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The oil price quandary

SIAM PUKKATO | DREAMSTIME.COM

Global uncertainties may yet spring a surprise on consumer fuel expense as December nears

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By Lenie Lectura

OR the past 45 weeks since the start of the year, gasoline pump prices have risen 28 times; diesel, 24 times; and kerosene, 21 times. With only a few weeks left before 2023 ends, there is no crystal ball to glimpse the succeeding pump price adjustments because of global economic uncertainty.

“We have to manage our expectations that this will continuously go down because there are a lot of external factors involved,” said Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Raphael Lotilla.

He was referring to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, production cut by OPEC+, and more recently, the Israel-Hamas war.

“Let us hope that the external factors will be resolved so the prices of oil products will normalize,” Lotilla said.

’Real’ risk

DOE-Oil Management Bureau Director Rino Abad is hopeful that oil prices would be stable in the weeks to come because neither Israel nor Palestine is a major oil supplier.

According to him, the risk on the supply will be present once Iran is dragged into the conflict.

“We have to manage our expectations that this will continuously go down because there are a lot of external factors involved.”— Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla

Since the downstream oil industry is deregulated, the DOE could not dictate prices nor can it order oil companies to slash prices.

Focused actions of the government

are now centered on how to help vulnerable sectors cope with high fuel prices.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. earlier called for a sectoral meeting in order to review the mitigating measures for high fuel prices, and among those who attended the meeting were officials from the DOE, Department of Transportation, the Department of Trade and Industry and the National Economic and Development Authority, the Department of Budget and Management, the Department of the Interior and Local Government the Department of Information and Communications Technology, and the Department of Agriculture.

The President gave instructions to revise the language of the 2024 GAA provision on fuel subsidies for the transport sector in order to shorten the trigger period from three months to one month and simplify the release requirements.

“Whenever the Dubai price per barrel exceeds 80 dollars for three months, that will be the trigger for the provision of subsidies to the transport sector drivers. So, with this simplification or shortening of the period, we will be able to release the subsidies in a shorter period of time,” the energy chief said.

Pantawid Pasada program

SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian, vice chairperson of the Senate

Committee on Energy, said the DOE should immediately coordinate with industry players to ensure a sufficient and steady supply of energy.

According to him, the Land Transportation Regulatory and Franchising Board (LTFRB) should also initiate preparations for an efficient and timely implementation of the Pantawid Pasada program.

“To avoid delay in the disbursement of the subsidy and to ensure the desired impact is realized, the LTFRB and other government agencies concerned should be ready to implement the program efficiently and should have learned the lessons from previous disbursements,” Gatchalian said.

Gatchalian earlier filed Senate Bill No. 384, which seeks to institutionalize the Pantawid Pasada program given the need to set up an energy subsidy program to safeguard the public transport sector against oil price shocks.

gasoline without ethanol is at P56.89, but it can be reduced by P1.28 to P1.50 if blended with ethanol.

Also, hiking the coco methyl ester (CME) coco biodiesel blend from 2 percent to 3 percent is also being discussed.

Chemrez Technologies Inc., the country’s biggest producer of premium CME, commented that pushing for this plan would benefit consumers extensively “with no practical cost to the government.”

“The feedstock is available and the capacities for making CME are ready to support the increase in mandate. We expect many benefits to come with a B3 mandate: mileage improvement; lower pollution; import substitution and value adding of coconut oil,” said Chemrez President Dean Lao Jr., who’s also chairman of the United Coconut Association of the Philippines. “It’s about time the country tapped into this valuable resource,” he added.

Lotilla: Increase ethanol blend

EV shift

THE energy chief also cited another way to help lower fuel prices.

Lotilla said increasing the ethanol blend in gasoline to 20 percent from 10 percent is “targeted for approval by the end of 2023.”

“This is primarily a price mitigation measure because ethanol, especially imported ethanol, is cheaper than the price of gasoline,” he said.

Lotilla said per liter price of

ANOTHER measure that the President wanted the government agencies to work on is the continued electrification of the transport sector, particularly mass transport and light cargo vehicles.

“So the President gave emphasis on the need, one, for having the charging stations in place; second, to make sure that the benefits to the transport sector, particularly the drivers, will indeed be there.

Because right now, just from a fuel standpoint, the estimated difference between electric vehicles (EV) running per kilometer and those that are internal combustion engines using gas and diesel is quite significant,” Lotilla said.

For those using gasoline, motorists spend P5.30 per kilometer run and those running on diesel spend P4 per km run, but for the light duty electric vehicles, it only ranges from P1.26 to P1.90 per km.

“Of course, these are based on assumptions of the cost of gasoline at P70 per liter and the cost of diesel at P66 per liter,” Lotilla added.

Marcos has also ordered that the manufacturing of EVs be linked up with the local mining sector that will produce the minerals needed for the production of batteries and other components of EVs. Gatchalian said the DOE should also expedite the implementation of the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act (Evida) to usher in a widespread use of EVs to ease the country’s dependence on imported oil in the long run.

The oil firms, for their part, assured motorists that they regularly provide pump price discounts, special promos, and other marketing campaigns that could help ease their burden. They also urged the public to reduce unnecessary trips or use mass transportation systems to save on fuel expenses.

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 55.9190 n JAPAN 0.3695 n UK 68.3610 n HK 7.1620 n CHINA 7.6770 n SINGAPORE 41.1078 n AUSTRALIA 35.5924 n EU 59.6656 n KOREA 0.0424 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.9086 Source: BSP (November 10, 2023)

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Are we there yet? China’s property correction

A

Bloomberg News

FTER more than a decade of overbuilding and overborrowing, the moment of reckoning is here for China’s real-estate market. Sales are down, prices are down, construction is down, developers are defaulting, and contagion is spreading to the shadow-banking sector.

A Goldilocks outcome remains possible. Sales have fallen so far that there’s scope for more stimulus to boost demand without reinflating the speculative bubble. If that doesn’t happen and the sector continues to spiral down, a massive funding gap for developers means there’s the real possibility of a financial crisis.

For China, the difference between those two outcomes is 5 percent or 0 percent gross domestic product growth in 2024. Bloomberg Economics’ base case is at the top end of that range. If we were wrong, global spillovers from the crash scenario would be enough to tip the US and other major economies into recession.

Haunted by ghost towns

THE fundamental problem for China’s real estate is that there’s too much supply and not enough

demand.

In 2021, China built 1,565 million square meters (16.8 billion square feet) of property. Bloomberg Economics estimates that in the same year fundamental demand—for homes to live in, not as speculative investments—was 1,400 million square meters. By 2026 it’s projected to shrink to 1,100 million.

That means construction needs to fall 30 percent to bring supply in line with demand. So far it’s fallen 18 percent. China’s real-estate correction—which has already tipped developers into default and taken a major shadow bank to the edge of collapse—is a little more than halfway done.

From here, there are multiple paths the property adjustment could take. An important reason for that: Construction has fallen, but sales have fallen more. Home

sales in 2022 and so far in 2023 are 10 percent to 15 percent below our estimate of fundamental demand.

That suggests expectations of falling prices, uncertainty about the outlook for jobs and income, and hope for more enticements from the government are pushing buyers to delay purchases.

In the least-bad scenario, moves to cut interest rates, reduce down-payment requirements and strip away other barriers to buyers will lift demand back in line with fundamentals. Supply still has further to fall, but with demand a little stronger that’s a less painful process.

In this scenario, real-estate investment falls 8 percent in 2023 and an average of 5 percent per year from 2024 to 2026. Based on the past relationship, a 5-percent drop in real-estate investment shaves about 0.6 percentage point from annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

China’s growth slows from about 5.4 percent this year to closer to 5 percent in 2024, and there are real questions about whether those numbers capture the conditions on the street. But recession and financial crisis are avoided. It’s a bumpy landing, but not a hard landing.

In a nightmare scenario, stimulus fails to revive confidence, sales continue to spiral down, and a larger and more painful correction in supply will be required—tipping more developers into default and raising the specter of a financial crisis.

To put some numbers on it, an overcorrection could see real-

JLHOPE | DREAMSTIME.COM

By Chang Shu, David Qu, Eric Zhu & Bhargavi Sakthivel

estate investment down 20 percent or more at the end of 2023 and into 2024—taking the direct drag on annual GDP growth to 2.4 percentage points. And that wouldn’t be the end of the bad news.

On the current trajectory, we estimate developers’ short-term liabilities and funds required to finish pre-sold homes are on track to exceed their cash on hand, plus funds they will be able to raise through sales and fresh borrowing, by trillions of yuan in the months ahead.

That’s a gap too big for even Beijing to fill and means more pain ahead for homeowners (falling prices), developers (a hit to equity), banks (more bad loans), bondholders (haircuts) and the government (paying for a bailout). It’s not hard to see how the end result could be a financial crisis.

In China’s state-owned banking system, a crisis would look more like Japan in the sclerotic 1990s than the US in the 2008 Lehman meltdown. Still, the damage would be severe, and it’s hard to say where the bottom for China’s GDP would be.

Broadly in line with the findings of Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff in their This Time Is Different history of financial crises, we assume 2024 growth would come in at zero—a drop of 5 percentage points.

When China sneezes …

FOR the US and other major economies, the gap between the Goldilocks and nightmare scenarios could be the difference between a soft and hard landing. We use a suite of models to estimate spillovers through financial market,

commodity price and trade channels.

In the Goldilocks scenario, China’s GDP growth for 2024 comes in around 5 percent, 0.5 percentage point below our expectations earlier this year. For the US, that would mean a fractional drag—around 0.1 percentage point—on inflation and growth. The Fed would receive a little support in getting inflation back to its 2 percent target, but the impact would be marginal. The euro area and UK would see similarly limited effects.

In the nightmare scenario, where China’s 2024 growth goes from 5 percent to zero, spillovers are amplified. For the US, there’s a drag on consumer price index (CPI) of 1.3 percentage points—overdelivering on the Fed’s target. GDP takes a 1.1 percentage-point hit— turning our baseline expectation of a shallow recession into a deeper downturn and pushing unemployment higher in an election year.

The impact on other major economies would be similarly severe, tipping the euro area from stagnation into recession and deepening the downturn we already anticipate in the UK. For China, even the dark cloud cast by the nightmare scenario has a silver lining. Growth driven by borrowing ever-increasing amounts to build ever more houses no one will ever live in wasn’t a sustainable development strategy.

At the end of the correction, China will have a smaller property sector and so more workers and capital devoted to productive uses. Surging sales of electric vehicles are one of the reasons to be optimistic about medium-term development prospects. Getting

through the short term remains a significant challenge.

Methodology

WE estimated global spillovers using three different models.

Financial conditions were estimated following a structural approach based on the Bayesian Global vector autoregression (VAR) model (Bock, Feldkircher and Huber, 2020). We amend the model slightly by adding log real equity prices for each country as in Mohaddes and Raissi (2020).

Uncertainty in the financial markets is modeled as a global shock to equity markets in line with an increase in the volatility index (VIX). For this estimation we reordered the countries starting from the US, euro area, UK and other economies such that the scaling is between the VIX and the US equity market. We use generalized impulse-response functions (GIRFs) as in Pesaran and Shin (1998).

The oil-price shock was simulated using the European Central Bank’s Global Model. We model the rise in oil prices as an oil-supply shock. In addition, since the US recently has become a net producer of oil, we include a US oil-production shock in the form of a US demand shock using the same model.

The China demand shocks were simulated using a four-country VAR model. The shocks were calibrated based on the assumptions that the drop in commodity prices is a result of China’s slump pushing oil prices down and that the fall in global equity prices is attributed to an increase in uncertainty from the China slowdown.

TheWorld

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

Sunday, November 12, 2023

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Dueling protests over Israel-Hamas war shatter students’ sense of safety on college campuses

By Kevin Mcgill, Stephen Smith & Collin Binkley The Associated Press

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EW ORLEANS—As a Jewish student, Eden Roth always has felt safe and welcome at Tulane University, where more than 40 percent of the students are Jewish. That has been tested by the aftermath of last month’s invasion of Israel by Hamas.

Graffiti appeared on the New Orleans campus with the message “from the river to the sea,” a rallying cry for pro-Palestinian activists. Then came a clash between dueling demonstrations, where a melee led to three arrests and left a Jewish student with a broken nose.

“I think that the shift of experience with Jews on campus was extremely shocking,” said Roth, who was in Israel last summer for a studyabroad program. “A lot of students come to Tulane because of the Jewish population—feeling like they’re supported, like a majority rather than a minority. And I think that’s definitely shifted.”

Tulane isn’t alone. On other campuses, long-simmering tensions are erupting in violence and shattering

the sense of safety that makes colleges hubs of free discourse. Students on both sides are witnessing acts of hate, leaving many fearing for their safety even as they walk to classrooms.

Threats and clashes have sometimes come from within, including at Cornell, where a student is accused of posting online threats against Jewish students. A University of Massachusetts student was arrested after allegedly punching a Jewish student and spitting on an Israeli flag at a demonstration. At Stanford, an Arab Muslim student was hit by a car in a case being investigated as a hate crime.

The unease is felt acutely at Tulane, where 43 percent of students are Jewish, the highest percentage among colleges that are not explicitly Jewish.

“To see it on Tulane’s campus is definitely scary,” said Jacob Starr, a Jewish student from Massachusetts.

Within the student Jewish community, there is a range of perspectives on the conf lict. The latest war began with an attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas militants who targeted towns, farming communities and a music festival near the Gaza border, killing more than 1,400 people.

Israel has responded with weeks of attacks in Gaza, which have killed

more than 10,800 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza—most of them Palestinian civilians.

Emma Sackheim, a Jewish student from Los Angeles who attends Tulane’s law school, said she grew up as a supporter of the Jewish state but now considers herself an opponent of Zionism. Sackheim says she knows students who oppose Israel’s policies “but don’t feel comfortable to publicly say anything.”

“I was standing on the Palestinian side,” she said when asked about the Oct. 26 demonstration, which took place along a public New Orleans street that runs through campus.

Still, she said Tulane is where she feels most comfortable as a Jew. “I know that I have so many options of community,” she said.

On campuses around the US, students on both sides say they have been subjected to taunts and rhetoric that oppose their very existence since the invasion and the subsequent Israeli assault on Hamas in northern Gaza.

They see it in campus rallies, on anonymous message boards frequented by college students, and on graffiti scrawled on dorms and buildings. In one case under police investigation as a possible hate crime, “Free Pal-

estine” was found written this week on a window of Boston University’s Hillel center.

Colleges have been scrambling to restore a sense of security for Jewish and Arab students—and stressing messages of inclusion for diverse student bodies. But untangling what’s protected as political speech and what crosses into threatening language can be a daunting task.

Tulane’s president, Michael Fitts, has described an increased police presence and other security measures on campus. In messages to the campus community, he has lamented the loss of innocent Israeli and Palestinian lives and said the university was reaching out to Jewish and Muslim student groups and religious organizations.

He has faced criticism from people on both sides seeking more forceful statements.

Islam Elrabieey, for example, seeks condemnation of Israel’s actions.

“To condemn Hamas is a good thing,” said Elrabieey, a native of Egypt and a visiting scholar in Tulane’s Middle East and North African Studies program. “But at the same time, if you didn’t condemn Israel for committing war crimes, this is a double standard.”

As places that encourage intellectual

debate, it isn’t surprising that colleges have seen heated conflict, said Jonathan Fansmith, a senior vice president for the American Council on Education, an association of university presidents.

But when different factions disagree about what crosses the line between free speech and abuse, it puts colleges in a difficult place, he said.

“Everyone should be incredibly sympathetic to Jewish students who feel under threat, and the alarming rise in antisemitic actions is something college universities take very seriously,” Fansmith said. “But they have a requirement, a responsibility under the law as well, to balance the free speech rights of people who may disagree, who may have critiques that they find disagreeable or dislike. And finding that line is very, very difficult.”

After facing criticism for trying to remain too neutral on the war, Harvard University’s president on Thursday condemned the phrase “from the river to the sea,” saying it has historical meanings that, to many, imply the eradication of Jews from Israel. Pro-Palestinian activists around the world chanted the phrase in the aftermath of the Hamas raid.

At Tulane, Roth said some Jewish students have been rattled enough to make them think twice about visiting

the Mintz Center, the headquarters for the Tulane Hillel organization.

“I don’t feel completely safe, but I feel like we have no other choice but to embrace who we are in these times,” Roth said in an interview at the building. “I know a lot of my friends are nervous to wear their Star of David necklaces, to wear a kippah or even come into this building. But I think it’s critical that we do not let fear consume us.”

Lea Jackson, a freshman from New Jersey who describes herself as a modern Orthodox Jew, said she is concerned supporters of a Palestinian state are nervous expressing their views because of the large numbers of Jewish students on campus.

The Hamas raid may have made some people more reluctant to speak even as others become more outspoken, said Jackson, who said she recently spent a “gap year” in Israel and has friends and family there.

“But it’s a lot harder to have a civil conversation,” Jackson said, “when emotions and tension are so high and so many people are so personally connected to this.”

The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Predicted oil price at $100 a barrel dampened by stagnating demand T

By Grant Smith & Alex Longley

HE big bang expected for oil prices this year is turning into a whimper.

Just weeks ago, Brent crude was on the cusp of finally fulfilling industry forecasts of a return to $100 a barrel as record fuel demand and Saudi Arabia’s supply cuts depleted global oil inventories. The eruption of conflict in the Middle East shortly after heightened the risk of a price spike.

But on Wednesday the benchmark retreated to a three-month low under $80 a barrel. Concerns about supply are giving way to doubts about plunging refinery profits in China and Europe, lackluster physical cargo trading and an uncertain economic outlook for the US. “The market seems to be shifting its focus from fear-driven geopolitics to hard-fact fundamentals,” said Norbert Ruecker, an analyst at Julius Baer & Co. Ltd. “Ample supplies, incremental production growth, and stagnating demand create an overall soft fundamental backdrop.”

It may spell relief for big consuming nations like the US, where gasoline prices near $4 a gallon have squeezed households and threatened to become a political liability for President Joe Biden.

And it could offer respite for central banks such as the Federal Reserve, as it seeks to wrap up a spell of prolonged monetary tightening.

The situation is a sharp reversal from late September, when Brent rallied above $97 a barrel and the Opec cartel projected

an unprecedented decline in oil inventories amid record fuel demand and extra production cuts

by Saudi Arabia.

The price surge appeared to finally vindicate industry predictions at the outset of the year that crude would return to triple digits. An attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, which threatened to draw Iran into a regional conflict and imperil shipments from the Persian Gulf, cemented the upside.

Yet as oil flows from the region have remained unaffected, attention has switched to hazards in the world’s top two oil consumers, namely a refining downturn in China and stubbornly high interest rates in the US.

IN the US, gasoline prices near $4 a gallon have squeezed households. DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG

Stronger supply

OIL’S retreat is a particular setback for Saudi Arabia, which leads a coalition between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major crude producers including Russia. The kingdom has cut its output to the lowest in years in a bid to prop up prices, but saw its economy suffer the sharpest contraction in three years last quarter in part as it sacrifices sales volumes.

Now support from its key market ally, Russia, may be slipping.

Moscow pledged last week to keep assisting Riyadh in curbing supply, but tanker-tracking data show that Russian exports have recovered to a four-month high of

about 3.48 million barrels a day.

President Vladimir Putin relies on petroleum revenues to finance his war against Ukraine.

Next year, oil supplies from the US, Brazil and Guyana are also projected to swell.

“Inventory draws have been less than expected, Russian shipments higher than expected and the war risk premium got too eager on the long side,” said Tor Svelland, founder of hedge fund Svelland Capital Ltd. “Demand has also been weaker due to interest rates

and generally high prices.”

O pec-w atc hers at Eu ra si a Group and UBS Group AG predict that, with oil demand set to remain under pressure, the Saudis will choose to extend their extra 1 million barrel-a-day output cutback into next year. The full Opec+ alliance is due to meet to review policy on November 26.

Refining weakness

ON the sidelines of an industry event in London this week, many traders said they were having to

discount cargoes due to weaker demand from refineries, which face a slide in the profits for making fuels like gasoline and high shipping costs.

It’s not just an issue in China.

“We’re also seeing weakness in Asian refining margins,” Alex Booth, head of fundamental analysis at energy trader Petroineos, said at the Argus European Crude Conference. “The region as a whole is struggling a little bit from this slight malaise.”

European consumption of diesel and naphtha—fuels that power trucks, trains, ships and construct ion—has plunged. Gold man Sachs Group Inc., which had led Wall Street’s calls for the return of $100 crude, said in a report last month that the acute inventory declines anticipated by the industry had yet to materialize.

Next year, US gasoline demand per capita will plunge to the lowest in two decades, just as production climbs to a record above 13 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The agency cited increased remote work, improvements in fuel efficiency, high gasoline prices, and persistently high inflation as reasons for the drop.

The deterioration in the balance between supply and demand is reflected in the so-called forward curve of Brent crude. The premium of near-term futures contracts over those for later delivery—known as backwardation and typically a reliable sign of supply scarcity—has diminished sharply in recent weeks, from $1.65 a barrel in early October for the front month to around 10 cents on Wednesday.

Contrary signals

STILL, forecasters such as Goldman

Sachs, Standard Chartered Plc and Barclays Plc see scope for crude to pick up again as further increases in demand whittle away stockpiles.

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Thursday that oil demand is healthy and speculators are to blame for the recent drop in prices.

“It’s not weak,” he told reporters in Riyadh. “People are pretending it’s weak. It’s all a ploy.”

While Brent fell toward $80 a barrel, US gasoline margins climbed. The fuel’s premium over crude has almost doubled since the middle of last month, indicating a growing incentive to produce the fuel that suggests end-user demand is yet to capitulate. Crude markets in the US are also being supported by ongoing purchases by the government to refill its Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

But if or when that price recovery will arrive is unclear. By some estimates, the outlook for early 2024 looks increasingly challenging.

The International Energy Agency sees global markets tipping back into surplus next year as demand growth suffers a dramatic 50 percent slowdown to less than 1 million barrels a day. Energy trader Gunvor group sees a more robust picture with daily consumption expanding by at least 1.6 million barrels. Opec pegs the increase at 2.2 million barrels a day.

“The mood music has pivoted from pricing in geopolitics-induced supply-side risk premiums back to pricing in demand-side risk discounts,” said Ehsan Khoman, head of commodities research at MUFG. “Oil bulls are in distress.” With assistance from Sharon Cho,

Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper, Sarah Chen and Devika Krishna Kumar/Bloomberg

Hong Kong restaurants cut back on alcohol as Gen Z helps push booze-free movement

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ISTILLED fig, liquid beetroot and cherry juice. Green apple and lapsang souchong with a touch of dashi.

A few years ago, this would have been a

stream-of-consciousness ingredient list to someone sitting down at a fancy restaurant in Hong Kong. Now it represents luxury drink experiences for diners coming out of one of the

world’s strictest pandemic shutdowns, who have turned their backs on alcoholic offerings.

When Cultivate launched in early 2021, wine pairings were the invariable accompaniment to the seasonal set menu at the 22-seat restaurant. Now diners increasingly opt for an alternative, and it’s rare for anyone under 35 to order alcohol at all.

Leonard Cheung, the restaurant’s executive chef and co-owner, approves: He believes the best food pairings are drinks that don’t dull your senses by making you tipsy. It works “whether it’s an exact pairing, [using] the exact same ingredients as a dish or whether it’s a contrast pairing, where there’s something that’s completely different from a dish,” he says about the elaborate juices and drinks he serves at Cultivate.

Cultivate’s full elixir pairing—a mixture of sparkling teas and fresh juices that rotate every few weeks alongside the dishes—is a sign of changing tastes throughout the city.

Carefully considered non-alcoholic drink pairings have found their way onto menus across the financial hub, at places that once catered primarily to Hong Kong’s elite and bankers who bought big-ticket wines as part of the hedonistic nightlife.

Over the past few years, Hong Kong’s population has cut down on drinking: According to the city’s health department, alcohol consumption has dropped nearly 20 percent, from 2.84 liters of alcohol per capita per year in 2018 to 2.29 liters last year. Gen Z has been key to that drop. According to a survey by the Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection, in 2018-2019, 15.3 percent of respondents aged 15 to 24 said they had indulged in binge drinking in the previous 12 months; in a survey conducted between 2020-2022, that number plummeted to 3.6

percent. (The legal drinking age is 18.)

Sophisticated soft pairings in luxury restaurants aren’t new globally—the famed Copenhagen restaurant Noma has had a juice pairing for more than a dozen years—but it’s a change of pace in Hong Kong. For decades, the city’s fine dining scene has focused on expensive wines (or rare teas) to accommodate a culture where drinking is a hallmark of socializing, and high-priced meals are regularly expensed or used as a gesture of extravagance to treat friends and family.

“Fine dining in Asia is about selling the most luxurious form of overindulgence,” says Cheung, who did stints at NoMad in New York and Husk in South Carolina before opening his own place in Hong Kong. “Fine dining in the West tends to take humble ingredients and elevate it into a way where it’s unrecognizable.”

Those attitudes are shifting—a change that Winston Lau wanted to take advantage of two years ago, when he opened Mindful Sparks in Hong Kong, which makes premium sparkling teas. Fine dining establishments currently make up about a third of the 60 restaurants he supplies: Thirteen of them have Michelin stars. Lau says his revenue has tripled since starting his business.

Better education over health, a generational shift and a low tolerance for alcohol including “Asian flush”—a difficulty in breaking down the toxins in alcohol that results in redness in the face—are all reasons Lau thinks people are moving away from alcohol.

Moreover, there are few high-end options for people in more upmarket or socially pressured environments, according to Lau, whose premium cork-popping Champagne-style bottles allow for a moment of celebration and ceremony. “If we can provide a high-value,

high-end-looking non-alcoholic product, then people will feel they can still have that social status without being looked down on,” he says.

At restaurants, Mindful Sparks’ offerings cost HK$80 ($10.23) to HK$130 by the glass; his Champagne-style bottle costs about HK$600.Part of the challenge for Lau is encouraging people to treat his sparkling teas with the same reverence as wine by talking about their vintage, origin and what time of year the leaves are picked. That’s part of the narrative when Mindful Sparks’ sparkling lapsang souchong tea is served by the sommelier at Ando, a Michelin-starred Japanese-Spanish dining spot. The smoky, mellow drink with next to no sweetness is paired alongside a Wakame steamed Carabinero prawn and the tomato-based soup salmorejo with duck egg yolk.

Ando’s zero-alcohol pairing of five glasses, including teas, non-fermented wine grape juice and kombucha, costs HK$468.

It accompanies the restaurant’s HK$1,888 presentation dinner menu, where one dish changes every four to six weeks.

The desire of Hong Kong diners to trade in too-sweet mocktails for more upmarket alternatives goes beyond fine dining circles. At the new Savory Project bar—from the team behind Coa, three-time winner of Asia’s 50 Best Bars—nearly half of the cocktail offerings are nonalcoholic, including the Teriyaki Freeball, a nutty but tart concoction made with masa and white soy sauce.

Crafting a soft pairing alongside an everchanging menu can be tough for restaurants that want to create beverages in-house, sometimes requiring specialized machinery, like a rotary evaporator to intensify a juice’s flavor: Acidity, viscosity and scent are all

considerations. There’s a particular need to account for tastes in Hong Kong, where some people dislike consuming very cold, sweet or sour drinks alongside food. For restaurants with a rotating menu, such as Cultivate, which produces its own juices, offerings have to be made fresh daily to preserve color and flavor.

At the restaurant, a magenta drink that accompanies a fig dessert—itself a play on a red velvet cake—combines cherry juice and filtered beetroot with a distillation from fig leaves. The latter rounds off the tartness of this slightly viscous, velvet-smooth beverage with an unexpected earthy, herbaceous hit. Cultivate’s five-glass elixir pairing costs HK$488.

At British chef Simon Rogan’s Hong Kong restaurant, Roganic, the soft pairings highlight sustainability. The Michelin-starred restaurant, which also holds an eco-minded Green star, makes creative use of surplus and unused kitchen ingredients, such as a tomato kombucha that sits brewing behind the bar alongside liquor bottles and is fed with leftover skins and over- or underripe tomatoes.

The kombucha’s green tea base provides floral accents and enough acidity to cut through the creamy oyster emulsion in the dish it’s served with, according to Antonio Mereu, Roganic’s restaurant manager. He began to look at upgrading the pairings soon after arriving in 2021, when he noted that the restaurant wasn’t bringing in the expected income, even though it was always full.

Mereu soon realized that was because people didn’t drink as much as they did in Europe, especially at lunch. Roganic has since seen expanded demand for its soft pairings—six glasses go for HK$380.

Rebecca Choong Wilkins/Bloomberg

TheWorld

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Sunday, November 12, 2023

A5

The Great Grift: Covid-19 fraudster used stolen relief aid to purchase a private island in Florida

By Richard Lardner

Y

The Associated Press

Elon Musk’s X worth less than half of price he paid for Twitter

ANKEETOWN, Fla.—A freshwater spring bubbles amid the mangroves, cabbage palms and red cedars on Sweetheart Island, a two-acre uninhabited patch of paradise about a mile off the coast of this little Gulf Coast town.

Pelicans divebomb nearby into the cool waters of Florida’s Withlacoochee Bay and the open view westward holds the promise of dazzling sunsets.

It may have seemed like an ideal getaway for Florida businessman Patrick Parker Walsh. Instead, he’s serving five and half years in federal prison for stealing nearly $8 million in federal Covid-19 relief funds that he used, in part, to buy Sweetheart Island.

W hile Walsh ’s pr ivate island ranks among the more unusual purchases by pandemic fraudsters, his crime was not unique. He is one of thousands of thieves who perpetrated the greatest grift in US history.

They potentially plundered more than $280 billion in federal Covid-19 aid; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent.

The loss represents close to 10% of the $4.3 trillion the US government has disbursed to mitigate the economic devastation wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

An AP review of hundreds of pandemic fraud cases presents a picture of thieves and scam artists who spent lavishly on houses, luxury watches and diamond jewelry, Lamborghinis and other expensive cars. The stolen aid also paid for long nights at strip clubs, gambling sprees in Las Vegas and bucket-list vacations.

Their crimes were relatively simple: The government’s goal was to get cash into the hands of struggling people and businesses with minimal hassle, particularly during the early stages of the Covid-19 crisis. Safeguards to weed out the swindlers were dropped. As Walsh’s case and thousands of others have shown, stealing the money was as easy as lying on an application.

The thieves came from all walks of life and all corners of the globe.

There was a Tennessee rapper who bragged about the ease of stealing more than $700,000 in pandemic unemployment insurance on YouTube. A former pizzeria owner and host of a cryptocurrency-themed radio show bought an alpaca farm in Vermont with pilfered aid. And an ex-Nigerian government official who grabbed about half a million dollars in Covid-19 relief benefits was wearing a $10,000 watch and $35,000 gold chain when he was arrested.

Nearly 3,200 defendants have been charged with Covid-19 relief fraud, according to the US Justice Department. About $1.4 billion in stolen pandemic aid has been seized.

Investigators won’t catch every crook. The scale and scope of the fraud are too large. Pandemic cases often depend on digital evidence, which is perishable, and the financial trail can go cold over time, said Bob Westbrooks, former executive director of the federal Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.

“The uncomfortable truth is the federal criminal justice system is simply not equipped to fully address the unprecedented volume of pandemic relief fraud cases, large and

small, and involving thousands upon thousands of domestic and foreign actors,” Westbrooks said.

Top Justice Department officials are undeterred by the enormity of the task. They’ve created special “ strike forces “ to hunt down Covid-19 aid thieves and vowed not to give up the chase.

“We’ll stay at it for as long as it takes,” US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in August.

Konstantinos Zarkadas, a New York doctor deeply in debt, joined the rogues’ gallery of Covid-19 fraudsters by falsifying at least 11 separate applications for pandemic aid that netted him almost $3.8 million, according to prosecutors. He bought Rolex and Cartier wristwatches valued at $140,000 for himself and family members and made a hefty down payment on a yacht, according to court records.

Zarkadas used about $3 million to pay off part of an earlier civil judgment against him for breaching a real estate lease. His most brazen move was to send $80,000 of the looted cash back to the government to settle a federal lawsuit alleging he violated the Controlled Substances Act by dispensing more than 20,000 doses of a weight-loss drug without keeping accurate records, prosecutors said.

The state of New York revoked Zarkadas’ medical license shortly after he was sentenced to more than four years in prison for swiping the pandemic aid.

The stolen funds financed the high-rolling lifestyle of Lee E. Price III, a Houston resident with prior felony convictions for forgery and robbery. He swindled nearly $1.7 million by submitting bogus aid applications on behalf of businesses that existed only on paper, according to court records.

Price wasted little time blowing $14,000 on a Rolex and more than $233,000 for a flashy white Lamborghini Urus, a luxury SUV that can go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds.

He also spent thousands of dollars at the Casanova, a Houston stripclub.

Price was sentenced to more than nine years in prison.

Vinath Oudomsine of Georgia also created a fake company that he claimed made $235,000 a year and had 10 employees. A few weeks after Oudomsine applied for the pandemic aid, the government rushed him $85,000 to keep his non-existent business afloat.

Oudomsine spent nearly $58,000 on a 1999 Charizard Pokémon card, which depicts a gold dragon-like creature, jaws wide open, poised to attack.

While not as valuable as rare baseball cards—a mint condition Mickey Mantle card sold for $12.6 million last year—Pokémon merchandise can command big money as collectors have driven up prices for collectibles issued by the popular franchise.

At Oudomsine’s sentencing last year, US District Judge Dudley H. Bowen called Oudomsine’s theft “an $85,000 insult” to a country reeling from the pandemic.

By Ed Ludlow & Aisha Counts

X ASSOCIATED Press reporter Richard Lardner kayaks to Sweetheart Island, off the coast of Yankeetown, Fla., on August 5, 2023. Patrick Parker Walsh is serving five and half years in federal prison for stealing nearly $8 million in federal Covid-19 relief funds that he used, in part, to buy the island. AP/JULIO AGUILAR

“I feel foolish every time I say it: Pokémon card,” Bowen said before sending Oudomsine to prison for three years.

Patrick Walsh’s bid to save his aerial advertising businesses started out legitimately but quickly escalated into sizeable fraud.

Walsh operated a small f leet of cigar-shaped blimps that f lew corporate logos over crowded venues.

In June 2017, one of his blimps crashed and burned on live television at the men’s US Open golf tournament, one of the world ’s premier sporting events.

“I was teeing off and I looked up and saw it on fire, and I felt sick to my stomach,” said professional golfer Jamie Lovemark, according to an Associated Press report. The pilot—the sole passenger—was badly injured but survived, according to a National Transportation Safety Board investigation.

In the wake of the crash, Walsh’s clients began to bail, his attorneys wrote in court filings. To stay afloat, he obtained high-interest loans that also allowed him to expand his businesses. By 2019, his companies had sales of $16 million and had expanded into Latin America and Asian markets.

Then the pandemic hit. “Covid-19 did not slow down business, it killed it,” Walsh’s attorneys wrote.

He panicked.

Between March 2020 and January 2021 Walsh submitted more than 30 fraudulent applications for emergency pandemic aid and received $7.8 million, according to the Justice Department. Even if Walsh had followed the rules, his companies would have only qualified for a “small subset” of those loans, federal prosecutors alleged.

“His crimes are egregious and the product of greed,” prosecutors wrote in court papers. They cited the purchase of Sweetheart Island, undisclosed “luxury goods,” oil fields in Texas and a down payment on a home in tony Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Walsh’s attorneys said in a court filing that he wasn’t motivated by avarice, but desperation. Walsh was under enormous pressure to rescue his businesses and to support his large family, they wrote. He has 11 children.

US District Judge Allen C. Winsor didn’t buy the argument.

This was not “a single moment of weakness,” Winsor said in sentencing Walsh in January to more than five years behind bars.

As part of his plea deal, Walsh agreed to return the $7.8 million he stole and to sell Sweetheart Island, which was among his first purchases with the stolen federal money, according to the court records.

Prosecutors said Wa lsh used $90,000 of those funds to help finance the $116,000 island purchase.

Florida property records show that the island was sold for $200,000 at

the end of June.

Walsh’s attorneys said he didn’t buy the island as a “tropical paradise for entertainment” but as a real estate opportunity. They did not explain how the businessman would have transformed the isolated isle into a profit center.

Withlacoochee Bay is scattered with similar small, uninhabited islands. The only hint that anyone had ever tried to develop Sweetheart Island were a few low, timeworn cinder block walls that extend into the water. There was still a “For Sale” sign posted on a weather-beaten and leafless tree that resembled a scarecrow warning people to stay away.

, t he pl at for m for merly known as Twitter, is worth less than half of what Elon Musk paid for it a year ago.

Restricted stock units awarded to employees value the company at $19 billion, or $45 a share, according to a person familiar with the matter. A year ago, Musk bought Twitter Inc. for $44 billion.

Since the takeover, most of Twitter’s staff was laid off or resigned.

Musk renamed the company X , changed some of its content rules and lost more than half of its advertising revenue.

Fortune earlier reported on the valuation, citing an internal memo.

The company has struggled financially under Musk’s ownership. At the time of the takeover, Twitter was valued at $44 billion, based on a mix of debt and equity. Musk’s purchase saddled the company with $13 billion in debt and over time his erratic decision-making and looser content-safety rules have driven away advertisers, contributing to a 60 percent drop in sales. X also owes about $1.2 billion in

interest payments per year on its debt, Bloomberg earlier estimated.

Musk’s plan for X is to shift away from advertising toward paid subscriptions. But so far the company has persuaded less than 1 percent of users to sign up for its monthly premium service, translating to less than $120 million annually, Bloomberg has estimated.

Musk has also been vocal about turning X into an “everything app” that could generate revenue from features like shopping and payments.

The company rolled out audio and video calling earlier this month, has a beta version of a hiring service and announced plans to launch a news wire. Musk told employees that X plans to compete with Google’s YouTube, Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn and Cision’s PR Newswire.

When Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino met with bankers this month to lay out the company’s financial plan, she shared ideas for X’s new products and services, including the launch of advertising tiers.

In the past, Musk has hinted that he’d like to take X public, but the company’s steep drop in value could make that difficult. Bloomberg News

A6

Sunday, November 12, 2023

World Features BusinessMirror

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

New technology could capture carbon and water out of thin air A

By Michelle Ma

LIGHTLY trafficked stretch of road near Bakersfield, California may seem an odd place to try to solve two environmental crises at once. But there, sandwiched between a decommissioned solar thermal project and an almond farm, a company is testing a machine that can suck carbon dioxide and water out of the air.

That machine is the first attempt by Avnos, a Los Angelesbased startup, to prove it can do what it calls hybrid direct air capture (DAC). Its technique would clean the air of CO2 and capture water that can be used in an era of worsening drought. It’s a moonshot bet on an already moonshot technology.

The Department of Energy recently announced it’s investing more than $1 billion into several projects aimed at capturing CO2 from the ambient air. Avnos is part of a research group that received $12 million of those funds. (The company also raised $80 million in its latest funding round.) A number of startups working on the problem use machines that pull air in using large fans that then pass it over or through a chemical solvent that separates the CO2 from the air. That CO2 is then sequestered underground, where it theoretically will stay for centuries or longer, rather than warming the planet in the atmosphere.

Avnos is attempting to do the same thing, but its technology also produces a valuable byproduct in the process: water. The firm’s machines pass ambient air through a desiccant that draws water out.

Then, that dehumidified air passes through a patented adsorbent material, which catches the CO2.

For every ton of CO2 captured, Avnos is able to produce about 5 to 10 tons of water, according to chief executive officer and founder Will Kain. Doing so turns the DAC equation on its head: The average DAC system consumes 5 to 10 tons of water for every ton of CO2 captured, according to Pete McGrail, a laboratory fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and advisor to Avnos.

“There’s actually a dirty little secret in that they [DAC systems] consume energy, of course,” said McGrail. “But those technologies also consume a lot of water as part of the process.”

DAC is energy intensive, which is one of the reasons for high costs.

Scientists estimate that using DAC to remove billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere annually—a scale science shows will be needed by midcentury to limit global warming to 1.5C—would require more energy than is currently available. Part of the reason DAC requires so much energy is because many of the chemical solvents used require high heat to separate the CO2 from the air.

Avnos’ system, first developed

by McGrail and other researchers at PNNL more than four years ago, drastically lowers the amount of energy required to capture carbon

from the air, he said. It does so by not relying on chemical solvents that must be heated up, instead using moisture-responsive physical solvents, which don’t have the same heat requirements to capture and release CO2. And what heat is required to drive the process is gathered from one side of the machine, which generates that heat, creating a unique “moistureswing” process.

Other researchers are also evaluating the merits of a lowenergy, moisture-swing approach to mitigate DAC’s high-energy use.

In an October study, a group from Northwestern University found that the technique can be an energy-efficient and cost-effective approach to carbon capture under the right conditions.

Although the approach tested in the study was different than Avnos’s technology, a moisture swing-based DAC system could be “an important component of the portfolio” when it comes to carbon dioxide removal, said Vinayak Dravid, a professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and a senior author on the study.

Producing water is central to Avnos’s value proposition. The startup’s system still requires some energy as well as investments to build the machines in the first place. Selling the water it produces to local municipalities or to companies that can use it to make sustainable aviation fuel will help offset those costs. Though DAC is in its very early stages, it’s already being met with local community opposition. Creating water as a co-product of carbon removal could give Avnos social license to operate, Kain said, particularly in places like California where water scarcity is a major issue.

Avnos’s process could produce water in communities that need water, Kain said, adding that getting industrial processes that consume copious amounts of water, like other DAC techniques, permitted in California is difficult.

McGrail said he conceived of a water-producing DAC system after learning about how much water traditional systems could use if deployed at scale.

Now that its pilot unit is set up, the challenge for Avnos is integrating the two subsystems within the machine as part of a delicate dance. The water capture subsystem and the CO2 subsystem each have been known to work on their own, Kain said, but haven’t operated as a unified system in the field until the startup fired up its machine at the Bakersfield

AVNOS founder and CEO Will KAINALISHA JUCEVIC/BLOOMBERG

site this summer.

On a hot day in August, the startup’s senior process engineer Atefeh Alijah approached the machine, which is about the size of a large truck. She flicked a few switches, tapped a few buttons on a digital screen and turned on the machine.

Immediately, it rumbled to life, sounding like a giant window air conditioning unit. Fans pulled air through the rust-colored filter on one side before passing through a second layer of filters. After running for a few minutes, Alijah shut the system off and reprogrammed it to run through the other side. A metal panel moved from one side to the other, revealing an identical system on the other side. The process began again.

After a few minutes, air emerges from the other side, and the precious CO2 and water are pumped through pipes to their final destination. At the demonstration site in Bakersfield, that’s a plastic barrel for the water, with enough

water inside for a few small sips.

The water that emerges from the machine is theoretically distilled, though it looks less than appealing inside an industrial barrel.

(Kain joked he would still be willing to drink it.) The test site is designed to grab 30 tons of CO2 from the air and produce up to 300 tons of water annually.

Avnos releases the CO2 back into the ambient air since there’s no built-in storage on site. But at commercial scale, that CO2 will be stored in tanks and shipped to customers to sequester underground or turn into sustainable aviation fuel. Avnos wants to co-locate its units with utilization or sequestration partners, to avoid the cost of building transportation infrastructure, Kain said.

The eventual fate of the captured CO2—who gets to buy it and what they do with it—is a major point of contention in the carbon capture community. Environmentalists argue that allowing fossil fuel companies to invest in carbon

capture and buy removal credits would simply give them license to continue polluting.

But the industry could have a role to play: Kain has raised money from ConocoPhillips and the venture arm of Shell, and, in his view, the DAC industry is in its infant stage and should accept help from all quarters. He has no qualms about selling Avnos’s services to these same companies, as long as the CO2 isn’t used to dredge up more fossil fuels, a process known in the industry as enhanced oil recovery. Oil and gas companies also have the most experience with large-scale geologic sequestration, he pointed out, which could aid in the quest to store CO2.

The greenhouse gas could prove useful for other purposes. Kain is open to courting buyers in the aviation industry, providing captured CO2 to them as a feedstock to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and other processes. One way to do this is to combine hydrogen, made via splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen, with CO2, turning the combined product into fuel.

A nd pote nt i a l buyers a re emerging. JetBlue Ventures invested in Avnos because it sees captured carbon as an important feedstock for SAF, like the kind that fel low JetBlue Ventures portfolio company Air Company is developing.

“Air to fuel is one of the [SAF] pathways that we’re really excited about, and the feedstock for air to fuel is the captured carbon, and so we like this part of that chain,” said Amy Burr, president of JetBlue Ventures.

That use case, however, would be carbon neutral rather than negative. While having carbon neutral fuel for hard-to-decarbonize industries like aviation

could be helpful in the fight to get to net zero emissions, SAF is also still very much in its infancy and dealing with its own growing pains.

When it comes to sequestration, Avnos will need to rely on a variety of partners. One of those potential partners is Southern California Gas Company, another early investor. Avnos and the utility alongside other partners received nearly $12 million from the US Department of Energy to design a hub to capture carbon and transport it in Kern County, California.

SoCalGas manages 100,000 miles (161,000 kilometers) of underground pipelines, transporting natural gas to businesses and homes around Central and Southern California. That may not always be the case, as the state transitions away from natural gas and towards more renewables, according to Yuri Freedman, a senior director of business development.

“In a carbon-free future, we’ll be transporting different molecules,” which include CO2, he said.

Freedman oversees the company’s low-carbon infrastructure projects and views the investment in Avnos as an investment in the future of SoCalGas’s business. The company wants to take advantage of its existing rights of way to build new pipelines to transport CO2.

“We’re looking to use molecules in ways that we haven’t used them before,” he said. Many open questions remain when it comes to transforming carbon into a commodity, including how CO 2 will be sold and moved in large volumes and over vast distances.

In the meantime, Avnos is working on constructing its next, larger operating site, capable of capturing 300 tons of CO2 and as much as 3,000 tons of water annually, which it expects to be up and running over within the next year. That project is sponsored by the US Department of Defense, which Kain said is interested in applying the technology towards developing SAF. The startup projects that it will cost $500 to remove a ton of CO2 when its 300-ton plant comes online. But Kain expects the company to be able to grow to capture 500,000 tons of CO2 annually by 2028, with costs falling to $240 per ton before eventually reaching $100 per ton by the early 2030s, a very ambitious target for the timeframe. That cost is viewed by many in the DAC industry as a far-off holy grail at which point it would be economically viable to capture the billions of tons of carbon needed to keep the planet cool annually.

Getting to those economies of scale, however, is no guarantee.

But Kain thinks it’s doable with a little help.

“Our best opportunity to deploy the technology, we think, is to build partnerships,” Kain said. “Developing those types of partnerships and having the opportunity to deploy our technology across multiple projects and across multiple partners at any given time, I think that that is critical in deploying at the speed at which we want to deploy and to come up the maturity curve.”

Bloomberg News

Science Sunday BusinessMirror

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

Sunday, November 12, 2023

A7

October destroyed temp records, making 2023 hottest on record T

HIS October was the hottest on record globally, 1.7 degrees Celsius (°C) or 3.1 degrees Fahrenheit (°F) warmer than the preindustrial average for the month—and the fifth straight month with such a mark in what will now almost certainly be the warmest year ever recorded.

October was a whopping 0.4°C (0.7°F) warmer than the previous record for the month in 2019, surprising even Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the European climate agency that routinely publishes monthly bulletins observing global surface air and sea temperatures, among other data.

“ T h e a m o u n t t h a t w e ’r e smashing records by is shocking,” Burgess said.

After the cumulative warming of these past several months, it’s virtually guaranteed that 2023 will be the hottest year on record, according to Copernicus.

Scientists monitor climate variables to gain an understanding

PCHRD bags gold award for its mental health R&D; recognizes research on spirituality, mental health

I

N recognition of the initiatives that shed light on the interplay between mental health, research and spirituality, the Healthy Pilipinas Awards for Partners 2023 conferred the Gold Award to the Mental Health R&D Program of the R&D Management Division of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City on October 27.

The program earned the Gold Award for its initiatives and activity titled, “Spirituality in Philippine Mental Health Research and Practice, ” a product of multiple round table discussions (RTDs) conducted with different faith-based organizations, mental healthcare providers, and researchers. It identified the role, application and effect of spirituality and religiosity in mental health and to generate research topics for the next mental health research agenda, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)-PCHRD said.

In a bid to uncover specific aspects of spirituality and mental health, the Mental Health R&D Program, in collaboration with its Mental Health Research Advisory Group (MH-RAG), organized a series of virtual RTDs on religion, spirituality, and health,in January and March 2022 with various faithbased organizations, mental healthcare providers and researchers.

The discussions during these RTDs aimed to integrate spirituality and mental health into the National Mental Health Research Agenda, following the Biopsychosocialspiritual Framework.

This comprehensive approach effectively addressed the three core elements of strategic health promotion implementation: healthy governance, healthy settings, and health literacy.

As a result, it merited the 2023 Healthy Pilipinas Awards for Partners from both the Department of Health and the Galing Pook Foundation, as a remarkable effort toward a healthier Philippines, the DOST-PCHRD said.

L a u n c h e d i n 2 0 2 2 , t h e He a l t hy Pilipinas Awards is a three-year sequence recognizing achievements in the areas of Healthy Communities (Local Government Units), Healthy Champions (Par tner Organizations), and Healthy Schools (Educational Institutions).

This year, the awards honored the remarkable contributions made by Healthy Champions or par tner organizations that played a pivotal role in advancing community health, in line with the DOH Health Promotion Framework Strategy for 2021-2030.

While the RTDs were closed sessions, their findings were presented in a public forum held on December 14, 2022, at the PICC. The forum, titled “Spirituality in Philippine Mental Health Research and Practice,” aimed to inform various stakeholders about the results of the RTDs

and encourage discussions about innovative approaches to incorporate spirituality into therapy and recovery for individuals with mental health conditions.

Additionally, the forum sought to highlight the research topics on spirituality that would be included in the National Mental Health Research Agenda, with the hope of enhancing policies and mental health services at both the national and global levels.

“The forum and activities on spirituality form part of the Mental Health R&D Program’s broader initiatives to advance the knowledge and application of mental health in the country,” the project team said.

“By establishing national research priorities, disseminating knowledge to the public, and supporting research that enhances the accessibility of mental health information and services tailored to the people’s needs, our program remains steadfast in its dedication to promoting public health and fostering a healthier Philippines,” the team added.

Mental health practitioners expressed that the event broadened their perspective on integrating spirituality into their practice, while researchers found valuable insights for their future research projects.

At the same time, individuals who do not adhere to a particular religious belief system found the event beneficial in understanding how personal beliefs could support mental health.

The insights garnered from the spiritualit y-focused discussions are anticipated to influence the development of the National Mental Health Research Agenda 2023-2028, which aims to integrate spirituality as the fourth dimension into the biopsychosocial-spiritual framework of health.

The public forum featured esteemed speakers, including Dr. Michael Tan, Sister Mary John Mananzan, Dr. Ma. Lourdes “Honey” Carandang, and Dr. Allan Bernardo, among others.

The experts, along with the members of the PCHRD MH-RAG, engaged in discussions that promised to shape the future of mental health research and practice in the Philippines.

“This recognition underscores the importance of comprehensive research and the inclusion of spirituality in the mental health discourse, reaffirming the commitment of the DOST-PCHRD to create a healthier and more compassionate Philippines,” Dr. Jaime C. Montoya, DOSTPCHRD Executive Director said.

Since its inception, the program has actively supported and managed over P325 million for mental health research and related activities across the country, focusing on areas such as capacity building, mental health literacy, and mental health fora, the DOST-PCHRD said.

A WOMAN is helped across a highway blocked by a landslide triggered by Hurricane Otis, near Acapulco, Mexico, on October 25. October was the fifth straight month that Earth set a record for the hottest month in recorded history. AP/MARCO UGARTE

of how our planet is evolving as a result of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions.

A warmer planet means more e x t reme a nd i ntense weat her events like severe drought

or hurricanes that hold more water, said Peter Schlosser, vice president and vice provost of the Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University. He is not involved with Copernicus.

“This is a clear sign that we are going into a climate regime that will have more impact on more people,” Schlosser said. “We better take this warning that we actually should have taken 50 years ago or more and draw the right conclusions.”

T his year has been so exceptionally hot in part because oceans have been warming, which means they are doing less to counteract global warming than in the past.

Historically, the ocean has absorbed as much as 90 percent of the excess heat from climate change, Burgess said. And in the midst of an El Niño, a natural climate cycle that temporarily warms parts of the ocean and drives weather changes around the world, more warming can be expected in the coming months, she added.

Schlosser said that means the world should expect more records to be broken as a result of

that warming, but the question is whether they will come in smaller steps going forward.

He added that the planet is already exceeding the 1.5°C (2.7°F) of warming since pre-industrial times that the Paris agreement was aimed at capping, and that the planet hasn’t yet seen the full impact of that warming.

Now, he, Burgess and other scientists say, the need for action—to stop planet-warming emissions— is urgent.

“It’s so much more expensive to keep burning these fossil fuels than it would be to stop doing it.

That’s basically what it shows,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London.

“And of course, you don’t see that when you just look at the records being broken and not at the people and systems that are suffering, but that—that is what matters.” Melina Walling/Associated Press

Young innovators get funding support from DOST-PCIEERD

By Reine Juvierre S. Alberto

A

S a springboard to cultivate the ideas of young minds and to turn them into reality, the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) fosters a culture of science, technology and innovation through the Young Innovators Program (YIP).

DOST-PCIEERD Executive Director Dr. Enrico Paringit said this at the Young Innovators Forum at the recent National Youth Science, Technology and Innovation Festival.

The YIP is open to Filipino high-school students who wish to gain research experience focused on science and technology (S&T) interventions for resilient and sustainable communities, industr y produc tivit y and competitiveness, and enabling and development of core technologies.

Students under the program will undertake a research activity, leading to a quality research paper, publication, or product/invention under a mentor for a duration of one year. DOST-PCIEERD will provide funding for innovative research projects which amounts to P3.9 million this year.

For the seventh batch of the YIP grantees, nine teams will have a “challenging yet fulfilling year of innovations and creativity to contribute to the science, technology, and innovation landscape in the country,” Paringit announced.

The 2023 YIP grantees, their mentors, and officials of the DOST-PCIEERD sealed the deal by signing a memorandum of agreement. The following are the teams and their projects: Team Mineral Marvels of the University

YOUNG Innovators Program 2023 grantees pose for a photo after the signing of the MOA with DOST-PCIEERD. DOST-PCIEERD

of the Cordilleras with the projec t, “Decontaminator and Acid Neutralizer Utilized Mesh.” It aims to create a sustainable prototype for neutralizing the acidic mine drainage in Itogon, Benguet, by using calcite and limestone for filtration of acid mine drainage.

Team LigniFloc of the Philippine Science High School-Central Luzon’s (PSHS-CL) project “Amphoteric Lignin-Based Flocculant for Wastewater Treatment” aims to develop an amphoteric lignin-based flocculant through grafting ethyl ammonium fluoric and sulfonic acid to lignan that can be used for wastewater treatment.

Team ChitoPacks from PSHS-CL’s “ChitoPacks: Poly(vinyl) Alcohol-Chitosan and Poly(butylene adipate co-terephthalate)Chitosan Biocomposites as Potential Food Packaging Material” aims to synthesize chitosan biocomposite films as a potential for environmentally friendly alternatives through traditional synthetic plastics for potential food packaging material.

Team Crunchlets of the Quezon City Science High School and their project

“Irradiation of Filter Media for Wastewater Treatment in MBBR Systems” aims to assess and test varying ionizing radiation doses absorbed by the filter media and their performance for wastewater treatment.

Team SalMarlex of the PSHS-Main Campus with the project “Development of an H-Darrieus vertical axis wind turbine with sailfish-inspired blades” aims to provide electricity to areas in the Philippines that lack access to it through an improved H-Darrieus vertical axis wind turbine.

Team Pacman from Vinzons Pilot High School aims to harness pomelo waste for the production of cellulose nanofibers using steam explosion and comprehensively evaluate their physicochemical properties through their project “Pacman: Physicochemical Characterization of Cellulose Nanofibers from pomelo albedo (citrus grandis).”

Team Fifth of Ace from the University of the Philippines High Schoo-Iloilo aims to formulate the calabash (crescentia cujete), which is a fruit that has methanolic extract as a sunscreen cream through their project “Cresunscreen: Formulation of the Calabash

(crescentia cujete) Methanolic Extract As a Sunscreen Cream.”

Team Aerogel of Jacinto P. Elpa National High School with their project “Synthesis and Characterization of Lignocellulosic Bio-Based Aerogel Derived from Cardaba banana” aims to isolate biopolymers present in banana leaves and use them as a precursor in the synthesis of biomass-based aerogel and present its microstructural images, absorption capacity and porosity.

Team SPARK of Angeles University Foundation Integrated School aims to develop a functional educational app that aids in learning Filipino sign language by applying aspects of gamification through their project “Saling-wika: The Application of Gamification Aspects in Developing a Filipino Sign Language App.” With the goal of instilling the value and benefits of having science-based progress in the country to the youth, Paringit told reporters on the sidelines of the event that the way to start is to start them young.

“We know that science is expensive,” he admitted speaking in Filipino, given the amount of materials, fabricating, and testing. What DOST-PCIEERD intends to do is to help them go through that journey by giving them support, he added.

Paringit also pointed out that young innovators should not just stop at being selected to receive the grant and produce a product that works. They should also look out for possible ways to make their products be more accessible in the market, he said.

“These solutions that they generate actually [address] some of the most pressing problems in the society, such as pollution, agricultural productivity, and safety,” he said.

Study endorses exploring cashew potential for improved returns

‘P

HILIPPINE cashew farmers are burdened with a low return on capital for their work. The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture [Searca] and the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Agricultural Research [DA-BAR] partly attribute this to the underutilization of the components of the cashew fruit,” said Science Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. in his message at the conference themed “Advancing Cashew Industry through Green Technology” held last November 3 at a hotel in Makati.

Convened by the Department of Science and Technology-Industrial Technology Development Institute, the conference is a culminating activity of the DOST and the Ministry of Science and Technology China project titled “Green Oil and Phytochemicals from Cashew,” Searca said.

The project uses green technologies to extract oil from cashews and apply it to various food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic products.

The DA-BAR-funded Searca research

showed that cashew farming in the Philippines has traditionally focused on the nuts, particularly in Palawan, the leading cashewproducing province, where cashew is the “One Town, One Product.”

Through its Emerging for Innovation for Growth Department, Searca is proactively fostering the development of technologybased innovations among local enterprises in the Philippines. This initiative aligns with Searca’s 11th Five-Year Plan, which is focused on accelerating transformation through agricultural innovation (Attain).

Titled “Technology and Investment Profile of Cashew Products,” the Searca study highlighted cashew products, such as wine, prunes, jelly, jam and salted nuts, which offer different ways to maximize the utility of the cashew fruit using various technologies.

However, the study found that Palawan’s cashew farmers have struggled with low returns on their investments. This issue is partially linked to the underutilization of the cashew apple’s flesh, which constitutes a

substantial 90 percent of the fruit, Searca said.

The primary reason for this underutilization is a lack of awareness about the cashew fruit’s processing potential.

“The study further suggests that this may be addressed by exploration of the fruit’s potential in processing or manufacturing,” Solidum said during the International Conference on Green Oil. “To address this challenge and boost cashew farmers’income, the Western Philippines University initiated product development for cashew apples,” said Searca Director Dr. Glenn Gregorio.

The DA-BAR and the Department of Agriculture-Palawan Research and Experiment Station (DA-PRES) supported further improvements in cashew nut and apple products.

DA-PRES’s research project titled “Cashew Products Processing, Packaging, and Labeling” focused on processing cashew apples and introduced modern packaging materials. Various products from cashew apples,

including those featured in the study, have been developed by DA-PRES. “Cashew apple, once undervalued, has gained economic value surpassing four times that of cashew nuts,” Gregorio noted.

He said the study also outlined strategies to enhance the marketability and commercialization of these products.

DA-PRES has contributed by organizing promotional campaigns and farmer training sessions, stimulating interest in valueadding activities.

The study used financial evaluation tools, including net present value, benefit-cost ratio, and financial internal rate of return, to conduct a thorough assessment of the financial viability of each product.

The results of this analysis indicated that all cashew products exceeded the predefined criteria for financial viability. These findings strongly suggest that cashew wine, prunes, jelly, jam and salted nuts all exhibit considerable promise as lucrative investment opportunities, Searca said.

Faith

Sunday

A8 Sunday, November 12, 2023

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

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF CARMELITE PRESENCE IN THE PHILIPPINES

The seed of a monastery in Jaro has grown

APOSTOLIC Nuncio Charles Brown, DD, delivers his homily at the Eucharistic celebration at Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Metropolitan Cathedral on November 9. ARCHDIOCESE OF JARO PHOTO

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OCD Superior General Fr. Miguel Marquez Calle delivers his homily at the Jaro Carmel Monastery Chapel on November 9. LYN RESURRECCION

THE Jaro Carmel nuns pose with Apostolic Nuncio Charles Brown, DD, and the clergy. ARCHBISHOP OF JARO PHOTO

THE framed text of the blessing of Pope Francis to the Jaro Carmelite Monastery nuns is handed by Apostolic Nuncio Charles Brown, DD, to Prioress Mother Teresa Josephine of Jesus and Mary, OCD. ARCHDIOCESE OF JARO PHOTO

The Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Metropolitan Cathedral (in photo) like the Jaro Carmel Chapel are full of Carmelite friers, nuns and secular members and devotees on November 9. ARCHDIOCESE OF JARO PHOTO

By Lyn Resurreccion

ARO, Iloilo—The Carmelite communities all over the Philippines celebrated the centennial of the first Carmelite presence in the country on November 9, when in 1923 four French Carmelite nuns arrived and founded the religious order’s first monastery.

In Jaro, where the seed of the Carmelites in the Philippines was planted, the celebration was highlighted by two Masses, where the churches became like a sea of Carmelite friars, nuns, Secular Discalced Carmelite members— all in brown—and by devotees.

One Mass was presided by the Apostolic Nuncio Fr. Charles Brown at the Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Metropolitan Cathedral in the morning. Another Mass was led by the Rome-based Order of Discalced Carmelite (OCD) Superior General Fr. Miguel Marquez Calle at the Jaro Carmelite Monastery Chapel in the afternoon.

Founding nuns

IN his homily, Brown said: “The beaut i f u l C at hol ic it y of t he Church, which is communion in mission, is shown in prayer and contemplation which Carmel in the Philippines offered to the world.”

He added: “We ask the Lord to grant the heart of young women the vocation to the life of intimacy, contemplation and prayer, to be part of the Carmelite nuns who pray in the world.”

Brown traced the origins of Carmelites in Jaro to the insistence of then-Jaro Bishop James Paul McCloskey (December 9, 1870-April 10, 1945) to invite contemplative nuns to his diocese by sending letters to Carmelites

in Hue, Vietnam, “to pray for his diocese, to be a source of prayer and adoration.”

A devotee of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, “one of the first things that McCloskey did was to have Carmel nuns to come here to pray for his diocese, to be a source of prayer and adoration,” Brown noted.

The group of four “courageous, missionary contemplative” Carmelites left Hue, Vietnam, by boat and arrived in Manila on November 3, 1923. They later sailed to Iloilo on November 6, 1923.

On November 9, 1923, the foundation Mass was celebrated for the first Carmelite convent of nuns in the Philippines, he said.

The founding nuns were: Prioress Mother Theresa of Jesus (August 11, 1882-October 22, 1958); Sub-prioress Mother Mary of Christ (January 1, 1891-August 20, 1979); first cloistered nun Sr. Germaine of Christ (July 16, 1890-April 19, 1937); and Mother Mary Gabriel of the Child Jesus, then still a novice (March 12, 1899-January 10, 1988), says the Jaro Carmel website.

Taking on the day’s Gospel, where Mary and John were at the foot of Christ’s cross, Brown said it “takes us to the foot of the cross; to be part of that home of John and the home of Mary, which in

BISHOP James Paul McCloskey was instrumental in founding Jaro Carmel in 1923. ARCHDIOCESE OF ZAMBOANGA WEBSITE/WIKIPEDIA CC BY SA 4.0

THE four French nuns, who founded the Jaro Carmel on November 9, 1923. JARO CARMEL WEBSITE

the words of Jesus Christ attest: ‘Woman behold your son; son behold your mother.’”

He pointed out that the home at the foot of the cross “is the home of the Carmelite nuns, where it is a life of contemplation, a life of intimacy, a life of prayer.”

E x pl a i n i ng about C a r me l , the papal nuncio said: “ The gift of Carmel is a life of intimacy; intimacy in trust, intimacy in contemplation and intimacy in silence.”

He said there is a link between contemplation, such as in Carmel, and mission. He said this led McCloskey to think that “a fruitful mission of the Church come from great contemplation. If the Church aaims to be fruitful, she has to have a beating heart of love, contemplation and silence, which

is Carmel.”

B r o w n a d d e d t h a t S a i nt Therese—”a young girl who has left France just once in her life during a pilgrimage to Rome and spent her life in the convent of Lisieux [France]”—was declared

by Pope Pius XI the Universal Patroness of Missions.

It should be noted that Saint Therese, who wanted to save souls, had wanted to go to Vietnam to fulfil her mission, but failed to because of her illness, and later died.

New beginning

FOR Marquez, he said that the centennial celebration starts to a new beginning.

“Everyday in Carmel is a first time. Every Eucharist is a first celebration. Everyday is a victory in God’s love to overcome difficulties and darkness. Simplicity, generosity and trust, not only in victory but also in failures, and in the successes of life’s uncertainties.

We allow ourselves to be born in

every difficulty,” he pointed out.

The superior general of the Order of Discalced Carmelite said this as he noted the difficulties hurdled by the four missionary nuns, who founded Carmel in Jaro, but took it with “simplicity and generosity.”

He added that the mission of Carmel “consists of silence and gratuitous love.”

“Carmel would like to offer love without reward and even without others noticing it,” he said.

Thanking God for the gift of the foundation and centenary of Carmel in the Philippines, Marquez said: “The past, present and the future come together in every liturgy to celebrate the victory of God’s love. A yesterday of grace, today as the beginning and birth, and the future of trust in the mercy of God.

Nuns hidden life ‘exposed’

CON T EMPL AT I V E nu ns st ay within the four walls of the monastery to pray. But during the event, they mingled with their Carmelite brothers and sisters and with the public to celebrate the milestone.

To this, Jaro Carmel Mother Superior Teresa Josephine of Jesus and Mary, OCD, said: “Our hidden life is exposed today as this very rare occasion of this 100th anniversary foundation [of Carmel in Jaro]. It cannot be kept under a bushel basket but

must be set on a hill that others may see how good the Lord is.”

“Bishop McCloskey planted the seed of Carmel with great trustt in the power of prayer,” she added.

She said the valiant founding sisters from France and Vietnam, and all who dedicated their lives since the foundation have watered the seed, but it was God who made the seeds grow.

She announced that from the first Carmelite monastery in the Philippines, there are now 22 Carmel monasteries all over the country, and “even extended its branches abroad” like in Cape Town South Africa, and in Ghana, Africa.”

Some Ca r mel nuns f rom f rom Hue, V iet n a m , a nd Sa i nt Moor i n Fr a nce; K uc h i ng , M al a y s i a ; a n d C h i n a , at t e n d e d t h e c e l e b r at i o n .

The centenary’s guests also include Mother May Catherine of Christ, president of the Philippine Federation of Discalced Carmelite Nuns; OCD Definitor General Fr. Christianus Surinono; Jaro Archbishop Jose Romeo Lazo; Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma; Bishop Rolando Tria Tirona, OCD; and Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas, among others.

After the Mass at the monastery chapel, the Carmelite friars and nuns visited the tombs of nuns to be one with them on the historic day.

10 years after ‘Yolanda,’ bishop says path to full recovery still incomplete

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EN years on, a Catholic bishop said that many people are still struggling to move on from the deadly Super Typhoon Yolanda (international code Haiyan) that ripped through central Philippines.

Bishop Crispin Varquez of the Borongan diocese in Eastern Samar province said that it may have been a long way since the tragic day, “but the journey toward full recovery is not yet complete.”

“Many are sti l l str ug gling to rebuild their homes, livelihoods, and lives,” Varquez said in a statement.

The bishop called on his flock

to “redouble our efforts” to help those who are still recovering from the killer storm.

“Let us offer our time, resources and skills to help our brothers and sisters stand on their feet again,” he said.

Yolanda smashed into Eastern Visayas and nearby provinces 10 years ago, killing more than 6,000 people and leaving millions homeless.

Violent winds ravaged homes as storm surges triggered by Yolanda devastated mostly poor coastal towns and villages on November 8, 2013.

While it was a moment of “great

BISHOP Crispin Varquez of the Diocese of Borongan. PHOTO FROM THE BORONGAN CATHEDRAL

sorrow, loss, and devastation,” the bishop said that “it was also a time when our bonds of solidarity and faith were tested and strengthened.”

“We recall the countless acts of heroism and selflessness that emerged in the midst of the chaos,” Varquez said.

“We have witnessed the power of prayer and the resilience of the human spirit,” he added. “We have experienced the generosity of our brothers and sisters from around the world who reached out to us in our time of need.”

As people commemorate Yolanda’s 10th anniversary, the bishop

called on the faithful to “hold each other in prayer and support.”

“May our collective memory of super typhoon Yolanda inspire us to be agents of healing, reconciliation, and hope in our diocese and beyond,” he said.

Yolanda made its first landfall in Guiuan, a parish in the southern-most tip of the Borongan diocese, where the church was totally wrecked.

Internationally called Haiyan, the super typhoon with the highest wind speed of 315 km/h was reckoned as the most powerful tropical cyclone ever recorded.

Roy Lagarde

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, November 12, 2023 A9

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

LATEST ADDITION TO MINDANAO’S DESCRIBED WEEVILS

The Madayaw flightless weevil

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

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HE madayaw weev il of Maragusan, Davao de Oro, and Caraga, Davao Oriental, is now among the growing number of weevils in Mindanao that are now described.

The name is derived from the Mandaya Indigenous people’s word, which means good, pleasant or beautiful that aptly describes the new weevil species and the Mandaya people of Eastern Mindanao. It is dedicated to the Mandaya of Davao Oriental for having pleasantly welcomed the efforts that contribute to environmental sustainability and regeneration in Davao region.

Flightless beetle

MUCH smaller than the May beetles, the most common mango-dwelling “salagubang” that kids love to play with, this tiny beetle species—Metapocyrtus (Artapocyrtus) madayaw sp., or simply madayaw weevil—is a flightless creature, which means it survives and can thrive within a restricted range.

While they may have been in existence for the longest time in parts of Eastern Mindanao, it was only discovered recently as a new species, thanks to a group of researchers who spotted the uniqueness of these amazing wingless leaf-eating beetles.

Published in the Far Eastern Entomologist, a paper authored

by Dr. Analyn Anzano Cabras, Milton Norman Medina, Amy G. Ponce and Jhonnel P. Villegas described in full the madayaw weev il—a species not know n to science unti l t heir recent discover y.

The weevil specimens—14 females and 5 males—were collected in two separate locations, at a forest patch near a banana plantation in Maragusan and the riparian ecosystem of K apuka Falls in Barangay Laiwawan in the town of Carago, Davao Oriental via

MADAYAW flightless weevil PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANALYN CABRAS PHOTO MADAYAW flightless weevil PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANALYN CABRAS PHOTO

“opportunistic sampling.”

Declining weevil diversity

IN their paper, the authors cited the diversity of plants and animals species in the Philippines. But among the ta xa that recently gained momentum in discovering new species is the ge nu s Me t ap o c y r t u s He l le r, 1912 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Entiminae, Pachyrhynchini).

“Due to their flightless ability, this genus has a narrow and restricted biogeographic distribution,” the paper said.

According to them, known for their association with forested habitats, the denudation and fragmentation of Philippine forests may have inadvertently led to the increasing decline of weevil diversity, especially endemic ones.

They said only around 25 percent of the country’s forest cover remains, which may have caused many species to be lost to science even before taxonomists could describe them.

Moreover, they said that weevil research in the country is still in the taxonomic stage, with many species remaining undescribed and there’s very scarce information about their ecology and con-

A WILSON’S warbler bird in Alaska. Birds that will be renamed include those currently called Wilson’s warbler and Wilson’s snipe, both named after the 19th century naturalist Alexander Wilson. USFWS VIA AP

Ornithologists to rename birds– and stop naming after people

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IRDS in North America will no longer be named after people, the American Ornithological Society announced Wednesday.

Next year, the organization will begin to rename around 80 species found in the US and Canada.

“There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today,” the organization’s president, Colleen Handel, said in a statement.

“Everyone who loves and cares about birds should be able to enjoy and study them freely,” Handel added.

Rather than review each bird named after a person individually, all such birds will

be renamed, the organization announced.

Birds that will be renamed include those currently called Wilson’s warbler and Wilson’s snipe, both named after the 19th century naturalist Alexander Wilson.

Audubon’s shearwater, a seabird named for John James Audubon, also will get a new name.

In 2020, the organization renamed a bird once referring to a Confederate Army general, John P. McCown, as the thick-billed longspur.

“I’m really happy and excited about the announcement,” said Emily Williams, an ornithologist at Georgetown University who was not involved in the decision.

She said heated discussions over

servation, making species management and protection difficult.

Massive land conversion

MANY forested areas in Mindanao have been converted or transformed into food-production areas, including massive plantations for agro-industrial products like rubber and cash crops, such as pineapple, palm oil and cavendish bananas.

Besides habitat loss, the use of agrochemicals to boost plant growth, increase yield and neutralize pests by operators of big plantations makes insects, bugs and beetles—particularly the flightless ones‚highly vulnerable to species extinction.

Significant discovery

INTERVIEWED by the BusinessMirror via Messenger, Villegas described the significance of the discovery of the new species: “This gives us scientific knowledge about a previously unknown species. It gives a glimpse of how biodiverse the Philippines is,” he said.

Moreover, Villegas, a Master of Science in Biology graduate from Ateneo de Davao University, said their discovery in slightly disturbed areas provides insights into biodiversity-friendly agriculture bird names have been happening within birdwatching communities for the past several years.

“Naming birds based on habitat or appearance is one of the least problematic approaches,” she said.

Earlier this year, the National Audubon Society announced that it would retain its name, even as critics and some voices within the organization have argued that it should dump the association with a man, John James Audubon, whose family owned slaves.

“The name has come to represent so much more than the work of one person,” Susan Bell, chair of the National Audubon Society’s Board of Directors, told Audubon magazine in March, adding, “We must reckon with the racist legacy of John James Audubon.”

A 2020 encounter in New York’s Central Park served as a public wake-up call about the discrimination that Black people sometimes face when trying to enjoy the outdoors.

Christian Cooper, a Black birdwatcher, was looking for birds when he asked a white woman, Amy Cooper, to follow local rules and leash her dog. Cooper called 911 and was later charged with filing a false police report, though the charges were later dropped.

Soon after, a collective of birdwatchers organized the first Black Birders Week to increase the visibility of Black nature lovers and scientists.

And a group called Bird Names for Birds sent a petition to the ornithological society urging it to “outline a plan to change harmful common names” of birds.

Christina Larson/Ap Science Writer

and tourism.

He said the discovery presents the primordial importance of underfunded insect taxonomy in the country, adding that most species become extinct even before taxonomists can describe them.

According to Villegas, given that some of the specimens they collected survived in slightly disturbed areas near a banana plantation, studying their biology may provide valuable insights into what agricultural practices, as in the case of banana plantations, would allow them to thrive in their natural habitat.

For the specimens collected in the Kapuka Falls, which is a tourist site, the researchers said they can help devise policies to maintain biodiversity and, at the same time, promote tourism development.

Newly evolved species?

FOR her part, Cabras, an Associate Professor at Davao Oriental State University and a Research Associate at the Philippine National Museum, believes that the new species has always been in the locality.

“We found the first specimen back in 2019. And I’m sure they have been there already for a long time. But it was only described recently because studies of weevils in the country have only

A BANANA plantation near a forested area where some of the specimens were collected

intensified in the last decade,” Cabras added.

According to Cabras, the Madayaw weevil’s closest relative is Metapocyrtus (Artapocyrtus) pardalis from Butuan.

Due to geographic isolation, she believes the new population in the Davao region has evolved to become a new species, which is often the case in the Philippines when populations get isolated geographically either by mountains or waters.

Just one of many

FLIGHTLESS weevils are common in the Philippines.

“There are lots of f lightless weevils in the Philippines including the tribe Celeutherini, and many leaf litter weevils,” Cabras said, who is also the editor-inchief of the Journal of Tropical Coleopterology.

“Beetles in the world comprises 400,000 species of which 8,000 are in the Philippines. They come in various sizes ranging from the size of a palm to less than 1 mm,” she said.

Unique weevil

BUT other than being flightless, the Madayaw weevil is unique because of its natural color and design .

Prince William: Deeper global cooperation can win the fight vs illegal wildlife trafficking

S

INGAPORE—Britain’s Prince William said Monday that seven countries— Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, Britain and the United States—have committed at a wildlife summit to deepen their intelligencesharing and other cooperation to combat money laundering by international gangs engaged in the illegal wildlife trade.

Speaking at the United for Wildlife Summit in Singapore, the Prince of Wales said the wildlife population around the world has plummeted by almost 70 percent over the past 50 years.

“From here in Southeast Asia to North America, the Amazon to Africa, traffickers in more than 150 countries are developing more sophisticated networks to smuggle wildlife products across air, land and sea,” he said.

“They feed a global black market that has made flora and fauna the fourth mosttraded illegal commodity in the world, worth up to $20 billion,” he added.

Joint investigations will lead to more high-value seizures and arrests, he said. The charity hopes to include more governments in the effort.

“We know where the animals are being poached; we know the routes through which they are illegally transported; we know the financial systems that criminal networks are exploiting to finance their trade; and we know the main markets that are fueling the demand for it,” he said.

“This is a battle that can and must be won.”

He said criminal gangs that traffic rhino horn, tiger paws and pangolin scales are part of the same highly organized gangs that traffic drugs, arms and people.

Such criminal convergence has made the illegal wildlife trade a human crisis as more than 1,500 rangers, including over 600 in Asia, have died in the line of duty, he said.

United for Wildlife was created by William’s Royal Foundation charity.

William told the conference that his wife, Kate, couldn’t join him on his fourday visit as she has to help their eldest son, George, “through his first set of major exams.” The royal couple last visited Singapore in 2012.

William, 41, is in Singapore for the annual The Earthshot Prize awards ceremony, the first to be held in Asia. William and his charity launched the global competition in 2020 to promote innovative solutions and technologies to combat global warming and protect the planet.

Winners were named on November 7 in five categories: nature protection, clean air, ocean revival, waste elimination and climate change. The 15 finalists represented six continents and were selected from 1,300 nominees.

The winners, who each won €1 million ($1.2 million) to scale up their innovations, are: # Acción Andina, for a community-

“Their behavior is also unique because they fall intentionally every time there is disturbance,” she said partly in Filipino.

According to Cabras, the Madayaw weevil displays unique iridescent colors to ward off predators—its defense mechanism.

“They can also camouflage with the dead leaves and making them hard to find,” she added.

Ultimate survivors?

AS the weevil species was found thriving in patches of forest near disturbed areas—such as a banana plantation, which makes use of environmentally harmful pesticides and other chemicals, and a tourism site frequented by local and foreign tourists—it only suggests that it is a hardy species that can survive anthropogenic (environmental change caused or inf luenced by people) threats.

“This indicates that the species may be able to tolerate certain levels of anthropogenic disturbance as long as their habitat vegetation is not eliminated,” the authors observed.

Nevertheless, the authors said a proper environmental management plan must be put in place to protect and conserve the weevil species. based initiative in South American bringing tens of thousands of local and indigenous people together to restore high forests in the Andes mountain; # India’s S4S Technologies, for solarpowered dryers and processing equipment that helped millions of farmers to preserve their crops and combat food waste; # Boomitra, for removing emissions and helping boost farmer profits in Asia, South America and Africa by incentivising land restoration through a verified carboncredit marketplace; # Hong Kong company GRST, for developing a way to make batteries for electric vehicles pollute less and are easier to recycle; # Global non-profit organization WildAid Marine Program, for working with governments to bolster enforcement to deter illegal fishing and strengthen ocean conservation.

“Our winners and all our finalists remind us that, no matter where you are on our planet, the spirit of ingenuity, and the ability to inspire change, surrounds us all,” William said.

The winners were chosen by a 13-member council that includes Jordan’s Queen Rania, Chinese business magnate Jack Ma, British fashion designer Stella McCartney, broadcaster David Attenborough, World Trade Organization chief Ngozi OkonjoIweale and former NBA star Yao Ming.

Apart from the prize money, all 15 finalists will receive a year of technical support and resources to help them accelerate and expand their work.

Eileen Ng/Associated Press

Sports

Israelis forfeit match at home

BusinessMirror

A10 | S

unday, November 12, 2023 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

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YON, Switzerland—Israel’s national team in women’s soccer forfeited home-field advantage to opponents in two upcoming Nations League games as it seeks neutral venues during the war with Hamas.

UEFA said Israel’s games against Kazakhstan and Armenia intended to be home and away will now be played as double-headers in the capital cities Astana and Yerevan, respectively, between November 23 and December 2.

UEFA said a third “home” game for the Israeli women, against Estonia, will be played December 5 at the home of Hungarian club Puskás Akadémia.

That stadium is in the village of Felcsút closely tied to the country’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. It also will stage two key European Championship qualifying games next week for the Israeli men’s team.

Israel has five games to play in its Women’s Nations League third-tier group after starting in September with a 5-0 win at Estonia.

Israel will play Kazakhstan on November 23 and November 26, then Armenia on November 29 and December 2. Only the November 26 game will be played without fans, UEFA said.

The Israel-Armenia game was originally scheduled in September then postponed when the Armenian team did not travel during the country’s military conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan. AP

A PALESTINIAN child walks with a bicycle by the rubble of a building after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. AP

Palestinians care about national soccer squad M AKRAM DABOUB may be struggling to prepare his Palestinian team for the start of 2026 World Cup qualification but he takes some comfort, for now at least, that his players stuck in Gaza are safe.

The national soccer team’s head coach wanted to include Ibrahim Abuimeir, Khaled Al-Nabris, and Ahmed Al-Kayed in a training camp in Jordan ahead of World Cup qualifying games against Lebanon Thursday and Australia on November 21.

But they were unable to make it out of Gaza because of the IsraelHamas war, now in its second month.

“So far they are fine,” Daboub told The Associated Press. “Many of their relatives have died, however, as a result of the bombing.”

Two players from Gaza, Egyptbased Mohamed Saleh and Mahmoud Wadi, are expected to join the Palestinian team in Jordan.

Daboub, who is from Tunisia, acknowledged it will be difficult for players to focus on football while many have families in danger.

“With the death and destruction in Gaza, the players are in a difficult psychological state,” Daboub said.

But for Susan Shalabi, the vicepresident of the Palestine Football

Association, there’s no question that the players and the people want the games to go ahead.

“This is a people that wants to be heard and seen by the rest of the world, wants to live normally like everyone else, so people care about their national team,” Shalabi told The AP. “It represents the yearning to be recognized as a free and sovereign nation.”

The Palestine Football Association became a full member of FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, in 1998 and has had some success at the regional level.

Appearing at the World Cup in 2026 would be a dream for a team that has never come close to reaching the finals via the Asian Football Confederation’s qualifying route.

There is a little more hope this time as Asia’s automatic qualification allocation has increased from four places in 2022 to eight in 2026, when the tournament will be co-hosted by the United

States, Mexico and Canada.

The Palestinian team, which reached a highest FIFA ranking of 73 in 2018, appeared at the Asian Cup in 2015 and 2019 and has qualified for the 2023 continental tournament coming up in Qatar.

“There is no match that you can win in advance,” Daboub said. “But we have a good chance of reaching the next round of the World Cup qualifiers.”

Designated hitters haven’t always lived up to purpose after two seasons in MLB

S

COTTSDALE, Arizona—The universal designated hitter (DH) has been part of Major League Baseball (MLB) for two full seasons and, much to the chagrin of some National League (NL) traditionalists, the sport has survived and even thrived.

In a somewhat surprising development, though, many teams are struggling to get much production from that spot.

The next generation of big-bopping DHs like David Ortiz, Edgar Martinez and Frank Thomas hasn’t materialized, with just three players logging at least 110 games at designated hitter during the 2023 season. That trio includes Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani, Braves slugger Marcell Ozuna and the Nationals’ Joey Meneses.

The general consensus at this week’s general managers’ meetings in Scottsdale, Arizona, is that filling the position—and getting production from it—is harder than it looks.

The American League has had the DH since 1973, while the National League made the full-time switch in 2022. The NL also used the DH in 2020 during the Covid-19 shortened season.

“Most hitters that you encounter don’t like

to DH,” Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said. “It’s an acquired taste. Most would prefer to play a position and not just wait to hit every two or three innings. And I get why—you want to stay active, you want to move around, feel like you’re part of the game.”

Instead of having one dedicated DH for the majority of the season, most MLB teams seem content to have several, cycling players through who might need rest or are nursing an injury.

A whopping 13 of MLB’s 30 teams received production at DH that was below replacement level. The DH is unique for the widely used WAR (wins above replacement) formula because it starts with a deficit for a player providing no value in the field.

The NL champion Arizona Diamondbacks were one of the teams that struggled at DH, with a minus-1.4 WAR total, according to FanGraphs.

The spot produced just a .676 OPS during the 162-game regular season, which was well below the team’s overall mark of .730.

D-backs GM Mike Hazen agreed he’d like to see more production at DH, but said there are other ways to use the rule that WAR can’t completely quantify.

To be among the 18 teams that advances into that next stage of Asian qualifying, the Palestinians need to finish in the top two of a group containing Australia— expected to take first spot— Lebanon and Bangladesh. They’re currently ranked No. 96, eight places higher than Lebanon and 87 above Bangladesh.

Palestine had initially been drawn to host Australia to start this round of qualifying, but the game has been shifted to a neutral venue in Kuwait.

Preparations have already been interrupted as players were unable to leave to participate in a tournament in Malaysia last month. Now the team is based in Jordan to be sure of being able to travel for games.

A win against Lebanon in the United Arab Emirates next week— the game has also been moved from Beirut because of security concerns—would be a huge step toward the next stage.

“We will do our best,” Daboub said. “Football is the most popular game in the world. It brings people together. We aspire to achieve good results and qualify to show the Palestinian identity and that this is a people who deserve life and love peace.”

German soccer club Mainz,

meanwhile, terminated the contract of Dutch forward Anwar El Ghazi following his social media posts about the Israel-Hamas war.

The announcement by Mainz came two days after El Ghazi disputed the club’s version of events when it lifted an earlier suspension. German news agency dpa reported Friday that prosecutors in the city of Koblenz were also investigating.

Mainz originally suspended El Ghazi on October 17, saying he had posted and then deleted a message about the war that the club deemed “unacceptable.”

The club said his suspension was lifted and that he would receive a reprimand. Mainz said that followed talks with the management and that El Ghazi “regrets publishing the post and also was remorseful about its negative impact.” The club added that the player “also stated that he does not question Israel’s right to exist.”

However, in a further social media post on Wednesday, El Ghazi indicated that the club had issued its statement without his permission.

“I do not regret or have any remorse for my position,” the player wrote. “I do not distance myself from what I said and I stand, today and always until my last breath, for humanity and the oppressed.”

The 28-year-old El Ghazi, who previously played for PSV Eindhoven, Aston Villa and Everton, joined Mainz as a free agent in September.

He made three appearances as a substitute for the team, which is last in the German league.

In response to Mainz saying that his contract was terminated, El Ghazi posted: “The loss of my livelihood is nothing when compared to the hell being unleashed on the innocent and vulnerable in Gaza.” AP

THE Atlanta Braves’ Marcell Ozuna hits a single during the sixth inning of Game 3 of their baseball National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies last October in Philadelphia. AP

“If you’re rotating your fourth outfielder through the DH spot, or one of your primary center fielders through the DH spot to give them a day off, that’s what we’re using it for now,” Hazen said.

“We’ll probably still keep doing that because there’s value in keeping guys fresh and healthy.”

San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said he would love to have an Ortiz-type player in the DH slot, but it’s hard to find that sort of hitter. Ortiz is considered the gold standard, making the Hall of Fame in 2022 after clubbing 541 homers, including 485 as a DH. The Giants used 10 designated hitters in 2023.

“I think when you get elite, elite hitters that don’t have a home defensively, you’re willing to pay the price of not having that spot to rotate guys through,” Zaidi said. “But that’s a relatively small group of players.”

Zaidi’s point about roster construction is also important, because teams usually carry just 13 or 14 position players. That doesn’t leave much room for a player who’s not useful in the field.

“I know for us in development, no matter how good a player is offensively, you’re always going to look for a home for them defensively,” Zaidi said. “We don’t want a player anchored to that spot, certainly early in their career.”

There are a few hitters in this year’s freeagent class who could be candidates for a fulltime DH role. Rhys Hoskins has a homerhitting track record and is returning from ACL surgery. J.D. Martinez, Jorge Soler and Teoscar Hernández are other examples of power bats with middling defensive value who are looking for a home.

The Milwaukee Brewers are among the teams that could use an upgrade at DH. They were the worst team in baseball with a minus-1.6 WAR at that spot.

“I’m not sure there are a lot of David Ortizes out there,” Brewers GM Matt Arnold said. “But we’re certainly looking for the next one.” AP

Ohtani donates 60,000 gloves to elementary schools in Japan

A

NAHEIM, California—Twoway star and coveted free agent Shohei Ohtani is donating about 60,000 baseball gloves to Japanese elementary schools.

Ohtani, a free agent who has spent the past six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, announced on Instagram that he’s donating the youth gloves to schools throughout Japan.

“I’m happy to announce that I will be donating approximately 60,000 youth gloves to every elementary school in Japan,” Ohtani said.

“That comes out to around 20,000 elementary schools. I’m hoping the kids can spend their days happily with a lot of energy through baseball.”

The gloves Ohtani is donating are from New Balance, one of his corporate partners.

The 29-year-old Ohtani is coming off a season in which he batted .304 with 44 homers and also went 10-5 on the mound with a 3.14 ERA. He had Tommy John surgery in September for the second time in six years.

Ohtani is a finalist for the American League MVP award, along with teammates Corey Seager and Marcus Semien of the World Series champion Texas Rangers.

Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. headlines the remaining contenders for the National League prize, joined by Los Angeles Dodgers teammates Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.

The top three finishers in voting for each of the major individual awards presented annually by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America were announced Monday night on Major League Baseball Network. All winners will be revealed next week.

New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman and Minnesota Twins righthander Sonny Gray are finalists for the American League Cy Young Award.

In the National League, it’s Zac Gallen of the National League champion Arizona Diamondbacks, Blake Snell of the San Diego Padres and Logan Webb of the San Francisco Giants.

For AL Rookie of the Year, it’s down to Cleveland Guardians pitcher Tanner Bibee, Boston Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas and Baltimore Orioles infielder Gunnar Henderson. AP SHOHEI OHTANI: I’m hoping the kids can spend their days happily with a lot of energy through baseball. AP

BusinessMirror

November 12, 2023

Does an AI tool help boost adoptions?

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BusinessMirror NOVEMBER 12, 2023

TOGETHER WEEE CAN!

YOUR MUSI

Advocacy concert underscores importance of e-waste management

KEAN CIPRIANO

Publisher Editor-In-Chief Concept Y2Z Editor SoundStrip Editor Group Creative Director Graphic Designers

: T. Anthony C. Cabangon : Lourdes M. Fernandez : Aldwin M. Tolosa : Jt Nisay : Edwin P. Sallan : Eduardo A. Davad : Niggel Figueroa Anabelle O. Flores

Contributing Writers

: Tony M. Maghirang Rick Olivares Patrick Miguel Jill Tan Radovan Reine Juvierre Alberto John Eiron R. Francisco Pocholo Concepcion Francine Y. Medina

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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Circulation: 893-1662; 814-0134 to 36. www.businessmirror.com.ph

KIYO

T

OMAR BALIW

OGETHER WEEE Can! An E-Waste Collection Concert organized by the Ecowaste Coalition that took place last November 5 at the Marikina Sports Center has placed the spotlight on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), or what is popularly known as e-waste, and the need to safely manage this rising waste stream to protect human health and the ecosystems from toxic pollution.

On the one hand, e-waste contains hazardous materials like lead, mercury and other heavy metals, flame retardant chemicals like polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and other substances of concern, which are largely released into the environment through reckless disposal and uncontrolled dismantling that can harm workers and their communities.

On the other hand, e-waste also contains valuable components like aluminum, copper, iron and gold, which if retrieved and recycled can be used by manufacturers as secondary substitutes to virgin raw materials.

Together WEEE Can! established a national record in terms of physical attendance in an event solely dedicated to promoting safe e-waste management. According to the organizers, some 15,000 mostly youth participants braved the intermittent rain to listen to their favorite artists and, yes, to support the call for a sound management of e-waste.

The concert also set a record in the volume of e-waste collected for proper recycling. Records show that over eight

STEF MONCE

MARIKINA Rep. Marjorie Teodoro

tons of assorted e-waste were traded in on site and in designated drop-off points in exchange for concert tickets.

The Philippines has a per capita e-waste generation exceeding 4 kgs.

At the MSC, attendees lined up to exchange discarded phone chargers, mobile phones, speakers, headsets, tablets, laptops, keyboards, and small household appliances like electric fans and irons for entrance tickets.

In addition, partner groups and individuals brought bigger e-waste items, including computer monitors, TV picture tubes, air-conditioners and washing machines, in several designated e-waste exchange centers around the metropolis.

Speaking at the concert, Marikina City District 1 Representative Marjorie Ann Teodoro told the crowd in Filipino: “Huwag po nating itigil ang ating

ZILD

PHOTOS BY BERNARD TESTA

ginagawa para sa tamang pangangasiwa ng ating mga e-waste. Itong concert na ito ay para sa inyo at sa kalikasan.”

The “Together WEEE Can” concert was organized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), United Nations Industrial Development Organizations (UNIDO) and the EcoWaste Coalition with support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

As explained by Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) Director and DENR Assistant Secretary Gilbert Gonzales, “This campaign aims to tackle the detrimental effects of e-waste; enhance awareness regarding responsible e-waste management; and encourage individuals, businesses, and governments to take proactive measures in reducing e-waste and ensuring its proper disposal.”

“Our keen collaboration with our government and industry partners, the informal waste sector, particularly the e-waste dismantlers, and with the invited performers and their fans made this historic concert for the environment a big success,” said Aileen Lucero, National Coordinator, EcoWaste Coalition. “We look forward to continuing our shared advocacy with them towards a truly zero waste and non-toxic circular economy.”

Among the performers who joined the advocacy concert and took turns mesmerizing the crowd were Kiyo, 7th, Alisson Shore, Omar Baliw, Because, Cean Jr., Chrstn, Kean Cipriano, Kenaniah, Issa Loki, Eugene Layug, Shortone, Stef Monce, EJ Rosita and Zild.

IC

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | NOVEMBER 12, 2023

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BUSINESS

SOULFUL STORYTELLING Norwegian-Filipino artist Hillari on bridging cultures through music

By John Eiron R. Francisco

was recognized as the “Song of the Month” by Future Soul with Victoria Jane on BBC Radio 1 in England in May of the same year.

Over the past year, Hillari has collaborated with producers from around the world and has been praised by artists such as Timbaland, Keyshia Cole, and Savanna Ré.

She also draws inspiration from artists like Cleo Sol, whose music has been a source of healing and upliftment for her.

I

N today’s music and entertainment industry, there is a wealth of talented and upand-coming artists, spanning various age groups, from the young to those in their 30s and beyond.

However, age is not a determining factor; what truly matters is the impact of your music and its ability to resonate with the audience.

Many music artists have their own unique sources of inspiration, drawings from their surroundings, heartbreaks and even moments of joy.

Hillari Alison Conlu, an emerging 18-year-old Norwegian-Filipino artist, stands as a vivid example of how life experiences are the true wellspring of music, crediting these experiences for the soulfulness that defines her art.

In an exclusive interview with Soundstrip, Hillari shared that her music is a reflection of her journey and emotions, allowing listeners to connect with the genuine and poetic storytelling in her songs.

“I think one factor is how I write things,” Hillari told Soundstrip.

Musical journey

SHE was born in Norway and raised in both Oslo and Bacolod, her upbringing was a fusion of Western and Filipino influences.

HILLARI recalls her early experiences with music, influenced by her grandmother’s encouragement to be an entertainer.

Her grandmother’s insistence on performing for family and guests kindled her passion for music.

Later, she moved back to Norway, where Western culture further shaped her musical identity.

“I’m back in the Philippines to really get in touch with my roots and with the Filipino culture and the Filipino music scene more,” Hillari told Soundstrip.

One striking facet of Hillari’s background is her time as a church vocalist. This experience has left a profound impact on her, with a particular emphasis on the genuine and heartfelt singing she witnessed in the church.

“That’s why I really want to do the same when it comes to my live performances,” her music, she says, reflects her love for choir sounds and harmonies, elements she incorporates into her songs.

Expanding horizons

HILLARI - Loyal (feat. Jolianne)

Meteoric rise

HILLARI’s rapid rise in the music industry is nothing short of remarkable. She fully started her music career in 2021 and has since garnered a substantial following and reached a wide audience.

“Honestly, it feels so amazing because everything has been going so quickly in a short period of time,” Hillari said.

For Hillari, this journey has been an unexpected and humbling experience, especially in the Philippines, where her music has found a welcoming audience.

“I feel so blessed and I feel so appreciated. I feel so seen and understood…” she highlighted.

In Norway, R&B and soul music are not as appreciated as they are in the Philippines, making her success in the country even more special.

As she progressed in her music career and consistently built her name, she received numerous accolades.

One of these pivotal moments in Hillari’s career was winning the Årets Urørt (Rookie of the Year) with her song “Hopeful,” earning her a spot at this year’s P3 Gull.

“I feel a thousand times lighter after

winning Årets Urørt. It’s always nice to get some recognition for the hard work you’ve put in.” says Hillari.

This recognition signifies the acknowledgment of her hard work and talent, particularly as a Filipino artist in Norway.

In Soulful and Poetic Music

FOR some who don’t know about Hillari’s music, it is often described as melodic and soulful, but she defines it as “timeless, poetic, and soulful.”

Hillari also shared to Soundstrip her creative process is a testament to her free and genuine approach to music.

She starts by jamming on her piano or guitar, freestyling melodies, and recording them. Later, she composes poems and transforms them into lyrics, connecting them with the instrumental music she’s created. This process allows her to create music that is deeply authentic and meaningful.

When Soundstrip asked about her personal favorite song of hers, she said that “Desperate Soul” holds a special place in her heart, with a personal connection to its story.

This debut single of “Desperate Soul” was released in March 2023 and

HILLARI’s viral track “Loyal,” that earned more than 1.2 million plays from music streaming platform Spotify, has been re-released with a new version featuring the Filipino singer Jolianne.

“I wanted to collaborate with more Filipino artists. And she was the one that I really connected with. So it was just a very organic and genuine collaboration,” Hillari shared why she chose Julianne to collaborate with.

The collaboration promises a fresh perspective, with Jolianne’s angelic voice adding a new dimension to the song.

On October 20, they released this anticipated music collaboration that showcased the remarkable synergy between their voices and talents, demonstrating just how harmonious and flawless their singing collaboration truly is.

Not stopping at one collaboration, Hillari is also working on another version of “Loyal,” this time with Filipino-Australian artist Rini.

“After releasing the Loyal remix with Jolianne, two weeks after that, I’ll also be releasing the Loyal remix with the Filipino-Australian artist Rini,” Hillari excitedly said.

Her commitment to collaborating with various artists reflects her determination to bridge cultures and bring soulful music to a global audience.

“My goal is really to continue on making music that is for the soul, but doing it in an arena in the future. And hopefully that I can do it internationally,” Hillari concluded.

As she continues to create and share her work, fans can anticipate more heartfelt and stirring melodies that transcend borders and cultures, creating a musical experience that is truly timeless, and exemplifies the influence of soulful storytelling in music.

Does an AI tool help boost adoptions?

By Sally Ho & Garance Burke

F

The Associated Press

ormer social worker Thea Ramirez has developed an artificial intelligence-powered tool that she says helps social service agencies find the best adoptive parents for some of the US’s most vulnerable kids.

But an Associated Press investigation has found that the Family-Match algorithm has produced limited results in the states where it has been used, raising questions about the ability of artificial intelligence to solve such enduring human problems.

Two states dropped the tool with only a few adoptions at the end of their initial pilots. Social workers in Florida, Georgia and Virginia told AP that Family-Match wasn’t useful and often led them to unwilling families. Florida agencies, on the other hand, reported a more positive experience with the algorithm, saying that it assisted them in tapping into a broader pool of prospective parents.

Ramirez declined interview requests but said in an email that “Family-Match is a valuable tool and helpful to users actively using it to support their recruitment + matching efforts.”

Here are some takeaways from the investigation:

Rooted in faith Ramirez, of Brunswick, Georgia, where her nonprofit is also based, got her start building a website meant to bring prospective adoptive parents together with mothers giving up their babies for adoption.

Ramirez marketed her website to antiabortion counseling centers, which seek to persuade women to bring their pregnancies to term.

“Could we make Roe v. Wade obsolete by raising adoption awareness? I think so,” Ramirez wrote in a 2012 blog post about her website. Ramirez said in an email that Family-Match is not associated with the program for mothers with unwanted pregnancies.

Inspired by online dating Ramirez recruited research scientist Gian Gonzaga, asking if he would team up with

In this June 30, 2020 photo provided by the White House, first lady Melania Trump, joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Senior Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway and White House senior advisers, participate in a roundtable discussion on foster care and strengthening America’s child welfare system, in the Situation Room in the White House in Washington. On screen, middle row at right is Adoption-Share founder and CEO Thea Ramirez. Trump spotlighted Ramirez’s work at the foster care event. AP her to create an adoption matchmaking tool based on compatibility, to help child welfare agencies find adoptive parents for foster children. Gonzaga had previously managed algorithms that powered the online dating site eharmony.

“I was more excited about the project than anything I’ve heard for all of my career,” Gonzaga said in a promotional Family-Match video posted to YouTube.

Gonzaga ultimately joined the board of directors of Ramirez’s nonprofit, AdoptionShare. Gonzaga, who worked with his wife Heather Setrakian at eharmony and then on the Family-Match algorithm, referred questions to Ramirez. Setrakian said she was very proud of her years of work developing the Family-Match model.

An eharmony spokesperson said the

Months after Georgia quit FamilyMatch, Ramirez met with a staffer at Governor Brian Kemp’s office and appeared at a statehouse hearing to request $250,000 to fund a statewide expansion.

The state reversed course and in July signed a new agreement to resume using the technology. Adoption-Share is allowing Georgia to use Family-Match for free, a state official said.

Brushes with fame Ramirez also has won support from public figures.

In New York, she rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange with the then-Miss Utah USA beauty queen. In Florida, Ramirez initially distributed her tool for free thanks to a grant from the Jupiter,

“An AP investigation has found that the Family-Match algorithm has produced limited results, raising questions about the ability of AI to solve such enduring human problems.” company had no involvement with FamilyMatch and called the pair “simply former employees.”

Deft lobbying From former first lady Melania Trump to governors’ offices in Georgia and Virginia, Ramirez has worked connections to land contracts.

Virginia and Georgia officials dropped Family-Match after their trial runs only produced one or two adoptions a year. Tennessee said they killed a pilot before rolling it out because of technical issues.

4 BusinessMirror

Florida-based Selfless Love Foundation, founded by Ed Brown, the former CEO of the company that makes Patrón tequila, and his wife, Ashley Brown, an ex-model and advocate for foster children.

The Browns fundraise for the foundation’s causes at an annual Palm Beach-area gala that has spotlighted Adoption-Share’s work. Selfless Love Foundation marketing director Shelli Lockhart said AdoptionShare’s grant ended in October 2022, and that the foundation was “so proud of the work we did together” to increase the number of adoptions but declined to clarify why

November 12, 2023

the grant ended.

Once the philanthropic dollars dried up, the state government picked up the tab, awarding Adoption-Share a $350,000 contract last month.

In May, Family-Match was selected to benefit from a fundraiser promoted by then-St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright aimed at helping the organization grow “to address the pressing need for foster and adoptive families in Missouri,” according to a press release from AdoptionShare. Ramirez posed for photos on the baseball field next to Darrell Missey, director of the Missouri Children’s Division, which was considering Adoption-Share’s proposal.

Test case: Florida Ramirez has highlighted the tool’s penetration in Florida’s privatized child welfare system as she has tried to court philanthropic support and new business in New York City and Delaware.

This year, Adoption-Share won a contract with the Florida Department of Health to build an algorithm for public health officials focused on children with the most severe medical needs and disabilities, who may never be able to live independently. The contract represents a significant expansion beyond Adoption Share’s work with child welfare agencies because medically fragile children can require lifelong caregivers.

“The power dynamics are different because the child can’t just leave,” said Bonni Goodwin, a University of Oklahoma child welfare expert. “The vulnerability piece increases.”

Cover photo by Kindel Media on Pexels.com