BusinessMirror February 23, 2020

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A broader look at today’s business

DIGITAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

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Contributor

HILE most Southeast Asian companies are now reaping the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) in their operations, their Philippine counterparts still lag behind in the adoption of such technology to meet customers’ expectations and the kind of experiences this automation provides.

Today’s market, unlike before, is more demanding, especially when it comes to interaction with businesses. Technology plays a big part in this rapidly evolving behavior. Hence, brands need to embrace whatever change in the channels they have in order to continue to connect and reach their target market.

Among the modern tools that create a big impact on the customer experience, or CX, is AI. Entities that use this increase productivity of agents, resolve tickets faster, and scale their support.

To establish a self-service strategy, high-performing support teams also tap AI. In fact, 84 percent of managers using it to assist clients have a self-help tactic in place.

Zendesk, in its CX Trends Report 2020 that is based on industry research and product usage data from its 45,000 customers worldwide, shows that Filipino companies (4.8 percent) are slow adopters of AI-enabled customer support for resolving support tickets compared to their regional peers.

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By Roderick L. Abad

Continued on A2

Expat families flee Hong Kong after double whammy of virus, protests

By Bruce Einhorn

A

Bloomberg News

FTER a decade and a half in Hong Kong, New Zealand native Ian Jacob is calling it quits. The owner of a construction-materials company, Jacob and his wife were worried last year about the political unrest, especially after the temporary suspension of schools. “We watched as the situation got worse and worse,” he said.

With classes suspended again amid the coronavirus outbreak, the prospect of more home schooling for their 10-year-old daughter pushed them to take refuge in Auckland, New Zealand. Jacob said they’ll be moving back there for good once the school year ends in Hong Kong.

“It’s just becoming an unsta-

ble environment to raise a child in,” he said.

The debate about leaving Hong Kong—which began for many expats during the unrest last summer and fall—has taken on a greater urgency with the spread of the virus, which has claimed more than 1,800 lives globally, and caused many companies in the financial

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.6220

PEDESTRIANS wearing protective masks walk across a footbridge in the Central district of Hong Kong on January 29, 2020. Governments tightened international travel and border crossings with China as they ramped up efforts to stop the spread of the disease. PAUL YEUNG/BLOOMBERG

hub to require employees to work from home. Critics accuse Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s government of mishandling the latest crisis compared with Singapore, which has kept schools open.

An exodus by expats like Jacob could further damage an economy already reeling from the unrest and the virus, with visitor numbers plunging and unemployment rising.

Hong Kong residents who come from elsewhere play outsized roles in finance, law and other service industries that make the city a global business capital. About 690,000 foreigners and non-Hong Kong Chinese live in the Special Administrative Region, accounting for about 9.5 percent of the population, according to the 2016 census. Half were from the Philippines and Indonesia, the main sources of domestic helpers; the former colony also had about 35,000 Britons and 14,800 Americans.

Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4515 n UK 65.2163 n HK 6.5067 n CHINA 7.2080 n SINGAPORE 36.1431 n AUSTRALIA 33.4865 n EU 54.6060 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4967

Source: BSP (February 21, 2020)

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, February 23, 2020

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THE POWER OF A.I. Continued from A1

Singaporeans and Thais are leading the convenience economy as they partake 62.4 percent and 44.2 percent, respectively. Still on the catch-up mode are Indonesians and Malaysians given their 23.4-percent and 14.3-percent share of the total ticket volume by channel, respectively. Ticket volume pertains to the number of customer service inquiries per month.

Other self-service channels

WHEN issues arise, customers, more often than not, prefer to communicate with companies over familiar channels for immediate and efficient responses. And in this modern era, digital and mobile platforms are the instruments to turn to.

Providing customer support via messaging is starting to gain ground in the region. As expected from the Philippines, being the texting capital of the world, Filipino firms (42.9 percent) are the big users of messaging channels, such as WhatsApp and LINE, to engage with their patrons, based on the overall ticket volume results of the Zendesk study.

They are way ahead of Malaysians (3.7 percent), who come at a far second, followed by Thais (2.9 percent), Indonesians (2.7 percent) and Singaporeans (2.4 percent).

Social media as a way of communication is also popular among Filipino enterprises (2.9 percent) compared to Singaporeans (1.6 percent), Indonesians (1.0 percent), Malaysians (0.8 percent) and Thais (0.4 percent).

On the contrary, chat is the dominant self-help platform for Malaysians (18.2 percent) and Indonesians (16.4 percent), indicating how consumer behavior is being molded by mobile-first economies. Compared to them, though, Thais (5.2 percent), Singaporeans (4.4 percent) and Filipinos (4.2 percent) less likely resort to chatting.

Web-form self-service is highly utilized by Thai organizations at 24.9 percent; then Indonesians, 18.8 percent; Filipinos, 14.3 percent; Malaysians, 9.6 percent; and Singaporeans, 8.9 percent.

E-mail is the go-to self-help tool for Malaysians (41.3 percent), almost halfway ahead for Filipinos (24.3 percent), Indonesians (24 percent), Singaporeans (16.5 percent) and Thais (15.6 percent).

Nevertheless, phone is underutilized by Malaysians (3.5 percent), Thais (2.6 percent), Indonesians (0.7 percent), Filipinos (0.6 percent) and Singaporeans (0.6 percent).

Omnichannel industries, too, are shifting to digitization. The Zen­ desk research revealed that retail (68 percent), travel (63 percent) and financial services (60 percent) are using messaging to deliver a seamless service experience for customers in the region.

Accelerating CX performance

RESPONDING to customers’ concerns requires immediacy from any business. This is because when it comes to service, speed is their topmost priority: They want their issues resolved in a rapid and effective way.

As AI-powered customer support keeps on thriving in Southeast Asia, Zendesk’s report found that enhancements across different performance metrics have more than doubled from 2018 to 2019.

During the periods in review, for instance, the ideal first reply and resolution times in the region went down from 11.8 hours to 2.6 hours, and 16.4 hours to 4.8 hours, respectively.

The first-reply time metric measures the time between ticket creation and the initial public comment reply by an agent. The resolution time metric gauges the duration between ticket generation and its first resolution.

Even if they are significant in just one year, such improvements only translate to a +0.2-percent year-on-year improvement in the region’s customer satisfaction (CSAT) score (86.1 percent), reinforcing that rate at which customer expectations are rising is exponential.

“Improvements in insights and analytics can mean that Southeast Asia’s businesses are becoming more proficient at managing customer data, substantially improving customer experience and loyalty,” said Malcolm Koh, CX strategist in Asia Pacific at Zen­ desk. “In fact, research from Forrester found that when customers are engaged in the right way, with the right emotion, they’re even willing to pay a premium.”

Southeast Asia are satisfied with the kind of support they receive from business entities, or companies they engaged with for certain issues they have regarding their rendered services.

Given the level of digital maturity of such countries surveyed in the region, the average Southeast Asian CSAT rating has experienced a steady +1.5-percent growth to peak at 86.1 percent in the last couple of years.

Thanks to the gains of being a late-adopter of customer support technology, Malaysia sustained its regional lead for happy customers with a CSAT score of 89.3 percent.

Singapore exhibited the giant leap (+5.3 percent) to 88.1 percent during the same period. The Philippines saw a drop in terms of satisfied customers, but its score above 80 percent is still not that bad for a nation with developing digital infrastructures.

“The key to high-performing CX teams is a robust AI strategy backed by data insights and automation to effectively scale support. Looking forward, businesses across Southeast Asia will need to examine how AI can permeate more channels—including social media—for customers to selfserve, especially in reaching out to a growing demographic of highly discerning Gen Zs,” Koh stressed.

Expat families flee Hong Kong after double whammy of virus, protests

Improved customer satisfaction ratings

MORE and more customers in

IN this February 17, 2020, photo, a volunteer irons a handmade cotton mask in Hong Kong. Volunteers from a Hong Kong theater group are turning their backstage skills to helping out against the new coronavirus, sewing reusable protective masks for those who can’t access or afford them. AP/KIN CHEUNG Continued from A1

The city’s population at the end of 2019 fell 0.1 percent from the midyear count, the first decline in almost two decades, according to government data released Tuesday.

There was a net outflow of Hong Kong residents—excluding oneway permit holders from mainland China—of 29,200 in 2019, compared with a net inflow of 23,000 in the 12-month period ending in the middle of 2019.

Though there are no statistics on the number considering permanent moves, there is growing anecdotal evidence of a shift in sentiment among expats. Relocation companies are seeing a spike in inquiries about overseas moves with growing predictions that the political stalemate will lead to more instability.

Grim outlook

AS the city combats the virus outbreak, the political situation “could well worsen in the days and weeks ahead,” risk consultancy Steve Vickers and Associates said in a report released February 11, 2020.

There were at least 57 confirmed cases of the virus in Hong Kong as of February 17, 2020, fewer than in Japan, or Singapore, yet enough to create widespread fear. Many employees are working from home and many restaurants are struggling. Panic buying has emptied supermarkets, with bare shelves where toilet paper and hand sanitizer used to be.

Links International Relocation Ltd. had a 45-percent increase in inquiries about moves in the second week of February compared with a year earlier, said Patrick O’Donnell, the company’s Hong Kong-based managing director. The government’s announcement on February 13, 2020 that schools would remain closed until mid-March—at least— will likely prompt more families to relocate, he said.

Typically the peak season for overseas moves is in June,

yet springtime already is starting to look busy, said Timothy Tao, Hong Kong-based director of business development with relocation company Asian Tigers Group. Inquiries have jumped in the past month, he said.

Robert Chipman, Asian Tigers Group Hong Kong chief executive officer, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television Wednesday that while there’s strong demand for moves from Hong Kong, there is almost no interest in relocations to the city. He’s been in his position for almost 20 years.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.

Permanent damage?

HONG KONG is at risk of an exodus that could threaten the city’s global status, the heads of the local British and French chambers of commerce warned in a February 1, 2020, letter.

“If the specific needs of international schools cannot be rapidly addressed, this will very likely trigger decisions of families [not just expatriates] to leave Hong Kong in the coming weeks,” wrote Rebecca Silli and Peter Burnett, chairs of the French and British chambers, respectively. “This would also have dramatic consequences on the international schools’ financial position, even to the point of putting at risk the continued operation of some.”

Still, many businesses and families are staying put, saying they’re confident Hong Kong will remain a hub for multinationals. Among the optimists is twodecade resident Donna Nguyen Phuoc, a partner with Sparq Capital, which works with family offices to co-invest in such industries as technology.

“A lot of people who are planning to move haven’t been in Hong Kong enough to see how resilient Hong Kong is,” she said. “If you have been here long enough, you realize Hong Kong will push through this as it has before.”

Other families are going else-

where at least temporarily, as they wait to see what happens next.

Insurance industry executive Ruth Lu, who has children ages 7 and 11, has rented a house with a pool on the Thai island of Koh Samui while schools are closed.

“We don’t even need to wear masks,” she said.

A native of China’s Jiangsu Province who has lived in Hong Kong for more than 20 years, Lu has no immediate plans to move but the unrest has soured her on the city. “It’s not the old Hong Kong like when I first arrived,” she said.

Several bankers interviewed

by Bloomberg, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to comment, said they had moved abroad with their families at least until the outbreak subsided and have postponed making longer-term plans.

About three-fourths of the families with children at Chinese International School, a popular private school with more than 1,530 students, have provided information on their whereabouts, and about 20 percent of those reporting are outside Hong Kong, according to the head of the school, Sean Lynch.

Waiting, watching

SOME families aren’t counting on schools reopening next month.

Betty Lai, born in Hong Kong, raised in Canada and married to a Briton, has gone to the UK and enrolled her two young children in schools in Suffolk, England.

Her husband, a recruiter, can work from London so the family plans on living there for now.

“We may end up staying for good if the situation in Hong Kong hasn’t settled by summer,” she said.

Departures that become permanent could hurt the city’s competitiveness, according to Tara Joseph, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. “Once talent is lost from Hong Kong, it will be very hard to get it back,” she said.

Editor: Angel R. Calso

The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, February 23, 2020

A3

Bat cave run by monks shows it’s hard to banish virus risk

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very Saturday morning, a dozen or so villagers from a province about 60 miles west of Bangkok creep into a bat-festooned cave to scrape up the precious fecal deposits of its flourishing inhabitants.

In three hours, they can amass as many as 500 buckets of bat dung. The guano is packaged and sold at an adjacent temple as fertilizer, reaping more than 75,000 baht ($2,400). Just 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of the nutrient-rich material can fetch as much as the daily minimum wage.

Elsewhere in Asia and Micronesia, meat from bats is sometimes sold in markets or cooked at home after being caught in the wild.

Although consumption is rare and limited to certain communities, it’s considered a local delicacy in the Pacific island-nation of Palau, and areas of Indonesia, where meat from other mammals is scarce.

With growing awareness of bat-borne viruses—from Nipah to coronaviruses linked to severe acute respiratory syndrome and the new pneumonia-causing Covid-19 disease that’s killed more than 2,000 people in China—human contact with the ancient fly-

ing mammal and their excreta is drawing closer scrutiny.

“Anything to do with bats, in theory, can expose yourself to potential viral transmission because we know bats carry so many viruses,” said Linfa Wang, who heads the emerging infectious disease program at DukeNational University of Singapore Medical School.

Bats contain the highest proportion of mammalian v iruses that are likely to infect humans, according to research published in 2017 by d isease ecolog ist Peter Daszak in the scientific journal Nature.

Still, very few bat viruses are ready to transmit directly to humans, said Wang, who has been studying bat origins of human viruses for decades and works with a group of researchers sometimes dubbed “The Bat Pack.”

“I always say that if they could do that, then the human population would have been wiped out a

Researchers examine a bat in the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative Lab in Cameroon Bloomberg photo

long time ago because bats have been in existence for 80 to 100 million years—much older than humans,” he said.

Special precautions

While still relatively low risk, the possibility that a virus might cross the species barrier and cause disease in humans is enough to require all of Wang’s lab and field researchers involved in bat sampling to take special precautions, including immunization against rabies—the only vaccine available for a bat-borne virus—and to wear personal protective gear, he said.

Danger doesn’t stop with bats.

Other mammals, such as civets and camels, have been found to act as intermediate hosts that can pass coronaviruses to humans.

Undercooked meat and offal, milk, blood, mucus, saliva and urine of virus-carrying mammals can potentially contain pathogens.

“Viruses evolve all the time— there’s no way to know when it will mutate and become dangerous to humans,” said Supaporn Watc h a rapr uek sadee, deput y chief at the Center for Emerging Infectious Disease of Thailand, who has studied bats for two decades. “The best prevention is to avoid the risk and reduce all risky behaviors,” she said.

At the K hao Chong Phran bat cave in the Thai province of Ratchaburi, where the bat dung is mined, there are an estimated of 3 million wrinkle-lipped free-tailed bats, an insect-eating species that produces high-nitrogen guano, essential for boosting plant growth.

No protection

Guano collectors usually enter the cave with long sleeved shirts and long pants, with a tshirt wrapped around their head as makeshift cover—in contrast

to how disease ecologists investigate caves in a full-body suit with masks and gloves. Although dry guano has low risk of infection, miners or cave visitors can potentially be exposed to viruses through the fresh saliva and urine of bats.

It’s not a concern foremost in the minds of the cave’s guano collectors, even weeks after Thailand reported the first of its 35 Covid-19 cases.

“We’ve done this for a long time, for many generations,” said Singha Sittikul, who manages the business and fields orders. It’s a small operation trading guano locally, but such fertilizer is also sold by companies and via online commerce platforms, such as Amazon. com Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. “We carry on as usual.”

Bats are highly valued in Ratchaburi, where they not only produce a potent fertilizer, but also play a role in pollination and pestcontrol by feeding on insects that ravage rice and other crops. Their cave has been declared an animal sanctuary. Killing or eating them is prohibited.

Bat menu

In other places, bat consumption is more common. On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, for example, fruit-eating bats are sold by market vendors and their meat is used in a soup-based dish

with vegetables, chili paste and coconut milk. In Palau, a whole bat is served in a soup of ginger, coconut milk and spices—a dish that gained notoriety on social media during the early weeks of Covid-19.

In southern Vietnam, a local newspaper reported on Friday there were vendors serving bat porridge and bat blood cocktails, which they believe have aphrodisiac properties.

The trade and smuggling of wild mammals, including ones that may act as intermediaries of bat-borne viruses, poses a risk.

Carcasses and parts of pangolins, lions, rhinos and elephants are routinely being trafficked through Southeast Asia.

Bat expert Supaporn is expanding her research to look at pangolins, as well as horseshoe bats, which may have played a role in the emergence of the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, she said.

Smuggling threat

The Freel and Found at ion, a counter-trafficking organization, has alerted Asian nations to the direct virological threat wildlife smuggling poses to “wider human populations.”

Closing markets and refraining from consumption of the animals is the only sure way to prevent the spread and recurrence of outbreaks, it said. Bloomberg News

A4

Sunday, February 23, 2020

The World BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Stress, rumors, even violence: Virus fear goes viral

By Foster Klug

T

The Associated Press

OKYO—You might have heard that the fear of a new virus from China is spreading faster than the actual virus.

From ea r nest of f ic i a ls t r ying to ca l m a bu i ld ing pa nic.

From you r spouse. From t he k now-it-a l l who ratt les of f t he ma ny muc h more l i kely ways you’re going to d ie: smok ing , ca r acc idents a nd t he f lu.

None of it seems to matter.

As the number of cases rise— more than 76,000 and counting— fear is advancing like a tsunami.

And not just in the areas surrounding the Chinese city of Wuhan, the site of the vast majority of coronavirus infections.

Subway cars in Tokyo and Seoul look more like hospital wards, with armies of masked commuters shooting dirty looks at the slightest cough or sneeze. A restaurant owner in a South Korean Chinatown says visitors have dropped by 90 percent.

You’ve probably got a better chance of winning the lottery than buying face masks in parts of Asia. Conferences and events have been disrupted from Beijing to Barcelona to Boston. Quarrels in Japan; riots in Ukraine. Rumors that toilet paper and napkins could be used as masks emptied East Asian store shelves of paper goods.

“Fear is a very strong emotion, and the prevailing fear over the new coronavirus drives people to do things irrationally without thinking straight,” said Bernie Huang, 31, a high-school teacher in Taipei, Taiwan, who resisted the city’s now-easing toilet paper buying spree.

If you take the long view, panic has marched in lockstep with pandemic for as long as history has been recorded. The plague that devastated Athens in the fifth century BC. The Black Death that eradicated much of Europe in the 14th century. And, more recently, AIDS, Ebola, SARS, MERS, swine and bird flu.

Scientists, statisticians and people well away from the line of fire may scoff, but the fear, which is spread by word of mouth

and, more rapidly, through online posts, is real.

“Fear can do more harm than the virus,” Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in response to panic buying of toilet paper, canned food and instant noodles after the government raised a risk alert over the new virus.

It’s, perhaps, most keenly felt in the places where crowds gather: churches, shopping areas and schools.

In the Philippines, nearly half of the pews were empty for recent Sunday Masses in many churches.

At a Protestant church in northern Seoul, officials switched entirely to online worship after it was found that a virus patient had attended services days before he tested positive.

The huge Lotte Department Store in Seoul closed for several days for disinfection after it was found that a Chinese tourist with the virus visited. It reportedly lost about 20 billion won ($16.9 million) in revenue, based on figures by security analysts.

A mobile trade fair in Barcelona was canceled. PlayStation maker Sony pulled out of a video game conference in Boston over “increasing concerns” related to the virus. Organizers said the event will go on next week but “with enhanced cleaning.”

At Namdaemun, Seoul’s largest traditional market, businesses saw huge drops in sales after an infected person was found to have visited the area last month.

“Merchants say their businesses are now dying,” said Chun Yong-bum, head of an association of thousands of merchants at Namdaemun.

T he Sout h K orea n Educ ation Ministr y recently issued an advisor y to universities to postpone the March start of the upcoming semester because of worries that thousands of Chinese students w il l retur n to schools from abroad.

In this February 14, photo, a woman wearing a face mask walks on an almost empty street at the Chinatown in Incheon, South Korea. Even as cases and deaths from the new virus mount, fear is advancing like a tsunami—and not just in the areas surrounding the Chinese city of Wuhan, the center of the outbreak that has been declared a global health emergency. A restaurant owner in the Chinatown says visitors have dropped by 90 percent. AP/Ahn Young-joon

South Korean President Moon Jae-in expressed worries that “excessively bloated fear” was hurting South Korea’s economy by suppressing public consumption and leisure activities.

T he most eagerly aw a ited gathering in Asia—the upcoming Summer Olympics in Tokyo—has been beset by fear, too.

Although he later backtracked, Tokyo Olympic CEO Toshiro Muto said recently that he was “seriously worried” the virus could disrupt the Olympics and Paralympics.

“One thing I am noticing at the moment is fear is spreading quicker than the virus, and it is important that we quell that fear,” said Craig Spence, the spokesman for the International Paralympic Committee.

In Japan, fear and the virus have intersected most visibly on a huge cruise ship in the port of Yokohama, where thousands of passengers and crew were quarantined for two weeks as hundreds of people on board tested positive for the virus.

One quarantined passenger

hung a banner that read: “No information... Stressed. Many bad rumors.”

The Internet foments many of those rumors.

In Malaysia, a social-media rumor that mandarin oranges carry the virus caused some initial panic until health officials debunked it.

When news broke that a journalist who reports on Japan’s leader had contact with an infected driver and was in self-quarantine, a Web edition of the Weekly Post tabloid magazine declared: “Coronavirus has sent shockwaves to the prime minister’s office.”

Fear, and possibly a dark sense of humor, may also help explain some odd behavior: images of people using orange peels as face masks; children in strollers wrapped in what looks like dry cleaning plastic.

I n Ta i w a n , p e o p l e b e g a n stocking up on toilet paper and napkins after a rumor on the Internet said they could be used as masks to stop the spread of viruses, said Yang Bo-ken, deputy

Ukrainians hurl stones at evacuees from China

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OVI SANZHARY, Ukraine—Ukraine’s effort to quarantine more than 70 people evacuated from China over the new virus outbreak plunged into chaos on Thursday as local residents opposing the move hurled stones at the evacuees and clashed with police.

Officials deplored the violence and the country’s health minister pledged to share evacuees’ quarantine for two weeks in a bid to reassure protesters who fear they’ll be infected.

Buses carrying evacuees were finally able to reach the designated place of quarantine after hours of clashes. The masked evacuees, exhausted by the long journey, were peeking through bus windows as they drove slowly under a heavy police escort.

Stones shattered a window in one of the buses, but the evacuees appeared unhurt.

Since the early morning, several hundred residents of the village of Novi Sanzhary in Ukraine’s central Poltava region had cut the road to a sanitarium intended to host the evacuees, fearing they could become infected. Demonstrators, some of whom appeared drunk, put up roadblocks, burned tires and clashed with riot police who moved to clear access.

One protester tried to ram police lines with his car.

Nine police officers and one civilian

Ukrainian passengers evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, look though a bus window outside Novi Sanzhary, Ukraine, on Thursday. Several hundred residents in Ukraine’s Poltava region protested to stop officials from quarantining the evacuees in their village because they feared becoming infected. Demonstrators put up road blocks and burned tires, while Ukrainian media reported that there were clashes with police, and more than 10 people were detained.

AP/Efrem Lukatsky

were hospitalized, the regional police said in a statement.

Ukrainian police said 24 protesters were detained. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, who personally visited the site to try to calm the crowd, said he was shocked by the aggression.

“What we saw was shameful,” he said in televised remarks. “It was one of the biggest disappointments in my life.”

U k r a i n i a n P re s i d e n t Vo l o d y m y r Zelenskiy weighed in, saying the protests showed “not the best side of our character.”

He tried to reassure people that the quarantined evacuees wouldn’t pose any

danger to local residents.

In a statement published on his Facebook page, Zelenskiy said the people evacuated from China are healthy and will live in a closed medical center run by the National Guard in the village as a precaution.

“In the next two weeks it will probably be the most guarded facility in the country,” Zelenskiy said.

Ukraine’s health minister, Zoryana Skaletska, said she would join the evacuees in quarantine for two weeks to help assuage villagers’ concerns. She urged residents to show sympathy and support

for the evacuees and emphasized that the quarantine facility is in full conformity with international standards.

“I was shocked by the panic, rejection, negative feelings and aggression,” she said. “It was even a greater shock for the people who were evacuated from China.”

But municipal legislators in the village vowed to continue opposing the evacuation, saying that the sanitarium’s sewage system is linked to the one in the village and ends up in a nearby wastewater facility.

“We can’t allow putting the health and life of local residents at risk, and demand that top officials take urgent moves to prevent people from China from being put here,” they said in a statement.

Amid the clashes bet ween local residents and police, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk said he will immediately fly to the site to personally oversee things.

In the early hours of Thursday, a plane with 45 Ukrainians and 27 foreign nationals took off from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak that has infected more than 75,000 people worldwide and killed over 2,100.

Those evacuated included people from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Ecuador, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Panama and other countries. AP

director of the government’s Industrial Development Bureau.

Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau recommended the prosecution of three women on allegations they used the popular LINE social-media service to suggest using table napkins, sanitary napkins and toilet paper as a mask substitute, a bureau spokesman said.

The fear has also led to lawlessness.

In Kobe, Japan, 6,000 surgical masks were reported stolen from a hospital.

Severa l hu nd red residents fea r ing infect ion in U k ra ine c l ashed for hou rs w it h pol ice a s t hey bloc ked a road to a bu i ld ing where more t ha n 70 people evac u ated f rom C h ina because of t he v ir us were to be qu a ra nt ined.

Two passengers on a subway in Fu k uok a, Japa n, qu a r reled after a man not wear ing a mask st a r ted cough ing , prompt ing t he ma n ne x t to h im to press a n emergenc y a l a r m , Kyodo News repor ted.

“Fear is spreading among passengers. We plan to promote cough etiquette, such as wearing facial masks,” a city transport official told the news agency.

In Hong Kong, where people queued up for essential goods outside shops, three people with knives allegedly robbed a deliveryman outside a supermarket of precious toilet rolls reportedly worth more than 1,000 Hong Kong dollars ($128).

Gover nments have not a lways known how to handle the situation.

Eight Samoan citizens were refused entr y at the nation’s air port and sent back to Fiji reportedly because they’d transited through Singapore, which the government labels a “ high risk ” countr y, according to the Samoa Observer.

And when a Canadian teen collapsed at a building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a medical team in hazmat suits arrived. The health ministry later said it was a precautionary measure and the teen was virus free.

US expert says 5G tiffs could affect information exchanges

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A DR ID —T he top US diplomat for cyber-security policy says he welcomes European Union moves toward recognizing the risks at stake in 5G technology, but warned that the US will not be able to share top-level information with countries that choose “untrusted ” vendors, such as China’s Huawei.

Robert Strayer, deputy assistant secretary for Cyber and International Communications and Information Policy at the US State Department told journalists in Madrid that a new EU “5G toolbox” recognized security risks in 5G technology and that vendors must be trustworthy. “ There is a recognition that did not exist a year and a half ago in the European Union and elsewhere that t here a re ser iou s supply chain risks to 5G technology,

that there are such things as high-risk vendors that operate in countries that do not have democratic checks and balances and that those types of countries present serious risk to our 5G networks” in their entirety, the official said.

Strayer was in Spain as part of a European tour as President Donald J. Trump’s administration puts pressure on allies to avoid Chinese tech firm Huawei in nextgeneration mobile networks.

The US fears China’s communist leaders can use the company to tap into communications in equipment Huawei sells globally.

Strayer recognized that Spain and other countries would make up their own minds, but he reiterated recent US warnings about the consequences of not following Washington’s lead. AP

Science

BusinessMirror

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

PHL, China to collaborate on engineered bamboo R&D Representatives of DENR-ERDB, DOST-PCAARRD and DOST- FPRDI during the meeting. ERDB

Sunday

Methane problem could be way bigger than scientists thought

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ore projects on engineered bamboo will be implemented through the collaboration of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) of the Department of Science and Technology; DOSTForest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI); and the Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-ERDB).

This is made possible through PCAARRD’s partnership with China.

PCA ARRD Executive Director Reynaldo V. Ebora, together with FPRDI Director Romulo T. Aggangan, briefed the new ERDB Director Nonito M. Tamayo about the proposed RP-China Collaboration Project during their meeting at ERDB headquarters, Los Baños, Laguna.

According to Ebora, the proposed collaboration will initially focus on processing of engineered bamboo to be implemented

D.O.S.T. intensifies disaster preparedness through expo

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rganized by the Technology Application and Promotion Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-Tapi), the “Innovation on Disaster Preparedness and Response Expo” will be held from March 11 to 14, at the World Trade Center Metro Manila in Pasay City.

Wi t h t h e t h e m e , “ S c i e n c e f o r t h e Pe o p l e : S a f e r, A d a p t i ve a n d P re p a re d Filipino Communities toward Sustainable Development,” the expo will showcase the DOST agencies’ technologies, innovations, inventions and initiatives on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM).

Moreover, it is aimed at raising awareness on the existing disaster risks and environmental issues that could pose harm and danger to humanity.

“We, at DOST, acknowledge the vulnerable condition of our country and our people to disaster risks as we truly care for everyone’s safety,” said DOST-TAPI Director Edgar I. Garcia.

Co-organized by the DOST-National Capital Region, the event will spread hope through the DOST initiatives to mitigate disaster risks for safer communities and to better the lives of the people, particularly of being resilient to disasters.

Among the exhibitors are the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration; Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology; Advanced Science and Technology Institute; Philippine N u c l e a r R e s e a rc h I n s t i t u t e ; I n d u s t r i a l Technology Development Institute; Food and Nutrition Research Institute; and Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development.

The expo is composed of technology exhibits and forum which will be par ticipated by DRRM Officers from various government agencies intended to capacitate them on locally developed technologies and to strengthen their par tnership and coordination among stakeholders.

Entrance to the expo is free.

by DOST-FPRDI. However, the Chinese counterpart also expressed interest on bamboo germplasm collection which is under the jurisdiction of DENR-ERDB. Tamayo responded positively in this research collaboration, with concurrence and supervision from the DENR secretary, undersecretary, and other concerned DENR agencies.

Bamboo is one of ERDB’s priority commodities under the National Greening Program.

As a result of the meeting, other R&D proposals on germplasm conservation and agar wood will be packaged

by ERDB. The projects will focus on germplasm collection of bamboo and DNA sequencing, environmental requirements, and propagation of agar wood.

A memorandum of agreement will be prepared to further strengthen partnership among the three agencies.

Collaborative projects and activities to be done by respective agencies will be highlighted in the MOA.

Eirene Grace Z. Arcayos/S&T Media Services

Sunday, February 23, 2020 A5

ossil-fuel production may be responsible for much more atmospheric methane than scientists previously thought, according to new research published on Thursday in the journal Nature.

The results, if they hold, suggest that methane needs to be managed even more tightly than was accounted for in multilateral initiatives, such as the 2015 Paris Agreement—not to mention many policies on the national and local level.

Scientists aren’t challenging the top-line amount of fossil methane that enters the atmosphere every year—that number stays at about 194 million metric tons, says Benjamin Hmiel, a post-doctoral fellow in Earth science at the University of Rochester, and the study’s lead author.

Rather, they’re challenging how much of the total comes from natural versus industrial sources, an important distinction for policymakers.

Conventional wisdom has held until now that fossil sources emit roughly 50 million tons of methane. The new paper’s estimate is dramatically smaller—Just 5 million tons, at most, come from natural sources, or “seeps,” the study says.

“If it’s not coming from seeps, then it’s coming from fossil-fuel operations,” said Rob Jackson, a Stanford professor of Earth system science who wasn’t involved in the study. “There’s really no

other explanation for it. It’s kind of a zero-sum game.”

The Nature study takes advantage of a rare, radioactive form of the carbon atom that decays over several thousand years.

Carbon-14 is present in trace amounts in the biosphere, embedded in naturally occurring molecules, such as methane and carbon dioxide, but fossil fuels have no carbon-14 in them.

Hmiel and his colleagues visited Greenland three times over two years to drill samples out of ice sheets dating back 300 years, then analyzed the gases trapped in it looking for carbon-14. This allowed scientists to establish a pre-industrial level for natural methane emissions.

Methane is a powerful heattrapping gas—about 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a period of 100 years— but because it’s not as abundant as carbon dioxide it has a lower climate impact overall.

The largest component of natural gas, methane makes up about 17 percent of global greenhousegas emissions. Lately, investor and activist pressure on oil and gas companies has led to ambitious climate-related pronouncements.

BP Plc., for instance, pledged

Methane gas is flared just off US Route 285 near Carlsbad, New Mexico, on Tuesday. Steven St John/Bloomberg

just last week to stop emissions from its ow n operations and production by 2050.

The new work widens a debate that stems from two opposing methods researchers use to measure methane—ice-core research and local monitoring of methane sources.

Reconci l ing t hese t wo ap proaches will take some time, said Stefan Schwietzke, environmental scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, which has conducted independent methane monitoring in the US and is now expanding that work overseas.

“We’re expecting that a lot more data will come out over the next few years,” he said. “ That will also get at the question, how big are the oil and gas i ndu st r y met h a ne em issions internationally? ” The Nature paper builds on earlier work suggesting that natural methane emissions may be dramatically lower than previously indicated, and has triggered selfexamination among some of the

same scientists who’d produced the earlier, lower estimates.

The new evidence comes as deadlines loom for next year’s UN Intergover nmenta l Panel on Climate Change report, the group’s sixth major assessment since 1990.

The Global Carbon Project, an international research collaboration that Jackson chairs, is finishing up its own review of the Earth’s methane budget, expected this spring.

Jackson says that both geologists and climate modelers will have to weigh in on the paper before it passes muster and the new numbers really become a headache for the policy community. “Scientists will check this quickly,” he adds. “It’s an important result.”

Hmiel is ready for them.

“I’m sure I’m going to get comments from the geologic community, arguing against my results, and I look forward to that,” he says.

“That’s how science advances.”

Bloomberg News

Potential gene therapy to combat cocaine addiction

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ave you ever sl ipped when t r y i ng to avoid sugar, quit smoking, or break another habit or addiction? Usually that one piece of cake or one cigarette won’t ruin your whole plan, but for people struggling with cocaine addiction, one slip can undo months of hard work.

Cocaine consumption is increasing, with 2.2 million people in the United States, admitting to recent cocaine use in 2017.

In 2014, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that nearly 1 million Americans were addicted to cocaine. The effect of cocaine on the brain and body is so powerful that, even after state-of-the-art treatments, many people trying to quit cocaine relapse within a year.

W h at i f co c a i ne cou ld b e made less euphoric, so that a single use by a recovering addict doesn’t result in a full-blown relapse? Scientists at the Mayo Clinic recently published progress toward making this idea a reality—a gene therapy that would treat cocaine addiction by making cocaine less rewarding.

We are a molecular biologist and a neurobiologist who are i nterested i n u nderst a nd i ng and treating human disease, including neurological disorders, such as cocaine addiction. As University of Tennessee faculty members leading basic biomedical research, we have worked for years on how genes are turned on and off in people, and the effects of cocaine on mice, respectively. So, we were excited to see a promising convergence of novel gene therapy and cocaine addiction therapy.

Treatment to make cocaine less addictive

Beginning more than 20 years ago, scientists have worked to engineer a new version of a human protein that could break down cocaine so quickly that it doesn’t produce an addictive high. We all have the normal human protein BChE that helps regulate neurotransmitters, and which can slowly break down cocaine.

Targeted mutations in BChE can turn it into a super-CocH— a protein that can quickly break down cocaine.

When this CocH is injected into the bloodstream, it breaks down cocaine very fast—before the user can experience the pleasurable effects—so a dose of cocaine is less rewarding. Being less rewarding means it is easier to stop using cocaine.

Previous research has shown that injections of the super-CocH prote i n d ra st ic a l ly dec rea se addictive behavior in cocaineaddicted rats. That’s great. But the problem is that daily CocH injections would be too expensive and difficult to maintain for the years needed to prevent cocaine relapse for human users.

It would be much more practical to provide a single treatment that could provide enough CocH to last for years.

One way to do that is gene therapy—Give patients the DNA sequence (the gene) that contains the instructions for making super-CocH so their bodies can keep making it for months or potentially years.

Fortunately, over the past decade, this type of gene therapy has been moving from science fiction to hopeful reality. Clinical trials

Looking forward

have demonstrated the potential of gene therapy to treat diseases from hemophilia to neurodegenerative disorders, and a handful of these are FDA-approved.

The new Mayo Clinic study takes an important step toward making CocH gene therapy a reality.

How does gene therapy work?

How exactly does a scientist “give a person a gene?”

You can’t just swallow DNA the way you would a pill. The Mayo Clinic scientists had to find a way to deliver the gene to every cell in the liver. The way they did this was to insert the gene for super-CocH into a virus called adeno-associated virus (A AV).

A AV has been modified so that when it infects cells it cannot reproduce in the body or make someone sick. It is just a deliver y vehicle.

The virus works by deliver-

ing the CocH gene to liver cells, where it remains for months or yea rs. T he cel l s read t he super- CocH gene and use it to manufacture many copies of the CocH protein, which then breaks down cocaine.

In the new study, the team tested this approach in mice. The results are very promising and suggest that this gene therapy is safe and effective.

Mice receiving the gene therapy alone were healthy. Mice given cocaine became hyperactive and showed signs of liver damage.

When the mice were given cocaine plus gene therapy they behaved normally, as if they had not been given the drug. The cocaine was quickly broken down by their new super-CocH proteins, and their livers showed no signs of damage.

T he resu lts are promising enough that the FDA has approved plans to proceed with human clinical trials.

Keep in mind, this treatment won’t hit the market anytime soon. It took six years from initial tests of A AV-CocH therapy in mice to reach the point where the technique is safe enough for human trials. There are many aspects of the treatment that need to be evaluated and modified to make sure it is both safe and effective in humans.

For example, AAV gene therapy can produce unwanted immune responses in people that will need to be carefully monitored. Issues such as discomfort caused by the therapy, different responses based on an individual’s genetic makeup and interactions with other medications or medical conditions will also need to be addressed.

Because this study only monitored mice for two months, longer-term effects of the gene therapy will need to be investigated.

Also, how well this therapy works to treat cocaine addiction in mice is not really known, and treating addiction in humans is certain to be even more complicated.

T his gene therapy cou ld someday ma ke a dose of co caine less rewarding, but a full recover y from addiction w il l likely require a combination of treatments administered over many years.

Like many, the two us have family members or friends who struggle with addictions that cannot be cured simply by “trying harder.” This recent work combines careful scientific progress with a creative new idea, giving hope to those trying to overcome cocaine addiction.

The Conversation (CC)

Faith A6 Sunday, February 23, 2020

Sunday

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

Manila Bishop: Young people are the center of fight for life

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he young people are at the core of the fight for life because they will bear the impact of “antilife” policies, a Catholic bishop said.

Speaking at this year’s “walk for life” in Quezon City last weekend, Bishop Broderick Pabillo warned against “bad policies” that would affect the next generation.

“We should speak now because once these legislations are in place, it would be hard to overturn these laws and many people will be affected, especially the youth,” Pabillo said.

He particularly exhorted the lay people to be proactive in social issues for the common good.

“This is your turf…that’s why we should speak out!” the bishop said. “At this time, everybody has a chance to speak, especially in

social media.”

The prelate was delivering his homily during Mass at the Quezon City Memorial Circle to highlight the Walk for Life on Saturday.

Pabillo, the apostolic administrator of the Manila archdiocese, also noted the huge presence of young people during the event.

According to him, they bring conviction and enthusiasm to the cause against killings, divorce, the death penalty, same-sex union and the care for the environment, among others.

“I wish that more young people would come for our walk for life because they will really suffer the

Bishop Broderick Pabillo, the apostolic administrator of the Manila archdiocese, delivers the homily at the Walk for Life at the Quezon City Memorial Circle February 15. Diocese of Cubao

impact of these issues,” he added.

Organized by the Council of the Laity in the Philippines, the walk for life was started in 2017 amid the spate of drug-related killings in the country.

This year, simultaneous Walks

for Life were also held in the archdioceses of Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Palo and Lingayen-Dagupan.

Hundreds of lay people also gathered for the same event in Tarlac, Borongan, Gumaca and other dioceses. CBCP News

Leaked data: China’s Uighurs detained due to religion

In this December 2018 photo, residents line up inside the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center, which has previously been revealed by leaked documents to be a forced indoctrination camp at the Kunshan Industrial Park in Artux in western China’s Xinjiang region. AP/Ng Han Guan

B

EIJING—When a Chinese government mass detention campaign engulfed Memtimin Emer’s native Xinjiang region three years ago, the elderly Uighur imam was swept up and locked away, along with three of his sons.

Now, a leaked database exposes in extraordinary detail the main reasons for the detentions of Emer, his three sons, and hundreds of others in their neighborhood: Their religion and their family ties.

The database profiles the inter nment of 311 ind iv idua ls with relatives abroad in Karakax County, and lists information on more than 2,000 of their relatives, neighbors and friends.

Each entry includes the detainee’s name, address, national identity number, detention date and location, along with a dossier on their family, religious and community background, the reason for detention, and a decision on whether to release them.

Taken as a whole, the database offers the fullest view yet into how Chinese officials decided who to put into and let out of detention camps, as part of a crackdown that has locked away more than a million ethnic minorities, most of them Muslims.

The database shows that the state focused on religion as a reason for detention—not just political extremism, as authorities claim, but ordinary activities—such as praying or attending a mosque.

It shows that people with detained relatives are themselves more likely to end up in a camp, criminalizing entire families like

Emer’s in the process.

“It’s very clear that religious practice is being targeted,” said Darren Byler, a University of Colorado researcher studying Xinjiang.

“They want to fragment society, to pull the families apart and make them much more vulnerable to retraining and reeducation.”

The Xinjiang regional government did not respond to faxes requesting comment. Asked whether Xinjiang is targeting religious people and their families, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said “this kind of nonsense is not worth commenting on.”

The Chinese government has said in the past that the detention centers are for voluntary job training, and that it does not discriminate based on religion.

China has struggled for decades to control Xinjiang, where the native, predominantly Muslim Uighurs have long resented Beijing’s rule.

After militants set off bombs at a train station in Xinjiang’s capital in 2014, President Xi Jinping launched a so-called People’s War on Terror, turning Xinjiang into a digital police state.

The leak of the database follows the release in November of a classified blueprint. Obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which includes the AP, the blueprint shows the camps are in fact forced ideological and behavioral reeducation centers run in secret.

T he d at aba se comes f rom sources in the Uighur exile community, and does not spell out

which government department issued it or for whom.

The detainees listed come from Karakax County, a traditional settlement on the edge of Xinjiang’s Taklamakan desert where more than 97 percent of its roughly 650,000 residents are Uighur.

T he l ist was cor roborated through interviews with former Karakax residents, identity verification tools, and other lists and documents.

The database shows that cadres compile dossiers on detainees called the “three circles,” encompassing their relatives, community and religious background.

The detainees and their families are then classified by rigid categories. Households are designated as “trustworthy” or “not trustworthy.” Families have “light” or “heavy” religious atmospheres, and the database keeps count of how many relatives of each detainee are locked in prison or sent to a “training center.”

Officials used these categories to determine how suspicious a person was—even if they hadn’t committed any crimes.

Reasons listed for internment include “minor religious infection,” “disturbs other persons by visiting them without reasons,” “relatives abroad,” or “thinking is hard to grasp.”

Former student Abdullah Muhammad described Emer as one of the most respected imams in the region. He fed the hungry, bought coal for the poor and treated the sick with free medicine.

But though Emer gave Party-

approved sermons, he refused to preach Communist propaganda, Muhammad said, eventually running into trouble with authorities.

He was stripped of his position as an imam in 1997.

Though he stopped attending religious gatherings, in 2017 authorities detained Emer, now in his 80s, and sentenced him to prison.

The database cites four charges in various entries: “stirring up terrorism,” acting as an unauthorized “wild” imam, following the strict Saudi Wahhabi sect and conducting illegal religious teachings.

Muhammad called the charges false. Emer stopped his preaching, practiced a moderate sect of Islam and never dreamed of hurting others, let alone stirring up “terrorism,” Muhammad said.

Emer’s three sons, too, were all thrown in camps for religious reasons, though they weren’t charged with crimes. It shows their relation to Emer and their religious background caused officials to believe they were too dangerous to let out.

“His family’s religious atmosphere is thick. We recommend he [Emer]continue training,” notes an entry for his youngest son, Emer Memtimin.

But it wasn’t just the religious who were detained. Pharmacist Tohti Himit was detained in a camp for having gone multiple times to one of 26 “key,” mostly Muslim countries, the database said.

A former employee said Himit was secular, keeping his face wellshaved.

“He wasn’t ver y pious, he didn’t go to the mosque,” said Habibu l la h, who dec l ined to give his first name out of fear of retribution against family still in China. “I was shocked by how absurd the reasons for detention were.”

The database says Himit had gone to a mosque three times in 2008, once to attend his grandfather’s funeral. In 2014 he had gone to another province to get a passport and go abroad.

That, the government concluded, showed Himit was “dangerous” and needed to “continue training.”

Emer is now under house arrest due to health issues, Muhammad has heard. It’s unclear where Emer’s sons are. Though deprived of his mosque and his right to teach, Emer had quietly defied the authorities for two decades by staying true to his faith.

“He never bowed dow n to them—and that’s why they wanted to eliminate him,” Muhammad said. AP

INC Executive Minister holds pastoral visit in Cavite

By Antonio G. Papa

M

ENDEZ, Cavite—The Executive Minister of the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC, or Church of Christ), Brother Eduardo V. Manalo, conducted a pastoral visit and officiated a very spiritual worship service in Mendez, Ecclesiastical District of Cavite South on January 31.

Prior to this event, on January 25 and 26, Manalo assigned several ministers from the Central Office in Quezon City to officiate the worship services in all the INC locales in Tagaytay area and suburb which were affected by Taal Volcano eruption.

The main purpose, aside from praising the Almighty God, was to advise and console the brethren who were affected by the calamity.

In his homily, Manalo pointed out the importance of attending the church worship services since in the house of worship, the worshippers can request to the Almighty God all their needs through congregational and individual

Iglesia Ni Cristo Executive Minister Bro. Eduardo V. Manalo member’s prayers.

The s occasion was conducted in commemoration of the 80th Founding Anniversary of the locale.

Thousands of brethren and worshippers attended the occasion, occupying the vacant lot beneath the house of worship up to the covered court of the barangay.

Eucharist: Man’s greatest treasure on earth

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Fr. Francis Tiquia

f all the things that our Lord gave us, it is the Eucharist that is the greatest. Why? The Eucharist is the very gift of Himself to us fulfilling His promise in Matthew 28:20 when He said: “I shall be with you till the end of time.”

Our Lord did not want to be separated from us that is why on the night before He suffered and died, He instituted or established the Eucharist as the greatest manifestation of His love for us (cf.

Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-17, Luke 22:1720, 1Corinthians 11:23-35) and as a permanent presence of His very self here on Earth under the appearance of bread and wine.

Our belief and doctrine tells us that we only perceive with our senses, especially with our eyes, the appearance of the species of bread and wine, but in truth and in reality, it is already Jesus who truly and really present body, blood, soul and divinity.

Right after the words of consecration, which the priest pronounced in the Holy Mass during the liturgy of the Eucharist, “this is My body...this is My blood...” the bread and wine becomes Jesus’ body and blood.

The bread and wine only retains its appearance but it has become our Lord’s body and blood. This is indeed a miracle effected by God Himself. This is the mystery of our faith, Mysterium Fidei.

Saint Thomas Aquinas calls the Eucharist the wonder of wonders, the greatest of miracles, a maximum miraculorum.

Incidentally, in the Jewish context and in the language of the Bible, when you say “body,” you are referring to the person himself. So when our Lord says to the bread “this is My Body,” He is actually saying This is My whole Person, or This is Me. In a word, the Eucharist is the total Christ, or totus Christus.

Though He went up to heaven during His Ascension to rule heaven with the Father, yet He still stays with us in His real and true presence in the Eucharist, or Blessed Sacrament.

This He can do because Christ is God and man at the same time. He has the power to be with us here below and up there in heaven above. This is the greatest legacy of Christ to us, His very self in the bread and wine consecrated by the priest in the Holy Mass.

It is the law of friendship that friends must live together. Saint Thomas Aquinas affirms that Christ our Lord joins us in our journey here on Earth in the Eucharist because He loves us so much with the maximum love. He stays with us to manifest His love, mercy wisdom and power.

Why did our Lord institute the Eucharist for us?

Love cannot bear separation. Christ loves us so much that it is very painful on His part to part with us. He wants to be with the children of men.

He wants to be with us so that He can still be our help, support, guide, strength and joy in this valley of trials and tears.

He knew that left to our own, we would find life difficult and troublesome.

His invitation is still true today: “Come to Me all you who labor and overburdened and I shall give you rest,” cf. Matthew 11:29.

We can now literally come to Him, as in going to Christ in person.Where? In every tabernacle throughout the world that has the Eucharist, or the Blessed Sacrament in it. We don’t need a Global Positioning System to track or locate our Lord Jesus Christ.

When He was on Earth more than 2,000 years ago, Christ is located only in Israel where He spent His 33 years of existence on Earth. But now in the Eucharist, our Lord is in each tabernacle throughout the Catholic churches in the whole world.

What a privilege, what a blessing! Our God, Savior and Redeemer stays with us here on Earth where there is the Blessed Sacrament normally placed in the Tabernacle or in a chapel of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration.

That white bread or white host consecrated in the Holy Mass is Jesus. It is not something but Someone. It is the Lord Jesus truly and really present in person. This is our faith, the one identical is the Word, born of the virgin, Who suffered and died and Who now rules heaven is the same Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.

Eucharist takes away many of life’s bitterness

Life has many twists and turns. We normally experience a lot of worries and anxieties. Man’s life is a drudgery. One cannot escape it. There will always be troubles and setbacks. This is man’s common experiences.

But with the Lord in the Eucharist in our midst, many of life’s bitterness are taken away, according to Saint Peter Julian Eymard. We have Jesus present with us. He is the Emmanuel, the God Who is with us (cf. Matthew 1:23).

We know we can always go to Jesus in the Eucharist and there He will always encourage and console us when we experience betrayal, persecution or injustices.

He can always commiserate with us. He knows our condition. He will be there to assuage our pains and strengthen our drooping spirits.

That is why it is best that we spend ample time with Jesus in the Eucharist. He requests at least an hour each day (cf. Matthew 26:40). Being with Him for at least an hour will make us recover and recapture our own selves which becomes shredded and torn apart because of the problems, brokenness and trials we encounter in our life.

As Christians we have to contend with the three enemies of our souls namely, the devil, worldliness and our very selves. With the Lord truly present in the Eucharist we become formidable and strong against all our spiritual enemies. We have Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, if God is with us and for us who can be against us? (cf. Romans 8:31).

Audience with the King of kings

Unlike presidents, kings and other dignitaries or royalties, we can have readily access to our Lord Jesus Christ. You need no protocol, you don’t even have to schedule your audience with Him. There is no go between. You can go to Christ anytime in the Adoration chapel or in the Church where there is a tabernacle. There you can meet Him and have a heart to heart communication with our Savior.

Jesus in the Eucharist, according to Saint John Paul II, is the very heart of the Church. Indeed without Him in the tabernacle our Churches simply become meeting places.

In His presence, we can pour out our hearts.

We can tell Him all our worries and anxieties, and He is ever willing to give us blessings and graces.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori said our Lord’s hands are open to distribute graces and blessings to anyone who would visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament. Unfortunately, very few are willing to visit our Lord in the Sacrament of Love, the Eucharist.

Saints on adoration

Saint Teresa of Calcutta once said: “In every holy hour of adoration we do, we please the heart of Jesus that it is recorded in heaven and retold for all eternity.” That is how the Lord will be grateful to us according to the foundress of Missionaries of Charity.

Blessed Dina Belanger, a Canadian mystic and nun, said that a holy hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament is so important to Jesus that a multitude of souls go to heaven who, otherwise, would have gone to hell.

And that is why our Lord lovingly appealed to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque: “I have a burning desire to be visited by men in the Blessed Sacrament.”

Jesus thirsts for Eucharistic lovers. He wants us to come and visit Him daily. Saint Faustina Kowalska of the Divine Mercy, likewise, said that by holy hour of adoration we procure not only mercy for our souls but for others, as well.

Blessed Alexandrina da Costa, considered as the fourth seer of Fatima because of her strong adherents to Our Lady’s message, affirmed the power of Eucharistic love and devotion. Once Jesus told her: “It is the lovers of the Holy Eucharist who will hold back the arms of Divine Justice, that the world may not be destroyed, that greater punishment may not befall.”

May the Blessed Virgin Mary lead us to Jesus in His presence in the Eucharist.

Fr. Francis Tiquia is with the Diocese of Virac, Catanduanes, and is the spiritual director of Alliance of the Holy Family International.

Tourism& Entertainment BusinessMirror

Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

Sunday, February 23, 2020 A7

The Hanoi view unraveled from the side street seats

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Story & photos by Joshua Berida

t wasn’t my first time to visit Vietnam, thus, I wasn’t keen on just visiting places. I was just there to walk around and get lost in its tapestry of narrow alleys, marketplaces and cafés, and its decaying buildings, the remnant of its varied past, the Vietnamese, French or the American one, whichever side, or narrative one chooses to follow.

Street vendors scattered in different parts of Hanoi wait for customers.

IF you’re not in the mood to walk, bike taxis can take you around the city.

The mix of old and new gives character to Hanoi’s neighborhoods.

Vietnamese food is best tried from the many street side restaurants in the city.

Hanoi on my mind

Hanoi is a charming city; a mix of old and new, French and Vietnamese. The organized chaos playing out on the streets and alleys are part of the show. I tried my best to avoid the motorcycles coming from all angles since you can’t just stand on the sidewalk and wait for them to stop. You just go, just like life with its rewards and disappointments, as some would believe.

I wasn’t particularly sure where I was going, I just went. I saw rows of old houses and buildings ranging from decrepit to nostalgic. On my aimless journey, I saw a dog roasting on an open fire, a local sitting on a chair with their feet up, children running around and a slew of nameless faces, doing everyday things; gossiping, small talk and making calls on their phones. The murals I saw along the way also depicted daily routines.

View from the Cheap Seats

It was easy to blend in. I have a common Asian face that got people often spoke to me in their own native tongue whenever they saw me. They didn’t look twice whenever they ask me to take a selfie with them. They only found out I was from another country once I spoke to them in English. This unintentional trick helped me more than once to fend off aggressive store owners out to make a quick sale.

The humidity is just like back home, so I needed to sit down and grab a cold drink. At a nearby café, I took my seat and ordered egg coffee. Out of all the countries I’ve been to in Asia, Vietnam is the only country I found where the seats stationed outside cafés, and restaurants mostly faced the road and not each other.

As I sat and took my time drinking coffee, motorcycles,

Locals pass the time away by the food stalls that line the streets.

Hoan Kiem Lake is a popular spot for walks and even pictorials.

pedest r i a ns a nd c a rs zipped by, all adding to the chaos. “So much for traffic rules,” I thought.

I fou nd t he m a d ne s s o d d l y relaxing, therapeutic even, while my memories flashed in front of me. I couldn’t pinpoint details, but I saw them vaguely: the first time I left the Philippines as a boy and went to Hong Kong with my parents and siblings, or the first time I traveled alone. These passed by like a motion blur in photography.

walked around Hanoi. Locals came and went about carrying their goods from household to food items, calling out to whoever was interested in their business. Motorcycles zipped by and zigzagged their way around cars and pedestrians.

I joined a guided walking tour organized by the hostel, and went to some of the same spots I walked around during the day earlier. The guide took us through narrow alleys and neighborhoods, telling

Red Carnation Hotels bags five-star ratings in Forbes Travel Guide’s 2020 Star Awards

From top, clockwise: The Milestone Hotel, Egerton House Hotel, and Ashford Castle join Hotel 41 as Forbes Five Star properties.

R

ed Carnation Hotels is proud to announce that four of its award -winning prop er ties have achieved the prestigious Forbes Travel Guide five-star rating in the annual Forbes Travel Guide Star Awards.

Joining sister property Hotel 41 in receiving the highest FTG accolade are London’s the Milestone Hotel and Residences, and the Egerton House Hotel, alongside Virtuoso’s 2015 Hotel of the Year Ashford Castle, which is the only hotel in Ireland to achieve five-star status.

FTG is the world-renowned and only global rating system for luxury hotels, restaurants and spas, and is widely recognized as being the gold standard of hospitality rating sys-

tems, with a meticulous and anonymous process assessing all areas of a hotel’s product and service.

Red Carnation Hotels Managing Director Jonathan Raggett said, “The Forbes Travel Guide Star Awards system is one of the most meticulous, globally respected and highly sought-after accolades in the industry. To have Ashford Castle, the Milestone Hotel and the Egerton House Hotel join Hotel 41 as Forbes five-star properties is great testament to the generous hospitality and levels of service, luxury and attention to detail that guests consistently receive at our properties.

“Every day, our teams go above and beyond to make every stay spe-

cial, and these awards are a reflection of their hard work and passion, and the leadership and values of our president and founder, Beatrice Tollman.”

According to Filip Boyen, Chief Executive of FTG, “We have been committed to championing genuine five-star service for more than 60 years, and this year’s winners, as always, exemplify the very highest standards in hospitality.

“It is difficult to earn a Forbes Travel Guide rating, and all our star-rated winners have shown how incredibly deserving they are of their accolades by demonstrating sheer dedication in their passion for service. We congratulate them all.”

I glanced at the locals and eventually realized they were doing the same thing. I wasn’t the only one staring at the street and watching the action take place. I wondered what they were thinking, though.

Were we all trying to relive a life in sepia tones? I took one last sip of my egg coffee and left my thoughts hanging, unanswered. By the time I got to my place for the night, it was already dark outside.

The day’s adventure was quite similar to the night ones while I

us this and that. The perspective was different with a guide leading the way, maybe life, the questions and the answers would’ve been bitter or sweet, or somewhere in between. Roll with the punches as some would say, whether as a joke or sound advice.

On our way back, I wasn’t sure if I was following the same road, but I just kept going and going, until I arrived at the doorstep of the hostel where my short-lived adventure took its leave.

TPB welcomes new COO T

he Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Philippines, the marketing and promotions arm of the Department of Tourism (DOT), warmly welcomes its new chief operating officer (COO), Atty. Maria Anthonette C. Velasco-Allones.

A career executive service officer since 2010, Velasco-Allones brings her extensive civil service management expertise to TPB. Prior to her appointment, she served as executive director of the Career Executive Service Board since 2007. Under her leadership, CESB received international recognition from the UN-Asia Pacific Center for information and communications technology in 2009 and 2010 for “bridging the information and communications technology capacity gap of government executives in the Philippines to achieve socioeconomic and development goals.” She successfully spearheaded CESB’s administrative reforms and program innovations in support of leadership capacity enhancement among the country’s top career senior officials.

She also served as assistant secretary for personnel of the Department of National Defense from 1999 to 2001, and as assistant secretary at the Department of Labor and Employment from 2001-2006.

An outstanding alumni of the National Defense College of the Philippines, Velasco-Allones received the Outstanding Vincentian Alumni Award for Leadership Excellence

In photo, from left, DOTr Usec. Atty. Reinier Paul R. Yebra, Diamond Hotel Philippines General Manager Vanessa L. Suatengco, DFA acting Usec. Lourdes O. Yparraguirre, TPB COO Atty. Maria Anthonette C. Velasco-Allones, DOT Usec. Benito C. Bengzon, Jr., DTI Asec. Rosario Virginia C. Gaetos, Tieza Asst. COO Jetro Lozada, Mapawa Nature Park President Eduardo Pelaez, and DOT Asec. Howard Lance A. Uyking and Service from the Unibersidad de Santa Isabel in Naga City last 2018.

Velasco-Allones completed her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Philippines. She obtained her Master in Public Management from the joint program of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public PolicyNational University of Singapore and the Kennedy School of GovernmentHarvard University.

She presently serves as a core faculty member of the Ateneo School of Government, and is a resident faculty of CESB’s Leadership and Management Proficiency Program.

Her extensive and remarkable achievements in public sector, organizational development and strategic human resource management earned her the prestigious Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) award

in the field of Human Resource Development in government service in the Philippines in 2009.

Velasco-Allones will lead TPB’s continuing campaign to manage all domestic, and international, marketing and promotional efforts for Philippine tourism, and Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events (MICE) industries. Aside from promoting and supporting sustainable tourism, TPB will also participate in numerous travel expositions, strengthen its social media presence, and continue ongoing projects to help increase the number of local and inbound tourists.

Under her leadership, TPB is looking forward to a purposeful year of promoting the country to become the most preferred tourist destination in the Asia-Pacific by 2022.

Velasco-Allones assumed office as TPB COO on February 10.

A8 Sunday, February 23, 2020

HAMILTON ON THE SPOT F

ormula One (F1) champion Lewis Hamilton sees “a sign of weakness” when his rivals start doubting his ability to handle pressure.

The Mercedes driver is aiming for a seventh F1 title this season to equal Michael Schumacher’s record, and is seven race wins away from equaling the F1 great’s other record of 91. Last season, Hamilton won a third straight title by 87 points over teammate Valtteri Bottas, who led early before fading.

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen finished third in another impressive campaign. The 22-year-old Dutchman won three races, and had some close duels with Hamilton in Monaco and Hungary.

Verstappen said last week he could beat Hamilton with the right car.

Hamilton was asked on Friday at Silverstone—where Mercedes was testing its new W11 car—what he made of recent comments about him.

“I find it funny seeing that. I have just always known to do my talking on the track,”

Hamilton said in a video from the team’s garage. “I tend to see that [kind of talking] as a sign of weakness.”

Two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso previously said rivals were not exploiting Hamilton’s weaknesses, but did not say what those were.

Mercedes has had the quickest and most reliable car since winning the first of six straight drivers’ and constructors’ titles in 2014. Ferrari was quicker at times last year— but on straight-line speed only. And it was the Honda engine-powered Red Bull making the biggest leap forward.

Verstappen is increasingly confident about what he could do in a car good enough to push Hamilton over a season, rather than a random race.

“Lewis is very good. He is definitely one of the best out there but he is not God,” Verstappen said last week. “When you can put the pressure on, of course it is a lot harder for the guy in the lead.... If you never really have pressure, you can drive at 97 percent to

Sports BusinessMirror

Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

India set to host 2022 Asian Cup

98 percent and you never make mistakes, or maybe one weekend out of 21-22.”

He responded with a “Yes” when asked if he could beat Hamilton, but added that being able to do so “is very car-dependent.”

Hamilton has not faced sustained, seasonlong pressure since a tension-filled 2016 when then-Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg clinched the title at the last race, then abruptly retired from F1.

The 35-year-old Hamilton has stepped up his off-season training to be in even better shape, telling fans online this week that he feels “physically and mentally on another level.” The first of two F1 preseason testing sessions starts next week.

“Last year I arrived into testing with a lot of water weight and around 78 kilograms,” Hamilton wrote on his Twitter account. “This year, I’m at a better weight of 73 kg. Still have more fat to burn off and more muscle to add, but on the way.”

The season begins with the Australian GP in Melbourne on March 15. AP

K

UALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—India is set to host another international tournament in women’s soccer as the game seeks to develop in the cricket-loving nation of 1.3 billion people.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said Wednesday its women’s committee recommended India as host for the 2022 Women’s Asian Cup over rival bids from Taiwan and Uzbekistan.

“India offers the best opportunities to build the event commercially, as well as increasing the value, and India is also committed to developing the women’s game in the country,” said Mahfuza Akhter Kiron, the AFC’s women delegate on Fifa’s ruling council.

The plan involves using two venues, including the D. Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai that will host the final of Fifa’s Women’s Under-17 World Cup in November.

A 12-team tournament is planned, adding four teams to the format of the 2018 edition hosted by Jordan and won by Japan.

The AFC said it wants the tournament to kick off in October and finish before the men’s 2022 World Cup starts in Qatar on November 21.

It will be the Asian qualifying event for the 2023 Women’s World Cup. AP

LEWIS HAMILTON is aiming for a seventh F1 title this season. AP

TRUMP MULLING TOKYO 2020 TRIP U

S President Donald J. Trump is considering traveling to Japan for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, telling media he has been invited to attend by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe. Trump was asked about his plans during a trip to Los Angeles, where he signed an agreement promising government support for the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics in the California city.

“We’ll make that determination,” Trump said on his Tokyo plans. “We haven’t made it, yet. We might. We’re going to try if we can.”

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will run from July 24 to August 9.

If Trump does decide to travel, it will mean a break in his campaigning ahead of this year’s Presidential election. The Republican is bidding for a second and final four-year term in office at the ballot in November.

Trump did not attend the one Olympics during his first term—the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, in South Korea.

Vice President Mike Pence attended instead,

US President Donald J. Trump has yet to attend his first Olympics during his term.

with the Games taking place amid strained rhetoric between Trump and North Korea over nuclear weapons.

The North agreed to compete but had threatened to withdraw after Pence had promised the “toughest and most aggressive” sanctions on the secretive state after his arrival in Asia.

Trump later claimed that Pyeongchang 2018 would have been a “total failure” without his work to get North Korea to compete. His daughter Ivanka led the US delegation at the Closing Ceremony.

Trump, meanwhile, promised that the US Government will provide “tremendous support” to the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

Trump confirmed that assistance would be given in key areas including security. He described the Games as a “big deal.”

An agreement was signed at the Montage Beverly Hills with the government also pledging to help with transportation, communications and environmental contributions.

Los Angeles 2028 is due to be a privately

USA Football’s player development model adds TackleBar tool

U

SA Football is introducing another tool as part of its road map for how the sport is played, coached and taught on the youth level—TackleBar football.

As part of USA Football’s “Football Development Model” launched last year, TackleBar is included within the model’s “limited contact” category, serving as a teaching tool and stepping stone between flag football and the full tackle game. USA Football’s model offers multiple entry points and options to play the sport across three categories: noncontact, limited contact and contact.

Players using the TackleBar tool wear a harness with two bars in the back, one on each side. When a defender attempts a tackle, he or she will be able to employ the basics of tackling— head up and out of the way while wrapping up—with limited contact. Players learn to refine their technique without tackling a player to the ground. Instead, one of the bars is pulled from the opponent’s harness, ending the play.

TackleBar has been on the market since 2017 and the harness costs $55; there are shoulder pads also available. Pilot programs beginning in 2016 were a success, and now USA Football, the governing body for the sport, is adopting TackleBar for the Football Development Model (FDM).

“This is one aspect, although an exciting one, of our Football Development Model,” says USA Football Executive Director and CEO Scott Hallenbeck. “It starts with certified coaches teaching young players in a way that’s fun and matches their age and ability. TackleBar is an effective tool to learn form tackling and fundamentals with limited contact. It’s a smart

way to build skills and experience the sport.”

One high-school coach who has incorporated TackleBar into his programs is Russ Hinrichs of Alexandria, Minnesota. Hinrichs recognized several years ago the need for an alternative way to get youngsters into the program while addressing concerns parents had in terms of contact football.

He found TackleBar a worthwhile option for fifth and sixth graders.

“It makes for an awesome transition, our kids tackle in seventh grade,” Hinrichs says.

“This brought back some excitement and a level of organization in the fifth and sixth grades we had not seen. I said this is what we are using at the varsity level—we are using the TackleBar as well in practices. We want the kids to be able to see that, to think, ‘If it is good enough for varsity, it’s good enough for us.’

“I hate to turn kids off before they grow

funded Games with a proposed $6.9-billion balanced budget with revenues coming from sponsorship, television deals and ticket sales.

However, the US government was still expected to contribute several million dollars which has now been agreed. The Games have been designated as a “National Special Security Event” which prompts political involvement.

“We’re going to give them tremendous support,” Trump said. “You need the support of the Federal Government to make it really work.”

A formal commitment to the Games by the federal government is a requirement of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The White House previously promised to back the Olympics when Los Angeles was bidding for 2024, but had not yet officially agreed to support them now the Californian city is hosting in 2028.

It followed a unique deal confirmed at the IOC Session in Lima, in September 2017 that saw Paris awarded the 2024 Olympic Games and Los Angeles the 2028 edition. and feel they can play tackle.”

That’s exactly what the FDM is all about, Hallenbeck explains.

“The Football Development Model aligns with the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s vision for what sports need to be for our kids,” he says. “TackleBar spans an important range of that vision. This is a tool that improves foundational football skills, brings more kids into healthy and active lifestyles, and is part of an exciting learning bridge—a player pathway that football has been without for too long. All of this, coupled with 21stcentury coach certification, helps young players graduate to tackle football—and not just play it, but excel in it.”

The TackleBar equipment dates back to 2013 and it has gone through about 20 iterations of design from its initial concept. The idea has been to create something comfortable, fundamentally sound and useful in teaching proper technique.

The most recent adjustment tweaked the comfort, rounding out corners on the harness itself so even if a player falls backward, corners are rounded. The device weighs just under a half-pound, the bars are made of foam and attached by Velcro pads. AP

FOOOTBALL players wear a harness with two bars that is a new tool as part of TackleBar football. AP

Lauren Billings and Christina Hobbs Tochi Onyebuchi

Victoria “V.E.� Schwab

Veronica Roth

Best-selling young adult authors are aiming at older readers

Best-selling young adult authors are aiming at older readers

By Hillel Italie The Associated Press

N

EW YORK— After gaining millions of young readers for her Divergent fantasy series, Veronica Roth decided she and her characters were ready for the next phase—a novel for adults.

“I grew up on stories like Dune and Harry Potter, and Ender’s Game about people who shoulder burdens when they’re too young to bear them,” says Roth, who tells the story of Sloane Andrews and her fellow fighters against the havoc of the Dark One in Chosen Ones, scheduled for April. “So the question of what comes after those stories just kept nagging me. Chosen Ones is about that ‘after’—about a group of 30-somethings who saved the world when they were younger, and they’re still dealing with the repercussions of it.”

Roth, Tochi Onyebuchi and Sarah J. Maas are among several writers popular with young people who have books out this year intended for older readers. Some have never written for adults, while others move freely among teens and older readers. All are navigating one of the more complicated paths in publishing—how to consciously appeal to different audiences for different books, from the use or absence of profanity to the choice of subject matter and how to present it. The history is mixed: Judy Blume and Neil Gaiman are among those who have succeeded well, while others, including Daniel Handler and Stephanie Meyer, never fully caught on with adults.

Roth’s first Divergent book came out in 2011, and she reasons that enough of her original readers have reached an age that they’ll be open to a mature approach. She considers her new work a “pretty natural” moment in her career, when you “get curious about other genres, other types of writing.”

Onyebuchi had published Beasts Made of Night and Crown of Thunder before completing his first book for adults, Riot Baby.

It is set in part around the 1992 Los Angeles riots following the acquittal of policemen who beat Rodney King. Riot Baby is a dystopian fantasy about Kev, who has been jailed in Rikers Island, and his sister Ella, who holds the power and the horror of seeing the future.

A graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School, among other schools, Onyebuchi has worked in private and government law and thought a long time about a book that could draw upon his education and

Lauren Billings and Christina Hobbs have combined to write best-selling adult and young adult novels under the name “Christina Lauren.” They have written young adult novels, including Autoboyography, and are moving into more adult stories, such as the upcoming The Honeydon’t List.

one else has raced ahead, and you’re still trying to get your bearings,” she said. “I wrote it essentially for a version of myself who never found writing. If I hadn’t become an author, these are the questions I’d be facing, this is how lost I would feel.”

Over the past decade, Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings have combined to write best-selling adult and young adult novels under the name “Christina Lauren.” They started out with romance books, among them such very adult stories as Beautiful Bombshell, Wicked Sexy Liar and the upcoming The Honey-Don’t List. Meanwhile, for young adult novels such as Autoboyography and The House, they adapt the themes of love and desire for a more impressionable and sensitive audience.

“We want to give our adult readers a literal escape, like when they turn on a Netflix show,” Billings says. “When we are writing of teens, we are trying to be entertaining, yes, but we also want to be more careful that they feel seen and understood. You want to make sure you’re writing a story for them and that it doesn’t feel like a grown-up talking down to them.”

Sound trip BusinessMirror

your Music our business

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: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

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: Lourdes M. Fernandez

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: Aldwin M. Tolosa

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Victoria “V.E.” Schwab, who writes adult and young adult novels, says she doesn’t change her style or vocabulary: The difference is in her mindset. The statement is evident on her Shades of Magic series—where she inhabits her 17-year-old, “pretty angry teenager” self— and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, an adult story coming in October. background. He considers adult books his first passion, but he found that writing for young people strengthened his storytelling, forcing him to write clearly and not “to obfuscate.” For Riot Baby, he was able to expand upon that discipline.

“I could be straightforward and short and concise, and I could have a lyrical style that abounded in subjunctive clauses,” he said.

“I didn’t just have to be Hemingway. I didn’t just have to be Faulkner. I could be both.”

Maas, whose best sellers for young people include the Throne of Glass fantasy series, has her debut adult book out in March. Her Crescent City series begins with House of Earth and Blood, in which protagonist Bryce Quinlan— with the help of a fallen angel—seeks to track down the killers of her closest friends.

Maas told the AP that the new series had been a secret “passion project” for years, an idea came to her when she was on a plane during a book tour, listening to the soundtrack from Gravity. The “epic scene” that came to her became the ending of House of Earth and

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Blood. Bryce’s age compelled Maas to think about a different readership.

“The moment Bryce Quinlan walked into my head, I knew she was in her early to mid20s—an age that placed her story firmly in the adult range,” says Maas, adding that the main difference between writing for younger and older people is in the language. “I will admit that I can now get away with quite a bit more swearing!”

V.E. Schwab, who writes adult and young adult novels, says she doesn’t change her style or vocabulary: The difference is in her mindset. For her Monsters of Verity duology, she inhabits her 17-year-old self, a “pretty angry teenager.” For The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, an adult story coming in October about a woman who endures and is forgotten for centuries, she is closer to the person she is now.

“One of the primary themes in the book is this concept of 30 as a threshold for true adulthood, the feeling like you look down for a moment, and when you look back up, everyFebruary 23, 2020

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YOUR MUSIC OUR BUSINESS EBE DANCEL Image by Jimbo Albano

GOING FULL CIRCLE

EBE DANCEL RE-INTRODUCES SUGARFREE CLASSICS TO NEW AUDIENCES

By Edwin P. Sallan With additional reporting by Eloisa Jane Palermo

S

INCE pursuing a solo career in 2011, sought after singer-songwriter Ebe Dancel has successfully carved his own niche. In addition to his own hit, Ebe was also able to write and produce songs for other artists and was even instrumental in mentoring talented newcomers via the Elements Singing and Songwriting Camp.

But even with his own personal success, Ebe understands that the music of Sugarfree still resonate loudly to an increasing number of music fans, even those who were exposed to them belatedly after the group disbanded. It was no surprise then that a jukebox musical based on the band’s music called “Sa Wakas: A Pinoy Rock Musical” had several well-received runs from 2013 to 2018 and was particularly big with millennial audiences.

On Spotify, the band still commands quite a following with

a monthly listener base of over 379,000 while Ebe himself is pretty solid with over 448,000 listeners every month.

While there have been repeated clamors for a Sugarfree reunion, the possibility remains remote given that former drummers Kaka Quisumbing and Mitch Singson are now associated with other bands while bassist Jal Taguibao seems to have given up on music and is now happy with being a member of the academe at the University of the Philippines.

Ebe Dancel (center) flanked by, from left, Chito Ilagan, PolyEast Records A&R director; Jesmon Chua, PolyEast Records GM; Trici Nicolas, Ebe’s manager; and Ramon Chuaying, PolyEast Records president)

For his part, Ebe’s usual response to such clamors for such a Sugarfree is “never say never” but since nothing has yet to materialize, he has decided to do what he considers as “the next best thing”: releasing a brand new album that consists of new recordings of some of those well-loved Sugarfree tunes.

Aptly-titled Baliktanaw, the 10-track new album is particularly significant as its release comes in the heels of Sugarfree’s 20th

anniversary. Incidentally, the album will also be released by PolyEast Records, the label responsible for the band’s classic recordings. Yes, it’s a sort of a homecoming for Ebe. “I thought it would be nice to come home to do this basically commemorative album because Sugarfree has just turned 20 years,” Ebe quipped, acknowledging the fact that by signing with PolyEast again, his career has come full circle.

Continued on page 5

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FEBRUARY 23 , 2020 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

BEYOND GEOGRAPHY Classic rockers 3Y3 defy distances with new single M

USIC knows no boundaries. Thanks to modern technology and the unifying power of the internet and social media, even long-lost bandmates can reconnect and find new ways to create and record from their respective locations.

That’s exactly how the members of the band called 3Y3 (pronounced as Trentay Tres) found their groove again more than three decades after they first made waves in the local rock scene. Composed of vocalist Pronnie Abante, bassist Cesar Trinidad, guitarist Jojo Canonoy, keyboardist

YOUR MUS

Allan Encarnacion and drummer Rex Inonong, the band originally known as Anak Bonifacio is best known for their anthemic hit song, “Estudiante.”

Pronnie first heard the song performed by his college pal and folk musician Ricky Nicolas. Putting his very own rock twist to the song, Pronnie eventually approached the Cesar who actually wrote the song.

Having realized they were on the same page, Pronnie and Cesar decided to form the band that would become Anak Bonifacio.

The band then recorded “Estudiante” as a rocker under the Pyramid record label of fellow musician Rey Manansala. By the time the song was picked up for airplay at rock station DZRJ, Anak Bonifacio was already a busy touring band that performed in many parts of the Philippines. The radio exposure of “Estudiante,” however, opened more doors for the band as Pronnie and company found themselves opening for the likes of Pinoy Rock icons like Joey “Pepe” Smith, Banyuhay ni Heber, Asin and Paul Toledo, to name a few.

But three years after they were formed in 1984, Anak Bonifacio decided to call it a career. The years that followed saw several band members migrating to other countries and not much was heard from them until recently.

Reconnecting through Facebook, the band that now answers to the moniker 3Y3 has recorded a new single called “Hanggang Kalangitan.” A soaring piano-driven rock ballad that recalls the style of both Meat Loaf and Arnel Pineda, what makes “Hanggang Kalangitan” even more remarkable was how it was put together.

Each member of the band recorded their respective parts separately in their respective location—Pronnie laid down his vocals from Las Vegas, Cesar added his bass lines from Singapore, Rex did his drum parts in Dubai while Jojo and Allan recorded their contributions right here in the Philippines.

Now that the members of 3Y3 have rediscovered the same musical passion that they once had as Anak Bonifacio, they believe that things can only get better from hereon. Expect more original music from 3Y3 in the days to come. Who knows? They might even find a way to perform their music “live.”

d trip

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | FEBRUARY 23 , 2020

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SIC OUR BUSINESS

ROCKING LIKE A HURRICANE

THE SCORPIONS TO CONCLUDE WORLD TOUR IN MANILA

T

By Rick Olivares

HE Scorpions, that German rock band that was a staple of jukebox, jeepney cartridge deck, and karaoke fare back in the 1970s and 80s with hits like “Always Somewhere”, “Holiday,” “Rock You Like a Hurricane”, “Wind of Change,” “No One Like You” and “Still Loving You,” will be performing at the Mall of Asia Arena on March 7 as part of their Crazy World Tour.

Their Manila show will end their three-year world tour that kicked off in June of 2017 in France.

The German band has been one of the longest-performing bands in music history, having been formed in Hanover by guitarist Rudolf Schenker in 1965. The only other bands with that kind of staying power are the Rolling Stones and The Who that remain active to this day.

Schenker and vocalist Klaus Meine, are the two remaining members of the band since their debut album, Lonesome Crow came out in 1972. The Scorpions have put out 19 studio albums – with a 20th effort out this 2020 -- and have sold almost 100 million records.

One former member who has gone to equal the band’s iconic status is Schenker’s younger brother, Michael who went on to also perform with English rockers, UFO, and the Michael Schenker Group.

GOING...

from page 3

But while Ebe has the avid Sugarfree fans in mind when he rerecorded orchestral versions (“the way I pictured them in my head…”) of well-loved classics like “Burnout,” “Mariposa,” “Tulog Na,” “Wag Ka Nang Umiyak,” and “Dear Kuya,” he also wanted to see how new fans would respond to these tunes that they never heard before.

“It’s also an introduction to the new fans who were not exposed to Sugarfree when we were still together. So hopefully, these new recordings will not only serve to bridge the [generation] gap but

The Scorpions have gone to influence such acts as Guns N’ Roses, Motley Crue, Skid Row, Megadeath, Cinderella, Yngie Malmsteen, and Hanoi Rocks to name but a few.

The band will hit the recording studios after the tour to work on their new album. It will be their follow up to 2017’s Born to Touch Your Feelings: Best of Rock Ballads.

Said Meine, “We pick it up again after our Asian tour. We go right into pre-production. We wrote about 10 songs last year (2019). There’s more in the tank.”

Crazy World Tour: Scorpions Live in Manila is brought to us by Insignia Presents, the concert and events company that brought international acts such as Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and Grammy winner, Ella Mai in 2019. Their upcoming shows in 2020 include LANY headlining Plus63 Music and Arts Festival, Stereolab, and Rex Orange County.

Tickets for Crazy World Tour: Scorpions Live in Manila will be available for sale online starting Friday, January 31, 2020 at 11am at or at any SM Tickets outlets nationwide.

wrote for Sugarfree but for someone else. The song was penned by Ebe in 2014 for Paolo Valenciano, son of Mr. Pure Energy Gary Valenciano who initially pursued an entertainment career in front of the cameras but later found his niche behind as a sought-after concert director.

Ebe admits that the poignant ballad which he describes as “selfexplanatory” holds a special place in his heart in the sense that he had a tough time finishing it. “I started writing the song after dinner and I finished it na lalabas na yung araw.

Kaya may line dun na ‘hanggang dilim ay lumiwanag...’ so I literally waited for that song to be finished,”

he recalled.

Incidentally, Paolo will be directing Ebe’s upcoming concert with The Manila String Machine on February 29 at the Metrotent Convention Center in Pasig City. “It will be my first ever concert that I will be accompanied by a 20-piece orchestra under Chino David as my musical director. I’m really excited about this,” he enthused.

Baliktanaw, which will be released on physical CD on concert date also features allnew recordings of “Unang Araw,” “Kwarto,” “Cuida” and “Hangover.”

The Scorpions

I think this is also good way to introduced them to the band where I started my career. In the process, it will also honor the other members of the band,” he pointed out.

Ebe said recording songs already familiar with many people is not without its own challenges. He understands that more popular hits are the trickiest ones to tinker with since they are already revered for what they are.

“The main challenge [is] not to ‘re-record’ them but to make them sound new and better,” he quipped.

Ironically, the album’s carrier single, “Hanggang Kailan Kita Mahihintay” is not a song that Ebe

Continued on page 6

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FEBRUARY 23 , 2020| soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

Sound trip BusinessMirror

YOUR MUSIC OUR BUSINESS

SoundSampler

VINYL DUB POWER

by Tony M. Maghirang

SUNDAY MUSIC CLUB

Red-I drops Word Sound Power 2LP

By Rick Olivares

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AWKTARD I’m Conscious

NTIZKVM​/​STORMTROOPERS Tyrant Wardevils​/​SS28

Emo gaze, anyone? If you fancy one, the debut album from self-proclaimed emo-punks deliver truly melodic emo bathe in the enveloping haze of ‘90s UK shoegaze. How’s that for an intoxicating blend of altrock’s underappreciated genres?

Despite their uncool name, Laguna’s Awktard slips past the awkward fusion of two post-punk off-shoots to create a sonic brew that can stimulate adventurous tastes. The album opens in the hymnal tones of the titular track and by the second cut, “Sunday,” the band begins with playful pop-rock riffs then steps on the gas for a coherent merger of raging punk and encompassing shoegaze. Any animosity towards emo or shoegaze blows away in the overall catchiness of the song.

The band’s tuneful variation on emo’s template gets even better in the whirl of harmonic clusters and resonant expanse of “Nightmares of Hiroshima” and “More. ” in “The Shrine,” each member indulges in his moment and space to shine. While strictly a slow ballad, the song eventually flows into a flimsy curtain of delicate distortion.

We await a second helping with bated breath.

More power!

If noise keeps you alive and combative, then this twofor-one offering pumps the right volume and mayhem to get you going. Davao-based trio NTIZKVM apportion their “Tyrant Wardevils” half in six slices of brutal war-mongering extremism. It’s an end-to-end demolition derby with occasional screams and death vocals raising drug-less hallucinations of being transported against your will to hell’s moshpit. There are no distinctive tracks because the whole first half of the album is a series of challenges to your aural balance.

Just when you need a breather, Manila’s Stormtroopers seize the brief silence separating the recording with the loud bracing roar of their 6-track other half titled SS28. The band corral hardcore punk’s insistent bang and magnify it into a louder bash in tandem with the usual overdriven backbeat and a vocalist who half-murmurs his words amidst the storming tumult. Multiply the experience six times and you get the thrill of the companionship of an ill-tempered wrecking machine.

At once a controlled assault and intense celebration, this split should carry a warning sticker: The uninitiated should listen only to one track at a time every three hours.

The rest of us can try out for a grinding marathon to sonic perdition and back.

BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB Everything Else Has Gone Wrong

GANG OF FOUR That’s Entertainment!

Pop music is about connecting the personal with the external world and the smooth warm music of UK’s Bombay Bicycle Club does that in spades. Coming off a three-year hiatus, the band’s fifth and latest release has the tunes to grab instant attention. It’s a throwback to the Club’s fine music making abilities all the way to their first indie-rock single titled “Always Like This.”

In 2014, they topped the British album charts with “So Long See You Tomorrow” which was a dazzling display of the band’s collective electro-pop wizardry. It’s puzzling then that the quartet would return to the chart wars with a new album quirkily titled “Everything Else Has Gone Wrong.”

The insider buzz is that it refers to the personal struggles of the band members. Funny then that despite the negative connotation of its title, the album debuted at the number one spot on UK’s record store charts. That alone proves that the band is playing the right music at the right time.

It’s difficult to argue with the soundness of the handsome melodies that send the likes of “Is It Real?,” the upbeat title track and “Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)” to indie rock heaven. Select producers who include frontman Jack Steadman and John Congleton of St. Vincent and Franz Ferdinand fame ably twirl the knob such that even a strummy shaker like “Good Day” bleeds gorgeous hooks.

In the title track, vocalist Steadman happily announces they have found their second wind. That makes for happy personal thoughts. Darn if the rest of the wicked world can go hang themselves.

Early this year, Gang of Four founding member Andy Gill passed away at age 64 and this is our tribute to commemorate his enormous contribution to the band’s ground-breaking music, to post-punk and to the history of rock and roll itself.

The band’s debut album, “That’s Entertainment” was released forty years ago in an era of vinyls and ‘70s punk rock on the wane. It signaled the arrival of a brand new aural attraction. It was frenetic yet funky danceable, spouting lyrics that mirrored the album cover showing telepathically capitalist exploitation of the human body for commerce and illicit fun.

Illegal fun becomes the subtext of the album’s centerpieces, namely, “Damaged Goods,” “Anthrax,” “At Home He’s A Tourist” and “Not Great Man.” The entire album itself is a monument to future sounds that would echo in the post-millennial music of The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, The Killers and even our very own Sandwich and Pedicab.

At the center of Gang of Four’s phenomenal rock attack was Andy Gill on guitar slashing and splintering standard rock riffs then infusing a funk metal crunch to his chord pattern. He virtually punked the role of the guitar to become a percussive, rhythm and lead instrument at the same time, without debasing the share of the drummer and bassist in the overall sound.

Andy Gill will never be hailed as one of the greatest guitarists of all time but the chords he reimagined and performed in his time with the Gang of Four will surely show up again and again in coming generations of intelligent musicians and smart music platforms.

ilipino dub artist Red-I’s second full length album, Word Sound Power, is now out on vinyl via Japan-based label, Oto Records.

Word Sound Power is a double album and follows the extended plays releases Kings Music, Natty Dread I Beat, and Mystic Revelation. And easily, this is his best effort to date.

Many artists -- especially those not from Jamaica where dub music originated as an offshoot of reggae – add to their interpretation of the genre. In Red-I’s case, his use of the kubing (on the first rack “Highest Region”) adds a Filipino touch to the music. it isn’t only homegrown ingredients that he adds to the eclectic brew. There are traces of jazz, Middle Eastern, and Asian rhythms as well; no doubt the sum of Red-I’s influences and his many travels. They all add to the underlying beauty of Word Sound Power.

Word Sound Power is Red-I’s first full length record since his selfreleased 2012 debut, Jahdgement Day, and the two-record set features guest performances by Mc Brother Culture, Ras Taro, King Spade, Lady I, and Camoi among others. All of Red-I’s releases have been on vinyl. As the saying goes – what’s good for turntables are good for soundsystems (and vice versa).

The album was launched at Irie Manila Sunday, February 16, at Casa Bambu, Poblacion, Makati.

A late-night crowd of party goers as well as reggae and dub fans filled the roof deck watering hole and gyrated to the music provided by DJs Don P, Soulsteppa, Masta T, T Cash, Norris King, and Digital Dan Boi. British dub artist and DJ, Steve Vibronics, a frequent Manila visitor

GOING...

himself, was also on hand as part of his Asian tour to promote his new releases, Vibronics Meets Weeding Dub and Culture Dub not to mention recordings with fellow Briton, Sandra Cross.

According to Red-I, Word Sound Power has a limited pressing of 400 copies that are available through Oto Records’ website as well as regional vinyl and reggae/dub sites.

Red-I has broken out in the international dub music scene of late having performed at the One Love Festival in England last year and a recent show in Thailand. This 2020, he will participate in the International Dub Gathering from April 2-5 in Spain. “I am happy about all these developments,” said Red-I during the Irie Sunday show. “After 2012, I have seen a lot of my music released on vinyl by a Japanese label. I have been getting invites to perform abroad.

Spain this coming April will be four nights of live performances from the best international dub artists. I am excited to participate and represent the Philippines in this gathering.”

Added Steve Vibronics, “The international dub scene is growing especially in Asia. I am on a miniAsian tour playing music and meeting all these familiar faces and making new friends as well. I just played in Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City and now am in Manila.

I am supposed to have some tour dates in China, but I am backing out of it because of the coronavirus.

However, it is good to be in Manila and share this night with Red-I.”

from page 5

Tickets for the concert are available at www.ticket2me.net.

Moving forward, Ebe sounds introspective about his immediate and distant future.

“I’m taking things one step at a time. I want to do things right and be careful about my next move.

That’s the only way it’s going to happen. I hope to write my own musical someday, I think that’s every songwriters dream and I’m still open to writing songs for other artists but right now, I honestly want to write songs for myself,” Ebe concluded.

Getting into Harvard may mean cheaper loans than going to Howard

By Shahien Nasiripour & Hannah Levitt

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Bloomberg

orrowers expect their income or credit history to send their loan costs up or down.

Few, however, expect lenders to judge them based on what college they went to.

But that’s exactly what some of the nation’s largest banks are doing, a group of former federal regulators said. Companies including Wells Fargo & Co. are charging consumers more to borrow money if they attended less prestigious colleges, a form of educational discrimination that may violate credit laws and deepen inequality, according to a new study.

That means Harvard University students, already flush with opportunity, stand to gain an additional edge over their peers at nearby Bunker Hill Community College when taking out loans.

The Student Borrower Protection Center, a Washington-based nonprofit, found that Wells Fargo, one of the largest US lenders, offers significantly cheaper loans to borrowers attending four-year colleges than to those at community colleges, while Upstart Network Inc., an online lending platform, charges a graduate from historically black Howard University almost $3,500 more to borrow $30,000 over five years compared with a similar New York University graduate.

“Despite assurances by these lenders that their practices lift up consumers from marginalized communities, our analysis shows that educational redlining can further drive disparities and inequality,” Seth Frotman, a former studentloan official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who’s now executive director of the nonprofit, said in a statement. Redlining refers to the now-illegal

practice of refusing loans based on where borrowers live.

Case studies

The group chose Wells Fargo and Upstart as case studies to demonstrate broader issues across the industry. Both lenders disputed the Student Borrower Protection Center’s analysis.

“We follow responsible lending practices that take into account expected performance outcomes and are confident that our loan programs conform with fair lending expectations and principles,” Wells Fargo representative Vickee Adams said.

Upstart cofounder Paul Gu said his company works closely with the federal consumer bureau, and that Upstart’s statistics show that those who attended Howard University and borrow through his firm are more likely to get credit and at cheaper terms.

The findings come as lenders and their regulators in Washington embrace so-called alternative data as a way to cut borrowing costs and increase access to credit for historically under-served households. By using data such as a borrower’s alma mater, the argument goes, lenders can better price household loans than if they relied on traditional factors such as credit scores and personal income.

Data abuse

Consumer groups, meanwhile, warn that lenders could abuse the data to overcharge some households. Those fears have been heightened by lenders’ use of algorithms to wade through reams of data to make instant credit decisions, particularly after users of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s credit card for Apple Inc. complained late last year that women were given smaller credit lines than their husbands. The New York State Department of Financial Services subsequently opened an investigation.

Disparities in credit scores and incomes across races have led to a “really awful system” in which minority borrowers often pay more than they should, Gu said. His firm regularly reports loan application data to the federal consumer bureau under an agreement that allows Upstart to use borrowers’ educational backgrounds in underwriting decisions without fear of a regulatory crackdown, as long as the company continues to meet fair-lending standards.

“If you want to make it better, you need more data, and you need different kinds of data to help different kinds of people,” Gu said.

Lending disparities

Using educational data could help level the playing field, he said. Howard students,

for example, are 46 percent more likely to get a loan under Upstart’s underwriting model than they would from a traditional lender, and they enjoy interest rates that are 18 percent lower, Gu said.

But disparities remain. White Americans are more likely to have college degrees than blacks and Hispanics, Census Bureau data show, while college dropouts are more likely to fall behind on their student loans than borrowers with degrees, according to US Department of Education figures.

Wells Fargo, for instance, quotes loan interest rates for a hypothetical freshman studying engineering at the Borough of Manhattan Community College that are nearly double those offered to a similar student studying the same subject at the City College of New York nearby, a tool on the lender’s web site shows. Both are part of the City University of New York system. Community-college students often complete their four-year degrees at other institutions.

In 2007, Andrew Cuomo, then New York’s attorney general, warned lenders against using borrowers’ educational backgrounds when making loan decisions. And in 2014, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. told Sallie Mae that it couldn’t price loans to students using their college’s loandefault rates without violating the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

TP introduces new mentors for its university-relations program

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ustomer experience management company Teleperformance Philippines (TP) launched a mentors system for its university-relations program, TP LaunchPad. Dubbed “Navigators,” the mentors are 22 TP leaders from various support departments and operations teams who are keen to pay it forward to their alma mater and help guide students through career paths in the informationtechnology and business-process management (IT-BPM) industry.

The Navigators are graduates of different educational institutions in the country, including the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, University of Santo Tomas, Adamson University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Arellano University and Letran College, among others.

As industry professionals in TP, the mentors have developed expertise that keep them agile and ready for the workplace of the future. Navigators have volunteered to do

career talks, join site tours and job fairs, and spend time with students to share insights that will arm them with strategies on how to map out the sometimes-overwhelming job and career search phase of their lives.

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“These leaders are proud of their alma mater and are grateful for the education and comradeship they’ve enjoyed while under the institution’s tutelage,” said Jeffrey Johnson, senior vice president of Human Capital Resource Management (HCRM) of Teleperformance Philippines. “Now they are in the position to also contribute to growth and development of the young ones and they’ve volunteered to do this because they believe in the future and the Filipino youth’s role in it.”

For around 10 years now, the HCRM group has been running its university-relations program, TP LaunchPad, as a bridge between the academic community and the abundant professional opportunities offered by the ITBPM industry. The program offers a range of services that allows students to discover how the industry contributes to the local and global economy and peek into the worldclass workplace environment it offers for employees.

To learn more about Teleperformance Philippines and its TP LaunchPad program, visit www.teleperformance.ph/en-us or facebook/teleperformance.philippines.

Landscape architects shift emphasis to the ecosystem

By Katherine Roth

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The Associated Press

andscape architects are finding themselves on the front lines of the climate-change crisis, having to come up with creative ways to adapt and help mitigate problems like rising oceans and extreme weather as they design projects across the country.

“The focus on sustainability has been building slowly for a long time among landscape architects, but in recent years that commitment has really taken hold,” says Jacquelyn Bianchini, a spokesman at the Washington, D.C.-based American Society of Landscape Architects. She says those in the profession “have to deal with climate change more than almost any other design fields.”

Landscape architect Kate Orff heads the firm Scape, known for ecologically driven projects around the country. She feels a responsibility to take on projects that emphasize sustainability.

“Our profession has been working hand in hand with the carbon-driven world since the field’s inception. We’ve been living in this world where we’re creating beautiful gardens in the foreground while the planet is collapsing in the background,” she says.

“My goal is to flip that relationship around so the focus is on ecological systems, and we then link what we do with policy ideas, and infrastructure to that reality,” says Orff, who recently became the first landscape architect awarded a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship.

She is the lead designer of a $60-million barrier reef and shoreline restoration

The Native Plant Garden at the NYBG in New York. Sustainability and resilience were important considerations for landscape architect Sheila Brady’s design of the garden. Storm water captured on site feeds the central water feature. Black locust, considered invasive in parts of the US, was used to construct the wooden promenade. The regionally native plants provide invaluable food and shelter for native birds and butterflies at risk from climate change and other anthropogenic stresses. Robert Benson/NYBG via AP project off Staten Island, New York, called “Living Breakwaters.” It incorporates oyster reefs, wetlands and strands to reduce the effects of storm surges. In Atlanta, it is developing a 100-mile trail linking communities along a vast distance to encourage mobility, equity and sustainability.

While landscape architects often focus on large, community projects, they say consideration of the environment also needs to take place at home, when people are designing their own gardens and deciding what to plant in their backyards.

“Even though gardening is listed in the top 5 hobbies of Americans, somehow we’ve not translated that into care for our environment. We need to try to somehow do a better job of bridging the divide between personal gardens and the larger global situation. It’s all connected,” says Orff.

Todd Forrest, vice president for horticulture and living collections at the New York Botanical Garden, concurs.

A group of landscape designers and community members engaged in the Chattahoochee RiverLands Greenway Study in Georgia. As team lead, SCAPE worked over two years to engage community and stakeholder groups through nearly 290 events about the future of the Chattahoochee River over a 100-mile project area in the Metro Atlanta region. Landscape architects are finding themselves on the front lines of the climate-change crisis. They have to come up with creative ways to adapt and help mitigate problems like rising oceans and extreme weather.

That holds for big community projects, as well as residential landscapes. SCAPE via AP

“People who are creating home gardens, or people like me who manage gardens for the public, deal with the reality of climate every day and always have. A gardener is the first person and the last person you should talk with about climate change, and we deal with issues of plant adaptability in everything we do,” he says.

Forrest, who used to teach a class called Gardening and a Changing Climate, says, “every citizen of the world should look across all their activities and ask themselves, ‘How can I live more simply or thoughtfully so that I’m not contributing to the eventual loss of native biodiversity around the world?’ We can design our gardens to provide habitat for insects. But we can also over-fertilize and damage the environment.”

To be a good environmental citizen, he says, you need “to learn and to pay close attention, to adapt and at the same time be a part of the effort to reduce carbon emissions.”

At the botanical garden, that’s meant experimenting with more plants native to the southern mid-Atlantic states, a region south of New York City. The Long Leaf Pine is one example.

“No one thought that it would grow here, and it’s now thriving here,” he says. “The challenge is that models suggest more extreme weather events, not a steady change. It’s hard to plant a garden that’s impervious to a hurricane or nor’easter.... Even as the climate warms, we’re still going to have New York winters, so you’re looking to plants that can handle extremes.”

In 2017, the American Society of Landscape Architects convened a blue-ribbon panel on “Climate Change and Resilience,” which resulted in a broad set of suggested strategies and policy guidelines. And last year, the group highlighted 20 case studies of projects that put the report’s recommendations into practice. That “mart Policies for a Changing Climate” exhibition is on view at the Center for Landscape Architecture in Washington (a virtual component is on view at climate.asla.org).

“It’s everyone’s problem, and landscape architects are in the best position to help deal with this,” says Bianchini.

Climate-change protest brings flares to London Fashion Week

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ONDON—Climate-change activists stole the show last week on the opening day of London Fashion Week, stopping traffic with a street protest as they demanded the cancellation of the British capital’s five-day style extravaganza.

Dozens of protesters from the Extinction Rebellion group drew attention—and anger from some drivers—as they fired colorful smoke flares into the air and blocked busy intersections in central London near the fashion events. Some protesters wore gas masks and dresses made from chains, while others carried placards reading “No fashion on a dead planet.”

They called on the British Fashion Council to take more action to lobby for environmental policies.

Adding strong gale winds blowing rain horizontal, it was an eventful day at London Fashion Week, which brings crowds of style editors, photographers, models and celebrities to the city twice a year.

Children gather at Parliament Square holding placards and flags, as they protest against climate change, in London, last week. AP Burberry, Victoria Beckham, Tommy Hilfiger, Erdem and Christopher Kane are among the leading fashion houses and designers showcasing their latest fall and winter creations over the next few days.

Organizers of London Fashion Week have said they

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want to help promote sustainability and create positive change within the industry. This season, the trade show is featuring a “Positive Fashion” exhibition and a “swap shop” where visitors will be able to exchange used clothes for donated items.

Most fashion week attendees, however, will have their eyes firmly trained on new season offerings.

On Saturday, Temperley London staged four catwalk shows that were open to the public as part of a wider drive to make the displays—traditionally only accessible to fashion insiders and VIPs—more public-facing and instantly available to the masses. The brand, adored by fans for its romantic evening and bridal wear, showcased summer dresses with bold prints and an array of opulent and ultra-feminine evening gowns featuring plenty of ruffles, jeweled embellishments, sheer fabrics and showstopping sequins. AP