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SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 2017 Adelle Chua, Editor
Opinion
Joyce Pangco Pañares, Issue Editor
mst.daydesk@gmail.com
DEATH OF THE SHOE SALESMAN, FINALLY
EDITORIAL
WEAKENING OUR STAND A
By Virginia Postrel
NOTHER overseas Filipino worker in the United Arab Emirates is fighting to save her life. Jennifer Dalquez of General Santos City was jailed in December 2014; she was convicted of murdering her male employer. She was sentenced to death five months later. Dalquez’s defense said she accidentally killed her employer while she was thwarting his rape attempt. She narrated that he had tried to burn her, hit her with a bottle on the face, and tried to stab her. She was then able to take the knife from him. The final hearing for the appeal had been scheduled for February 27 but was moved to March 27. This is what is expected to happen: the children of the employer will be asked to swear, 50 times, before the court and in the name of Allah, that Dalquez was the only one who could have killed their father. If the children are able to do this, the court will uphold the sentence. If not, Dalquez will be made to pay blood money. The Department of Foreign Affairs says it is doing everything to save the life of Dalquez. The UAE Supreme Court will have the final say regardless of what happens in the appeal, says Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose.
The Philippine government, he says, has hired a lawyer to be by Dalquez’s side every step of the way. The embassy has also reached out to the employer’s family to ask if they would accept blood money; thus far, they have refused. It has facilitated her parents’ visit and has given financial assistance to the family. Such government efforts have proven ineffective, as seen in the case of Zamboanga Sibugay’s Jakatia Pawa, 44, convicted of murdering her employer’s daughter despite the failure of DNA evidence to support this claim. This was in 2007. In 2010, then-Vice President Noli de Castro went to Kuwait to appeal for her life. Pawa was hanged this year, anyway, on January 25. Of course there is Mary Jane Veloso, who was spared from the firing squad in Indonesia in 2015. Convicted of drug trafficking, Veloso insisted she had been fooled by someone she trusted into carrying the drugs. We did succeed in staying her execution at the last minute, but her legal battles continue. She may still be executed. We do not have all the information to conclude whether the Philippine government has been doing enough to save these Filipinos on death row in other countries. What we know is that we try to change the minds of those countries, by continuing to assert the migrants’ innocence, offering new evidence when still possible, and pleading with officials not to impose the capital punishment. Alas, we know, too, that whatever credibility we might have had in the past in arguing against putting people to death now stands eroded, with our own government’s push for the restoration of the death penalty here albeit only for drugrelated crimes. How can we argue any longer that executions hardly serve a purpose other than perpetuate injustice, and how dare we ask to spare our people from this punishment when we wish to do so here in our own shores? The House of Representatives has shown us the stuff it is made of. In May, after the legislative break, we will get to see whether our senators are as enlightened as they make themselves out to be. We hope they realize that this “tough” position actually weakens us instead.
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PALANCA AWARDS NOW ACCEPTING NOVEL, NOBELA ENTRIES POP GOES THE WORLD JENNY ORTUOSTE
IF OUR country had something like a Pulitzer or Man Booker Prize, it would be the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature (CPMA). It is the most prestigious award in the Philippines for literary works, and this year is on its 67th edition. The annually-awaited call for entries has
gone forth, and Filipino writers all over the world are invited to participate. This year is special because it is a Novel year. Entries for the Novel and Nobela categories are accepted only every two years. I asked the Palanca Foundation for some information on the most recent
winners in those categories, and here is what they sent: Novel Grand prize winner in 2013: Subversivo, Inc. by Jose Elvin Bueno. Bueno described his novel as an exploration on why we Filipinos Turn to B2
ANOTHER storied occupation is on its way out and the replacement is neither robots nor foreign workers. We’re witnessing the death of the shoe salesman. Macy’s recently said it would convert more shoe departments to an “open sell” format, where customers serve themselves from stacks of boxes. J.C. Penney is experimenting with the format. It’s the way sales have long worked at stores like DSW and TJX Co.’s Marshall’s and T.J. Maxx. From Victorian-era evangelist Dwight L. Moody to comedian Kevin Hart, selling shoes has been the original calling of many a sweet talker. Before World War II, it was a common and respectable middle-class job, as demonstrated by Depression-era news accounts of men fallen on hard times who’d previously drawn “a good salary” selling shoes. Over time, however, popular culture has come to treat shoe salesmen as pitiable and comic. “If you ever have a choice between selling shoes to young ladies and giving birth to a porcupine that is on fire, look into that second, less painful opportunity,” advised the late comedian Richard Jeni, who did a stint selling shoes when he was 17. The combination of demanding customers, grotesque feet, and eagerness for commissions makes for the shared discomfort that often fuels humor. Its most famous representative is, of course, the put-upon misanthrope Al Bundy of the sitcom “Married with Children,” with his corpulent clientele and thwarted sexual fantasies. In fact, the job is an anachronism, a holdover from the long-gone days when most merchandise was kept away from customers. It hasn’t even caught up with 20th-century norms, let alone 21st. Consider two department store shopping experiences. 1) You’re looking for some new trousers. You wander through the apparel department, flipping through the racks to find your size. You select a few pairs, and a sales associate asks if you’d like to start a fitting room. You agree and continue looking, picking up another pair and a sweater that catches your eye. When you’re ready, you try everything on, decide what to buy, and check out. The salesperson may help you find a size or suggest a matching shirt, but self-service is the rule. 2) You need new shoes. You start looking around and spot a promising pair. A sales associate swoops down and asks if you need help. You aren’t really ready but worry about missing your chance, so you say yes, you’d like to see these in your size. The associate disappears into the back room, while you continue to look and find a couple of pairs you like better. After what seems like an eternity—How many blocks away is that warehouse?—the associate reemerges with the bad news: They don’t have the first shoe in your size, but here’s a different size, which doesn’t fit, and another, similar shoe—which you hate. You ask to see the models you found while waiting, and the process starts all over again. No wonder so many shoe shoppers prefer online retailers with easy returns. Outside of specialized boutiques, the shoe salesman (or woman) isn’t an amenity but an obstacle. Eliminating the position may give future comedians less material, but it promises to make customers happier. Bloomberg
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SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com
THE MUSIC OVER ALEPPO’S RUINS By Joseph Eid ALEPPO—There are some things that bombs and fighting just can’t kill. Like Mohammed Anis and his determination to live, and to begin anew in the ruins that are today his hometown of Aleppo. Even if his home is quite literally a pile of debris. Even if much of what he had treasured— from his beloved collection of vintage American cars to his trusty pipe—is today destroyed, mangled, broken. Even if the only thing around him that still works is an old gramophone that he cranks by hand. Anis had been known in rebelheld eastern Aleppo before it fell to government forces at the end of December. Amid the savage fighting and the accompanying shortages, he refused to leave his home and his collection of vintage cars that he showed off whenever he could. The story that my colleague, Karam alMasri, told of him became one of the more inspiring ones to come out of the besieged eastern part of Syria’s second city. So when an AFP team headed back into the city recently, we set out to find out what happened to him. He wasn’t difficult to find. The residents remaining in his neighborhood of alShaar, directed us readily to the man known around there as the ‘white wolf’ because of his silver mane of hair. We simply asked them if they knew where to find the man who collected old American cars. Karam called him Abu Omar in his report, but we knew that it was a pseudonym, used for security reasons. Driving first by car and then continuing on foot because of the ruins littering the streets we eventually arrived at a green metal door. We knocked. “You are the French,” he said after opening the door and taking a look at us. We found out that he only left Aleppo two months before the eastern part fell to government forces. As we spoke, he kept repeating that nothing could destroy his will to live. He was going to restore his “wounded” cars, some destroyed, some damaged. That he would buy new ones. He has an iron will, this man. It’s hard to believe when you see the situation all around him. But who knows. To say that he lives in challenging conditions is a great understatement. He literally lives in ruins. “How can you live here?” we asked him. “It’s my home,” he answered simply. Like many of Aleppo’s residents, he sleeps in debris. When we noticed his Gramophone, we asked him if it still worked. “Of course!” he said. It was the kind that you see in old movies, the type you need to crank, so it doesn’t require electricity. Which is a good thing, because there is hardly one hour of electricity in the eastern part of Aleppo at the moment, with generators here and there. “I will play it for you,” he said. “But first, I have to light my pipe. Because I never listen to music without it.” His pipe was broken, too, with a piece of tape holding it together. He lit it, cranked up the Gramophone and
IT’S A LONELIER WORLD FOR VLADIMIR PUTIN By Leonid Bershidsky RUSSIAN rulers have long been content to accept fear and awe in lieu of respect and admiration, and by that standard, Putin shone in 2016. This year that is proving a tougher gig to keep up as he prepares for what might be his last presidential election in 2018. Last year, Putin’s boldness, combined with a bit of luck, paid off : The victories in Syria, the successful destabilization of Ukraine, the swelling support for populists in Western nations. Even the Russian economy provided some hopeful signs with something of an agricultural boom and the de-facto end of negative growth (economic output shrank just 0.2 percent last year). But the path to greatness Putin has chosen is a tough one: It’s easier to make headlines than to turn them into tangible, long- or even medium-term advantages. Russia’s efforts to cultivate an opposition to the continent’s centrist elites look likely to backfire. The wise men at the Kremlin and the Russian foreign ministry never entertained much hope that Geert Wilders would become Dutch prime minister and veto a sanctions extension, or that National Front leader Marine Le Pen would win and dismantle the European Union altogether. French republican candidate Francois Fillon represented a far more solid hope—an alternative to Germany’s determination to treat Russia as an adversary. Fillon, however, has been tripped up by a satirical newspaper that discovered he had been paying his wife a parliamentary aide’s salary; Putin has always underestimated the power of a free press, perhaps because he has limited experience with one. In the upcoming German election, no serious party or candidate can be counted on to advance Putin’s goals: Social Democrat Martin Schulz is no more pro-Kremlin than Chancellor Angela Merkel. So here in
PALANCA... From A1 suffer or enjoy what we have right now. According to him, Filipinos have the “highest bullshit level detector” and yet they continue to suffer. “This was the idea that led me to write a story with about 140,000 words and 638 pages. It’s a door-stopper of a novel,” says Bueno. The story of “Subversivo, Inc.” revolves around three main characters whose lives intersect: a senator who is a traditional politician, an advertising honcho, and the leader of the communist party in the country. All three individuals want out of the game, but circumstances get in the way. Subversivo, Inc. is the name of the advertising agency where one of the characters works and subversiveness is also the general theme that pervades the novel. “It has both comedic and horrific elements but the story is grounded in reality,” he adds. Novel Grand Prize winner in 2015: All My Lonely Islands by Victorette Joy Z. Campilan. All My Lonely Islands is about a young woman’s physical and emotional journey and struggles as an expatriate Filipino kid growing up in different countries. “Crisanta’s [the protagonist] struggle is that of so many ThirdCulture Kids [and their] coming to terms with their identities as Filipinos and international citizens,” Campilan said. The experience resonates deeply with her and became the seed for her writing. “My personal experiences as a TCK living in Bangladesh helped me a lot,” she shared, as her parents worked there as missionaries and community developers. Even in her teens, she was already dabbling with writing what she considered ‘novels’— “as to be expected they were very raw and more like writing exercises than novels.” Nobela Grand Prize winner in 2015: Toto O. by Charmaine Mercader Lasar. Toto O. tells the
Germany, Russian interference has been invisible so far, and it will likely stay that way through election season. Donald Trump’s victory in the US initially looked like a major success for Putin, especially if one believes the stories of Trump’s and his associates’ close ties to Russia. But even if Trump had planned to make any peace offerings to Putin, he has been hemmed in by a major anti-Russian campaign run by the media and his political rivals. And for anyone who still thinks Trump is a Russian puppet, on Thursday, the US State Department, run by supposedly pro-Russian former oil executive Rex Tillerson, put out a statement strongly condemning Russia’s annexation of Crimea timed to coincide with the annexation’s third anniversary. Trump is nevertheless better for Putin than Clinton would have been. He’s disengaged from Europe, and Merkel’s visit to Washington on Friday is unlikely to fix what started off as a dysfunctional relationship. His focus is clearly domestic, and he’s disinclined and probably ill-equipped to meddle in areas where Russian interests are strong, such as Ukraine, the Balkans and Libya. In Syria, his interest is limited to defeating the Islamic State— something that is also in the Russian interest. Under Trump, the US has stepped up involvement in Syria. Recent US strikes helped Assad and Russia retake Palmyra from ISIS fighters. All of this moves Russia closer toward its goal of securing Assad’s position in any future settlement, but it’s not ideal. Putin would have preferred to resolve the Syrian crisis in partnership with Turkey, leading to a de-facto division of spheres of influence between the two countries. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, proved a less than reliable partner because of his overweening interest in destroying Kurdish separatists, and Russia has been forced to accept a kind of unspoken situational alliance with the US to keep him in
This year is special because it is a Novel year. Entries for the Novel and Nobela categories are accepted only every two years.
check. This complicates the final deal for Putin; in any case, the deal is nowhere in sight at this point despite Russian and Turkish diplomatic efforts. Ukraine, where Russia’s immediate interests are stronger than in the Middle East, continues its self-destructive trajectory. President Petro Poroshenko recently decided to back a blockade of eastern Ukraine’s separatist regions, which his government previously said could result in heavy economic losses for the nation. The reason Poroshenko flipflopped is that the blockade was backed by fiercely anti-Russian war veterans – a force Poroshenko himself has unleashed and one he now fears. It’s possible that, by tightening his stranglehold on Ukraine, Putin isn’t just turning it into a lost cause for the West—he’s also encouraging violent forms of nationalism whose rise are more dangerous to Russia than Poroshenko’s incompetence and corruption. This year, Ukraine is likely to drift further away from Russia, not get closer to it. Economically, too, there is not much relief on the horizon for Russia. A joint attempt with Saudi Arabia and other oil exporters to talk up oil prices by promising big production cuts is fizzling. If current prices—below $50 per barrel—hold, the Russian budget won’t collapse, but there will be no growth bonus, either. Gross domestic product is expected to increase by about 1 percent—a slower growth than in other emerging markets or even the EU, and not enough to back any kind of geopolitical expansion beyond the existing relatively cheap projects. Putin can try to move fast and unpredictably in a new shock-and-awe campaign. But he can’t count on strong allies or on a buoyant economy, and his instinct appears to be to exercise caution for now. That’s a sure way to disappear from the headlines he has counted on to bolster his image. Bloomberg
and migrated to the Philippines in 1884. He engaged in trade—hardware and textiles— and later opened a small distillery called La Tondeña, which made his fortune. He was a philanthropist, with education being one of his prime causes. When he passed away, his family decided to keep his memory green by endowing a literary prize program that would also promote education and culture in the country. The awards categories this year are: Novel; Nobela; English Division: Short Story, Short Story for Children, Essay, Poetry, Poetry Written for Children, One-Act Play, and Full-Length Play; Filipino Division: Maikling Kuwento, Maikling Kuwentong Pambata, Sanaysay, Tula, Tulang Para sa mga Bata, Dulang May Isang Yugto, Dulang Ganap ang Haba, and Dulang Pampelikula; and Regional Languages Division: Short Story-Cebuano, Short StoryHiligaynon, and Short Story-Ilokano. There is also the Kabataan Division for writers 18 or younger who are to write an essay on the following theme: “How can the youth contribute to building interest in Philippine culture and literature?” and “Paano makaaambag ang mga kabataan sa pagsulong ng interes sa kultura at panitikang Pilipino?” Published/produced works, which were first published or first produced between May 1, 2016 to April 30, 2017, and/or unpublished/ unproduced works may be entered in the contest. Contestants may submit only one entry per category. The deadline of submission is on April 30, 2017. For official contest rules and forms, download them from the CPMA website www.palancaawards.com. ph. For details, contact CPMA at cpawards@ palancaawards.com.ph or at (632) 511-0003.
story of a boy stuck in a financial rut that forces him out of the comforts of his rural home to meet new friends, survive various struggles, achieve milestones in life, and realize that there’s no place like home. As a millennial writer, Wattpad (a free writing and reading site) and blogging became Lasar’s platform for expressing her creative ideas. Her win has proven that not all Wattpad writers turn out hackneyed stories, and that a literary gem can come even from the popular Internet site. “I wanted to prove, especially to myself, that I can write a (Wattpad) novel that can win a Palanca, and that [it] is a springboard for writers,” she said. Perhaps the most well-known of Palanca Novel winners is Smaller and Smaller Circles by FH Batacan. The novel received the recognition in 1999, and became popular enough to be taught in the literature classes of some universities. Batacan later released an expanded version which was published abroad by Soho Press to critical acclaim, and a film adaptation is now being filmed by director Raya Martin. *** The CPMA was established in 1950 in Dr. Ortuoste is a California-based writer. honor of Don Carlos Palanca Sr., a prominent Follow her on Facebook: Jenny Ortuoste, Chinese-Filipino businessman. Palanca (Tan Twitter: @jennyortuoste, Instagram: @ Quin Lay) was born in Xiamen, China in 1869 jensdecember
Mohammed Anis and his Gramophone— both survivors of the bombings in Aleppo. AFP
out came the voice of an Arab singer from the 1940s, the same one that my grandfather used to listen to in Lebanon. For a moment I was no longer a photographer shooting ruined Aleppo. I was a boy in my mountain village, my grandfather sitting on the sofa in the afternoon listening to the “belle epoque” songs of Arab music. Anis puffed on his pipe. He seemed to be somewhere else as well. He seemed to forget that we were there. He looked out the window and he had a look on his face of a person watching a beautiful sunset. He sat there, puffing on his broken pipe and staring out the window as the music floated over the ruins of his house and the city outside. As I snapped away with my camera, I knew the scene in front of me was special. It touched me and I had a feeling it would touch a lot of other people, too. Though I didn’t realize just how many. It summed up so nicely Syria today. Life, hope, people so deeply attached to their homes, their country. After six years of war, the Syrians want life. They just want to let the music play. AFP
World ICY FIRST MEETING FOR TRUMP, MERKEL
WASHINGTON—Stark differences between President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on everything from trade to immigration were in full view during their first meeting at the White House Friday. In a frequently awkward joint press conference, Trump and Merkel showed little common ground as they addressed a host of thorny issues including NATO, defense spending and free trade deals. For most of the 30 minutes in the East Room, Merkel was stony-faced as Trump ripped into Washington’s NATO allies for not paying for their “fair share” for transatlantic defense and demanded “fair and reciprocal trade” deals. The veteran German chancellor had arrived at a snowy White House hoping to reverse a chill in relations after Trump’s incendiary election rhetoric. The visit began cordially, with the pair shaking hands at the entrance of the White House. But later, sitting side-by-side in the Oval Office, Merkel’s suggestion of another handshake went unheard or ignored by Trump – an awkward moment in what are usually highly scripted occasions. There was never going to be an easy rapport between the cautious German chancellor and impulsive US president. For years, Merkel – a trained physicist – had been president Barack Obama’s closest international partner, with the two sharing a strong rapport and a similar deliberative approach. AFP
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SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com
US PRESSES CHINA FOR TOUGH NOKOR STANCE B
eijing—The United States’ top diplomat will press a tougher new line on North Korea in talks with a wary China on Saturday, in a tense atmosphere after President Donald Trump accused Beijing of failing to rein in Pyongyang. On a tour of Asia, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has broken with years of strategic patience over North Korea, saying that approach had “failed” and that US military action against North Korea was possible if its threats escalated. The sea change in US policy follows two North Korean nuclear
tests last year and recent missile launches including a salvo earlier this month that Pyongyang described as practice for an attack on US bases in Japan. Trump upped the pressure on China to get tough in a Friday Twitter blast accusing Beijing of failing to use its leverage as North Korea’s
key diplomatic and trade partner to put a leash on Pyongyang. “North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been ‘playing’ the United States for years. China has done little to help!” Trump said. But Beijing is deeply reluctant to get too tough with its volatile neighbour lest it trigger a confrontation or a messy regime collapse on China’s front door. China has hit back at the US, angrily accusing it of fuelling tension by holding military exercises with its ally Seoul and deploying an antimissile system in South Korea. Beijing called this month for all sides to take steps to defuse the situation and avoid a “head-on
collision,” calling for re-started diplomatic efforts to dismantle the North’s banned nuclear and missile programmes. Years of diplomacy, however, have failed to deter Pyongyang, and Washington has rebuffed the Chinese proposal. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said in an editorial on Saturday that “there is nothing new” in the harder stance outlined by Tillerson. It rejected suggestions that Beijing was not doing enough. “Positive results require effort and good faith from both sides. China has never fallen short of offering its fair share. It’s all up to Washington now,” it said. AFP
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S. KOREANS PROTEST THAAD MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM SEONGJU, South Korea—Hundreds of South Koreans protested Saturday against the deployment of a US missile defense system, a day after the visiting US Secretary of State reiterated that its installation would go ahead. Rex Tillerson said in Seoul that the United States and South Korea would “proceed with the installation” of the system, known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). Residents of Seongju county – where the system will be deployed – say it poses health and environmental hazards and argue that its presence could make them a priority target for North Korea. About 2,000 residents of Seongju and a neighboring county, 275 kilometers southeast of Seoul, rallied with banners reading: “No THAAD but peace.” Some 2,000 riot police were mobilized to maintain order at the march and stop protesters reaching the installation site. Washington and Seoul say the system is for purely defensive purposes, but China fears it could undermine its own nuclear deterrent and has reacted with fury, imposing a series of measures seen as economic retaliation on the South. AFP
BANGLADESHI FORCES KILL MILITANT CARRYING BOMBS
DHAKA—Bangladesh police shot dead a suspected militant in the capital Dhaka on Saturday, a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a security forces camp. The man was killed as he tried to cross a security roadblock on a motorbike carrying a bag with improvised explosive devices, according to Mufti Mahmud Khan, spokesman for the Rapid Action Battalion. “As he was carrying explosives, we primarily suspect him of being a militant,” Khan told AFP, adding further investigation was needed to ascertain the suspect’s identity. A bomb disposal unit was rushed to the spot where it recovered the biker’s bag containing multiple small improvised bombs, which were later diffused, Khan said. According to local RAB commander Tuhin Mohammad Masud, the suspected attacker was in his early twenties. The latest incident came a day after a man blew himself up at a RAB camp near Dhaka’s international airport, wounding two policemen, in an apparent botched suicide attack. Dhaka beefed up security at all airports after Friday’s attack, one of the first in recent years against the elite RAB force which is tasked with tackling militancy. AFP
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China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi gestures beside US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on March 18. AFP
G20 MINISTERS STRUGGLE TO FIND CONSENSUS ON TRADE, CLIMATE BADEN-BADEN, Germany—Finance ministers and central bankers from top economies are battling Saturday to find common ground on world trade in the face of US President Donald Trump’s “Buy American” drive. Ministers from G20 nations have gathered in the picturesque western German spa town of Baden Baden since Friday for a meeting clouded by fears of growing protectionism fuelled by Trump’s stance. Trump, whose tough “America First” talk helped win him the presidency, has withdrawn the US from a trans-Pacific free trade pact and attacked export giants China and Germany. That stance has grated with Washington’s partners, who are trying to persuade US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to hold fast to a long-standing G20 anti-protectionism commitment. But talks have so far failed to produce a breakthrough for consensus on the issue, and the clock is ticking down to the close of the two-day session when a final statement is due to be published. The separate issue of climate change has also become a sticking point, participants said, noting that the US delegation is reticent to sign up to previous pledges to help fund mitigation programmes. French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said if no agreement could be found on both issues, that could be reflected in Friday’s final statement. “Our heads of states are meeting in a
few weeks. On subjects that are so important, it’s not up to the finance ministers to block or to walk back on the issue, there will not be any backsliding on such fundamental issues,” he said. Carried to power on the back of a political storm over deindustrialisation in vast areas of the US, Trump vowed in his inauguration speech to “follow two simple rules: buy American and hire American.”
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development head Angel Gurria pointed to similar developments elsewhere, in a “backlash against globalization” which is seeing growth and economic reforms stutter as populations grumble over inequality. Governments should spread the proceeds of economic growth more widely to contain popular anger that risks
further roiling the global economy, the rich nations’ club urged in a report presented at Friday’s G20 gathering. Trump himself insisted at a tense Washington press conference Friday following his first meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that “I’m a free trader but also a fair trader.” He also rejected a description of his policies as “isolationist.” AFP
FIGHTING BACK. Supporters of South Korea’s impeached ex-president Park Geun-Hye carry huge flags of South Korea and the US as they march toward the Constitutional Court during a rally demanding a repeal of the impeachment in Seoul on March 18. AFP