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Sunday, January 24, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 105

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Eyeing 33 of 146 highly urbanized cities as potential project sites for ‘Buhay sa Gulay,’ DAR uses urban farming program to boost food security and incomes of poor households.

(FROM right) DAR Secretary John R. Castriciones, Fr. Gaudencio Carandang Jr., Department of Agriculture representative and Planters Products president Ranilo Maderazo, and Department of Agrarian Reform-Calabarzon Regional Director Rene Colocar initiate the “pick, harvest and pay” activity. DAR PUBLIC ASSISTANCE AND MEDIA RELATIONS SERVICE

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

MID the continuing threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has launched an “aggressive” urban farming program that will convert idle lands into vegetable production plots in highly urbanized cities across the country. DAR Secretary John R. Castriciones has seized the initiative to turn idle spaces in these so-called concrete jungles to become vegetable production areas.

Rising veggie prices, shortfall

THE move came amid skyrocketing prices of vegetables in local markets, with the Department of Agriculture (DA) projecting a supply shortfall of about 434,840 metric tons (MT) this year. The BusinessMirror recently reported that local vegetable production this year is expected to reach 1.691 MT, while imports are pegged at 20,000 MT. The DA also estimated total vegetable demand for 2021 at 2 million metric tons (MMT), on the assumptions of a 110.198-million population and consumption of 18.24 kilograms per capita, the report added. This means the country is facing a 79-day vegetable supply shortfall, unless vegetable production is increased through the expansion of more production areas. Rene E. Colocar, regional executive director for the Calabarzon area, told the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview that Castriciones has already ordered the listing of potential sites outside Metro Manila following the successful implementation of the “Buhay sa Gulay” urban

gardening program in Tondo, Manila, and Quezon City in November last year and early January this year, respectively. “It was conceptualized to make communities in urban areas generate income amid the pandemic by turning idle lands into vegetable gardens,” says Colocar, who admitted that the innovative program is not within the regular mandate of the agency.

Out of the box

THE DAR is primarily mandated to distribute lands to landless farmers. The lead implementing agency of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), the DAR is also tasked to ensure agrarian justice and provide various support services to farmers and ensure their productivity through capacity-building training. “We have to think and go out of the box. It also happened that there’s a projected production shortfall and the prices of vegetables are going up,” Colocar pointed out. Launched in November 2019, the pilot site for Buhay sa Gulay in Tondo, an 8,000-square-meter soccer field of Saint John Don Bosco Parish, is now producing assorted vegetables. During its harvest festival early this month, farmers were able to earn P19,000 in just two

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 48.0470

“BUHAY sa Gulay” participants tend their vegetable plots at an 800-square-meter football field in Tondo, Manila. DAR PUBLIC ASSISTANCE AND MEDIA RELATIONS SERVICE

hours of “pick and pay” activity. On January 16, some 80 urban-dweller beneficiaries under the Buhay sa Gulay started planting portions of a 7-hectare land in Barangay Bagong Silangan, Quezon City, the second urban-farming project launched in Metro Manila, to provide barangay residents a steady and continuous supply of different vegetables throughout the year. The project in QC is in partnership with an existing community group. Colocar said the QC project is expected to generate a monthly income of P12,000 for each urban dweller participant. “Based on our computation, with the available lots and projected production, the participants will be able to earn that much,” says Colocar. “So far, we have developed one hectare in Quezon City. But the site will be expanded. From seven hectares, it will be 10 hectares because other private lot owners in the area want to lend their property,” he revealed.

In the next few days, the Buhay sa Gulay program will also be launched in Caloocan City. “The Secretary has ordered regional offices of the DAR to identify more areas and out of the 146 highly urbanized cities, 33 of these have been identified as potential project sites,” added Colocar, also DAR’s official in charge of the program. According to Colocar, turning idle lands in cities into vegetable plots will not only boost the country’s food basket in a time of crisis, but also help the urban poor earn from urban farming.

‘Innovator’

SINCE his assumption, Castriciones has been known to introduce innovative programs in the DAR. Before the urban gardening program, the DAR chief initiated a housing project for agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), a first in DAR’s history. Under his watch, coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program was expanded to include fresh graduates of agricultural

courses and, lately, retirees of the agency who graduated in any agriculture-related course, in a move to encourage the young and old alike to do business in farming. In promoting urban gardening, Colocar said the DAR chief is hoping to make urban poor communities productive and food-self-sufficient. “The next level of the program is promoting container gardening where communities will be taught to produce vegetables in pots and plastic containers,” he said. The official said the activity will be done one step at a time and that the DAR is partnering with various national government agencies like the Department of Agriculture, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and local government units as in the case of Manila, Quezon City and Caloocan City. “In a way, this will promote lifestyle change,” he said.

Time for ARBOs to help

ACCORDING to Colocar, the DAR program will also be banking on the

help of agrarian reform beneficiary organizations (ARBOs) to provide technical support. “What we want is for the ARBs in these ARBOs to pay it forward. Before, it was the DAR that helped them; now we are tapping them to help urban communities,” he said. In the case of Quezon City, the planting activity is being undertaken in partnership with six ARBOs from DAR-Cavite and two ARBOs from DAR-Rizal. “We have trained the farmers as part of the capacity-building phase of the program. Our DARARBO farmer-scientists will help turn these idle lands into successful food-production areas in the future,” he said. As part of the plan, he said participating urban communities will be organized and taught how to manage their own fund and, in general, how to do good business, like marketing their products, doing packaging, and managing their own finances until they become self-sustaining and self-reliant.

n JAPAN 0.4643 n UK 65.9926 n HK 6.1984 n CHINA 7.4382 n SINGAPORE 36.3442 n AUSTRALIA 37.2989 n EU 58.4540 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.8091

Source: BSP (January 22, 2021)


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Chocolate war leaves top cocoa producer stuck with beans By Isis Almeida & Leanne de Bassompierre Bloomberg News

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OBODY is suffering more from a global chocolate standoff than the Ivory Coast cocoa farmer. Less than two years after the top cocoa producer teamed up with neighboring Ghana to force companies from Hershey Co. to Nestlé SA to pay more for their beans, the attempt to exert control over prices is backfiring. Buyers are refusing to pay up, beans are piling in warehouses upcountry and farmers are so desperate that some even slept outside the offices of Ivory Coast’s cocoa regulator demanding action. “We have suffered with our cocoa piling up,” said Baba Kampe, a 45-year-old farmer with eight hectares in Daloa who was among those sleeping outside the regulator’s offices Monday. “It has been difficult to feed our children.” The cooperation to charge the $100-billion chocolate industry a premium of $400 per metric ton was intended to boost income for some of the world’s poorest growers, the West African nations said. But for many cocoa traders, processors and chocolate makers, it was an Opec-style attempt to boost prices that lacked the supply-anddemand economics key to that cartel’s success.

COCOA farmers spread cocoa beans during the sun-drying process in Asikasu, Ghana. CRISTINA ADEHUELA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Farmers now are paying the price. Ivory Coast and Ghana, which account for almost 70 percent of world supplies, expanded output just as the pandemic locked down cities from Paris to Los Angeles, hurting demand. Growers can’t sell their crop and don’t have a way to store it. Middlemen are paying less than the government’s minimum price, and Ivory Coast had to offer deep discounts to offload this season’s crop. “The farmers are very fed up with the whole thing because they were promised this Utopian existence that wasn’t based on sound economics,” said Jonathan Parkman, deputy head of agriculture at Marex Spectron Group Ltd., who has followed cocoa for 30 years. “That doesn’t help farmers, it hinders them.”

No buyers

THE average West African grower farms no more than 3.5 hectares and supports six to eight family members, according to the World Cocoa Foundation industry group. More than half of Ivory Coast’s growers live below the poverty line. With no access to irrigation or modern farming techniques, they rely on the weather. But not even that matters anymore. “What good is it to follow the weather closely and have a good harvest when there are no buyers,” said Kouadio Moussa, a 45-year-old farmer of 3.5 hectares in Anoumaba. Chocolate is a luxury product that benefits from gifting and impulse buying. With many shopping online during the pandemic, consumers aren’t picking up that last-minute bar before reaching the cashier. Nor are they buying the assorted boxes typically given at Christmas and Valentine’s Day. That created a global surplus and left Ivory Coast struggling to sell what’s now the world’s most expensive cocoa. Ghana is in a better position since many European chocolatiers need its high-quality beans for their premium bars. Still, European processing dropped to a four-year low in the fourth quarter. Cocoa is the third-highest export earner for Ghana and accounts for 8 percent of Ivory Coast’s economy. The situation is so dire that Ivorian regulator Le Conseil du Cafe Cacao, or CCC, is mulling over such drastic steps as purchasing 50,000 tons and delaying the com-

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hat good is it to follow the weather closely and have a good harvest when there are no buyers.” —Kouadio Moussa, a 45-year-old farmer of 3.5 hectares in Anoumaba mercialization of two-thirds of the unsold beans—or about 200,000 tons—to the smaller of two annual harvests that starts in April.

Back to 1987

THAT’S bringing back memories of 1987, when Ivorian President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, faced with a bumper crop, imposed a sales embargo and struck deals with traders to store at least a quarter of the country’s output with the sole objective of pushing up prices. The strategy, recounted in the book La Guerre du Cacao, or “The Cocoa War,” backfired, and prices more than halved during the more than two-year ban. “Nobody in this world can guarantee a higher price for more cocoa, especially when demand is falling,” said Derek Chambers, a retired cocoa trader and protagonist in those events. “There is brave talk of putting cocoa in store, which history tells us is a destruction of value. It has been tried before, and the CCC could do worse than reread La Guerre du Cacao to see how it ends.” Farmers protested Monday outside CCC offices in the towns of Soubre, Daloa and Yamoussoukro. Growers are stuck with 200,000 tons of beans, and middlemen are offering to buy cocoa at 800 to 850 CFA francs ($1.48-$1.57) a kilogram, lower than the 1,000 CFA francs the government promised. The chocolate industry has been under pressure for its failure to fight child labor and its role in perpetuating poverty in West Africa. Growers need to receive about $3,100 a ton, compared with $1,800 now, said Antonie Fountain, managing director at the Voice Network. “We need regulation,” he said. “For the last two decades, we’ve been focusing on getting farmers to solve the problems that they are

faced with, but the fact is that the farmer isn’t the problem, the system is the problem.”

Hershey purchase

YVES KONE, the CCC’s managing director, took to national TV last week to warn against “unscrupulous buyers” taking advantage of the situation to pay farmers less. He blamed the pandemic and difficulties in securing shipping containers for the industry woes. “The pandemic is hitting the economy as a whole,” Kone said. “Cocoa is no exception.” Chocolate makers and cocoa processors have been trying to cut costs. Hershey last year sourced a large amount of beans through the New York futures market, where beans were cheaper than in the physical market. The company denied it was skirting the West African premium, called the Living Income Differential (LID). Ivory Coast has recently sold cocoa at deep discounts, according to traders with direct knowledge of the matter. While the LID remained in place, a premium paid for the quality was replaced with a discount of as much as £150 ($205) a ton—a figure Kone denies. “You could almost argue the LID is already dead,” Marex’s Parkman said. Even before the coronavirus upended global markets, industry experts warned that Ivory Coast and Ghana’s approach was doomed because higher prices were going to result in overproduction. “The way this will end? Ivory Coast will realize they can’t sell all the cocoa they produce at a premium of $400 a ton,” said Chambers, who spent 50 years trading before retiring from Paris-based Sucres et Denrees SA in 2018. “It’s unfortunate that they tried to do this at this point, but it was always going to fail.”


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

The World

Immigrants welcome possible citizenship path under Biden

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OMESTEAD, Florida—Immigrants cheered President Joe Biden’s plan to provide a path to US citizenship for about 11 million people without legal status, mixing hope with guarded optimism on Wednesday amid a seismic shift in how the American government views and treats them. The newly inaugurated president moved to reverse four years of harsh restrictions and mass deportation with a plan for sweeping legislation on citizenship. Biden also issued executive orders reversing some of former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, such as halting work on a US-Mexico border wall and lifting a travel ban on people from several predominantly Muslim countries. He also ordered his Cabinet to work to keep deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of people brought to the US as children. “This sets a new narrative, moving us away from being seen as criminals and people on the public charge to opening the door for us to eventually become Americans,” said Yanira Arias, a Salvadoran immigrant with Temporary Protected Status who lives in Puerto Rico, a US territory. Arias is among about 400,000 people given the designation after fleeing violence or natural disasters. “It sets a more hopeful future for immigrants in the US, but it all depends on the Congress, especially the Senate,” Arias, a national campaigns manager for the immigrant advocacy group Alianza Americas, said of the citizenship effort. Success of the legislation is far from certain in a divided Congress, where opposition is expected to be tough. The most recent immigration reform attempts on a similar scale failed—in 2007 under then-President George W. Bush and in 2013 under then-President Barack Obama. Ofelia Aguilar, who watched Biden’s inaugural address on TV with four other female farmworkers in agricultural Homestead, Florida, said she nevertheless felt positive about prospects for immigration reform. “I am hopeful that he’ll give us legal status,” said Aguilar, who was pregnant and alone when she came to the US from Mexico in 1993. She worked in the fields for years before starting her own business farming jicama root. “There is hope!” Aguilar cried out after Biden was sworn in. “So many people have suffered.” Some of the farmworkers at the backyard

gathering about 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Miami said they were disappointed Biden didn’t mention immigration reforms in his speech. “I have faith in God, not in presidents,” said Sofía Hernandez, an agricultural worker who has lived in the US without legal status since 1989. “So many have said they are going to do things, and I don’t see any results.” Hernandez came from Mexico, seeking economic opportunity. Her three children were born in the US and she regularly sent money to her family back home before her parents died. “My dream is to go and see my family and come back to stay with my children,” Hernandez said. In New York, Blanca Cedillos said she also was disappointed Biden did not mention immigration during the speech she watched with a half-dozen other masked immigrants at the Workers Justice Project. “I was hoping he would say something,” said Cedillos, a Salvadoran who lost her job as a nanny during the coronavirus pandemic and now gets by with a few housecleaning jobs and a weekly food box from the nonprofit that offers services to immigrants. Cedillos has lived in the US without authorization for 18 years and hopes to eventually visit her four children in Central America, then return legally to the US. “I have told them that that trip may happen now. Hopefully, if this new president gives me the opportunity,” she said. Guatemalan construction worker Gustavo Ajché, who came to the US in 2004, watched the Spanish language broadcast with Cedillos. “I don’t want to get too excited because I might get frustrated afterward, like has happened in the past,” Ajché said. “I have been here many years, I have paid my taxes, I am hoping something will be done.” In Phoenix, Tony Valdovinos, a local campaign consultant who was brought to the US from Mexico as a small child, said he isn’t celebrating yet. He’s among those who have benefited from the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which protects immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation. “It’s hard to put your heart into it when these things have failed in the past,”Valdovinos said. “We’ve been beaten down so much.” AP

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Fauci says US will join Covax in re-engagement with WHO

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NITED States infectiousdisease chief Anthony Fauci pledged his country’s commitment to the World Health Organization, including membership in a global effort to deploy Covid-19 vaccines. Fauci addressed the Geneva-based group a day after Joe Biden’s inauguration, underlining the new US president’s effort to mend ties with an agency crucial to fighting the pandemic. He confirmed that the US will join Covax, a 92-nation vaccine collaboration that the Trump administration declined to participate in. “The US also intends to fulfill its financial obligations” to the WHO, Fauci said in a speech via a video link. “The US sees technical collaboration on all levels as a fundamental part of our relationship with the WHO, one we value deeply and look to strengthen going forward.” Fauci’s address initiates a campaign to re-engage with allies

snubbed by his predecessor. The United Nations agency was a frequent target of former President Donald Trump, who accused it of being lax on China and failing to provide accurate information about the virus. Biden reversed Trump’s decision to exit the WHO on his first day in office as the US death toll from Covid exceeded 400,000, higher than any other country. The US has been the WHO’s largest contributor, providing $400 million to $500 million in mandatory and voluntary contributions, and Trump’s decision last year drew sharp criticism in Congress, as well as from allies in Europe. The WHO

has been heavily involved in the fight against the coronavirus, especially in poor countries. The US is willing to share research more quickly and will make health officials more available, ending a staff drawdown from the organization, Fauci said. The US also wants to work with other WHO members to reform and strengthen the organization, he said. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke at Thursday’s session of a series of executive board meetings that began Monday. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Twitter late Wednesday. As WHO members discuss reforming the WHO’s financing, that should involve an assessment of what the organization can achieve with its current budget and how it can use those funds more efficiently, plus a business case for additional resources needed and whether it would expand its mandate, according to the US delegation. Antony Blinken, Biden’s choice for secretary of state, said earlier this week that a US rift with WHO

may be healing and that the US was preparing to join Covax, the program led by the WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Many countries are depending on Covax, which aims to deploy vaccines equitably to every corner of the planet. Yet several have questioned whether the program will get the vaccines it needs, the WHO’s Tedros said earlier this week. A number of governments are also pursuing their own supply deals through direct talks with manufacturers. Covax has said it secured access to almost 2 billion doses, with deliveries due to begin in the first quarter, and set a goal of vaccinating up to a fifth of countries’ populations by the end of the year. A review process of the WHO has begun, with an independent panel saying earlier this week that the body was underpowered to do the job expected of it during the pandemic. The report, led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, criticized missteps by the WHO and countries including China. The panel’s final report is due in May. Bloomberg News


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Sunday, January 24, 2021

The World BusinessMirror

Saudi Arabia redefines position as world’s defender of Muslims W

hen Chinese diplomat Tan Banglin defended his country’s treatment of Muslims amid an international outcry, his comments were less remarkable than where he made them. In a column last July for one of the most widely read newspapers in Saudi Arabia—the traditional protector of Muslims worldwide—Tan talked about how the Communist Party had united with people in Xinjiang province, leading to “great” changes. That’s as nations including the US were accusing China of putting Uighurs into detention camps. The voice given to China’s consul general in Jeddah, less than 70 kilometers from Islam’s holiest city of Mecca, reflects the new political reckoning under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he prioritizes more secular national interests at a critical juncture for the kingdom. And it’s one that may serve him well as the administration changes in Washington, despite US opposition to Beijing’s actions in Xinjiang. The Saudi world view is being shaped more by hard-nosed business calculations, shifting geopolitical realities and the emergence of clean energy as a competitor to oil while facing a challenge from Turkey for leadership of the Sunni Muslim sphere. The kingdom has been less vocal on the Palestinian issue, which for decades was its cause célèbre. Saudi support for the Muslim population has been conspicuous by its absence in the disputed region of Kashmir, with the Pakistan government turning to Turkey while Prince Mohammed increases trade with India. “Saudi Arabia suffered from transnational political Islamism where some of its citizens were among the first to travel to help fellow Muslims, but not much identify with their own national causes,” said Prince Abdullah bin Khaled, a Saudi academic. “A change of course was required and very much welcomed.”

US President Joe Biden has vowed to treat Saudi Arabia as a pariah after four years of cozy relations with his predecessor, Donald Trump. Conversations on issues on human rights, its devastating war on Yemen and rivalry with Iran are likely to be uncomfortable when they eventually happen. There could also be more tension over the 2018 killing of critic and columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul after Biden’s nominee for national intelligence director this week pledged to release a report on who was responsible for the murder. But retrenching from intervening abroad under the guise of supporting fellow Muslims—like Turkey is doing—may score some points with the Biden administration, according to Emily Hawthorne, a Texas-based analyst with Stratfor, which advises clients on geopolitical risks. “Saudis might see that becoming more of an economically focused moder nized nation as more important than continuing to always nurture that leadership role in the broader Muslim world,” said Hawthorne. “It’s a gamble, but it might turn out well for them in terms of earning Saudi Arabia some clout.” Until a few years ago, it would have been rare to see warm praise for a communist party in print in Saudi Arabia, not to mention one from the representative of a country that’s been censured for its alleged persecution of Muslims. In the 1980s Saudis sent money, and later their sons, to Afghanistan to join the fight against Soviet occupation of that country. Saudi relations with China have strengthened beyond supplying oil. King Salman, who took the throne in 2015, and the crown prince have paid separate visits to Beijing. On his trip in 2019, the prince appeared to defend China’s alleged repression of Muslims and signed a deal to build a $10 billion refining and petrochemicals complex.

T h i s mont h, C h i n a’s Hu awei launched its largest flagship store outside China in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Investment Minister Khalid AlFalih tweeted the news, saying he was “delighted” with the announcement. It’s been a journey that started slowly after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks by 19 hijackers, 15 of them Saudi, and accelerated under Prince Mohammed. Under pressure to curb extremists, Saudi Arabia waged a successful campaign against radicals in the 2000s. Significantly, the late King Abdullah made Saudi National Day on September 23 a holiday, angering radicals who believe Muslims should not be divided by borders. As he rose to power four years ago, Prince Mohammed curbed the influence of the powerful religious establishment, gave women more freedoms and allowed concerts and movie theaters. He also tightened control of how financial aid is distributed abroad, making it largely to governments rather than directly to Muslim groups. Alcohol, which the Koran forbids, remains banned. The change was not an abandonment of Muslim issues but rather “ balancing support for them w ith the imperatives, sensitivities and priorities of the state, knowing that different contexts dictate different rea lities,” said Pr ince Abdu l lah, the academic. Indeed, Saudi Arabia used to be the first country to be blamed for fueling Islamist terrorism. Yet following a series of gruesome attacks by jihadists in France last year, it was Turkey that French President Emmanuel Macron singled out as an instigator. Saudi Arabia will always have the physical claim to Islam. Prince Mohammed, through his actions and decisions, has made it clear that the kingdom’s duty is to care for the two holy mosques in Mecca and Madinah and make them accessible to Muslims worldwide. One

of the goals of his plan to restructure the economy is expanding the two sites and increasing the number of pilgrims. At the same time, the leadership has signaled it’s not the kingdom’s duty to fix the problems of Muslims worldwide. When India revoked almost seven decades of autonomy held by the restive, mostly Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan, which also claims the region, had hoped that Saudi Arabia would galvanize Muslims around this issue. The kingdom, the biggest source of remittances into Pakistan and among its largest creditors, didn’t. Instead, trade w ith India, w h ic h t he k i n gdom s e e s a s a n impor tant economic powerhouse, h a s t h r ived si nce t hen a s Saud i A rabi a seek s to deepen it s foot hold i n t h at cou nt r y. In t he t h i rd quar ter of 2020, Ind ia, a long w it h Eg y pt, d rove a n i nc rea se i n for eig n i nvest ment i n t he k i ngdom, a ke y pi l l a r of t he c row n pr i nce’s econom ic d iversi f ic at ion pl a n. In the meantime, Turkey has been boosting ties with Islamabad. Its foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, opened a new consulate in Pakistan this month, promised to send investors to explore opportunities and presided over the signing of agreements in the movie industry. Turkish-Pakistani relations are “unique and enviable” Mujahid Anwar Khan, Pakistan’s chief of air staff, told Turkey’s state-run Andalou Agency this month. He thanked the Turkish leadership for its “supportive statements” on Kashmir. The Saudis may be losing the softpower game to Turkey at the moment, said Hawthorne. “But they’re probably valuing other games.” “Turkey has economic limits as to how much it is willing to sacrifice its own economic interests in pursuit of gaining the soft power. This is never a zero sum game.” Bloomberg News

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Jack Ma’s video prompts a $58-billion sigh of relief

By Lulu Yilun Chen, Coco Liu & Abhishek Vishnoi

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e appeared for less than a minute and said nothing about the Chinese government clampdown that had left his business empire in crisis. But for investors who’d been waiting months to catch a glimpse of Jack Ma, the entrepreneur’s participation in a live-streamed videoconference on Wednesday was enough to trigger a $58 billion sigh of relief. That’s how much Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s market value soared after a clip of Ma speaking to a group of teachers began circulating online—his first public comments since disappearing from view late last year. Much about the future of China’s most famous businessman remains unclear. Yet analysts said Wednesday’s video was a sign that worstcase scenarios—such as jail time for Ma or a government takeover of his companies—are probably now off the table. It’s unlikely Ma would have participated in the event without at least tacit approval from Beijing; state-run media including the Global Times were among outlets that posted snippets of his talk or wrote stories about his appearance. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty on regulators’ next moves, but this does mean the status of Jack Ma is much better than a lot of people speculated,” said Fang Kecheng, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Ma’s talk focused on philanthropic issues including the importance of narrowing income disparities and reviving China’s countryside, two big priorities for Xi Jinping’s Communist Party. While far from a mea culpa, the comments offered a stark contrast to Ma’s last public remarks in October, when the billionaire launched into an unusually strong rebuke of Chinese regulators and state-owned banks. Just a few days after that now-infamous speech at the Bund Summit in Shanghai, the government torpedoed Ma’s plan to take Ant Group Co. public in what would have been the world’s biggest-ever initial share sale. In the weeks that followed, authorities called for an overhaul of Ant’s business and began an antitrust probe of Alibaba. Few expect Ma’s change of tone will cause Beijing to back off its campaign to more tightly regulate Ant, Alibaba and the rest of China’s hightech giants. But Wednesday’s market response suggests investors are beginning to price out the risk of a crackdown that would put the country’s richest entrepreneurs and most innovative companies in serious jeopardy. “Alibaba is not out of the doghouse, but at least it’s clear that the current anti-monopoly drive is not about punishing Jack Ma,” said Zhang

Fushen, senior analyst at Shanghai PD Fortune Asset Management. Speculation about Ma’s whereabouts had intensified in recent weeks after it emerged that he skipped the recent taping of a Shark Tank-like TV program that he had created. Chinese authorities have in the past quietly detained billionaires that run afoul of the Communist Party. Ma’s resurfacing appeared to be carefully calibrated, according to Justin Tang, head of Asian research at United First Partners in Singapore. The videoconference was part of an annual event Ma hosts to recognize rural teachers. A former English teacher himself, Ma spoke in a solemn tone about the need to create better education opportunities in China’s poorer areas. “Recently, my colleagues and I have been studying and thinking. We made a firmer resolution to devote ourselves to education philanthropy,” Ma said. “Working hard for rural revitalization and common prosperity is the responsibility for our generation of businessmen.” It was “the perfect setting for Jack to reappear in the public spotlight,” Tang said. “The backdrop sees Jack in his roots as a humble school teacher versus being a haughty entrepreneur that doesn’t know his place. The whole scene allows him to show contriteness without being scripted.” Ant, which is controlled by Ma and part-owned by Alibaba, confirmed the authenticity of the video but declined to comment further. Ant had suffered a “considerable shock” after Beijing suspended its stock market listing, an event that was expected to value the company at over $300 billion, said James Anderson, a partner at Baillie Gifford, a significant investor in Alibaba. “It’s plain that there are less chances of it being extraordinarily profitable than there were before,” he told Bloomberg TV. The big question facing investors now: to what degree will Beijing keep tightening the screws on Ant, Alibaba and its peers? The early evidence suggests regulators aren’t in a hurry to let up. Just a few hours after Ma’s reappearance, China’s central bank released draft rules to curb market concentration in online payments, potentially dealing another blow to Ant and rival Tencent Holdings Ltd. The move is part of a wide-ranging campaign to rein in a generation of Chinese tech giants that Beijing views as wielding too much control over the world’s second-largest economy. Despite the regulatory overhang, Alibaba bulls at firms including Amber Hill Capital Ltd. and Pegasus Fund Managers Ltd. said easing concerns over Ma’s status might be enough to lift shares of the e-commerce company back toward its record high in October. That would imply a gain of about 15 percent in the Hong Kong-listed shares from their close on Wednesday. Bloomberg News

Dog and goat serving as mayor Deaths, self-immolation draw scrutiny on China tech giants raise money for a playground By Zen Soo

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AIR HAVEN, Vt.—A goat and a dog that were both elected mayor have helped raise money to renovate a Vermont community playground. The oddball idea of pet mayor elections to raise money to rehabilitate the playground and to help get local kids civically involved came from a local town manager. In 2018, Fair Haven residents elected Lincoln the goat as its honorary mayor. Lincoln helped raise about $10,000 while the current mayor, Murfee, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, has raised $20,000, Town Manager Joe Gunter told the Rutland Herald . The town chipped in another $20,000. Murfee’s owner, Linda Barker, said that when she was talked into having Murfee get involved in politics,

she thought it would be easy to raise money through t-shirts. Then the pandemic struck. So she shifted to masks. She’s made nearly 1,000 of them, and will be making another round of them for Valentine’s Day. She raised more than $5,000 from the masks and a similar amount from basket raffles. The town was also recently awarded a $50,000 grant from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, she said. Ironically, the honorary mayor is not welcome on the playground. Barker said there’s a “no dogs allowed” sign. “Murfee is going to take that up with the town,” Barker said with a chuckle. “He’s going to contest that.” AP

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AP Technology Writer

ONG KONG—E-commerce workers who kept China fed during the coronavirus p a n d e m i c, m a k i n g t h e i r b i l l i o n a i re bosses even richer, are so unhappy with their pay and treatment that one just set himself on fire in protest. China’s Internet industries already were known for long, demanding days. With millions of families confined at home, demand surged and employees delivered tons of vegetables, rice, meat, diapers and other supplies, often aboard scooters that exposed them to sub-freezing winter cold. For white-collar workers in the technology industry, pay is better than in some industries but employees are often expected to work 12 hours a day or more. The human cost caught public attention after the deaths of two employees from e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, known for selling fresh produce at low prices. Their deaths prompted suggestions they were overworked. In an indication of high-level concern, the official Xinhua News Agency called for shorter work hours, describing long hours of overtime at the expense of employees’ health as an “illegal” operation. Renewed concerns over dire working conditions for delivery drivers also came to the forefront when a video circulated on Chinese social media showing what it said was a driver for Ele.me, part of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, setting himself on fire to protest unpaid wages. The controversy is a blow to the image of Internet industries that are transforming China’s economy and generating new jobs. They have made some of the founders among the world’s wealthiest entrepreneurs. During the heights of the pandemic, the fortunes of the biggest,

including Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Pinduoduo founder Colin Huang, swelled as online consumer spending boomed. In a video widely circulated on Chinese social media, 45-year-old delivery driver Liu Jin poured gasoline and set himself on fire outside a distribution station for Eleme in the eastern city of Taizhou, shouting that he wanted his money. Others snuffed the flames and rushed him to a hospital, where he is being treated for third-degree burns on his body. Details of Liu’s complaint could not be verified and Eleme did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Separately, a 43-year-old delivery driver collapsed on the job and died last week while delivering food for Eleme. The company said in a statement that it will give 600,000 yuan ($92,700) to the driver’s family and raised its insurance coverage for drivers to that level. Its statement said Eleme “had not done enough in terms of accidental death insurance, and needs to do more.” The issue was highlighted again after a Pinduoduo employee surnamed Tan committed suicide after taking leave from the firm to return to his hometown, less than two weeks after a 22-year-old employee surnamed Zhang in Urumqi collapsed while walking home from work with colleagues, and later passed away. Pinduoduo, China’s third-largest e-commerce firm, released statements saying it was providing assistance and support to the families of the two employees who died. Shanghai authorities also are reviewing working hours, contracts and other conditions at the company. The deaths raised an outcry on social media, with many people suspecting that they were a result of overwork. Chinese social-media users blasted the country’s technology sector, criticizing not just

Pinduoduo for a culture of long hours but pointing out that this was an industry-wide problem, with similar company cultures seen at most of China’s large technology companies. They also revived a national debate over the tech sector’s so-called “996” working culture, in which employees often work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week. Companies sometimes pay huge bonuses to some employees, enticing them to work more overtime. “We must strive to succeed in pursuit of dreams, but the legitimate rights and interests of workers cannot be ignored or even violated,” said state-owned Xinhua News Agency in a post on microblogging site Weibo. The issue has also cast a spotlight on the working conditions of delivery drivers, who are under heavy pressure to get orders to customers quickly and at times make less than 10 yuan ($1.55) per delivery. If they fail to meet deadlines, fines imposed can range from as little as 1 yuan ($0.15) to as much as 500 yuan ($77.30) if a customer lodges a complaint. As part of the gig economy, such delivery workers often do not get the benefits provided to full-time employees, such as social or medical insurance. Since there are many people willing to work under those conditions, it is hard for employees to negotiate better pay and conditions. Last August, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU)—the only trade union allowed to legally exist in communist-ruled China—said that 6.5 million delivery workers had joined it since 2018. However, the worker rights group China Labor Bulletin, which tracks labor relations in China, says little has been done to improve workers’ ability to win better treatment from companies. The union provides only skills training, legal assistance and some medical benefits.

“Labor unions need to become more effective, otherwise labor laws cannot be enforced,” said Li Qiang, founder of China Labor Watch, another organization that monitors labor rights. Under China’s labor laws, workers and laborers should work no longer than eight hours a day, or more than 44 hours a week on average. Total amount of overtime should not exceed more than 36 hours in a month, and should only be done “after consultation with the trade union and laborers.” However, even though the labor laws exist, they are rarely enforced as employees become mired in a culture of overwork while striving for bonuses or in cases of delivery drivers, to eke out a living. Delivery workers are part of a corporate culture where even white-collar employees in the technology sector work excessively long hours, Li noted. “Employees who do not work over time cannot survive in technology or white-collar jobs. Everyone is working overtime. If they do not work overtime, they will be terminated,” Li said. Putting workers at an even bigger disadvantage, indemnity clauses are at times written into workers’ contracts in some industries, absolving a company from responsibility for death on the job and other such events, said Li of China Labor Watch. Although such clauses may violate China’s labor laws, the legal system in China is opaque and laws can be difficult to enforce. “In Western countries, if an employee dies because of working overtime, then the legal and economic costs will be greater, and they are generally more restrained as the country’s laws will intervene,” said Li. “But in China, there is no bottom line when it comes to working overtime, and companies are generally not held liable in the event of death.” (Associated Press researcher Chen Si in Shanghai contributed to this report).

Woman ruled dead in 2017 fights to be declared alive By Elaine Ganley

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The Associated Press

ARIS—Frenchwoman Jeanne Pouchain has an unusual problem. She’s officially dead. She has been trying for three years to prove that she is alive. The 58-year-old woman says she lives in constant fear, not daring to leave her house in the village of Saint Joseph, in the Loire region. Authorities seized her car over an unpaid debt she contests and which is at the center of her troubles. She fears the family furniture will be next. Pouchain’s status has prevented her and her husband, who is her legal beneficiary along with her son, from using their joint bank account. Being declared deceased has deprived her of other critical amenities. “I no longer exist,” Pouchain said by telephone. “I don’t do anything....I sit on the veranda and write.” She called the situation “macabre.” Pouchain’s status as deceased is the result of

a 2017 Lyon court decision that deemed her dead even though no death certificate was produced. The decision came at the end of a legal dispute with an employee of Pouchain’s former cleaning company, who was seeking compensation after losing her job 20 years ago. B u t t h e i n i t i a l c o m p l a i n t i n Fr a n c e’s Prudhomme workers’ court misfired, falling on Pouchain, whose lawyer claims her company had no responsibility for the dismissal. A series of legal proceedings, decisions and appeals followed, all the way to the Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, which dismissed the case as outside its domain, Pouchain and her lawyer, Sylvain Cormier, said. According to Pouchain and her attorney, snowballing judicial errors ended with the 2017 ruling by the Appeals Court of Lyon that Pouchain was not among the living. The legal imbroglio is all the stranger because, Pouchain contended, neither she nor her relatives received a summons for the hearing.

Pouchain’s husband and son were left with an order to pay 14,000 euros ($17,000) to the former employee. Cormier, her attorney, filed an unusual motion last Monday to invalidate the 2017 decision by the Lyon appeals court due to a “grave error” by the judges. He said he has never before dealt with such a “crazy” case. “At first, I had a hard time believing my client,” he said. Pouchain says she can’t forgive her exemployee for her plight but won’t identify the woman. The former employee’s lawyer did not respond to several requests for comment. Cormier points the finger at the judges and their “extreme reticence to repair their error.” “When an error is so enormous, it’s hard to admit,” he said. Pouchain remains stubbornly hopeful that her attorney’s bid to overturn the judgement will succeed. “It’s my last chance to recover my life,” she said.

This undated image provided on January 15, by Pierre-Jean Pouchain shows Jeanne Pouchain. Jeanne Pouchain is officially dead and has been trying for nearly three years to prove that she is alive. Pouchain’s deceased status has prevented her and her husband, her legal beneficiary now that she’s dead, from using their joint bank account, and she is deprived of other critical amenities of the living. Courtesy of Pierre-Jean Pouchain via AP


Science

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

BusinessMirror

Sunday

Sunday, January 24, 2021 A5

Science for the people means growth S

By Lyn B. Resurreccion

cience for the people. This is the vision of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) that involves the promotion of the culture of science, technology and innovation (STI) among the people, especially the youth. This vision is being realized by making STI accessible to the biggest number Filipinos and reach the regions, even the remotest areas, all over the country. This is being carried out by dispersing and supporting various technologies and innovations to entrepreneurs, and scholarships to students in order to help them in their livelihoods and progress in life. In its year-end report for 2020, “Leading Science, Technology and Innovation for Inclusive Growth and Development in the Time of Covid-19,” the DOST said its regional offices conceptualized and successfully launched new or revitalized programs in 2020 for continued implementation in the coming year. Despite of, or in response to the crisis brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, when mobility was hampered by lockdowns and quarantines, the DOST offices were able to implement or adapt in their execution of the programs. The Science department, through its agency, the Science Education Institute (SEI), also continued to provide scholarships that aim to produce and develop high-quality human resources, who will take active participation and leadership roles in the country’s S&T. It also adapted some scholarship programs based on the limitations posed by the pandemic. The DOST, led by Science Sec. Fortunato de la Peña, enumerated in the report the various programs and projects which the department implemented in the regions and its scholarship programs last year.

Pushing growth in the regions through S&T

In the regions, among the programs implemented are the Innovations for Filipinos Working Distantly from the

Philippines (iFWD PH), Innovation, Science and Technology for Accelerating Regional Technology-Based Development (iSTART), Grassroots Innovation for Inclusive Development (GRIND), Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (Setup), and the implementation of the Community Empowerment thru Science and Technology (CEST). n iFWD PH aims to provide a package of S&T interventions, enhance the capability of qualified overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in conceptualizing technology-based businesses and preparing business plans, and assist OFWs in establishing and managing technology-based enterprises. As of October 30, 2020, 59 OFWs have graduated from the Phase 1 of the program through trainings on the development and management of the enterprises. Preparatory sessions for the Phase 2 had technical consultancies and training-workshop on product development, process mapping, etc. For the Phase 2, OFW-beneficiaries will be provided with innovation-enabling fund to assist them to acquire equipment for their technology-based enterprises. Other S&T services will also be made available to them. The program has also caught the interest of so-called angel investors from the private sector, or investors who prov ide initial capital for a business start-up. n iSTART supports balanced development geographically by accelerating regional growth through STI. The program assists local government units in developing a technology-based development plan for the agri-based, manufacturing and services sectors; attract new technologybased investments in accordance with the validated plans in collaboration with LGUs; and engage researchers, scientists and engineers to support technology-based investments and projects in the region. The program makes use of the University of the Philippines Planning and Development Research Foundation Inc. (UP-Planades) development model, a DOST funded study, to identify growth areas in the country.

Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña (center) graces the blessing and inauguration of Science City of Muñoz OneSTore Hub on January 20. He is being assisted by DOST Region III Director Dr. Julius Caesar V. Sicat (left). Screenshot from DOST-Central Luzon Facebook Live The planning officers of provincial governments of identified growth areas were trained on the use of the UPPlanades development model. In the first batch of the training in August, a total of 317 DOST-sponsored and 428 non-DOST-sponsored individuals from LGUs, governmentow ned a nd cont rol led cor por a t ions, ac ademe a nd t he pr ivate sector attended the training. T he pi lot i mplement at ion of iSTART in Region V III has already yielded results. It has finalized the STI framework and strategies to help accelerate provincial economic development. These will be integrated into the existing Leyte Provincial Development Plan for the province’s economic development strategies. The Eastern Visayas State University, DOST VIII and Leyte provincial LGU have also put up an indoor smart farm using the technology introduced by a Balik Scientist Dr. Joel Cuello. n GRIND’s pilot implementation that was launched in the second half of 2019 has already yielded results. The program is aimed at promoting inclusive growth and reducing poverty and inequality through the

development of grassroots innovation ecosystem in the country. n Setup has funded 475 new projects amounting to P499 million from January to September 2020. The interventions provided by the DOST regional offices through Setup resulted in the generation of 2,438 jobs and P2.3-billion sales. It registered a total 4,660 S&T interventions, benefitting 7,370 firms and other entities. Setup 4.0 that was launched in November, was set to be implemented in 2021. Under this enhanced version of Setup Program, micro, small and medium enterprises will be categorized based on their level of development and will be provided with S&T interventions based on their needs. Setup also has online support services—oneSTore, oneExpert (1E) and One Stop Laboratory Services for Global Competitiveness (oneLab). As of 30 September 2020, the ecommerce platform of oneSTore in the regions has helped market 13,454 products of DOST-assisted firms. There are currently 28 oneSTore hubs all over the country. It has recorded around 4.5-million hits and sold P262 -million worth of local products.

Meanwhile, oneExpert, an interactive web-based nationwide pool of S&T experts intended to provide technical advice and consultancy services to Filipinos, already has 822 registered S&T experts. As of September 30, 2020, 1E recorded 264,600 web site visits; 70,760 online clients and unique visits; and 50 queries received and responded. OneLab provided 135,763 testing and calibration services to 54,641 customers and 13,861 firms. The total fees it collected amounted to P86million while the gratis services were valued at P4.8-million. n CEST assisted 24 new communities last year that brought to 374 the total CEST communities since 2013. There were a total of 106 CEST livelihood projects and assistance amounting to P39-million in 2020.

Developing S&T human resource pool

The DOST-SEI implemented the fol low ing sc hol a rsh ip prog ra ms in 2020: n The Science and Technology Scholarship Act of 1994, or Republic Act 7687, enabled the scholarship program to reach 98 percent of the country’s municipalities and congressional districts with at least one DOST-SEI scholar. This resulted in a total of 35,091 undergraduate and graduate scholars (28,900 BS, 4,264 MS, and 1,927 PhD), including those under the Bangon Marawi Program. n In response to the destruction of Marawi City after the so-called Battle of Marawi in May 2017, the DOST-SEI put up the Bangon Marawi Program in Science and Technology Human Resource Development to help rebuild and rehabilitate the city’s human and social infrastructures, particularly in the S&T human sector. The scholars in this program were awarded in two batches— 247 scholars in batch 1, and 207 in batch 2. n The number of scholars under Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Philippine Science High School (PSHS) increased by 5 percent from 42,190 in

schoolyear (SY) 2019-2020 to 44,398 in SY2020-2021. n The DOST, through SEI, collaborated with the Department of Education (DepEd) to enhance STEM learning for elementary pupils through the “RadyoEskwela sa Siyensya,” and for high school students through “TuklaSiyensya sa Eskwela” programs. Teachers Guides are also available for both programs. “RadyoEskwela sa Siyensya” features story-based science lessons aired by a network of community radio. It consists of 20 episodes of 30-minute length each. They were produced for early, primary and intermediate elementar y clustered grade levels. The episodes may be replayed by regional stations and offered to the DepEd as learning resources for pupils for distance-learning mode anytime during the school year. Meanwhile, TuklasSyensya produced 15 science lessons, each running for 30 minutes to 45 minutes. Uploaded to an online platform, the lessons are made available to formal and informal learners anytime. T he topics inc lude aerospace engineer ing, geologica l hazards, oceanography, and nanotechnology, among others. n The DOST secondary, undergraduate and graduate scholars continued to receive their scholarship privileges during the year. Existing policies were reviewed and revised accordingly to help the DOST scholars better cope with the changes and adjustments that PSHS and the universities have to undertake in the wake of the pandemic. n New admission policies were also adapted for PSHS scholars in lieu of the usual National Competitive Exams taken by aspiring PSHS students. The new system was formulated to prevent the spread of Covid-19 among thousands of examinees who will gather in testing sites across the country. Admission in the country’s premier science high school shall be through the Pisay Requirement for Admission, Criteria and Evaluation.

Biden puts US back into fight to slow global warming Monarch butterfly population moves closer to extinction W A S H I N G TO N — N e w l y i n a u g u r a t e d President Joe Biden returned the United States to the worldwide fight to slow global warming in one of his first official acts last Wednesday and immediately launched a series of climate-friendly efforts that would transform how Americans drive and get their power. “A cry for survival comes from the planet itself,” Biden said in his inaugural address. “A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear now.” Biden signed an executive order rejoining the Paris climate accord within hours of taking the oath of office, fulfilling a campaign pledge. The move undoes the US withdrawal ordered by predecessor Donald Trump, who belittled the science behind climate efforts, loosened regulations on heat-trapping oil, gas and coal emissions, and spurred oil and gas leasing in pristine Arctic tundra and other wilderness. The Paris accord commits 195 countries and other signatories to come up with a goal to reduce carbon pollution and monitor and report their fossil fuel emissions. The United States is the world’s No. 2 carbon emitter after China. Biden’s move will solidify political will globally, former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Kimoon said last Wednesday. “Not a single country in this world, however powerful, however resourceful one may be, can do it alone,” said Ban, speaking virtually at a briefing in the Netherlands for an upcoming Climate Adaptation Summit. “We have to put all our hands on the deck. That

is the lesson, very difficult lesson, which we have learned during last year,” he said, as Trump made good on his pledge to pull out of the global accord. The current UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, welcomed Biden’s steps, saying the US reentry to the climate agreement means countries producing two-thirds of carbon pollution have committed to carbon neutrality. Biden signed other directives to start undoing other Trump climate rollbacks. He ordered a temporary moratorium on new oil and gas leasing in what had been virgin Arctic wilderness, directed federal agencies to start looking at tougher mileage standards and other emission limits again, and began revoking Trump’s approval for the Keystone XL oil and gas pipeline. Another first-day order directed agencies to consider the impact on climate, disadvantaged communities and on future generations from any regulatory action that affects fossil fuel emissions, a new requirement. Human-caused climate change has been linked to worsening natural disasters, including wildfires, droughts, flooding and hurricanes. However, there was no immediate word on when Biden would make good on another climate campaign pledge, one banning new oil and gas leasing on federal land. After Biden notifies the UN by letter of his intention to rejoin the Paris accord, it would become effective in 30 days, UN Spokesman Alex Saier said. Rejoining the Paris accords could put the US on track to cutting carbon dioxide emissions by

40 percent to 50 percent by 2030, experts said. “There’s a lot we can do because we’ve left so much on the table over the last four years,” said Kate Larsen, former deputy director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality during the Obama administration. B i d e n h a s p ro m i s e d t h at t h e n e e d e d transformations of the US transportation and power sectors, and other changes, will mean millions of jobs. Opponents of the climate accord, including Republican lawmakers who supported Trump’s withdrawal from it, have said it would mean higher gas prices and higher electricity prices—even though wind and solar have become more affordable than coal, and competitive with natural gas, in generating electricity. “The Paris climate agreement is based on the backward idea that the United States is a culprit here, when in reality the United States is the leading driver of climate solutions,” said Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican. Republican senators are expected to introduce legislation that would require Biden to submit the Paris plan to the Senate for ratification. It’s not clear whether the narrowly divided Senate would have the two-thirds votes needed to ratify the agreement, which was never approved by Congress. Supporters say congressional approval is not needed. Most of the pollution-reduction goals set by the agreement are voluntary. The climate deal is based on each nation

setting a goal for cutting carbon pollution by 2030. Other countries submitted theirs by last month. The US did not. Saier said America just needs to submit its goal some time before November climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland. A longtime international goal, included in the Paris accord with an even more stringent target, is to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre i n d u s t r i a l t i m e s . Th e w o r l d h a s a l re a d y warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since that time. As of 2020, US emissions were 24 percent below 2005 levels, but that reflec ted the extraordinary economic slowdown stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, energy and climate director for the Breakthrough Institute. There are two big areas where climate policy deals with day-to-day American life. One is electricity generation, and the other is transportation. Market forces have made wind and solar cheaper than dir tier coal, fueling a quiet transformation toward cleaner fuels, and that’s expected to continue so that eventually nearly all of the nation’s power will be low or zero carbon, Larsen and other experts say. What happens to cars, trucks and buses will be far more noticeable. Several experts foresee the majority of new cars purchased in 2030 being electric. AP

New studies clarify which genes may raise breast cancer risk

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wo large studies give a much sharper picture of which inherited mutations raise the risk of breast cancer for women without a family history of the disease, and how common these flawed genes are in the general population. Doctors say the results published last Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine can help women make better decisions about screening, preventive surgery or other steps. Although this sort of genetic testing isn’t currently recommended for the general population, its use is growing and many people get it from tests sold directly to consumers. The new work shows that the risk conferred by some genes “is very high,” Mary-Claire King wrote in an e-mail. King, a University of Washington scientist, had no role in the new studies but discovered the first breast cancer predisposition gene, BRCA1. “The lives of many women could be saved if all women were offered the opportunity to learn if

they carry mutations in these genes before they are diagnosed with cancer,” she wrote. The American Cancer Society estimates that 276,000 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in the United States last year. The new work suggests that at least 13,800 of them occur in women with inherited gene mutations that raise their risk of developing the disease. Until now, what’s been known about inherited risk largely has come from studies of women with a family history of breast cancer or unusual situations, such as getting it at a very young age. There also has been little work on specific mutations in these genes and how much each affects the odds of developing disease. The new studies fill some of those gaps. One was led by Fergus Couch, a pathologist at the Mayo Clinic and included researchers from the National Institutes of Health, which sponsored the study with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

They looked for any mutations in 12 genes that have been tied to breast cancer in more than 64,000 women, about half with the disease and half without it, pooling results from studies throughout the United States including some in specific minority groups such as Blacks. They found troublesome mutations in about 5 percent of women with the disease and in 1.63 percent of the comparison group. “Now we realize that 2 percent of the women walking around in the United States might have mutations in these genes,” Couch said. There were no differences among racial groups in the odds of having a mutation overall, but certain mutations were more common in certain groups. For example, Black women were more likely to have ones linked to “triple negative” cancers—tumors that are not fueled by estrogen or progesterone, or the gene that the drug Herceptin targets. The study also found having a mutation in the BRCA1 gene raised the risk of developing breast

cancer nearly eightfold, and in the BRCA2 gene, more than fivefold. Conversely, another gene has been thought to be very concerning but “what we found is that it’s really low risk...people really shouldn’t be acting on it,” Couch said. Ac tions could include more frequent mammograms or other screening tests, having breasts or ovaries removed, having family members tested or other steps. With the new work, “we’re providing more accurate risk estimates” to guide such decisions, Couch said. The second study led by researchers at the University of Cambridge in England, looked at 34 genes in women throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and Asia—about 60,000 with breast cancer and 53,000 similar ones without it. “They found what we found”—increased risk from certain genes and a similar prevalence of them in the general population, Couch said. AP

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AN FRANCISCO—The number of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has plummeted precipitously to a record low, putting the orange-and-black insects closer to extinction, researchers announced last Tuesday. An annual winter count by the Xerces Society recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies, a massive decline from the tens of thousands tallied in recent years, and the millions that clustered in trees from Northern California’s Marin County to San Diego County in the south in the 1980s. Western monarch butterflies head south from the Pacific Northwest to California each winter, returning to the same places and even the same trees, where they cluster to keep warm. The monarchs generally arrive in California at the beginning of November and spread a c ro s s t h e co u nt r y o n ce wa rm e r we at h e r arrives in March. On the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, another monarch population travels from southern Canada and the northeastern United States across thousands of miles to spend the winter in central Mexico. Scientists estimate the monarch population in the eastern US has fallen about 80 percent since the mid-1990s, but the drop-off in the western US has been even steeper. The Xerces Society, a nonprofit environmental organization that focuses on the conservation of invertebrates, recorded about 29,000 butterflies in its annual survey last winter. That was not much different than the tally the winter before, when an all-time low of 27,000 monarchs were counted. But the count this year is dismal. At iconic monarch wintering sites in the city of Pacific Grove, volunteers didn’t see a single butterfly this winter. Other well-known locations, such as Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove and Natural Bridges State Park, only hosted a few hundred butterflies, researchers said. “These sites normally host thousands of

butterflies, and their absence this year was hear tbreaking for volunteers and visitors flocking to these locales hoping to catch a glimpse of the awe-inspiring clusters of monarch butter flies,” said Sarina Jepsen, director of endangered species at the Xerces Society. S c i e n t i s t s s a y t h e b u t t e r f l i e s a re a t critically low levels in western states because of destruction to their milkweed habitat along their migrator y route as housing expands into their territory and use of pesticides and herbicides increases. Researchers also have noted the effect of climate change. Along with farming, climate change is one of the main drivers of the monarch’s threatened extinction, disrupting an annual 3,000-mile (4,828-kilometer) migration synched to springtime and the blossoming of wildflowers. Massive wildfires throughout the US West last year may have influenced their breeding and migration, researchers said. A 2017 study by Washington State University researchers predic ted that if the monarch population dropped below 30,000, the species would likely go extinct in the next few decades if nothing is done to save them. Monarch butterflies lack state and federal legal protection to keep their habitat from being destroyed or degraded. In December, federal officials declared the monarch butterfly “a candidate” for threatened or endangered status but said no action would be taken for several years because of the many other species awaiting that designation. The Xerces Society said it will keep pursuing protection for the monarch and work with a wide variety of partners “to implement sciencebased conservation actions urgently needed to help the iconic and beloved western monarch butterfly migration.” People can help the colorful insects by planting early-blooming flowers and milkweed to fuel migrating monarchs on their paths to other states, the Xerces Society said. AP


Faith A6 Sunday, January 24, 2021

Sunday

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

Filipino Dominican priest, microbiologist affirms moral liceity of Covid-19 vaccine A

Filipino Dominican priest and biology professor has on social media encouraged people to receive a coronavirus vaccine, emphasizing his trust in modern medicine and expertise in biology. Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, OP, a Catholic author and professor of biology at Providence College in Rhode Island, issued a post on Facebook recently, stressing his belief in the Covid-19 vaccine and its benefit to society. “To be clear, as soon as a Covid-19 vaccine becomes available for which I am eligible, whether in the USA or here in the Philippines, I intend to be vaccinated with it. Also, as soon as a vaccine becomes available for my mother here in the Philippines, I will encourage her to be vaccinated with it,” he said. Austriaco said a Covid-19 vaccine will help save lives as well as slow social disruptions and lockdowns, which will help society return to a level of normalcy. Regarding concerns about the vaccination and its quick development, he said they were developed in record time because scientists had unlimited funding by “desperate governments”

who are seeking to resolve a global pandemic and its negative effect on every country’s economy. Austriaco said tens of thousands of people have already gone through clinical trials and pointed to a brief history of coronavirus and vaccine research. He said messenger Ribonucleic acid (RNA) vaccines, which are being used to treat the coronavirus, were founded over 50 years ago, and RNA viruses, including the coronavirus subclass, have been studied for decades. “I trust the scientific process that has gone into the development and testing of these vaccines,” he said. “These vaccines rely on decades of research. It is not like scientists just woke up one morning at the beginning of the pandemic and started from scratch.” The priest also addressed several possible concerns, such as minor side effects, major allergic reactions, medical rumors and spiritual apprehensions. He said the vaccine has minor side effects like a slight fever and a feeling of exhaustion. However, he noted that these are

Nicanor Austriaco, OP Screenshot/St. Charles Borromeo Seminary Youtube Channel

all signs that the process is working and the vaccine is jumpstarting the immune system. “As a Christian, I am taught that a broken world can only be redeemed by sacrifice. This is the meaning of the Cross. In my view, the few days of discomfort and downright crappiness that I expect to experience

after each dose of the Covid-19 vaccine will be my contribution to the sacrifice that heals the world [cf. Col 1:24],” he explained He conceded that major allergic reactions are possible and likely for a small group of individuals. He said, out of 1,893,360 vaccinations, 21 cases of severe allergic

responses were recorded during the first two weeks of the US vaccine campaign. Austriaco said all of the individuals with severe side effects already suffered from a history of bad allergic reactions. He added that an EpiPen injection for allergies may be used to resolve these issues. He addressed rumors about the vaccine, such as false connections to infertility, death and alterations in an individual’s DNA. While some people have died after receiving the vaccine, he explained, there is no evidence that the vaccination is the cause of the deaths. Claims that the vaccine causes infertility or changes DNA is also unreasonable and unsupported by science, he said. On the moral concerns behind the vaccine, Austriaco said some Covid-19 vaccines were manufactured by fetal cell lines derived from a decades-old abortion. He pointed to the Church’s response and his own personal choice. “As a priest, I know that different people have different thresholds

of sensitivity to evil. Some feel evil exquisitely. Others not so much. We should, therefore, expect different people to reach different moral conclusions that could even be opposed to each other while both remaining virtuous responses,” he said. “Personally, I will choose to avoid the vaccines made with these cell lines. However, as the Vatican itself has noted, it is not immoral to avail oneself of these morally controversial vaccines, especially if no other options are available.” Austriaco expressed gratitude for the success the vaccine has so far seen, noting that it has been a surprising gift from God. “In the end, I believe that the unprecedented, and really, unexpected, successes we have witnessed in the production of these vaccines are a blessing from the Lord,” Austriaco said. “If you had told me back during the first lockdown that we would have a handful of safe and efficacious vaccines ready to go within the first year of the pandemic, I would have shaken my head in disbelief,” he quipped. Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

China a top religious-freedom concern in 2021 Arson shakes a Church of Satan community P C hina remains a primar y human-rights concern in 2021, a federal religious freedom commissioner told Catholic News Agency (CNA) recently. “China remains of utmost concern to USCIRF [US Commission on International Religious Freedom],” said commissioner Nadine Maenza. The country’s “mass detention of Uyghur Muslims” in Xinjiang is the chief focus of USCIRF in China, Maenza told CNA. Anywhere from 900,000 to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslims in the region are estimated to have been detained in more than 1,300 concentration camps there, according to USCIRF. There have been reports of forced labor, indoctrination, beatings, and forced sterilizations at the camps. Maenza called on the United States and international businesses “to pressure China to end the horrible situation there.” China’s recent crackdown on pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong is also a pressing concern, she said, and added that China is “spreading its

influence” around the world. USCIRF is a bipartisan federal commission that promotes religious freedom abroad and reports on religious persecution to the State Department. Commissioners are appointed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. Maenza reported some positive developments for global religious freedom in 2020. Uzbekistan, she said, is not just promising change but has already released prisoners of conscience and is working with USCIRF and others to loosen its restrictions on religious practice that include mandatory registration of churches. In Sudan, the interim administration of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has provided “real changes” in the treatment of women and ethnic minorities who “suffered tremendously under the former regime.” As the year 2021 progresses, there are plenty of areas of concern for international religious freedom, however—including ongoing problems in Iraq and Syria where the Islamic State was defeated in 2017.

PHL Dominicans elect new head F r. Filemon de la Cruz was elected new prior provincial of the Philippine Province of the Order of Preachers, also known as Dominicans. The election of de la Cruz, who turned 57 on January 19, came during their recent 12th Provincial Chapter in Nasugbu, Batangas. Fr. Gerard Francisco Timoner, the master general of the worldwide religious order founded by St. Dominic de Guzman, confirmed his election on January 18. With his acceptance, Fr. de la Cruz will lead the Dominican community for the next four years. He replaced Fr. Napoleon Sipalay, who ended his term after serving the post since October 2016. As prior provincial, de la Cruz will also serve as chairman of the University of Sto. Tomas’s Board of Trustees. Born in Manila, he entered the Dominican pre-novitiate in 1980 and was vested with the habit of the Order in 1983. He made his simple profession in 1984 and his solemn profession in 1987. De la Cruz took his philosophy studies at the Philippine Dominican Center of Institutional Studies, and theology at the UST. He was ordained to the priesthood by the late Bishop

Fr. Filemon de la Cruz Jr., the new prior provincial of the Philippine Province of the Order of Preachers. UST photo

Camilo Gregorio, who was then bishop of the Bacolod diocese, in October 1992. In 2006, he finished his masteral degree in theology from the UST. Among his previous ministries were Master of Students in 1992-1996; Master of Novices in 1996-2000; Promoter of the Dominican Clerical Fraternity in 20122014; Provincial Councilor in 2012-2016; and Socius of the Prior Provincial in 2014-2016. He also served in many ministries in the UST from 2001 to 2017 and was superior of the Dominican community of the Rumah Santo Tomas in Surabaya, Indonesia, from 2017 to 2020. Prior to his election, de la Cruz was a newly assigned priest to the House of Saint Lorenzo Ruiz and Companion Martyrs in Navotas City. CBCP News

“We continue to be concerned about conditions for Christians and Yezidis in the Nineveh Plains and Sinjar,” Maenza said. “It’s remarkable that after all the years and all the money spent, it’s still not a safe place for religious minorities. And, in fact, hardly anything has changed in Sinjar,” she added. Christians have begun returning to their homes on the Nineveh Plains but have reported security to be of primary concern—so much so that some villages in the area have barely been resettled. Maenza pointed out that in neighboring Northeast Syria, an autonomous administration provides safe haven in the region for people to legally change their religion. Yet invasions into the area in 2019 by Turkish and other forces, and the atrocities that ensued— including killings, rapes, forced conversion, destruction of religious sites—have threatened its survival. In Nigeria, the terror groups Boko Haram and Islamic State West African Province are t e r ro r i z i n g C h r i s t i a n s a n d M u s l i m s w i t h

abductions and executions. Elsewhere in Asia, ethno-religious nationalism is a concern in countries, such as Brunei and India, Maenza said. “India continues to see the government embrace these anti-conversion laws,” she said of the country’s ruling Hindu nationalist party. With the new administration of President Joseph Biden in the United States, Maenza said that USCIRF commissioners “are hopeful t o e n g a g e ,” a n d a r e w i s h i n g t h a t t h e administration “will maintain and will even expand on religious freedom.” USCIRF also hopes for a quick appointment of the next religious freedom ambassador, she said, with a candidate who is known for working across the political aisle. Maenza also said she hopes the Biden administration will continue appointing a special advisor for international religious freedom at the National Security Council, following the Trump administration’s lead. Matt Hadro/Catholic News

Agency via CBCP News

OUGHKEEPSIE, New York—Members of the Church of Satan are grieving the destruction of a historic “Halloween House” north of New York City that authorities say was set ablaze this week by an unidentified arsonist. The historic home, built in 1900, ser ved as an Addams Family-style hub for local adherents of the religion, the Poughkeepsie Journal reports. One member of the church likened the arson to a terrorist attack. “Everybody’s in shock and everyone in the neighborhood is worried,” the member, who goes by the name Isis Vermouth, told the newspaper. “Whoever did this is going to be hexed by all of us.” “Now there’s going to be hell to pay,” Vermouth added. Sur veillance footage shows a man walking up to the house after 5 a.m. Thursday with two gas cans, splashing liquid on the front porch and igniting it, people said. Two people escaped the house unharmed,

authorities said. The home on South Clinton Street was decorated with devil sculptures. A hearse long sat in its driveway, and a sign over the garage read “Devil’s Garage.” The exotic house ser ved as a gathering place to celebrate Halloween and showcased the beliefs of its longtime former owner, Joe “Nether world” Mendillo, a Church of Satan member who died last year. “It was ex traordinarily different,” Cit y Councilman Chris Petsas said. “It wasn’t your normal home.” It’s unlikely the home will be restored because of the extensive fire damage, said Peter H. Gilmore, high priest of the Church of Satan, who lives down the block in what members refer to as Poughkeepsie’s “Witchcraft District.” The religion is based not on devil worship, but on atheist philosophies of individualism, liber ty and self-fulfillment, Gilmore said. AP

A look at how East Asian Buddhists chant and strive for buddhahood

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a n y people in the West interpret Buddhism as a path of meditation leading to enlightenment. What many may not know is that this interpretation differs vastly from its practice in East Asia. I have spent many years observing Buddhist temples in Taiwan and mainland China, and my research culminated in the book Chinese Pure Land Buddhism . This form of Buddhism teaches people to call upon a buddha named Amitābha in the expectation that when they die he will take them to his pure buddha-land, an ideal place to pursue the practices that will lead them to become buddhas, or fully enlightened and liberated beings. This form of practice—central to Pure Land Buddhism—arose from Mahayana Buddhism, a branch of Buddhism that emerged in the first to sixth centuries A.D.

stuck in an endless loop of bir th and rebir th, and the good or bad for tune they experience results from karma. Karma is a moral force created by the deeds one does: Vir tuous deeds give one better for tune, while evil or even just ignorant deeds bring misfor tune. Karma is said to determine the future life in terms of gender, intelligence and other personal attributes as well as one’s environment. As a buddha is believed to have completely purified his karma, his body and mind are free of all defects and the land he inhabits is perfect. S e v e r a l B u d d h i s t s c r i p t u re s d e s c r i b e “buddha-lands” as paradises with no moral evil and free of all taints. Many Buddhists hope for birth in a buddhaland so they can complete their path under a buddha’s direct super vision.

Buddhism in China

According to the Sutra, or scripture, on the Buddha of Infinite Life from no later than the third centur y, a monk named Dharmākara resolved to become a buddha. After much study and deliberation, he made 48 vows that detailed what kind of buddha he would be and what his buddha-land would look like. Most of these vows laid out a scene familiar to believers: As a buddha, he would be powerful, wise and compassionate. His land would be magnificent, and the beings who shared it with him would be so accomplished that they would already have many of the powers and attributes of a buddha. These included perfect eloquence and the ability to see and hear from great distances. But among the vows recorded in the Sūtra, it was the 18th that changed ever ything. This vow stipulated that anyone who merely brought him to mind before death would be reborn in his buddha-land: “If, when I attain buddhahood, sentient beings in the lands of the 10 directions who sincerely and joyfully entrust themselves to me, desire to be born in my land, and think of me

One of the innovative teachings of Mahayana Buddhism was that the cosmos is inhabited by millions of buddhas, not just the historical founder of the religion. Since all these buddhas had to reside somewhere, and their environments had to be as pure as they were, it followed that there are many buddha-lands. Pure Land Buddhism taught that the pure land of Amitābha was accessible to regular people after they died. Prior to the development of Pure Land B uddhism, the only way to enlightenment lay through an arduous path of study and practice that was out of reach for most people. In China, the Pure Land teaching made the prospect of liberation from suffering and the attainment of buddhahood feasible for ordinar y people. While Pure Land Buddhism spread and became dominant in other East Asian countries, China is the land of its bir th.

Theory of karma

B uddhists believe that all living beings are

Founding story

even 10 times,” Dharmākara is quoted as saying. The fact that he realized his goal and became the buddha named Amitābha meant that the vow became reality. However, the term “10 times” referring to the thoughts of Amitabha was vague. A n o t h e r s c r i p t u re , t h e S u t r a o n t h e Visualization of the Buddha of Infinite Life, clarified that one had only to say this buddha’s name 10 times. In addition, Dharmākara had also said that those who “commit the five grave offenses and abuse the Right Dharma” would be excluded. This Sutra eliminated such restrictions. The two scriptures allowed ordinar y Buddhists to aspire to a rebir th in this Pure Land.

Pure Land in China

B uddhism entered China around 2,000 years ago and developed a following slowly as scriptures became available in translation and missionaries learned to communicate their message. The stor y of Dharmākara’s vows proved especially popular. The Sūtra on the Buddha of Infinite Life was translated into Chinese several times, and scholar-monks lectured and commented on the Pure Land sūtras. Monks and nuns chanted the Amitābha Sūtra during their daily devotions. This sūtra, along with the two already mentioned, became the “Three Pure Land Sūtras” that anchored the emerging tradition. The earlier Chinese commentators on these sūtras held that one needed great stores of good karma from the past to even hear of these teachings. They also preached that if one’s mind was not purified through prior practice, then one could not see the Pure Land in all its splendor.

Striving for buddhahood

I n the six th and seventh centuries, three monks named Tanluan, Daochuo and especially Shandao provided new interpretations and prac tices that gave the ordinar y believer complete access to the Pure Land without them

needing to earn or deser ve it. First, they said that rebirth in the Pure Land is an “easy path” compared to the “difficult path” of traditional Buddhist practice. Second, that the Buddha Amitābha helps the practitioner by adding his “other-power” to the believer’s “self-power.” In other words, the buddha’s power assisted the believer directly and brought him or her to the Pure Land. “Self-power,” or the believer’s own effor t, might have beneficial effects but it was not enough for liberation. The addition of the buddha’s power guaranteed liberation at the end of this life. Third, they defined the main practice as calling Amitābha’s name aloud. In the original texts it was not clear whether the practice consisted of difficult meditations or oral invocation, but they made it clear that just repeating “Hail to Amitaqbha Buddha” would cause the buddha to transpor t one to the Pure Land. The Pure Land was not a final destination, like heaven in Christianity. The point of rebir th there was to be in t h e p e r f e c t e nv i ro n m e nt f o r b e co m i n g a buddha. One would still need to strive toward buddhahood, but one’s own power with that of Amitābha would guarantee the final result. Think about being on an escalator. If one cannot walk at all, it will carr y one to the top, but if one can walk even a little, one’s speed will combine with the motion of the escalator to get one there more quickly.

Chanting Buddha’s name

Pure Land believers may recite “Hail to the Buddha Amitābha” silently or aloud while counting the repetitions on a rosar y; they may participate in group practice at a local Buddhist temple; they may even take part in one-, threeor seven-day retreats that combine recitation with repentance rituals and meditation. This remains the prevalent form of Buddhist practice in East Asia to this day. Charles B.

Jones/The Conversation-CC via AP


Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Sunday, January 24, 2021

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Pagasa, a legacy of hope in Philippine eagle breeding

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

future of Geothermica and Sambisig. The pair are both housed at the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore. “Previous productive couples and imprinted birds have recently retired. We are waiting for new pairs and imprints to start breeding,” Ibañez said. He said the center lacks male breeders for imprints to boost its capacity to produce more eagles. “PEF has young breeders that are expected to lay eggs soon, but we still need new male breeders for cooperative artificial insemination,” he said.

agasa would have turned 29 on January 15. The first to be bred and hatched in captivity using the cooperative artificial insemination (CAI) technique, Pagasa breathed his last on January 6 at the privately run Philippine Eagle Center (PEC) in Malagos, Davao City, his birthplace.

He died of infections associated with trichomoniasis and aspergillosis, diseases common to raptors. The eagle’s demise came not as a surprise. It occurred a week after he was being treated. While the center’s veterinarians believed all was well and with high hopes that he would be able to recover, his conditions continued to deteriorate until his untimely death.

Icon of hope

The very idea of having Pagasa produced under artificial means gave the researchers at the center renewed hope in saving the species from extinction. When the eagle was conceived, it paved the way for researchers to contribute to the dwindling number of the species, according to the nonprofit Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF), which runs the center. The successful hatching of Pagasa in 1992 was received with much jubilation and the PEF was able to produce 27 captive-bred eagles afterward. Pagasa’s hatching was the culmination of 14 years of research at the center, whose primary purpose is to save the species from extinction through conservation breeding. Produced through cooperative

artificial insemination, a tricky procedure compared to the natural breeding or pairing method while in captivity, Pagasa was the center’s first CAI baby. Out of the 28 chicks hatched at the center, only seven were produced through CAI. There are currently 11 breeding eagles in the CAI program, including female Philippine eagle Mabuhay, Pagasa’s progeny. Mabuhay was hatched on February 9, 2013, when Pagasa was 21. Even after reaching past his productive years, Pagasa lived his life as an icon of hope as he continues to ser ve as an inspiration to the men and women of the PEF who are working tirelessly to save the National Bird from extinction.

Eagle’s mortality

According Jayson Ibañez, director for Research and Conservation of the PEF, other eagles have died while at the center’s care before Pagasa came. The causes of deaths vary. Some that were badly injured upon rescue later on died after surgery or while under treatment. Some of the eagles that die before Pagasa were Diola, Pagasa’s mother that died at 29; Luyag, at 32; Jing-jing, at 32; Tsai, at 28; and

Imminent threat Philippine eagle Pagasa Philippine Eagle Foundation photo

Thor, Tsai’s partner, at an age of 46.

Strict biosecurity protocols

Ibañez told the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview on January 19 that biosecurity protocols at the center was even more heightened because of their suspicion that Pagasa got the deadly disease from any of the wild virus-carrying or disease-carrying wild doves that may have gone close to Pagasa. Nevertheless, he maintained that Pagasa’s demise was an isolated case. The PEC observes strict biosecurity protocols to prevent incidents like what happened to Pagasa, Ibanez said. “What we really go for is prevention,” he said. He said the food and water given to the Philippine eagle and other raptors must be fresh and clean all the time, and containers used for their drinking must be decontaminated or disinfected. “We don’t really know which species of doves caused the disease. But there are several species in Malagos watershed and surrounding areas,” he said. He said infection could happen

in three modes—direct contact via fecal or urine contamination, eating of an infected animal, or drinking water contaminated by poop or urine of infected animals. “Some doves that might be infected [Pagasa] could include emerald dove, white-eared brown dove, spotted dove, zebra dove,” he said.

Wanted: Male eagles

Ibanez said PEC is looking for more breeding eagles to boost its capacity to produce eagles that can be released later into the wild. A Philippine eagle becomes sexually mature and productive at 5 years for females, and 7 years for males. They are productive until they reach 25. With Pagasa’s demise, although he is already past his productive stage, the PEC is banking on relatively young adult breeders and pairs at the center to produce the next generation Philippine eagles. Among them are natural pair Diamante and Dagitab, and budding natural pair Mayumi and Phoenix. The PEF is also hopeful of the

PEF Executive Director Dennis Salvador said Pagasa’s demise conveyed the reality that the threats of animal diseases are real, and they present clear danger to the Philippine eagle population and other raptors housed at the center. “Even if we have biosecurity protocols, we have no control over the environment and the other wildlife coming in which is out of our control,” he said. “What if it was the deadly bird flu that hit us?” he asked. If it was avian flu, the entire population at the center could easily be wiped out,” he added.

Clear and present danger

On top of virus-carrying wildlife like fruit doves that are near the center, Salvador added that the presence of poultry farms, even backyard pigeon farms, near the center present danger to the Philippine eagles and other raptors under their care. The Philippine eagle population produced through the PEF’s captive-breeding program represents about 5 percent of the entire population of Philippine eagle in the country, he noted. “We have already sounded the alarm to the local government and they responded positively on this.

But still the presence of poultry near the center remains a clear and present danger,” he said.

Wildlife loan agreement

According to Salvador, the threat of deadly animal diseases pushed the DENR and the PEF to enter into a wildlife loan agreement (WLA) with the Wildlife Reserves Singapore. Under the WLA, Philippine eagle pair of Geothermica and Sambisig was sent to Singapore as Ambassadors for Philippine Biodiversity. The move was also intended to produce Philippine eagle offsprings and start a population outside the country just in case a deadly disease like the avian flu wipes out the Philippine eagle population back home. “This underscores the need for us to enter more Wildlife Loan Agreements with other countries,” Salvador said.

Eagle’s safety, security

Lastly, for the protection of the Philippine eagle population and other raptors at the center, he said there is a need to look for another location far from human habitation, where the eagles can be safe against the deadly avian flu that almost always hit and wiped out the poultry farm population in a matter of days. However, he admitted that relocating the center is easier said than done. He admitted that they need access to resources which the PEF currently does not have. He said the DENR is already well aware of their plan as they have made requests for help and support a long ago. Hopeful that everything will fall in place and that things will go their way as planned, Salvador said: “We have already started looking for a suitable area, away from the human population and poultry farms.”

Is Covid-19 infecting wild animals? O

ver the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers have found coronavirus infections in pet cats and dogs and in multiple zoo animals, including big cats and gorillas. These infections have even happened when staff were using personal protective equipment. More disturbing, in December the United States Department of Agriculture confirmed the first case of a wild animal infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Cov id-19. Researchers found an infected wild mink in Utah near a mink farm with its own Covid-19 outbreak. Are humans transmitting this virus to wildlife? If so, what would this mean for wild animals—and people too?

How viruses hop between species We are two scientists who study viruses in wildlife and are currently running a study investigating the potential for SARS-CoV-2 transmission from humans into domestic and wild animals. When viruses move from one species into another, scientists call it spillover. Thankfully, spillover doesn’t occur easily. To infect a new species, a virus must be able to bind to a protein on a cell and enter the cell while dodging an immune system the virus hasn’t encountered before. Then, as a virus works to avoid antibodies and other antiviral attackers, it must replicate at a high

enough volume to be transmitted on to the next animal. This usually means that the more closely related two species are, the more likely they are to share viruses. Chimpanzees, the species most closely related to humans, can catch and get sick from many human viruses. Earlier this month, veterinarians at the San Diego Zoo announced that the zoo’s troop of gorillas was infected with SARS– CoV–2. This indicated it is possible for this virus to jump from humans to our close relatives. Some viruses tend to stay in a single species or in closely related species, while other viruses seem innately more capable of large species jumps. Inf luenza, for example, can infect a wide variety of animals, from sparrows to whales. Similarly, coronaviruses are known to regularly jump between species. The question of how many and which species can be infected by SARS-CoV-2—and which ones might be able to support continued circulation of the virus—is an important one.

Searching for Covid-19 in wildlife

For human-to-w ild life spillover of SARS-CoV-2 to occur, an animal needs to be exposed to a high-enough viral dose to become infected. The highest-risk situations are during direct contact with

humans, such as a veterinarian’s caring for an injured animal. Contact between a sick person and a pet or farm animal also poses a risk, as the domestic animal could act as an intermediate host, eventually passing the virus to a wild animal. Another way Covid-19 could spill over from humans into animals is through indirect infection, such as through wastewater. Covid-19 and other pathogens can be detected in waste streams, many of which end up dumped, untreated, into environments where wildlife like marine mammals may be exposed. This is thought to be how elephant seals in California became infected with H1N1 inf luenza during the swine flu pandemic in 2009. To study whether spillover of SARS-CoV-2 is happening, our team at Tufts is partnering with veterinarians and licensed wildlife rehabilitators across the US to collect samples from and test animals in their care. Through the project, we have tested nearly 300 wild animals from over 20 species. So far, none—f rom bats to sea ls to coyotes—have shown any evidence of Covid-19 by swab or antibody tests. Other researchers have launched targeted surveillance of wild animals in places where captive animals have been infected. The first confirmed infection

in a wild mink was found during surveillance near an infected mink farm. It’s not yet clear how this wild mink got the coronavirus, but the high density of infected minks and potentially infectious particles from them made it a high-risk location.

Bad for animals, bad for humans

When a virus infects a new species, it sometimes mutates, adapting to infect, replicate and transmit more efficiently in a new animal. This is called host adaptation. When a virus jumps to a new host and begins adapting, the results can be unpredictable. In late 2020, when SA R S CoV-2 jumped into farmed mink in Denmark, it acquired mutations that were uncommon in humans. Some of these mutations occurred in the part of the virus that most vaccines are designed to recognize. And it didn’t just happen once— these mutations independently arose in mink farms multiple times. While it’s not yet clear what impact, if any, these mutations may have on human disease or the vaccine, these are signs of host adaptation that could allow novel variants of the virus to persist and reemerge from animal hosts in the future. Another risk is that SARSCoV-2 could cause disease in

Members of the gorilla troop at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, California, are seen in their habitat on January 10. Several gorillas at the zoo have tested positive for the coronavirus in what is believed to be the first known cases among such primates in the United States and possibly the world. It appears the infection came from a member of the park’s wildlife care team, who also tested positive for the virus but has been asymptomatic and wore a mask at all times around the gorillas. Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo Safari Park via AP

animals. Ecologists are especially concer ned about end a ngered species like the black-footed ferret, which is closely related to minks and thought to be very susceptible to the virus. Human-to-wildlife spillover has happened before. In the late 20th century, the Ebola virus jumped from humans into great apes and has resulted in devastating consequences for these endangered animals. More recently, a human respiratory virus has been detected in threatened mountain gorilla populations and has caused deaths as well. But perhaps the biggest risk to humans is that spillover could result in the coronavirus establishing a reservoir in new animals

and regions. This could provide opportunities for reintroduction of Covid-19 into humans in the future. This month researchers published a paper showing that this had already happened on a small scale with human-to-mink-to-human transmission on mink farms in Denmark. While our team has found no evidence of Covid-19 in wild animals in the US at this time, we have seen convincing evidence of regular spillover into dogs and cats and some zoo animals. The discovery of the infected wild mink confirmed our fears. Seeing the first wild animal with natural Covid-19 is alarming, but sadly, not surprising. Jonathan

Runstadler/The Conversation-Cc via AP


Sports

BELGIUM’S Pieter Timmers holds up his silver medal in the men’s 100-meter freestyle at the 2016 Summer Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro in August 2016. AP

BusinessMirror

A8 | S

unday, January 24, 2021 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

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RIVING to Dublin—it’s, well, a long way from Tipperary. Too long for Dean Gardiner, especially with a new baby and full-time university courses. The Irish super heavyweight boxer tried to endure the grind of traveling and training for another shot at the Olympics, but he’s called it a career. The four-time Irish champion said the Tokyo Olympics, delayed a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, are no longer his top priority. “I just couldn’t do it all,” the 32-year-old Gardiner said of his packed schedule, which included driving several times per week from Tipperary to Ireland’s high-performance training center in the capital 100 miles away. “The year was going by, I was getting older, I have the responsibility of being a father, I have a responsibility to give everything to my college,” he said. “I have other priorities now that are higher up the list than boxing.” Gardiner is just the latest athlete deciding against another Olympic run. Lin Dan, a two-time Olympic champion in badminton from China, retired last year. British rower Tom Ransley and Australian cyclist Amy Cure are out. Japanese rugby player Kenki Fukuoka said he will pursue a medical career. Australian basketball player Andrew Bogut had hoped to finish his career in Tokyo last year, but he announced his retirement in December, saying “I just can’t physically and mentally get to 2021.” Belgian swimmer Pieter Timmers and his wife, Elle De Leeuw, had drawn up what they had called their “watertight” plan. It included Tokyo and moving to a new house with their

SHELVING TOKYO

3-year-old daughter. “I was going to stop after the Olympics,” said Timmers, who turned 33 on Thursday. Timmers won a silver medal in the 100-meter freestyle at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, bringing home Belgium’s first Olympic swimming medal in 20 years. He also anchored two sprint relay teams. “It’s extremely unlucky because I had an opportunity to go to my third Olympics and do well,” said Timmers, who also competed at the 2012 London Games. He retired in November after competing in the International Swimming League. Continuing would be unfair to his family, he said. “It’s not practical to keep swimming for one more year,” he said. About 11,000 athletes are expected to compete

in the Olympics—set to start on July 23. The Paralympics add another 4,400 athletes. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has framed the games as “proof of human victory against the coronavirus.” The International Olympic Committee and local organizers are adamant the games will happen, but there’s also speculation around them being canceled. Along with his new responsibilities, Gardiner was also fed up with the uncertainty. He held out hope that Europe’s qualifying tournament— postponed last March—would be held in February. If so, he may have given it a shot. He was scheduled to fight in the round of 16. “But when they got moved back to April, I was like, ‘I’m not going to be able to do it,’” he said. “I was also thinking they might get moved back [yet] again.”

SEPP BLATTER is recovering from a heart surgery. AP

Gardiner would have qualified for Rio if he beat Italian boxer Guido Vianello in qualifying held in Azerbaijan in 2016, but he came up short. The 6-foot-5, 230-pound Irishman has also traded blows in the amateur ranks with Joe Joyce, who is now 12-0 as a professional. Gardiner has turned down opportunities to go pro and said he’s now fully focused on life after boxing. He’s even hoping to distance himself from his well-known nickname, “Breakfast,” which he picked up in childhood, not from his physique. “I was in my prime last year, and I’m still just about there,” he said. “But there’s only one place as an amateur boxer where I’m going to go, that’s downhill a bit because I’m nearly 33. “I felt a bit of relief when I made the decision.” AP

Blatter spent a week in induced coma

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ENEVA—Former Fifa President Sepp Blatter spent a week in an induced coma after having heart surgery in December, his family said Thursday. The 84-year-old Blatter, who also tested positive for COVID-19 late last year, was well enough only this week to be moved out of intensive care at the hospital in Switzerland. “The doctors are satisfied with his condition. But there’s still a long way to go,” Blatter’s daughter, Corinne Blatter Andenmatten, said in an interview with Swiss media. “It was the hardest and saddest Christmas of my life.” Blatter has been under criminal investigation by Swiss federal prosecutors since 2015, and has not yet been told that Fifa filed a further criminal complaint against him last month, his daughter said in an interview circulated on behalf of the family. The latest case relates to Fifa financing the World Football Museum in Zurich. It was a pet project of Blatter that did not open until February 2016, after his presidency ended following the fallout from American and Swiss investigations of soccer officials. “He knows nothing about the museum complaint yet,” his daughter said. “And that is a good thing. He would just get unnecessarily agitated.”

Asked about the stress of facing multiple legal cases and interviews with prosecutors, Blatter Andenmatten said “you can imagine that he has been under great pressure.” She spoke in detail about Blatter’s health for the first time ahead of a scheduled meeting next week in one of several civil and criminal cases between Fifa and its president from 1998-2015. Blatter had seemed to overcome his Covid-19 infection and expected his heart surgery to be routine. “But then everything became more complicated and dangerous,” his daughter said. “In total he spent over a week in an artificial coma and was no longer able to communicate.” Blatter had a previous health scare in 2015, while he was first suspended by Fifa’s ethics committee for suspected financial mismanagement. He later said he had been “close to death” after taking ill while visiting the graves of his parents. “He has earned the right to be able to enjoy the rest of life without constantly being torpedoed by his previous employer,” Blatter Andenmatten said, asking that her father “should be granted what he needs on the path to, hopefully, a complete recovery: rest, time and relaxation.” AP

Froome makes debut for Israel in UAE Tour

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hris Froome will make his racing debut for Israel Start-Up Nation at the UAE Tour from February 21 to 27 and will be going up against Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar, Marc Hirschi, Mathieu van der Poel, Adam Yates and a host of other big-name riders in the first WorldTour race of 2021. The four-time Tour de France winner is spending the pre-season in California, doing extra strength training at the Red Bull High Performance center to complete his recovery from the injuries he sustained in his 2019 crash. Froome was set to make his season debut at the Vuelta a San Juan but the Argentinean race was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. All 19 WorldTour teams have confirmed their participation at the UAE Tour, with Van der Poel’s Alpecin-Fenix squad also given a place, meaning the Tour of Flanders winner will make his road racing debut three weeks after the cyclo-cross World Championships. Race organizer RCS Sport also revealed that world time trial champion Filippo Ganna will be part of the Ineos Grenadiers squad alongside Adam Yates. The sprint stages will also be hotly contested, with Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal), Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) all confirmed on the start list. The UAE Tour is set to start and finish in Abu Dhabi, though the full route has yet to

be released. Primož Roglič won in 2019, while Adam Yates won last year, edging out Pogačar. Last year’s UAE Tour was halted after five days due to confirmed cases of Covid-19 on the race. The entire race caravan was placed in lockdown in their hotels in Abu Dhabi, and four teams spent extended periods in quarantine before being allowed to leave the country. Gaviria was one of the riders to catch the virus. Race organizer RCS Sport said it will put in place “strict Covid-19 protocols designed to ensure the safety of all riders, staff and everyone involved” in the 2021 edition of the race. This year’s UAE Tour is set to be the first race of the 2021 WorldTour after the Santos Tour Down Under was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Other early-season races have also fallen by the wayside. The January cancellations and postponements mean that most riders in the WorldTour peloton are planning to begin the 2021 season in Europe, where the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Étoile de Bessèges (both February 3 to 7) are the first stage races on the calendar. One-day racing in Europe kicks off with a number of smaller teams riding the Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana 1969 on January 24, before six WorldTour teams ride the Grand Prix Cycliste la Marseillaise in France on January 31. Cyclingnews

Olympic weightlifting champion Rahimov charged in doping case

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AUSANNE, Switzerland—Olympic weightlifting champion Nijat Rahimov has been charged with swapping his urine samples in a doping case that could threaten his gold medal. The International Testing Agency (ITA) said late Monday it charged Rahimov and Dumitru Captari of Romania with “an antidoping rule violation for ‘Urine Substitution’ which would have occurred over a period of time in 2016.” It is unclear if the allegations include the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where Rahimov took gold with a world-record lift in the men’s 77-kilogram class. Captari competed in the same event. Rahimov’s performance was doubted even at the time in Rio. Rahimov served a two-year ban from 2013-15 in a doping case while competing for Azerbaijan and only returned to represent Kazakhstan a few months before the Olympics. The bronze medalist in Rio, Mohamed Mahmoud of Egypt, said of his rival’s rapid improvement “in a very short time it cannot

happen like that.” The ITA said Rahimov and Captari have been provisionally suspended while disciplinary cases are prosecuted. Weightlifting’s widespread doping and corruption issues were exposed one year ago by German broadcaster ARD. It led to the ousting of long-time International Weightlifting Federation president Tamas Aján, who also lost his honorary membership of the International Olympic Committee. The ARD program filmed Thailand lifter Rattikan Gulnoi, a bronze medalist at the 2012 London Olympics, talking about doping with steroids. Gulnoi has now been charged with a doping violation, the ITA said. Amid fallout from the German broadcast, the IWF hired doping investigator Richard McLaren to examine the sport’s problems. “The review of these 146 files discovered in the wake of the McLaren report is progressing and the ITA should be able to complete it and resolve the pending matters by spring 2021,” the Lausanne-based agency said. AP


BusinessMirror

Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman: ‘Even as we grieved, we grew.’

January 24, 2021


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BusinessMirror JANUARY 24, 2021 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

YOUR MUSI

RHYTHM & RHYME by Kaye Villagomez-Losorata

BTS, Smart explode with dynamite of a partnership

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HE genie that is Smart Communications keeps on granting wishes, the latest being global superstars BTS popping up into its roster of international endorsers.

Publisher

: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

Editor-In-Chief

: Lourdes M. Fernandez

Concept

: Aldwin M. Tolosa

Y2Z Editor

: 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

The Philippine Business Mirror Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 3rd Floor of Dominga Building III 2113 Chino Roces Avenue corner Dela Rosa Street, Makati City, Philippines. Tel. Nos. (Editorial) 817-9467; 813-0725. Fax line: 813-7025 Advertising Sales: 893-2019; 817-1351,817-2807. Circulation: 893-1662; 814-0134 to 36. www.businessmirror.com.ph

BTS

The Grammy-nominated Dynamite of a group surprised fans last Monday and turned the world of Filipino Armys upside down, by declaring that BTS is one with Smart in pushing for every young Filipino’s passion with purpose. Composed of Jimin, Jin, RM, Suga, J-Hope, V, and Jungkook, the biggest group to join the network’s Simple. Smart Ako campaign said in a 35-second social mediareleased video, “Glad to be here! We’re here to support SMART’s goal of inspiring people to live their lives with passion and purpose no matter the challenges that lie ahead. And with that, we’re proud to announce, Simple. SMART Ako.” In an official statement, Smart President and CEO Alfredo S. Panlilio, shared, “Aside from their remarkable talent, BTS emerged as the biggest band in the world because of their meaningful and uplifting music that brings hope and encouragement to fans especially in the bleakest of times. It is therefore a big honor to welcome BTS to the Smart family so we may inspire more Filipinos to find purpose in

everything they do and ultimately live Smarter for a Better World.” For Jane J. Basas, SVP and Consumer Wireless Business Head at Smart, BTS is set to boost the telecom giant’s campaign grounded on passions with purpose. “Just like BTS who are able to inspire millions of young people all over the world through their music, Smart Prepaid aims to bring about amazing experiences to the Filipino youth through technology to make life easy, fast, and simple. This way, the young generation are empowered to immerse in their interests and succeed with their pursuits,” she said. With their charm and talent making this challenged world a better place especially for their avid fans all over the world, BTS is known to touch lives whenever they put something out. This new partnership falls exactly on that goal. To celebrate the impending BTS takeover in the Philippines, here are some of the band’s most inspiring lyrics. “Like an echo in the forest, the day will come back around as if nothing happened. Yeah, life goes on

like this again,” from Life Goes On. From N.O, here’s a one-liner wake-up call, “Don’t be trapped in someone else’s dream.” Not afraid to touch on the reality that bites, BTS is a master of turning weakness into strength like here in Magic Shop, “Days when you hate that you’re you, days when you wanna disappear, let’s make a door in your heart. If you open that door and go inside, this place will be waiting for you. It’s ok to believe, it’ll comfort you, this Magic Shop.” The same “magic” applies to this verse from A Supplementary Story: You Never Walk Alone, “These wings came from pain but they are wings headed for the light though it’s hard and it hurts. If I can fly, I will fly.” This is why when BTS declares, “It’s okay, come on when I say one, two, three forget it. Erase all sad memories,” fans heed. The good thing about being part of the Army these days is that, you’d feel there’s hope from here, “Until this cold winter ends and the spring comes again. And until the flowers bloom again. Please stay there a little longer. Please stay there.”


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soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | JANUARY 24, 2021

BUSINESS

RAY OF HOPE Alternative rock trio 46 Hope St. soars with new single

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By Edwin P. Sallan

O less than celebrated singersongwriter Ebe Dancel is raving about them.

“I discovered the band during one of those sleepless nights when we were all in quarantine. A longtime fan sent me a link to a song of theirs. I ended up listening to them all night,” the former Sugarfree frontman shared in recalling the first time he heard about the band 46 Hope St. and their engaging brand of alternative rock. Referring to the band’s early single, “Bago Matulog,” Ebe tweeted just last June, “Do you guys know this group? Pakiabot sa kanila... Ang galing nila.” Responding to Ebe’s tweet, the band’s frontman Meds Rana posted, “Can’t put into words how surprised and humbled we are with your appreciation. You are a big inspiration to us. See, I even have to reinstall my inactive Twitter just to know it’s not fake news.” It was no surprise then that when Ebe was appointed by Widescope Entertainment as its Artist & Repertoire Manager last September, the first act that he wanted to sign was 46 Hope St., a threeman outfit based in Southern Manila and composed of Meds Rana on vocals, guitar, and synth, Ryan Gonzales on bass, and Aaron Paul Dolleton on drums. Formed back in 2019, the selfconfessed churchgoing 46 Hope St. plays music that according to them is distinguished by “self-empowering themes and unadulterated emotions.” Yes, they take pride in admitting they’re still raw although if the slick and polished production of their new single, “Parisukat na Bilog” is any indication, the band is more than ready to play with the big boys, so to speak. Trusting Ebe’s judgment, Widescope Music and Entertainment Director Neil Gregorio is equally pleased with having 46 Hope St. as part of the growing Widescope musical family. “It’s always been a personal crusade of mine to open-up doors to new and deserving talents regardless of status.

When I heard the music of 46 Hope St., I was impressed with their exceptional musicianship and remarkable songwriting skills which are both essentials for me. And the rest is history, we signed them up and now we are releasing their first single,” noted the seasoned record label executive and multi-platinum awarded record producer. The band’s latest single, “Parisukat na Bilog” is one of the few bright spots in these otherwise challenging times. The song encourages everyone to be comfortable and confident despite seeming to be a misfit in one’s environment. It hopes to inspire people to embrace and celebrate their uniqueness. With inspiring lyrics like, “Wag nang sayangin ang panahong magpaliwanag sa mga walang bilib sa yo, Ika’y parisukat sa bilog/Lumaya ka na sa loob at manampalataya sa angking galing mo, Ika’y parisukat sa bilog,” the song has struck a chord with just about anyone who would prefer to stand out rather than merely fit in. In discussing his creative process, Meds recently shared on Facebook that songwriting has always been his way of processing what he feels. “Literally, bata pa lang ako, I always feel like a misfit to any group of people I belong to. There’s nothing wrong with them, I know the problem is accepting myself—my own uniqueness. When I finally finished ‘Parisukat Sa Bilog,’ I felt like I was able to settle what I was feeling.” “It didn’t take long to finish the song as my brothers, Aaron and Ryan, are just so great at what they do. they made it so much better,” Meds concluded in his post. This 2021, 46 Hope St. is expected to make a bigger splash with their upcoming EP. Both Ebe Dancel and Neil Gregorio have big plans for the band which they intend to be one of the major artists of Widescope.

46 HOPE St. (Photo by Jessie James Gubatan from the band's Facebook page)

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Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman: ‘Even as we grieved, we grew.’ By Hillel Italie The Associated Press

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EW YORK—The United States has a new president and a new literary star. In one of the inauguration’s most talked about moments, poet Amanda Gorman summoned images dire and triumphant Wednesday as she called out to the world “even as we grieved, we grew.”

The 22-year-old Gorman referenced everything from Biblical scripture to Hamilton, and at times echoed the oratory of John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. With urgency and assertion she began by asking “Where can we find light/ In this never-ending shade?” and used her own poetry and life story as an answer. The poem’s very title, “The Hill We Climb,” suggested both labor and transcendence. We did not feel prepared to be the heirs Of such a terrifying hour. But within it we’ve found the power To author a new chapter, To offer hope and laughter to ourselves. It was an extraordinary task for Gorman, who soon after finishing her poem helped inspire—along with Vice Presi-

American poet Amanda Gorman, 22, reads a poem during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the US Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, January 20, 2021. AP dent Kamala Harris—the Twitter hashtag #BlackGirlMagic and was being praised by former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama among others. Gorman is the youngest by far of the poets who have read at presidential inaugurations since Kennedy invited Robert Frost in 1961, with other predecessors including Maya Angelou and Elizabeth Alexander. Mindful of the past, Gorman wore earrings and a caged bird ring—a tribute to Angelou’s classic memoir “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”—given to her by Oprah Winfrey, a close friend of the late writer. “I have never been prouder to see another young woman rise! Brava Brava, @ TheAmandaGorman! Maya Angelou is cheering—and so am I,” Winfrey tweeted. Gorman was also praised by Hamilton playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, who tweeted “YES @TheAmandaGorman!!!” Gorman, soon responded: “Thx @Lin_Manuel! Did you catch the 2 @HamiltonMusical references in the inaugural poem? I couldn’t help myself!”

Among the Hamilton inspirations in her poem: “History has its eyes on us,” a variation of the Hamilton song “History Has Its Eyes On You.” Gorman, a native and resident of Los Angeles and the country’s first National Youth Poet Laureate, told The Associated Press last week that she planned to combine a message of hope for President Joseph Biden’s inaugural without ignoring “the evidence of discord and division.” She had completed a little more than half of “The Hill We Climb” before January 6 and the siege of the US Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. “That day gave me a second wave of energy to finish the poem,” Gorman told the AP. She had said that she would not mention January 6 specifically, but her reference was unmistakable: We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. And this effort very nearly succeeded.

But while democracy can be periodically delayed, It can never be permanently defeated.” Frost’s appearance at the Kennedy inaugural was a kind of valedictory—he was 86 and died two years later. Gorman’s career is just beginning. Penguin Young Readers announced Wednesday that “The Hill We Climb” will be published in a special edition this spring. Two other books come out in September—the illustrated Change Sings and a volume of her inaugural poem and other works. Ceremonial odes often are quickly forgotten, but Angelou’s “On the Pulse Of the Morning,” which she read at the 1993 inaugural of President Clinton, went on to sell more than 1 million copies as a book. By late Wednesday afternoon, Change Sings was No. 1 on Amazon.com’s best-seller list, and her September poetry collection was No. 2. She had 206K Instagram followers and 121.3K Twitter followers at the end of the inauguration. Hours later, she had 1.3 million followers on Instagram and 738,000 on Twitter. Invited to the inaugural late last month by first lady Jill Biden, Gorman has read at official occasions before—including a July 4 celebration when she was backed by the Boston Pops Orchestra—and has previously met Michelle Obama and former first lady Hillary Clinton among others. She has also made clear her desire to appear at a future inaugural, in a much greater capacity, an ambition she stated firmly in her poem. We, the successors of a country and a time, Where a skinny black girl, Descended from slaves and raised by a single mother, Can dream of becoming president, Only to find herself reciting for one.

Students write inaugural poems for poetry academy contest

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EW YORK—Hallie Knight, a high-school senior from Jacksonville, Florida, has some well-formed ideas about where the country is and how she’d like to see it change. The 17-year-old has won a contest organized by the Academy of American Poets for which students under 18 wrote their own inaugural poems in anticipation of Wednesday’s swearing in of President-elect Joe Biden. Applicants for the Inaugural Poem Project were urged to submit work that reflects “on the country’s challenges, strengths, and hope for its future,” according to the guidelines. Knight says she “wanted to acknowledge the greatness of the potential for our country at this pres-

ent moment, and the opportunity we have as citizens to choose what it becomes out of all this chaos.” Inspired by works ranging from W.H. Auden’s “As I Walked Out One Evening” to Adrienne Rich’s “Storm Warnings,” Knight crafted a piece called “To Rebuild” that likens the US to a house that has been severely but not hopelessly damaged. The work is not complete until The walls protect all who live there, No exceptions. Abandonment of all Unnecessary despair. Knight will receive $1,000, and her work—along with the poems of two runners-up—will be featured on Poets.org and in American Poets magazine. The official inaugural poem was read during Wednesday’s ceremony

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STUDENT-poets Hallie Knight (from left), 17, a high-school senior from Jacksonville, Fla., Mina King, a 17-year-old from Shreveport, La., and 12-year-old Gabrielle Marshall, from Richmond, Va. AP by Amanda Gorman, the country’s first Youth Poet Laureate. She is 22, just a few years older than Knight. “She is proof to people of all ages, but especially those younger than her, that there is no need to wait to make an impact,” Knight says. Mina King, a 17-year-old from Shreveport, Louisiana, came in second for “In Pursuit of Dawn,” in which she wove in the common

January 24, 2021

American theme of rising from poverty. My stepfather created opportunity from the destitute nothing he was dealt, consoled only by the American dream that came as whispers under snowdappled stars. And from these muff led mumblings he bettered his situation. The third-place finisher is just 12 years old: Gabrielle Marshall, from Richmond, Virginia. Her “The Power of Hope” acknowledged the country’s profound divisions, and possibilities: Today’s hope is peering beyond the lingering barrier, but still recognizing the diversity in ourselves. AP


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