Sunday, May 16, 2021
Tree of the gods
DENR races to draft guidelines for commercial cultivation of rare, valuable Aquilaria timber species, source of precious agarwood.
Regulars
Making 8 great?
Logomania, the famous shouty logo trend from the 1990s, is back with a vengeance. From high-end brands, like Fendi, Gucci, Burberry, Christian Dior and Vetements, to Supreme, Nike, Adidas and many others, prominent logos have once again reemerged in the fashion scene. Printed slogan and logo elements on clothes, shoes and handbags are massively popular with big celebrities, street culture…
Lingering presence
Angelito, Eman and Hammy. Why can’t I seem to forget them? I never had a deep connection with them. They came and then quietly vanished from my life but somehow they still linger in my mind even now like ectoplasmic presences. They never greatly influenced my life. Or did they? Angelito Ladores was a classmate in elementary school. We simply called him Ladores. He was the oddball in our…
Associations as legacy makers
MANY things have happened since I first wrote here about legacy in the context of associations (“Legacy of Associations,” March 14, 2018). For one, the pandemic has put a stop on travel and business events, e.g., conferences and congresses, which are important activities that associations offer to their members. On the other hand, it gave momentum for associations to plan long term and…
Budget tips for Gen Zs; Isuzu ‘BLOWBAGETS’
MY good friend, Nadinne Capistrano, writes to say she has some tips to help millennials and Gen Zs navigate their financial road map. Here: “Today’s challenging circumstances underscore the importance of proper financial management among millennials and Gen Zs. “While health and safety remains top priority amid the pandemic, staying afloat may be the biggest challenge of millennials…
Fabulous travels with Joanna Lumley and two Asian pop idols
There are two friggingly fabulous travelogues in Netflix right now. One has Joanna Lumley as our indefatigable, elegant and enthusiastic guide, and the other by two of the most exciting, smart, odd couple from two powerhouse showbiz industries—South Korea and Taiwan. I was not expecting much from Joanna Lumley’s Silk Road Adventure, having for its subject matter the astonishing and…
Xi’s one-way bromance with Duterte, and the great ‘debate’
Palace spokesman Harry Roque must be feeling unhappily isolated when his challenge to debate with former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio and Vice President Leni Robredo on the issue of China’s incursions into our maritime territories was met merely with ridicule on social media. His boss President Duterte has thrown him a virtual hot potato when he was designated to…
Game changer
THEY call the three-point shot “the equalizer.” And many times, as when a barrage of triples hits the opposing team in succession, they call it “the game changer.” Converted three-point attempts do change the game in a happy way. But there’s a grim version of the game changer that’s harder to control than “pektus” or a “glorious trajectory.” In a word, injuries. The number and variety of…
Brain fitness helps kids in distance learning
The months of prolonged distance learning for my kids have prompted me to assess the sufficiency of such learning. I initially loved the self-regulation and self-motivation the situation brought out in my kids. Later on, however, I began worrying about distance learning in assessing retention and comprehension of critical subject matters. It also made me think that although the…
Satellite Internet service –Starlink and iGSat
YOU have to be totally out of touch if you have not heard of Elon Musk, of Tesla and SpaceX fame that some people say must be an alien from another planet to come up with so many advanced ideas. He is now talking about a global satellite Internet service called Starlink which plans to make use of 40,000 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites about 300 miles above our surface. Currently, there…
Limping LA Lakers looking to survive
WHEN LeBron James came back, Los Angeles was back. Suddenly, the Lakers’ crown looked secure. Beleaguered as they were being pushed close to elimination, the Lakers were resurrected with the return of James. James breathed new life to a Los Angeles squad on the verge of death. James has been the Lakers’ oxygen for life, the one savior when chaos creep in from nowhere. Then it…
Giving feedback to your manager
“What do you think?” my manager asks me after we have finished the presentation. On the one hand, I was honored that she asked me what I thought of our presentation. At the same time, I also felt out of place because I am not used to having my manager ask me for feedback. But then I realized, she was asking because she really wanted to improve herself and because whatever she did…
Health-care investments, decongestion key to recovery
WE saw a decline in new Covid-19 cases in the last couple of weeks, as the reproduction rate fell below 1.0 again. This is good news for the country and the economy, thanks to the preventive efforts of the government. We need to sustain this gain by strengthening our health-related measures, while safely reopening the economy so that workers can return to their jobs. Balancing health and…
Flying pig
Last month I wrote, “For me though, the most astounding event of the 21st century is happening right now in Egypt. The Ever Given—launched in 2018—is one of the largest container ships ever built carrying some 20,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units. It is currently blocking the Suez Canal.” The canal was unblocked and everything is back to normal. But the “astounding events” are not yet…
JBC’s nominees to the Supreme Court
The appointment of the members of the Supreme Court is one of the most important and sensitive functions of the President. No body of men, though unelected by the people, wields greater power and influence than the 15-man tribunal on the life, property and liberty of an individual in our society. The SC is the highest court of the land and is regarded as the…
Hospital bills and pandemics
MY friend’s grandfather recently had a stroke. His family spent several hours in an ambulance searching for a hospital that had space to admit him. After hours, they found one, but it didn’t have the needed medical equipment. Only one expensive hospital had the necessary equipment and available space, which happened to be a private room. After a week, he recovered enough to be discharged.…
Transfer pricing audit looms
Transfer pricing audit is inevitable. Tax authorities now have the preliminary information that they need to choose what companies to audit. BIR Form 1709, which has been submitted together with the annual income tax return, is a powerful tool for the BIR to determine what are suspicious related to party transactions. The question now is, how will the BIR perform the audit, and what should…
Shanden Vergara
IF you look up the word resilient in the dictionary, the photo of Shanden Vergara should be right beside it. The young man has worked his tail off to get to where he is, from San Carlos all the way to Harrogate, Tennessee, where the Rail Splitters of Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) ply their trade. According to Football for Humanity Founder Chris Thomas, Shanden is…
Filipino artists share their crypto art journey
One nearly gave up on an art career before trying his hand at crypto art. Another had to grapple with self-marketing in a space devoid of middlemen. Despite the varying experiences, however, everyone shared the same view that the new space is here to stay. Three early Filipino crypto art adopters shared their experiences in crypto art in a recent online forum as part of the ongoing Art…
Opinion
Do not annoy China
IN August 2020, Ant Group Co. Ltd. filed the documents for Initial Public Offering with a plan to raise $30 billion. The firm revealed that it made a net profit of $2.6 billion in 2019. In October, the IPO was priced to raise $34.5 billion, and value Ant Group at over $313 billion in the dual Shanghai and Hong Kong listing. That would have made Ant the 13th largest company in the…
Agua de Mayo
There is a kingdom by the sea that subsists on rains, sunshine, and lies. When May comes, they wait for the first rains to fall. The ancient lore speaks of the rain falling on the first day of May as the auspicious sign, the marker of good harvest and better life. But in this kingdom, truth is basically…hmmm….relative. There is no truth unless there is power behind the speaker of truth.…
The significance of the 2022 national elections
The countdown to the 2022 national election auspiciously began on May 9, Sunday, with the pealing of bells in Manila Cathedral and other major Catholic churches. The simultaneous tolling of the bells across the country marked exactly one year before the holding of the next national elections in the Philippines on May 9, 2022. It was a reminder to the sovereign…
Asia’s fastest-growing companies
The Financial Times, together with Nikkei Asia and Statista, recently came out with its ranking of High-Growth Companies in the Asia-Pacific region. To be included in the list, a company must meet the following criteria—generated revenue of at least $1 million in 2019; must be an independent company, meaning it is not a subsidiary or branch office of any kind; should be headquartered…
2021: Another ‘annus horribilis’?
First of two parts The year 2020 will go down in Philippine economic history as the worst since the end of World War II. The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a full-blown health-economic crisis. The crisis is continuing and there are indications that it will spill even to 2022 and beyond. The long-suffering Filipino people will experience more pains in 2021 due to unresolved…
Editorial Cartoon May 13, 2021
Image courtesy of Ed Davad
Business
Entrepreneur
BDO Network Bank: Lending a helping hand in times of crisis
THE lingering economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has left many businesses on the brink of shutting down operations. This holds true when drastic quarantine measures were implemented and reimposed in Metro Manila and nearby areas in a bid to curb rising infection rates, but not in the…
Executive Views
TAKING FLIGHT
Oman is a destination known to Filipinos as a hub for OFWs. With 52,000 Filipino workers employed in various capacities including domestic work, retail, and health care according to data from the Philippine Embassy as of May 2020, it is known as a safe destination for workers in the Middle…
Nation
Govt defends ‘terrorist’ tag on Joma, 18 others
A ranking Department of Justice official on Thursday defended the designation of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison and several others as “terrorists,” saying such process had gone through proper evaluation under the mechanisms being followed by the…
World
‘Free at last!’: UK jubilant as virus restrictions to be lifted next week
LONDON—When London’s Science Museum reopens next week, it will have some new artifacts: empty vaccine vials, testing kits and other items collected during the pandemic, to be featured in a new Covid-19 display. Britain isn’t quite ready to consign the coronavirus to a museum—the outbreak is…
Economy
Sports
Magic touch, really?
YOU’RE joining a very accomplished group, the crème de la crème of chemically enhanced miscreants. Over there is the East German Olympic team. Right next to them, you’ll find Ben Johnson and Marion Jones. That big guy is Mark McGwire. And, of course, the shamelessly corrupt Lance Armstrong…
Life
WFH at The Farm
When the Covid-19 pandemic struck last year, the WFH acronym or “work from home” became a byword for many office workers. But long before that, The Farm at San Benito has been advocating a different kind of WFH among workers stressed by the urban jungle’s daily grind—Wellness, Fitness and Healing. And with the lingering health crisis which won’t go away…
Digital Life
Motoring
Property
Tourism
Y2Z
Poor sleep linked to inability to focus
By David James Robertson University of Strathclyde & Christopher B. Miller University of Oxford The morning after a difficult night’s sleep, it can feel impossible to wake up. You might press the snooze button just one more time in an attempt to gain a bit more of that restorative…
How much sleep do you really need?
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected] Why do I need to sleep for a long time at night?—Sly M., 6, Cambridge, Massachusetts When someone’s asleep, it can look like they are turned…
The UK’s future may be in the hands of Scotland’s rebel youth
Robyn Graham was too young to vote in Scotland’s 2014 independence referendum, and now she’s determined to get her chance in another one. The 19-year-old law and politics student at the University of Glasgow is among a generation of youth for whom the political landscape has been dominated…
Celebrating the creation of ‘robot’
In an era defined by fast-moving digital transformations and technological innovations, the word ‘robot’ has become a staple in the everyday vocabulary. But what do we know about its etymology? The term was first used in a 100-year-old play by Czech playwright Karel Čapek, titled Rossumovi…
Viral thoughts: Why Covid-19 conspiracy theories persist
PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Daniel Roberts hadn’t had a vaccination since he was 6. No boosters, no tetanus shots. His parents taught him inoculations were dangerous, and when the coronavirus arrived, they called it a hoax. The vaccine, they said, was the real threat. So when the 29-year-old Tennessee…
How to talk to believers of Covid-19 conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theories about Covid-19 are causing real-world problems by discouraging some people from getting vaccinated, wearing masks or following other guidelines. Some bizarre theories about the virus have prompted believers to burn 5G cell towers, shut down vaccination clinics or even…
Biodiversity
Education
Envoys & Expats
Faith
Green
Health & Fitness
Covid-19 Updates
Our Time
Perspective
Enabling dreams to take flight
“The engine is the heart of an airplane, but the pilot is its soul,” so goes the saying. As the world celebrates World Pilots’ Day, get to know three dedicated aviation professionals and proud pilots of Cebu Pacific, with which one of its pillars is supporting the education of aspiring Juans…
Expanding operations in PHL and the US
Since the Philippines and the United States of America first formalized diplomatic ties 75 years ago, the relationship between the two countries has been further strengthened by the arrival of numerous US-based corporations that chose the Philippines as the base of their Asia-Pacific…
A Base for Business
In 1898, a tract of land located 100 kilometers north of Manila was used as a U.S. military camp for the 5th Cavalry after the Spanish-American War. It was later named Clark Field in 1918 after pre-World War 1 pilot Major Harold M. Clark who led the construction of its runways. The base held…
Philippine-American Relations – More and Beyond 75 years
The Philippine Ambassador to the US recently contacted me, as the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce Philippines, to seek support for a celebration of 75 years of diplomatic relations between our countries. My first reaction was that of surprise. The US and the…
Science
The Broader Look
Pandemic forces Filipinos to find fresh financial fountain
SOME fought a virus characterized by a corona with Dalgona; and, the creamy-coffee craze began. The battle against boredom ensued after lockdown measures were imposed in March last year to stem the spread of Covid-19. Some Filipinos sought ways to distract themselves from isolation with a…
Global shipment woes: Additional shocks to PHL’s food supply chain
IT will take about a foot for a spoonful of food to reach the mouth; to reach the dining table, it’s farther than that. Nearly 10,000 nautical miles: 9,629, to be exact. That is the distance between the Port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest seaport, and the Manila International Container…
Still on queue: Returning overseas workers, and their growing economic needs at home
THE answer to government’s problems on returning overseas Filipinos amid the economic and health crises may lie in a Chinese proverb: “To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.” And those coming back were considered modern-day heroes; and they number to over half a million—519,566…
PHL climate change policy? It’s in the air
Greenpeace and other environmental organizations based in the Philippines join advocates across the globe in challenging governments to honor commitments under the Paris Agreement. The agreement, signed on December 12, 2015, seeks to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5…
Amid pandemic, insurers grapple with carbon asset risks
While the Philippines may not be one of the largest carbon-emitting countries in the world, it is known to be one of the most vulnerable countries to the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on sustainable development.
