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AT COVID’S ‘GROUND ZERO’ For OFWs in China, a single virus case is just one too many

VEHICLES move past along quiet roads in Xi’an in northwestern China’s Shaanxi Province, December 26, 2021. TAO MING/XINHUA VIA AP

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By Malou Talosig-Bartolome

OR two years now, it has become a part of the daily routine of Doris Deguilmo-Lauron, an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Wuhan City, China, to check on her smart mobile phone app if there is any case of Covid-19 infection reported in the bustling city where the first global Covid-19 case was detected.

“This is the app which we check first thing in the morning if there are any new Covid cases or none at all. If that first line says zero, then we’re good. No problem. But if it’s not zero, we start to get worried,” the Lanao del Norte native told the BusinessMirror as she shared a screenshot of the app.

Being in the epicenter during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 was very traumatic for Deguilmo-Lauron and her two daughters.

She said at first, she felt they were prepared to remain in isolation on the 19th floor of their condominium residence because they have stocked up on food supplies that could last for three months. But on their 10th day of isolation, the negative psychological effect started to wear them down.

“In the morning, when we looked down the building, there are literally no people in the streets. My kids said, ‘Are we the only ones who survived?’

Then when nighttime comes, we saw lights lit across houses and buildings.

That’s when we get an assurance, ‘Ahh okay, there are still people alive,’” Deguilmo-Lauron recalled.

For weeks, she said they have to endure strict lockdown. They would have wanted to stay longer, but her family in the Philippines is worried for her and her children. Philippine Consulate officials called her to join the repatriation flight to the Philip-

pines in March 2020. With just a suitcase at hand, Deguilmo-Lauron and her two children were flown to Clark, Pampanga.

On April 8, Wuhan lifted its 76day draconian lockdown and started easing restrictions. A megacity with over 11 million people—one million less than the population of Metro Manila—Wuhan opened its borders, trains and flights resumed.

Deguilmo-Lauron, who teaches English as Secondary Language (ESL) for elementary and middle school students at an international school, said when face-to-face classes resumed, her employer brought her and her entire family back to Wuhan at a steep price of P1.4 million. One-way ticket already cost more than P200,000 per passenger, and they had to undergo 14-day quarantine at a hotel with swab tests almost every day.

Wuhan residents like her wouldn’t dream for anyone to have the kind of experience that they go through, much more for them to relive it. So they saw the value of being compliant with government health protocols.

Usual ‘routine’

“IF there are three confirmed Covid-19 cases, we have to prepare for mass testing, especially if the infected were just a few kilometers away where we are staying,” she

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 51.1310

shared. Just like last August 2021, there were two cases reported in a construction site near the condominium where they are staying. So all Wuhan residents were required to undergo nucleic acid testing—twice in a week. Good thing, she said, there is no resistance to mandatory testing among Chinese and expat residents.

“Even if they had to line up under the sun, there are no complaints.

They said that’s the only thing they can contribute to society—to get tested—for the safety of everyone,” she added. Those who were tested positive are brought to hospitals where they are monitored and treated if they developed symptoms.

Sharon Dy-Fajardo, a senior laboratory technician at a school in Beijing, said she also witnessed how fast Chinese authorities were able to develop health protocols, which she claimed are “backed by research and science.”

“Total lockdown is implemented in areas with infection. No persons are allowed to leave and enter an area without proper documentation.

They keep tabs of people’s temperature at every entry point, nucleic acid testing are being done in several communities at one go—even to the point that people taking the test and doing the test have to stay till everyone in a designated area has been tested. Anybody found to be positive for the virus has to go to a quarantine facility together with the close contacts the afflicted person came into contact with,” she said.

Facemasks were still required to be worn when they go outside their homes. Eventually, Chinese and foreigners, even at age 12 years and below, were vaccinated with Chinese homegrown shots Sinopharm or Sinovac. A mandatory smartphone app embedded in the WeChat with color coding of their health condition and vaccination status also monitors their health and becomes their pass to shopping malls, workplaces and schools and other public areas. It has become an effective digital contact-

IN this April 13, 2020, file photo, a resident walks through a partially closed retail street with a bronze statue covered with a face mask in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province. AP/NG HAN GUAN

tracing tool for their public health managers. Practically the entire China mainland is still closed from the rest of the world, except for certain cases where international flights and international ships were allowed.

Elsewhere in China, sporadic cases of Covid-19 were reported.

But generally, the second-largest economy of the world has achieved what epidemiologists coined as “flattening of the epidemiological curve.”

From a peak of 6,905 new cases per day in February 2020, China recorded only 63 cases on April 8, 2020, when Wuhan lifted its lockdown.

Since the pandemic began, China reported 103,000 cases with 4,636 deaths—97 percent of which were from Wuhan.

‘Questionable’ figures?

A NUMBER of experts outside China are questioning, though, the figures being released by Chinese authorities. But OFWs in China believed they reflect the reality on the ground. Richard Orozco, also an ESL teacher in an international school in Suzhou City in southern China, said if there were underreporting of Covid infection cases, they would have felt it because Chinese authorities would immediately order the shutdown of businesses.

Dy-Fajardo said she doesn’t rely on data released by Chinese authorities. She also monitors the data from different sources like the United Nations and other agencies from other countries and analyzes the trends or the extent of the infection.

But what is really noteworthy, Orozco said, is that there is “fear” among people of authorities, unlike in the Philippines where people can just get away with infractions on health protocols.

Charlene “Cheche” Chavez, operations manager of a Vietnamese restaurant in Beijing, shared the same view. “When Chinese authorities order a lockdown, you have to follow. Or they ordered testing and immunization, you have to follow. You have no choice. Or else, they can close your business anytime. If the health code in your app says you are not vaccinated or you broke quarantine [rules], you cannot enter the mall,” Chavez, who oversees the operations of 15 restaurants of the Vietnamese chain Saigon Mama in Beijing and Shanghai, said.

Chinese authorities also launched a massive crackdown on illegal workers last year, and she learned of 22 Filipino domestic helpers being deported for skirting immigration restrictions by passing through Macau, another Chinese territory that doesn’t require

visas. Domestic helpers in China are paid RMB12,000-RMB15,000 (P90,000-P115,000) by the Chinese elite, she revealed.

That is why it was surprising that Xi’an, another megacity in southwestern China with a 13 million population, experienced a community outbreak linked to the Delta variant in December 2021 after 250 cases were reported. Even the most authoritarian zero-Covid policy had a leak. A citywide lockdown was imposed starting December 22. Several top city officials were fired, and the city’s big data bureau chief suspended.

Despite its self-imposed economic isolation from the rest of the world, China emerged as the only country in the world with a positive growth of real gross domestic product (GDP) to about 2.3 percent in 2020. World Bank’s initial projection of real GDP growth for 2021 was 8.0 percent. But Goldman Sachs estimates that the Xi’an outbreak will contribute to the downside of Xi’an lockdown as well as the effects of Omicron global outbreak to China. With consumer spending and supply shocks dragging down the economy, all eyes are on the dragon on how long it can sustain the zero-Covid policy.

For Chavez, the lockdowns are just part of staying in business, and she feels the Chinese can still take the bitter pill. “Our lives are normal now here in China as long as we follow the rules,” Chavez said. Her restaurant, she said, has been hosting a lot of parties for Filipino communities for the past months.

As for job opportunities for fellow kababayans, there will always be demand especially for English teachers, but it would still be difficult to be deployed there because of flight restrictions going to China.

Because of these travel curbs , they could not even go to the Philippines for vacation for fear of being locked out. “Besides, it looks like our family is safer here in China rather than if we go back there to the Philippines,” Deguilmo-Lauron said.

n JAPAN 0.4415 n UK 69.2058 n HK 6.5547 n CHINA 8.0105 n SINGAPORE 37.5825 n AUSTRALIA 36.6098 n EU 57.7525 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.6193

Source: BSP (January 7, 2022)

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A2 Sunday, January 9, 2022

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PANDEMIC TRANSFORMATION IMF critiqued for dropping tough loan standards for Covid funds

By Eric Martin

T

Bloomberg News

HE International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) deployment of $818 billion, often without conditions, to help the world deal with the Covid-19 pandemic is spurring concern from some former officials that the institution is abandoning its focus as a hard-nosed lender of last resort for distressed economies.

The IMF last year allocated a record $650 billion in reserves, called special drawing rights, for its 190 member countries to deal with pandemic fallout. The fund also dedicated $168 billion to help 87 countries deal with the pandemic. About half of the nations received support through the Rapid Financing Instrument, a loan that comes mostly without conditions.

While governments cheered the funds in the face of the health and economic crises, particularly at the start of the health emergency, some long-time IMF watchers are worried. Their concern is that the money will help countries that find themselves in dire straits due to their own

poor policies to avoid asking the IMF for traditional loans, which often require deep reforms, thus perpetuating the problematic underlying situations.

At the same time, past IMF requirements for nations to implement austerity in order to receive loans, aimed at fixing economies in the medium and long term, have drawn criticism for the pain they inflict in the short term. That’s led to protests and sometimes violence against governments working with the IMF across decades, in countries from Bolivia to Jordan.

Doing away with conditionality

CONCERNS among economists about the IMF’s current lighter

THE International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington, D.C. SAMUEL CORUM/BLOOMBERG

‘F

KENNETH ROGOFF

BLOOMBERG

orceful IMF conditionality is essential to establish financial stability and ensure that its resources do not end up financing capital flight, repayments to foreign creditors, or domestic corruption. The pandemic is not going away; nor should the traditional IMF.”—Kenneth Rogoff

conditionality have been simmering for months. They got renewed attention this week after Kenneth Rogoff, a professor at Harvard University and former IMF chief economist, questioned the fund for attempting to be an “aid agency” rather than a balance-ofpayments backstop for troubled borrowers.

“Forceful IMF conditionality is essential to establish financial stability and ensure that its resources do not end up financing capital flight, repayments to foreign creditors, or domestic corruption,” Rogoff wrote in a column for Project Syndicate. “The pandemic is not going away; nor should the traditional IMF.” Conditionality, a requirement for countries to get IMF loans in normal times, is important for two reasons. Countries that avoid needed reforms can have trouble generating the growth or attracting investment that can return them to a path of economic and fiscal stability. That can create difficulty for repaying the IMF, which uses loans, in contrast to the grants that often are a key part of foreign aid from

governments and assistance from the World Bank.

Redefining role amid Covid

THE IMF said in answer to questions that the Covid-19 crisis warranted its robust response, including the emergency lending and reserves allocation, and that 32 countries have been using more traditional conditionbased IMF lending programs over the past two years. The IMF has a range of lending tools that let it “respond flexibly to the different needs of different countries,” the IMF said.

“The IMF’s role is to help our member countries mitigate and manage crises—and that is exactly what we have done during this pandemic,” the Fund said.

Some countries already are using the reserves to delay asking the IMF for a lending program. Argentina, which in 2018 received the biggest loan in IMF history at $57 billion, since September has been using its share of the SDR allocation, about $4.3 billion, as a lifeline to make payments to the fund.

That came after the nation missed an earlier timeline goal for negoti-

ating a new condition-based loan with the IMF to replace the failed prior program.

Among the economists sharing Rogoff’s concerns is Martin Muhleisen, who served as chief of staff to former IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and then headed the key strategy, policy and review department that works on the design, implementation and evaluation of fund policies. Muhleisen moved to a role as special adviser to current Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in September 2020 and retired last year.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, the emergency lending was really the only tool we had to respond quickly,” Muhleisen said.

“It’s time to rethink now how much more you can give to countries without conditions.”

Part of Rogoff’s concern is that if inflation forces the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates significantly, it could have spillover effects for emerging markets. In that situation, the attention that the IMF has given to disbursing and allocating unconditional resources might leave the Fund unprepared.

Mark Sobel, a former US Treasury official who also represented the country at the IMF, said that he doesn’t see the Fund’s work of the past two years interfering with its traditional role of being fast on its feet and serving as a balance-of-payments lender, especially in crises.

“The Fund still has very talented staff that’s very energetic and will quickly mobilize as the world’s first responder, and it will go out and formulate tough crisis stabilization programs should the need arise,” said Sobel, US chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, an economic think tank.

Given the limited amount of special drawing rights that many emerging markets and low-income countries received last year, countries that would have needed and gone for a conditional loan are unlikely to be able to put off requests to the IMF for long, Sobel said.

“For emerging markets as a general proposition, it might buy some time for them as Argentina did to pay interest payments,” he said, “but it’s certainly not a permanent lifeline.”

Editor: Angel R. Calso

The World BusinessMirror

Hawaii is rethinking tourism: Here’s what that means for you

By Jen Murphy

J

ohn De Fries still recalls fishing the waters off Waikiki Beach in Oahu as a kid in the 1960s. “Growing up, my family fishing grounds were a source of food first and recreation second,” he says. “Today they’re a playground surrounded by hotels.”

Born and raised in Waikiki, De Fries was appointed president of the Hawaii Tourism Authority in September 2020, when coronavirus shutdowns had the state’s economy reeling but the community and environment thriving. In 2019, the state of 1.5 million people hosted a record 10.4 million visitors— unsustainable figures that had residents feeling sour. Though tourism netted $2.07 billion in tax revenue that year, Hawaiians lamented its effects on traffic, beaches, and the cost of living.

For locals, the quietude of 2020 “was somewhat euphoric,” says De Fries.

“It felt like we got our islands back.”

But that wasn’t sustainable either. Nor was the boom that happened in July, when visitor arrivals exceeded their 2019 level by 21 percent despite strict Covid-19 testing protocols, mask mandates, capacity restrictions, and staff shortages. That, says De Fries, “was like putting 220 volts of electricity through a 110-volt circuit.” Rental cars became so scarce that U-Hauls were found in beach parking lots; resorts jacked up rates, with average stays at hotels in Maui of $596 a night in August; new taxes were sought; and vacationstarved visitors didn’t flinch.

What comes next is a radically transformed experience for visitors—and locals—hopefully, in a good way. For the first time, Hawaii’s tourism authority is majority-run by Hawaiian natives, rather than white mainlanders with hospitality degrees. With the input of locals, who range from farmers to hotel owners, each of Hawaii’s four counties has created a strategic plan that stretches into 2025 and focuses on sustainable destination management rather than marketing.

The plan relies heavily on community involvement and visitor education.

“In the past, visitors were spoon-fed what outsiders thought they wanted,” says Kainoa Horcajo, founder of the Mo’olelo Group, a Maui-based consultancy that helps hotels to reimagine their cultural experiences. “Now, it’s time to take a risk, challenge the visitor, and give them something real.”

Here are the ways your experience of the state might change in the near future, and possibly forever: You’ll need a reservation to visit popular natural attractions Want to see the black sand beach at Wai’anapanapa State Park in Maui or cross the Kauai’s Kalalau Trail off your bucket list? You’ll now have to make a reservation anywhere from 24 hours to 30 days in advance, depending on the site and season.

The new system, which covers roughly a dozen of Hawaii’s most visited parks, is meant to curb traffic in local communities and tread more lightly on natural resources. Parking and entry fees for non-residents, which can cost from $5 to $15 per person, will also help to better maintain the sites.

Take Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve in Oahu, a marine area that had been seeing 3,000 daily visitors before the pandemic. New measures there caps entries at 720 visitors a day and hikes fees from $5 to $25 for non-residents.

Before entering the water, everyone is required to watch a 9-minute educational video that talks about coral regeneration and marine life, and the park is closed two days a week to let the ecosystem rest.

Sean Dee, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Outrigger Hospitality Group, which operates nearly two-dozen properties across Hawaii, calls this the future of sustainable tourism. “The water is cleaner, visitors are educated, and the revenues help manage the bay,” he says. “It’s a win-win for everyone.”

You’ll have to get a crash course on being a good tourist

The informational video at Hanauma Bay is just one example of how the state is trying to stoke cultural and environmental awareness among visitors. This September, Hawaiian Airlines started airing a five-minute video reminding guests to only use reef-safe sunscreen, keep distance from endangered animals such as monk seals, and be cautious of rip currents and shore breaks in the ocean.

Meanwhile Jon Benson, the general manager at the Hyatt-managed HanaMaui Resort, has removed all of such former amenities as towels and lounge service at nearby Hamoa Beach, home to a sacred Hawaiian burial place. He’ll reinstate them only if the site can be properly honored with guidance from local kupuna, or elders, he says.

“Guests complain,” Benson admits. “But when I explain why the services are on hold, they begin to understand the land around them isn’t just for photos and enjoyment. It has deep cultural significance. It’s our responsibility to educate them.”

You may be charged a conservation fee on arrival

Currently Oahu is lobbying for the establishment of a regenerative tourism fee that would apply to all arriving tourists and directly support conservation and environmental management programs. The state seems keen on approval, given that it cannot spend more than 1 percent of its annual operating budget on natural resource management.

Expect this to look a bit like the $100 fees that are charged upon port entry in the Galápagos, or embedded into airfares to the tiny Pacific island-nation of Palau. (In the latter destination, it’s called a “Pristine Paradise Environmental fee.”) The government is looking at both examples to model what soon may come.

You’ll see a less colonial version of Hawaiian culture In the past, tourism fed into the stories marketing executives thought White people wanted to hear, says Clifford Nae’ole, cultural adviser for the Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua, and former president of the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association. Hawaiian food was pineapple pizza and spam; a luau was just about girls dancing in grass skirts. Now, chefs are proudly incorporating native Hawaiian ingredients such as ulu, or breadfruit, into dishes, and luaus have become historical lessons about the Polynesian migration to Hawaii just as much as they are entertainment.

Those luaus, for instance, won’t include grass skirts—a costume that was introduced by 19th century missionaries as a more modest alternative to traditional skirts and lioncloths made of kapa, or bark cloth. “Now when kumu [hula teachers] are told costumes are too revealing, they push back and say this is the traditional dress,” Nae’ole says.

You’ll also see this change when you receive a lei upon arrival. Now they will be made from locally grown flowers instead of orchids, which are imported from Southeast Asia at high financial and environmental costs and have been used for decades only because White mainlanders found them pleasing.

At the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, local florist Lauren Shearer, owner of Hawaii Flora + Fauna, teaches visitors how to make the garlands from foraged native fauna such as blue jade, crown flower, and ferns. “Ancestors didn’t just use lei for personal adornment,” says Shearer. “They were also used for peace treaties and to establish hierarchies.”

Other clichés are also being rejected. The newly renovated Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort on Oahu, for instance, shines a spotlight on modern Hawaiian music, not just traditional ukulele, hosting such award-winning slack key guitarists as Sean Na’auao nightly. And at the Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria property on Maui, cultural ambassador Kalei ‘Uwēko’olani goes beyond offering outrigger canoe paddles and brings in storytellers such as navigator Kala Baybayan Tanaka to share tales of her father’s historic, technology-free Hokulea canoe crossing from Hawaii to Tahiti. Bloomberg News

Sunday, January 9, 2022

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Conservatives’ plan to regain power unravels in South Korea

Y

oon Suk-yeol spent the final days of 2021 on what should have been one of the easiest stops in his campaign to become South Korean president, speaking to his conservative party’s base in the city of Daegu. Supporters shouted “We love you,” as they waved flags and raised banners reading: “Yoon, the World’s Best President.”

But his backers were drowned out by protest chants from crowds loyal to the country’s last conservative leader, Park Geun-hye, who blame the former top prosecutor for her downfall under a corruption probe. Yoon avoided impromptu speeches and nodded as he sought to avoid any more gaffes like those that have helped plunge his candidacy into crisis.

The one-time front-runner trailed ruling party candidate Lee Jae-myung by 12 percentage points in the presidential election scheduled for March 9, according to a survey released Saturday by Hankook Research. On Wednesday, Yoon hit the panic button, announcing that he had disbanded his campaign team for an overhaul, and would soon “show the public the changed image of Yoon Suk-yeol in a completely different form.”

“He really has got no clue,” Jeong Seo-yeon, 32, a local resident who was walking near a national cemetery in

Daegu when Yoon visited on December 30. “Think worshiping some ancestors would give him extra votes? How about dealing with some real problems—of those who are still alive?” she said.

It’s not just the voters on the ground that see Yoon’s chances as fading. Citigroup Inc. researchers said in a note Wednesday that they saw Lee, of the left-leaning Democratic Party, as winning the election, changing its earlier projections of a Yoon victory.

They now gave Lee a 60 percent chance of becoming the next president.

Yoon’s campaign has been beset by infighting as he struggles to quiet ethical controversies including whether his wife exaggerated her credentials to get a job, something he denies. The political newcomer has also made repeated verbal blunders, saying, for instance, that the poor and less educated don’t understand the necessity of freedom.

Yoon’s decision to replace his

staff was precipitated by public friction with his campaign chief, Kim Chong-in. Kim had accused the candidate of being unwilling to accept advice, struggling to work with someone with differing views, and failing to offer a “vision” for the presidency. Yoon had also openly clashed with the 36-year-old PPP leader Lee Jun-seok, who in return, had criticized Yoon.

But Yoon and Lee said they reached an agreement late Thursday to put aside their differences and focus on an election win.

“Yoon can replace all the officials he wants, but that is not likely to fix the problem,” said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University in Seoul. “The real problem lies in Yoon. Politics is all about mediating conflicts. Yoon failed to show that.”

Yoon’s slide risks squandering a chance to take back power for the conservatives, who were cast into the opposition with Park’s impeachment, removal and subsequent conviction for corruption five years ago. Polls have shown for months that the public wants change, amid frustration with urban housing prices that shot up under President Moon Jae-in, the Democratic Party’s top standard-bearer.

L ee has been facing his ow n troubles. The former governor of Gyeonggi, the country’s most populous province, has spent much of his time on the campaign trail denying links to a real estate speculation scandal that took place under his watch. He has been forced to issue apologies about the behavior of his son, including reports in the Chosun newspaper alleging that he frequented online gambling sites.

Yoon has pledged to rein in real estate prices, take a tough line with North Korea and implement a 100-day emergency rescue plan for a Covid-hit economy that would provide a quick and hefty financial injection.

“I will deeply reflect on the steps that disappointed my supporters, especially those in their 20s and 30s,” Yoon said Wednesday as he tried to turn around his campaign. “I will not say what I want to say, but what the people want to hear.”

Some of Yoon’s biggest critics come from within his own party, especially among supporters of Park, the daughter of the country’s post-war dictator who’s seen by many conservatives as their leader. As a prosecutor, Yoon was at the forefront of the investigation that led to Park’s fall and Moon’s rise.

“Yoon’s a cuckoo. We shouldn’t be voting for a person like that,” said Ham Geun-hyeong, one of the Park supporters who followed him around.

“Yoon is the one who jailed President Park—just like a hatched cuckoo chick that pushes host eggs out of the nest of other bird species.”

Many independents are disappointed with both candidates, leading to concerns that Yoon’s struggles may further suppress turnout. More than half of voters want to see both candidates replaced, according to a poll by Hangil Research survey released on December 28.

In Daegu, young voter Kim Taehoon is disappointed in his choices and expects fewer people to vote.

“This election is much like the movie, ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,’ except we’re missing ‘the good’ here,” Kim said. Bloomberg News

Afghan Taliban turn blind eye to Pakistani militants

By Kathy Gannon

P

The Associated Press

ESHAWAR, Pakistan—Each year on January 17, Shahana bakes a cake and invites friends to her home in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. They sing happy birthday for her son, even light a candle. But it’s a birthday without the birthday boy.

Her son, Asfand Khan, was 15 in December 2014 when gunmen rampaged through his military-run public school in Peshawar killing 150 people, most of them students, some as young as 5. Asfand was shot three times in the head at close range.

The attackers were Pakistani Taliban, who seven years later have once again ramped up their attacks, seemingly emboldened by the return of Afghanistan’s Taliban to power in Kabul.

In the last week of December, they killed eight Pakistani army personnel in a half dozen attacks and counter attacks, all in the country’s northwest.

Another two Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack on Taliban outposts late Wednesday night.

The Pakistani Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, are regrouping and reorganizing, with their leadership headquartered in neighboring Afghanistan, according to a UN report from July.

That is raising fears among Pakistanis like Shahana of a return of the horrific violence the group once inflicted.

Yet the Afghan Taliban have shown no signs of expelling TTP leaders or preventing them from carrying out attacks in Pakistan, even as Pakistan leads an effort to get a reluctant world to engage with Afghanistan’s new rulers and salvage the country from economic collapse.

It is a dilemma faced by all of Afghanistan’s neighbors and major powers like China, Russia and the United States as they ponder how to deal with Kabul.

Multiple militant groups found safe haven in A fghanistan during more than four decades of war, and some of them, like the T TP,

Pakistani mother Shahana with her husband Ajoon Khan sit next to photos of their son Asfand Khan, who was killed in a 2014 assault by Pakistani Taliban militants on an army public school, during an interview with The Associated Press, in Peshawar, Pakistan. on December 29, 2021.

Each year on January 17 Shahana bakes a cake and invites friends to her home to sing happy birthday, even light a candle but it’s a birthday without the birthday boy, she says.

AP/Muhammad Sajjad

are former battlefield allies of the A fghan Taliban.

So far, the Taliban have appeared unwilling or unable to root them out.

The sole exception is the Islamic State affiliate, which is the Taliban’s enemy and has waged a campaign of violence against them and for years against Afghanistan’s minority Shiite Muslims, killing hundreds in dozens of horrific attacks targeting, schools, mosques, even a maternity hospital.

Washington has identified the Islamic State branch, known by the acronym IS-K, as its major militant worry emanating from Afghanistan. The Taliban’s longtime ally al-Qaida is not seen as a strong threat. Though US military leaders say there are signs it may be growing slightly, it is struggling near rudderless, with its current leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, alive but unwell, according to the July UN report.

Still, there are plenty of other militants based in Afghanistan, and they are raising concerns among Afghanistan’s neighbors.

China fears insurgents from its Uighur ethnic minority who want an independent Xinjiang region. Russia

and Central Asian nations worry about the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which in recent years went on a recruitment drive among Afghanistan’s ethnic Uzbeks.

For Pakistan, it is the TTP, which stands for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. The group perpetrated some of the worst terrorist assaults on Pakistan, including the 2014 assault on the military public school.

The TTP numbers anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 fighters, according to the UN report. It has also succeeded in expanding its recruitment inside Pakistan beyond the former tribal regions along the border where it traditionally found fighters, says Amir Rana, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, an independent think tank in the capital Islamabad.

Analysts say the Afghan Taliban’s reluctance to clamp down on the TTP does not bode well for their readiness to crack down on the many other groups.

“The plain truth is that most of the terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan, aside from IS-K, are Taliban allies,” says Michael Kugel-

man, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center. “And the Taliban aren’t about to turn their guns on their friends, even with mounting pressure from regional players and the West.”

The militants’ presence complicates Pakistan’s efforts to encourage international dealings with the Afghan Taliban in hopes of bringing some stability to an Afghanistan sliding into economic ruin.

Analysts say Pakistan’s military has made a calculation that the losses inflicted by the TTP are preferable to undermining Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers by pressing them on the issue. A collapse would bring a flood of refugees; Pakistan might be their first stop, but Islamabad warns that Europe and North America will be their preferred destination.

Islamabad attempted to negotiate with the TTP recently, but the effort fell apart. Rana of the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies said Pakistan’s policy of simultaneously negotiating with and attacking the TTP is “confusing” and risks emboldening likeminded insurgents in both countries.

It also worries its allies, he said.

China, which is spending billions in Pakistan, was not happy with Islamabad’s attempts at talks with the TTP because of its close affiliation with Uighur separatists, said Rana.

The TTP took responsibility for a July bombing in northwest Pakistan that killed Chinese engineers as well as an April bombing at a hotel where the Chinese ambassador was staying.

Pressure is mounting on Pakistan to demand the Afghan Taliban hand over the TTP leadership.

But Islamabad’s relationship with the Taliban is complicated.

Pa k istan’s power f u l mi l itar y, which shepherds the country’s Afghan policy, has ties to the Taliban leadership going back more than 40 years to an earlier invasion. Then, together with the US, they fought and defeated the invading former Soviet Union.

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The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, January 9, 2022

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Anger as Cambodia’s Hun Sen meets Myanmar military leader

By Elaine Kurtenbach

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The Associated Press

ANGKOK—Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s visit to Myanmar seeking to revive peace efforts after last year’s military takeover has provoked an angry backlash among critics, who say he is legitimizing the army’s seizure of power.

Hun Sen is the first head of government to visit Myanmar since the military takeover last February. The authoritarian Cambodian leader has held power for 36 years and keeps a tight leash on political activity at home.

In his role as the cur rent chairperson of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, he met with Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, plunging Myanmar into violent conflict and economic disaster.

Photos posted by a militaryrelated publication, the Popular News Journal, showed the two standing side by side in face masks, bumping forearms and seated on ornate gilt chairs before an elaborate golden screen.

T he Myanmar Information Ministry said the two held talks on bilateral ties and issues of mutual concern, including Asean. It did not elaborate.

Protests and rallies were held in some parts of Myanmar as

people expressed anger over Hun Sen’s visit.

Hundreds of protesters burned portraits of the Cambodian prime minister and chanted, “Torch inhumane Hun Sen. People who engage with Min Aung Hlaing should die horrible deaths,” videos of the protest posted online showed.

Last April, Asean leaders, including Min Aung Hlaing, agreed on a five-point roadmap toward a peaceful settlement of the Myanmar crisis, including an end to violence and a political dialogue between all stakeholders.

T he My a n m a r leader w a s barred in October from attending Asean meetings after the group’s special envoy was prevented from meeting with Suu Kyi and other political detainees, which was one of the stipulations of the agreement.

Hun Sen said on Wednesday before leaving Cambodia that he had not set any preconditions for his visit.

“What I would like to bring to

the talks is nothing besides the five points, consensus points that were agreed upon by all Asean member states,” he said.

Myanmar’s military has said Hun Sen will not be allowed to meet with Suu Kyi, who was convicted in December on charges of incitement and violating coronavirus restrictions and sentenced to four years in prison—a sentence that Min Aung Hlaing then cut in half.

A legal official familiar with Suu Kyi’s legal proceedings said she appeared at a special court in Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s capital, on Friday for hearings in three corruption cases against her that include allegations she diverted charitable donations to build a residence and abused her authority.

The army’s takeover prevented Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party from beginning a second term in office. It won a landslide victory in national elections in November 2020 and independent election observers did not find any major irregularities.

Min Aung Hlaing’s move undid 10 years of progress toward democracy as the army loosened its grip on power after decades of repressive military rule.

The Myanmar military has a history of bloodshed, including a brutal campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Its seizure of power provoked nationwide nonviolent demonstrations, which security forces have quashed with deadly force.

The military has recently engaged in violent suppression of

all dissent, disappearances, torture and extra-judicial killings. It has also launched air strikes and ground offensives against ethnic armed rebel groups.

Security forces have killed about 1,443 civilians, according to a detailed tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. As the crackdown has become more severe, an armed resistance has grown inside the country.

The visit by Hun Sen drew international criticism.

His decision to meet with Min Aung Hlaing was “an affront to the people of Myanmar who strongly oppose the visit,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

“The visit is a slap in the face of the other Asean member states who had no say in the matter” even after they limited Min Aung Hlaing’s participation in the 10-nation regional group, he said.

Hun Sen was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Prak Sokhonn, the current Asean special envoy, and other top Cambodian leaders.

Having retained power by exiling or imprisoning the Cambodian opposition, Hun Sen may be hoping his visit will burnish his own tarnished international image.

The National Unity Government, an underground Myanmar opposition group and parallel administration, urged Hun Sen to stay away.

“Meeting Min Aung Hlaing, shaking blood-stained hands.

It’s not going to be acceptable,” said Dr. Sasa, a spokesman for the group who uses one name. AP

New York commuting delays pile up with 20% of subway drivers out sick

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ew York City Mayor Eric Adams wants workers back in offices to boost the city’s economy and lower an unemployment rate that’s twice the national average. But first, employees need reliable transportation to get there.

New Yorkers who rely on the subway and buses to commute say they’re having a harder time getting to their jobs amid delays caused by transit-staff shortages as the Omicron variant drives a surge in infections. And for a city where more than 55 percent of workers depend on public transportation, riders say every minute counts.

“I usually plan about 30 minutes more than I used to,” William Watkins, 62, who works in IT, said Wednesday morning at the 8th Street-NYU subway station. The “delays seem to be more frequent than they used to be” and the trains are more crowded, he said.

One big reason is staff shortages: About 1,300 subway operators and conductors have been out daily this week, or roughly 21 percent, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the nation’s largest mass-transit system. City Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi said Wednesday that citywide Covid cases and hospitalizations are still increasing.

In the last few months, the subway system had managed to claw its way back from the depths of the pandemic, when ridership fell by as much as 90 percent. The MTA desperately needs that fare revenue. It warned in December that it would have to borrow $1.4 billion when it exhausts its federal pandemic aid in 2025.

Commuters are having a hard time getting to their jobs amid delays caused by transit-staff shortages as the Omicron variant drives a surge in infections. Bloomberg photo

Weekday ridership on New York’s subways had rebounded to about 57 percent of pre-pandemic levels as of last month, roughly around the highest levels since the outbreak began.

And then the Omicron wave took off and the holiday period began, thinning the ranks of commuters. Subway ridership dropped to its lowest point since April in the final week of 2021, to 10.1 million from 16.5 million three weeks earlier. Meanwhile, staffers testing positive for Covid began climbing, said Craig Cipriano, interim president of New York City Transit. Employee shortages prompted the system to suspend three of the subway’s 22 lines and plead with riders for patience as delays ensued.

“We are experiencing the same phenomena that all industries, specifically, as you see, the airline industry, are experiencing,” Cipriano said in an interview.

The number of staff—the system has around 6,000 train operators and conductors and 12,000 bus operators—hasn’t reached the level seen in March 2020, he said.

Still, the MTA has suspended the B, W and Z lines—which connect Manhattan with the outer boroughs—and it anticipates the interruptions to last at least through the week.

Almost 74 percent of subway and bus workers have gotten at least one vaccine dose, compared with the 93 percent of adults citywide. The MTA, a state-run agency, doesn’t have to follow the city’s vaccination mandate for its employees. Unvaccinated transit employees do face weekly testing. Governor Kathy Hochul said last month she feared imposing a mandate on transit workers would cause even more shortages and imperil the transit system further.

Fully vaccinated or asymptomatic MTA employees who test positive for Covid-19 can return to work after a five-day quarantine.

City ‘lifeblood’

Cipriano said the subway network gives most riders multiple options to reach their destinations, and that the transit system has contingency plans to monitor the number of crews available and to

shift service in response.

Still, an unreliable subway system is a symptom of an unhealthy city, said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for Riders Alliance, a transportation advocacy group.

“The subway is the lifeblood of the city, and so the MTA’s problems are the whole city’s problems, and right now riders are feeling it,” he said.

Pearlstein said the MTA was already struggling to maintain a full roster because the system had lost employees over the course of the pandemic. In the early days of the outbreak, the MTA could run skeleton service because there were fewer riders, but that’s become a less manageable option.

Beyond delays, riders are also concerned about crime on the transit system. Mayor Adams this week said he wanted to get more police and mental health professionals on trains.

There is a “perception that our subway system is not safe, we need to remove that perception,” he said during an interview with Bloomberg Television. When asked if he had the funds to keep the trains running, he said “we never have enough.”

‘Domino effect’

Across the Hudson River, New Jersey Transit is tackling the same challenge. Currently roughly 700 of its nearly 12,000 employees have tested positive for Covid-19, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who didn’t want to be identified d isc u ssi ng personnel issues.

Still, NJT is operating around 97 percent of full weekday scheduled rail service, with buses running at 94 percent. Bloomberg News

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock fist bumps with Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department on January 5, 2022, in Washington.

Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP

Stance on Russia, China test for new German government

By Frank Jordans

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The Associated Press

ASHINGTON—Germany has found itself facing a series of challenges in its relations with Russia and China that have been testing the foreign policy mettle of the new government since it took office last month.

Among them are Moscow’s military buildup near Ukraine and the diplomatic fallout from a court verdict finding that the Russian government was behind the 2019 killing of a Chechen dissident in Berlin. China’s pressure on a fellow European Union member has also prompted Germany to take sides against one of its biggest trading partners.

The issues came to the fore during a flying visit that German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made Wednesday to Washington, intended to highlight the common stance between her government and the United States on Russia. She arrived back in Germany on Thursday.

But amid the show of unity, differences have emerged, too, with its close trans-Atlantic ally and within the German government itself.

During last year’s election to succeed long-time German leader Angela Merkel, Baerbock campaigned on a foreign policy program that advocated a firmer line toward Moscow and Beijing on security and human rights issues. Her rival Olaf Scholz, who became Germany’s chancellor after his Social Democratic Party won the vote, took a noticeably softer stance on Russia.

Baerbock’s party, the Greens, has also been skeptical of Nord Stream 2, a recently completed pipeline to bring more natural gas from Russia to Germany that isn’t yet in use.

The Greens’ position is driven partly by environmental concerns about continued reliance on fossil fuels. But of all major German parties it is also closest to the stance of the US, which has warned that the pipeline risks increasing Europe’s dependence on Russian gas.

That skepticism isn’t shared by Scholz, however, whose centerleft Social Democrats have lobbied strongly for the pipeline. With the Social Democrats the biggest party in the coalition government, it looks unlikely that Berlin will block gas from flowing through the pipeline unless Russia launches a military strike against Ukraine.

Eyebrows were also raised this week when the German government announced that Scholz’s foreign policy adviser would meet his French and Russian counterparts to discuss the Ukraine situation. Some observers claim Scholz is keen to cut Baerbock’s foreign ministry out of direct talks with Moscow—a suggestion German diplomats have strenuously rejected.

Baerbock drew the Kremlin’s ire last month, when she expelled two Russian embassy officials after a Berlin court ruled that Moscow was behind the daylight slaying of an ethnic Chechen man in the German capital two years earlier. Russia responded by expelling two German diplomats from Moscow.

Baerbock, who had never held government office before becoming Germany’s top diplomat, vowed during the election campaign to pursue a foreign policy led by interests and values.

This, and her pledge to make the defense of democracy a topic of Germany’s presidency of the Group of Seven leading economies this year, puts Baerbock on an awkward footing with China.

On Wednesday, the 41-year-old’s remarks during a news conference in Washington with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reinforced those policy views, and likely drew gasps from German businesses back home who rely on exports to China.

Asked whether Berlin backs US criticism of China’s human rights record, Baerbock said Germany supports proposals “that products resulting from forced labor, resulting from grave human rights violations, that these products cannot enter the European market.”

“And the same holds true when it comes to solidarity for Lithuania,” she said, referring to a spat between the small EU nation and Beijing. Lithuania’s decision to let Taiwan open an office in the country infuriated China, which considers the island part of its territory.

The US has long advocated for a stronger stance against its rival China, but during Merkel’s 16 years in office Germany often sought to balance its corporate interests against human rights concerns. Baerbock drew a clearer line this week.

“We as Europeans stand in solidarity at Lithuania’s side,” she said.

But Josef Braml, an expert with the non-governmental Trilateral Commission that seeks to improve cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America, said it appears likely that Germany’s foreign policy could be steered more strongly by the chancellery going forward.

“We’ll have to await the actions of the new chancellor to make a firm assessment,” he said.

Science Sunday

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

BusinessMirror

Sunday, January 9, 2022

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DOST develops power back-up system

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n the almost two years of the pandemic a big number of employees have been working at home and the students all over the country have been into distance learning by studying at home online.

These situations necessitate very stable power supply.

In answer the country’s needs like these, the government’s science agency developed a power backup system (UM 2-2020-050378) as an alternative for

commercially available uninterrupted power supply (UPS) was developed.

“It provides a solution to solve issues that a UPS cannot address,” Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña said in his DOST Report.

The speakers in the recent agri-biotech webinar are (from left top, clockwise) Dr. Edgardo Tulin, Dr. Gabriel Romero (moderator), Dr. Glenn Gregorio, Dr. Segfredo Serrano and Dr. Benigno Peczon. Searca photo

Stronger policy on agri-biotech pushed for progressive, resilient food system

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call for robust policies and laws that will advance biotechnology research and development (R&D), technology development, and commercialization was made during a recent “Biotechnology for Green Recovery” webinar.

Focused on agriculture, bioeconomy, and scientific infrastructure, the webinar incited critical discussions toward the creation of a policy environment that will further promote the development of bio-based industries, a news release said.

Dr. Segfredo R. Serrano, a former Department of Agriculture (DA) undersecretary for Policy and Planning, said having a resilient food system to combat the impacts of climate change and other natural and man-made disasters remains a challenge amid population growth and declining resources for food and agriculture.

He underscored that food safety and nutritional security should also be among the top priorities alongside food security.

Serrano, a scholarship alumnus of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca), pointed out that modern biotechnology is not a silver bullet, but it is a powerful and

potentially greener option.

He said technologies, such as genetic modification, CRISPR, and new breeding techniques offer greater specificity, efficiency, and precision at either suppression, enhancement, deletion, or insertion of target traits, which improves product safety, the Searca news release said.

He said for these technologies to thrive in the Philippines, there needs to be a strong set of policies and laws that promote their advancement in terms of R&D, technology development, and commercialization.

More importantly, Serrano emphasized that the country’s regulatory system should be strengthened.

“The system should not be reactive, and the regulators should be two steps ahead of the technology that is being introduced on the ground,” Serrano, who served under 12 DA secretaries and four Philippine presidents, pointed out.

Dr. Edgardo E. Tulin, Visayas State University president, batted for a harmonized R&D agenda with focus on the country’s top export commodities.

He pushed for scientists and researchers to be actively involved in the Senate or Congress sessions related to

The power backup system that the Industrial Technology Development Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-ITDI) has developed “has simple yet sturdy design and is easy to operate and maintain,” de la Peña explained.

The system used locally available materials for fabrication, and offers solution to large equipment needing a “continuous energy source without interruption.”

Parameters—such as current, temperature and relative humidity that may affect the systematic operation of the power backup system—are on the prescribed scale and do not affect the reliability, durability and efficiency of the power backup system.

science and technology.

“Governance should also be more agile, with better convergence and coordination among agencies,” Serrano further pointed out.

Searca Director Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, who concurred with Serrano on the value of synergy among key stakeholders in the academe, industry, and government.

“We should be partners in biotech research and collaborate on co-sharing financial resources to shorten the gap between research and knowledge utilization, including contextualizing research projects within the agriculture value chain,” Gregorio said.

He added that “these technologies keep food production in phase with modern demands. We must outsmart climate change, create healthier food, and fast track the delivery of agricultural products.”

“The reality of agri-biotech is won or loss at the farmer and consumer level where applicability and sustainability is really tested,” said Gregorio, who was also recognized by DA as one of the 2021 Filipino Faces of Biotechnology.

Dr. Benigno D. Peczon, president of Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines Inc., spoke on the issues besetting the country’s agriculture sector, including globalization, sub-optimal farm sizes, credit access, existing policies and practices, and infrastructure.

He called on policy-makers to augment the budget of the DA and t he Depa r t ment of Sc ience a nd Technology to keep pace with other countries.

The webinar was jointly organized

by Searca and the DA-Biotechnology Program Office with the Biotechnology Coalition of the Philippines, International Rice Research Institute, and the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture and Food.

It was held during the National Biotechnology Week in November that was led by the Department of Interior and Local Government.

“The power backup system also has been proven to be effective on high-consumption load without considering the entailment of cost and variability to its backup storage,” de la Peña added.

The technology should be considered for continuous processing and manufacturing in areas highly susceptible to a power outage, he suggested.

The system has been tested on some equipment installed in DOST–ITDI’s Modular Multi-industry Innovation Center, such as pressure filter, blast freezer, slicer, grater, and conveyor.

At the same time, the DOST-ITDI, through its National Metrology Laboratory, has developed a guidance document for fuel dispensers, such as those

used in gasoline stations, de la Peña said.

The document is issued to support the regulation of fuel dispensers and provides guidance to regulators in conducting efficient and internationally accepted tests for the metrological control of fuel dispensers, enabling the protection of both consumers and retailers from unfair trade, de la Peña explained.

Liquid petroleum products—such as gasoline, diesel and kerosene—are valuable resources that play an important economic and commercial role in the country. Most modern transportation relies on the use of these products as fuel.

Thus, fuel dispensers that are used to dispense a measured quantity of

fuel should meet the tolerances set by the law, according to the Department of Energy Circular DC-2017-11-0011.

The volume of liquid fuels delivered by fuel dispensers shall not be less than the actual quantity by more than 50 millilitres for every 10 litres as measured by the standard test measure calibrated

by DOST. The guidance document describes the best practice approach for the Philippines in securing and assuring the reliability of fuel dispensers used locally, de la Peña said.

Fuel dispensers are assumed to have acquired a type that was approval and intended for refueling motor vehicles that use liquid petroleum products.

Lyn B. Resurreccion

‘New’ Innovation Awards to challenge STEM students

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“new and revitalized ” BPI-DOS T In novat ion Awards. This is how the former BPI-DOST Science Awards will now be known.

This came as the Department of Science and Technology's Science Education Institute and the BPI Foundation Inc. (BPIF), the social development arm of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the BPI-DOST Innovation Awards, DOST-SEI said in a news release.

The awards is a competition that aims to challenge bright Filipino students to actively participate in resolving problems in the community through science, tec h nolog y, eng i neer i ng a nd mathematics (STEM).

In a recent virtual ceremony, BPFI Executive Director Owen C a m m ayo ac k nowle d ge d t he value of the partnership with the DOST in its mission to be “agents for sustainable positive change.”

“When we started the BPI Science Awards in 1989, we did it as BPI alone. But later in 2005, it became a joint undertaking with the DOST. We are very grateful for this kind and fruitful partnership as we nurtured the country’s young scientific minds over the years,” he said.

Cammayo said the rebranding of the project comes in time for BPI’s 170th found ing anniversar y.

“This year, as aligned in our 170th founding anniversary, our theme is about reinvention. And

BPIFI Executive Director Owen Cammayo, and DOST-SEI Director Dr. Josette Biyo show the newly signed MOA for the BPI-DOST Innovation Awards, a competition that aims to challenge bright Filipino students to actively participate in resolving problems in the community through STEM. DOST-SEI photo so, it is just fitting that this year, we are reinventing the BPI-DOST Science Awards and we’ll give it a new and revitalized name—it’s more encompassing and hopefully, more compelling. Starting this year, we will call it the BPI-DOST Innovation Awards,” Cammayo said.

The awards shall be open to all regular junior and senior college students of STEM. They can join in teams composed of three students, and shall showcase an innovation project that addresses problems in the fields of agriculture, disaster management, education, entrepreneurship, environment, food safety, health, security, transportation, and traffic or road congestion.

The whole cycle will begin with the Call for Proposals and to be followed by the following phases: proposa l submission, project selection, a technica l and business workshop for the top 10 teams, a 90-day period for project execution, final project presentation, and an awarding ceremony.

The full mechanics and criteria will be available both in DOST-SEI’s and BPIFI’s official website and social media pages.

The competition is expected to culminate in September 2022.

DOST-SEI Director Dr. Josette Biyo welcomed the new project and noted that the long-standing partnership with BPIFI “has been honoring excellence in research and innovation” and paved the way to development of homegrown talents in the sciences.

“DOST and BPIFI have this shared vision to boost interest and awareness on the value of S&T and innovation in the economy. We both hope to encourage many others to pursue research in the sciences and ultimately set an environment that is healthy for innovation and creation of high value products or solutions,” Biyo added.

Cammayo said the project is more than just a competition, “ but a celebration of young Filipino innovators who can potentially contribute to the realization of a better and sustainable Philippines.” S&T Media Services

Instead of New Year’s resolution, make an ‘old year’s resolution’ I f you’ve made a New Year’s resolution, your plot for self-improvement would probably kick into gear sometime on January 1, when the hangover wore off and the quest for the “new you” began in earnest.

But if research on habit change is any indication, only about half of New Year’s resolutions are likely to make it out of January, much less last a lifetime.

As experts in positive psychology and literature, we recommend an unconventional but more promising approach.

We call it the “old year’s resolution.”

It combines insights from psychologists and America’s first self-improvement guru, Benjamin Franklin, who pioneered a habit-change model that was way ahead of its time.

With the “old year” approach, perhaps you can sidestep the inevitable challenges that come with traditional New Year’s resolutions and achieve lasting, positive changes.

A period to practice—and fail

R esearch has highlighted t wo potential pitfalls with New Year’s resolutions.

First, if you lack the confidence to invest in a full-f ledged effort, failure to achieve the goal may become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Furthermore, if you maintain the change but perceive progress as unacceptably slow or inadequate, you may abandon the effort.

The old year’s resolution is different. Instead of waiting until January to start trying to change your life, you do a dry run before the New Year begins.

How does that work?

First, identify a change you want to make in your life. Do you want to eat better? Move more? Sock away more savings?

Now, with January 1 days away, start living according to your commitment. Track your progress. You might stumble now and then, but here’s the thing: You’re just practicing.

If you’ve ever rehearsed for a play or played scrimmages, you’ve used this kind of low-stakes practice to prepare for the real thing. Such experiences give us permission to fail.

Psychologist Carol Dweck and her colleagues have shown that when people see failure as the natural result of striving to achieve something challenging, they are more likely to persist to the goal.

However, if people perceive failure as a definitive sign that they are not capable—or even deserving—of success, failure can lead to surrender.

If you become convinced that you

Doing an exercise for physical fitness is among the New Year's resolutions people commit themselves into. In the photo, an aerobics exercise instructor motivates her class to keep up the pace. Wikimedia Commons cannot achieve a goal, something called “ learned helplessness” can result, which means you’re likely to abandon the endeavor altogether.

Many of us unintentionally set ourselves up for failure with our New Year’s resolutions. On January 1, we jump right into a new lifestyle and, unsurprisingly, slip, fall, slip again— and eventually never get up.

The old year’s resolution takes the pressure off. It gives you permission to fail and even learn from failure.

You can slowly build confidence, while failures become less of a big deal, since they’re all happening before the

official “start date” of the resolution.

A gardener weeding one bed at a time

Long before he became one of America’s greatest success stories, Frank lin dev ised a method that helped him overcome life’s inevitable failures—and could help you master your old year’s resolutions.

When he was still a young man, Franklin came up with what he called his “bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection.” With charming confidence, he set out to master 13 virtues, including temperance,

frugality, chastity, industry, order and humility.

In a typically Franklinian move, he applied a little strategy to his efforts, concentrating on one virtue at a time.

He likened this approach to that of a gardener who “does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time.”

In his autobiography, where he described this project in detail, Franklin did not say that he tied his project to a new year. He also did not give up when he slipped once—or more than once.

“I was surpris’d to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish,” Franklin wrote.

He made his progress visible in a book, where he recorded his slipups. One page—perhaps only a hypothetical example—shows 16 of them tied to “temperance” in a single week.

Instead of marking faults, we recommend recording successes in line with the work of habit expert B.J. Fogg, whose research suggests that celebrating victories helps to drive habit change.

Repeated failures might discourage someone enough to abandon the endeavor altogether.

But Franklin kept at it—for years.

To him, it was all about perspective:

This effort to make himself better was a “project,” and projects take time.

‘A better and a happier man’

Many years later, Franklin admitted that he never was perfect, despite his best efforts. His final assessment, however, is worth remembering: “But, on the whole, tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.”

Treating self-improvement as a project with no rigid time frame worked for Franklin. In fact, his scheme probably helped him succeed wildly in business, science and politics.

Importantly, he also found immense personal satisfaction in the endeavor: “This little artifice, with the blessing of God,” he wrote, was the key to “the constant felicity of his life, down to his 79th year, in which this is written.”

You can enjoy the same success Franklin did if you start on your own schedule—now, during the old year— and treat self-improvement not as a goal with a starting date but as an ongoing “project.” Mark Canada, Indiana

University Kokomo/The Conversation (CC)

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Sunday, January 9, 2022

Faith

Sunday

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

4 Metro churches closed due to Covid-19

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our Catholic parish churches— three in Manila and one in Makati—were temporarily closed after a couple of priests and some of their personnel tested positive for the coronavirus, and for disinfection amid the increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.

They are the Quiapo Church, Sta. Maria Goretti Parish Church and the National Shrine of St. Jude Thaddeus in Manila, and the Guadalupe Church in Makati.

Quiapo Church

The Quiapo Church was closed starting on January 3. No public Masses were held inside the church as it underwent massive disinfection until January 6 in response to the spike in Covid-19 cases.

Church officials earlier announced it would reopen on January 7, two days before the feast of the Black Nazarene on January 9.

But the national government

authorities on Tuesday banned public Masses in the church and other activities for the feast of the Black Nazarene amid the spike of coronavirus cases in the country.

T h e Nat i o n a l Ta s k Fo rc e Against Covid-19 ordered the closure of the minor basilica from January 7 until January 9.

The task force also discouraged devotees from gathering in the premises of the church on the said dates, and told them to attend livestreamed Masses instead.

It ordered the deployment of policemen and checkpoints to prevent people from coming to the basilica.

Fr. Douglas Badong, the church’s parochial vicar, admitted they are saddened by the decision but they will have to comply with the restrictions.

“Of course we are saddened, especially for the devotees, because we know how important it is to them, to all of us, since we only cling our faith to the Black Nazarene,” Fr. Badong said.

“We want to respect their [task force] decision. At the same time, we also understand how the devotees feel about this,” he added.

“There will be no communion outside the Mass,” the priest added.

National Shrine of St. Jude Thaddeus

Guadalupe Church

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Makati City was closed on Tuesday after one of its priests contracted Covid-19.

Its rector and parish priest Father Roderick Castro said the church would be closed until January 17.

“During the closure, thorough disinfection and intensive sanitation will be done,” Castro said in a brief statement,.

“Churchgoers are requested to refrain from coming to the shrine,” he said.

Livestreaming of Masses, he

Devotees raise their hands during Mass to celebrate the Feast of the Black Nazarene at the Quiapo Church on January 9, 2021. The number of church attendees was limited owing to the pandemic. PHOTO BY ROY LAGARDE

added, will continue as scheduled.

Sta. Maria Goretti Church

Sta. Maria Goretti Parish Church and its office in the city’s Paco district was “totally closed” to the public from January 3 until January 15 to give way for the disinfection of the area.

Its parish priest, Fr. David Concepcion, made the announcement

recently after two of the parish’s staff contracted Covid-19.

“For the duration of the closure, thorough disinfection and intense sanitation will be undertaken,” Concepcion said.

The Masses, he said, will continue to be livestreamed at 7 a.m. from Monday to Saturday and at 9 a.m. on Sunday on the parish ’s Facebook page.

The National Shrine of St. Jude Thaddeus earlier announced its temporary closure after a priest and three of its staff contracted Covid-19.

The shrine, which is located inside the Malacañang Palace complex, is closed to the public from December 31 until January 14.

“For the duration of the closure, there will be thorough disinfection and intensive sanitation and, hence, the churchgoers are requested to refrain from coming to the Church in the meantime,” the shrine said in a statement.

The parish encouraged its parishioners to instead attend Masses through its online livestreams.

“Let us implore the Almighty God in our fervent prayers for the sick that they will be restored to good health, through the constant intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and our beloved Patron of Hope, Saint Jude Thaddeus,” the shrine added. CBCP News

Pope Francis: God wants to live with us and in us

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Young volunteers of the Diocese of Tagbilaran in Bohol help pack relief goods for Supertyphoon Odette victims in Bohol province on December 29, 2021. DIOCESE OF TAGBILARAN PHOTO

Caritas PHL gears up rebuilding efforts in Odette-hit areas

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he Philippine Catholic Church ’s humanitarian arm said it will soon begin its recovery initiative, pledging to help families severely affected by Supertyphoon Odette (international code Rai), especially those in the “peripheries.”

While Caritas Philippines will continue distributing relief aid, its head Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo said they are trying their best to support affected families rebuild their houses and livelihoods.

“In the coming weeks, we will start rebuilding houses, providing emergency livelihood assistance and other priority needs,” Bagaforo said.

He encouraged the faithful to continue the “alay kapwa” (offering of oneself to others) to help

those in the fringes of society.

“This is our Caritas promise,” the bishop assured.

As of January 3, the national Caritas has received at least P39.9 million cash donations from private individuals, dioceses, companies, and its partners from the Caritas network.

The agency has served more than 41,900 families with food packs, water and other emergency assistance as of December 31, 2021.

According to its initial assessment, the typhoon affected around 1.1 million families and displaced more than 452,000 people.

The disaster, it added, also destroyed more than half-a-million houses in at least 38 provinces.

CBCP News

ATIC AN—Pope Francis said that Christ’s Incarnation shows that God wants to live with us and in us.

Speaking at the Angelus on January 2, he described Christmas as an invitation to see the world from God’s perspective.

“Dear brothers and sisters, often we keep our distance from God because we think we are not worthy of Him for other reasons. And it is true. But Christmas invites us to see things from His point of view,” he said.

“God wishes to be incarnate. If your heart seems too contaminated by evil, if it seems disordered, please, do not close yourself up, do not be afraid: He will come. Think of the stable in Bethlehem. Jesus was born there, in that poverty, to tell us that He is certainly not afraid of visiting your heart, of dwelling in a shabby life.”

In his livestreamed address, Pope Francis ref lected on the day’s Gospel reading, John 1:118, which proclaims that “ The Word became f lesh and dwelt among us.”

He said: “And this is the word: to dwell. To dwell is the verb used in today’s Gospel to signify this reality: it expresses a total sharing, a great intimacy. And this is what God wants: He wants to dwell with us, He wants to dwell in us, not to remain distant.”

The pope looked tired but spoke vigorously as he delivered his first Sunday Angelus address of the new year, departing frequently from

Pope Francis kisses the Holy Book as he celebrates a Mass for the solemnity of St. Mary at the beginning of the new year, in St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican on January 1.

AP/Andrew Medichini

his prepared text to drive home his points.

He was speaking after a busy liturgical period that began with Midnight Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on December 24 and included his “Urbi et Orbi” address on Christmas Day, as well as an Angelus address on December 26 and a general audience on December 29.

He preached but did not preside at a prayer service on New Year’s Eve. His first public act of 2022 was to offer Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, followed by the Angelus.

Speaking on Sunday, the pope suggested that the famous words from the opening of St. John’s Gospel contained a paradox.

“They bring together two opposites: the Word and the flesh,”

he said. “‘Word’ indicates that Jesus is the eternal Word of the Father, infinite, existing from all time, before all created things; ‘flesh,’ on the other hand, indicates precisely our created reality, fragile, limited, mortal.”

The pope said that these “two separate worlds” were united in Jesus.

“Faced with our frailties, the Lord does not withdraw. He does not remain in His blessed eternity and in his infinite light, but rather He draws close, He makes himself incarnate, He descends into the darkness, He dwells in lands that are foreign to Him,” he commented.

“And why does God do this?

Why does He come down to us?

He does this because He does not resign Himself to the fact that we can go astray by going far from Him, far from eternity, far from the light. This is God’s work: to come among us.”

“If we consider ourselves unworthy, that does not stop Him: He comes. If we reject Him, He does not tire of seeking us out.

If we are not ready and willing to receive Him, He prefers to come anyway. And if we close the door in His face, He waits.”

“He is truly the Good Shepherd.

And the most beautiful image of the Good Shepherd? The Word that becomes flesh to share in our life.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who comes to seek us right where we are: in our problems, in our suffering… He comes there.”

The pope challenged pilgrims to allow God to enter into “inner spaces” habitually denied to Him. “Today I invite you to be specific,” he said. “What are the inner things that I believe God does not like? What is the space that I believe is only for me, where I do not want God to come?”

He added: “Everyone has their own sin—let us call it by name.

And He is not afraid of our sins: He came to heal us. Let us at least let Him see it, let Him see the sin. Let us be brave, let us say: ‘But, Lord, I am in this situation but I do not want to change. But you, please, don’t go too far away.’ That’s a good prayer.”

He also urged people to stop in front of nativity scenes during the Christmas pzeriod and “talk to Jesus about our real situations.”

“Let us invite Him officially into our lives, especially in the dark areas,” he said.

Concluding his address, the pope said: “On this first Sunday of the year, I renew to you all the Lord’s blessings of peace and good.”

“In joyful moments and in sad ones, let us entrust ourselves to Him, He who is our strength and our hope.”

“And do not forget: let us invite the Lord to come within us, to come to our real life, ugly as it may be, as if it were a stable: ‘But, well, Lord, I would not like you to enter, but look, and stay close.’ Let’s do this.”

Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

U.S. Catholic clergy shortage eased by recruits from Africa

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EDOWEE, Alabama—The Rev. Athanasius Chidi Abanulo— using skills honed in his African homeland to minister effectively in rural Alabama—determines just how long he can stretch out his Sunday homilies based on who is sitting in the pews.

Seven minutes is the sweet spot for the mostly white and retired parishioners who attend the English-language Mass at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in the small town of Wedowee.

“If you go beyond that, you lose the attention of the people,” he said.

For the Spanish-language Mass an hour later, the Nigerian-born priest—one of numerous African clergy serving in the

US—knows he can quadruple his teaching time.

“The more you preach, the better for them,” he said.

As he moves from one American post to the next, Abanulo has learned how to tailor his ministry to the culture of the communities he is serving while infusing some of the spirit of his homeland into the universal rhythms of the Mass.

“Nigerian people are relaxed when they come to church,” Abanulo said. “They love to sing, they love to dance. The liturgy can last for two hours. They don’t worry about that.”

During his 18 years in the US, Abanulo has filled various chaplain and pastor roles across the country, epitomizing an ongoing

trend in the American Catholic church.

As fewer American-born men and women enter seminaries and convents, US dioceses and Catholic institutions have turned to international recruitment to fill their vacancies.

The Diocese of Birmingham, where Abanulo leads two parishes, has widened its search for clergy to places with burgeoning religious vocations like Nigeria and Cameroon, said Birmingham Bishop Steven Raica.

Priests from Africa were also vital in the Michigan diocese where Raica previously served.

“They have been an enormous help to us to be able to provide the breadth and

scope of ministry that we have available to us,” he said.

Africa is the Catholic church’s fastestgrowing region. There, the seminaries are “fairly full,” said the Rev. Thomas Gaunt, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which conducts research about the Catholic church.

It’s different in the US where the Catholic church faces significant hurdles in recruiting home-grown clergy following decades of declining church attendance and the damaging effects of widespread clergy sex abuse scandals.

Catholic women and married men remain barred from the priesthood;

arguments that lifting those bans would ease the priest shortage have not gained traction with the faith’s top leadership.

“What we have is a much smaller number beginning in the 1970s entering seminaries or to convents across the country,” Gaunt said. “Those who entered back in the ‘50s and ’60s are now elderly and so the numbers are determined much more by mortality.”

From 1970 to 2020, the number of priests in the US dropped by 60 percent, according to data from the Georgetown center.

This has left more than 3,500 parishes without a resident pastor.

Abanulo oversees two parishes in

rural Alabama. His typical Sunday starts with an English-language Mass at Holy Family Catholic Church in Lanett, about 200 kilometers from Birmingham along the Alabama-Georgia state line.

After that, he is driven an hour north to Wedowee, where he celebrates one Mass in English, another in Spanish.

“He just breaks out in song and a lot of his lectures, he ties in his boyhood, and I just love hearing those stories,” said Amber Moosman, a first-grade teacher who has been a parishioner at Holy Family since 1988.

For Moosman, Abanulo’s preaching style is very different from the priests she’s witnessed previously. AP

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, January 9, 2022

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

A7

How to communicate biodiversity?

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eLibrary

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

ow do you communicate biodiversity for the target audience to grasp the importance of saving it?

At the forefront of the campaign to protect and conserve the country’s rich biodiversity, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Biodiversity Management Bureau (DENR-BMB) uses different strokes to communicate it.

Through the years, the DENRBMB has evolved from issuing news releases and statements to using various forms of media to disseminate news and other information, to adopting the latest trend in information technology, including social media.

In the last two years of community quarantines due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the challenge of communicating biodiversity became even harder for the DENR-BMB, but no task is difficult through its Communication, Education and Public Awareness (CEPA) core group.

Pre-Covid IEC

Before the pandemic, the DENRBMB regularly conducted school and community visits around the country, especially during major biodiversity-related celebrations, such as World Wetlands Day, World Wildlife Day, International Day of Biological Diversity, Philippine Eagle Week, World Migratory Bird Day, World Oceans Day, Coral Triangle Day, Tamaraw Month and Climate Change Consciousness Week.

The DENR-BMB also responded to requests from schools, local government units (LGUs) nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and even the private sector to conduct talks about biodiversity.

The agency likewise facilitated

interviews in both television and radio, and held roadshows, such as exhibits in malls, hotels and convention centers.

Platform evolution

Almost a year into the pandemic, the agency started to go digital due to the community quarantines, which led to travel restrictions, closure of schools, malls and convention centers.

Community residents were also prohibited from going to barangay halls or public areas, requiring the DENR-BMB CEPA Core Group to rethink their strategy and adapt to the situation.

“By going digital, we keep our old routines fit the new normal.

For the DENR-BMB, now more than ever, social media has become a vital CEPA platform,” DENRBMB Director Datu Tungko M. Saikol told the BusinessMirror via e-mail on December 27.

Continuing its public awareness program online, the DENRBMB has been conducting seminars through webinars and even using social media to enhance its existing programs.

“It [CEPA] provides the link between science, society and sound policy-making through a range of instruments from knowledge products to education, social marketing and dialogue,” Saikol said.

The DENR-BMB employs several CEPA strategies to achieve its targets of communicating biodiversity to target audiences, he said.

Dalaw-Turo

One CEPA strategy that contributes

#Stop Illegal Wildlife Trade campaign materials like this were produced as part of the of the DENR-BMB’s drive to reduce the demand for wildlife. DENR-BMB photo

to achieving its target is DalawTuro (DT).

It me a n s Te a c h i n g V i s it s through lectures in schools and communities to teach about the importance and status of the country’s biodiversity.

It also promotes its conservation and deepens the understanding of pressing environmental issues.

It is an environmental outreach program initiated in the early 1990s w ith the aim of raising public awareness on biodiversity conser vation and sustainable development through a nont rad it ion a l, nonfor m a l participator y approach. “ Through the years, it has employed various forms of folk media such as street theatre, creative workshops and exhibits, including other activities like ecological tours and games, to make learning about biodiversity audience-friendly and effective,” he said.

‘Biodiversity Sentinel’

The official gazette of the DENRBMB, the Biodiversity Sentinel is published semi-annually. It covers selected topics and information on the DENR-BMB’s conservation efforts, as well as the latest news, and research at the national, Asean and global levels.

It aims to ensure that DENR personnel, partners and other stakeholders are kept up to date with the work in biodiversity conservation, and provide accurate and insightful coverage of the latest news and research on Philippine biodiversity.

Lastly, this knowledge product is effective in communicating scientific knowledge in a language easily understandable by a wider audience while adhering to scientific accuracy.

Electronic copies of the Biodiversity Sentinel can be accessed online via the link: https://bmb. gov.ph/index.php/e-library/publications/newsletter.

Launched only last November 17, 2021, as part of the celebration of the International Year of Caves and K arst, the DENR-BMB’s digital library, or eLibrary, augments the existing information services from the traditional libraries reinforced by current information technology and knowledge management practices.

It offers a comprehensive collection of information on biodiversity for users that can be browsed in just several computer clicks through the Online Public Access Catalogue, which allows remote 24/7 access for multiple users.

The eLibrary is constituted under the supervision of the DENRBMB’s Caves, Wetlands, and Other Ecosystems Division and in close coordination with the Biodiversity Policy and Knowledge Management Division.

Year of Protected Areas Campaign

The Year of the Protected Areas Campaign aims to increase awareness through an information campaign on the ecological and economic value of protected areas, and to instill appreciation among the new generation of Filipinos on the beauty and heritage of areas set aside for conservation.

As part of the campaign, the DENR-BMB together with the United Nations Development Programme-Biodiversity Finance Project is pushing 2022 to be declared as the Year of Protected Areas in the Philippines.

The campaign will feature six protected areas namely Bongsanglay Natural Park in Bicol, Apo Reef Natural Park in Occidental Mindoro, Samar Island Natural Park on Samar Island, Balinsasayao Twin Lakes Natural Park in Negros Oriental, Mt. Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary in Davao Oriental, and the Mt. TimpoongHibok-Hibok Natural Monument on Camiguin Island.

#StopIWT CEPA Campaign

A major driver of biodiversity loss, illegal wildlife trade is always a part of the DENR’s CEPA campaign.

T he campaig n aims to reduce the demand for wildlife, their by products and derivatives, while raising awareness about the environmental and legal consequences of the illegal wildlife trade.

The campaign highlights the legal penalties of violating Republic Act 9147, or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act, also known as Wildlife Act. It focuses on the campaign against hunting or poaching wild animals, particularly marine turtles, and parrots, especially the blue-naped parrot.

The campaign ran from February 2020 until July 2021 but the materials produced from this endeavor can still be seen circulating in various social media platforms.

Biodiversity Ambassador program

To build greater public awareness on biodiversity conservation, the DENR-BMB aims to partner with an influencer lending his or her celebrity status in support of the bureau’s vision, mission and goals.

The Biodiversity Ambassador will be on the frontline of communicating biodiversity to the general public, inspiring others, especially the youth, to become environmental stewards in their schools and communities.

The Biodiversity Ambassador, who will receive guidance and mentorship, will be invited to participate in various biodiversity conservation efforts and CEPArelated activities.

One such Biodiversity Ambassadors of the DENR-BMB is Antoinette Taus, who continues to advocate biodiversity conservation and appears in various CEPA-related activities of the DENR-BMB and its partners.

4 New Year’s resolutions for a healthier environment in 2022

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h en m a ny p e o ple think of New Year’s resolutions, they brainstorm ways to improve themselves for the year ahead. What if we expanded those aspirations to include resolutions that benefit our communities, society and the planet, too?

It might not be a typical approach, but it can broaden your horizons to show ways you can also be of service to others.

Here are four popular New Year’s resolutions with a twist for improving your relationship with nature in 2022 and beyond.

Exercise more consideration for how your actions impact the environment

We each have an environmental ethic reflecting how we value, manage and ultimately relate to nature.

Balancing the scales of reciprocity between us and nature— how much we give and take—can improve t his relat ionship in many ways.

Whether it’s our addiction to one-use plastics that pile up in landfills or fossil fuels that warm the planet, a mishandled relationship with nature is not doing us or the Earth any favors.

In 2022, we can all take more responsibility for how our actions exacerbate environmental problems.

We can also encourage governments and businesses to make it easier for people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to protect the environment. This includes making recycled goods affordable and reliable public transportation widely accessible.

Check out the US Environmental Protection Agency’s resources describing some very simple ways to reduce waste at home, work, in our communities and during the holidays.

Tips from the website include turning off or unplugging lights during the day, reusing packaging materials and using online billing services instead of paper mail.

Lose the weight of social injustice—it harms nature, too

The perils of social injustice stress multiple aspects of society.

Racism and inequality can lead to health disparities, and they also have consequences for the natural environment.

A recent study described how practices, such as redlining and residential segregation, led to unequal access to nature, excess pollution and biodiversity loss.

These practices brought in highways and industries that harm environmental quality in marginalized communities. They also left neighborhoods with fewer parks and trees that provide

their environmental literacy.

Staying plugged in with media that discuss the latest research can enhance awareness. You can also try tying environmental facts and knowledge into your game night and team-building activities.

Spend more time with family and friends in nature

The Arroceros Forest Park in Ermita Manila. File photo

cooling in summer and benefit the planet.

Perpetuating social ills like systemic racism and inequitable resource allocation is detrimental to the environment, marginalized people and society as a whole.

To help turn this around, you can speak out in your community.

Join groups that are trying to promote environmental protection and social justice and are bringing nature back to communities.

Call your city, state and Congressional leaders to urge them to take action. Also, refer to the

Green 2.0 report’s section on making diversity initiatives successful for concrete ways that you can actualize this in your place of work.

Learn something new about nature and how to reduce harm to the environment and yourself

Clean air, water and soil are fundamental for our survival, but research shows many people lack basic environmental and health literacy to know how to protect themselves.

In 2022, get to know your own

impact on the environment. Read more and start exploring ways to preserve the integrity of your area’s natural resources.

For example, find out where you can stay abreast of local land-use decisions that impact the environment and your overall community.

You can also support local educators and encourage them to bring the environment into lessons.

Environmental issues overlap many other subjects, from history to health. This website includes a framework and materials for educators to help students expand

Studies show that spending time in nature, including urban green spaces, can improve your relationship w ith nature and with others.

Time in nature can increase social cohesion. Throughout the pandemic, many people discovered the outdoors as a place to decompress and reduce stress.

Spending more time outdoors can encourage social interactions that benefit health, buffer emotional distress and encourage use of these spaces, which can help protect them for the future.

Here are some tools that outline best practices to enhance parks and recreation near you.

Also, here are ways to make outdoor environments more inclusive for families in diverse communities.

Collectively, thinking about our relationship with nature and finding ways to protect the environment can help us be better stewards of the planet. Viniece Jennings,

Agnes Scott College/The Conversation (CC)

Sports BusinessMirror

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unday, January 9, 2022 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

New York Times acquires sports news site The Athletic for $550M

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HE New York Times Co. is buying sports news site The Athletic for $550 million, the latest move in its strategy to expand its audience of paying subscribers as the newspaper print ads business fades.

The Times, unlike many local news outlets, has thrived in the past several years. It gained millions of subscribers during the Trump presidency and the pandemic, keeping it on track for its previously stated goal of 10 million by 2025.

As of the most recent quarter, the Times had nearly 8.4 million. It has been diversifying its coverage with lifestyle advice, games and recipes, helping it counter a pullback from the politics-driven news traffic boom of 2020.

“We are now in pursuit of a goal meaningfully larger than 10 million subscriptions and believe The Athletic will enable us to expand our addressable market of potential subscribers,” said New York Times Co. CEO Meredith Kopit Levien in a news release Thursday.

It’s one of the Times’s largest-ever acquisitions. The company spent $1.1 billion on the Boston Globe in 1993 and $410 million for About.com in 2005, both of which it later sold for less.

Digital media outlets have been consolidating recently to help them compete for online ad revenue with tech giants like Google and Facebook. German media conglomerate Axel Springer bought Politico; Vox Media is buying Group Nine Media, owner of Thrillist and animals site The Dodo; BuzzFeed bought HuffPost.

San Francisco-based The Athletic covers national and local sports—more than 200 teams, according to the Times.

It was founded in 2016 and has 1.2 million subscribers. Its

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RIDDELL’S Axiom could be the breakthrough helmet for football. AP

website says it has over 400 editorial employees, making it a major acquisition for The Times, which has more than 2,000 editorial employees.

There is a bit of irony that an upstart sports media company is being bought by one of the world’s largest legacy media companies. Alex Mather, a co-founder of The Athletic said during a 2017 interview with the Times that, “We will wait every local paper out and let them continuously bleed until we are the last ones standing.

We will suck them dry of their best talent at every moment. We will make business extremely difficult for them.”

The two sides had started discussing a deal last summer before talks fell through. The Athletic, had also been in discussions with Axios last year.

After the sale closes, which is expected in the current quarter, The Athletic will be a Times Co. subsidiary and operate separately. Mather will stay on as general manager and co-president and co-founder Adam Hansmann as chief operating officer and co-president. AP

CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT

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IDDELL has developed a football helmet that might not be just the next big step in design and player safety, but a

major leap.

While there has been a focus on position-specific headgear for some time, Axiom is a personal-fit helmet. It is designed and manufactured player by player rather than position by position.

Axiom’s features are based on data and designed to improve impact response, reduce head impact exposure (HIE), and deliver

unprecedented protection. Axiom includes a new fitting system, a redesigned helmet shell platform, reimagined face-mask system and integrated smart helmet technology called InSite—which analyzes and reports on HIE compared to Riddell’s database of eight million on-field player impacts.

Axiom also features a removable visor.

“We don’t want to call it a crowning achievement, we get up every day and try to improve player protection,” says Thad Ide, senior vice president of research and development for Riddell. “But we do feel Axiom is a very different helmet platform than we have seen before, and potentially a great leap forward.”

There are several key elements to Axiom that could make it the safest head protection football—and pretty much any sport—has seen.

The fitting system uses technology that scans the surface of a player’s head to build a helmet that matches the fit of the head. The

scans can be done on a phone app by a coach or equipment manager or a player—by anyone, really. The data are loaded into Riddell’s database and then a built-to-fit helmet for the individual athlete is made.

Shells of the Axiom are engineered to surround the head with a combination of flex panels that work in tandem with internal liners and a face protection system to improve impact response.

As for the new face mask, it removes the top bar to provide additional flexing, more energymanaging material and a better impact response. A cast construction available in both stainless steel and titanium and a unique elliptical shape will provide and a sweeping view of the field for each player.

“We don’t know how long it will take for players to get used to seeing the field better,” Ide explains, “but there is also a lot of design freedom with the face guards. Anything you can mold you can turn the face guard into.”

Among the more intriguing aspects of the Axiom is the visor, something popular with running backs, receivers and defensive backs—about 600 players wear them—but not a lot of other positions. Yet. This is the first football helmet to

offer a standard factory-installed visor.

“There’s a two-push button to remove the visor, however it is part of the protective suite within the helmet,” Ide says. “Feedback has been good but it is different, and there are some players who simply aren’t going to wear a visor, which is why we made it easy to remove.

“We’ve collected feedback from field test participants, elite college athletes who were wearing them, and more were leaving them on.

“The feedback we have gotten is Axiom fits like a precision-fit helmet,” Ide add, “that it tracks exactly with the players’ heads. There’s no helmet lag if you turn quickly.”

Versions of Axiom have been tested for use the past three seasons at select colleges and high schools.

Florida State, Penn State, UCLA, Rice, Stanford, Oregon State, Bowling Green, Colorado and SMU are among the FBS schools to have players wear them.

“Customization is the future of helmets,” says Jeff Miller, the NFL’s (National Football League) executive vice president of communications, public affairs and policy. “This season we saw promising developments with the first position-specific helmet on-field and the increasing use of 3D scanning and printing for helmets worn by NFL players.

Each position has unique safety

characteristics. Through innovation, which the NFL continues to drive through our funding competitions, annual helmet testing and sharing our data with manufacturers and entrepreneurs, players will continue to enjoy more and better choices that evolve alongside the technology.”

Axiom costs around $750 for NFL and elite college players—the pricing structure has not been finalized—and includes the titanium face guard and certain other accessories. It will go to market this winter, with a limited number on the field in the spring for college practices. High schools, small colleges and other varsity-playing football institutions will have access later in the spring.

Ide also expects it will be on the NFL evaluation posters when they are published in the spring.

As for expanding to other sports, Ide notes there are elements of Axiom that could apply to lacrosse and ice hockey.

“Other sports have different needs than football, from the protective and vision side,” he notes. “For most the fit system and scanning of the head could extend into other sports, and the smart technology as well.

“We are focused on football right now. This sort of technology needs to take hold in football before extending to other sports.” AP

Ex-NBA stars get behind revamped EA Super League B

METTA WORLD PEACE (right) and Baron Davis say a new competition would bring more attention to the sport in the region. AP

RISBANE, Australia— Baron Davis, Metta World Peace and Shane Battier have spent time in Asia helping build the profile of basketball, and their base of fans. Now they’re buying in.

The East Asia Super League ambassadors are touting the revamped championship to be a “game changer” in the region.

Davis, a two-time National Basketball Association All-Star, said the home-and-away format set to launch in October can be the impetus for East Asian countries to eventually be Olympic medal contenders in the sport.

“I see the EASL as being a huge game changer because when you bring countries together, when you bring in leagues together, when you bring the best and the toptier talent, you know, then it’s this unified message and projection to the rest of the world,” Davis said.

“That’s the most important thing...

having the best compete, and having the best represent an entire side of the world.”

The 2022-2023 season will involve eight of the premier clubs from Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Taiwan and a Hong Kong-based club called the Bay Area Twin Phoenixes, which will feature a mix of players from across the region including mainland China.

It will run parallel with the national leagues, giving the region’s home-grown stars a chance to go head-to-head more frequently.

Expansion is on the horizon, with the league aiming to have 16 teams in Season 3, possibly including clubs from China in the mix to join.

“By doing this, bringing all the teams together, you’re just bringing the quality of basketball to that Olympic, international, professional level,” Davis said. “And when you think about the evolution of the Olympics, you see how Spain, you’ve seen how France, you know, all of these countries that become powerhouses and so, I believe that through this league, we’re going

to see an Asian country become one of those podium people at the Olympics.”

The NBA has helped trigger a basketball boom.

World Peace, the former Ron Artest, said a new competition would bring more attention to the sport in the region.

“The players in Asia, we do want to hear about them here in America,” he said. “With the EASL, it gives them a chance to actually cross over and people can see how talented they are.”

Details for the revamped competition, transforming it from a single-site event that started in 2017 into a regional league, were announced in December.

Matt Beyer, the league’s CEO, said Davis, World Peace and Battier joined as shareholders and global ambassadors because of their connections with Asia.

They “are legendary NBA star players that have worked closely with Asian brands in endorsement roles, visited Asia many times, played

US $1.3M check to Wada comes with memo: ‘Sorry state of affairs’

alongside and against legends such as Yao Ming in the NBA and understand the marketplace deeply, while being loved by Asian fans,” Beyer said. “It’s an honor to be working with them in this rapid growth phase.”

The trio will be working in front of the cameras and behind the scenes, he said. “We’ve positioned ourselves as the hub of Asian basketball storytelling.” AP

ENVER—The US government paid its remaining $1.3 million in dues to the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) but delivered a brusque message along with the check, calling its absence from the regulator’s top decisionmaking boards a “sorry state of affairs.”

Wada announced having received the money Thursday, and President Witold Banka called the release of the funds a sign of support from the US government.

But a pair of letters written by the director of the White House drug control office, Rahul Gupta, and obtained by The Associated Press, revealed the money was given despite major misgivings about both the way Wada operates and America’s standing within the agency.

The government has been critical of Wada for not moving urgently enough to reform itself in the wake of the Russian doping scandal that has upended international sports for most of the past decade. Gupta also highlighted the United States’ absence from Wada’s executive committee and foundation board, the two bodies that make the biggest decisions, despite the country’s outsized financial impact on the Olympic movement.

“Frankly, as I have learned more about the Americas distribution of Wada Board seats I have become more and more concerned by this sorry state of affairs,” Gupta wrote this week in a letter to Banka.

Gupta noted that the US is absent from the 38-person foundation board for the first time since 2000, the year after Wada was founded. It has not had a seat on the executive committee, which shapes the decisions that the foundation board generally approves, since 2015.

Decisions about North American governments’ representation on the boards are made not by Wada but by a North American sports council.

Gupta didn’t let that bureaucratic detail stifle his disdain with Wada’s role in the arrangement.

“This situation—in which the world’s largest sporting country, the source of much of the funding generated for the Olympic Movement through the sale of broadcast rights and sponsorships, and the largest governmental dues payer to Wada does not have a significant role in Wada decision-making—is very problematic,” Gupta wrote in the letter to Banka.

In another letter, this one written last month to leaders in Congress, Gupta acknowledged his office was releasing the final $1.3 million of a $2.93 million commitment for 2021, but not without serious reservations.

When Congress appropriated the money, it gave Gupta’s office power to withhold it.

“As the largest sporting nation in the Hemisphere and a key funder of Wada, paying half the dues of all of the Americas, it is not appropriate for the US Government to be excluded from Wada’s key decision-making bodies,” Gupta wrote.

The $2.93 million the US provided in 2021 dues accounted for about 7.3 percent of Wada’s $40 million annual budget and for half of what’s provided by all participating countries across North and South America. The US normally delivers the entire amount in the first quarter of the year, but held it back while it pressed for more reforms in Wada’s structure.

In its own news release, Wada touted the reforms it had made, including increased representation for athletes and greater independence of some decision-makers. When Wada was formed, half the seats went to governments and the other half were controlled by the IOC, and the funding was designed the same way.

Banka said his discussions with Gupta at the most recent Wada meetings “were very positive, as were Dr. Gupta’s constructive interventions during the Board meeting itself.” at which Gupta was an observer.

But Gupta painted a different picture, and asked for a redistribution of seats on the top boards that will provide North America “adequate” representation.

He told Banka the US government would keep evaluating its role to make sure it has a meaningful role in “advancing clean sports and in having a fair voice in how US taxpayers funds are expended to address anti-doping issues.” AP

BusinessMirror

January 9, 2022

The best way to follow through on New Year’s resolution? Make an ‘old year’s resolution’

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BusinessMirror JANUARY 9, 2022 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

YOUR MUSI

RHYTHM & RHYME

by Kaye Villagomez-Losorata

Five mood-switching songs to start the year

A

S we ease back to the dreaded normal— and yes, today’s reality tends to be on the dreadful side—we find ourselves facing a post-holiday season that rears its ugly head.

The moment the celebrations cool down and our calendars start to replace reunions with meetings and deadlines, it’s easy to plunge into the pool of downward spiral.

Publisher

: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

Editor-In-Chief

: Lourdes M. Fernandez

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: Aldwin M. Tolosa

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: Jt Nisay

SoundStrip Editor

: Edwin P. Sallan

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

Columnists

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

Photographers

: Bernard P. Testa Nonie Reyes

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

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Just a reminder though, we need to keep our immune system on the upbeat, hopeful side even after the festivities are over.

Heart.org says that mood influences our health. We know this by now but sometimes it takes a little extra effort. As the article highlights, “Studies show negative emotions – including anger, hostility, and pessimism – are linked to a higher risk of heart disease and lower chance of recovery from events such as heart attacks, as well as poorer cognitive health.

Conversely, a growing body of research shows feelings such as happiness, optimism, gratitude, a sense of purpose, well-being or satisfaction in life lead to better heart and brain health.”

On the other hand, “Mindfulness, humor and other mental coping skills can help people stay healthier by reducing the amount of cortisol running through their bodies, she said. In women, this implies it can protect the production of estradiol, a type of estrogen that can be important for preserving good brain health.”

Since we can’t binge-watch anymore because we’re expected to report to work or return to class, let’s try to turn to songs for a quick fix, or to instantly switch on happier hormones.

Here are five songs you can turn to while on your way to work or during a quick break because you can’t risk having lunch with people outside your physical bubble now.

“I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Love Me).” While we can’t dance with people, just

try listening and mouthing this Whitney Houston showstopper.

You can’t even start singing opening lyrics without smiling or raising a playful eyebrow or two.

Just try it: Clock strikes upon the hour and the sun begins to fade / Still enough time to figure out how to chase my blues away / I’ve done alright up ‘til now / It’s the light of day that shows me how / And when the night falls loneliness calls.” It’s not even the lyrics but the beat of this 1987 classic and how WH sings it. Hard to stay sad the moment you reach the chorus or when Whitney asks, “Don’t you wanna dance?”

“Girls Just Want To Have Fun.” Before “I Wanna Dance…” this was the kick-your-shoes/letyour-hair-down anthem of the ’80s. Although it’s difficult to let your hair down back in the day with all the spray net they used to hold it up, this Cyndi Lauper 1983 breakthrough hit revival (yup, Robert Hazard wrote and performed this originally in 1979) hits the upbeat spot. We don’t need to wait for, “When the working day is done oh girls just wanna have fun.” We can switch up our mood meter with a quick listen to the song anytime—even when we want to drown out a boring Zoom meeting.

“Walking On Sunshine.” Can a song be happier? Katrina & The Waves had a pretty, solid argument on how this track automatically flips your mood.

Putting two of the most important positive things in the world: happiness and being in love and turning it into a song and of course you feel the sun on

your feet! “And don’t it feel good indeed!”

“Shake It Off.” Nothing spells that tongue-in-cheek, ‘who cares’ attitude than hearing Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.” It’s all in the lyrics: ‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate / Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake / I shake it off, I shake it off (Whoo-hoo-hoo) / Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break / And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake / Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake shake it off, I shake it off (Whoo-hoo-hoo) / I never miss a beat / I’m lightning on my feet / And that’s what they don’t see, mm, mm / That’s what they don’t see, mm, mm / I’m dancing on my own (Dancing on my own) / I make the moves up as I go (Moves up as I go) / And that’s what they don’t know, mm, mm / That’s what they don’t know, mm, mm. Even the mm’s are happy m’s!

“Here Comes The Sun.” To wrap things up, we awaken to a classic that provides the most instant of hopes no matter where you are or what you’re going through.

The Beatles could have had just the tandem of John Lennon and Paul McCartney there doing the songwriting and the band will be more than enough. The songs will remain up there even after other artists from later generations have had their share of the wild superstardom. But to have a George Harrison in the same songwriting machine of a band is something else. The fact that Harrison also wrote the opposite of “Here Comes The Sun” in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” clearly states that he knew happiness and hope and how to precisely capture them in a song.

It helps that the song casually throws visuals in stringing in the words: “smiles returning to the faces” or “I feel that ice is slowly melting.” But when The Beatles sings, “And I say it’s all right,” you know that deep down inside you, things will be all right.

Have a blessed and safe New Year, everyone!

IC

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | JANUARY 9, 2022

BUSINESS

SoundSampler

by Tony M. Maghirang

New music to start a brand new year

CLARA BENIN “blink”

O

N her first original single under the international record label OFFMUTE, Benin honors memories like they’re fundamental aspects of human nature. She finds refuge in reliving the past without any hint of regret, treating it as part of her personal journey.

“I had a series of sleepless nights just recollecting and reliving different times of my life,” the folk-pop artist shares in a statement. “Some were peaceful times. Some were turbulent times.

Some were traumatic times. I didn’t really understand why these memories were resurfacing in my head. Writing ‘blink’ just helped me resolve these thoughts.”

Sprawling past the threeminute mark, the track is deceptively simple by standards, but its introspective quality, paired with an incredibly moving arrangement, ups the stakes on a purely artistic level. The release of “blink” is accompanied by a lyric video made by Clara Benin herself.

ARIEL TSAI “My All In All”

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FTER launching several new songs from artists in the Philippines, Christian music label

Waterwalk Records is releasing a song from Ariel Tsai, a popular Taiwanese singer-songwriter, pianist, and YouTuber signed under Sony Music Taiwan.

Ms. Tsai’s latest single, “My All In All,” is a heartfelt piano-driven worship song written by Ariel herself. “I wrote this song this past year during a time where I felt quite lost and uncertain about the future. I felt I was holding on to the worldly definition of success and chasing it, just to end up realizing that it could never fill the void in my heart,” Ms. Tsai says.

“That was when I came to God and re-surrendered myself to Him, and God had let me experience His peace again, the peace that the world could not give,” she adds.

LOIR “Umaga”

R

&B newcomer Loir teams up with rapper Guddhist Gunanita on the hypnotic slow jam ‘Umaga.’

Inspired by her realizations in life and in romantic relationships, the track maps her journey towards acceptance and starting anew with the right mindset. Laced with lush strings, acoustic guitars, and minimal beats, it is produced by frequent collaborators HavoMusic and Goodson, whom LOIR worked with on “Sakay.”

The new track also features a rap verse and songwriting credit from hip-hop artist Guddhist Gunanita. The two have collaborated earlier this year for the sun-kissed bop “Dalampasigan,” which to date, has more than 600 thousand views on YouTube alone.

Both acts star on the official music video of “Umaga,” which

showcases a love story arc set in a magical forest. “Umaga” serves as the second installment in a series of LOIR music videos that are connected by a narrative thread.

HEY JUNE! “Just A Hit”

H

EY JUNE! is a band that should not be missed out.

Their newest release “Just A Hit” introduces the band and their young, fresh, dynamic and most importantly hopeful music.

Through the song, the band sings about how life have its challenges which are inevitable bumps on the road – something you need to triumph over or sometimes just essentially go through. It’s the band’s way of singing “You’ve gone this far, you got this!”

The four-piece band composed of vocalists Jim Mase, 18, (guitars, synth and songwriter) and Earl Paglinawan, 16, (guitars) with Coey Ballesteros (bass and backup vocals) and Aci Fodra (drums) is one of the newest Filipino bands formed this 2021. The four young kids live their passion for music with their own creative pursuits restrictions and all.

BRYAN ADAMS “Kick Ass”

A

CCLAIMED singer/ songwriter Bryan Adams

releases his latest “Kick Ass,” a track filled with classic guitars and his signature style of feel-good rock music.

“Kick Ass” begins with a John Cleese introductory sermon which sums up the song, there’s not enough rock and roll in the world… end of! More guitars, more drums, join hands…lets rock,” says Adams.

Additionally, in celebration of the 2022 Pirelli Calendar, Adams released the song and music video for “On The Road”, the theme and title of The Cal, also the brainchild of Adams, who has long pursued photographical work alongside his music. He shot a glittering cast of superstar artists including Cher, Iggy Pop, Jennifer Hudson and Rita Ora to create a dramatic visual journey through a day in the life of a touring musician.

MILKY CHANCE “Tainted Love”

M

ILKY Chance, the 5 billion+ streaming German duo currently enjoying a Top 5 hit at US Alternative Radio with “Colorado” have shared the official video for their cover of the Gloria Jones song (later popularized by Soft Cell) titled “Tainted Love.”

Featured on the group’s recent Trip Tape mixtape, the track is completely recast here as a paranoid fantasy in which Milky Chance’s Clemens Rehbein appears bloodied and bewildered.

Shot in Berlin by frequent Milky collaborators Sebastian Ganschow & Vincent Sylvain, the video adds an unsettling new chapter to a song with an already unlikely history dating back to its original release in 1964.

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The best way to follow through on New Year’s resolution? Make an ‘old year’s resolution’

By Mark Canada, Indiana University Kokomo and Christina Downey, Indiana University

I

f you’ve made a New Year’s resolution, your plot for self-improvement probably kicks into gear some time on January 1, when the hangover wears off and the quest for the “new you” begins in earnest.

But if research on habit change is any indication, only about half of New Year’s resolutions are likely to make it out of January, much less last a lifetime. As experts in positive psychology and literature, we recommend an unconventional but more promising approach.

We call it the “old year’s resolution.”

It combines insights from psychologists and America’s first self-improvement guru, Benjamin Franklin, who pioneered a habit-change model that was way ahead of its time. With the “old year” approach, perhaps you can sidestep the inevitable challenges that come with traditional New Year’s resolutions and achieve lasting, positive changes.

A gardener weeding one bed at a time Long before he became one of America’s greatest success stories, Franklin devised a method that helped him overcome life’s inevitable failures—and could help you master your old year’s resolutions.

When he was still a young man, Franklin came up with what he called his “bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection.” With charming confidence, he set out to master 13 virtues, including tem-

“Long before he became one of America’s greatest success stories, Benjamin Franklin devised a method that helped him overcome life’s inevitable failures—and could help you master your old year’s resolutions.” perance, frugality, chastity, industry, order and humility.

In a typically Franklinian move, he applied a little strategy to his efforts, concentrating on one virtue at a time. He likened this approach to that of a gardener who “does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time.”

In his autobiography, where he described this project in detail, Franklin did not say that he tied his project to a new year. He also did not give up when he slipped once— or more than once.

“I was surpris’d to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish,” Franklin wrote. Open page of old book.

He made his progress visible in a book, where he recorded his slip-ups. One page— perhaps only a hypothetical example— shows 16 of them tied to “temperance” in

a single week. (Instead of marking faults, we recommend recording successes in line with the work of habit expert B.J. Fogg, whose research suggests that celebrating victories helps to drive habit change.)

Repeated failures might discourage someone enough to abandon the endeavor altogether. But Franklin kept at it—for years. To Franklin, it was all about perspective: This effort to make himself better was a “project,” and projects take time.

‘A better and a happier man’ Many years later, Franklin admitted that he never was perfect, despite his best efforts. His final assessment, however, is worth remembering: “But, on the whole, tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.”

Treating self-improvement as a project with no rigid time frame worked for Franklin. In fact, his scheme probably helped him succeed wildly in business, science and politics. Importantly, he also found immense personal satisfaction in the endeavor: “This little artifice, with the blessing of God,” he wrote, was the key to “the constant felicity of his life, down to his 79th year, in which this is written.”

You can enjoy the same success Franklin did if you start on your own schedule— now, during the old year—and treat selfimprovement not as a goal with a starting date but as an ongoing “project.”

It might also help to remember Franklin’s note to himself on a virtue he called, coincidentally, “Resolution”: “Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.” The Conversation ON THE COVER: Photo by Wout Vanacker on Unsplash

Young Filipinos planned for more holiday shopping in 2021

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A total of 3,538 respondents nationwide participated in the survey, which was conducted on the first week of December 2021.

Respondents are male and female, aged 18 years old and above from NCR, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. “[The] survey is representative of the online population in the Philippines, which is nearly 80 percent this 2021,” Germaine Reyes, Synergy’s president and CEO, said.

The study also broke down the young generation’s spending plans. Gen Zers were likely to spend more on clothes (31 percent) as compared to other age groups (24 percent). They also led in home décor (25 percent vs. 19 percent total PH); gadgets, devices (20 percent vs. 15 percent total PH); and appliances

ilipino Gen Zers were intent on spending more over the recent holiday season than in 2020, displaying the strongest inclination among other age groups, a nationwide study reveals.

According to a survey by Synergy Market Research, through its partner UK’s YouGov, an international research & data analytics company, 34 percent of Filipinos aged 25 and younger actively planned to spend more for 2021’s holiday celebrations compared to the previous year, which was higher than all the other age group’s total of 29 percent. The survey noted that Filipino Gen Zers were willing to spend not just for themselves but more for others, too, including food for family, relatives and guests, as well as for gifts and donations.

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January 9, 2022

(19 percent vs. 15 percent total PH).

Meanwhile, the older generation appear to have been more cautious. About 53 percent of Gen X and 52 percent of Baby Boomers planned to spend much less/spend less in 2021 compared to the Philippine total of 44 percent. Reyes said that this may be attributed to them being the household head.

“Given the financial shock that this pandemic brought about, they could be playing it safe as there are still uncertainties in the future.”

Reyes added that Synergy is conducting via YouGov another survey to better understand how Filipinos are planning to jumpstart their 2022, and to determine the differences across generations. To know more, contact info@synergy.ph.