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AERIAL view of the Tun Sakaran Marine Park, off the east coast of Sabah. There are approximately 2,000 people living within the park, most of whom consist of the nomadic Bajau Laut (Sea Gypsies) people, who live in stilt houses and houseboats in and around the marine park. ASNIDAMARWANI | DREAMSTIME.COM
SABAH: PHL’S ‘LOST’ LAND OF PROMISE? Former envoy pushes revival of Manila’s decades-long claim to Sabah
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By Recto L. Mercene
N on again, off again claim by the Philippines to Sabah recently stirred debates amid the Covid-19 pandemic after several ranking personalities expressed their views that “the land below the wind” belongs to the Philippines.
Former Philippine Ambassador and Law of the Sea expert Alberto Encomienda, during a recent Zoom conference, said documentary evidence would prove that Manila has a “rightful and legal claim” to the former North Borneo, which is located outside the typhoon belt that regularly visits the Philippines. “The coming presidential election in 2022 should be an appropriate time for the prospective presidential candidates to express their views on this ticklish issue,” he said in a telephone interview, adding he wanted the issue to remain in the public domain and would be satisfied if the issue is settled once and for all—“for the sake of history.” He said the Philippines pursued its claim to Sabah but the effort appears to be sporadic at best. “I hope that from this roundtable discussion, since we have an election coming up [in 2022], we can really generate attention and action in this regard. Maybe not now, not during [President Rodrigo] Duterte’s term but it must be in the public discourse,” Encomienda pointed out.
Rekindled
AFTER a few years’ silence by Philippine officials on the Sabah claim, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. started the ball rolling in July last year when he chastised the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for saying, during
a donation of hygiene kits, that they were meant for use by “returning Filipino repatriates from Sabah, Malaysia.” Locsin said categorically, Sabah belongs to the Philippines. The statement prompted Locsin’s counterpart, Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, to announce that he will summon Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia, Charles Jose, to explain Locsin’s “irresponsible statement” that Sabah belongs to the Philippines. Locsin, in a tweet, insisted that his recent remark about Sabah not being part of Malaysia is “historically factual,” while lamenting Hussein’s move to summon Jose. He added that he was just asserting the Philippines’s claim in the territory similar to what he said is being done with the West Philippine Sea. “You summoned our ambassador for a historically factual statement I made: that Malaysia tried to derail the Arbitral Award,” Locsin said in a reply to an earlier tweet by Minister Hussein. Malaysia was established on September 16, 1963, comprising the territories of Malaya (now Peninsular Malaysia), the island of Singapore, and the colonies of Sarawak and Sabah in northern Borneo. In August 1965, Singapore seceded from the federation and became an independent republic. Encomienda, a former envoy to Greece, Malaysia and Singapore, added that the country pursued the Sabah claim “always with the
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 48.5190
THE Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal in Kimananis,Sabah. SHARIF PUTRA | DREAMSTIME.COM
ENCOMIENDA: “The coming presidential election in 2022 should be an appropriate time for the prospective presidential candidates to express their views on this ticklish issue.”
rule of law and peaceful settlement approach with Malaysia and there were a series of negotiations with the Malaysians until it was abruptly cut off.” He added, “I want to emphasize this because we have many issues on sovereignty and sovereign rights, that we were consistent in trying to work this out in a very orderly manner, diplomatically and following the rule of law.” According to Encomienda, “our endgame in the negotiations with Malaysia before the cut-off
was a proposition that we bring the Sabah issue to the UN, which Malaysia agreed to and they agreed that we refer this to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).” On September 12, 1962, during President Diosdado Macapagal’s administration, the Philippine government claimed the territory of North Borneo and the full sovereignty, title and dominion over it were “ceded” by the heirs of Sultan of Sulu, Muhammad Esmail E. Kiram I, to the Philippines, according to historical accounts.
Who ‘dropped the ball’?
ENCOMIENDA said the claim was a continuing process from President Macapagal up to President Ferdinand Marcos but then, “somebody dropped the ball.” He suggested that in the coming presidential elections, those interested to pursue the Sabah claim should ask the views of former President Ferdinand Marcos’s heirs, former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and his sister, Sen. Imee Romualdez Marcos. It was during
the term of the late strongman’s rule that the country was active in pursuing the claim to Sabah. “Let us also ask GMA [Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo], the former President whose father, the late Diosdado Macapagal, first started to stake its claim to Sabah.” In 1962, the country started to claim Sabah after the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo gave the government, then headed by President Macapagal, the legal authority to negotiate on their behalf. Macapagal filed with the United Kingdom the Philippine claim of sovereignty, jurisdiction and ownership of North Borneo. The following year, Sabah was annexed to Malaysia when it declared its independence from the United Kingdom. British North Borneo Co. had since ceased paying when its rights to Sabah is transferred to the newly established Federation of Malaysia. The new government assumed the payment but in ringgit. “GMA should be able to support our claim to straighten the public
narrative,” Encomienda said, and, at the same time…to find out the current status of the Sultan of Sulu. “We’re not asking the Sultanate to secede but to clarify their stand.” He said it would be timely to discuss the Sabah claim during the forthcoming elections, saying he feels that all the candidates would be able to help clear up the narrative about the Sabah issue. He said he fears that after the Duterte administration ends, the issue may die a natural death, especially if those elected to replace him are from the political opposition. The preceding administration of President Benigno Aquino III had been perceived as leaning toward Malaysia, washing its hands off the 200-plus Filipino followers of the Sulu sultanate who made an ill-fated landing in Sabah in 2012. Aquino’s Liberal Party is now the opposition.
Swept under the rug
SINCE the issue of the Sabah claim has been discussed lengthily in the media, there has been no mention at all about the opinions of the surviving heirs to the Sultanate, except the claim of their representative, Abraham Ijirani, secretary general, Sultanate of Sulu. “In the midst of this discussions,” Encomienda said, “it appears the Sulu Sultanate has been sweep under the rug,” adding “the media would be able to help if they could interview the Sulu heirs to find out their stand, views and feeling about this issue. The Sultanate’s heirs’ role has been relegated to the claim that Malaysia continues to pay them ‘rent,’” which has since been stopped. In July 2020, Minister Hussein said his country had stopped paying cession money to the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu because Malaysia also did not recognize and entertain any claim by any party over Sabah, which has been recognized as part of Malaysia by the United Nations. Continued on A2
n JAPAN 0.4472 n UK 67.8975 n HK 6.2537 n CHINA 7.4708 n SINGAPORE 36.2244 n AUSTRALIA 37.7817 n EU 58.1646 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.9377
Source: BSP (March 12, 2021)
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A2 Sunday, March 14, 2021
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US, China clash over how to describe crucial first meeting
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By Bloomberg News
HE US and China laid out differing expectations for a key first meeting next week, showing the domestic pressure on both sides to avoid looking weak while reopening relations.
The encounter between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and their Chinese counterparts in Alaska would represent the highest-level meeting between the two sides since President Joe Biden took office. But the two sides quickly disagreed over whether the exchange was a “strategic dialogue,” a reference to regular talks that fell apart under former President Donald Trump. “This is not a strategic dialogue—there’s no intent at this point for a series of follow-on engagements,” Blinken told members of Congress on Wednesday.
Who invited who?
CHINESE Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian later released a response to Blinken’s remarks, describing the meetings on March 18-19 as a “high-level strategic dialogue” being held “at the invitation of the US.” The posturing illustrates the
high stakes for a meeting that could set the tone for the world’s most important diplomatic relationship. While Biden faces bipartisan demands for maintaining much of Trump’s hard-line approach to Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping must also contend with deep nationalist support for pushing back against US pressure over issues from trade to Taiwan. Still, the meeting demonstrates a willingness to reengage after ties last year sank to their lowest level in decades, with both nations ramping up sanctions and tariffs, expelling journalists and closing consulates. The US and China have both expressed interest in collaborating on global issues such as climate change and indicated an openness to make early goodwill gestures. “It’s already a good gesture by the Biden administration given the US domestic politics,” said Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at Nanjing University. “Both sides have insisted the other
A CHINESE flag hangs between American flags in Chinatown in New York City. ANGELA WEISS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
should right the wrongs. It’ll be a positive result if the two countries could go further than repeating such rhetoric, and start to build back dialogue mechanisms on issues of concerns, such as technology decoupling, Taiwan and trade.”
Boosting trust, dispel misgivings
CHINESE Premier Li Keqiang told
his annual news briefing Thursday in Beijing that he hoped to see “various levels” of dialogue with the Biden administration. “Even if we cannot work everything out any time soon, such exchange of views will help boost trust and dispel misgivings,” Li said. The face-to-face meeting will come on the heels of days of
high-profile meetings between US officials and key Asia-Pacific partners, including the first-ever state leaders meeting from the Quad grouping of democracies. The schedule—as well as the venue on American soil—allows the US side to project strength. Blinken told the US House Foreign Affairs Committee that
future engagements with China would happen only if the administration saw tangible progress on the issues of concern. “But this is an opportunity for us to put it on the table,” he said. The Chinese delegation will arrive in Alaska days after lawmakers in Beijing defied US sanctions to approve sweeping legislation to limit the opposition’s participation in Hong Kong elections. The measure was passed as part of an annual legislative session that ratified a series of plans aimed at expanding China’s economy, modernizing its military and reducing the country’s dependence on American technology. The Chinese delegation will be led by top diplomat Yang Jiechi—a member of the ruling Politburo—and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Both men have suggested in recent remarks that the onus was on the US to repair ties after four years of Trump, and they’ve urged Washington to reopen regular dialogue platforms. “We demand the US adopt an objective and rational attitude toward bilateral ties, abandon its Cold War mentality and zero-sum mindset, respect China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs,” Zhao, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Thursday.
Sabah: PHL’s ‘lost’ Land of Promise? and not the nine representatives because that would be “very unwieldy.” Then Senator Raul Manglapus was able to bring together only seven of the claimants but not the remaining two. Malaysia wants to talk to only one person among the heirs because the Kiram descendants could not agree among themselves “so Manglapus was brought in as spokesman.” “The Malaysians agreed to settle the proprietary rights that was laid out by the Macaskie judgment, but the heirs could not agree who would speak for the nine heirs. Manglapus took over but was unsuccessful.” Asked what mode of law the Philippines is invoking to claim Sabah, Encomienda replied: “We don’t have to re-read history. All the documents are there, but ours have been burned twice. If Irijani can come to reconstruct the documents, then we can sound out Malaysia, so can we settle this once and for all.” At that time, he said, “we agreed for Sabah to join Malaysia on condition that we may have to pursue it depending on the results of what’s anticipated as the ruling of the ICJ.” He added that President Marcos had agreed that “if the ICJ said, ‘it is not yours,’ then that’s the end of our claim.”
Continued from A1
The Philippines maintains a territorial claim over Sabah based on an agreement signed in 1878 between the Sultan of Sulu and the North Borneo Chartered Company. It maintains the position that the sovereignty of the Sultanate over the territory was not abolished and that North Borneo was only leased to the North Borneo Chartered Company. However, Malaysia considers the dispute a “non-issue,” as it interprets the 1878 agreement as that of cession; and that it deems that the residents of Sabah had exercised their right to self-determination when they joined the Malaysian federation in 1963.
Sabah belongs to PHL
“IT [Sabah] is ours. We have a [valid] claim. It is properly documented. We were trying to pursue it with all peaceful means,” said the former envoy during the Zoom conference entitled “Sabah: Is it part of the Philippines?” “Except that it was not accidental. I’m sorry to say, this is my view but having been exposed to it [Sabah issue] and looking at the process going on, the claim was cut off also during the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III.” Encomienda relates that three to four months after his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, assumed power in 1986, there were intense activities because of the coming Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit. “Malaysia would not have come unless we work on this issue,” he added. When President Fidel V. Ramos was elected, he revived the Sabah claim “until the ball was dropped.” Encomienda said, “From the beginning it was clear our claim to Sabah was based on a cession of sovereignty from the Sultan of Sulu until the Federation of Malaysia came about.”
Compensation
HISTORICAL accounts said that in 1658, the Sultan of Brunei ceded the northern and eastern portions of Borneo to the Sultanate of Sulu in compensation for the latter’s help in settling the Brunei Civil War in the Sultanate. “Yes, we have a process going on since [former president] Diosdado Macapagal,”
Oil rich
AERIAL view of Sabah State Administrative Building. SHARIF PUTRA | DREAMSTIME.COM
Encomienda said. Unfortunately, he said, the office “burned down close to Christmas in the late ’70s. I would say there was nothing more to reconcile. [But] we have others in the DFA [Department of Foreign Affairs] library that also burned down completely.” Whether the burning was coincidental or intentional, Encomienda said, “I have my own thoughts but the investigation said it was due to faulty electrical wirings and the convenient excuse was that those were old buildings.” Asked how the Philippines could start anew the arrested claim to Sabah, Encomienda said: “We send out feelers first and make it clear with the other side [our intention].” He added, “In a friendly atmosphere we usually get positive results, that’s how it’s usually done,
and there was positive response from Malaysia.” Recalling his stint in the DFA, Encomienda said, “In the initial phase, the Sabah issue was done quietly; we have a program of action,” he said. At the moment, he said managing the claim to Sabah might take longer “because the ball was dropped intentionally.” “We must not say we are renewing our claim to Sabah because it was never suspended. We have to continue where we were before and our unity will be necessary,” Encomienda said. Aside from discussions with Malaysia, the former envoy said Manila can submit a case to the ICJ “because we are very transparent in our action plan. We are ready to submit documents.” Considering the legality of the Philippines’s claim to Sabah, Enco-
mienda said, “Our claim is that it’s a legal issue and must be referred to ICJ as principal judicial organ of the UN.” He said that was the Philippines’s stand, which was in the open until the term of the late President Marcos, who was accused by the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. in connection with the Jabidah Massacre, but that is another story. Meanwhile, Abraham Ijirani, Secretary General of the Sultanate of Sulu and one of the Zoom forum participants, said he is ready to provide the necessary documents to the Sabah claim “under Sultan Kiram II should the Philippines decide to pursue the Sabah claim in the UN or ICJ.” He denied allegations that the Sulu Sultanate is fragmented, saying there remain nine principal claimants, but who want to be represented by only one person.
Fragmented heirs?
“MALAYSIA is simply escaping by always saying that the heirs are fragmented, but actually the nine heirs are ready if contacted by the authorities,” Encomienda said. He said, “In the course of the process, the Malaysians agreed on the ruling handed down by Chief Justice Charles Frederick Cunningham Macaskie of the High Court of North Borneo, on the share entitlement of each claimant. “This ruling has often been quoted by proponents of the Sulu Sultanate’s claim as proof of North Borneo’s acknowledgment of the sultan’s ownership of the territory, although it was made solely to determine who, as heir, was entitled to the ‘cession money’ of 5,300 Malaysian ringgit per year.” He said under the 1939 Macaskie judgment, the Malaysians want to talk only to one person
ASKED how rich Sabah is, Encomienda pointed out “that Malaysia is among the biggest oil producers in the world, whose oil wells are in Sarawak and Sabah.” Malaysia’s adamant objections to the Philippines’s claim to Sabah is understandable, especially in the wake of the discovery of oil in 2011. “In shallow waters off the west coast of Sabah, Petronas discovered a gas field estimated to contain 500 billion cubic feet of gas in place,” according to sources. In 2020 Malaysian stateowned energy giant Petronas was expected to pay the resource-rich state of Sabah 1.25 billion ringgit ($303 million) in sales tax next year, state media said. Sabah and neighboring Sarawak state in Borneo Island hold much of the nation’s oil and gas reserves and have long asked for more payments from Petronas, the sole manager of the country’s energy reserves.
www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Angel R. Calso
The World
How Africa can save the world from a never-ending pandemic By Antony Sguazzin
A
Bloomberg News
s the rest of the world prepares for a vaccine-driven return to normal over the next few months, at her community health center in a poor, working class neighborhood of Cape Town, Andrea Mendelsohn is dreading the arrival of April and May—that’s when the weather will get cooler in the southern hemisphere and bring a surge in coronavirus cases. Few people in South Africa—aside from medical staff like Mendelsohn—will be vaccinated by then. Elsewhere on the continent even health workers won’t be inoculated, making Africa a large reservoir of the virus that has infected almost 117 million people across the globe and killed more than 2.5 million. “The arrival of vaccines is going to have zero impact on the third wave but at least I can be confident that when I go to work I won’t die,” Mendelsohn, a senior medical officer in the Western Cape Province’s Department of Health, said in an interview. “I am sure health workers in Malawi and Tanzania want to have the same relief.” Most countries in Africa have yet to start inoculating their citizens. While developed countries have rushed to vaccinate their populations against Covid-19, fewer than half a million people have received shots in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region of 1.1 billion people. In contrast, the US, with a population of about 330 million, has administered over 90 million vaccine doses, while more than a third of the UK’s 67 million people have gotten at least one shot. But anyone in the developed world who thinks they are unaffected by large swaths of unvaccinated people in Africa, needs to think again, says Phionah Atuhebwe, the New Vaccines Introduction Medical Officer on the continent for the World Health Organization. As long as the pandemic continues to rage among unvaccinated populations, spawning new, more virulent, vaccine-resistant strains, no one is safe, she said. “The virus will definitely mutate and will keep mutating; the longer we keep the virus around the more mutations we’ll see,” Atuhebwe said in an interview from Brazzaville, in the Republic of Congo. “If Africa is not vaccinated and we are a source of mutations, we put the whole world at risk.” Already the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford has proved largely ineffective in preventing mild disease from infections with a strain of the virus first identified in South Africa. That mutation has spread to at least 48 countries, including the UK and the US. Rich nations pre-paid for their vaccines and also got organized quicker and earlier, leaving countries in Africa scrambling for scraps. The affluent world’s vaccine grab was characterized in January by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as a “catastrophic moral failure.” Just 10 countries administered 75 percent of all vaccinations, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in February, calling it “wildly uneven and unfair.” A report by anti-poverty group One said last month that the world’s richest countries are on track to accumulate over 1 billion more doses than they need to fully vaccinate their populations, adding that the excess shots alone would be sufficient to inoculate the entire adult population of Africa. “It’ll be a fatal mistake if the developed world sees this as a case where we’ll vaccinate our people and then people in other parts of the world take care of their own business,” said John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “Covid won’t be defeated until it’s defeated everywhere.” The mad dash to corner vaccines shows rich countries have learned little from the global swine flu pandemic in 2009, when poor nations were left high and dry, says Helen Rees, chairwoman of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority. Despite the heightened risk of the virus spreading with increased interconnectedness, “there was not a thought about what would happen to the rest of the world,” she said. Countries from Nigeria to Ethiopia and Zimbabwe have large numbers of their citizens living and working in Europe, North America and even Asia, and regular flights mean that just as easily as the virus arrived in Africa from Europe, mutated strains could be spread into the developed world by returning travelers. In addition, a slow vaccine rollout could further delay the economic recovery in Africa, which contracted for the first time in 25 years last year. Already, Zambia has defaulted on its debt and Ethiopia and Chad are seeking debt relief. The developed world relies on the continent’s natural resources for much of the raw materials it needs. West Africa accounts for 60 percent of the world’s cocoa supply, the Democratic Republic of Congo is the key source of cobalt needed for electric vehicles and tantalum used in mobile phones. South Africa is the world’s biggest source of platinum. Vaccines are slowly trickling into Africa. The African Union has secured some supplies, China has provided vaccines to Zimbabwe and other African nations and countries such as Israel are beginning to donate excess supplies. Still, most African countries are almost entirely reliant on Covax—the initiative backed by the WHO, the vaccine alliance Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations that offers vaccines cheaply to developing countries. Covax began distributing vaccines to countries such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast last month. But the program will only cover 20 percent of the populations of its members by year-end. Of the 304 million doses administered worldwide so far, fewer than 0.2 percent have been in SubSaharan Africa, home to 14 percent of the world’s population. Richer nations are beginning to acknowledge that poorer countries need better access to vaccines. In an interview with the Financial Times in February, French President Emmanuel Macron called the vaccine gap “an unprecedented acceleration of global inequality.” At their meeting last month, leaders of the G7 countries pledged $7.5 billion to Covax and also called on countries to donate surplus supplies. Granted, African governments haven’t helped themselves. Few made attempts to secure supplies directly from pharmaceutical companies, with South Africa—which has a wealth of medical expertise and is the site of five coronavirus vaccine trials—only signing deals this year. “The bulk of the blame should be placed on African leaders for being somewhat nonchalant and non-proactive,” said Ifeoluwapu Asekun-Olarinmoye, an epidemiologist at Nigeria’s Babcock University. That’s in part because the official Covid-related death toll across Africa is just under 106,000 with almost 4 million cases reported, small compared to the rest of the world. But testing has been sparse and many infections and deaths have gone unrecorded. At times over the last few months hospitals from Cape Town to Harare and Lagos have groaned under the strain. Doctors and oxygen have been in short supply and people have taken to social media to search for beds for their afflicted relatives. With vaccines beginning to arrive, other challenges are coming to the fore. The continent is plagued by poor health infrastructure, a shortage of trained personnel and inadequate data on the people who need to be vaccinated. Take Nigeria, for instance. Africa’s most populous nation has about 214 million people, most living in areas that are hard to reach. Fewer than a third of the country’s 195,000-kilometer (121,170-mile) road network is paved; power supply—even in the biggest cities—is unreliable, making it a challenge to keep vaccines refrigerated; and a 15-year gap since the last census means the government has little idea about the whereabouts of vulnerable groups like the elderly. The same applies to many African countries. “We don’t know where they live, we don’t know how many there are, we don’t know how to find them,” Atuhebwe said in a webinar. In countries like Tanzania virus denial is holding back attempts to immunize the population. President John Magufuli has declared his country Covid-free even as people continue to die from it. Vaccine skepticism runs high in some countries, with 15 high-school students taken to hospital in south-west Cameroon last month after leaping from the second floor to escape what they thought was a team of medics arriving to vaccinate them. Meanwhile, some shots—like Russia’s Sputnik V and vaccines from China’s CanSino Biologics Inc.—have sparked concern. They use a cold germ to carry the genetic material of the Covid virus into patients’ cells to trigger an immune response. A trial in South Africa of an HIV vaccine using the same vector more than a decade ago was tied to an increase in HIV infections. South Africa has the world’s biggest AIDS epidemic and many of its neighbors have similar infection rates. Even when vaccines are suitable, some African countries can’t afford shots outside the Covax system. Since African countries didn’t contribute to the development of the shots and didn’t preorder, they don’t get the discounts offered to richer countries. In January, Anban Pillay, a deputy director general in South Africa’s Department of Health, said the country would pay $5.25 per dose of AstraZeneca’s shot compared with about $3 the European Union was paying. All that has meant a very slow pace of vaccination. South Africa, the continent’s most developed country, is inoculating at most about 11,000 people a day with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot, a pace that would take a decade to cover the 40 million people the government wants to vaccinate. Most vaccines available to African nations require two shots. If a double-dose regime is followed and 780 million Africans inoculated over 12 months to attain herd immunity, there would need to be 7 million vaccinations a day, according to Ernest Darkoh, founder of Cape Town-based Broadreach Group, which works with governments on health care. That’s unlikely to happen without a lot of help. “The whole world needs to walk this journey together,” said Mmboneni Muofhe, a deputy director general at South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology. “We are going to find ourselves sitting with a variant that defies all the vaccines. We are sitting on a ticking time bomb.” With Ruth Olurounbi, Katarina Hoije, Pius Lukong, and Zoe Schneeweiss
BusinessMirror
Sunday, March 14, 2021
A3
UN chief appeals for $5.5 billion to prevent famine for 34 million By Edith M. Lederer
U
The Associated Press
NITED NATIONS—SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres made an urgent appeal on Thursday for $5.5 billion to prevent a “catastrophe” for 34 million people in over three dozen countries who are just one step away from famine driven by conflict—and the World Food Program chief warned that 270 million people are facing “a hunger crisis” this year. Guterres told a high-level UN Sec u r it y Cou nc i l meet i ng organized by the US that more than 88 million people were suffering from “acute hunger” at the end of 2020 due to conf lict and instability—a 20 -percent increase in one year— and “projections for 2021 point to a continuation of this frightening trend.” World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley said leaders responded to his warning to the council a year ago that the world stood on the brink of the Covid-19 pandemic and a hunger pandemic that could push the number of people “marching to the brink of starvation” from 135 million to 270 million and lead to “famines of biblical proportions” in over three dozen countries. Unfortunately, Beasley said, “the concerns of 2020 are now a reality for 2021” because of new waves of Covid-19 and economies not yet surging back to normal. “So, today, I must warn you that we are once again sliding toward the brink of the abyss,” he said. “Now, 270 million people are facing a hunger crisis.” Both Guterres and Beasley stressed that the hunger crisis and looming famines are primarily driven by conflict and are entirely preventable. “Climate shocks and the Covid-19 pandemic are adding fuel to the flames,” the UN secretary-general said. He warned that “without immediate action, millions of people will reach the brink of extreme hunger and death,” pointing to projections showing that hunger crises are “escalating and spreading across the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, and
accelerating in South Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan.” In some countries, Guterres said, “famine is already here” and “people are dying from hunger and suffering critical rates of malnutrition.” “Parts of Yemen, South Sudan and Burkina Faso are in the grip of famine or conditions akin to famine,” he said. “More than 150,000 people are at risk of starving.” Five years of conf lict in Yemen have displaced 4 million people and left many “facing a death sentence as widespread hunger stalks their nation,” Guter res sa id. “A round half of all children under five—2.3 million—are projected to face acute malnutrition in 2021. Some 16 million people face food insecurity.” W FP ’s B ea sle y, who wa s i n Ye men t wo days ago, ca l led it “ hel l on ea r t h in ma ny pl aces” a nd wa r ned t h at “we a re head i ng st ra ight to wa rd t he big gest fa m i ne i n moder n h istor y.” At Al Sabeen children’s hospital, the best in the capital Sanaa, he said children were “skin and bones, and dying with entirely preventable or treatable illnesses.” The hospital has 25 beds and Beasley said he asked a doctor about children that were turned away. “She replied, “They go home to die.’” Guterres and Beasley cited other countries with growing hunger. The secretary-general said Congo, with ongoing conflicts in its mineralrich east and elsewhere, “experienced the world’s largest food crisis last year, with nearly 21.8 million people facing acute hunger between July and December.” Beasley, who visited Congo last
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said more than 88 million people were suffering from “acute hunger” at the end of 2020 due to conflict and instability. AP week, said “this year it is set to become the world’s largest hunger emergency with 19.6 million people facing crisis, emergency or catastrophic levels of food insecurity, up from 15.6 million people a year ago.” In Afghanistan, nearly 17 million people face a similar emergency, up from 13.9 million people, Beasley said. In Nigeria, there has been “a staggering increase” to 13 million people from 5 million people, and in Syria after 10 years of war “over 12 million people face crisis levels of food insecurity or worse—an all-time high and up from 9.3 million people.” Ten years after South Sudan declared independence, Guterres said 60 percent of the population is increasingly hungry, with chronic sporadic violence, extreme weather and the economic impact of Covid-19 pushing more than 7 million people into acute food insecurity. Food prices are so high, he said, that “ just one plate of rice and beans costs more than 180 percent of the average daily salary— the equivalent of about $400 here in New York.” Beasley, who visited Western Pibor in South Sudan in early February, said in recent days he heard that “mothers are resorting to feeding their children with the skin of dead animals—or even mud,” calling the “famine-like conditions” desperate and appealing for “urgent action.” The UN chief said he had one simple message: “if you don’t feed people, you feed conflict.” “We need to tackle both hunger and conflict if we are to solve either,” Guterres said. He called on donors for $5.5 billion for “the more than 34 million people who already face emergency levels of acute food insecurity.” The secretary-general urged Security Council members to use their “privileged position to do everything
in your power to end violence, negotiate peace, and alleviate the hunger and suffering that aff lict so many millions of people around the world.” Beasley echoed the appeals, urging donors “to open your hearts, show compassion, and to give and give generously.” And he urged leaders and parties involved in conflict “to invest in peace so that in the future desperate families are not forced to the brink of survival by the bullet and the bomb.” US Ambassador Linda ThomasGreenfield said “acute malnutrition can trigger other risks, like genderbased violence or the exploitation and abuse of children.” She recalled the 2018 Security Council resolution calling for “ bad actors” who use star vation as a weapon of war to be investigated and held accountable and asked Secretary-General Guterres to increase reporting “so that no more innocent civilians starve to death.” Guterres announced he is establishing a High-Level Task Force on Preventing Famine led by UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock. Gabriela Bucher, executive director of the British-based aid organization Oxfam International, told the council the failure to address hunger before the Covid-19 crisis “and the rampant inequality and climate change which has so often triggered conf lict, has left us scrambling to avert famine across the globe.” “Let us all be clear: Starvation is a symptom of a deeper problem,” she said. “The growing crisis of starvation is taking place in a world where eight of the biggest food and drink companies paid out over $18 billion to shareholders last year.” “Those dividends alone are more than three times what we are asking for in aid today to avert catastrophe,” Bucher said. “There is not a lack of food, there is a lack of equality.”
Biden loads up on extra shots, fueling vaccine gap worldwide
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By Josh Wingrove & Riley Griffin
r e s i d e n t Joe Biden has ordered almost enough Covid-19 vaccine to fully inoculate every American adult twice, expanding production as he faces both uncer tainty about domestic needs and calls from shot-starved allies to share the US supply. B i d e n a n n o u n ce d We d n e s d ay t h at he’ll double the US order of Johnson & Johnson’s single - dose vaccine to 200 million shots, after the company struck a deal last week with Merck & Co. to bolster produc tion. “A lot can happen, a lot can change, and we need to be prepared,” Biden said at the White House, praising the companies. Biden’s administration has said its p r i o r i t y i s v a c c i n a t i n g e ve r y w i l l i n g American before sending any shots abroad. Wednesday’s announcement shows that the president expects a surplus of vaccine before the US begins to help inoculate the world, beyond contributing billions of dollars to a vaccine program for lowincome countries. Administration officials have defended the US approach, saying a vaccine hasn’t yet been approved for children and it isn’t clear which one will work best for them. Also, they say, booster shots may be necessary if the immunity that vaccines provide isn’t long-lasting or doesn’t protect against new variants. One Biden official, who asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive matter,
invoked the country’s death toll—which stood at 529,000 Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The US has had more Covid deaths than any other country and needs its vaccines to protect against further fatalities, the official said.
Vaccine gap
Nonetheless, Biden’s new order of J&J’s shots risks further exacerbating a vaccine gap between have and have-not nations. Mexico last week asked the US to share doses and was rebuffed, and the European Union has made similar appeals. Countries that focus on immunizing their own populations face a bitter reality that the pandemic will end only when it ends ever ywhere. Variants of the virus also tend to emerge when it is spreading unchecked—raising the chance that a more dangerous version could pop up abroad and then reach US soil. The EU has exported 34 million doses so far, including nearly a million to the US, according to data revealed Wednesday. Even as Biden said the world will have to wait for help from the US, he acknowledged the need. “We’re going to start off making sure Americans are taken care of, first, but we’re then going to try to help the rest of the world,” Biden said. “We’re not going to be ultimately safe until the world is safe.” The White House hasn’t said whether any U S -produced vaccines have been expor ted. Moderna Inc. has said its US production is entirely for domestic use. Pfizer Inc. and J&J have declined to say
whether they’ve exported any US-produced doses or plan to. An administration official, who requested anonymity to discuss the issue, said there was no outright ban on the export of vaccines. The official added that the companies were free to ship their vaccines abroad, but that they had to complete the requirements spelled out in their contracts with the US. AstraZeneca Plc, whose shot is used widely in Europe but isn’t yet authorized in the US, is already producing doses within the US. Both Moderna and Pfizer manufacture their vaccines overseas for international sale.
Production deal
The agreement between J&J, Merck and the administration will lead to Merck h e l p i n g m a n u f a c t u re i t s co m p e t i to r ’s vaccine substance, the active ingredient, and filling vials. The government will pay Merck to overhaul its facilities so that it can help other companies including J&J with production. The deal between the companies will eventually lead to export of J&J’s vaccine, one US official said. Biden is “deeply focused on expanding global vaccinations and manufacturing and delivery, which will all be critical to end the pandemic,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. Doubling the US J&J order means that “for once, we are not only dealing with today, to the best we can, but we are planning for the future,” another Biden
adviser, Andy Slavitt, said on MSNBC. A s t w o o f t h e w o r l d ’s l a r g e s t pharmaceutical companies, J&J and Merck have built expansive manufacturing net works to ser ve global markets—and both have track records of prioritizing global health. The companies have each d e v e l o p e d E b o l a v i r u s v a c c i n e s, t h e only drug companies to do so. When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, both set out to make affordable, single -shot vaccines t h a t c o u l d b e e a s i l y s t o re d w i t h o u t advanced freezers. The companies said that would ease logistical hurdles in getting shots to ever y corner of the world. But Merck teamed up with J&J after announcing Januar y 25 that its own vaccine candidates had failed—and after Biden administration officials grew alarmed that J&J appeared to be behind schedule. Merck’s chairman and chief executive, K e n F r a z i e r, w h o p r a i s e d B i d e n o n We d n e s d a y a t t h e Wh i te H o u s e, h a s previously criticized nations that sought to hoard vaccines for their own citizens’ use ahead of vulnerable people internationally. “I would say there are two big issues with respect to global distribution. First of all, we’re living in a time of ultranationalism where countries want to take whatever is available and say: I’m going to use it first in my own population, rather than using it first in the populations globally that are at the greatest risk,” Frazier said during an interview with the Harvard Business School in July. Bloomberg News
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The World BusinessMirror
Sunday, March 14, 2021
China’s biggest political meeting unveils long-term policy initiatives
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hina’s highest-profile political meeting of the year concluded on Thursday, with the government laying out economic plans to manage risks now that a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is well under way. Here’s what we learned from the weeklong gathering of the National People’s Congress in Beijing.
China won’t drive global growth in 2021
After posting the only expansion of any major economy last year, the government signaled China won’t be the world’s only growth engine in 2021. Instead it wants to focus on making the domestic expansion more sustainable by reducing debt levels and encouraging companies to be more innovative. A target of “above 6 percent” growth in gross domestic product this year is well-below the 8.4-percent increase predicted by economists. Premier Li Keqiang told reporters Thursday the target isn’t low, and reflects uncertainty about the economic rebound in China and the world, as well as the need for more stable expansion domestically. President Xi Jinping told political delegates “a higher target could be set, but we are leaving some room so that we are able to focus more on high-quality growth,” according to Xinhua News Agency. Due to last year’s low base caused by the pandemic, the target can be reached even if there’s no quarter-on-quarter expansion for the rest of the year. The growth rate could be surpassed by other large economies such as India, which contracted last year, while a large US fiscal stimulus means the growth gap between the world’s two
largest economies will narrow. The low target is somewhat of a concession to officials who have long-argued for abolishing the target as it encourages local governments to engage in wasteful debt-funded investment projects. An easy-to-reach target sets a baseline for the economy while giving local officials an opportunity to focus more on longterm reforms such as cutting corporate debt levels, improving public services and investing in hi-tech sectors.
Fiscal support to remain high
Beijing is targeting a smaller budget deficit this year—down to 3.2 percent of GDP from 3.6 percent last year—but that doesn’t mean it’s cutting back on spending. The “effective deficit,” or gap between government spending on services and revenue raised from taxes and fees, will fall by just 0.9 percentage points from last year, according to estimates from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The quota given to local governments to issue bonds for investment projects was reduced by a less-than-expected 100 billion yuan, and unspent funds left over from bond issuance last year could be deployed to make up for the difference. Partly because last year’s government outlays were lower than expected, Beijing should be able to “avoid any fiscal consolidation at all,” said Adam Wolfe, an economist at Absolute Strategy Research in London. That suggests
officials believe more support for the economy is needed due to a slow recovery in household spending. Strong spending on investment projects by local governments should help support markets for global commodities such as copper and iron ore.
Tighter monetar y policy to drive capital inflows
Authorities kept their monetary policy message unchanged: support economic growth and control financial risks, such as asset bubbles. That means keeping levels of liquidity in the financial system broadly stable, and credit expansion roughly in line with the pace of nominal growth. If GDP stays close to the target this year, then the pace of new loan growth would slow compared with 2020. “Monetary policy tightening is under way and could tighten faster than expected if the external growth outlook also improves faster than expected,” Li-Gang Liu, chief China economist at Citigroup Inc., wrote in a note. Gross government bond issuance could rise by 5 percent this year to an all-time high of 14 trillion yuan, according to Standard Chartered Plc. The benchmark 10-year bond yield has already risen almost 80 basis points since the lows of last April and could reach 3.5 percent by the end of the second quarter, said Becky Liu, Standard Chartered’s head of China macro strategy. That could support the yuan as higher yields make the asset class more attractive to foreigners. Chinese stocks had their worst performance during the NPC since 2009, with concerns over liquidity tightening and possible asset bubbles casting a cloud on this year’s gathering. Intervention by state-backed funds—known as the “national team”—did little to stem the selloff earlier in the week.
China plans to rival the US in tech
Beijing wants to reduce Chinese companies’ dependence on the US for key
technologies such as microchips and move its manufacturers into cuttingedge sectors. It published some details of how it hopes to achieve that— though with less detail than previous plans, like the “Made in China 2025” one, which produced a backlash from the US and Europe. Public and private sector spending on research and development of new products is projected to rise to $580 billion a year by 2025—more than the US spent in 2018, the most recent year for which data are available. In the five-year plan released at the opening of the NPC, the government said it wants researchers to focus on semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, neuroscience, and biotech. As it moves toward a target of peaking carbon emissions by 2030, Beijing aims to increase the non-fossil fuel share of energy consumption to 20 percent by 2025. Part of that will be achieved through nuclear power, meaning the equivalent of 20 new nuclear reactors need to be built by then.
Bringing Hong Kong under tighter control
The NPC’s overwhelming vote in favor of overhauling Hong Kong’s elections was the latest move to rein in democratic institutions in the former British colony. The rubber-stamp parliament approved a proposal to change the size and composition of the body that picks the city’s chief executive. It also called for establishing a vetting committee to ensure candidates for office are “patriots.” Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Monday that the revamp would require the local legislature to enact further legislation, which would be pushed through without public consultation. W hat is meant by “patriots” or who would decide who gets that label remained unclear. A senior Chinese diplomat in Hong Kong said this week that patriots were expected to “respect the Chinese Communist Party.” Bloomberg News
Thai premier delays AstraZeneca shot over probe into blood clots
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hailand j o i n e d I t a ly, D e n m a r k a n d several other European nations in temporarily suspending the use of AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 vaccine pending an investigation into whether it may trigger blood clots. The decision comes even as European re g u l ato r s re n e we d t h e i r s u p p o r t o f t h e immunization developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, saying there was no indication the shot caused the clots that occur in thousands of people ever y year. It’s the latest setback for the vaccine, adding to confusion around its initial study re s u l t s a n d d e l aye d d e l i ve r i e s i n Eu ro p e that fueled a dispute with the UK where the company is based. “These are the dilemmas that leaders face when vaccine safety events occur,” said Julie Leask, a professor of nursing and midwifer y at the University of Sydney. “When vaccines are suspended due to such events, it can take a while for public confidence to return, even
if the problem is later found to be unrelated. So these are never easy decisions.” AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. The company previously said the safety of the vaccine was demonstrated in clinical trials, while a review of more than 10 million shot records found no evidence of increased rates of the clots that can lodge deep in the legs or turn deadly when they reach the lungs. The conflicting messages highlight tension surrounding the rapid-fire rollout of vaccines to protect against Covid-19, which has already killed 2.6 million people around the world. While Astra’s shot hasn’t been conclusively tied to any serious complications, concerns about potential side effects have some nations hesitating over the inoculations that were developed and launched in less than a year.
Exercising caution
Many nations in Asia have already taken a more cautious approach to vaccinations, after largely
containing the virus with intensive testing and tracing, social distancing and mask-wearing. The success allowed them to watch while other countries went first, ensuring that if serious complications arose they would be forewarned. Widespread programs only began in recent weeks in many countries, even after the US and the UK began mass inoculations in midDecember. Hesitancy around using the shots in Asia and Europe could derail some vaccination goals, potentially delaying the time it takes to fully protect the population. Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth ChanOcha and some Cabinet members who were scheduled to get AstraZeneca shots on Friday postponed their appointments after the suspensions in European countries, including Nor way and Austria. That was the day Thailand was slated to begin its rollout of the vaccine, which accounts for 61 million of the 63 million doses the countr y ordered. “In delaying the vaccination program, we’re not saying the AstraZeneca vaccine is bad or it’s faulty,”
Yong Poovorawan, chief of the Center of Excellence in Clinical Virology at Chulalongkorn University, said during a Thai health ministry briefing on Friday. “We’re delaying it to see the safety reports and investigation into the blood clots.” Pi ya s a ko l S a ko l s at aya d o r n , a dv i s e r to t h e T h a i h e a l t h m i n i s t r y ’s v a c c i n a t i o n program, said the Astra suspension would be shor t term—potentially two weeks at the most—and that the countr y would continue inoculating at-risk people with shots from China’s Sinovac. E l s e w h e re i n A s i a - Pa c i f i c, P h i l i p p i n e health authorities concurred with European regulators, saying there was no reason to stop the rollout of Astra’s shot and that they were closely monitoring the situation. And Australia won’t pause the rollout of the company ’s vaccine, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying Friday that health authorities hadn’t raised any concerns about the shot and would continue to monitor developments overseas.
Bloomberg News
Tech war with news media flares in US with new Congress push
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By David McLaughlin & Sara Forden
he battle between news publishers and Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. that flared up in Australia recently is coming to the US. Lawmakers re -introduced legislation on Wednesday to allow news organizations to band together to negotiate with the technology companies over payment for content and the data the companies have about readers. The legislation, which was proposed in the Senate and House with bipartisan support, shows the US is becoming the next front in the news industry’s war against Facebook and Google. Publishers scored a major victory last month when Australia passed a law to force the companies to pay for news content. In Europe, publishers have been lobbying European Union lawmakers to copy parts of the Australian law. “Local news is on life support in this country,” Democratic Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island said in an interview. Cicilline who chairs the House antitrust subcommittee is one of the sponsors. “And so this approach creates an opportunity to protect a free press and make
certain that they have the ability to negotiate the use of content,” he said. Publishers have long complained that Facebook and Google are profiting off their content by siphoning ad revenue and controlling valuable data about readers. Media organizations argue that to gain negotiating leverage and level the playing field, they must be able to collectively bargain with the platforms, something that’s prohibited under US antitrust laws. The proposed legislation would grant them a safe harbor from that restriction, but it doesn’t include a proposal for forced arbitration between the tech companies and the publishers, a provision that’s included in the Australian law and which the tech companies fought. Facebook even went so far as to blackout its news feed in the country before winning some concessions. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who is leading the initiative in the Senate, said the legislation is necessary to help publishers better negotiate by giving them tools to counteract the power of Google and Facebook. “The reason that we’re brought to this moment is that they have an unfettered monopoly,” Klobuchar said in an interview. Google and Facebook “thought
they had so much power they could literally exit a major country,” she added. Klobuchar said the legislation has a better shot at passage this time because of bipartisan interest in antitrust issues today. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will be a cosponsor of the bill, she said. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican and the ranking member of the House antitrust committee, is a co-sponsor of the legislation in the House along with Cicilline. “Local journalism plays such an important role in keeping the American people informed, but many of our community newspapers have been crushed by the threat of big tech,” Buck said in a statement. “This bipartisan bill will send a lifeline to local news organizations struggling to survive because Google and Facebook have decimated the news industry.” The House will wade into the issue Friday when the antitrust panel holds a hearing as part of its initiative to consider antitrust reforms following a 16-month investigation that accused tech companies of squashing competition. In its report on the findings of the investigation, the committee recommended providing publishers the antitrust safe harbor provision, saying the risk
associated with antitrust exemptions are low, “while the benefits of preserving access to high-quality journalism are difficult to overstate.” David Chavern, the president of the News Media Alliance, a trade association that represents about 2,000 news organizations in the US, said the biggest beneficiaries would be small publishers, and it’s the “only way to get some capacity to negotiate.” Australia’s initial proposal would have forced the companies to submit to arbitration to determine how much to pay publishers if deals couldn’t be struck. In response, Google threatened to shut down its search engine, while Facebook imposed a news blackout on its platform in the county. Google is moving to negotiate deals with publishers, while Facebook backed down after concessions from the government allowing the companies to choose which commercial deals to pursue, and only subjecting them to arbitration as a last resort. The Australian Parliament passed the legislation last month. Facebook’s standoff with Australia prompted Cicilline to lash out at the company. “Threatening to bring an entire country to its knees to agree to Facebook’s terms is the ultimate admission of monopoly power,” he tweeted. Bloomberg News
www.businessmirror.com.ph
China legislature endorses move to cut public vote in Hong Kong By Joe Mcdonald & Ken Moritsugu The Associated Press
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EIJING—China’s ceremonial legislature on Thursday endorsed the ruling Communist Party’s move to tighten control over Hong Kong by reducing the role of its public in picking the territory’s leaders. The measure drew condemnation from Britain and the US and accusations it will disenfranchise Hong Kong’s people. It adds to a crackdown against a protest movement in Hong Kong calling for greater democracy. The crackdown has prompted accusations Beijing is eroding the autonomy it promised when the former British colony was returned to China in 1997 and is hurting its status as a global financial center. Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong has added to irritants in China’s relations with Washington, Europe and other governments that also include trade, technology and the party’s treatment of ethnic minorities. The National People’s Congress voted 2,895-0, with one abstention, in support of the plan to give a pro-Beijing committee power to appoint more of Hong Kong’s lawmakers, reducing the number elected by voters. NPC members, who are appointed by the party, routinely endorse party plans by unanimous vote or overwhelming majorities. President Xi Jinping and other leaders sat on stage in front of delegates as they cast votes electronically in the cavernous Great Hall of the People. The NPC has no real powers but the party uses its annual meeting, the year’s highest-profile political event, to showcase government plans and major decisions. The NPC also endorsed the ruling party’s latest five-year development blueprint, which calls for stepping up efforts to transform China into a more self-reliant technology creator. That threatens to worsen strains with Washington and Europe over trade and market access. The NPC focuses on domestic issues but increasingly is overshadowed by geopolitics as Xi’s government pursues more assertive trade and strategic policies and feuds with the US, Australia and others over the coronavirus, conflicting claims to the South China Sea and accusations of spying and technology theft. Also Thursday, the country’s No. 2 leader, Premier Li Keqiang, said economic growth might be faster than this year’s official target of “above 6 percent” he announced last week, which surprised forecasters who expect an expansion of at least 8 percent. But he said Beijing is more concerned about firming up its recovery from the coronavirus and keeping growth steady. China was the only major economy to grow last year while the United States, Europe and Japan struggled with renewed coronavirus outbreaks. Chinese growth accelerated to 6.5 percent over a year earlier in the final quarter of 2020. “There may be even faster growth,” Li said at a news conference. However, he said, “we must avert wild swings in economic performance.” As an anti-virus measure, the premier sat in the Great Hall and talked by video link with reporters at a media center 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) away. Reporters
were required to arrive nine hours in advance to be tested for the coronavirus and wait in hotel rooms for the results. Under the changes in Hong Kong, a 1,500-member Election Committee will pick the territory’s chief executive and an unspecified “relatively large” number of members of its 90-seat legislature. Committee members would come from five segments of society, including business and political figures. That would give pro-Beijing forces more influence than a popular vote would. Hong Kong news reports said earlier the committee will pick one-third of the members of the Legislative Council, or LegCo. Beijing wants to see “patriots ruling Hong Kong,” the premier said. He said the changes would “safeguard national security” in the territory and support “prosperity and stability.” Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said the move is “contrary to the promises made by China itself” about Hong Kong. He said Beijing is trying to “hollow out” space for democratic debate. “This can only further undermine confidence and trust in China living up to its international responsibilities and legal obligations, as a leading member of the international community,” Raab said in a statement. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the NPC’s decision was a direct attack on autonomy China had earlier promised to Hong Kong’s people and ran counter to the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s constitution. “These actions deny Hong Kongers a voice in their own governance by limiting political participation, reducing democratic representation, and stifling political debate,” Blinken said in a statement from Washington. The Hong Kong leader, Carrie Lam, welcomed the change and said in a statement it will allow the territory to “resolve the problem of the LegCo making everything political in recent years and effectively deal with the reckless moves or internal rift that have torn Hong Kong apart.” Last year, the party used the NPC session to impose a national security law on Hong Kong in response to the protests that began in 2019. Under that law, 47 former legislators and other pro-democracy figures have been arrested on subversion charges that carry a possible maximum penalty of life in prison. “The Hong Kong people will be disenfranchised” under the latest changes, said Emily Lau, a former Hong Kong legislator. “Beijing wants to exert very tight control,” said Lau, a member of the city’s Democratic Party. “It’s not democracy.” Lau said concerns expressed by some Chinese officials about a possible attempt to overthrow the government are overblown. “Hong Kong people are not going to have independence or overthrow the government. No way,” she said. “What they should do is engage, listen to the voices of Hong Kong people so we can have a dialogue and reach a consensus on how to move forward, instead of just coming down on us like a ton of bricks.”
AP writers Zen Soo in Hong Kong and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
Warren Buffett becomes sixth member of $100-billion club
By Simon Hunt, Katherine Chiglinsky & Devon Pendleton
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arren B uffett has been a fix ture at the top of the world’s wealth rankings for decades, but in recent years he’s slipped down the list as tech fortunes soared and his hot hand cooled. Now, at 90, his net wor th has blown past $100 billion. The Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman’s wealth jumped on Wednesday to $100.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That makes Buffett the six th member of the $100-billion club, a group including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and his friend Bill Gates. The clan’s combined wealth has grown r a p i d l y, f u e l e d b y g o ve r n m e n t s t i m u l u s, central-bank policy and the surging equity market. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden’s $1.9-trillion Covid-19 relief bill cleared its final congressional hurdle as the House voted to approve the legislation, adding to the $3 trillion or so in stimulus Washington has already disbursed in the past year. Berkshire, the source of vir tually all of Buffett’s wealth, has had a good start to 2021. The firm’s A shares are up 15 percent this year, outpacing the 3.8-percent gain of the S&P 500 Index. That’s been helped by Buffett’s recent push to spend record amounts buying back Berkshire’s own stock, a notable shift for an investor who previously preferred to use the $138-billion cash pile to buy other businesses or common shares.
Share buybacks
B uffett’s been struggling in recent years
to find sizable deals to spark B erkshire’s growth, par tially due to the sheer size of the conglomerate. That’s caused the shares to underper form the S&P 500 over the past five years. But in 2020, Buffett spent a record $24.7 billion on buybacks and filings indicate he’s already bought at least $4.2 billion wor th of stock through mid-Februar y. Surpassing $100 billion is all the more notable considering how much the Omaha billionaire has given away. A cofounder of the Giving Pledge, a campaign to encourage billionaire philanthropy, Buffett has donated more than $37 billion in Berkshire stock since 2006. Without those gifts, which have cut his holdings of Berkshire Class A shares nearly in half, he’d be wor th more than $192 billion. The staggering amount of wealth a cc u m u l ate d by t h e u l t ra - we a l t hy— $ 1 . 8 trillion by the world’s 500 richest in 2020 alone —highlights the K-shaped recover y that’s taking place as the US emerges from the pandemic. While millions of disproportionately p o o r, wo r ki n g - c l a s s a n d m i n o ri t y p e o p l e remain unemployed, the rich have seen incomes and net wor th levels rise thanks to a buoyant stock market and rising home prices. Meanwhile, more than 8 million Americans—including many children—fell into pover ty in the second half of last year, according to an analysis by Universit y of Chicago economist Bruce Meyer, University of Notre Dame’s James Sullivan and Zhejiang University’s Jeehoon Han. Buffett added $1.9 billion to his for tune on Wednesday as Berkshire Class A shares hit a record high, helping lead a second day of gains for the S&P 500. Bloomberg News
Science
www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
BusinessMirror
Sunday
Sunday, March 14, 2021 A5
‘Pandemic highlights the importance of research’
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By Lyn B.Resurreccion
he Philippine economy and the people’s lives have been “severely battered” by the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020, however, the Filipinos’ “inquisitive and creative minds” propelled the people to “overcome adversities.” It has “highlighted the importance of research as a strong solution to saving lives and stabilizing economies.” These statements were said by Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña and Undersecretary Rowena Cristina L. Guevara in their speeches at the 88th General Membership Assembly and Annual Scientific Conference of the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Themed “Pagbangon at Pananaig: National Recovery and Rebuilding,” the assembly that was held online was attended by more than 1,400 of the council’s members.
‘Turning carbon nto diamond’
De la Peña said the “world may have grinded into a halt, but our inquisitive and creative minds did not stop thinking of the why’s and how’s of things that happened, things that are happening, and things that may happen.” He said he saw “how quick we have adopted to something that’s unheard of for most of us.” In as much as the mind is vulnerable to distress, “it is just as a powerful in propelling us to overcoming adversities,” he added.
De la Peña noted that the NRCP annual event is “an opportunity to look at how we, in the scientific and artistic community, continue to evolve, adapt, and rise up to the challenges of the fast-changing world we live in.” As the head of the DOST, he pointed out that he has seen “first-hand how a lot of you, our dear researchers, scientist, artists, innovators, and educators also prevailed over adversities brought on by this pandemic. “From your respective project implementation, to the conduct of your classes in the academe just to continue feeding the minds of your dear students, I’ve seen how we, when subjected to extreme pressure and adverse conditions, can behave like carbon that turns into diamond.”
Researches ‘repurposed’ to address Covid-19
Guevara said researches were made in order to understand the virus and develop diagnostic kits, treatments and vaccines. “Our researchers and scientists developed technologies that track the virus in a more accurate and faster manner,” she said. Besides highlighting the hard
A life-size bronze sculpture titled, “Malayang isip” (at the background), by renowned sculptor Jose Manuel “Manolo” Sicat (third from right), that is dedicated to the Filipino researchers, scientists and artists, is unveiled during the DOST-National Research Council of the Philippines’ 88th founding anniversary. Leading the event are Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña, Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara, DOST-NRCP President Dr. Gregorio E.H. Del Pilar and DOST-NRCP Executive Director Dr. Marieta Bañez Sumagaysay. Henri de Leon/DOST-STII science, the pandemic also “emphasized the need and importance of social sciences” with the emotions, feelings and behaviours of studied and led to the provision of the mental health and psychosocial support policies and services to the people. As a result, short-term responses, medium-term plans and long-term plans of DOST R&D were made to address the pandemic. She said the government has “redirected” basic science and existing applied research to Covid-19 in order to respond to people’s pressing needs during this pandemic. Among some of the researches “repurposed” for Covid-19 are the GenAmplify (RT-PCR) Detection Kit; the Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-Temporal
Epidemiological Modeler (FASSSTER); and RxBox biomedical device, she said. The GenAmplify Covid-19 RT-PCR Detection Kit that was developed by Manila HealthTek was originally intended for dengue detection. The kit offers a real-time detection of Covid-19 in respiratory samples using a one-step multiplex real-time PCR platform. It is now mass produced after securing the approval from the Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration. It was supported by the DOST and the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD). The Ateneo Center for Computing Competency and Research-created FASSSTER provides a userfriendly tool for modeling disease spreads in the Philippines to aid in the Department of Health ’s disease
10 years after Fukushima accident, safety is still nuke power’s top challenge
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en years ago, on March 11, 2011, the biggest recorded earthquake in Japanese history hit the country’s northeast coast. It was followed by a tsunami that traveled up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) inland, reaching heights of over 140 feet (43.3 meters) in some areas and sweeping entire towns away in seconds. This disaster left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing. It also destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and released radioactive materials over a large area. The accident triggered widespread evacuations, large economic losses and the eventual shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan. A decade later, the nuclear industry has yet to fully address safety concerns that Fukushima exposed. We are scholars specializing in engineering and medicine and public polic y, and have advised our respective governments on nuclear power safety. Kiyoshi Kurokawa chaired an independent national commission, the Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (NAIIC), created by the Diet of Japan to investigate the root causes of the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Najmedin Meshkati served as a member and technical adviser to a committee appointed by the US National Academy of Sciences to identify lessons from this event for making US nuclear plants safer and more secure.
Fukuchima accident could have been avoided
Those reviews and many others concluded that Fukushima was a man-made accident, triggered by natural hazards, that could and should have been avoided. Experts widely agreed that the root causes were lax regulatory oversight in Japan and an ineffective safety culture at the utility that operated the plant. These problems are far from unique to Japan. As long as commercial nuclear power plants operate anywhere in the world, we believe it is critical for all nations to learn from what happened at Fukushima and continue doubling down on nuclear safety.
Failing to anticipate and plan
The 2011 disaster delivered a devastating onetwo punch to the Fukushima plant. First, the magnitude 9.0 earthquake knocked out off-site electric power. Next, the tsunami (17-meters high) breached the plant’s protective sea wall and swamped portions of the site.
Flooding disabled monitoring, control and cooling functions in multiple units of the sixreactor complex. Despite heroic efforts by plant workers, three reactors sustained severe damage to their radioactive cores and three reactor buildings were damaged by hydrogen explosions. Off-site releases of radioactive materials contaminated land in Fukushima and several neighboring prefectures. Some 165,000 people left the area, and the Japanese government established an exclusion zone around the plant that extended over 311 square miles (807 kilometers) in its largest phase.
Tepco’s history for disregard for safety
For the first time in the history of constitutional democratic Japan, the Japanese Parliament passed a law creating an independent national commission to investigate the root causes of this disaster. In its report, the commission concluded that Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission had never been independent from the industry, nor from the powerful Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, which promotes nuclear power. For its part, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), had a history of disregard for safety. The company had recently released an error-prone assessment of tsunami hazards at Fukushima that significantly underestimated the risks.
Onagawa power plant undamaged
E v e n ts a t t h e O n a g a w a N u c l e a r Po w e r Station, located 39 miles (64 kilometers) from Fukushima, in Onagawa in the Oshika District and Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, told a contrasting story. Onogawa, which was owned and operated by the Tohoku Electric Power Co., was closer to the earthquake’s epicenter and was hit by an even larger tsunami. Its three operating reactors were the same type and vintage as those at Fukushima, and were under the same weak regulatory oversight. But Onogawa shut down safely and was remarkably undamaged. In our view, this was because the Tohoku utility had a deep-seated, proactive safety culture. The company learned from earthquakes and tsunamis elsewhere—including a major disaster in Chile in 2010—and continuously improved its countermeasures, while Tepco overlooked and ignored these warnings.
Regulatory capture and safety culture
When a regulated industry manages to cajole, control or manipulate agencies that oversee it, rendering them feckless and subservient, the result is known as regulatory capture. As the NAIIC report concluded, Fukushima was a textbook example. Japanese regulators “did not monitor or supervise nuclear safety….They avoided their direct responsibilities by letting operators apply regulations on a voluntary basis,” the report observed. Effective regulation is necessary for nuclear safety. Utilities also need to create internal safety cultures—a set of characteristics and attitudes that make safety issues an overriding priority. For an industry, safety culture functions like the human body’s immune system, protecting it against pathogens and fending off diseases. A plant that fosters a positive safety culture encourages employees to ask questions and to apply a rigorous and prudent approach to all aspects of their jobs. It also fosters open communications between line workers and management. But Tepco’s culture reflected a Japanese mindset that emphasizes hierarchy and acquiescence and discourages asking questions. There is ample evidence that human factors— such as operator errors and poor safety culture— played an instrumental key role in all three major accidents that have occurred at nuclear power plants: Three Mile Island in the US in 1979, Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986 and Fukushima Daiichi in 2011. Unless nuclear nations do better on both counts, this list is likely to grow.
Global nuclear safety grade: Incomplete
Today there are some 440 nuclear power reactors operating around the world, with about 50 under construction in countries including China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Many advocates argue that in light of the threat of climate change and the increasing need for carbon-free baseload electricity generation, nuclear power should play a role in the world’s future energy mix. Others call for abolishing nuclear power. But that may not be feasible in the foreseeable future.
Urgent priority: Tough nuke safety standards
In our view, the most urgent priority is developing
tough, system-oriented nuclear safety standards, s t ro n g s a f e t y c u l t u re s a n d m u c h c l o s e r co o p e rat i o n b e t we e n co u nt ri e s a n d t h e i r independent regulators. We see worrisome indications in the US that independent nuclear regulation is eroding, and that nuclear utilities are resisting pressure to learn and delaying adoption of internationally accepted safety practices, such as adding filters to prevent radioactive releases from reactor containment buildings with the same characteristics as Fukushima Daiichi. The most crucial lesson we see is the need to counteract nuclear nationalism and isolationism. Ensuring close cooperation between countries developing nuclear projects is essential today as the forces of populism, nationalism and antiglobalism spread.
Balance between national sovereignty and international responsibility
We also believe the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose mission is promoting safe, secure and peaceful uses of nuclear energy, should urge its member states to find a balance between national sovereignty and international responsibility when it comes to operating nuclear power reactors in their territories. As Chernobyl and Fukushima taught the world, radiation fallout does not stop at national boundaries. As a start, Persian Gulf countries should set aside political wrangling and recognize that with the star tup of a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates and others planned in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, they have a common interest in nuclear safety and collective emergency response. The entire region is vulnerable to radiation fallout and water contamination from a nuclear accident anywhere in the Gulf. We believe the world remains at the same juncture it faced in 1989, when then-Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. made this perceptive argument: “A decade ago, Three M ile Island was the spark that ignited the funeral pyre for a once -promising energy source. As the nuclear industry asks the nation for a second look in the contex t of global warming, it is fair to watch how its advocates respond to strengthened safety oversight. That will be the measure of whether nuclear energy becomes a phoenix or an ex tinc t species.” Kiyoshi Kurokawa
and Najmedin Meshkati/The Conversation, CC via AP
surveillance efforts. FASSSTER is a multi-dimensional approach in modeling disease spreads by using localized indices from Philippine health records and i nteg rat i ng ot her d at a sou rces, including the disease and event surveillance systems and existing electronic medical records. Meanwhile, the R xBox biomedical device measures the temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, uter ine contractions and electrocardiogram readings of patients diagnosed with Covid-19, especially those in severe or critical conditions who need continuous monitoring. The device protects both the patient and the attending healthcare worker as it reduces contact between them. It was also developed by researchers from UP Manila-National Institute of health and UP Diliman
Joint efforts
The DOST’s sectoral planning councils also formulated programs that joined the efforts of the government, academe, industry and civil society in the fight against Covid-19. This include the “Addressing and Responding to Covid-19 through Health Research [Archer]” project led by the DOST-PCHRD. It aims to fund research projects that provide regulatory studies and solutions for the development of new drugs and supplements, vaccines, diagnostic kits, prediction studies through information and communications technology and medical facilities’ enhancement. On the other hand, the “Science and Technology for a Resilient Community against the Pandemic [STR AP Block Grant]“ was developed in order to help the people to adapt to the new normal. Among the projects that were
funded in this program are: 1) Work from home tools; 2) Workplace ergonomics; 3) Safe mobility and transport in air, sea and land; 4) Response and coping with the new normal; 5) Testing and calibration of locally-developed medical devices; 6) Geospatial and ICT Solutions; 7) New devices and products; 8) Protective coatings for surfaces and PPEs; 9) Detection and disinfection technologies; and 10) Emergency food for Covid-19 affected families, communities and frontliners. There is also the “Rebuilding the Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources in Response to Covid-19 [ReAARRC],” program of the DOSTPhilippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development. This aims to transfer technology and disseminate information to the public in terms of ensuring food security in this challenging time. At the same time, two centers— the Virology S&T Institute of the Philippines, and the Pharmaceutical Development Centers—are being pushed to be institutionalized so they would “serve as the premier research and development institute in virology and drug discovery in the country. These DOST R&D can help the Philippines become self-sufficient, resilient and able to quickly recover in future pandemics, Guevara said. Guevara pointed out that besides providing short-term solutions, “We need to accelerate competitiveness in all aspects that affect our lives. We need to invest on economic activities of our start-up and MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprises], preserve biodiversity, restore our environment, think of more sustainable food system, strengthen our healthcare system and most importantly invest more in R&D.”
Experts find nanofertizer FertiGroe increases nutrient, reduces production costs of sugarcane
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xperts at the the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) are currently testing nanofertilizers in order to increase the yield of agricultural crops, including sugarcane, rice, corn and vegetables. This initiative came because inorganic fertilizer, being an important input that is required to achieve challenging yield targets in sugarcane farms, it is costly and known to deteriorate the environment when not managed properly. Not all nutrients from inorganic fertilizers could be assimilated by the crop. Some are lost due to runoff and leaching. With the application of nanotechnology in agriculture, these losses can be reduced. Hence, nanofertilizers are emerging as a promising alternative. FertiGroe N, P and K are the new slow-release nanofertilizers. These are nano-sized (1 nanometer to 100 nm) particle technology that increases surface area for nutrient adsorption. It was found that the products offer better economic yield and safer for the environment through their strong potential of slowing down or controlling nutrient release to increase nutrient use efficiency. The Agricultural Systems Institute and La Granja Research and Training Station (LGRTS) of UPLB are currently testing the formulated FertiGroe N, P, and K nanofertilizers for sugarcane through the project, “Development of Application Protocol and Field Verification of FertiGroe N, P, and K Nanofertilizers in Sugarcane.” The project is one of the seven components of the program “Optimization of the Production and Use of FertiGroe N, P, and K Nanofertilizers in Selected Agricultural Crops,” funded by the Department
of Science and Technology and monitored by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCAARRD). The program aims to optimize the production process and develop application protocols of FertiGroe N, P, and K nanofertilizers to increase yield of rice, corn, vegetables, sugarcane, coffee, cacao and banana. Initial results of the field evaluation trial show that the FertiGroe nanofertilizers-treated sugarcane obtained as much as 218.76 50kgper-hectare (Lkg/ha), which is higher than the average yield of 129.62 Lkg/ha in La Carlota Mill District, Negros Occidental. Use of the nanofertilizers increased nutrient uptake, minimized nutrient losses, reduced fertilizer inputs by 50 percent and reduced production costs. Efficacy trials are still ongoing and are expected to be completed soon. The trademark of FertiGroe has been registered at the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPhil). The products are for patent application at the IPOPhil and for registration at the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority. These initial progress and accomplishment were discussed between the DOST-PCAARRD monitoring and evaluation team led by Dr. Juanito T. Batalon, Agricultural Resources Management Research Division-PCAARRD director, and the UPLB-LGRTS project team led by Dr. Emmanuel G. Samson, during a field monitoring and evaluation visit done before the Covid-19 pandemic occurred.
Jacob B. Labita/S&T Media Services
Experts checking presence of radiation in Cagayan corals
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xperts from the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (DOST-PNRI) and University of the Philippines-Marine Science Institute (UP-MSI) searched the sea waters of Palaui Island in Sta. Ana, Cagayan province, on March 11 to gather information on human nuclear activities and possible presence of radiation of corals. Led by Dr. Angel Bautista VII of DOST-PNRI and Dr. Fernando Siringan of UP-MSI, the team checked out meter-long coral cores, said a DOST-PNRI news release posted on its Facebook. The research was timed on the 10th year of the March 11, 2011, massive magnitude-9 earthquake and 17-meter-high tsunami that hit the eastern coast of Japan. This led to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident that triggered the shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan.
Earlier, the project team was able to detect radionuclide contaminants among corals in Baler, Aurora, and Vinzons, Camarines Norte, by measuring the radionuclide, iodine-129. The presence of radiation among the corals in the locations suggest that radionuclide contaminants from the Fukushima nuclear accident might have already reached the Philippines, the team explained. “The radiation detected is low and is far from being a health concern. However, confirmation about the arrival of radioactive contamination from the Fukushima nuclear power accident site to the Philippine coasts give us vital information that can help us prepare in the event of similar incidents in the future,” the team said. The project is funded by the DOST- Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development.
Faith A6 Sunday, March 14, 2021
Sunday
Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph
Are nationalist Buddhist monks in Myanmar backing the coup?
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uddhist monasteries are usually known as places of solace and meditation. But one in Myanmar’s biggest city became the site of an ugly brawl in the aftermath of the February 1 military coup.
Monks were among a group that used slingshots to injure anti-coup protesters, who went to Yangon’s Bingalar Monastery on February 18 in pursuit of men dressed in robes who had earlier beaten up a demonstrator. The mob also used large sticks to smash cars blocking traffic nearby. The monks and their supporters “couldn’t control their temper,” said Kaythara, the abbot of the nationalist Buddhist group Wirawintha, who knows the attackers but wasn’t present at the melee. He defended the military, known as the Tatmadaw, repeating its theory that now-detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party stole the November election through mass voter fraud. “Different people have different perspectives about the Tatmadaw t a keover,” K ay t h a r a s a id . “ T he Tatmadaw had to carr y out its responsibility in accordance with the constitution.” The violent incident shows a strain of religious nationalism that Myanmar’s generals are tapping into as they seek to gain legitimacy and quell postcoup demonstrations that have seen more than 60 people killed. That risks reinvigorating a movement with a history of sectarian violence in a nation already split between the military supporters and
opponents. With Buddhists accounting for about 90 percent of Myanmar’s 54 million people, the monastic order, or Sangha, plays an instrumental role in granting legitimacy to govern. And for decades it has been caught in the middle of an intense ideological struggle between the military and more liberal forces in Myanmar.
Symbiotic Relationship “There has always been a kind of symbiotic relationship in Myanmar between rulers, kings, governments, regimes and the Buddhist monks,” said Richard Horsey, a Yangon-based political analyst and senior adviser with the International Crisis Group. “The military will be relying on a relationship with at least a part of the Sangha to legitimize its rule, to provide religious services to the regime and their leaders and so forth,” Horsey added. The military has sought to ramp up its religious and nationalist credentials since the coup. State media regularly publicizes activities carried out by officials, such as cleaning up pagodas as the military rushed to reopen them after seizing power. The head spokesman of Myanmar’s military junta didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment. The newly appointed minister for religious affairs and culture met with
percent of parliamentary seats by the Constitution—giving it an effective veto over any amendments. But many supporters of Suu Kyi’s Nat iona l L eag ue for Democrac y party felt it wasn’t doing enough to “ensure the protected and special place of Buddhism in public life,” said Melyn McKay, a research anthropologist at the University of Oxford who has published work on Burmese Buddhist nationalism.
Unified Fight Buddhist monks march during an anticoup protest in Yangon on February 16. and donated cash to Sitagu Sayadaw, an influential monk who has promoted anti-Rohingya rhetoric. The military has installed nationalist sympathizers to key government positions and released high-profile anti-Muslim voices from prison as part of a general amnesty of more than 23,000 prisoners. “Religion and secular governance have always been entangled in Myanmar,” said Winnie Thaw, a recent Burmese graduate of politics from a UK university. “And that’s not likely to change under the new junta.” Pro-democracy monks were instrumental during anti-junta protests in the bloody 1988 uprising, and also helped lead 2007 demonstrations dubbed the Saffron Revolution for the color of their robes. Some of them have been at the forefront of the recent protests, leading demonstrators in major cities and holding posters calling for the immediate release of Suu Kyi and other detainees. Buddhist monks march during an anti-coup protest in Yangon on Februar y 16.
But another group of nationalist monks is backing the military. This strain viewed Suu Kyi’s government as promoting a Western liberal outlook that elevated religious diversity over protection of the Buddhist faith, according to a 2017 report by International Crisis Group. Even before the Rohingya crisis reached a boiling point in 2017, sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims had long simmered. In one example, dozens died in 2012 riots sparked by the rape and murder of an ethnic Rakhine woman in western Myanmar after monks distributed incendiary pamphlets alleging members of the Muslim minority were to blame for the crime. Shortly after taking office after a landmark election win in 2015, Suu Kyi’s government tried to engage with groups, including the monk-led Patriotic Association of Myanmar— then known as Ma Ba Tha—to scale back its anti-Muslim rhetoric. At the time, she was fresh into a power-sharing arrangement with the military, which was guaranteed 25
Suu Kyi’s balancing act to win over nationalist factions while also cooling anti-Muslim rhetoric became untenable in 2017 after Rohingya militants attacked police and army outposts in Rakhine state, boosting public support for the military. Suu Kyi went on to defend the generals at the International Court of Justice against allegations of genocide, which increased her popularity at home at the expense of her international reputation. The belief that Buddhism is somehow under threat “can be drawn upon by political actors as a means of building support, but to do so successfully the government in power must be seen as acting in the best interest of the Buddhist people,” said McKay from the University of Oxford. Even if such tactics to sow divisions worked in the past, they may not necessarily be effective this time, said Khin San Hlaing, a member of the NLD’s central executive committee. “Their efforts to utilize religion as a tool to stir chaos will not be as effective as they expected,” she said. “People are protecting each other, regardless of religion or nationality, because they are all fighting for the end of the military dictatorship.”
Bloomberg News
A woman of faith finds her heart in her writings By Bernard Testa
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uring Women’s Month, tributes are given to women in the fields they excel. This woman of faith, a mother, wife and poet, is one of them. Maria Evelyn Quilla-Soleta writes everything that her hear t desires—about love, God’s inter ventions, humilit y, pain, relationships or friendships—through soulful poetry that evokes prayer and appreciation of the simple and the mundane. Her mother, Felicitas, was her teacher in writing when she was 6 years old. Her first poem, “Ang Parol,” was published in their school organ in Miag-ao Elementary School in Iloilo. Her mother, who was an elementar yschool teacher on Guimaras Island, taught her how to write pen pal letters and diaries at an early age. “When Nanay wrote in her tiny diaries at night, I would write mine, too. I have kept my journals,“ Quilla-Soleta said. Together with the journals of her four daughters (Andrea Dayne, 30; Guia Dawn, 29; Daniella Rose, 27, and Dyan Laura, 23), their journals that were collected since the 1970s are kept in the family’s several “baul“ (trunk) at home. “With all modest y, I credit my beautiful penmanship to my habit of writing. My mother taught me to write just about anything. Now, I encourage my children to do the same,” she said. From a rustic town in Iloilo, Quilla-Soleta is a typical Ilongga, soft spoken, mild mannered and with a natural eloquence. Her mother raised her and her five siblings well, but it was cut shor t when Felicitas passed away at her prime at 40. Her father, Jose, devoted his last 50 years raising their children until he died at 87. Quilla-Soleta is the third in the brood of six. She met Danny in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to which they both belong. They
served as full-time missionaries for 18 months, along with their daughter, Daniella Rose. “I think if we didn’t become members of the Church since 1978, we won’t be able to have a stable marriage. We believe that families can be together forever. We believe in the sanctity of marriage. Inside our holy temples, we perform sacred ordinances. We believe we will be with our loved ones even after this life,” Quilla-Soleta said partly in Filipino This doctrine of a “family forever” might be the reason why her father never remarried, even when he became a widower at a still young age of 47. He has already given his heart to his late wife.
‘Finding my heart’ Q uilla - S oleta quit her job and devoted herself to her family, her husband and her four daughters, with the third being a special child with D own Syndrome. “I want to take care of [my children] while they are growing up, instilling in them the Church’s teachings, and with the same upbringing I had from my parents. I believe in the principle that everyone is God’s creation. I also believe that a grateful person is a happy person,” she said. “I find my heart in every little thing. I may not leave my children with material blessings, yet I see to it that the legacy of worthwhile memories, happy ones left in their thoughts and in their hearts are also found in their bookshelves and chests,” she added. One of the compelling reasons why she published her collection of poetry into a book is to “share her heart” with others. In March 2020, when the pandemic started and the lockdown was implemented, QuillaSoleta had ample time to sit down and compose her thoughts. At the same time, she and Danny continued to give full ser vice to the Church and ex tended help to the needy. Neither the pandemic nor
video conferencing. The publication was supported by her family and friends here and abroad, with Gutierrez helping with the promotion on social media, among other things. The orange book’s cover design was done by her daughter, Guia, an artist. Finding My Heart has reached No. 1 status in Amazon’s three categories—Asian Poetry, Asian Literature, and Family Poetry—in just a matter of hours after its launching. Quilla-Soleta, with all modesty, besides being a wife and mother, has an Amazon Bestseller badge to her name. “I am so grateful for my gift of words in writing poetr y. I kneel down in prayer before I compose any poem. I ask the Lord to help me put beautiful words into paper so I can inspire my readers. “I wish everyone would be able to read my book. There, they will know that the ordinary and mundane are the most beautiful,” she quipped. Here is one of her poems:
Maria Evelyn QuillaSoleta holding her book, Finding My Heart, with the temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Quezon City at the background. Bernard Testa this difficult time stopped them from working for the Lord. In their current retirement age, the couple just enjoy the company of their two younger daughters, Daniella and Dyan Laura. Their two older girls, Andrea and Guia, both married, live in Utah, USA. They are happy grandparents of one and are looking forward to the second soon.
Gift from heavenly Father Her first book My Twenty Poems was published in 2000. “I have always loved my role being a mother. There are a million things to write about motherhood, such as faith in God, strength and humor,” she said. She makes sure she writes a poem once a week. “I am grateful for this beautiful gift of writing. Even if I didn’t have a formal education on it [having finished Accounting], I hone my inherent gift and share it with others through
my prose and poetry, hence the conception of the second book, Finding My Heart ,” she noted. B e s i d e s p o e t r y, s h e a l s o w ri te s s h o r t stories, fic tions and feature ar ticles. She used to be a ghost writer and contributed to Women’s magazine. Since last year, she has been submitting feature stories weekly to Nephite’s Tablet, a blog site, or would post one on her Facebook. Her mother taught her well, but the pandemic also taught her another lesson: to practice one’s ability to write something from scratch, from the ordinary and make it extra special. Things that cannot be seen but must be felt, she said. The collection of her 200 poems into a book was with the help of GMGA Publishing’s founder and editor, Ayo Gutierrez, who gave her “a very reasonable price,” she noted. Started in November 2020, it was set to be launched in December 2020, in time for her birthday. But being a busy period and the holidays, the launching was postponed to January 23 via
The Woman that I Am The Woman I see Is the Woman I am. (Mirrors do not lie). Cosmetics do, when aptly applied But not these nerves deny. Age is just a factor, Like Depth, Breadth, or even Height, But the Woman who fights The odds—is, and will be… I. The Woman I see Is the Woman I am. Bravely struggling, laughing, And crying over the years Yet, gracefully so, is aging. The Woman I see is now me She has come a long, long way From that child they once knew, From that girl I saw On that truthful mirror long ago.
Pope on Iraqi Christians: This is the pure Gospel
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BOARD THE PAPAL PLANE—Pope Francis said Monday that the sight of the destroyed churches and ruins in Mosul and the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq left him speechless. “When I stopped in front of the destroyed church, I had no words...beyond belief,” Francis said on March 8. Speaking to journalists during an in-flight press conference, the pope said that he had read about and seen pictures of the destruction in northern Iraq, but what he saw in person in Mosul and Qaraqosh was unimaginable. Th e p o p e’s M a rc h 5 to 8 t r i p to I ra q brought him from Baghdad to the bir thplace of Abraham and finally to the rubble -strewn city of Mosul, where the Islamic State declared its caliphate in 2014. “But then what touched me most was the testimony of a mother in Qaraqosh,” Pope Francis said on his flight back to Rome. “She is a woman who lost her son in the first Islamic State bombings, and she said a word: ‘forgiveness.’ I was moved.” Pope Francis met Doha Sabah Abdallah, the mother who lost her son, in the Syriac Catholic Immaculate Conception Church in Bakhdida, also known as Qaraqosh. The town, 20 miles southeast of Mosul, was occupied by Islamic State forces from 2014 to 2016. Abdallah shared the story with the pope and those gathered in the church of the bombing of the town in August 2014 that killed her son, his cousin and a young neighbor. “Our strength undoubtedly comes from our faith in the Resurrection, a source of hope. My faith tells me that my children are in the arms of Jesus Christ our Lord. And we, the sur vivors, tr y to forgive the aggressor, because our Master Jesus has forgiven His executioners. By imitating Him in our sufferings, we testify that love is stronger than ever ything,” the Iraqi woman said. Reflec ting on this moment during the in-flight press conference, Pope Francis said: “I forgive. This is a word we have lost. We know how to insult big time. We know how to condemn in a big way...But to forgive, to forgive one’s enemies. This is the pure Gospel. This hit me in Qaraqosh.” The pope also reflec ted on his meeting with the father of Alan Kurdi, the three -yearold who died in a shipwreck as his family tried to cross the Aegean Sea with other Syrian war refugees. The pope said that the image of the deceased young boy “goes beyond a child who died in migration. It is a symbol of dying civilizations, which cannot survive. A symbol of humanity.” The 84-year-old pope also noted that he had felt more tired during the Iraqi trip than on previous ones. Recalling the final day of his trip, he said: “Yesterday, as we drove from Qaraqosh to Erbil, there were a lot of young people...many young people. And the question someone asked me was: ‘And these young people, what is their future? Where will they go?’ And many will have to leave the country, many.” About 60 percent of Iraqi’s population is under the age of 25. The unemployment rate for young people in Iraq is estimated to be 36 percent, with low oil prices, government waste, and corruption, and a poor security situation further hindering the country’s potential for economic growth. The pope emphasized that migration must be “a double right” with a “right to not to emigrate and a right to emigrate.” “But these people do not have either,” he added. The Christian population in Iraq has been steadily dwindling for decades, from around 1.4 million in 2003 to around 250,000 currently. “Urgent measures are needed to ensure that people have jobs in their place and do not need to emigrate. And also measures to safeguard the right to emigrate,” the pope said. Pope Francis expressed his gratitude to countries that have welcomed refugees and migrants, mentioning Lebanon and Jordan in particular. The pope revealed that Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch, had asked him to add a stop in the country’s capital, Beirut, on his Iraq visit. But Francis said that he had decided not to because he felt the country deserved a more substantial visit. “I wrote a letter and made a promise to make a trip to Lebanon,” the pope said.
Catholic News Agency
Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror
Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014
Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
Sunday, March 14, 2021
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Mangatarem Critical Habitat
Sanctuary for endemic plant, animal species
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By Jonathan L. Mayuga
Wi ld life Resources Conser vation and Protection Act of 2001.
ood news for threatened wildlife species, including the endemic Philippine deer and Philippine warty pig, which populations are declining due to habitat loss and hunting in the thickly forested Zambales Mountain Range in the town of Mangatarem, Pangasinan. The 4,422.8-hectare forest, home to the threatened endemic plants and animals, is earmarked for conservation. It was named Mangatarem Critical Habitat based on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Administrative Order (DAO) 2020-17 signed by Secretary Roy A. Cimatu on December 16, 2020. The area provides sanctuary to the species traditionally hunted to the brink of extinction.
Critical habitat
A critical habitat is an area that is considered important for the survival of certain species of plants and animals. As such, they must be preserved and conserved to allow the species to thrive. Section 25 of Republic Act 9147, or the Wildlife Act, provides for the establishment of critical habitats outside protected areas under Republic Act 7586, or the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Act, where unique but threatened species, plant or animals, occur. “All designated critical habitats shall be protected, in coordination with the local government units and other concerned groups, from any form of exploitation or destruction, which may be detrimental to the survival of the threatened species dependent therein,” the law states.
‘Vulnerable’ species
Both species, traditionally hunted for their meat, are listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species states that the population of the Philippine deer, known as “usa,” are fragmented but are reported to be common in isolated areas. However, heavily hunted and declining in number throughout most of its range. IUCN states that the largest populations of the Philippine deer are in
Luzon, Mindanao, Samar and Leyte, but local extinctions have been reported on Biliran in 1993, and probably Bohol and Marinduque. “Population declines have been reported in the subspecies found on Mindoro Island. The overall population of the species remains unknown, but a decline of 30 percent over three generations [estimated at 24 years] seems plausible,” it states. On the other hand, the Red List of the IUCN states that while precise data on the Philippine warty pig populations is lacking, considering the extent of forest degradation the species more commonly called “baboy-damo” in Filipino was undoubtedly far more extensively distributed in the past. T he Philippine wart y pig has also been declared as extinct on Marinduque, an island province in the Mimaropa Region (consisting of Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan provinces), which is ironically known for its rich biodiversity and high endemism.
Primary forest
The Mangatarem Critical Habitat encompasses forested territories of barangays Cacaoiten, Cabaluyan II, Calomboyan Sur, Lawak Langka, Catarataraan, Pacalat and Malabobo. Cimatu said the area is critical for the survival of endemic Philippine species at risk of extinction. Establishing the Mangatarem Critical Habitat, he explained, aims to protect them and their habitat from destructive human activities. “By doing this, we at the DENR can save habitats that are critical for the survival of threatened species or species at risk of extinction, including other associated wildlife and, at the same time, provide this land area a legal framework to protect it from destructive uses,” Cimatu said in a statement.
A boost to forest protection
This thickly forested portion of the Zambales Mountain Range in Mangatarem town in Pangasinan, is now named the Mangatarem Critical Habitat. DENR-SCIS photo
Wildlife sanctuary A first-class municipality, whose name is associated with mango and oyster in the old days, Mangatarem’s thick forest also provides sanctuary to some of the country’s rare and unique animals and plant species. Some of the species are the endemic Philippine duck, the flame-breasted fruit dove, Philippine eagle owl, Luzon scops owl and Rufous hornbill. Unique plants that are found in the forest include the threatened oi-ói, kalíngag and malabayábas.
A Philippine deer is a rare sight nowadays. This stag was photographed in the hinterlands of Agusan del Sur by wildlife photographer Gregg Yan. The Philippine deer, listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature can be found in the newly established Mangatarem Critical Habitat in Pangasinan.
Management regime, goals
As a newly declared critical habitat, the DENR will work hand-in-hand with the local government, communities and other stakeholders involved in accomplishing the locally driven ecosystems management approach for the protection of the territory. “We need to sustainably manage this certain area, as this is one of the most important and few remaining forest blocks in Pangasinan,” Cimatu pointed out. “Through this, we can both protect the endemic and threatened flora and fauna living in it, while sustaining the ecosystem services and community livelihood dependent on the forest,” he added. Under the DAO 2020-17, the Mangatarem Critical Habitat shall be under the DENR-Ilocos Region office, together with the local government of Mangatarem and other stakeholders.
The DENR regional office will take the lead and shall be responsible for the preparation of the Critical Habitat Management Plan to ensure that existing ecosystems in the critical habitat are preserved. The management of the critical habitat is mandated to ensure that the existing ecosystems in the habitat are preserved and kept in a condition that will support and enhance existing populations of endemic and wild plants and animals, assess development and safeguard the ecological integrity of the area and strictly enforce all applicable environmental laws for the protection of the habitat.
‘Off-limits’
Mangatarem, the country’s ninth
critical habitat, is now “off-limits” to destr uctive human activ ities, inc lud ing mining and quar r y ing and log g ing. The other critical habitats in the Philippines are Rafflesia schadenbergiana Critical Habitat, Cabusao Wetland Critical Habitat, Malasi Tree Park and Wildlife Sanctuary Critical Habitat, Carmen Critical Habitat, Adams Wildlife Critical Habitat, Magsaysay Critical Habitat for Hawksbill Turtles, Cleopatra’s Needle Critical Habitat, and Dumaran Critical Habitat. Under Cimatu’s order, dumping of waste products detr imenta l to w ild life, squatting and /or occupying any por tion of the area w i l l be str ict ly prohibited in accord ance w it h R epubl ic A c t 9147, or t he
Marlyn M. Banda, technical division chief of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro) in Pangasinan, said declaring Mangatarem a critical habitat will be a big boost to the ongoing forest protection program in the area. She said the crafting of the management plan would hopefully include livelihood programs for communities around it to ensure that the people will not see the forest as their primary or main source of income and livelihood that may eventually lead to unsustainable activities like logging, charcoal making, or worse, hunting animals. Banda noted that there’s no ongoing livelihood program for the communities in the area as far as the DENR is concerned. “ The DAO has just recently been signed and the crafting of the management plan has not been started,” she explained. Nevertheless, she is confident that the management plan will be thoroughly discussed by the DENR and various stakeholders next year. “ The fact that it is now a critical habitat, there will be a restriction in its use. Hence, destructive activities will not be allowed just like in a protected area,” Banda told the BusinessMirror in telephone interview on March 9. She said under the Nipas law, there are prohibited acts inside the strict protection zone. The same, she said, will now apply in the entire Mangatarem Critical Habitat. She said the DENR Ilocos Region office is expected to include the management of the Mangatarem Critical Habitat in the Work and Financial Plan for 2022.
Undisturbed
Fortunately, Banda said the Mangatarem Critical Habitat remains intact and undisturbed by destructive human activities. “So far, the area which is thickly forested remains intact. The trees and the forest provide safety for the wild animals there and we see no problem so far,” she said in Filipino. The DENR, Banda said, makes sure that regular patrolling and monitoring in the forest is conducted regularly, to prevent any attempt to cut trees or hunt animals. “We see no illegal activities in the area so far because of the regular patrolling and monitoring,” she said.
Discarding e-waste? Globe may help dispose of them safely D
o you have old mobile phones, excess cables, chargers, broken TV sets, DVD players and other nonworking electronic devices that you would like to dispose of without adding up to the piles of garbage in the landfills? Globe will help you let go of these safely! As Globe continues to provide reliable voice and data connection, it also makes sure to do its part in creating a safe environment for people to live in. It aims to lessen the harm brought by improper disposal of materials, particularly of electronic waste (e-waste), said Globe in a news release. More than 100 bins under the Globe E-waste Zero program are now placed in different collection points nationwide, such as Globe Stores and malls, which the public can easily access. The bins can accommodate mobile phones, IT accessories, such as mouse, earphones and speakers; Internet and WiFi modems and routers; cable wires, batteries, circuit boards, CDs /DVDs and other small electronic devices. Bigger items, such as computer sets, IT servers and electronic network equipment (antennas, t ra n s m i t te r s, e tc. ) , a n d h o m e a p p l i a n ce s (washing machine, oven, refrigerator, etc.) may be requested for pick up.
E-waste Caloocan City “G l o b e re co g n i ze s t h e i m p o r t a n ce o f taking this extra step in ensuring e-wastes are disposed of properly and can’t be harmful to the environment. We would like to enjoin our customers to help dispose of e-waste properly,” said Yoly Crisanto, Globe chief sustainability officer and SVP for Corporate Communications in the news release. E-waste is made up of various materials that are toxic and hazardous, making the process of recycling risky for those who are not trained properly and who do not have the necessary facilities to do it.
E-waste Phone According to the UN Environment Programme, it is estimated that more than 50 million metric tons of e-waste is produced globally per year and its continued importation and increased local generation is a cause for concern. Roughly 80 percent of these e-waste ends up in landfills, pollute the environment and make informal communities susceptible to the hazards of e-waste. Acco rd i n g to a re ce nt s t u dy m a d e by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and EcoWaste Coalition, only 28 out of the 135 registered treatment, storage
and disposal (TSD) facilities in the Philippines process e-waste. While the informal sector benefits from these discarded items, their methods of dismantling and recycling e-wastes are unconventional and against approved government standards. In response to this situation, Globe’s e-waste program not only promotes proper disposal but also educates people about the potential harm of e-waste to the environment and the overall benefits of e-waste recycling. Proper e-waste recycling conserves natural resources. Instead of extracting raw materials,
valuable materials from old electronics can be turned into new glass, plastic chairs, filament for 3D printing, and reuse the extracted alloys. E-waste recycling avoids unnecessary dumps in landfills. It provides proper handling and management of toxic chemical substances, and helps avoid possible leakage, especially toward water streams. It also prevents possible health hazards to informal communities living near dumps and whose main source of income is the manual processing of these disposed devices. In 2020 alone, the program managed to collect and responsibly dispose of over 250,000 kg of e-waste, bringing the total collection to more than 1.4 million kg since 2014. These e-wastes are delivered to Globe’s partner TSD facilities, namely Total Environment Solutions-Asset Material Management Philippines (TES-AMM) in Pasig City, and Maritrans Recycler Inc. in Cebu. E-wastes are segregated to recover plastic materials, electronic components and precious metals. The final recycling process is done in TES-AMM’s facility in Singapore. “We are thankful to have par tners and co nt ri b u to r s, co m p o s e d o f m o re t h a n 6 6
corporations, private organizations, NGOs, local government par tners and schools nationwide that share Globe’s commitment of building a better and safer world for future generations. We encourage more individuals and organizations to join us in this advocacy. Let us all work together in keeping our planet safe from the harm posed by improper e-waste disposal,” Crisanto added. Globe remains committed to the 10 UN Global Compact principles and contributes to 10 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals such as UN SDG 12 on Sustainable Consumption and Production about achieving economic growth and sustainable development by urgently reducing ecological footprint. It is also about decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, increasing resource efficiency and promoting sustainable lifestyles by changing the way we produce and consume goods and resources. Interested par ties may visit any of the participating Globe stores nationwide or check the list of drop off areas and bulk hauling on E-waste Zero on Globe’s sustainability web site https:// www.globe.com.ph/about-us/sustainability/ environment.html
Sports BusinessMirror
IOC, China make vaccine deal for Tokyo, Beijing Olympians
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ENEVA—China strengthened its relationship with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday by offering to pay for vaccines for athletes as criticism of the 2022 Winter Games host country continues. The IOC entered into a partnership with the Chinese Olympic Committee to buy and provide vaccines for people taking part in the upcoming games in both Tokyo and Beijing. “We are grateful for this offer, which is in the true Olympic spirit of solidarity,” IOC President Thomas Bach said during an online meeting that included sports leaders and the organizing committees of future Olympics. Bach said the IOC would “pay for extra doses” for Olympic and Paralympic participants. The Tokyo Olympics are set to open on July 23, and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing are scheduled for February. The agreement is a reputational win for China when its own Olympics have been severely criticized. Activists have tried to brand it the “Genocide Games” because of China’s detention of its Uyghur people in prison camps. Pro-democracy campaigners have also linked the Olympics to protests about Hong Kong and Tibet. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he believes genocide is being committed against ethnic minorities in china’s Xinjiang province. The IOC and Bach have typically deflected questions about China’s record on human rights and said the Olympic body could influence only projects directly related to staging the games. A 45-minute update on Beijing’s hosting Thursday focused only on praise and the logistics of organizing sports events. “It’s a very on-track delivery of these games in a very successful way,” said Juan
Antonio Samaranch Jr., an IOC vice president and the chairman of the body’s panel overseeing preparations for Beijing. Chinese innovation to develop vaccines and help secure the health of the Tokyo Games has also drawn attention to its regional rival’s relatively slow vaccination rollout. Vaccination in Japan began in February with health workers prioritized. “At the moment, vaccines are being inoculated to health-care workers and from April elderly [people’s] vaccination will begin,” Tokyo Olympic Chief Executive Toshiro Muto said through an interpreter. Bach said the agreement with China would help fulfill promises to Olympic organizers and competitors that the games in Tokyo will be staged safely. He said the project was “our demonstration of solidarity with the Japanese people for whom we have such high respect and whom we hold in such high regard.” Heading off longstanding concerns that athletes might jump the line to get vaccinated, Bach said extra doses for the general public will be given to countries taking part in the program. “The IOC will pay for two doses more, which can be made available for the population in the respective country according to their needs,” Bach said. Distribution will be through international agencies or existing vaccine agreements countries have with China, Bach said. China, where the Covid-19 outbreak emerged in late 2019, has actively engaged in vaccine diplomacy, using doses developed by Sinovac and Sinopharm. Research by The Associated Press this month showed China has pledged about a half billion doses of its vaccines to more than 45 countries. AP
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unday, March 14, 2021 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao
CARDBOARD cutouts of fans sit in seats at Oracle Park before a Major League Baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the San Diego Padres in San Francisco on July 28, 2020. Fake sounds simulated clapping or yelling. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t. AP
ODD SIGHTS, SOUNDS OF PANDEMIC SPORTS All in all, it’s been a time of uneasiness, uncertainty and—as with other aspects of our day-to-day lives for the past 12 months—the utter unknown.
By Howard Fendrich
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The Associated Press
PORTS amid the pandemic became a whole different sort of spectacle, especially when it came to spectators—often with zero, sometimes with some and, in at least one instance at a Grand Slam tennis tournament, starting a match with fans in the seats yet finishing it with none present. Screams and chants, applause and dancing, cheering and jeering by tens of thousands in the stands were so customary and unremarkable at the various athletic endeavors in the Before Times that they tended to recede into the background as not much more than white noise. Over the past year, though, thanks to the contagiousness and dangers of the coronavirus, such sights and sounds were replaced at cavernous venues by the echoes of a bouncing ball or the squeaks of sneakers or “Did he really say that?” chatter among players, coaches and officials that suddenly was audible. And, truly, the entire essence of sports as we know them changed in subtle, if fundamental, ways during the past 12 months because of restrictions on crowds. For those who were no longer able to enjoy being right there, of course—how many kids missed out on a chance to witness a game firsthand for the first time?—but also for those viewing from afar and even for the participants themselves. If a contest happens without anyone delighting in the athleticism or praising and booing the athletes and the outcomes, does the whole undertaking matter as much? Decreased television ratings across the landscape, even for a juggernaut such as the Super Bowl, seemed to indicate not. “It was very weird at first, when the season
started, and like everything else, you kind of got used to it. Which is not a good thing,” said Will Harris, a relief pitcher for the Washington Nationals, who like all teams in Major League Baseball, played every regular-season game of a shortened 2020 season with zero spectators (the postseason “bubbles” allowed limited crowds). “To be honest, it’ll probably be a little weird when the fans are back in the stands, because a lot of us have kind of gotten used to it being the way that it was last year,” Harris said. “The adrenaline might be a little higher than normal when we do see [them]. I’m looking forward to it.” Athletes in individual sports, so accustomed to being fueled by on-site energy and support, needed to adapt and rely on their inner voices. TV viewers couldn’t always tell the difference between what was real and what was artifice. Broadcasters tried to keep viewers engaged and, ultimately, hoped to accomplish what so many of us endeavored to do in so many ways ever since the National Basketball Association began the process of halting sports on March 11, 2020: pretend all was normal. Telecasts featured cardboard cutouts or video images of fans. Fake sounds simulated clapping or yelling. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t. Harris’s Nationals are still awaiting word from the city government on whether they’ll be able to open their gates April 1, MLB’s opening day. Nearly every other baseball team already has the go-ahead to allow some fans. That’s part of a trend as vaccine distribution increases and Covid-19 cases and fatalities decrease. Many, although not all, arenas are letting smaller-than-usual audiences return for NBA or National Hockey League games. The National Football League (NFL) season culminated with about 22,000 people—roughly a third of stadium
IOC members worry about banning foreign fans from Tokyo Olympics
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OKYO—Several International Olympic Committee (IOC) members on Thursday reminded Tokyo Olympic organizers about the potential negative consequences of banning overseas fans from attending the postponed games. Tokyo organizers say a final decision about fans from abroad will be made before the torch relay starts on March 25. The Olympics open on July 23. Many unsourced reports in Japan, citing unnamed officials, say the decision has already been made to keep fans from abroad out of the country. Japan has controlled Covid-19 better than most places with about 8,500 deaths attributed to the virus, and the public fears the risk. “We must find ways to deal with people who have booked and paid for their airplane tickets, games tickets and accommodation and who now may not be able to travel to Tokyo,” IOC member Spyros Capralos said. He spoke in a virtual session of the full Olympic membership after a presentation by Tokyo Organizing Committee President Seiko Hashimoto and CEO Toshiro Muto. “And not to
forget,” Capralos added. “Many of these people are parents or relatives of the athletes.” Gunilla Lindberg, an IOC member from Sweden, echoed her Greek colleague. “We will understand any decision you are taking,” she said. “But the consequences of that decision might be extremely difficult for a lot of people in the world. Maybe you can take that decision as late as possible.” That seems unlikely. Muto said it was better if the decision was announced early so that fans have time to get refunds. He tried to guarantee full ticket refunds would be paid. However, that decision rests with the Authorized Ticket Resellers, who deal with sales outside Japan and are appointed by national Olympic committees. No foreign fans will hurt Tokyo’s budget. Organizers expected income of $800 million from ticket sales. Any shortfall will have to be made up by Japanese government entities. Organizers have said about 7.8 million tickets were originally available for Tokyo with about 70 percent set aside for local buyers.
A WOMAN walks past the Olympic rings in Tokyo. AP
capacity—at last month’s Super Bowl in Florida. Two weeks ago, when New York City’s Madison Square Garden first allowed folks back for Knicks games, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry got an immediate reminder of how different the sights and sounds are, even with attendance capped at about 2,000. “There were some fans heckling, which was awesome,” Curry said. “And me and [teammate] Draymond [Green] were talking about it. There’s no better feeling, I don’t care if it’s 19,000 or 2,500 or whatever it is: You love silencing a road crowd.” Washington Wizards Coach Scott Brooks said it’s hard to even notice when there are such sparse gatherings. “But it’s better than no fans. It’s baby steps,” he said. “Hopefully we can get everything under control, and we can move forward as a league, as a country, and get back to being somewhat normal.” All in all, it’s been a time of uneasiness, uncertainty and—as with other aspects of our day-to-day lives for the past 12 months—the utter unknown. Never was that better illustrated than at the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tennis tournament in a year to let in more than 1,000 spectators daily. A Covid-19 outbreak in Melbourne— well, what amounted to an “outbreak” in Australia, about a dozen cases—led to a five-day lockdown that began in Week 1 of the two-week event; competition continued, but spectators were barred. Because the ban took effect at midnight, and No. 1 Novak Djokovic happened to be playing a match right then, his contest was halted for 10 minutes in the fourth set while ushers cleared disappointed and booing fans out of Rod Laver Arena. So, no one was there to see, celebrate or congratulate when Djokovic wrapped up his victory about an hour later.
Organizers said about 4.45 million had been sold in Japan. Tokyo is officially spending $15.4 billion to prepare the Olympics, but several government audits have suggested it’s at least $25 billion. All but $6.7 billion is public money. “The situation is challenging in Japan and in other countries with regard to the spread of the infection,” Muto said. “Whether we can accept overseas spectators will require an extremely careful and vigilant decision.” IOC President Thomas Bach announced that the Chinese Olympic committee has offered to make vaccine doses available “to participants” in the Tokyo Games and the Beijing Winter Games, which open on February 4, 2022. The vaccine rollout in Japan began last month with medical workers and is expected to be available for the elderly in April. Muto did not suggest that China’s offer would change the decision about fans from abroad. And he did not say if Japan would accept it. “The Japanese government is handling vaccines right now,” he said. “So the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee is not in a position to comment.” Recent polls show up to 80 percent in Japan think the Olympics should be postponed or canceled. A similar percentage is opposed to fans from overseas entering during the pandemic. Muto said a decision on the “upper limit” of venue capacity would be made in April. Filling venues with Japanese fans should not be difficult. Ticket demand before the pandemic was at least 10 times over supply, and relatively few buyers in Japan have sought refunds. Reports in Japan say organizers are considering allowing some fans from abroad to attend if they have tickets from sponsors, national Olympic committees, or sports federations. John Coates, the IOC member who oversees Tokyo preparations, said ticket refunds—if needed—were a “given.” Coates said that fans from abroad had been a key part of talks earlier in the day with Muto. He did not say if a decision had been made. AP
BusinessMirror
March 14, 2021
TELLING THE GIRLS TO SMILE PRESSURES THEM TO ACCEPT THE UNJUST STATUS QUO
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BusinessMirror MARCH 14, 2021 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com
YOUR MUSI
A CASUAL RETURN
Producer-songwriter fern. strikes on his own with new single.
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By Stephanie Joy Ching
OLLOWING his collaborations and projects with big names such as Julie Ann San Jose and 88rising, fern. (yes, it’s stylized as lowercase and with a period) returns to creating his own music with his latest genredefying single, “Whatever This Is”.
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
Written just last December, “Whatever This is” chronicles the speaker’s messy feelings while in a relationship and not putting a label on it. The acclaimed producer-songwriter describes it as “embodiment of what I feel” and the first single he’s produced for himself in a long time. “In anything that I do, it always stems from the things that I feel currently, and that’s why it took me so long to make another single, cause with quarantine I haven’t really been feeling anything,” he shared. However, time is a strange thing, and eventually fern found himself refreshed and with a song in his head after a quick trip to Zambales. Finally away from quarantine in the city, the beach seemed to jog his memory and spark inspiration. Grabbing his phone, as he usually does, and starts singing the melody of the song that would eventually
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fern.
become “Whatever It Is.” “I’ve been producing a lot for other artists last year so coming back to writing my own stuff really felt good and this is what came out from it,” he recounted. An R&B jam that’s quietly powerful with its meticulously arranged quiet storm beats and sleek minimalism, fern admitted that the song was based on a previous experience of his, and the song also serves as one of the first times he’s actually sung his own material. “The song was written about a personal experience of mine. Music has always been my way of facing my emotions and coming to terms with them. ‘Whatever This Is’ is one of those songs that was made just because I wanted to let go of certain emotions and be okay with whatever I was feeling at the moment,” he shared. “I’m not really the biggest fan of
attention,” fern further admitted, “I’d rather be the one producing rather than the one singing the song, so one of the challenges is the thought of people are going to hear me sing, there’s a music video coming out, and I don’t know what they’re going to say about it, and that’s the biggest challenge cause I’ve never really been comfortable being under that pressure,” Despite his hesitation, the end result was slick sounding, deeply emotional song that blurs the lines between R&B, electro pop and OPM. With its experimental beat and electro pop style brought in by prolific electronic artist similarobjects and beatsmith VINCED, the song is fresh even in its use of language itself in its accompanying music video. ‘We wanted to have a sprinkle of culture there,” fern. said in reference to the Filipino narration in the beginning of the video despite the song being sung in English, “A lot of people always ask me why I write in English, and that’s why I’m not OPM because of it. But the way I think about it, I still do it for the culture, and the reason why I write in English is I don’t get why I should force myself to write in Tagalog just because it works more. And if English is the way that I can express my emotions more, then I should just stick to that. And the reason why we added the Tagalog narration is that we just can’t keep copying the west, we have to add our own. So we wanted to show people that it’s okay, it’s still OPM,” The aforementioned music video, which was directed by John Olarte, gives off a free spirited indie film vibe with its relaxed, down to earth style brought about by the need for a smaller film crew during the pandemic. It was filmed by fern and his friends over a weekend around Batangas and Tagaytay. “It’s really different, because in most of my experiences with labels and everything, they kind of just set up along the way but in this music video, it was just me and my closest friends, and it means a lot. It was really just us thinking about how we can capture the fun and mess around,” he shared. “Whatever This Is” by fern. is now available on all major streaming platforms.
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soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | MARCH 14, 2021
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BUSINESS
RHYTHM & RHYME by Kaye Villagomez-Losorata
Olivia Rodrigo parks ‘License’ longer; Bruno Mars urges to ‘Leave The Door Open’ Billboard’s Hot 100 charts is no driver’s lounge, unless you’re Olivia Rodrigo.
OLIVIA Rodrigo (Photo by Erica Hernandez, Atlantic Recording Corporation)
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BRUNO Mars and Anderson. Paak's Silk Sonic (Photo courtesy of Aftermath Entertainment Atlantic Recording Corporation)
HE 18-year-old singer-actress has been on top of the heap for eight straight weeks now. Her song “Drivers License,” released January 8, is simply this year’s biggest hit yet. It touches deep down that the International Women’s Day fell exactly two months after its release, with its theme “Choose to Challenge” seemingly fitting the song’s crucial line “Now I drive alone past your street.” The track, apart from its cool title, is carried well on the emotive singing of the “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” star who in the song admits to being insecure about the “so much older” blonde girl as she “drove through the suburbs.” The idea of a girl driving alone and feeling sentimental hits right through the hearts of today’s generation bent to embrace the hurting while putting up a brave front. Critics shouldn’t be surprised that a ballad that sounds like
you’ve heard it a hundred times before could capture the imagination of song streamers either really out there or just inside their homes imagining they’re driving out thinking they can’t move on and want to express that on social media. Rodrigo’s video is closing in on 150 million times streamed on YouTube.
Wide open
A new band immediately exploded after releasing its debut single just last March 5. The
group, named Silk Sonic, has a member named Bruno Mars, and the song. “Leave The Door Open” starts grabbing one’s attention once his voice enters the frame in the refrain, singing “I ain’t playing no games/Every word that I say/Is coming straight from the heart.” No disrespect to the other guy in the super duo, .Anderson Paak. It’s just that Bruno’s too big a name and distinctive a voice to be part of a collective name. Why just not do it as a collaborative effort with their names separately credited, like how “Uptown Funk” and “Billionaire” were presented,” is subject for debate. By this time Mars can come out in any form, like in the song’s music video where he with a moustache plays on a piano, and people will buy it as treasure. One thing’s for sure. These two singer-musicians like working together that Silk is coming out with an album later this year called “An Evening with Silk Sonic.” Paak opened for Mars during the latter’s “24k Magic” Tour. This new single was even preceded by a minute-long Silk
Sonic Intro, released a day before it, featuring the speaking voice of noted funk bassist Bootsy Collins. In fairness, the song stands out for listeners to even feel bothered whether it should be taken as a collaboration, a band single, or just another Bruno Mars gem. It’s a throwback R&B with a stylized chorus line that sings “Imma” instead of “I’m gonna.” Once the melody line sips through your head, it will be hard to undo the contraction when you have to say “I’m going to” in a sentence. It should help Paak’s image that he appeared singing the verses while playing the drums in its music video that has already garnered 23 million views in just four days. Is this the first time a group song was vocally performed by two instrumentalists traditionally placed at the back of a band? Mars is of course among the 21st century artists who consistently produces sexy songs with real catchy melodies. Here he once again leaves the door open.
Telling girls to smile pressures them to accept the unjust status quo By Natalie Coulter York University, Canada
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irls are constantly told to smile, from t-shirts sold in stores that say “everyone loves a happy girl” to the catcallers telling young women to smile when they walk down the street. Audrey Hepburn once famously stated that “happy girls are the prettiest girls”— now this quote is reiterated in the post-feminist marketplace on t-shirts, pillow cases and stationery. Perhaps the most public callout to a girl to smile was Donald Trump’s caustically sarcastic tweet that climate activist Greta Thunberg “seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” But lift up the hood of this pressure to be perceived as carefree and happy and look underneath: something much more disturbing is revealed. I have been studying the experiences of girls, particularly tweens aged eight to 12, with regards to consumer culture for the past 15 years. The pressure on girls to be fun, happy and smiling reveals much
Young girls walk together during the annual Women’s Memorial March in Vancouver on February 14, 2021. The march is held to honor missing and murdered women and girls from the community with stops along the way to commemorate where women were last seen or found. The Canadian Press/ The Conversation about the cultural expectations projected onto girls and girlhood.
Perpetual fun? This constant expectation of girls to be always smiling depoliticizes girls and positions them as compliant in their own subjugation. “Fun” acts as a distraction from deeper political issues, discouraging girls from considering the exploitation and violence that they face worldwide. Directing their attention to the myriad social and political issues facing girls, like the climate crisis or missing and murdered Indigenous girls and women, would upset the happiness and fun of girlhood. Feminist scholar Sara Ahmed writes that happiness is promised to those who commit to living their life in an unchallenging way that does not upset the status quo. To challenge the status quo by drawing attention to these issues disrupts the fantasy. If everyone loves a happy girl, as the tshirt says, then unhappy girls are unlovable:
it’s a clear warning to girls to maintain happiness or else face being “psychologically and aesthetically unappealing.” Fun can be had with others, but at its root is an individual endeavor to be responsible for one’s own fun. The call to smile is not an invitation to celebrate the resolution of the misogynistic and patriarchal structures that are often at the root of unhappiness. Happiness and fun are forms of popular feminism that frame gender equality as individual empowerment eclipsing a feminist structural critique. Unhappiness deviates from the post-feminist script in which women—who are responsible for their own happiness and emancipation—need to think positively and be inspired to make change. The emphasis is on individual actions over collective consciousness. These moral demands for happiness and fun undermine citizenship and commitments to community.
A girl at a protest in Washington, D.C., holds a sign featuring George Floyd. Unsplash/ The Conversation
Girls’ leadership The call to happiness and fun lets patriarchal structures and institutions off the hook for the injustices, unhappiness and pains of girls worldwide, and posits the responsibility for their own happiness on girls’ shoulders. But girls are no longer complying, including Greta Thunberg, who brilliantly turned Trump’s own words back on him. Thunberg’s clapback to Trump flips the script exposing the misogynistic and ageist rhetoric on girls to be happy. A global youth movement led by girls— like water activists Autumn Peltier and Mari Copeny, education activist Malala Yousufzai and climate activist Vanessa Nakate—are countering these narratives. They are fighting against climate change and advocating for social change using a whole and complex range of emotions, including happiness and fun. Girls are refusing to be dismissed by misogynistic critics who tell them to “smile more.” The Conversation
How a ‘feminist’ foreign policy would change the world
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he Biden administration has a woman, Vice President Kamala Harris, in its second-highest position, and 61 percent of White House appointees are women. Now, it has declared its intention to “protect and empower women around the world.” Gender equity and a gender agenda are two ingredients of a “feminist foreign policy”—an international agenda that aims to dismantle the male-dominated systems of foreign aid, trade, defense, immigration and diplomacy that sideline women and other minority groups worldwide. A feminist foreign policy re-envisions a country’s national interests, moving them away from military security and global dominance to position equality as the basis of a healthy, peaceful world. This is in keeping with Hillary Clinton’s groundbreaking 1995 statement at the United Nations, “Women’s rights are human rights.” The world could change in some positive ways if more countries, especially a power
like the United States, made a concerted effort to improve women’s rights abroad, our scholarship on gender and security suggests. Research shows that countries with more gender equality are less likely than other countries to experience civil war. Gender equality is also linked with good governance: Countries that exploit women are far more unstable. Women aren’t yet any country’s top foreign policy priority. But ever more countries are starting to at least write them into the agenda. In 2017, Canada launched a “feminist international assistance policy” aimed at supporting women, children and adolescent health worldwide. Putting money behind its promises, it pledged Canadian $1.4 billion annually by 2023 to both governments and international organizations to strengthen access to nutrition, health services and education among women in the developing world. In January 2020, Mexico became the first country in Latin America to adopt a feminist foreign policy. Its strategy seeks
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to advance gender equality internationally; combat gender violence worldwide; and confront inequalities in all social and environmental justice program areas. Neither Canada nor Mexico has achieved its lofty new goals. Critics say Canada’s lack of focus on men and boys leaves the traditions and customs supporting gender inequality not fully addressed. And in Mexico, which has among the world’s highest rates of gender violence—men murder 11 women there every day—it’s hard to see how a government that cannot protect women at home can credibly promote feminism abroad. But both countries are at least taking women’s needs explicitly into account. The US, too, has taken steps toward a more feminist foreign policy. In summer of 2020, the departments of Defense, State and Homeland Security, along with the US Agency for International Development, each published a plan putting women’s empowerment in their agendas, promoting women’s participation in decision-making in con-
March 14, 2021
flict zones, advance women’s rights and ensure their access to humanitarian assistance. While these are the components of a feminist foreign policy, the plans are still operating in silos. A truly feminist foreign policy would be coherent across aid, trade, defense, diplomacy and immigration—and consistently prioritize equality for women. One of Biden’s early moves in office, in January, was to rescind the “global gag rule,” a Republican policy prohibiting health providers in foreign countries that receive any US aid from providing abortion-related services—even if they use their own money. Studies show the funding restriction reduces women’s access to all kinds of health care, exposing them to disease and forcing women to seek unsafe abortions. Reallocating financial resources in ways that level the playing field for women is another critical aspect of a feminist foreign policy. But again, it needs to be a policy that’s consistent and across the board, not a one-off decision. The Conversation