage oils, foot deodorants, lotions and more,” the DOST-FPRDI said.

The institute has started developing teas, flavor-infused beverages and confectionaries using bamboo and cinnamon flavors.

Upgrading of the Institute’s R&D facility and capacitating researchers for flavors and

fragrances will be prioritized in the next two years.

Also part of the program are studies on propagation techniques and protocols for proper harvesting of barks, leaves and other plant parts to ensure the sustainable supply of raw materials.

It also targets to develop sensory and chemical evaluation of NTFPs, and the socio-economic study, technology piloting and adoption.

The country's forests are rich with natural resources, including commercially-important NTFPs, such as leaves, barks, resins, saps, essential oils and other plant materials.

The use of NTFPs either for food, medicine, flavors or essence

have played a big part in the country’s history.

The use of different aromatic materials have evolved into a now renowned flavors and fragrances industry, which for decades has been one of the most promising and very profitable niche markets.

In 2018, the industry's global market value was reported to amount to around $20 billion, and is projected to reach more than $30 billion by 2025.

The biggest contributors to flavors and fragrances market include Europe, Africa, Middle East, North America, AsiaPacific and South America, while interesting emerging markets are in China, India, Russia and Central America.

4 new highly productive silkworm hybrids developed

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our new Philippine silkworm hybrids have been successfully reared by the pioneering Silk Cocoon Production Hubs (Silk Hubs) in Misamis Oriental.

Through the Silk Research and Innovation Center (SRIC) of the Philippine Textile Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PTRI) the new developed silkworm hybrids are PTRI SW 107, 108, 109 and 110.

The presence of hybrid silkworms means new strains of cocoon production for silk yarns and fabrics.

Compared to the parent lines, these hybrids have higher productivity as they are mostly healthier, able to adapt to their environment, and have better cocoon and shell weight.

The silkworm hybrids came from the silk hybridization of Philippine silkworm parents from the 85 lines in the PTRI Silk Germplasm also from the DOST-PTRI SRIC. Significantly, the new silkworm hybrids performed better in terms of larval characteristics to cocoon properties in the lab-scale trials, that is why they were rolled out into the Silk Hubs to verify their performances.

The hybrids completed the first out of three cycles of rearing in the field-verification stage. The cycles are important in order to have reliable data on the consistency, grading and

New Philippine silkworm hybrids

DOST-PTRI

classification of cocoons per location at different times.

The parameters considered in classifying the grade of silk cocoons are: single cocoon weight, cocoon shell percentage and the live pupa ratio.

These will be the basis for cocoons to be graded as Class AA, A, B, or C. For the first cycle, the group of women-silk rearers of Cagayan de Oro Resettlement and Socialized Housing Project IV (CDORSHP-IV) produced cocoons with 21-percent cocoon shell and 1.62g average cocoon weight.

With only two parameters considered, it could have been classified

as Class A, with the highest class of cocoon. However, the third parameter being the live pupae percentage, unfortunately dragged the rating to Class B. Considering that the Silk Hubs have just started, their succeeding live pupae percentage is expected to improve with proper management and experience.

Grade A cocoons can be sold at P350/kg, while Grade AA will cost P400/kg, thus, providing a mechanism to foster good rearing practices to maximize cocoon quality and productivity.

There will be two more rearing activities in 2021 using the same hybrids in the same locations that will provide additional information on the effect of the rearing climate. These will complete the field-verification activity before the hybrids are officially launched for commercial use by the end of the year.

The pioneering Silk Hubs are: Tinipigan Agro-forestry Association Inc. (TAFA Inc.) in Barangay Tagpangi; and CDORSHP-IV in Barangay Balubal.

These groups were joined by two other hubs manned by two silk cocoon producers: Florisa Docuyan of Barangay Ane-i; and Alfredo A. Ampo of Barangay Panampan (1,000 masl).

The control set was reared at the PhilSilk Center serving as the fifth location.

Generally, they are located in four different locations in Northern Mindanao, specifically in Cagayan de Oro City and Misamis Oriental. These locations established the performance of the hybrids as a function of altitude.

The silk innovation activities in Northern Mindanao are supported by the strong partnership of DOST-PTRI with the DOST-Misamis Oriental, Provincial Agriculture Office Misamis Oriental, and CDO City Housing Urban Development Division of the local government. S&T Media Services

Faith A6 Sunday, August 22, 2021

Sunday

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph

Priests warned: Don’t use pulpit against Covid-19 vaccination C

EBU CITY—Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma last Wednesday warned priests not to use the pulpit in their “personal campaign” against the government’s Covid-19 vaccination program.

In a video posted on the archdiocese’s social media page, Palma advised priests opposing vaccination to refrain from including their personal stand in their homily.

“If you believe that it’s not appropriate, then don’t include it in your sermon. Because a sermon is an official teaching of the Church,” Palma said in a mi x of Cebuano and English.

While he respects the priests’ personal opinions, Palma reminded them that the pulpit is used only to preach the official teachings of the Catholic Church.

This, he said, means that the homily must share the reflection or the message of the Church in general even if, at times, it runs in contrast to the personal beliefs of the priest himself.

“A nd the church recommends vaccination,” he pointed out.

Palma’s remarks came after a video of a priest, whose name was withheld, circulated via private messenger where he delivered a homily against vaccination and attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic as the work of the devil. “ W hen the priest insists on his ow n personal conv iction against what t he teac h i ng m ag ister iu m holds that is direct disobedience to

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma Photo from Archdiocese of Cebu’s Facebook account Church authority,” the statement posted in the A rchdiocese of Cebu social media page said.

“The Church means in the simplest sense, ‘to gather or to bring together.’

Amid the present crisis situation, the Church calls for unity. Jesus in his Gospel prays to the Father for unity,” it further said, citing the Gospel of John.

Redemptorist priest in Cebu, 4 Carmelite nuns in Iloilo pass on This came as a Redemptorist priest in Cebu and four Carmelite nuns in Iloilo died of Covid-19.

Fr. Copernicus “Nico” Perez, the Provincial Superior of the Redemptorist Province of Cebu, died on August 15, after days of battling Covid-19.

According to his congregation, the priest succumbed to cardiac arrest at a hospital in Cebu City where he was admitted. He was 46.

“His cond it ion rem a ined u nstable since his intubation and ICU [intensive care unit] admission, despite the intensive medical interventions given,” the congregation said in a statement.

“Before 6 p.m., he went into cardiac arrest, and as earlier decided with the family, there was no further resuscitation done. Time of death was called at 6:48 p.m.”

“As we pray for Fr. Nico, we also pray for his bereaved family and the province of Cebu in this time of grief,” it added.

The priest was the co-founder of Duyog Marawi, a rehabilitation program that focuses on healing and peace-building efforts in the war-torn city of Marawi.

He was also a board member of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP).

Perez was first elected as AMRSP board member in 2016. He was reelected in 2019, a term that was supposed to end in 2022.

“We thank Fr. Nico for his service to the Congregation and to AMRSP. We shall never forget his contributions,” the religious superiors said.

Perez was laid to rest at the city’s Carreta cemetery on August 16.

The four nuns from a Carmelite convent in the city of Iloilo’s La Paz district died from Covid-19 in less than two weeks as the virus spread throughout the area.

Fr. Angelo Colada, director of Jaro Archdiocesan Commission on Social Communications, said the fatalities were among the 24 nuns who contracted the virus and most of them are elderly.

Nine staff of the convent also tested positive for Covid-19, according to the priest.

“So out of 24 plus nine personnel who tested positive, seven were brought to the hospital but four of them already died,” Colada told Radio Veritas.

The convent has been under lockdown since July 25.

The first nun died on July 31 and another one succumbed to the coronavirus on August 3. Local authorities reported the two other fatalities on August 10.

Those infected with Covid-19 remain under isolation while those who were found negative are also quarantined for close monitoring. PNA and CBCP News

Bishop: Silence kills, people must continue to speak against killings

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Catholic bishop said the church and its people must continue to speak out against killings and other forms of human rights abuses.

Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos urged the faithful to reflect on these “despotic killings” and become human rights defenders.

“We must continue to speak because silence kills,” Alminaza said.

“We must not be afraid to continue doing what is right.”

The bishop made the call in a statement released on August 17 for the culmination of the “Stop the Killings Week” in Negros Occidental province.

August 17 also marked one year since the brutal killing in Bacolod

City of Zara Alvarez, a human rights activist and staff of the group Church Workers Solidarity.

The diocese concluded the weeklong “days of action to stop killings” by ringing church bells.

According to the bishop, there are about 123 cases of unsolved “extrajudicial killings” recorded in Negros since President Duterte assumed power.

This year alone, 17 more people were murdered in Negros between January to May, he added.

“More than two years since we started, we continue to ring the church bells, since even until today, the killings have not stopped,” Alminaza said. CBCP News

CBCP webinar to honor Filipino fathers

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he Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines is hosting a webinar to pay tribute to Filipino fathers abroad and those in the country.

Scheduled on August 24, the webinar is organized by the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life (ECFL) and the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI).

The two commissions have partnered “to honor fathers who face overwhelming odds to raise their families, either from a great distance as migrant workers or at home while their wives work abroad.”

Talks and sharing are set within the theme of the 2021 World Day of Migrants and Refugees, “Toward an

ever wider We.” “The webinar will study the social cost of migration on the family and listen to the experiences of migrant fathers who remain behind,” organizers said.

The online event, they added, will also “reflect on the heart of a father as exemplified by Saint Joseph.”

Archbishop Gilbert Garcera of Lipa, ECFL chairman, and Bishop Narciso Abellana of Romblon, ECMI chairman, will give the welcome remarks.

The 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. webinar is among the CBCP activities for the Year of St. Joseph and the Year of Amoris Laetitia.

It will be broadcast simultaneously on the Facebook pages of ECFL, ECMI and CBCP News.

Mariel Celine L. Serquiña/CBCP News

Many Bible Belt preachers silent on vaccines as Covid-19 surges

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r. Danny Avula, the head of Virginia’s Covid-19 vaccination effort, suspected he might have a problem getting pastors to publicly advocate for the shots when some members of his own church referred to them as “the mark of the beast,” a biblical reference to allegiance to the devil, and the minister wasn’t sure how to respond.

“A lot of pastors, based on where their congregations are at, are pretty hesitant to do so because this is so charged, and it immediately invites criticism and furor by the segment of your community that’s not on board with that,” Avula said.

Across the nation’s deeply religious Bible Belt, a region beset by soaring infection rates from the fast-spreading delta variant of the virus, churches and pastors are both helping and hurting in the campaign to get people vaccinated against Covid-19.

Some are hosting vaccination clinics and praying for more inoculations, while others are issuing fiery antivaccine sermons from their pulpits.

Most are staying mum on the issue, something experts see as a missed opportunity in a swath of the country where church is the biggest spiritual and social influence for many communities.

That was on display recently in metro Bir mingham, where First Baptist Church of Trussville had an outbreak following a 200th anniversary celebration that included a video greeting by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey.

The pastor promised more cleaning and face mask availability without uttering two words that health officials say could make a difference among people long on religion but short on faith in government: Get vaccinated.

A few outspoken religious leaders have garnered crowds or media attention for their opposition to the vaccines, such as Tony Spell, who repeatedly defied Covid-19 restrictions to hold in-person services at the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, church where he is pastor.

He has preached that vaccinations are “demonic” and vowed that the government will not “force us to comply with your evil orders.”

Pastor Tony Spell of the Life Tabernacle Church of Central City, Louisiana, prays with supporters outside the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on August 17. Some preachers are praying for more inoculations and hosting vaccination clinics. Others are skirting the topic of vaccines or openly preaching against them in a region that’s both deeply religious and reeling from a spike in Covid-19 cases. AP/Gerald Herbert But they appear to be outliers, according to theologian Curtis Chang, with the majority of ministers avoiding the vaccine issue so as not to inflame tensions in congregations already struggling with the pandemic and political division.

“I would say that the vast majority are paralyzed or silent because of how polarized it has been,” said Chang, who has pastored churches and is on the faculty at Duke Divinity School.

A survey by the National Association of Evangelicals found that 95 percent of evangelical leaders planned to get inoculated, but that number hasn’t translated into widespread advocacy from the pulpit, he said.

The disparity matters because vaccination rates are generally low across the Bible Belt, where Southern and Midwestern churchgoers are a formidable bloc that has proven resistant to vaccination appeals from government leaders and health officials.

W hile many Black and Latino people haven’t been vaccinated, the large number of white evangelical resisters is particularly troubling for health officials.

A poll by The Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs Research in March showed that 40 percent of white evangelical Protestants said they likely would not get vaccinated, compared with 25 percent of all Americans, 28 percent of white mainline Protestants and 27 percent

of nonwhite Protestants.

Some national voices, including Black megachurch minister T.D. Jakes, evangelist Franklin Graham and former Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear have taken public stances in favor of vaccinations.

But there hasn’t been a sustained, unified push that could give local pastors “cover” to speak out themselves, Chang said.

First Baptist Trussville has taken multiple steps to guard against spreading the virus, including following public health guidelines and limiting in-person events, according to spokesman and business manager Alan Taylor.

Yet when it comes to the vaccines, church leaders consider them “a personal choice,” he said.

“When I am asked personally, I say it was the right choice for me and my wife,” said Taylor, who contracted a relatively rare breakthrough case of Covid-19 despite having been vaccinated. “I firmly believe it helped when I became infected.”

The story is much the same in Mississippi and Georgia, where some churches are returning to online services and some pastors are quietly talking about the need for vaccination.

More than 200 pastors, priests and other church leaders from Missouri went further as cases exploded last month, signing a statement urging Christians to get vaccinated because

of the biblical commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Springfield Mayor Ken McClure said the region saw a big jump in vaccinations after the pastor of a large church used his sermon to tell parishioners it was the right thing to do.

Dr. Ellen Eaton, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said churches could be effective at promoting vaccination as a way “to love your neighbors during this pandemic.”

“Many Southerners are very close to their pastors and church communities. Next to their personal physician, many here in Alabama routinely turn to their church leaders with health issues,” she said.

One pastor at a liberal United Methodist church in Birmingham issued a plea on social media for members to get vaccinated, while the minister at a moderate Baptist church nearby prayed during worship for divine intervention for more vaccinations.

“We pray, Lord, that there will be good judgment used and that people would see the need for the vaccine and that it would be available not only here in our own country but around the world and that that might stem the tide of this terrible, terrible virus,” said the Rev. Timothy L. Kelley of Southside Baptist Church.

Evangelical pastor Keven Blankenship was among those trying to walk that tightrope after Covid-19 invaded his independent church in suburban Birmingham, sickening three of his family members, among others. Initially he didn’t preach about the vaccines, considering it a personal choice.

But on a recent Sunday, during the first in-person services in a month, Blankenship revealed he had gotten his first shot and was due for a second.

“If you feel comfortable receiving it, I want you to receive it. If you don’t feel comfortable, I want you to talk to your doctor and you get your doctor’s guidance,” he told worshipers. “But I want you to do what you feel is the best thing for you and your family, and don’t be bullied into anything.”

B l a n k e n s h ip e nd e d w it h a n “Amen,” said almost as if a question.

He was met by silence. AP

Taliban fighters patrol in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 18. The Taliban declared an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government, seeking to convince a wary population that they have changed a day after deadly chaos gripped the main airport as desperate crowds tried to flee the country. AP/Rahmat Gul

Caritas concerned for safety of Christians in Afghanistan

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OME—A Catholic charitable organization working in Afghanistan said the other day it fears for the safety of Christians in the country, and that the group may need to suspend its activities as instability increases.

Caritas Italiana, a charity of the Italian Catholic bishops, has been present in Afghanistan since the 1990s. In a news release, the organization said its current focus in Afghanistan is helping vulnerable minors.

“But the instability of the situation will lead to the suspension of all activities,” the statement said, adding that “fears are growing about the possibility of maintaining a presence even in the future, as well as for the safety of the few Afghans of Christian belief.”

Caritas Italiana also said the few Catholic priests and religious in Afghanistan are also being left with no choice but to leave.

Taliban insurgents have taken over many cities in Afghanistan in the past week following the withdrawal of US forces from the country.

With the collapse of A fghanistan’s government, Taliban fighters seized the capital city of K abul, taking control of the presidential palace and declaring the war in A fghanistan to be over.

The Kabul airport has been in chaos since Sunday, as Afghan men and women rushed runways in an attempt to flee the country.

The Christian community is very small in the Islamic country, where Afghan people can be ostracized or can even face violence and death for professing the Christian faith. In 2018, there were an estimated 200 Catholics in the country.

There is a single Catholic Church, located in the Italian embassy in Kabul, which is operated under the Catholic mission sui juris (independent) of Afghanistan.

“The Christian community is a

small but significant community which in recent years has shown attention toward the poorest and most fragile,” Caritas Italiana said.

The organization stated that “after a 20-year war of incalculable human costs and billions of euros in expenditure, the withdrawal of the US military is leaving the country in a tragic void.”

“As always, the weakest will pay the highest price, already in the tens of thousands fleeing the combat zones, while the Taliban are now in the capital, Kabul.”

“Together with the staff of the embassies, even the very few priests, men and women religious who are in Kabul are preparing for their forced return,” the charity said.

Pope Francis asked for prayers for the people of Afghanistan after praying the Angelus, a traditional Marian prayer, on Sunday.

“I ask all of you to pray with me to the God of peace so that the clamor of weapons might cease and solutions can be found at the table of dialogue,” he said. “Only thus can the battered population of that country—men, women, elderly and children—return to their own homes, and live in peace and security, in total mutual respect.”

Caritas Italiana said it is assessing the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan at the Afghanistan border.

“In these hours, a growing mass of refugees are fleeing the war zones, increasing the pressure in the direction of the surrounding countries,” it said. “Even Western countries will find themselves facing increasing pressure from people fleeing this country.”

The Italian charity said in the 2000s it supported a large program of emergency aid, rehabilitation, and development in Afghanistan, including the construction of four schools and 100 houses, and the return of 483 refugee families to the Panshir valley.

Hannah Brockhaus/Catholic News Agency

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

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From a forest reserve to a protected landscape

Protecting Mount Arayat National Park

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

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he Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is pushing for the enactment of a measure that will boost the status of the Mount Arayat National Park (MANP) in Pampanga province as an area set aside for conservation.

House Bill 9206,sponsored by Reps. Aurelio D. Gonzales Jr., Elpidio F. Barzaga Jr. and Eric Go Yap, will establish MANP as a Protected Landscape under Republic Act 7586, or the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Act of 1992.

Established as a protected area by virtue of Presidential Proclamation 594 series of 1933, Mount Arayat was among the first National Parks in the Philippines under Republic Act 3915, or the First National Park Law.

From forest reservation to protected landscape

Essentially a wilderness, or a forest reservation, the 3,715.22 hectares national park straddles 12 barangays—five in Magalang, namely Ayala, Sto. Nino, San Vicente, San Agustin and Turu, and 7 in the Arayat side, namely San Juan Bano, San Mateo, Gatiawin, Bitas, Panlinlang, Baliti and La Paz Turu.

As it became an initial component of Nipas Act upon the law’s enactment in 1992, the status of MANP as a protected area became the subject of review by experts.

The requirements, such as maps with technical description, conduct of suitability assessment and public consultation and preparation of Protected Area Management Plan were already conducted from 2015-2018, while the deliberation of the Regional Nipas Review Committee and Regional Development Council were held in 2019.

The recommended appropriate

Protecting Mount Arayat

category was as Protected Landscape, wherein it refers to areas of national significance, which are characterized by the harmonious interaction of man, land and water while providing opportunities to public enjoyment through recreation, tourism, and other economic activities.

Biodiversity consideration

According to the DENR-Pampanga, the rich biodiversity of Mount Arayat is the main consideration in its establishment as a protected area.

Among the considerations are the irreplaceability or presence of restricted range and congregation species; its vulnerability or the presence of globally threatened and endemic species; its naturalness or its intact natural cover forest cover; abundance and diversity of flora and fauna; and the uniqueness or outstanding cultural, geological, and aesthetic features that support biodiversity and sustain ecological processes and functions.

Another important consideration is the value of ecosystem services in terms of recreation, educational, traditional use, heritage and other sustainable uses.

The MANP is home to notable species of flora and fauna. A total of 70 species of trees and plants; 86 species of wild birds; 14 species of mammals; and 11 species of reptiles have been recorded in the area.

It also has threatened species of flora like the Arayat pitogo, kamagong and tindalo, and the newly discovered endemic species, Pyrostria arayatensis,a plant that belongs to the coffee family

Socioeconomic importance

In 2016, the DENR initiated the Ecotourism Development Program on Mount Arayat.A management plan and business plan were also developed, opening up livelihood opportunities to

Mount Arayat people in the community.

According to the DENR, ecotourism remains the most suitable activity on Mount Arayat in order to ensure environmental protection and conservation, while supporting local communities.

The DENR helped established people’s organizations whose involvement helped promote sustainable tourism practice in the area.

Currently, the MANP has recreational and resort area that continue to draw tourists.

It has a recreation and resort area in San Juan Baño with agreement between the local government unit of Arayat and the DENR. For religious pilgrimage, the MANP has a “Station of Cross” in Barangay Ayala in Magalang town Meanwhile, for mountaineering and trekking, it boasts of four destinations, namely White Rock,South Peak, North Peak and Pinnacle Peak.

Rivers and waterfalls

The existence of rivers and waterfalls highlights the importance of protecting the MANP. It provides crystalclear for domestic use and irrigation to subsistence farmers living around the mountain.

Palawan’s Mount Mantalingahan mapped to protect, develop ₧265B worth of resources

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HE highest peak in Palawan will now be preserved, protected and developed through a land-use plan (LUP), mapping its economic resources valued at P265 billion.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said that 206,567 hectares of Mount Mantalingahan’s protected landscape had been zoned, a news release said.

The LUP is part of DENR’s technical assistance program called “Protect Wildlife Project” funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The zoned area also includes forest land outside the protected area of 153,836 hectares.

Mapping for economic benefits THE mapping of Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape (MMPL) is a powerful tool in defining the activities appropriate for each zone and prescribing what is allowed in each area.

With its 120,457 hectares of forest, Mount Mantalingahan is the headwater for 33 watersheds, according to the DENR. The agency said it is important to preserve the habitat of many important species of animals in Mount Mantalingahan—the Philippine cockatoo, the talking mynah, the blue-naped parrot and the Philippine pangolin, among other highly endangered wildlife.

Production area totaling to 82,469 hectares of protected area and 71,367 hectares of conservation area have also been designated under the Forest Land Use Plan (FLUP) of Southern Palawan.

Ecosystem services from MMPL’s rich natural resources bring about economic benefit to the community valued at P265 billion ($5.5 billion), according to Jeanne G. Tabangay, managing director of Palawan Biodiversity Conservation Corridor.

“This was based on a 2008 study conducted by Conservation International as there were claims that the mining

resources in Palawan bring huge economic value. But this study showed the natural resources themselves have value for ecosystem services,” Tabangay said.

Conserving biologically significant sites THE Protect Wildlife Project of USAID targets to conserve around 750,000 hectares of biologically significant sites. These are protected areas, forestlands, watersheds, mangrove forests, and coastal and marine areas.

The biggest ecosystem services in MMPL, based on the Conservation International study, include indigenous people (IP) land-based livelihood, P2 billion; water resources, P83 billion; and ecotourism, P84 billion.

Marine biodiversity’s indirect use was valued at P13 billion and carbon, P34 billion. Ecosystem services of tropical forests was valued at P108 billion and recreation, P6 billion.

The Water Wildlife Project leveraged P368 million of commitments from private and public sector partners to fund conservation activities, including support for sustainable livelihood and social enterprises.

Highest peak in Palawan THE highest peak in Palawan, Mount Mantalingahan straddles the towns of Bataraza, Brooke’s Point, Rizal, Quezon and Sofronio Española.

It plays an important role as a deterrent to flashfloods and other destructive forces.

However, even Mount Mantalingahan faces natural and man-made threats from illegal logging, wildlife poaching, mining and kaingin (slash and burn) farming.

It also faces the risks of high poverty incidence, unclear or inconsistent regulatory policies on resource uses, communities that lack tenure rights, weak enforcement systems and the vulnerability to climate risks, such as drought and intense rainfall, according to the USAID.

LUP now compliant to policies

THE Protect Wildlife Project aligned the LUP with prevailing policies as it found that the actual land use of several areas differed from what the policies prescribed.

USAID said that this caused much of the degradation within the protected area and adjoining forest lands.

The LUP is now compliant to the policies on Environmentally Critical Areas Network strategy for Palawan, National Integrated Protected Areas Systems Act, Forestry Code, the Local Government Code and the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act. Land use includes forest lands designated into protection, conservation and production areas. Production areas are further divided into sub-zones, such as agriculture, tourism and special areas.

“Each zone and sub-zone have corresponding evidence-based land and resource use prescriptions—the rules for how an area of land may be legally used.

Zoning decisions are derived from spatial analysis but also consider socioeconomic and political realities,” USAID said.

USAID added, “Land use zoning provides a solid basis for LGUs [local government units] and the DENR to make informed decisions for investments on natural assets enhancement, restoration, basic infrastructure, social services and enterprises.”

Project partners THE DENR said the project’s partners for its livelihood programs are Lutheran World Relief, Abraham Holdings Inc. and Sunlight Foods Corp.

These partners support the establishment of enterprises in five LGUs within the MMPL. Participating in an ube (purple yam) production are upland communities in tenured areas in Bataraza, Brooke’s Point and Sofronio Española, while 14 communities with a total of 1,500 households are involved in conservation agriculture and agroforestry.

Being a forest reserve, MANP has three waterfalls that continue to attract tourists wanting to beat the summer heat. They are in the resort area in San Juan Baño, Brgy. San Agustin, and the Pau falls in Brgy. Baliti.

Rich biodiversity

Laudemir Salac, Pampanga’s Provincial Environment and Natural Resource Officer (Penro), told the BusinessMirror that Mount Arayat, being rich in biological diversity, was recognized by no less than former President Manuel L. Quezon who signed the law establishing the MANP as a protected area with the category of Forest Reservation.

“During that time, they already recognized the beauty of Mount Arayat as a biodiersity area and as an ecotourism area.It is rich in natural resources. It has a natural spring that supplies the resort area.

We have endemic f lora and fauna on Mount Arayat,” Salac said in an interview via Zoom on August 6.

According to Salac, these are the reasons why the mountain is a popular tourist destination in Pampanga.

Since March 2020, however, the MANP is closed to tourists to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Ever since its establishment as a forest reserve, Mount Arayat is under a strict management regime, Salac said, but the threats of migration continue.

He said the DENR-Pampanga is currently conducting a study to determine the number of people living within the MANP. But because the area is already occupied by tenured migrants, the DENR is giving out tenurial instruments—a 25-year lease agreement for them to practice sustainable agriculture and help protect Mount Arayat.

“They are allowed to stay there but we strictly prohibit the cutting of trees for charcoal making. They are also our National Greening Program [NGP] partners,” Salac said in a mix of English and Filipino.

“We’ve involved the community and the people’s organization in protecting Mount Arayat. Now, we plant both native trees and fruit-bearing trees and some are already harvesting atis and guyabano,” he added.

Development partners

Salac is referring to the Samahan ng mga Magsasaka ng Ayala sa Mataas na Lupa Inc., or SMAMLI, in Barangay Ayala, Magalang municipality.

It is the DENR’s primary partner in the implementation of its greening program and in implementing the Biodiversity Friendly Enterprise program in the area.

On the other hand, the New Maria Sinukuan Upland Farmers Association Inc. (NMSUFAI) is the DENR’s partner in Barangay San Juan Baño, in implementing the NGP and in ecotourism

Threats to Mount Arayat

According to Salac, slash-andburn farming and charcoal-making is no longer a big problem because

livelihood opportunities are made available through ecotourism.

Other threats include hunting of monkeys thriving in the area.

“We hear there were hunters targeting long-tailed macaque for food,” he said.

Communicating biodiversity

Don Guevarra, the chief of the DENR Region 3 Public Affairs Office (RPAO 3), said the area is important with the recent discoveries of new species, such as on Mount Arayat, underscores the importance of protecting areas set aside for conservation.

“A group of students discovered a new species of coffee that exist nowhere else in the world.This is unique to Mount Arayat,” Guevarra said. Making it a legislated protected area, he said, gives additional protective layer to the biodiversityrich mountain.

He said the DENR RPAO 3, in partnership with their counterparts in the DENR-Pampanga, is communicating its importance in the communities around Mount Arayat.

“Actually, the people in the community already know the richness of Mount Arayat, but we are continuously doing it [communication] to remind the people to help protect and conserve the rich biodiversity,” Guevarra said.

To strengthen the protection and conservation and put in place a strict management regime, Salac said they are pinning their hope on the enactment of a law that will establish Mount Arayat as a protected landscape.

“Actually, in the House [of Representatives, the approval of the bill] is almost done, and there’s a counterpart bill in the Senate. Our champions in Congress have given their assurance that before the end of the year, President Duterte will sign it into law,” Salac said.

Asean greening initiative targets 10M trees in 10 yrs

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S part of its recent 54th founding anniversary celebration, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) launched a region-wide greening program that will ramp up restoration efforts and plant at least 10 million native trees within 10 years.

The Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and the Asean Secretariat led the virtual launch of the Asean Green Initiative (AGI), together with representatives of the Asean Member States (AMS), civil society organizations and the private sector, ACB said in its news release.

Demonstrating the strong cooperation and commitment among the 10 AMS to biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration in the region, the AGI aims to set standards for the recognition of tree-planting activities and programs across the region that not only regrow our forests but contribute to peoples’ wellbeing, livelihood improvement and resilience-building.

“Across the Asean, there are ongoing commendable efforts in nature restoration. With the AGI, we hope to give recognition to the outstanding initiatives that comprehensively address the concerns of the people and the environment,” ACB Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim said.

Lim cited various tree planting movements in the Asean, such as the aim of Singapore to plant a million trees over a period of 10 years and Malaysia’s

100 million tree-planting campaign.

H.E. Kung Phoak, Asean Deputy Secretary-General for Asean SocioCultural Community, and Norsham binti Abdul Latip, Senior Undersecretary for Biodiversity and Forestry Management, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Malaysia, opened the virtual launch.

Kung emphasized that among the main objectives of the AGI are to continue building and sustaining momentum for more robust collective actions in raising awareness and enabling ownership, which can be done by “as simple as planting trees in your backyard.”

Convention on Biological Diversity Executive Secretary Elizabeth Maruma Mrema took part in the event through a video message.

In a talk show dubbed “BiodiversiTalks,” representatives of the Communities Organized for Resource Allocation, Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, Boon Rueang Wetland Forest Conservation Group of Thailand and the AMS exchanged insights and updates on ongoing biodiversity conservation efforts that may be aligned with the AGI. The AGI is supported by the European Union and the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit through the Biodiversity Conservation and Management of the Protected Areas in Asean Project and the Institutional Strengthening of Biodiversity Sector in the Asean II

Project, respectively.

Ambassador to the Mission of the European Union to Asean, H.E. Igor Driesmans, and Deputy Head of Mission of Germany in Jakarta, Indonesia Thomas Graf also delivered their messages.

The launch and implementation of the AGI are aligned with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global movement to accelerate restoration goals and commitments, which commenced this year.

The campaign is a rallying call on the urgent need to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide to “end poverty, combat climate change, and eliminate mass extinction.”

The region plays a vital role in this global call for ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation. At least 60 percent of the world’s tropical peatlands, 42 percent of mangroves and 15 percent of tropical forests are located in the region.

While the region is known for its rich biodiversity, it is also vulnerable to climate-related risks and humandriven activities that drive biodiversity loss.

“Restoring the condition of our ecosystem to its healthy state will take a whole-of-society approach. Through concerted and collaborative efforts that support this initiative, we can achieve incredible results and transform a more sustainable future for the Asean community,” Lim said.

Tropical stork ends up in New York, dies after eating litter

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EW YORK—A wood stork ty pically seen in tropical a nd s u bt ro pic a l re g ion s migrated to New York City but died 10 days after it was first spotted on Staten Island, apparently after eating a large piece of hardened foam, researchers said.

The juvenile wood stork was first seen by bird researcher Anthony Ciancimino on July 31 in a saltwater marsh near Staten Island’s Amazon warehouse, the Staten Island Advance reported.

Lawrence Pugliares, a nature photographer and administrator of a Staten Island wildlife Facebook group, received a call on August 9 from a group member who said the stork appeared to be choking, the newspaper reported.

The bird died soon after Pugliares arrived to check on it.

José Ramírez-Garofalo and Shannon Curley, two adjunct biology professors at the College of Staten Island, brought the stork to the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, where a necropsy revealed a

piece of insular foam more than 3 feet (1 meter) long in the bird’s stomach.

“It was in the gut of the animal so it presumably ate it thinking it was a prey item like an eel or a snake,” Curley told the Advance.

Ramirez-Garofalo and Curley said that despite the bird being found near the Amazon facility, it could have come across the debris somewhere else.

Wood storks typically breed in Florida, Georgia and coastal South Carolina and are rarely seen as far north as New York. AP

Sports BusinessMirror

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unday, August 22, 2021 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

SIMONE BILES: I gave an outlet for athletes to speak up about their mental health and their well-being and learn that you can put yourself (as a person) first before the athlete. AP

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OKYO—The opening next week of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo is being used as a stage to launch a humanrights movement aimed at the world’s 1.2 billion people with disabilities.

The campaign is called “WeThe15”and gets its name from World Health Organization (IPC) estimates that persons with disabilities represent 15 percent of the global population. The campaign is being spearheaded by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), UN Human Rights, the International Disability Alliance and others.

The IPC is also hooking up in the campaign with other sports bodies including the Special Olympics, the Invictus Games Foundation and the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf.

Andrew Parsons, president of the IPC, told The Associated Press that “WeThe15” aims to put persons with disabilities on the inclusion agenda along with “ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.”

“We have seen other movements like LGBTQ, Black Lives Matter, the Me Too movement, and we need a similar movement for persons with a disability,” Parsons said.

“These movements have organized themselves in a way that they could advance their agenda, and we believe that so far—even though the Paralympics has brought some change—we need to bring together these other international organizations to make this change more effective. Not only every four years.”

The recent launch featured a 90-second campaign film that organizers say will be shown on television channels in 60 countries.

“It’s understanding that 1.2 billion people—15 percent of the global population—cannot be ignored,” Parsons said. “They must be included in the society. That’s

HIGHLIGHT ON ‘WETHE15’ the message we want to bring and highlight to the world.”

The WHO estimates that of the 15 percent of the world’s population living with some form of disability, between 110 million and 190 million adults have significant difficulties in functioning.

Organizers will accent the launch by lighting up more than 125 worldwide landmarks in the color purple. Advocates say purple is long associated with the disability community. Included in the lighting will be New York’s Empire State Building, Tokyo’s Skytree and Rainbow Bridge, Rome’s Colosseum, the London Eye, and Niagara Falls spanning Canada and the United States.

“With WeThe15, I hope we unite people through creating understanding,” said Heinrich Popow, a two-time Paralympic gold-medal winner at 100 meters and the long jump. Heinrich piled up seven medals overall in four Paralympics—from 2004 in Athens through 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

“We want to motivate through WeThe15 with stories,” Popow added.

“And create the understanding that we also love life.”

The launch of WeThe15 comes a year after a documentary film on Paralympic athletes was released in

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Fans have contributed an additional 300,000 ($76,500) to help the boy.

Even before the winning bid was made, the authorities in Andrejczyk’s community in Poland said they were prepared to make her a replica of the medal.

Another Olympic bronze medalist, Molly Seidel, meanwhile, was one of several standout American women planning to run the New York City Marathon in November, race organizers announced Wednesday.

Seidel stunned even herself with a third-place finish in Tokyo this month in just the third 26.2-mile race of her career. An NCAA Division I champion at Notre Dame in the 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 meter events, she is now the headliner for the NYC Marathon’s 50th running in her five-borough debut.

“Since the beginning of 2021, I’ve had two races circled on my calendar: the Olympic Games’ marathon on Aug. 7 and the TCS New York City Marathon on Nov. 7,” said Seidel, 27,

IMONE BILES didn’t plan for her second Olympics to become a flashpoint in the evolving conversation about the role proper mental health plays in all levels of sports.

Then again, she’s hardly complaining. If anything, she’s leaning into it.

The American gymnastics star has no regrets about her decision to opt-out of five of the six finals in Tokyo because of a mental block, calling it a small price to pay if it lets others realize they retain the right to say “it’s OK not to be OK” no matter how bright the spotlight.

“I wouldn’t change anything for the world,” said Biles, who left Japan with a silver medal from the team competition and an individual bronze on balance beam. “I gave an outlet for athletes to speak up about their mental health and their wellbeing and learn that you can put yourself [as a person] first before the athlete.”

It’s a message that will be part of the post-Olympic Gold Over America Tour Biles is headlining this fall. The 35-city exhibition, which kicks off in Tucson, Arizona, on September 21, will incorporate gymnastics and dance elements but also feature a segment led by former UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi on the importance of taking care of yourself mentally.

“We wanted to make it as relatable as possible and let these kids know that we’ve been going through these things,” Biles said.

Biles will be joined on Tour by Olympic teammates Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum, as well as MyKayla Skinner and Jade Carey.

Chiles and McCallum earned a silver in the team competition while Skinner won silver on vault

JAPAN’S Atsushi Yamamoto (5) competes in the men’s long jump T12 during an athletics test event for the Tokyo Paralympic Games at the National Stadium in Tokyo in May. AP

almost 200 countries.

The film Rising Phoenix weaves the history of the Paralympic Games around athletes’ lives and the financial ups and downs of the movement. It also includes segments about Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, a refugee from Nazi Germany who put together an athletic competition for the disabled in Britain in 1948 as way to help treat World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries.

Polish Olympian auctions silver medal for sick child ARSAW, Poland—An Olympic athlete from Poland auctioned her silver medal from the Tokyo Games to raise money for a life-saving operation for an infant boy, and then was told by the buyer that she could keep her prize.

Maria Andrejczyk, a 25-yearold javelin thrower who overcame bone cancer and a shoulder injury to compete at this year’s Olympics, said she decided to auction her medal to help the boy knowing how much she had to “fight against adversity and pain.”

The money is for Milosz Malysa, an infant with a heart defect whose family has been raising funds for him to be operated on in the United States. Milosz’s parents posted last week that the boy was at risk of dying soon without the surgery.

Zabka, a popular convenience store chain in Poland, bid 200,000 zlotys ($51,000) but said it would let the athlete keep her medal.

“We were moved by the beautiful and extremely noble gesture of our Olympian,” Zabka said.

Mental health advocacy part of post-Olympic tour S

who grew up in Wisconsin. “Winning the bronze medal in Sapporo showed that I can run with the best in the world, and on any given day, anything is possible.”

Fellow US Olympians Aliphine Tuliamuk, Sally Kipyego and Emily Sisson will also be in the field, along with 2018 Boston Marathon winner Des Linden.

Four-time champion Mary Keitany of Kenya won’t participate for the first time since 2013.

The men’s professional field has not yet been announced.

The 2020 NYC Marathon was canceled by the pandemic, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in June that the 2021 race would go on—albeit with a field limited to about 33,000 entrants, down from 55,000 in 2019.

Tuliamuk, who was born in Kenya, won the 2020 US Olympic marathon trials in Atlanta four years after gaining American citizenship.

She gave birth to a daughter in January 2021 but still competed in Tokyo. She dropped out near the 20-kilometer mark. AP

The Tokyo Paralympics open on August 24 in a ceremony at Tokyo’s National Stadium. They will feature about 4,400 athletes, a much smaller contingent that the just-completed Olympics, which featured 11,000 athletes.

The Paralympics close on September 5.

The Paralympics will be held without any fans, even fewer than the Olympics, which allowed some fans in outlying venues. The

Paralympics come as new infections have accelerated in Tokyo, which may expose an athlete population that is more vulnerable to Covid-19.

New infections in Tokyo tripled during the 17 days of the Olympics, although medical experts said the surge was not directly linked the Tokyo Games. Rather, experts suggested an indirect effect as the public was distracted and lulled into a false sense of security that staging the Games offered. AP

MOLLY SEIDEL stuns even herself with a third-place finish in Tokyo. AP

MARIA ANDREJCZYK knows how much she had to “fight against adversity and pain.” AP

and Carey earned gold on floor exercise. Biles qualified for the finals on all four apparatuses in Japan but pulled out of three of them to deal with “the twisties,” meaning she lost her air awareness and didn’t feel it was safe to compete.

She returned to capture a bronze on beam, tying her with Shannon Miller for the most career Olympic medals by an American gymnast (seven). Asked if she had any clarity on what might have brought on “the twisties,” Biles thinks it may have been the buildup of various issues she’s faced over the last several years.

“I mean, I’m in therapy. I go to therapy pretty religiously,” she said.

“And it’s just something that took hold of me [where] your body and your mind tells you when enough is enough.”

While Biles’s decision received the predictable backlash on social media, she called the support she’s received since returning from Japan two weeks ago overwhelming.

“It’s been so supportive, so loving, which I really wasn’t expecting,” she said, calling the response on par with what she received after coming back from the 2016 Olympics with four gold medals, five in all.

It’s one of the reasons why Biles is excited about the tour, one that she believes will differ from the post-Olympic tours formerly run by USA Gymnastics. Biles signed on as the headliner because she wanted to take the sport in a different direction. She pointed out the tour is being run by women—a first— and will be something “unique.”

Also unique? The ability for college-bound athletes like Chiles, Carey and McCallum to be compensated for joining. New legislation allowing athletes to earn money for their name, image and likeness mean all three incoming freshmen can participate in the tour without losing their college eligibility.

Given the tight tour’s tight schedule—it wraps up in Boston in early November—neither Chiles, Carey nor McCallum anticipate it getting in the way of preparing for college gymnastics season that begins in January.

“I never thought of going pro, I just wanted to go to school,” said Chiles, who will attend UCLA. “But now that this is how it is, I’ve never thought of redshirting...I think this [tour] is a great experience....

We have to be relevant and stay relevant. We have to make sure we’re still out there doing what made us who we are.”

Biles also extended a tour invitation to Olympic all-around champion Sunisa Lee, who began her freshman year at Auburn last week. Biles said Lee is focused on starting college off on the right foot but is hopeful she can make a cameo appearance or two, perhaps at the tour stop in Minneapolis— Lee is from the St. Paul area—in October.

The tour will also include twotime Olympic medalist Laurie Hernandez, 2017 world champion Morgan Hurd and 2005 world champion and 2008 Olympic silver medalist Chellsie Memmel, who is in the midst of a comeback in her early 30s. AP

BusinessMirror

Start-up founder Germee Ronirose Abesamis

Moving towards a bright, shiny future with jewelry and technology

August 22, 2021

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BusinessMirror AUGUST 22, 2021 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

YOUR MUSI

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE American singer Sahara makes waves with OPM song

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By Edwin P. Sallan

HE global success of Korean K-Pop boy band BTS and even our very own P-Pop exponents SB19 with hit songs written and sung in their respective native tongues have shown that language is no longer a barrier to cross over to the mainstream.

SAHARA

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: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

Editor-In-Chief

: Lourdes M. Fernandez

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: Aldwin M. Tolosa

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: Jt Nisay

SoundStrip Editor

: Edwin P. Sallan

Group Creative Director : Eduardo A. Davad Graphic Designers Contributing Writers

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: Niggel Figueroa Anabelle O. Flores : Tony M. Maghirang, Rick Olivares, Darwin Fernandez, Leony Garcia, Stephanie Joy Ching Pauline Joy M. Gutierrez : Kaye VillagomezLosorata Annie S. Alejo

Photographers

: Bernard P. Testa Nonie Reyes

Y2Z & SOUNDSTRIP are published and distributed free every Sunday by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror Publishing Inc. as a project of the

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It comes as no surprise, therefore, that a classically-trained American singer based in Las Vegas is making waves with her debut single, a cover of an iconic Original Pilipino Music tune originally popularized by Jaya.

The singer, simply known as Sahara has by her own admission, a lifelong love for OPM and Filipino culture. Dubbed as the the American Anthem Diva and the official singer for minor league NASCAR events, is a big fan of OPM icons like Regine Velasquez-Alcasid, Kyla and of course, Jaya.

In choosing to release Jaya’s “Dahil Ba Sa Kanya” as her debut single, Sahara says she wants tyo be known as “among the greatest singers in the world singing the most beautiful music in the world” which for her means Filipino music or simply OPM “Even [here] in Las Vegas many of the best musicians are Filipinos, and I’m blessed to be able to work closely with them. Filipinas are some of the best vocalists in the world so yes, I want to challenge myself and be included among their ranks.”

With heart-melting lyrics like “Dahil nga ba sa kanya / Nakalimutan mo aking sinta / Ang sabi mo noon hanggang wakas / Tayong dal’wa ay magsasama / Dahil nga ba sa kanya / Naririto ako’t nag-iisa / Pag-ibig mo sa akin ba’y naglaho na,” Sahara admits that “Dahil Ba Sa Kanya” is one of the biggest reasons why she fell in love with OPM and the Filipino language.

“Language is such an integral part of the music. You get a lot of meaning and emotion in so few words. It’s truly beautiful,” she enthused.

Sahara recalls the first time she heard, “Dahil Ba Sa Kanya.”

“I was watching a travel video on YouTube, and the song was playing in the background as the host was walking down the street. (So) I used

Shazam to find the song and artist.

When I heard the song, it’s hard to describe... I just felt something deep inside my heart. A pain, a longing.

Something truly lost. Not to mention Jaya’s soulful rendition. And when I read the translation, I understood why I felt that way. A song that can communicate its story without understanding the words is a true piece of art, and I knew one day I would sing it - not just to myself - but to the world.”

She added, “So when we met Freddie Saturno, the composer of ‘Dahil Ba Sa Kanya’ over Zoom to ask his permission to cover it, he revealed that the song was based on a true story. And I loved it even more.”

Recording a song in a foreign language is not without its challenges not just for Sahara but for any singer. “It was definitely harder,” she confessed. “There are several sounds that aren’t common in other languages. Especially the “ng” sound in words like ‘Tanging’”.

Sahara can sing very well in English, Spanish, French, Italian and German but the Filipino language also known as Tagalog is something that she finds unique especially in the way it expresses emotion and meaning.

“Why do I love singing in Tagalog?

It’s the passion. So much passion. A single word can express so much joy or sorrow, and as an emotional artist it’s very fulfilling. To be honest, the passion in OPM is missing in so much of modern Western music. The world could learn something from OPM. I can’t imagine singing anything else.”

“Dahil Ba Sa Kanya’ may only be the first OPM tune that Sahara has recorded but it certainly won’t be the last as she is currently working on a album of original OPM tunes with some of the country’s best composers and arrangers.

“The people we’re working with

have been the biggest names in OPM for decades. I have a duet in the works with my co-producer, Dennis Quila, as well as several original new compositions in Filipino. And I can also tell you we have a special surprise coming for Christmas.”

Asked what other OPM songs she enjoys listening/singing to, Sahara exclaimed she could not get enough of “Sayang na Sayang” by Aegis. “I listen to it at least once a day and I always get chills.”

Describes her musical style as both eclectic and passionate, Sahara says she prefers not to be identified with just one musical genre. “It’s very difficult for me to limit myself to just one and say, ‘I’m this kind of artist.’

OPM has really changed my musical perspective and outlook.”

“As an artist, I always focus on the emotions of the chords, melody and lyrics. Even when I sing in a foreign language, I make sure I understand not just the words, but also the idioms of the culture they come from.”

As talented as she is as a solo act, Sahara does not only fly alone.

The singer is also part of NeonDuet, a musical duo which consists of Michael Todd “m.t.” Glazier. They recently released a dance single “(We Can Be) As One”.

“It’s no secret there’s a lot of division in American society right now, and other societies in the world. “(We Can Be) As One’ was made during the first three months of the pandemic when people were feeling more and more alienated from one another,” Sahara shared. “Our song is a message from the heart that we can’t really succeed unless we work together—as a family, as a community, or as a whole country.”

Sahara’s debut single “Dahil Ba Sa Kanya” is now available on Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, and other digital streaming platforms worldwide.

IC

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | AUGUST 22, 2021

BUSINESS

SoundSampler

by Tony M. Maghirang

Rejuvenated old fogeys and refreshing young guns

DESCENDENTS, 9th & Walnut

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HIS is not exactly a collection of new materials from a legendary US outfit to whom every pop-punk wannabe owes a debt of gratitude, if not a share of royalties. The bulk of the tracks here originally first saw the light of day in 20022004.

The band has also undergone personnel changes over time even as frontman Milo Aukerman is now 58 years old. Honestly, they’re just sorry excuses for an introduction because the ageing Descendents retain the vigor and indignation of their youth in more recent songs like “Baby Doncha Know” “Yore Disgusting” and “Grudge.”

Beat up he brat who disses them.

PUNK MAGALONA, Mundong Malaswa

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ERE’S a band that hasn’t forgotten punk rock is more than the noise. Inspired by the amateurish sonic punch of the Sex Pistols, 4-piece Punk Magalona draws primary firepower from the hair-raising rants of frontman/guitarist Meynard. The triple threat of bassist Ose/drummer Rex/2nd guitarist Josh backs up the menace with simple moves

from scratchy rock and roll to “Roadrunner”-style garage punk eruptions.

The band says their 14-track debut tackles pertinent issues in politics, media and society as they relate to oppression under the present administration.

Tracks like “Gago,” “Lason ang TV” and “Sobrang Bobo” refer to typical punk topics but “Tanginamo, Gloria” and “Para kay Grace Poe” ring true no matter whose sitting at the Palace. No summertime blues with these guys though their kind of messed-up messages will surely provoke conversations in the run-up to the presidential race in 2022.

KEAN CIPRIANO, Childlike

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LTHOUGH Callalily (no, they haven’t disbanded) frontman Kean Cipriano has been known to dabble in acting, he remains a first-rate musician able to transcend his band roots. This is very much evident in the sound and attitude displayed on his solo debut titled Childlike.

Just when everyone’s nostalgic about the immediate safer past, Kean records a collection of new songs, each with its own surprises. First, he collaborates with his actress wife, Chynna Ortaleza, on two tracks, one of which “Sulyap” is a sumptuously melodic pop rocker. Then, there’s “Tangina” where in words and music, Kean subverts the title into something expressing regret and gloom.

Of course, there’s the album cover itself showing a person either impossibly stuck inside or living in a box. A lot of maturity is revealed in a record that would otherwise suggest puerile mischief.

JACKSON BROWNE, Downhill from Everywhere

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ASY rock (there’s no such thing, mind you) poster boy Jackson Browne can’t shake off the warm comfort of the predictable. Today, he’d rather revisit the middling rock of “Lawyers in Love” rather than the volume of say, “Running on Empty” of some 40 years’ vintage.

It’s easy to pin it down to middle age. However, on his latest release cryptically titled “Downhill From Everywhere,” veteran singer-songwriter Jackson Browne is up to some fine tricks.

He practically ambushes soft rock fans with songs about fighting discrimination (“Until Justice is Real”), faking love in an artificial world (“My Cleveland Heart”) and finding connection in a time of pandemic (“A Human Touch").

Then again, wimpy as it now sounds, his MOR-type of music recalls his best work with guitar ace David Lindley and the late Warren Zevon/ It’s a game changer for this ‘downhill’ ride.

THE 8TH MESSENGER & SIX THE NORTHSTAR, Isang Libong Taon

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ET ready for a serious contender for best album of 2021! Let’s get the music out of the way first. It’s a mixed bag of ephemeral operatic voices, shadowy choruses and melodramatic jazzy riffs. They serve as ample backdrop to the lavishly

constructed lyrics that on closer listen describe the struggles of the faithful during the Biblical end of days and Christ’s coming to reign for a thousand years of peace and prosperity.

The words get delivered baligtasan style – clearly enunciated and measured in beat to conjure a vivid manifestation in the here and now of a future foretold 2,000 years ago. There’s none of the harangue from death-fixated preachers and their hare-brained minions. It’s the moving poetry behind the vision that makes “Isang Libong Taon” a work of art.

BILLIE EILISH, Happier Than Ever

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ARK pop songstress Billie Eilish made Grammy history by grabbing her second Record of the Year this year. To most observers, it simply meant her Gothic perspective on growing up resonated across the youth demographics especially in two seasons of the ongoing pandemic.

In her 2019 debut album, Ms. Eilish queried, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. Her latest sophomore release is titled Happier Than Ever even if the 14 songs on the new album continues to be mired in the despondent moods of her first release. For an album predicted to showcase her coming terms with maturity, Happier Than Ever sticks to the “In-sadness-I-trust” ethos that once also propelled a certain Lana del Rey to instant stardom.

Less somber tones ensue from the likes of “Billie Bossa Nova” and “Didn’t Change My Number” but Eilish seems to prefer the dependable brass and bass styling to accompany her latest bout with sadcore. You can’t argue with success even while fading into the black.

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Start-up founder Germee Ronirose Abesamis

Moving towards a bright, shiny future with jewelry and technology

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

F

or companies, pivoting digitally has almost become a must to survive in these challenging times.

It’s a strategy employed across different industries, including by one innovative player in the jewelry space.

Dearest Customized Bridal Jewelry was born of the vision of scalable personalization using technology. According to Germee Ronirose Abesamis, founder of the “jewelry tech” start-up, the goal is to create dream pieces for clients using the online platform.

“It should be easy for anyone to co-design their dream piece with a designer, even if they don’t even know what they want at first,” Abesamis, 36, told the BusinessMirror in an e-mail interview. “Since it’s mobile-first, everything is done online.”

Abesamis means it when she says “everything.” This even includes ring sizing.

Dearest has recently launched its own digital ring sizer, which uses machine learning technology the first in the industry, according to Abesamis. Through their own app Dearest Fine Jewelry, a client can get their ring size by just taking a photo of their hand.

Moreover, the company is working on an AI Curation Tool. By visiting the company’s

web site and answering a personality quiz, the system can curate an engagement ring for his or her loved one. The technology also helps clients imagine wearing their bespoke dream jewelry crafted by the best master artisans in the world.

“With the help of our technology, our clients feel seen, and feel more human, wearing pieces that really represent them,” Abesamis said. “We have other innovative things in mind, and we are taking it one step at a time.”

Accountant to jeweler Abesamis is an accounting extraordinaire. She was top 7 in the CPA board, taught accounting and finance at her alma matter University of the Philippines-Diliman and served as a financial analyst at a global company.

Being a third-generation jeweler, however, her innate passion for jewelry design became too hard to resist. She flew to Italy and trained under artisans. Today, Abesamis holds free Financial Visioning and Innovations webinars for entrepreneurs and takes care of her own business.

Dearest now has clients in the Philippines, Europe and the United States.

They all search for alternatives to heritage brands, looking at companies that deliver the same high quality and offer more meaningful pieces. Abesamis noted that their clients value individuality and personal style, as well as their relationships.

“It’s ironic how the world is full of interesting people, and yet, jewelry options are too generic or there is an overwhelming amount of options, they don’t know what they really

Germee Ronirose Abesamis (bottom right), founder of “jewelry tech” start-up Dearest Customized Bridal Jewelry, with some of their products. want anymore,” Abesamis said. “At Dearest, we love to curate for personalities, and make having their dream piece hassle-free for them. So, why don’t we create technologies that make us feel more human?”

Dearest does this by merging technology with beautiful craftsmanship. The formula, it seems, produces pieces that exclusively garner warm responses from clients. In fact, the company has never had a

single return, and has only 5-star reviews on their FB page.

“It’s such a personal curated service,” said Abesamis, adding that their tools are made user-friendly being a tech start-up that values personal relationships. “We are innovating to create bespoke pieces for our clients, and building technology that can help us deliver the best and most personal to our clients.”

‘Green Beauty’ brand commits to reduce plastic waste

By Pauline Joy M. Gutierrez

I

n the Philippines, where 2.7 million tons of plastic waste are generated each year, Garnier is investing in new ways to package their products.

Earlier this month the skincare brand of French cosmetics company L’Oréal announced two key partnerships to inspire Filipino consumers to start their “one green step” towards sustainability.

The first is with e-commerce platform Lazada, where consumers will now be able to receive all their Garnier orders in plasticfree packaging. The second deal is with nonprofit CORA, or Communities Organized for Resource Allocation. For every purchase of a Garnier kit, the brand will donate a seedling to the mangrove ecosystem protecting Baybay, Leyte.

“Sustainability is at the core of Garnier as a Green Beauty brand and we’re thankful to have partners that share the same

values,” said Isabel Falco, marketing director of Garnier and L’Oréal Paris. “Through their reach and expertise, we will be able to inspire Filipinos to make conscious choices [with their purchases].”

Garnier Philippines is the first beauty brand in the country to roll out the Green Parcel program for e-commerce in October 2020, according to Falco. Since its introduction, Garnier has saved over 1,240 kg of plastic.

Instead of the usual plastic tape, Garnier uses water-infused kraft paper tape to secure and protect their products. In place of bubble wrap, it uses recycled paper wrap from FSC-certified suppliers that can be reused at least six times and disintegrates in water within 30 seconds. All items are also packed in a paper box that is RoHS-certified and does not contain any hazardous toxic chemicals.

As for packaging, Garnier has saved 9,000 tons of virgin plastic in 2020, equiva-

4 BusinessMirror

Isabel Falco, marketing director of Garnier and L’Oréal Paris lent to 21 percent of the brand’s annual plastic consumption. “[By 2025], 100 percent of our plastic packaging will be reusable, recyclable, or compostable,” the executive added.

AUGUST 22, 2021

In partnership with CORA, Garnier committed to supporting the mangrove plantation project called “WoMangrove Warriors” by donating a mangrove seedling to forests in Leyte.

Under the program, COR A and Garnier aim to provide measurable action for carbon storage and sequestration to help mitigate climate change, improve opportunities for livelihood and income for women involved in mangrove rehabilitation programs and biodiversityfriendly enterprises, and strengthen local policies to support women and children.

“Reducing our impact is not enough,” Falco said. “We want to empower our business ecosystem and unite with our suppliers to also help them transition to a more sustainable world. We want to make a positive contribution to society by providing financial support to urgent social and environmental causes.”