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A WOMAN wearing a mask to help protect herself from contracting the coronavirus walks through the scaled replicas of iconic buildings of New York City at the World Park in Beijing, May 7, 2020. AP/NG HAN GUAN

Real estate, real scare?

Revisiting the property market in a time of fear and uncertainty

By Roderick L. Abad | Contributor

A

KIN to global crises in the past, the current coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic apparently has cast doubt on the Philippine economy’s prospects. And yet, for all the doom and gloom scenarios, one thing for sure, according to real-estate experts and players, is that this health emergency opens up opportunities for both the realestate investors and developers.

With this in mind, they agreed that now is the proper time for the market to acquire a piece of an estate as builders need to meet their expectations just when they deal with current situations in their field amid the spread of the virulent, deadly virus.

“Highest and best use of property will become even more important for investors and developers.

Flexibility is key. Covid-19 is indeed a crisis, but every crisis brings opportunities,” KMC Solutions Cofounder Amanda Carpo told the BusinessMirror.

“While the pandemic has brought about many uncertainties and challenges across a broad spec-

trum of investors and customers, basic microeconomics principles still point out to clear advantages of investing in property.… I do believe that developers should be sincere in adapting to the different rigors and demands brought about by the new normal,” added Golden Bay Landholdings Inc. (GBLI) Chief Operating Officer (COO) Jardin Brian Wong.

Crisis-proof

NO matter what the economic environment is, real estate, unlike some industries, is resilient enough to give good returns. In fact, it’s the third-safest investment next to gold and certificates of deposit, per a study by global public opinion

and data company YouGov. “Property has long been the gold standard for investment because of a plethora of reasons,” Wong noted.

Foremost of such reasons, he said, is that it’s a highly tangible investment that the buyers can see and feel. Second would be the legacy aspect—these assets can be handed out from generation to generation—arguably giving them a sense of security.

Third is its value generation.

“Over time, real estate tends to increase in value exponentially while in comparison, actual money contracts due to a plethora of reasons like supply and demand,

inflation and fiscal pressure,” Wong pointed out.

He noted that property investments are considered to be stable unlike other potential revenue streams like stocks, bonds and other securities that have fluctuating tendencies and are more susceptible to market shocks.

Sharing the same idea with him, Carpo views real estate as a good instrument for investors to diversify their investment portfolio. She said: “Equities are much more volatile and carry more risk in general, and real estate can help manage volatility and risk and make your investments more Continued on A2

Face masks make a political statement in era of coronavirus

By Will Weissert & Jonathan Lemire

W

The Associated Press

ASHINGTON—The decision to wear a mask in public is becoming a political statement—a moment to pick sides in a brewing culture war over containing the coronavirus.

While not yet as loaded as a “Make America Great Again” hat, the mask is increasingly a visual shorthand for a debate pitting those willing to follow health officials’ guidance and cover their faces against those who feel it violates their freedom or buys into a threat they think is overblown.

That resistance is fueled by some of the same people who object to other virus restrictions.

The push back has been stoked

by President Donald Trump—he didn’t wear a mask during a Tuesday appearance at a facility making them—and some other Republi-

cans, who have flouted rules and questioned the value of masks. It’s a development that has worried experts as Americans are increasingly returning to public spaces.

Muddled

“THERE’S such a strong culture of individualism that, even if it’s going to help protect them, people don’t want the government telling them what to do,” said Linsey Marr, a Virginia Tech engineering professor with experience in airborne transmission of viruses.

Inconclusive science and shifting federal guidance have no doubt

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 50.5140

VICE President Mike Pence (center) visits Dennis Nelson, a patient who survived the coronavirus and was going to give blood, during a tour of the Mayo Clinic, April 28, 2020, in Rochester, Minnesota, as he toured the facilities supporting Covid-19 research and treatment. Pence chose not to wear a face mask while touring the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. It’s an apparent violation of the world-renowned medical center’s policy requiring them. AP/JIM MONE

muddied the political debate.

Health officials initially said wearing masks was unnecessary, especially amid a shortage of protective materials. But last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began recommending wearing cloth masks in public to prevent transmitting the virus to others.

Whether Americans are embracing the change may depend on their political party. While most other protective measures, like social distancing, get broad bipartisan support, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they’re wearing a mask when leaving home, 76 percent to 59 percent, according to a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The split is clear across several demographics that lean Democratic. People with college degrees are more likely than those without to wear masks when leaving home, 78 percent to 63 percent. African Americans are more likely than either white people, or Hispanic Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4753 n UK 62.5313 n HK 6.5172 n CHINA 7.1297 n SINGAPORE 35.7267 n AUSTRALIA 32.8038 n EU 54.7218 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.4525

Source: BSP (May 8, 2020)

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, May 10, 2020

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Real estate, real scare?

Continued from A1

efficient. More than ever, investors need to understand the effects of volatility. That is what we will be experiencing in the near future.”

Cautious move

ALTHOUGH property is a good investment in general, the prime mover of KMC Solutions cautioned buyers to be more realistic about their goals and time frame.

In these difficult times, a downward trend in real-estate values is expected. Nonetheless, it may be a good time for investors to come into the market.

“If you are investing, you should know whether you are a safe, aggressive, opportunistic investor,” Carpo said. “You should know your expected return and the volatility involved.”

Because high returns come with high risks, it’s natural for property seekers to look for assets that are not so volatile but have a decent return.

“Real estate is efficient in that sense,” she said. “An investment in real estate is a long play and balances the volatility of a portfolio of equities, bonds and cash. It builds wealth and helps grow wealth since you can also use it for leverage.”

For the benefit of property owners who need to sell their assets—given the volatile markets paired with unpredictability on when the health crisis will end— Carpo had this as a reminder: “If you need to liquidate, make sure that you will be able to re-invest the proceeds or use it for something essential.

It may be time to tighten belts. It may be time to discard ‘sentimentality.’ Be flexible.”

For those who still have enough resources or cash on hand, she admonished them differently.

“If you have income-producing property or one that has good intrinsic value and can afford to hold on, it’s my personal preference to play the long game.”

Maximize your investment

STILL in the lockdown mode, investors can maximize their real-estate investment in two ways, Wong said.

An adage that says, “Our home is our sanctuary” works—practicality-wise—during this time that the Luzon-based enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is implemented to help contain the rapid spread of the virus.

“I believe that investing and having our own homes during a pandemic provides that extra safety and security mechanism that everyone should have,” he said

Second would be the economical aspect. The COO of GBLI said real-estate assets can be a lifeline to support dwindling income streams or to aid cash-strapped balance sheets.

“Consumers can leverage these tangible assets to secure much-needed funding or aid during extraordinary emergencies like this,” he said.

Looking beyond the health emergency, investors need to leverage on the stretched payment terms and lock in adjusted prices that developers now offer to them.

Availing themselves of such greatly reduces the monthly exposure of each consumer.

“Most of these payment terms are over three or four years. So, hopefully, by then the world economy and global health system would be over the initial ‘shock’ to the market and would have adjusted fairly well. When everything goes back to normal, buyers might enjoy the same benefits they would get,” Wong stressed.

Catering to market demand

EXPECTING a heightened buying impulse from the market during this pandemic, Golden Bay assures that it has a firm grasp of the market it operates in.

“We adapt to market conditions and try our best to bridge impending gaps between market trajectory and consumer appetite,” the COO bared.

At present, he said projects under design development and construction stages are being reviewed and, subsequently, reinforced to fit future market requirements.

“As a company, we always make it a priority to be nimble and reactive to the ever-changing demands of the market, and we are prepared to adapt well to these changes,” emphasized Wong.

In a bid to be sensitive to customers’ needs given their current situation in the time of Covid-19, he said the firm is in the process of implementing flexible and more affordable payment schemes for their target buyers.

AboitizLand, Cebu Landmasters

THIS effort is similar to other players’ initiatives to somehow help property seekers, especially those

A WOMAN crosses a usually busy street during a community quarantine at the Araneta Center in Quezon City, April 1, 2020. AP/AARON FAVILA

who have lost their jobs or means of livelihood because of the government-imposed ECQ, to cope.

In a recent developer webinar series of Lamudi, AboitizLand Inc. provides incentives to buyers, such as discounts, to help them in their financial need. This reward scheme is also given to sellers by adjusting their commission fees in recognition of their being “frontliners” in the business.

“The challenge is not just in the new mode of selling. The challenge [is more on the fact that] the people we’re selling to have [fewer] resources. In fact, that’s the bigger challenge. You’re talking now to people who have [fewer] resources, and not only [fewer] resources, but uncertainty of that resource,” said David Rafael, chief executive officer (CEO) of AboitizLand.

Regional player Cebu Landmasters Inc. (CLI), on the other hand, has extended payment

schemes for those who acquired pre-selling units. Also, the firm reassures clients by telling them that the prices won’t change.

“In the next few months, prices of construction materials will soften because a lot of the inventory was not acquired. There are possible adjustments, a review of the pricing,” CLI CEO Jose Soberano III said.

Torre Lorenzo Development Corp. (TLDC), meanwhile, has a different approach. Considering that it caters to the high-end market, whose common concern is the time of delivery of the units more than flexible payment terms, the company provides vital information to keep patrons in the loop.

TLDC CEO Tomas Lorenzo also shared that they’re working for the rental market. He said: “People who can’t afford to buy are going to shift to leasing. In Torre Lorenzo, we have quite a substantial portion of our projects for lease.”

New normal

THE unprecedented health emergency the world is now facing is changing the way the people work, play, eat and live.

“Some of these adaptations may be permanent,” said Carpo.

“Just like 9-11 where, over time we recognized we live in a world where terrorism is possible and we are used to security checks, screening and metal detectors, this pandemic will force workplaces, homes, shops, restaurants, factories to think of health and safety measures to prevent disease.”

Apart from the need for properties to have proper ventilation, sanitized spaces and social-distancing measures, among others, she said that another new normal would be a change in design principles.

“We will have to rethink highdensity living. We will have to, more than ever, think of our environment and the space we live

in,” she noted, adding that both investors and developers ought to become data-driven in their decision-making. “We are in uncertain times and we must be willing to adapt. Adapt or die.”

Golden Bay, for one, sees a lot of technology utilization from the way they do business will emerge from the crisis.

“From an operational point of view, some jobs would be done remotely from the confines of employees’ homes. Investment in technology for sales and marketing purposes will rise significantly since developers will try to reach customers through the web. Overthe-counter payment forms will be forgone in favor of cashless transactions. On the engineering front, developers would want to review existing and future projects in the pipeline to adapt to new demands of society,” Wong said.

Face masks make a political statement in era of coronavirus Continued from A1

Americans, to say they’re wearing masks outside the home, 83 percent to 64 percent and 67 percent, respectively.

The notable exception is among older people, a group particularly vulnerable to serious illness from the virus. Some 79 percent of those age 60 and over were doing so compared with 63 percent of those younger.

“Who knows what the truth is on masks?” asked Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who, unlike some of his colleagues, went without a mask Tuesday in the Senate. Paul already contracted the virus and believes he is no longer contagious.

His comments were a long way from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s moral argument for the mask a few days earlier.

“How people cannot wear masks—that to me is even disrespectful,” Cuomo said. “You put so many people at risk because you did not want to wear a mask?”

Effectiveness aside, politicians of both parties are clued into the powerful symbolism of the mask, and many Americans take their cues from the president.

Trump was barefaced when he spoke to masked journalists, workers and Secret Service agents at the Arizona factory Tuesday. He later said he briefly wore a mask backstage but took it off because facility personnel told him he didn’t need it.

But Trump has been maskaverse for weeks. Within minutes of the CDC announcing its updated mask recommendations, he said, “I don’t think that I’m going to be doing it.”

Trump has told advisers that he believes wearing one would “send the wrong message,” according to one administration and two campaign officials not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. The president said doing so would make it seem like he is preoccupied with health instead of focused on reopening the nation’s economy—which his aides believe is the key to his reelection chances in November.

‘Ridiculous’ look

MOREOVER, Trump, who is known to be especially cognizant of his appearance on television, has also told confidants that he fears he would look ridiculous in a mask and the image would appear

in negative ads, according to one of the officials.

“It’s a vanity thing, I guess, with him,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of Trump on MSNBC. “You’d think, as the president of the United States, you would have the confidence to honor the guidance he’s giving the country.”

That’s left those around him unsure of how to proceed. White House aides say the president hasn’t told them not to wear them, but few do.

Some Republican allies have asked Trump’s campaign how it would be viewed by the White House if they were spotted wearing a mask, according to two campaign officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss private conversations.

Meanwhile, Trump’s reelection campaign has ordered red Trump-branded masks for supporters and is considering giving them away at events, or in return for donations. But some advisers are concerned the president will later sour on the idea, according to one campaign official.

That uncertainty was on display last week, when Vice President Mike Pence went maskless at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. He

later acknowledged he should have worn one and did use a mask during a subsequent trip to a ventilator plant.

Dilemmas

WITH a face mask 100-percent made in France, President Emmanuel Macron showed the famously fashionable French people Tuesday that civic responsibility and style are not mutually exclusive.

Macron used a visit to a primary school to promote the type of cloth masks that will be de rigueur on public transportation and other locations when France starts emerging from its coronavirus lockdown next week. The dark blue version Macron wore while visiting the school west of Paris complemented his tie and blue suit, and came embellished on one side with ribbon detail in red, white and blue, the colors of the French flag. The French presidency said the mask, designed specifically to protect the public from the virus, was produced by knitwear manufacturer Chanteclair and retails for €4.92 ($5.34.) The French military tested the garment’s breathability and effectiveness in filtering out small particles, the presidency said. IAN LANGSDON, POOL VIA AP

THE issue has been far less fraught for Democrats, whose presumptive presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has said he wears a mask when interacting with the Secret Service.

Dilemmas for politicians and other Americans are only going to increase as parts of the country begin easing stay-at-home orders and businesses reopen with new rules.

The tensions have already flared in Michigan, where a man was shot and killed over a mask dispute at a store.

One of the earliest communities to require masks in public was Laredo, Texas. A $1,000 noncompliance fine was negated by an order from the governor, but Mayor Pete Saenz said his community is still asking citizens to comply so hospitals aren’t overtaxed with new cases.

“We don’t want to violate anyone’s civil liberties,” Saenz said. But “we can’t help you, if it’s beyond our medical capacity, whether you exercise your civil liberties or not.”

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Angel R. Calso

France set to ease lockdown to relieve coronavirus pain

F

rance will start rolling back lockdown measures, joining Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in easing restrictions as Europe’s economic pain from the fallout of the coronavirus intensifies.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the country was ready for a nationwide plan to relax curbs on public life, though strict controls will remain on public transport in Paris, where infection rates are too high. Looser restrictions on businesses and stores will start coming into effect on Monday in a gradual process designed to avoid a second wave of infections.

“We are always looking for a balance between the indispensable return to normal life and the indispensable respect of all measures that will prevent the epidemic from restarting,” Philippe said on Thursday, adding that restrictions could be reimposed if infections rise. “The target of all the French people is that we can live with this virus” until a cure is found.

Despite more than 140,000 deaths on the continent, European leaders are feeling the heat to accelerate a return to normality and are trying to walk a fine line between reactivating the economy and avoiding a renewed outbreak.

Th e e co n o m i c d a m a g e i s b e co m i n g increasingly evident, with a 9.2-percent decline in March industrial production in Germany and a 16.2-percent drop in France. The crippling impact on Europe’s two biggest economies from just half a month of factory closures sets up even grimmer figures for April, when millions of people were all but confined to their homes across the continent.

France’s end-of-lockdown plan will be progressive and differentiated. Local situations will be constantly monitored, with remote work remaining a priority. Some schools could remain closed until fall due to difficulties in implementing social distancing and sanitary measures, and restaurants, bars and cafes will remain closed until at least early June.

Face masks will be mandatory on public transportation. Travel of less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) will be allowed, but borders to European neighbors will remain closed. “ Th e Fre n c h e co n o my must restar t,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. “We lost a lot of growth and jobs, and we therefore must restart economic activity within the most secure conditions.”

The UK is set to ease parts of its nationwide lockdown on Monday, with more freedom for people to leave their homes, but companies warned continued social distancing will hurt any economic recovery. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he wants to start relaxing some measures next week “if we possibly can,” and will make a full statement on his plans on Sunday.

Infection limit

Germany declared the first stage of the fight against the pandemic over and is preparing to open restaurants, hotels and all shops as well as to restart professional soccer games.

Although many lockdown measures are being gradually phased out, social distancing rules were extended until at least June 5.

To contain hot spots, a threshold on local infection rates was set up and restrictions will be reinstated if an area records more than 50 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in a week.

Germany’s main concern is travel ramping up again, which could make the spread difficult to control, according to Helge Braun, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff.

“We are not living after the pandemic but in the middle of a pandemic,” Braun said on Thursday on Deutschlandfunk radio. “We hope that we can keep the numbers very low, even if we’re returning to a somewhat more normal life.”

Just as Germany paves the way for a broad economic restart, the number of new coronavirus cases rose by the most in six days, and fatalities increased the most since April 18. On the positive side, a measure of the contagion rate, known as the reproduction factor, declined to 0.65 from 0.71 the previous day.

‘Better than regret’

Italy’s infections also increased, rising the most in four days on Thursday, as Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte battles tensions within his coalition over a new stimulus package for the country’s paralyzed economy. The government may allow shops to reopen before a planned date of May 18, and bars and restaurants may open on June 1 under current government plans.

In Spain, parliament backed Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s request to extend a state of emergency through May 23 as he tries to guide the country out of lockdown.

While the limits on activity will gradually b e e a s e d , “ t h e re w i l l c o n t i n u e t o b e restrictions, and those restrictions require the state of alarm,” Sanchez told lawmakers at a sparsely attended plenary in Madrid on Wednesday, as the political consensus that backed his course shows signs of crumbling.

Spain recorded a drop in the nation’s daily coronavirus death toll and a small increase in the number of new cases.

The Netherlands will also accelerate its plan to reopen more of the economy by at least a week, allowing hairdressers, nail salons and beauty parlors to start work again on Monday.

Bloomberg News

Sunday, May 10, 2020

A3

Fractures in many nations widen as Covid-19 restrictions ease up

By Jill Lawless, Angela Charlton & Elaine Kurtenbach

L

The Associated Press

ONDON—Regional and political rifts are emerging in many countries over how fast to lift the lid on the coronavirus lockdowns, as worries about economic devastation collide with fears of a second wave of deaths.

French mayors are resisting the government’s call to reopen schools, while Italian governors want Rome to ease lockdown measures faster. As the British government looks to reopen the economy, Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon has warned that acting too fast could let the virus wreak havoc again.

“Any significant easing up of restrictions at this stage would be very, very risky indeed,” Sturgeon said on Thursday.

The economic damage around the globe mounted.

In the US, nearly 3.2 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, the government announced, bringing the running total over the past seven weeks to 33.5 million. When the nation’s April unemployment rate comes out on Friday, it is expected to be as high as 16 percent, a level not seen since the Depression.

Neiman Marcus, the 112-yearold luxury retailer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the first US department store chain to be toppled by the outbreak.

And the Bank of England projected that Britain’s economy will shrink by 14 percent this year, its biggest decline since 1706, when Europe was locked in the War of the Spanish Succession.

In Britain, where the official death toll stands at more than 30,000, second only to the United States, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was expected to extend a more than six-week lockdown on Thursday but hopes to ease some restrictions on economic and social activity starting next week.

Johnson said the government will act with “ma ximum caution” to prevent a second wave of infections.

As governments grapple with when to restart their economies, the Trump administration has shelved a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document with step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places.

The 17-page report with detailed instructions on what precautions to take was supposed to be published last Friday, but agency scientists were told it “would never see the light of day,” according to a CDC official who was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

In France, more than 300 mayors in the Paris region have urged President Emmanuel Macron to delay the reopening of schools, set for Monday. Many mayors around the country have already refused to reopen schools, and many parents will keep their children home even where they are functioning again.

The mayors called the timing “untenable and unrealistic,” saying they were put on a “forced march” to get schools ready without enough staff or equipment.

They complained that the government guidelines were too vague and slow in coming.

But governments are also under pressure to reopen faster and kickstart economies that have been plunged into hibernation.

Italian regional governors are pressing to open shops and restaurants, just days after the country began easing its two-month lockdown by allowing 4.5 million people to return to work in offices and factories.

Governors want to be allowed to present their own plans for re-

Nurses take selfies with first responders who stopped during a parade outside Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in a show of support for nurses and health-care workers on National Nurses Day, in West Hollywood, California, on Wednesday, May 6, 2020. AP/Damian Dovarganes

opening, tailored to the rate of infection and economic needs of their regions.

After an outcry from the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte announced that public Masses will be allowed to resume on May 18.

In Spain, support for the government is crumbling after seven weeks of a strict lockdown, with some regions and opposition parties demanding an end to the state of emergency declared on March 14. The government argues that it is far too soon.

Some of Germany’s 16 powerful state governments are more impatient than others to open up businesses such as restaurants and hotels. At a meeting on Wednesday with Chancellor Angela Merkel, it was agreed that state leaders would have wide leeway to decide when to open more sectors of the economy. They also will have to reimpose restrictions locally if infections rebound.

In Russia, where the number of new infections is growing fast, President Vladimir Putin delegated the enforcement of lockdowns and other restrictions to regional governments, leading to wide variations across the country.

Mikhail Vinogradov, head of the St. Petersburg Politics think tank, told the Vedomosti newspaper that the Moscow government

is sending mixed messages that governors find hard to decipher— wanting a victory over the virus, while also encouraging easing of the lockdown.

Fractures are also evident in the US, where about half of the 50 states are easing their shutdowns, to the alarm of public health officials.

Many states have not put in place the robust testing and contact tracing that experts believe is necessary to detect and contain new outbreaks. And many governors have pressed ahead with reopening before their states met one of the key benchmarks in the Trump administration’s guidelines for reopening—a 14day downward trajectory in new infections.

“If we relax these measures without having the proper public health safeguards in place, we can expect many more cases and, unfortunately, more deaths,” said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy with the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington.

Researchers recently doubled their projection of deaths in the US to about 134,000 through early August. So far the US has recorded over 70,000 deaths and 1.2 million confirmed infections.

Worldwide, the virus has infected more than 3.6 million people

and killed over a quarter-million, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally, which experts agree understates the dimensions of the pandemic because of limited testing, differences in counting the dead and concealment by some governments.

China, where the virus emerged late last year, reported just two new cases on Thursday, both from overseas, and said the whole country now is at low risk of further infections. The country has reported no new deaths from Covid-19 in more than three weeks.

China also fired back against claims by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that there is “enormous evidence” that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying accused Pompeo of “making up lies and covering up a lie by fabricating more lies.”

Strict social distancing also appears to have vanquished the outbreak in New Zealand, where Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is mulling over plans to relax the lockdown by allowing gatherings of up to 100 people and holding professional sports events without spectators.

But Ardern called for vigilance.

“We think of ourselves as halfway down Everest,” she said. “I think it’s clear that no one wants to hike back up that peak.” AP

Hackers target W.H.O. by posing as researchers, media groups

T

he messages began arriving in World Health Organization employees’ inboxes in early April, seemingly innocuous e-mails about the coronavirus from news organizations and researchers. But a close examination revealed that they contained malicious links, and some security experts have traced the e-mails to a hacking group in Iran believed to be sponsored by the government.

The hacking effort, which began on April 3, was an attempt to steal passwords and possibly install malware on WHO computers, according to three people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because they aren’t authorized to talk to the news media.

The incident was one of several suspected state-sponsored hacks targeting WHO officials in recent weeks, the people said.

Flavio Aggio, the WHO’s chief information security officer, declined to comment on specific instances, but confirmed the organization had been subjected to “very clever attacks” as it works to blunt the coronavirus pandemic. He said the attempted intrusions against the WHO had so far been unsuccessful. “We are dealing with an information war and a cyberwar at the same time,” he said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry didn’t respond to a

request for comment. Iran’s cyber capabilities, once used as a means of internal control and repression, have evolved to more aggressive attacks on foreign targets, including the US, according to a January report by US congressional researchers. Reuters has previously reported that hackers tied to the Iranian government have tried to breach the personal e-mail accounts of WHO employees.

Two of the messages sent to the WHO, which were reviewed by Bloomberg News, were designed to look like coronavirus newsletters from the British Broadcasting Corporation.

A third message was tailored to look like an interview request from the American Foreign Policy Council, a conservative think tank based in Washington. It encouraged recipients to click on what looked to be a shortened Google link, which diverted to a malicious domain.

European security agencies notified the WHO of the intrusion attempts. One threat alert warned that the phishing e-mails had been crafted by “highly skilled professionals” who were “possibly state-sponsored” and associated with Iran, according to two of the people familiar with the matter.

Ohad Zaidenberg, lead cyber intelligence researcher at Clearsky Cyber Security, reviewed

the messages for Bloomberg News, and said he believed they were sent by a group of state-sponsored Iranian hackers known as “Charming Kitten,” which has been active since 2014 and previously targeted Iranian d i s s i d e n t s, a c a d e m i c s, j o u r n a l i s t s a n d human-rights activists.

The e-mails, Zaidenberg said, contained enough information for him to conclude with high confidence that they were the work of Charming Kitten. The domains featured in the messages—including mobiles.identifierser vices-session.site, sgnldp.live, and an obscure link shortening service, bitli.pro—were hallmarks of the Iranian group and had been used in previous attacks, he said.

Beginning in early April, Charming Kitten began a new campaign of attempted hacks, sending e-mails about fake coronavirus research to researchers, journalists, and government officials, Zaidenberg said.

In late Februar y, the c yber-securit y o r g a n i z a t i o n C E R T FA , w h i c h t r a c k s cybercriminals and state-sponsored hackers in Iran, said it had identified Charming Kitten hackers trying to dupe their targets into clicking a malicious link by posing as journalists seeking an interview.

The hacking group was targeting private and government institutions, think tanks and academic institutions in European countries, the US, UK and Saudi Arabia, CERTFA said in a blog post. Its method was “stealing e-mail account information of the vic tims and finding information about their contacts/ networks,” it said.

The e-mail sent to the WHO impersonating the American Foreign Policy Council purported to be from Ilan Berman, the think tank’s senior vice president. The message had the subject “AFPC Online Interview” and contained a link to what the e-mail claimed were interview questions.

But the link diverted to a malicious domain, probably intended to steal passwords and twofactor authentication codes for WHO employee e-mail accounts, according to Zaidenberg.

Berman, a critic of the Iranian government who has written two books about the country, said he was aware that hackers were trying to impersonate him. On about six separate occasions recently, he said, he had been contacted by people seeking to authenticate e -mails they had received from a Gmail account in his name, inviting them to attend conferences. The same Gmail account was used to target the WHO officials.

“We’ve been dealing with this for the last six months or so. We’ve been reaching out to people to tell them—don’t click on any links, don’t give them any personal information,” Berman said.

B e rn a rd o M a ri a n o, t h e WH O ’s c h i e f information officer, declined to comment on specific hacking attempts but confirmed that the organization had received several alerts about nation-state attacks. He said it was difficult to confirm the precise origin of the attacks because of methods hackers often use to conceal their locations.

Mariano said the WHO has closed some systems in order to prevent hackers from gaining access to them, recruited new employees for its computer security team and enlisted the help of several security companies.

In addition to reporting a surge in cyber attacks targeting the WHO and its officials, the organization has seen a spike in fake accounts impersonating its employees as part of phishing campaigns and is encouraging people to report suspicious messages from people claiming to be associated with the WHO. “If it continues like this it is going to take a toll on all of us,” Mariano said in an interview.

“We don’t have the capacity to sustain this for very long.” Bloomberg News

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The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, May 10, 2020

America’s business of prisons thrives even amid a pandemic L

www.businessmirror.com.ph

UK economy forecast to suffer deepest contraction since 1706

By Robin Mcdowell & Margie Mason

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The Associated Press

INNEAPOLIS—As factories and other businesses remain shuttered across America, prisoners in at least 40 states continue going to work. Sometimes they earn pennies an hour, or nothing at all, making masks and hand sanitizer to help guard others from the coronavirus.

T hose sa me i n m ates h ave been cut off from family visits for weeks, but they get charged up to $25 for a 15-minute phone call—plus a surcharge every time they add credit.

They also pay marked-up prices at the commissary for soap so they can wash their hands more frequently. That service can carry a 100-percent processing fee.

As the Covid-19 virus cripples the economy, leaving millions unemployed and many companies on life support, big business that has become synonymous with the world’s largest prison system is still making money.

“It’s hard. Especially at a time like this, when you’re out of work, you’re waiting for unemployment…and you don’t have money to send,” said Keturah Bryan, who transfers hundreds of dollars each month to her 64-year-old father at a federal prison in Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, she said, prisons continue their nickel-anddiming.

“You have to pay for phone calls, e-mails, food,” she said.

“Everything.”

T he coron av i r u s outbrea k has put an unlikely spotlight on America’s jails and prisons, which house more than 2.2 million people and have been described by health experts as petri dishes for the virus’s spread.

Mask s and hand sanit izer often still don’t reach inmates.

Testing is often not done, even among those with symptoms, despite fears that the virus may spread to su r rou nd i ng communities. And in some parts of the country, those experiencing symptoms languish in sweltering buildings with poor ventilation.

The concerns extend to prison medical providers, often accused by health experts of providing substandard care even in the best of times.

Sheron Edwards shares a dorm with 50 other men at Chickasaw County Regional Correctional Facility in Mississippi. Given his past experiences with the prison’s medical provider, Centurion of Mississippi, he worries

about what will happen if coronavirus hits.

“I’m afraid they’ll just let us die in here,” he said.

When he was at the notorious Parchman prison several years ago, Edwards said, Centurion would allow him only one session of physical therapy after a 6-inch rod and screws were placed in his broken ankle.

“Even though that wasn’t life threatening, it was serious,” he said. “With Covid-19, I could actually lose my life.”

More than 20,000 inmates have been infected and 295 have died nationwide, at Rikers Island in New York City and at state and federal lockups in cities and towns coast to coast, according to an unofficial tally kept by the Covid-19 Behind Bars Data Project run by UCLA Law. On Wednesday, officials in San Diego announced the first death of a detainee in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.

W hen i nc a rcerat ion rates soared to record highs in the 1980s and 1990s, some corporations saw a business opportunity. Promised lower costs and, in many cases, profit sharing agreements, prison and jail administrators started privatizing everything from food and commissary to entire operations of facilities.

By the 2000s, the private sector was embedded in nearly every aspect of the correctional system.

Today, some of corporate America’s biggest names, and many smaller companies, vie for a share of the $80 billion spent on mass incarceration each year in the US, roughly half of which stays in the public sector to pay for staff salaries and some health-care costs, according to the nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative.

Proponents of for-profit prisons say it’s cheaper for private companies to run them than the government, arguing it’s easier to cancel contracts and there is more incentive to provide better service. That, they say, leads to better living conditions and more effective reintroduction of the

In this March 16, 2011, file photo, a security fence surrounds inmate housing on the Rikers Island correctional facility in New York. As of Wednesday, May 6, 2020, more than 20,000 inmates have been infected by the Covid-19 and 295 have died nationwide, at Rikers Island and at state and federal lockups in cities and towns coast to coast, according to an unofficial tally kept by the Covid-19 Behind Bars Data Project run by UCLA Law. AP/Bebeto Matthews

incarcerated back into society, with the ultimate goal of reducing recidivism.

The advocacy group Worth Rises disagrees.

The group released a report on Thursday detailing some 4,100 corporations that profit from the country’s prisons and jails.

For the first time, it identified corporations that support prison labor directly or through their supply chains. The group also recommended divesting from more than 180 publicly traded corporations and investment firms.

“The industry behind mass incarceration is bigger than many appreciate. So is the harm they cause and the power they wield,” said Bianca Tylek, the group’s founder and director.

“They exploit and abuse people with devastating consequences,” Tylek said. “Of course, they aren’t unilaterally responsible for mass incarceration, but they’re part of the ecosystem propping it up.”

The report includes vendors that stock commissaries with cup noodles and Tide laundry detergent, along with contracted health-care providers that have been sued for providing limited or inadequate coverage to those behind bars.

T he re a re compa n ies l i k e Smith & Wesson that make protective gear for correctional officers, and Attenti that supplies electronic ankle bracelets. Other household names, such as Stanley Black & Decker, have entire units dedicated to manufacturing accessories for prison doors.

Prisoners also work, making everything from license plates to body armor vests and mattresses.

In California, some even serve as firefighters. But in some places, incarcerated people are employed by major corporations such as Minnesota-based 3M. Billed as a cheap alternative to foreign outsourcing, inmates also previously provided goods to Starbucks, Victoria’s Secret and W hole Foods, sparking an

uproar that caused many bigname companies to bow out.

Some prisoners leave their lockups to do jobs in the community, such as fast-food restaurants.

State-owned businesses have also cropped up around the massive prison labor industries, including some with almost comical names, such as Big House products in Pennsylvania and Rough Rider Industries in North Dakota.

While some jobs might pay minimum wage as required by federal law for products that enter interstate commerce, the take-home pay of workers in correctional industries can be as low as just 20 percent of their stated wage after garnishment for room and board, restitution, and other costs.

Meanwhile, private companies market catalogs full of products to lockups. One web site advertises an array of pricey bondage items: Leather bed restraints for $267, ankle hobbles for $144 and a metal waist chain with handcuffs going for $76.95.

An Alabama company markets video visitation systems under a call box with the face of an elderly woman in glasses shown on the monitor inside. Beside it reads the slogan: “Keep Granny’s shank pies away from your facility.”

Bobby Rose, one of the report’s researchers, served 24 years in New York state prisons, where he spent a lot of time thinking about the role money plays in America’s legal system.

But he was shocked to learn just how many big-name companies were involved and how much was being made off not only those behind bars, but also their families—a particularly poignant concept during the pandemic.

He still thinks about friends left in prison—two of whom have succumbed to Covid-19.

“I feel,” he said, “that some of these companies that really prof it cou ld have prov ided... s a n it i z e r or e v e n g av e f re e soap,” he said. AP

Teen hacker, crew of ‘evil geniuses’ accused of $24-million crypto theft

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n adviser to blockchain companies is claiming a 15-year-old and his crew of “evil computer geniuses” stole $24 million in cryptocurrency from him by hacking into his phone.

Michael Terpin sued Ellis Pinsky in New York on Thursday, accusing the teenager of masterminding a “sophisticated cybercrime spree” that targeted him in 2018. Terpin is the founder and chief executive officer of Transform Group, a San

Juan, Puerto Rico-based company that advises blockchain businesses on public relations and communications.

“Pinsky and his other cohorts are in fact evil computer geniuses with sociopathic traits who heartlessly ruin their innocent victims’ lives and gleefully boast of their mu lt i- m i l l ion- dol l a r hei st s,” Ter pin said in his complaint.

Terpin is seeking more than $71 million from Pinsky, now 18, under

federal racketeering law, which allows for multiple damages.

Pinsky couldn’t be located for comment. A lawyer who represented Pinsky didn’t immediately respond to e-mail and phone message.

Terpin said Pinsky was helped

by Nicholas Truglia, who was charged criminally in the theft in New York in December and faces unrelated charges in California.

He has pleaded not guilty in both

cases. Terpin won a $75.8-million default judgment against Truglia last year in California state court.

Truglia’s lawyer didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Terpin sued AT&T in 2018, claiming it was the wireless carrier’s lax security that allowed Pinsky’s group to gain control of his phone and to use it to steal his money. AT&T has denied the allegation. Bloomberg News

ONDON—The Bank of England warned on Thursday that the British economy could suffer its deepest annual contraction since the Spanish War of Succession a little over three centuries ago as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, before roaring back next year.

In what it describes as a “plausible” scenario, the bank said the British economy will be 30 percent smaller at the end of the first half of the year than it was at the start of it, with the second quarter seeing a 25-percent slump alone following a 3-percent decline in the first.

Unemployment is projected to more than double to around 9 percent, but that figure does not include the 6 million workers who have been retained by firms as part of a scheme that sees the government pay up to 80 percent of salaries. Many of those people furloughed may end up losing their jobs if the economy fails to recover as anticipated or the government starts withdrawing its support too soon.

The bank said the economy should start to recover during the second half of the year as the lockdown restrictions start to be lifted and the extraordinar y fiscal and monetar y-policy measures enacted over the past couple of months begin to have effect.

“We expect the recovery of the economy to happen over time, although much more rapidly than the pullback from the global financial crisis,” said Gov. Andrew Bailey.

“We expect that there will be some longer-term damage to the capacity of the economy, but in this scenario we judge these effects to be relatively small.”

The bank expects the economy will contract by 14 percent this year. According to its own statistics, that would be the biggest annual rate of decline since 1706 when all of Europe’s main powers were embroiled in a devastating war following the death of the childless Charles II of Spain.

U ltimately, the war—dubbed by many historians as “the first world war”—cemented the newly formed UK’s maritime power, which proved to be the base of its economic might over the following two centuries.

The scale of the recession now is markedly more than anything seen in the aftermath of World War I, when the British economy

was also laid low by the Spanish flu pandemic. The projected fall is also three times greater than the recession of 2008-2009 during the global financial crisis.

Over the longer term, the bank thinks the British economy could revive quickly if the pandemic comes under control globally.

Under this scenario, it estimates that the economy could grow by 15 percent next year, which would be the biggest annual increase since 1704. In fact, the bank expects the economy to be more or less back to where it was by the end of 2021, with the financial sector helping the corporate sector get through the strain—in contrast to the aftermath of the financial crisis, when many banks had collapsed.

How the economy does depends also on how long the lockdown restrictions remain in place. The bank has assumed that both the furlough scheme and social distancing guidelines will be phased out between June and the end of the year. It has meanwhile not factored in a second wave of infections.

Many economists think the bank is being too optimistic.

“While economies can be easily turned off by their governments, it will prove much harder to flick them back on,” said Stefan Koopman of Rabobank International.

The bank’s analysis came after its Monetary Policy Committee decided to keep its main interest rate at the record low of 0.1 percent and opted against a further expansion of its bond-buying program. Two of the nine policy-makers wanted to increase the bank’s stimulus program by another 100 billion pounds ($124 billion).

The policy-making panel had previously announced big cuts in interest rates, an expansion in its stimulus program and a sizable lending program as it tries to contain the economic damage of the pandemic.

Bailey said the bank stood ready to support the economy further “should we need to,” and most economists think the bank will back another stimulus package in the next few months.

“By sending a strong signal that it plans to ease monetar y policy further soon while staying put for now, the bank has managed to stay on top of the r isk s w it hout actua l ly doing anything extra,” said K allum Pickering, senior economist at Berenberg Bank. AP

Global luxury goods sales to slide up to 35 percent–study

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OAVE, Italy—The global luxury goods sector is heading for a stunning col lapse of up to 35 percent this year due to coronav ir us lockdow ns, according to a new study by the Bain consu ltanc y published on T hursday.

Bain Partner Claudia D’ Arpizio said it would take two to three years to return to 2019 global sales of around 281 billion euros ($303 billion)—with the forecast decline much steeper than the single-digit drop recorded after the 2008-2009 crisis.

The coronavirus crisis is expected to lead to a spate of mergers and acquisitions of weakened brands, the closure of singlebrand stores and reshaping of already suffering US department stores, D’Arpizio said. Customers are also likely to emerge from global lockdowns with a new set of priorities. “ T he psychological aspects will probably reshape these markets for good. There was already a trend toward frugality, more

cautious spending and looking for deeper meaning,” D’Arpizio said. “This does not mean people won’t spend money. They will spend money on brands that stand for something, that really engage them.”

The semi-annual study for the Italian luxury goods producers’ group Altagamma foresees the most dramatic drop in sales during the second quarter, when they are forecast to slide up to 50 percent, followed by a milder contraction in the second half. The study does not forecast the impact of another round of lockdowns, should the virus peak again.

For the full-year, Bain is forecasting luxury sales of apparel, handbags, foot wear, watches and beauty products of 189 billion euros to 220 billion euros.

The degree of the year-end hit will depend on whether there are rebounds in the local markets— something already being seen in China and Asia—and to what extent domestic and regional tourism are able to resume. AP

Science

BusinessMirror

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

I.A.E.A. donates quick-detection kits for Covid-19 to Philippines

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he International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) donated to the Philippines kits that use nuclear techniques for quick and accurate detection of the dreaded 2019 novel coronavirus (Covid-19).

The donation was part of IAEA’s program to help its member-states address the pandemic. The Philippines is one of the agency’s member-states.

Called the Real-Time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), the technology is an important tool in detecting Covid-19 quickly, enabling doctors to immediately come up with diagnosis and provide proper medical care, increasing the survival chance of patients.

The diagnostic kits include microcentrifuge for sample extraction, shaker vortex, thermocycler, scanner for cryotubes, fast virus master mix and personal protective equipment.

The €84,000 (P4,776,595)-worth donation is expected to be delivered in a few days to the

Department of Health (DOH) which will field it to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and hospitals that conduct Covid-19 testing.

The IAEA will likewise conduct a training on the use of nuclear-derived techniques for the detection of Covid-19 when current restrictions are eased. It will be participated in by two professors from the University of the Philippines Manila.

The detection kits were requested by the Department of Foreign Affairs for the DOH, and facilitated by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Philippines to the IAEA with the support of the DOST-Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, the country’s authority on nuclear matters.

This IAEA donation was part of the technical cooperation projec t, titled “Strengthening Capabilities of Member States in Building, Strengthening and Restoring Capacities and Services in Case of Outbreaks, Emergencies and Disasters.” S&T Media Service

SMFI scholar-alumna Abigail Malabag ensures that medical equipment, especially those being used in treating Covid-19 patients, are in good condition.

SM scholar-alumna contributes service in fight against Covid-19

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hrough the years, scholar-graduates of SM Foundation (SMFI) succeed in the fields and paths they chose to take. During these trying times, SM takes pride in its scholars who give back to the community to spread social good—by sharing their passion, service and dedication for the country.

Amid the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and since the start of the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), SMFI scholar-alumna and Quezon City resident, Abigail Malabag, is sharing her blessings and is currently serving as one of the frontliners in the country’s fight against Covid-19.

Abigail is a Biomedical Engineer at The Medical City. Part of her job is to ensure that all medical equipment, especially those being used in treating Covid-19 patients, are in good condition.

“Everyone’s safety is our top priority. I am happy and thankful that despite this pandemic we are facing today, I am able to support our frontliners

by ensuring that all our medical equipment are in good condition,” Abigail said.

According to Abigail, her greatest takeaway as an SM Foundation scholar was to give back to the society and to serve her fellow Filipinos, whenever she has an opportunity to do so.

“Pay it forward—this is the lesson you taught to us, Tatang,” referring to the late SM patriarch Henry Sy Sr. “I will always show how grateful I am as one of your scholars by sharing what I can do and what I have to others. Showing kindness, respect, and love goes a long way in curbing the spread of this disease,” she added.

Abigail graduated in 2013 with BS Electronic and Communications Engineer.

SMFI, through its scholarship program, provides deserving and qualified students with access to college education and technical-vocational studies since 1993.

To date, SMFI has produced almost 5,500 scholars all over the country.

Consumer group: Keep an open mind on nicotine

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lot of misinformation and misunderstanding circulate about nicotine. This is why it’s important to focus on emerging scientific evidence to inform and shape the debates around safer nicotine products and tobacco harm reduction, said a consumer group in the Philippines.

“People should stop fear-mongering on nicotine and instead look at it through objective, scienceinformed eyes. It is not the nicotine that causes serious harms, but the tar and poisonous gases produced by combustible cigarettes,” said Antonio Israel, president of the Nicotine Consumers Union of the Philippines.

Tar refers to the combustion products of cigarettes produced by the burning of organic matter, dried tobacco leaf. These combustion products are burned at a temperature of over 800 degrees Celsius, which produces many toxins—carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, DDT, etc.—that are subsequently inhaled by the smoker.

According to Israel, smoking tobacco is the most harmful way of using nicotine.

“But many people find it hard to stop smoking because it is very difficult for them to go without nicotine. For tunately, less harmful nicotine products—such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products—have been developed to help people switch from smoking and, thus, avoid its many health risks,” he said in a news release.

Israel cited a new French study titled “A nicotinic hypothesis for Covid-19 with preventive and therapeutic implications,” which suggested a substance in tobacco, possibly nicotine, may be preventing patients who smoke from getting sick with Covid-19. “ Our cross-sectional study strongly suggests

that those who smoke every day are much less likely to develop a symptomatic or severe infection with SARS-CoV-2 compared with the general population,” the researchers concluded.

“The effect is significant. It divides the risk by five for ambulatory patients and by four for those admitted to hospital. We rarely see this in medicine.”

The researchers are awaiting approval from French health authorities to conduct further studies using nicotine patches on Covid-19 patients and health workers at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital.

The researchers from Assistance PubliqueHôpitaux de Paris and the Pasteur Institute questioned 480 patients at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital who tested positive for Covid-19, 350 of whom were hospitalized, while the rest with less serious symptoms were allowed home.

They found out that of those admitted to hospital, whose median age was 65, only 4.4 percent were regular smokers. Among those released home, with a median age of 44, about 5.3 percent smoked.

The researchers clarified that they were not encouraging people to smoke. They pointed out that smokers who become sick with Covid-19 often develop more serious symptoms.

A renowned French neurobiologist, Dr. JeanPierre Changeux, reviewed the study and suggested that nicotine might stop the virus from reaching cells in the body, thereby, preventing its spread.

He added that nicotine may also dampen the overreaction of the body’s immune system, which has been found in the most severe Covid-19 cases.

The findings of the French study and the researchers’ plans to conduct follow-up studies underscore the rapidly developing science in relation to nicotine, according to Israel.

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Sunday, May 10, 2020 A5

Vet-detective squad embarking on research to stop next pandemic

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s the coronavirus death toll surpasses 250,000 and the world scrambles to find a vaccine, a new scientific taskforce is headed to the wilderness to try and stop the next pandemic.

After decades of patchy global investment into researching the linkages between animal and human health, more than 40 scientists will embark on an Australian government-funded program that will teach veterinarians in southeast Asia and the Pacific how to detect infectious diseases—before they make the leap into the human population.

“The majority of infectious diseases are zoonotic, which means they are transmittable from animals to humans,” said Navneet Dhand, associate professor of veterinary biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Sydney.

Detecting diseases early in the animal population would help prevent future outbreaks among humans, said Dhand, who helms the effort.

To that end, the Australian government has pledged A$4.3 million ($2.8 million) to the threeyear project that covers 11 countries across the region.

It is part of an existing A$300 million Indo-Pacific program that pushes for a more proactive approach to fighting pandemics and strengthening health security.

There is broad scientific consensus that the new coronavirus came from animals, although it is still unknown how and when it made the leap to humans.

W hile researchers are calling for earlier mitigation in the spread of disease as the best defense against future outbreaks,

government investment into such strategies hasn’t been nearly consistent enough.

Not enough

Famous for its unique wildlife and A$48 billion agricultural industr y that drives much of the economy, Australian scientists say they are in a position to pass on unique knowledge to less-developed regions.

Dhand’s team will train more than 200 veterinarian and paraveterinarians in Southeast Asia to collect and track data from sick animals, both on nature’s front line and on farms.

Participants will be taught skills like how to examine a sick animal for more than just the prevailing illness apparent when they’re called to farms or animal sites, as well as check for signs of spread among other animals they’ve been in contact with.

They will also learn how to collect animal samples to build out a database that, over time, can pick up on particular ecological trends and animal behavior patterns.

These could show where outbreaks are more likely to occur and how they might spread, thus, giving scientists clues on how the disease is transmitted.

In the long run, these efforts can help stop a disease’s spread before it reaches the stage of being able to jump to humans.

Opportunities for animal diseases to transmit to humans have

increased with accelerated urbanization and population growth.

People now live in closer proximity to, and have more frequent contact with, wildlife, Dhand said.

There have been at least six large-scale zoonotic disease outbreaks in four decades, including the H1N1 flu, SARS and HIV, collectively resulting in the deaths of millions and impacting the world economy.

But after those outbreaks faded, there’s been relatively little effort to prevent the next one.

“We’ve suffered from a siloed approach, historically, and had a big emphasis on responding to health in emergencies but less of an emphasis on preventing those emergencies,” said Mark Schipp, president of the World Organization for Animal Health. “Diseases in animals spill over into humans on a regular occurrence.”

True economic impact

Zoonotic pathogens that infect humans are only part of the threat. Even if the disease never transfers to a human host, outbreaks of sickness among animal populations impacts food security

and international trade.

The 2018 African swine disease outbreak decimated pork supplies, affecting the diets of millions in China, where it is the major source of protein.

It also dealt a major economic blow to a myriad of agricultural sectors, including pig farmers.

“The impact of not controlling non-zoonotic vaccine-preventable disease in animals is much larger than the zoonotic impact, if it’s properly calculated,” said Robyn Alders, senior technical advisor with the Centre for Global Health Security at Chatham House. But data relating to food security “isn’t there to show the true impact on the economy.”

As the coronavirus pandemic starts to come under control in many countries through socialdistancing measures, there’s a chance that public attention may turn elsewhere and governments once again neglect investment in preventive strategies.

“The problem here with animal health is that when that perceived human threat is controlled or significantly reduced, the money dries up,” said Alders. Bloomberg News

BSP interested in DOST-FPRDI’s Papel program for its banknotes

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angko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) expressed interest in a pulp and paper research program of the Department of Science and Technology’s Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI) that will produce specialty and security base paper using 100 percent locally sourced fibers.

Key officials of BSP visited the DOST-FPRD) to discuss possible collaboration in producing currency base paper (CBP) using locally available plant materials. Banknotes or paper money is printed on CBP. During the meeting, Adela S. Torres of DOST-FPRDI’s Pulp and Paper Products Development Section presented the results of the laboratory-scale production of CBP handsheets.

Cooked and bleached abaca specialty pulp, salago bast fibers and mangium chips were formed into CBP handsheets at the FPRDI Pulping and Papermaking Laboratory.

“Tests showed that the handsheets’ folding endurance was similar to that of imported currency base paper, aside from having superior tear strength,” Torres explained.

She added that the BSP officials had signified their interest in the “Pulp and Paper Enhancement Research from Local Sources [Papel]” program, which aims to produce specialty and security base paper using 100 percent locally sourced fibers.

Through the project, the DOST-

DOST- FPRDI Director Romulo T. Aggangan (left) shows the pulps used in the laboratory-scale production of currency base paper.

Mangium, salago and abaca pulps are from locally available plants. DOST-FPRDI

Abaca is the strongest plant fiber in the world and one of the main raw materials in making specialty paper for money. It is one of the Philippines’s biggest exports, with the country supplying 85 percent of the total global abaca pulp demand. DOST-FPRDI

FPRDI will procure a paper machine for “security/specialty-grade paper with modern wastewater treatment facility” to pilot-test the production of CBP, abaca waste fibers as reinforced packaging

papers and security-based papers used in printing land titles and passports, among others.

The machine can produce at least six tons of paper in a day.

“With the help of a private

company that will adopt DOSTFPRDI’s technology, we are looking forward to supplying at least 20 percent of BSP’s CBP requirement. We will also explore the possibility of supplying other countries’ needs, particularly those that have yet to produce their own CBPs,” Torres said.

Currently, Philippine banknotes are printed on imported CBP made from 20 percent abaca and 80 percent cotton. W hile the country produces and exports large volume of abaca pulp, it still imports about 780,000 kilograms of CBP yearly.

“Producing our ow n paper money using loca l ly sourced materials will not only promote our local fibers but will also save us lots of money. According to BSP, approximately P3 billion is spent annually in printing new banknotes to replace deteriorated or demonetized ones,” Torres said.

“We are just awaiting the green light and funding for the Papel program. Right now, a memorandum of understanding between DOSTFPRDI and BSP is being prepared,” she ended.

Among the attendees in the recent meeting with BSP were Senior Assistant Governor Dahlia D. Luna, head of the BSP Security Plant Complex; DOST-PCIEERD Deputy Executive Director Raul C. Sabularse; and Executive Director Engr. Ray Geganto of Philippine Paper Manufacturers Association Inc. Apple Jean C. Martin-de Leon/S&T Media Service

Faith A6 Sunday, May 10, 2020

Sunday

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

new biography, Benedict XVI Pope Francis prays for Covid-19 Inlaments ‘anti-Christian creed’ victims dying without loved ones R

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ATICAN—Pope Francis prayed for those who have died alone during the coronavirus pandemic at his morning Mass last week.

At the start of Mass in the chapel at Casa Santa Marta, his Vatican residence, he said: “Today we pray for the deceased who have died because of the pandemic.

They have died alone, without the caresses of their loved ones.

So many did not even have a funeral. May the Lord welcome them in His glory.”

More than 250,000 people have died of Covid-19 worldwide as of May 5, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

In his homily, the pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading (John 10:22-30), in which Jesus is asked to declare openly whether He is the Christ. Jesus replies that He has already told His listeners, but they have not believed Him because they are not among His sheep.

Pope Francis urged Catholics to ask themselves: “What makes me stop outside the door that is Jesus?”

One major obstacle is wealth, the pope said.

“There are many of us who have entered the door of the Lord

but then fail to continue because we are imprisoned by wealth,” he said, according to a transcript by Vatican News.

“Jesus takes a hard line regarding wealth.… Wealth keeps us from going ahead. Do we need to fall into poverty? No, but, we must not become slaves to wealth. Wealth is the lord of this world, and we cannot serve two masters.”

The pope added that another barrier to progress toward Jesus is rigidity of heart.

He said: “Jesus reproached the doctors of the law for their rigidity in interpreting the law, which is not faithfulness. Faithfulness is always a gift of God; rigidity is only security for oneself.”

As an example of rigidity, the pope recalled that once when he visited a parish a woman asked him whether attending a Saturday afternoon nuptial Mass fulfilled her Sunday obligation. The readings were different to those on Sunday so she worried that she might have committed a mortal sin.

Rigidity leads us away from the wisdom of Jesus and robs us of our

U.S. panel lists India among nations with waning religious freedom

Plague, war and politics disrupted hajj pilgrimages before Covid-19

US government commission has recommended adding India to a list of countries with a worr ying record on religious freedom for minorities. India has rejected the repor t’s obser vations.

India has been listed, along with China, North Korea, Pakistan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, among 14 nations “of particular concern” by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its annual report released recently.

The other countries on the list are Burma, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

The countr y took a “sharp downward turn in 2019” as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “national government used its strengthened parliamentary majority to institute nationallevel policies violating religious freedom across India, especially for Muslims,” the commission said.

The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan US federal government commission.

Th re e m e m b e r s o f t h e c o m m i s s i o n dissented with the decision to add India to the list. India’s foreign ministry in a statement rejected the commission’s report and called its comments “biased and tendentious.” “ We r e g a r d i t a s a n o r g a n i z a t i o n o f p a r t i c u l a r co n ce r n a n d w i l l t re at i t accordingly,” India’s foreign ministr y said.

In its report, the USCIRF listed policies, including a new religion-based law that fast tracks Indian citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which has led to nationwide protests.

The law “is meant to provide protection for listed non-Muslim religious communities— but not for Muslims—against exclusion from a nationwide National Register of Citizens and the resulting detention, depor tation, and potential statelessness,” it said.

The panel proposed a range of measures against Indian officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom, including targeted sanctions, banning their entry into US and freezing their assets.

These are unlikely to be followed as the comments aren’t binding on the Trump administration, Michael Kugelman, deputy director and senior associate for South Asia at the Washington-based Wilson Center, said in a tweet. “@USCIRF is a USG entity, but it doesn't craft or implement policy. Its latest-and previous- criticism of India doesn't/didn't reflect Trump administration policy. And it's not going to impact the bilateral relationship on the whole. Though let's be clear: New Delhi won't like it," Kugelman said in his tweet. Bloomberg News

There are reports that the first time an epidemic of any kind caused hajj to be canceled was an outbreak of plague in AD 967.

Drought and famine caused the Fatimid ruler to cancel overland Hajj routes in AD 1048.

Cholera outbreaks in multiple years t h ro u g h o u t t h e 1 9 t h c e n t u r y c l a i m e d thousands of pilgrims’ lives during the hajj.

One cholera outbreak in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in 1858 forced thousands of Egyptians to flee to Egypt’s Red Sea border, where they were quarantined before being allowed back in.

Indeed, for much of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, cholera remained a “perennial threat” and caused frequent disruption to the annual hajj.

A n o u t b re a k o f c h o l e ra i n I n d i a i n 1831 claimed thousands of pilgrims’ lives on their way to perform hajj.

In fact, with many outbreaks in quick succession, the hajj was frequently interrupted throughout the mid-19th century.

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Pope Francis celebrates a morning Mass in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta. Vatican Media

freedom, he said.

The pope named two further obstacles: acedia, which he defined as a tiredness that “takes away our desire to strive forward” and makes us lukewarm, and clericalism, which he described as a disease that takes away the freedom of the faithful.

He identified worldliness as the final obstacle to approaching Jesus.

“We can think of how some sacraments are celebrated in some parishes: how much worldliness there is there,” he said.

“These are some of the things t hat stop us f rom becoming members of Jesus’s f lock. We are ‘sheep’ of all these things— wealth, apathy, rigidity, worldliness, clericalism, ideologies. But

Muslim pilgrims around the Kaaba Wikimedia Commons

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audi Arabia has urged Muslims to delay their plans for the hajj, amid speculation that the obligatory pilgrimage may be canceled this year due to the coronavirus.

Earlier this year, Saudi authorities halted travel to holy sites as part of the umrah, the “lesser pilgrimage” that takes place throughout the year.

Canceling the hajj—from July 28 to August 2 this year—however, would mean a massive economic hit for the country and many businesses globally, such as the hajj travel industry.

Hajj is an annual pilgrimage made to Kaaba, the "House of Allah," in the sacred city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. It is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime.

Millions of Muslims visit the Saudi kingdom each year, and the pilgrimage has not been canceled since the founding of the Saudi Kingdom in 1932.

But as a scholar of global Islam, I have encountered many instances in the more than 1,400-year history of the pilgrimage when its planning had to be altered due to armed conflicts, disease or just plain politics. Here are just a few.

Armed conflicts

One of the earliest significant interruptions of the hajj took place in AD 930, when a sect of Ismailis, a minority Shiite community, known as the Qarmatians raided Mecca because they believed the hajj to be a pagan ritual.

The Qarmatians were said to have killed scores of pilgrims and absconded with the black

stone of the Kaaba—which Muslims believed was sent down from heaven. They took the stone to their stronghold in modern-day Bahrain.

Hajj was suspended until the Abbasids, a dynasty that ruled over a vast empire stretching across North Africa, the Middle East to modernday India from AD 750-1258, paid a ransom for its return over 20 years later.

Political disputes

Political disagreements and conflict have often meant that pilgrims from certain places were kept from performing hajj because of lack of protection along overland routes into the Hijaz, the region in the west of Saudi Arabia where both Mecca and Medina are located.

In AD 983, the rulers of Baghdad and Egypt were at war. The Fatimid rulers of Egypt claimed to be the true leaders of Islam and opposed the rule of the Abbasid dynasty in Iraq and Syria.

Their political tug-of-war kept various pilgrims from Mecca and Medina for eight years, until AD 991.

Then, during the fall of the Fatimids in AD 1168, Egyptians could not enter the Hijaz. It is also said that no one from Baghdad performed hajj for years after the city fell to Mongol invasion in AD 1258.

Many years later, Napolean’s militar y incursions aimed at checking British colonial influence in the region p revented many pilgrims from hajj between AD 1798 and 1801.

Diseases and hajj

Much like the present, diseases and other natural calamities have also come in the way of the pilgrimage.

freedom is lacking and we cannot follow Jesus without freedom. ‘At times freedom might go too far, and we might slip and fall.’ Yes, that’s true. But this is slipping before becoming free.”

After Mass, the pope presided at adoration and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, before leading those watching via livestream in an act of spiritual communion.

The congregation then sang t he Ea ster Ma r i a n a nt iphon “Regina caeli.”

At the end of his homily, the pope prayed: “May the Lord enlighten us to see within ourselves if we have the freedom required to go through the door which is Jesus, to go beyond it with Jesus in order to become sheep of His flock.”

Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

OME—Modern society is formulating an “anti-Christian creed” and punishing t h o s e w h o re s i s t i t w i t h “s o c i a l excommunication,” Benedict XVI said in a new biography, published in Germany on May 4.

In a wide-ranging interview at the end of the 1,184-page book, written by German author Peter Seewald, the pope emeritus said the greatest threat facing the Church was a “worldwide dictatorship of seemingly humanistic ideologies.”

Benedict XVI, who resigned as pope in 2013, made the comment in response to a question about what he had meant at his 2005 inauguration, when he urged Catholics to pray for him “that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”

He told Seewald that he was not referring to internal Church matters, such as the “Vatileaks” scandal, which led to the conviction of his personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, for stealing confidential Vatican documents.

In an advanced copy of Benedikt XVI–Ein Leben ( A Life ), seen by CNA, the pope emeritus said: “Of course, issues such as Vatileaks are exasperating and, above all, incomprehensible and highly disturbing to people in the world at large.”

“But the real threat to the Church and, thus, to the ministry of Saint Peter consists not in these things, but in the worldwide dictatorship of seemingly humanistic ideologies, and to contradict them constitutes exclusion from the basic social consensus,” he added.

He continued: “A hundred years ago, everyone would have thought it absurd to speak of homosexual marriage. Today whoever opposes it is socially excommunicated. The same applies to abortion and the production of human beings in the laboratory. “ M o d e r n s o c i e t y i s i n t h e p ro c e s s of formulating an anti-Christian creed, and resisting it is punishable by social excommunication. The fear of this spiritual power of the Antichrist is, therefore, only too natural, and it truly takes the prayers of a whole diocese and the universal Church to resist it.”

The biography, issued by Munich-based publisher Droemer Knaur, is available only in German. An English translation, Benedic t XVI, The Biography: Volume One , will be published in the US on November 17.

In the interview, the 93-year-old former pope confirmed that he had written a spiritual testament, which could be published after his death, as did Pope Saint John Paul II. Benedict said that he had fast-tracked the cause of John Paul II because of “the obvious desire of the faithful” as well as the example of the Polish pope, with whom he had worked closely for more than two decades in Rome.

He insisted that his resignation had “absolutely nothing” to do with the episode

involving Paolo Gabriele, and explained that his 2010 visit to the tomb of Celestine V, the last pope to resign before Benedict XVI, was “rather coincidental.” He also defended the title “emeritus” for a retired pope.

Benedict XVI lamented the reaction to his various public comments since his resignation, citing criticism of his tribute read at the funeral of Cardinal Joachim Meisner in 2017, in which he said that God would prevent the ship of the Church from capsizing.

He explained that his words were “taken almost literally from the sermons of Saint Gregory the Great.”

Seewald asked the pope emeritus to comment on the “dubia” submitted by four cardinals, including Cardinal Meisner, to Pope Francis in 2016 regarding the interpretation of his apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia ( The Joy of Love ).

Benedict said that he did not want to comment directly, but referred to his last general audience, on February 27, 2013.

Summing up his message that day, he said: “In the Church, amid all the toils of humanity and the confusing power of the evil spirit, one will always be able to discern the subtle power of God’s goodness.

“But the darkness of successive historical periods will never allow the unadulterated joy of being a Christian.... There are always moments in the Church and in the life of the individual Christian in which one feels profoundly that the Lord loves us, and this love is joy, is ‘happiness’” Benedict said that he treasured the memory of his first meeting with the newly elected Pope Francis at Castel Gandolfo and that his personal friendship with his successor has continued to grow.

Author Peter Seewald has conducted four book-length interviews with Benedict XVI. The first, Salt of the Ear th , was published in 1997, when the future pope was prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

It was followed by God and the World in 2002, and Light of the World in 2010.

In 2016, Seewald published La s t Testament , in which Benedict XVI reflected on his decision to step down as pope.

Publisher Droemer Knaur said that Seewald had spent many hours talking to Benedict for the new book, as well as speaking to his brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger and his personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein.

In an inter view with Die Tagespost on April 30, Seewald said he had shown the Pope Emeritus a few chapters of the book before publication. Benedict XVI, he added, had praised the chapter on Pope Pius XI’s 1937 encyclical Mit brennender Sorge ( With Burning Anxiet y ).

Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

Recent years

In more recent years, too, the pilgrimage has been disrupted for many similar reasons.

In 2012 and 2013 Saudi authorities encouraged the ill and the elderly not to under take the pilgrimage amid concerns over Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

Contemporar y geopolitics and human rights issues have also played a role in who was able to perform the pilgrimage.

In 2017, the 1.8 million Muslim citizens of Qatar were not able to per form the hajj following the decision by Saudi Arabia and three other Arab nations to sever diplomatic ties with the country over differences of opinion on various geopolitical issues.

The same year, some Shiite governments, such as Iran, leveled charges alleging that Shiites were not allowed to per form the pilgrimage by Sunni Saudi authorities.

In other cases, faithful Muslims have called for boycotts, citing Saudi Arabia’s humanrights record.

While a decision to cancel the hajj will surely disappoint Muslims looking to perform the pilgrimage, many among them have been sharing online a relevant hadith—a tradition reporting the sayings and practice of the prophet Muhammad—that provides guidance about traveling during a time of an epidemic: “If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place.”

Ken Chitwood/The Conversation

A man walks by a depiction of a medical staff wearing protective equipment, executed in the style of Christ Pantocrator, in Bucharest, Romania, on April 29. The artwork, among others depicting medical staff in the manner of religious icons, created by designer Wanda Hutira, is part of a campaign called Thank You Doctors, meant to raise awareness to the work of medical staff fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. AP/Vadim Ghirda

Romania: Orthodox Church blasts posters of doctors as saints

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U C H A R E S T, R o m a n i a — R o m a n i a’s Orthodox Church criticized a billboard campaign showing doctors dealing with the coronavirus epidemic as saints with halos shaped like the virus.

A c c o rd i n g t o a C h u rc h s p o ke s m a n , the “blasphemous” campaign created by international adver tising agency McCann Worldgroup in conjunction with local artist Wanda Hutira is "a visual abuse of Christian iconography.”

The campaign is “marked by bad taste fed by ignorance and a hideous ideology that only knows how to caricaturize Christianity,” said spokesman Vasile Banescu.

The posters, which could be seen in Bucharest, the Romanian capital, were also

offensive to doctors who “do not think of themselves as saints...and do not ask for public worship,” Banescu said, claiming that the campaign promotes “a dystopian vision of the situation caused by the pandemic.”

In response to the criticism, Bucharest officials said they would ask the posters to be taken down.

While the Catholic Church in Romania did not take an official position on the campaign, Serban Tarciziu, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Bucharest, told local media that he appreciated “the attempt to illustrate a beautiful idea in the visual style” of some religions.

Romania has reported 11,978 coronavirus cases and 681 deaths. AP

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

A7

DENR asked: Initiate ‘humane’ control of Romblon macaques

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

he Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) added its voice to the clamor to protect the Philippine long-tailed macaques on the island-municipality of Banton in Romblon, where the increasing number of the primate is reportedly starting to threaten farming communities.

In a joint statement, PAWS and Action for Primates (AP) called on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to deny permits to capture monkeys on the island.

Their action came following a BusinessMirror earlier report, which quoted Assistant Secretary R icardo Calderon, concurrent director of DENR-Biodiversity Management Bureau, of the plan to allow harvesting of macaques on Banton Island as he sees the revival of native monkey farming amid the contagion.

Native monkey farms operate a captive-breeding program to export offsprings for research and development purposes.

The report has caught the attention of Action for Primates, which, through a letter to the DENR official, appealed to disallow the

export of native monkeys.

In his response, Calderon gave the assurance that the DENR is addressing human-primate conflicts on a case-by-case basis.

He also assured animal-rights groups that the DENR will not allow harmful means in capturing the native monkeys, while wild monkey-farm operators will be strictly monitored during captivebreeding operations.

The groups insisted that the long-tailed macaques is listed as Near Threatened with a population that is decreasing based on the most recent assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

Among the threats identified for the decline in the number are hunting and habitat loss, the group said in a news statement.

Mother and baby long-tailed macaque Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media

The Philippine long-tailed macaques is listed under Appendix II of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Being a signatory to CITES, the country has a responsibility to safeguard the conservation status of the primate, they said.

“The trapping of wild primates inflicts immense suffering. Primates are intelligent and social animals. Capturing and removing them from their native habitat, family and social groups are cruel, and can result in injuries and even death. It also causes substantial suffering in the families

left behind. Several official bodies and organizations recognize the suffering involved in the capturing of wild nonhuman primates,” they said.

The group quoted the International Primatological Society, which states that “the capture of nonhuman primates from the wild is stressful for the animals and increases the suffering, risk of injuries, spread of disease and even death during capture, storage and transport.”

According to PAWS and AP, one of the reasons given by the DENR for considering an application for the capture of the wild monkeys

is the conflict arising between people and the monkeys.

However, they said conf lict issues are usually due to human activities, such as the destruction and fragmentation of the natural habitat, forcing primates to compete with people over land and resources.

O ne sc ient i f ic re por t h a s stated that “unsustainable human activities are now the major force driving primate species to extinction.”

The authors of the report estimate that “about 60 percent of nonhuman primate species are threatened with extinction and populations of 75 percent of nonhuman primate species are decreasing globally because of unsustainable human activities,” they said.

The two groups insisted that there are effective and humane methods that can be used to resolve conflicts between monkeys and people.

These include reproduction control, relocation and, most important, educating communities to modify their behavior that do not encourage monkeys to rely on humans for food. Among them are not feeding the monkeys and only using monkey-proof refuse containers.

“There are humane approaches to population control that can be adopted to resolve conflict, without resorting to the capture and removal of wild macaques for research," they said.

At a time when there is increas-

ing awareness of the devastating consequences that human activity is having on the natural world, including nonhuman primates, “it is imperative that we learn to coexist with other species rather than just eliminate them when conflicts arise,” said Dr. Nedim Buyukmihci, emeritus professor of Veterinary Medicine and representative of Action for Primates.

PAWS Executive Director Anna Cabrera said the proposed capture of Romblon macaques is inimical to animal welfare and is a direct violation of the Philippines's Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act (RA 9147), which strictly prohibits the collection and capture of wildlife in the absence of scientific research on wildlife populations.

She also said that contrary to the DENR statement that macaques have been “introduced” to the area, locals have confirmed that these primates have been in Banton, Romblon, long before human activities like farming started there.

T he quest ion on who e n croached on whose land now arises. Activities seen as acts of "nuisance" by animals are a direct result of humans' collective failure to protect these primates’ habitats.

Accord ing to Cabrera, t he DENR can set things right by taking immediate steps to establish a protected area for macaques and to develop eco-friendly systems within human communities to allow them to live in harmony with wildlife.

Bamboo bike, ‘a vehicle for sustainable livelihood’ DENR conducts wildlife

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By Lyn Resurreccion

icycle has become a popular means of transportation these days by students, office employees or workers.

Among the bicycles that catches the people’s attention is the bamboo bike.

Filipino-American Bryan McClelland’s company, Bamb Ecological Technology Inc., made the bamboo bicycle, or Bambike, its “flagship product because, literally and figuratively, it served as our vehicle into the field of sustainable livelihood development.”

An environmental consultant, ecotourism developer, social entrepreneur and educator, McClelland told the B usiness M irror in an e-mail interview: “My aim was to work with a sustainable raw material and to create jobs in rural communities.”

He added: “In order to make the social enterprise a viable operation, we needed to add as much value to the bamboo as we could, so I saw Bambike as a line of products that could achieve these goals.”

to life, he said.

With the Filipino blood in him, McClelland said, “Our goal is to create meaningful experiences for travelers to enjoy interesting places all over the Philippines.”

Bambike Ecotours operates in Intramuros, Manila, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, and Guimaras.

Since 2014, Bambike Ecotours has accommodated more than 40,000 guests.

The company’s 20 personnel are in charge of overseeing the tours and management in Manila.

Guimaras in Western Visayas was the latest location for the Green Spark project, while other destinations across the country are in the works.

Support to Covid-19 frontliners Filipino-American Bryan McClelland and his Bambike

Bamboo: ‘Greenest building material’

When they started over 10 years ago, he said the bamboo industry in the Philippines was operating primarily at the “cottage level.”

Optimistic in the future of bamboo as a resource material, he said: “As we each develop our skill sets and embrace the need for creative collaboration, the number and quality of bamboo products made in the Philippines will increase.”

Having a background in environmental resource management, with a Master’s degree in Environmental Resource Management at the University of Pennsylvania, bamboo has always been a material that McClelland has been interested in because of its versatility.

“Bamboo is also arguably the greenest building material on the planet,” he said.

He noted: “Besides the fact that Malakas and Maganda emerged from a bamboo shoot in Filipino folklore, you can also eat bamboo, wear it, build houses with it, ride it in the form of a bicycle, build water rafts and boats, and generate energy from it. I truly believe that bamboo industry development can lead to climate-change mitigation and sustainable livelihood development for the poor.”

Public response: ‘Crazy’

McClelland said people thought the idea of making a bicycle out of bamboo was a little “crazy.”

“It took a lot of convincing and demonstrations to show that bamboo is indeed strong enough to make up a bicycle frame. There has been—and still is—a stigma that bamboo is ‘the poor man’s timber,’” he said.

This still holds true because the bamboo used in many traditional applications is

Bamb Ecological Technology Inc. supports the medical frontliners’ transportation needs in Manila, Quezon City, Pasig, and Iloilo through a Rent a Bambike for Frontliners program. Shown in the photo are nurses at the Philippine General Hospital availing themselves of the Bambike rental.

untreated and susceptible to pests and weathering.

He explained that”bamboo that is treated and finished properly is a very strong and durable building material that can last a lifetime.”

After building Bambikes for a number of years, showcasing them and using them in public, and then having the bike frame certified to the international bike standards, “we were able to change the public perception of our products,” he noted.

“It was really when we launched Bambike Ecotours in 2014, that we were able to get many more people onto the saddle and be convinced of our products’ quality. Since then, thousands of people have been able to ride our bamboo bikes and experience how smooth and fun they are to ride,” he said.

With the growing bicycle market around

the world, McClelland believes that people are realizing how the bicycle is a viable form of transportation, especially now that cities are making efforts to put in more bike lanes which help make people feel safer on the saddle.

Bambike, sold from range of P7,000 to P55,000, is shipped anywhere in the country and door-to-door worldwide.

The company’s 30 personnel work in the production of 30 Bambikes per month.

He announced that they are working on Bambino Kids Bike, a winner of Good Design Award from the Japanese design center, a scalable product that can be made in larger quantities for the export market.

Bambike Ecotours

Bambike Ecotours was created to bring history, cultural heritage, and the natural environment

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, McClelland’s company provides assistance to medical frontliners by renting out bamboo bicycles through the “Rent a Bambike for Frontliners campaign.”

“During this period of enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila, our social enterprise has been forced to close. We do, however, have the desire and capacity to contribute what we can to fight the Covid-19 crisis: our bamboo bikes, fleet management experience, as well as maintenance services are dedicated to keep the frontliners moving,” he said.

Bambikes are now available to frontliners in Manila, Quezon City, Pasig, and Iloilo.

“Frontliners at other locations have contacted us to express their need for bikes, so we are working to make this possible,” McClelland said.

However, they too asked for support so “we can keep providing critical assets and services to the frontliners. This includes bike distribution, procurement and provision of safety equipment [including helmets, blinker lights, ponchos, and bike locks for security.]”

confiscation amid ECQ

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mid the enhanced communit y quarantine ( ECQ ) to cont a i n t he spread of Cov id-19, enforceme nt of f ice r s f rom t he D e partment of Environment and Natural Resources Prov incial Environment and Natural Resources Office (DENR Penro) and the Biodiversity Management Bureau’s Task Force Philippine Operations Group on Ivory and Illegal Wildlife Trade held an operation on May 5 to confiscate a ser val cat (inset) after

it escaped from the care of its owner in Antipolo City, R izal.

Serval cat is a threatened exotic species under the endangered category of the CITES Appendix II listing.

The owner’s neighbors filed a complaint on the incident which led to the confiscation of two serval cats, one Ducorp’s Cockatoo and one blue-and-gold macaw after the owner failed to immediately present the necessar y permits to justify his possession of the exotic pets.

Shown in the photo are (from left) BMB Resident Veterinarian Dr. Esteven Toledo, Penro Rizal Technical Services Division Chief Forester Ernesto Diso Jr., Penro Rizal Chief Isidro Mercado and BMB Senior Ecosystems Management Specialist Dr. Rogelio Demelletes Jr.

More socio-ecological projects

For future projects, McClelland said his company is working on the Bamboo Innovation Group Foundation for Industry Development, Ecosystem-based Adaptation and Sustainability (BIG Ideas).

BIG Ideas’s objective is to balance biodiversity conservation and natural resource management with green economic and sustainable livelihood development.

“We believe that this is the path forward in order to scale our impact and really develop the bamboo industry,” he said.

Besides bamboo bike, the company has been working on bamboo laminated timber, also known as engineered bamboo in order to address the need for green building materials.

After 13 years of living and working in the Philippines, McClelland is still fueled with an obsession for bamboo and sustainable livelihood development.

Environment Undersecretary Benny D. Antiporda (right), for Solid Waste Management and Local Government Units Concerns, checks on two serval cats in cages and a blue-and-gold macaw brought to the BMB in Quezon City after they were seized on May 5. Also in photo is BMB Veterinarian Dr. Esteven Toledo.

A8 Sunday, May 10, 2020

Sports BusinessMirror

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

TO SPIT OR NOT TO SPIT T

By Ken Maguire

The Associated Press

HE “sweet science” may adopt a bit of spit science under a plan to protect itself from the coronavirus when boxing resumes in Britain, possibly in July.

The head of the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) said Wednesday the body was working on an “apparatus” that would allow fighters to safely spit out water as they catch their breath between rounds. It’s among dozens of protective measures under discussion.

Fighters would have to wear a face mask until inside the ring, while trainers and the referee would wear masks throughout bouts. No fans would be allowed. Testing protocols would be in place.

The five-page plan distributed to British promoters drew immediate attention for one line in particular: “No spitting from boxers when in corners.” However, BBBofC General Secretary Robert W. Smith told The Associated Press that it’s more nuanced.

“We’re working on apparatus in the corner where a boxer can refresh themselves in a safe and clean-as-possible way,” Smith said. “They’ll be able to refresh themselves with water and obviously gargle...and dispense with that water in as clean-as-possible way. An apparatus to do that will hopefully be in place. We’ll have to

By Tim Dahlberg The Associated Press

I

T’S hard to say what is more startling, seeing Mike Tyson hitting a bong or watching him hitting the mitts in a boxing gym like he was getting ready to fight Evander Holyfield again.

have something that’s closed.”

The apparatus could include a version of the traditional spit bucket, he said, but one that is fully enclosed.

The coronavirus pandemic stopped sports around the world in March and has been responsible for more than 29,000 deaths in Britain.

Restarting won’t be easy, as soccer’s Premier League is learning. Government restrictions will also dictate how and when sporting events can resume.

Smith referred to the plan as a “consultation document” and said it is flexible. Initially, there would be no championship bouts, Smith said, because they require more personnel.

“If procedures are working well, we bring in the championships,” he said. “The whole thing is up for discussion.”

Smith said he had conversations Wednesday with prominent promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren.

“We’re all positive that we can get it done.

Couple of things were discussed. We seem to be singing from the same song sheet,” Smith said.

Hearn and Warren did not return messages seeking comment.

Anthony Joshua’s fight against Kubrat Pulev scheduled for June 20 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was postponed and is awaiting a new date. WBC interim heavyweight champion Dillian Whyte is scheduled to fight Alexander Povetkin on

July 4 at Manchester Arena.

The BBBofC plan would also prohibit from events anyone with a fever or flu-like symptoms, those with serious medical conditions, pregnant women, anyone who is “seriously overweight,” as well as anyone over 70, regardless of health.

Everyone entering events will have been tested, and will be required to bring their test result to the venue.

Steve Wraith, a promoter in northeastern England, said he supports the plan in general but thinks they can reduce a few measures.

“I don’t see the reason for wearing the mask coming into the ring,” Wraith said. “Some of these measures will be more visual for the watching [television] crowds rather than being practical.”

The July timetable is definitely flexible, Smith said.

“It depends what is said on Sunday from the government, if we’re on lockdown a further period of time,” Smith said. “It may end up in August, it may end up in September. We’re not over this crisis yet.”

Smith said he will “fully respect” if boxers choose not to participate, whether because of lower potential winnings or for health concerns.

SPITTING into a bucket in between rounds could become a thing of the past.

Tyson, at 53, hints of comeback? Oh c’mon Videos of both can be found online, mostly because Tyson is as good as promoting himself in his second career as he was knocking guys silly in his first.

Here’s hoping the former heavyweight champion is aware there’s a big difference between the two activities.

Because while smoking copious amounts of

marijuana probably won’t kill him, getting back in the ring at the age of 53 just might.

Tyson hasn’t announced any plans to return to fight again, though he did suggest on an Instagram post he might make himself available for three- or four-round exhibitions if the price was right. Already, some people in Australia are talking about offering him $1 million to fight an exhibition against a rugby star or two.

If the Internet is any guide, there’s certainly interest. Tyson’s video showing him hitting mitts in a gym not only generated more than 9 million views in just a few days but also some buzz about just what the aging former champion might have left.

And let’s admit it. Tyson looks good, still explosive and still very powerful even at an age when his mailbox mostly consists of sign-up letters from AARP. In someone’s fantasy— maybe his own—he looks good enough to take on another heavyweight in a real fight if someone was willing to offer him millions of dollars to do so.

“He hasn’t hit mitts for almost 10 years. So I didn’t expect to see what I saw,” trainer Rafael Cordeiro told ESPN. “I saw a guy with the same speed, same power as guys 21, 22 years old.”

It’s a drill Tyson has always excelled at.

When he was grooming Tyson as a teen, trainer Cus D’Amato had a number system for each punch Tyson threw and would call them out as an assistant held the mitts and Tyson dutifully threw a right hand or left hook.

I watched Tyson train for most of his big fights, and hitting mitts worn by a trainer was always a big part of his preparation. To be honest, he doesn’t look much different doing it in the video at the age of 53 as he did as heavyweight champion at the age of 23.

The speed is still blazing, and the power still looks real.

When no one is hitting him back, that is.

THE speed is still blazing, and the power still looks real—when no one is hitting Mike Tyson back, that is. AP

Tyson posted the video with the hashtag #stillthebaddestmanontheplanet. His fans didn’t take long to respond with predictions that Tyson could be the heavyweight champion once again.

That’s nonsense, of course. Tyson couldn’t beat a journeyman heavyweight at his age, much less the cream of a division that was just starting to hit its stride when the pandemic shut everything down.

And while people remember Tyson for his spectacular knockouts in his prime, remember that this is a man who gave up while sitting on his stool in his last fight 15 years ago.

But boxing will return. And Tyson remains intriguing, even to a new generation of fans who know him only through tales from their fathers or videos of him at his most vicious.

I’ve got as much insight into this as most. I was ringside when Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion ever by knocking out Trevor Berbick in 1986, and I was there in 2005 in Washington, D.C., when he quit after six rounds against a journeyman who wouldn’t have made it through the first round with him in his prime.

In between, I covered him as he threatened to eat Lennox Lewis’s children, bit Holyfield’s ear and led us all on a wild ride around the world the likes of which we will never see again.

So I feel qualified to say that any fantasies that he can legitimately fight again are just that.

I’m guessing Tyson is doing nothing more than fanning the flames of fame by teasing fans with his latest video. The fact is, he’s done a remarkable job in finding a new path in life after boxing, with acting gigs, a one-man show, a podcast and now his Tyson Ranch cannabis business.

All publicity is good publicity when you’re Mike Tyson, and he’s getting plenty with a video dropped at a time the world is starved for sports of any kind.

The alternative is he’s smoking so much weed he’s beginning to believe he can be what he once was.

Or maybe it’s just making him hungry.

Which would, of course, make a third fight with Holyfield seem a lot more appetizing than it really is.

Bundesliga’s clearance for May restart offers hope across Europe

G

ERMANY’S decision that soccer can return this month provided encouragement for players and teams across Europe on Wednesday that the shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic could soon be coming to an end.

With Covid-19 infections declining, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that the return of the top 2 leagues could be included in the

loosening of lockdown measures.

However, supporters will be locked out of stadiums for some time to come across Europe to contain the coronavirus while there is no vaccine.

The Bundesliga is now set to be the first major men’s soccer competition to resume in Europe on Friday, May 15 after the shutdown of the sport across the continent in March. The Belgian, French and Dutch leagues were all canceled prematurely

TWO women wearing face masks pass by a giant poster of Atletico Madrid players at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid. AP

after governments decided it is not safe for sport to staged yet—even without fans.

“This ensures that the sporting decisions are made on the pitch and not in the boardroom,” said Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the chairman of Bayern Munich, which has a four-point lead over Borussia Dortmund with nine games remaining.

“Let’s pick up where you left off, Erling,” Dortmund said in a tweet linking to a compilation of goals by teenage sensation Erling Haaland.

Croatia also announced plans Wednesday to bring back soccer on May 30 and Turkey said it was aiming for June 12 and still hopes to host the postponed Champions League final in Istanbul in August.

The English Premier League and Spain’s LaLiga hope to start up again in June but are yet to announce a date.

“The return of the Bundesliga is great news for the football industry and marks the way for the staggered return of football that will not be complete until the return of fans to the stadiums,” LaLiga President Javier Tebas said.

“We are working so that LaLiga will resume soon. Yesterday and today we started the path with medical tests. This is good news for European football and for the return to the new normal after this crisis.” AP

Mother’s Day this year means getting creative from afar

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BusinessMirror MAY 10 , 2020 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

YOUR MUSI

RHYTHM & RHYME

by Kaye Villagomez-Losorata

LONG AND WINDING ROAD

I

Music entertainers will remain out of work when the ECQ transitions to GCQ

F you’re getting ready for work post-ECQ, then you belong to the essential work force group unlike actors, artists, musicians and singers.

Gary Valenciano

The Jerks (File photo by Bernard Testa)

Publisher

: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

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: Lourdes M. Fernandez

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: Aldwin M. Tolosa

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: Jt Nisay

SoundStrip Editor

: Edwin P. Sallan

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

: Niggel Figueroa Anabelle O. Flores : Tony M. Maghirang, Rick Olivares, Darwin Fernandez, Mony Romana, Leony Garcia, Stephanie Joy Ching Pauline Joy M. Gutierrez

Columnists

: Kaye VillagomezLosorata Annie S. Alejo

Photographers

: Bernard P. Testa Nonie Reyes

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

The Philippine Business Mirror Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 3rd Floor of Dominga Building III 2113 Chino Roces Avenue corner Dela Rosa Street, Makati City, Philippines.

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Rico Blanco (File photo by Bernard Testa)

TheSpiralsCheckPointBar

As the nation transitions from ECQ to GCQ, those who work for the entertainment industry would have to find workarounds so they may still earn a living.

OPM has suffered from digitization during late 2000s, around the time physical albums ceased to exist. It has been a struggle milking streaming apps for droplets of royalties. The most natural thing was to turn to the live scene where you get to be in the moment of music and experience.

Artists competed in the world tour arena for the public’s hard-earned money the way sports superstars and world sports events ruled public audience.

For both sports and entertainment, the situation has since changed drastically because to live in the era of COVID-19 meant going back to basics, retaining only the basic needs. Frontliners have taken over an unwanted tragic kind of spotlight, one that’s fear-and-grief stricken. Actors, singers, and musicians had to slide over to the non-essential workers.

The key for artists now is to stay as far as possible from being tone deaf. Overthinking and oversurveying the room are now part of the deal. Otherwise they get a beating from social media. Trying to move the spotlight to your favor is not for the hypersensitive these days when even details of your live stream are dartboards waiting to happen.

Rollingstone.com recalled “the week the music stopped” last March. “By mid-March, the coronavirus pandemic had effectively put the multibilliondollar concert industry on indefinite pause and brought cataclysmic knockon effects into the rest of the music business as well,” the website reported.

How does life under GCQ look for

musicians and performers? Here are a few options we have during this extremely limiting time.

Online is Your New BFF. Let’s start with the obvious. Everything must be online. Intimate performances we used to enjoy from live lounge or bar sets have shifted to earphones and smartphones. Instead of writing your requests on a small piece of paper, we type on our phones and hit the send button to talk to the artists. You don’t have to dress up anymore to attend a gig. We have traded tickets, exclusive access, SRO and VIP passes for Zoom meeting codes and passwords or Facebook and YouTube live links.

Another advantage of the new normal in live music is you can miss actual schedules more and catch up during streaming replays. YouTube is so good at identifying which performances are worth watching and re-watching.

Pull Out All Strings. Rolling Stone also reported a surge in music instrument business. With days spent under quarantine, those keyboards and guitars are getting second life. “With time to spare, musical beginners are diving in by purchasing instruments for the first time and signing up for lessons,” read the report. Local music teachers and maestros should be taking a deeper look into this business opportunity. It was just recently announced that school year 20202021 in the Philippines will start on August 24.

Release Your Songs. More people online means more ears for songwriters and singers. It’s time to polish that home-recorded song and get help releasing it online. Spotify and iTunes are always waiting for the next big hit.

According to an article on Celebrityaccess.com, it’s a blessing

that people are still able to release songs. “That said, many artists and groups are choosing or being forced to delay their upcoming releases until the coronavirus pandemic begins to slow. We’re predicting a massive fall release calendar. There will be multiple delayed releases from major artists finally reaching fans at the same time as material from artists who’ve always planned on releasing in the fall.

That glut of content is going to force consumers to choose between releases, both for purchase and streaming purposes. Who will survive, and what will be their sales (or, more specifically, sales-equivalents)? Only time will tell.”

Get creative. It wouldn’t hurt to flex the muscles of your creativity as long as you don’t violate GCQ guidelines.

Take for example that recent drive-in concert in Denmark.

Los Angeles Times recently reported how people inside their cars went to a recent concert without risking quarantine and social distancing rules: “The Danish city of Aarhus allowed popular singer Mads Langer to perform a drive-thru event at a newly constructed venue just outside the city.

With six days’ notice, the event sold 500 tickets and, according to locals, went off without a hitch.”

Celebrityaccess.com was also on point when it published, “It is time to accept that life as we know it is changing. The current quarantine and self-isolation efforts will end, but there is no going back. The music business, as well as the world, will have to accept we are entering a new reality where everyone will apply the knowledge and experiences from this unprecedented period to everything that follows.”

To sum things up, GCQ is far from the final stretch of going back to normal. We need to brace ourselves even more for second, third, fourth waves. Jobs in the music industry would have to embrace technology even more. Celebrity Access rationalized, “The current quarantine and selfisolation efforts will end, but there is no going back. The music business, as well as the world, will have to accept we are entering a new reality where everyone will apply the knowledge and experiences from this unprecedented period to everything that follows.”

Recalling the lyrics of that classic song, the world is (still) a stage; but the stage is no longer a world of entertainment. COVID-2019 gutted the saying “the show must go on” as we’re all barely able to keep life going on.

The author is a former entertainment reporter and editor before shifting to corporate PR. Follow @kayevillagomez on Instagram and Twitter for more updates.

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | MAY 10 , 2020

IC OUR BUSINESS

3

SoundSampler

by Tony M. Maghirang

PROG ROCK RULES AGAIN! The Overblown Dinosaur Roar Is Back

everyday themes to be sure, but delivered nevertheless in pleasing harmony.

Kindred Spirits: Jethro Tull, Frank Zappa, The Mahavishnu Orchestra

BIG BIG TRAIN – Grand Tour Subgenre: Prog With Pop Hooks This handsome collision of rootsy folk, country-rock sensibilities and ‘70s UK prog tropes is sleek, polished and highly listenable owing to the crackle of pop hooks all over the album. A major reference point is early‘70s Jethro Tull, rebooted into contemporary times by healthy helpings of Mumford & Sons. Horns and flutes add up to a diverse fare to beguile prog rock beginners and aficionados alike.

Kindred Spirits: The Lumineers, Porcupine Tree, Fleet Foxes

Devin Townsend (Photo from his official website)

P

UNK was supposed to have killed prog rock, short for progressive rock. Three chords to start a riot was all it took to displace from the scene the bloated though arguably solid craftsmanship of ‘70s prog leviathans like King Crimson and Yes. Even a local video production titled “Progeny - A Documentary on Progressive Rock Music in the Philippines” suggested as much. This perception actually jibes with the critical thinking that the DIY garage spirit has triumphed over the skilled inventiveness of progressive rock.

But you can never kill a good idea. In the new wave ’80s, those so-called prog dinosaurs King Crimson and Yes made successful comebacks even if their sound had to surrender to the supremacy of synths and studio wizardry over such ‘70s prog staples as long guitar wankery and protracted drum solos.

Ironically, from the ‘90s onwards, the DIY ethos derived from punk further opened spaces for new music to flourish, allowing freshly-minted sounds into the absorptive capacity of progressive rock.

Think deathcore, jam rock, sludge metal, djent and any kind of noise that plays out beyond the threeminute mark and the prog mantle is theirs also to wear proudly and fearlessly.

What then qualifies as prog rock in these more enlightened post-punk times? In his book

“Beyond and Before: Progressive Rock Since The 1960s,” music journo Paul Hegarty wrote that prog rock features “extended tracks, the interweaving of themes through a song-cycle, experimental recording techniques, a whiff of theatricality and expansive use of cover art… as well as a movement beyond psychedelic culture.” Speaking about post-rock, a recent offshoot of progressive music, current bassist/keyboardist of seminal punk band Wire described the music to go “as far as we can deconstruct the expectations around what we can do with our instruments.”

Armed with pre-conceived notions about extended play, deconstruction and the crosspollination of genres within the same song, we offer five acts and their latest albums to represent the ever-shifting facets of prog rock today.

DEVIN TOWNSEND – Empath Subgenre: Eclectic, Stylish Prog Multi-instrumentalist Devin Townsend typically shuttles between metal and prog to create music that goes off in various dimensions, probably to show he’s both a livewire performer and a studio wizard rolled into one. On his latest recording, Townsend corrals symphonic textures as well as a Disney movie-worthy score to warm the hearts and ears even of fickle pop audiences. More bang for your buck is what great prog rock provides and Townsend’s Empath sends them out in spades.

Kindred Spirits: Steven Wilson, Dream Theater, Queen

THANK YOU SCIENTIST – Terraformer Subgenre: Expansive Groovy Prog Melodic hooks, bold guitar riffs and extra trappings courtesy of violin, brass and harp strains buttress the progressive trajectory of 7-piece band Thank You Scientist. On Terraformer, the playing approaches jazz fusion dexterity but the intricate mesh of sounds pitches the band nearer to math-rock, another rock subgenre that owes a lot to the interwoven musicality of prog rock. The singing is also right up there in Rush’s Geddy Lee’s distinctive voice. Then the group talks about serpents, chromology and Shatner’s lament, not

OBSCURA – Diluvium Subgenre: Progressive Death Metal The complexity of prog rock gets an amphetamine boost at the hands technical death metal and Obscura is the latest in a long line of artists to ransack thrash metal and hardcore punk aggression to jazz-fusion ends.

Death growls are part of the explosive package but the overwhelming joy comes from the intense tug of war between lightning guitar strokes and the pummeling backbeat. Imagine Mahavishnu Orchestra on speed and you’re right smack in tech death territory.

Kindred Spirits: Necrophagist, Opeth, Willowtip label artists

WE ARE IMPALA –Visions Subgenre: Progressive Post-Rock If extended guitar riffs were the measure of true prog rock standing, then this four-piece post-rock outfit from Spain deserves a place in the top spot. Xavi String’s playing approaches interstellar overdrive and still manages to show off stoner rock and old-school hard rock volume.

The whole band’s appropriation of post-rock’s push-pull dynamics comes to epic proportions each time out, allowing a glimpse of prog rock’s fantastic highs. We Are Impala is a royal treat from the get go.

Kindred Spirits: Russian Circles, Explosions In The Sky, God Is An Astronaut We would have included a local prog rock band in this round-up except that from the documentary cited in the earlier section, potential candidates like fuseboxx have not released any significant work lately that would qualify as prog rock-ish. Others like Johnny Alegre’s Affinity and Ang Bagong Lumad would rather be known to operate in the jazz or world music terrain.

In all, this is just a cursory survey of contemporary acts and records that push the boundaries of what has come to be celebrated as progressive rock. Stay tuned for more.

Mother’s Day this year means getting creative from afar

By Leanne Italie The Associated Press

N

EW YORK— Treats made and delivered by neighbors. Fresh garden plantings dug from a safe 6 feet away.

Trips around the world set up room-to-room at home.

Mother’s Day this year is a mix of love and extra imagination as families do without their usual brunches and huggy meet-ups. As the pandemic persists in keeping families indoors or a safe social distance apart, online searches have increased for creative ways to still make moms feel special.

Absent help from schools and babysitters, uninitiated dads are on homemade craft duty with the kids. Other loved ones are navigating around no-visitor rules at hospitals and seniorliving facilities.

Some medical facilities are pitching in by collecting voice and video recordings from lockedout relatives when patients are unable to manage the technology on their own.

In Alameda, California, 23-year-old Zaria Zinn is sheltering at home with her parents and younger sister. Knowing how much their mother loves and misses traveling, they’re turning their house and neighborhood into a trip around the world with help from decorations and virtual tours online.

“We made a DIY passport for her and we’re creating stamps for each location,” she said.

Their itinerary: Machu Picchu, Paris and Iceland,

Sheena Bentoy This undated photo shows Melissa Mueller-Douglas and her 7-year-old daughter, Nurah, at their home in Rochester, N.Y., with some of the items they plan to use for a Mother’s Day sleepover. Isolation due to the coronavirus outbreak has led mothers and offspring to find creative ways to celebrate. AP with some DIY spa time and a Hollywood-style movie night.

Making the most of Mother’s Day in isolation is top of mind for Google search users. The company said the term “Mother’s Day gifts during quarantine” recently spiked by 600 percent in the US. Among Pinterest’s 335 million users, searches for “Mother’s Day at home” have jumped by 2,971 percent, the company said.

In Rochester, New York, Melissa MuellerDouglas and her 7-year-old daughter, Nurah, had planned to get together with mom and daughter friends at a hotel for a Mother’s Day sleepover. When it was canceled because of the pandemic, they got busy on Pinterest searching for ideas to bring the party home, just the two of them.

They have eye masks with rhinestones to decorate, thread for mother-daughter bracelets, instant film for a photo shoot and a chocolate fountain purchased at Walmart. Dad and Nurah’s 3-year-old brother will paint together downstairs after a mom-son bike ride earlier in the day.

“We’ve repurposed a shimmery tablecloth

and made giant flowers out of tissue paper for a photo shoot backdrop. We’ll be creating a secret handshake and writing in top secret journals to each other,” Mueller-Douglas said. “We’re calling it The Best Day Ever Slumber Party.”

Kayla Hockman, 26, in Los Angeles has been worried about her 77-year-old grandmother in Fontana, California, about 50 miles away. Usually, she and her sister treat her and their mom to brunch or an adventure out.

“My grandma’s been quite depressed lately since she hasn’t left her house in two months, and she’s slowly losing hope,” Hockman said.

“She and my grandpa have a lot of problems with walking now. This whole thing of not being able to see anyone has been really taking a hard toll on them.”

To cheer her up, they’re planning a party on her lawn.

“It’s going to be a surprise pop-up Mother’s Day brunch with ‘momosas’ and painting,” Hockman said. “We’re going to set it up for all of us to paint a sunflower, her absolute favorite. She’ll paint on her porch and we’ll be on the lawn, all 6 feet apart.”

Realizations amid community quarantine

By Melissa Ann R. Garcia

S

uddenly, we all have to lock ourselves in our own houses to keep safe.

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the normality of modern living. Social distancing has become mandatory. Face masks and disinfectants are now vital “weapons” against this generation’s biggest threat.

With so much time in our hands due to community quarantine, I have come to realize a few things. Here are some of them, together with corresponding bible verses.

1

Health is the greatest wealth It took a pandemic to make the world realize that health matters more than anything. Therefore, we need to value it. We owe it to ourselves to look after our physical, mental, emotional well-being. (For in Him we live and move and exist...—Acts 17:28)

2

Rest is a must Time was running so fast in the pre-Covid-19 world that we just went with the flow. But now we

are forced to rest. We are reminded to relax. Perhaps God is giving us all this time to prepare for greater things after the pandemic. (He lets me rest in greed meadows; He leads me beside peaceful streams. Psalm 23:2)

3

We should bring the old days back I often hear my parents say, “Mabuti pa ‘nung araw.” Do they miss the good old days when family members talk eye-to-eye and heart-toheart? Since we have no choice but to stay at home, this is the perfect time for family bonding. (My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not reject the teaching of your mother—Proverbs 1:8)

4

In God we should trust Jesus was in the back of the boat with His head on a pillow, and He was asleep. His disciples woke Him and said, “Teacher, don’t You care that we’re about to drown?” Jesus got up and ordered the wind and the waves to be quiet. The wind stopped, and everything was calm. (Mark 4:38-39) Just like in that story, what we can do is to wait

4 BusinessMirror

for God to calm this storm, for He alone can do it.

God is in control no matter how terrifying the situation is, and He alone can defeat the unseen enemy that is trying to devour us. We must trust and pray for the whole world; for our families, loved ones, and also the frontliners to be protected and kept safe at all times.

5

We must worship at home Did you know that the first worship services were held at houses? Not gathering in physical churches may sound strange, but perhaps God allowed this so He can bring worship back inside our homes. This is the time to pray with our families, to read the Bible and share the verses with them, to sing songs of praise with them and to seek and to plead God for His mercy.

The author, 23, has worked as a Business Analyst for three years prior to the ongoing enhanced community quarantine. She is currently a church and worship leader at Zion Christian Fellowship.

May 10, 2020

Global theater child actress is new Promil kid

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hether it’s her exceptional talents, good looks, and grit, there’s no denying that new Promil kid Sheena Bentoy is the face to watch out for.

Known for her performance as the young Nala in the stage adaptation of the Disney classic The Lion King, Sheena’s undeniable gifts in singing, acting, and dancing paved the way for her to be part of the international tour as her theater debut.

What Sheena has achieved at such a young age is, likewise, attributed to how her mom, Irish Bentoy, who has given her unwavering support, love, and continuous nurturing of her gift. Mommy Irish shared how she started noticing Sheena’s fondness for performing, and how glad she was to be able to support her.

Apart from singing, Mommy Irish would let Sheena participate in different activities such as ballet, music and modeling.

Meanwhile, Sheena’s dad is very supportive of her academics and always gives her valuable pieces of advice.

But no success story is achieved overnight. Mommy Irish said she would always remind Sheena to always do what she loves, and to believe that God will give opportunities to her when the time is right.

Undeniably grateful and proud of her daughter who remains humble despite the achievements, Mommy Irish shared how other moms can similarly raise their kids to be the best they can be.

“First is to build a good and harmonious relationship with their kids. Second, is to join them in their activities. From there, moms will be able to discover which areas their kids are gifted in, and witness how happy they are when they’re doing those things! Lastly, as their kids work hard to achieve their dreams, parents must support them all the way,” she said. “Just enjoy the journey of nurturing the gift.”

Because of Mommy Irish’s loving support, Sheena is able to shine her brightest.

Find out how you can also #NurtureTheGift together with PROMIL FOUR.