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pcinews_twt JANUARY 20, 2023 www.canadianinquirer.net VOL. 8 NO. 523 Purchase Financing Months

DRAGON DANCE PERFORMERS

A group of dragon dance performers prepares for a show in front of an establishment on Quezon Avenue in Quezon City in line with the Chinese New Year celebration on Wednesday (Jan. 18,
2023). Chinese New Year festivity, which will culminate on Jan. 22, reminds the city’s constituents of how Chinese culture and traditions have also enriched Filipinos’ customs.
JOEY O. RAZON / PNA

Court clears Ressa, 17

Rappler in tax raps

BY BENJAMIN PULTA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Court of Tax Appeals
(CTA) has cleared online news publisher
Maria Ressa and Rappler Holdings Corp.
(RHC) in tax evasion charges arising from
investments made by two foreign firms.
In its 90-page decision dated January
18, the CTA first division acquitted Ressa
in four cases docketed as CTA Criminal
Case 679 to 682 “for failure of the pros-
ecution to prove their guilty beyond rea-
sonable doubt.” Fil-Am Miss USA wins
The court added that the financial in- Miss Universe 2022
struments known as Philippine Depos-
itary Receipts (PDRs) used by Rappler
to allow the investments by the United
States-based venture capital firms North 19
Base Media (NBM) and Omidyar Net-
work (OM) did not automatically trans- `
late into ownership in the firm which
Canada, a superpower?
would warrant the payment of taxes. Here’s how the country
“There is nothing in the wordings of might one day fit the bill
the PDR instruments and the PDR sub- This lunar year will be the Year of
the Rabbit or the Year of the Cat,
PAGE 10
❱❱ PAGE 7 Court clears Ressa depending on where you live

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FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023
Marcos touts PH’s strong economic recovery
BY RUTH ABBEY GITA-
CARLOS
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The government’s
policies and initiatives have paved
the way for the Philippines’ eco-
nomic rebound, allowing its part-
ners and investors to enjoy a more
conducive business environment,
President Ferdinand R. Marcos
Jr. said on Tuesday.
During the Country Strategy
Dialogue at the World Economic
Forum (WEF) in Davos, Swit-
zerland, Marcos presented the
current state of the Philippine
economy and the opportunities
that are expected to be unlocked.
Marcos, in his opening re-
marks, cited that while the Inter-
national Monetary Fund’s (IMF)
forecast for the 2023 global eco-
nomic growth is only 2.7 percent,
the Philippines projects that its
economy would grow by at least 7
percent this year.
The IMF’s latest projection
is slower than the 3.2 percent
posted last year and shows a
significant decrease from the 6
percent recorded in 2021.
“Our strong macroeconomic
fundamentals, fiscal discipline,
and structural reforms institut-
ed over the years have enabled
us to withstand the negative
shocks caused by the pandem-
ic and succeeding economic
downturns and map a route to-
ward a strong recovery,” he said.
Marcos said the Philippines
remains focused on sustaining
the country’s economic recov-
ery, as well as promoting a local
environment that would help
businesses maximize their com-
petitiveness and facilitate their
entry into the global market.
He added that the Philippines’
PBBM names 3 new appointees
BY RUTH ABBEY GITA-
CARLOS
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – President Ferdi-
nand R. Marcos Jr. has named
new appointees to the Com-
mission on Filipinos Overseas
(CFO), the Intramuros Admin-
istration (IA) and the Govern-
ment Service Insurance System’s
(GSIS) Board of Trustees, Mala-
development plan puts together
coherent strategic measures to
address the current energy and
food crises, allowing the coun-
try to hasten its economic and
social recovery toward inclusive
and resilient development.
Addressing challenges
In his speech, Marcos also em-
phasized the need for the world
economies to implement suffi-
cient welfare measures to cushion
the impact of elevated inflationary
pressures, especially on the most
affected and vulnerable sectors.
“We have seen inflation ac-
celerating globally in recent
months. While protectionist
policies may be appealing in the
short term, there will ultimate-
ly be no winners,” he said.
“We support the call for all gov-
ernments to unwind any trade
restrictions and reinforce our
commitment to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) reform.”
Marcos also renewed the
Philippines’ support for the
timely and effective delivery of
pragmatic outcomes to address
the current geopolitical risks,
adding that economies should
try to find a common ground to
settle critical global issues.
He likewise emphasized the
importance of economic and
technical cooperation to as-
sist the development of small-
er economies and enable their
participation, including the
small businesses and economic
segments with untapped poten-
tial, in the global economy.
Marcos said it is also vital to ad-
dress the current social vulner-
abilities, noting that education,
skills development, and lifelong
learning would help enhance the
employability of workers.
Government interventions
and public-private partner-
cañang announced on Tuesday.
In a statement, Communica-
tions Secretary Cheloy Garafil
confirmed the appointment of
Romulo Arugay as CFO chair-
person, Joan Padilla as IA ad-
ministration and Mario Molina
as acting member of the GSIS’
Board of Trustees.
Garafil did not mention when
Marcos signed the appoint-
ment papers of Arugay, Padilla
and Molina.
ships (PPPs), he said, must be
strengthened to improve access
to employment opportunities,
adding that health systems and
social protection must also be
enhanced to abate and mitigate
present and future risks.
Digitalization
Marcos also acknowledged
the need to pursue heightened
collaboration to realize econom-
ic and social transformation.
He believed that his bid for digi-
tal transformation is a “key driver
for long-term economic growth.”
“The government also recog-
nizes the importance of digita-
lization as a key driver for long-
term economic growth and as
a tool for economic recovery,”
Marcos said, adding that he
would put a premium on the
participation of micro, small
and medium enterprises (MS-
MEs) in the digital economy.
“We will deploy digital con-
nectivity across the Philippines
and ensure universal connec-
tivity, particularly in geograph-
ically isolated and disadvan-
taged areas,” he added.
Investment pitch approved
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. (OPS PHOTO)
Malacañang has yet to re-
lease a copy of the appointment
papers of the three new officials.
The CFO was created in June
1980 by virtue of Batas Pamban-
sa 79 to strengthen the govern-
ment’s policy on the promotion
of migrant welfare and interest.
The commission is tasked to
provide assistance to the Pres-
ident and Philippine Congress
in the formulation of policies
and measures concerning Fili-
www.canadianinquirer.net
Philippine News
In another event with the
world’s top chief executive offi-
cers (CEOs) and investment ex-
perts, Marcos received “very pos-
itive” feedback when he made an
investment pitch for the Philip-
pines, Communication Secretary
Cheloy Garafil said.
“President Ferdinand R.
Marcos Jr.’s investment pitch
for the Philippines received ‘a
very positive response’ from
some of the world’s top CEOs
and investment experts during
a dinner hosted for him by Grab
Chairman and CEO Antho-
ny Tan at the sidelines of the
World Economic Forum (WEF)
in Davos, Switzerland,” Garafil
said in a separate statement.
She noted that some of those
who graced the dinner hosted
for Marcos were Amazon CEO
Andy Jassy; Tiktok founder
Zhang Yiming; Affinity Part-
ners founder Jared Kushner;
Economist Editor-in-Chief Pat-
rick Foulis; Unilever CEO Alan
Jope; General Atlantic CEO Bill
Ford and his wife Molly Ford;
BlackRock’s Head of Asia Ra-
chel Lord; and Heineken CEO
pinos overseas.
The CFO is also in charge of
developing and implementing
programs to promote the Filipino
overseas’ interest and well-being.
The IA, on the other hand,
was established in 1979 by vir-
tue of Presidential 1616 to pro-
tect and conserve the historical
and cultural value and signifi-
cance of Intramuros while ad-
vancing and guiding its urban
development.
3
Dolf van den Brink.
Also present were Indone-
sia’s Minister of Investment
Bahlil Lahadalia; Indonesia’s
Coordinating Minister of Mar-
itime and Investment Affairs
Luhut Pandjaitan; ID New Cap-
ital City Authority chairperson
Dr. Bambang Susantono; Thai-
land Minister Arkhom Term-
pittayapaisith; KADIN chair-
person Arsjad Rasjid; former
United Kingdom prime minis-
ter Tony Blair; and Transporta-
tion Secretary Jaime Bautista.
House of Representatives
Speaker Martin Romualdez,
who also joined the dinner, said
attendees were “excited” about
the Philippines’ recovery story
and agreed that the country is
the “future investor haven for
western capital.”
In an interview in Switzerland,
Alliance Global, Inc. CEO Kevin
Tan said Marcos’ participation in
the WEF signifies the Philippines’
openness for business and gives
the country a platform to tell the
world about its growth story.
“I believe President Marcos
has been very effective in show-
casing the Philippines... our
strength. But also showcasing
that this government is open for
business and open to partner-
ships with other governments,
but as well as with partnerships
with (the) private sector and that
we are here trying to bring in re-
ally foreign investments,” he said.
“On a political front, I think also
my view is that the President has
really shown that the Philippines
really is a friend to all, and we’re
not necessarily leaning more to-
wards the West or the East, that
we’re very, very balanced in where
we are positioned. And I think
❱❱ PAGE 7 Marcos touts PH’s
The IA is responsible for the
orderly restoration and de-
velopment of Intramuros as a
monument to the Hispanic pe-
riod of Philippine history.
Meanwhile, the corporate
powers and functions of state-
run pension fund GSIS are
vested in and exercised by the
Board of Trustees composed
of the President, General Man-
ager, and eight other members
appointed by the President. ■
4 Philippine News
6 cold storage facilities
to be built in onion-
producing regions
BY STEPHANIE
SEVILLANO
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Department
of Agriculture (DA) will build
six cold storage facilities in four
onion-producing regions start-
ing this year in support of local
farmers.
Each facility with a capacity of
20,000 bags will cost up to PHP40
million and will rise in the Ilocos,
Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon
and Mimaropa regions.
“Tayuan po ng mga storage
facility nang sa gayon during
peak season ng harvest, malag-
yan na. Hindi po sagot ang im-
portation. Napakalaking poten-
syal po ng lugar namin (Let’s
build storage facilities so that
during peak harvest season, we
can utilize it. Importation is
not the answer. Our place has
a big potential),” San Jose, Oc-
cidental Mindoro agriculturist
Romel Calingasan told a Senate
hearing on Monday.
Two cold storage facilities
will be built in Occidental Min-
doro but Calisangan raised con-
cerns over the locations.
Voter applications top
1M since start of sign-up
period: Comelec
BY FERDINAND PATINIO
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Commis-
sion on Elections (Comelec)
on Tuesday said it has received
over 1 million voter applica-
tions since the resumption of
registration activities in De-
cember last year.
“Based on the last update on
registration as of January 13,
2023 the running total of regis-
tration applications is already at
1,024,521, which we expect to sig-
For instance, a planned facili-
ty in Rizal town is about 16 to 20
kilometers away from San Jose,
the largest onion-producing
area in the province.
The other planned site in Sa-
blayan is farther at 97 kilometers.
President Ferdinand Marcos
Jr., the concurrent DA chief,
previously reiterated the need
to support farmers, insisting
that importation should not be
a long-term response to protect
farmers and benefit consumers
with lower commodity prices.
“We have to go back to the on-
ion growers and help them so that
A worker unloads sacks of onions at a Kadiwa store in San Andres, Manila on
Wednesday (Jan. 11, 2023). (YANCY LIM/PNA)
nificantly increase as we include
the final output of last week, as
well as the still ongoing reception
of applications,” said Comelec
spokesperson John Rex Lau-
diangco in a message to reporters.
He said the figure does not in-
clude yet the total number of ap-
plications from the “Register Any-
where” project, which has logged
2,996 applications as of Jan. 15.
At the same time, Laudiang-
co reminded qualified voters to
register since the Comelec does
not see any reason to extend the
registration period.
we can have production, we don’t
need to import. We became so used
to importation... When we take
supplies from abroad, its inflation-
ary forces are also being brought to
the Philippines,” he said.
In March 2022, the DA turned
over two cold onion storage fa-
cilities, with capacity of 10,000
and 20,000 bags, respectively.
to farmers of Valiant Primary
Multi-Purpose Cooperative in
Barangay Marcos Village, Pa-
layan City, Nueva Ecija, and a
PHP20-million facility to the
Sapang Multi-Purpose Cooper-
ative in Moncada, Tarlac. ■
He urged them to register to be
able to participate in the Baran-
gay and Sangguniang Kabataan
Elections (BSKE) in October.
“For those who haven’t regis-
tered yet, don’t miss our regis-
tration which is only until Jan-
uary 31, 2023,” he added.
Laudiangco said local
Comelec offices are ready to
accept applications, Monday to
Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Aside from poll body offices,
the public may also register in
hubs located in participating
malls. ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
PH-Singapore
memorandum to
advance digital
cooperation: DICT
BY RAYMOND CARL DELA
CRUZ
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – A recently signed
memorandum of understanding
(MOU) between the Philippines
and Singapore will advance “dig-
ital cooperation” between the
two countries, an official of the
Department of Information and
Communications Technology
(DICT) said Tuesday.
In a statement, DICT spokes-
person and Undersecretary
Anna Maye Yu Lamentillo said
her meeting with Singapore
Ambassador to the Philippines
Gerard Ho Wei Hong on Mon-
day was about “further areas of
cooperation” and the MOU im-
plementation.
“We discussed with Ambassa-
dor Ho how we can implement
this MOU and which areas we
should focus on. Singapore has
so much experience in the area
of e-governance and cybersecu-
rity and they can share with us
their best practices in these ar-
eas,” Lamentillo said.
The MOU on digital coopera-
tion was signed during the state
visit of President Ferdinand R.
Marcos Jr. to Singapore last year.
It was signed by DICT Sec-
retary Ivan John Uy and Sin-
gapore’s Minister for Com-
munications and Information
Josephine Teo on Sept. 7.
DICT spokesperson and Undersecretary Anna Maye Yu Lamentillo and Singa-
pore Ambassador to the Philippines Gerard Ho Wei Hong (ANNA MAE YU LAMEN-
TILLO/FACEBOOK)
JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY
“The MOU covers digital co-
operation on digital connectiv-
ity, particularly in inter-oper-
able systems and frameworks
that enable electronic docu-
mentation; cybersecurity, such
as organizing training cours-
es and technical programs
through the ASEAN-Singapore
Cybersecurity Centre of Excel-
lence to develop and enhance
skills related to cybersecurity;
and digital government/e-gov-
ernance, such as in the areas
of digital government strategy,
digital government services,
and digital identity,” she said.
The MOU covers the ex-
change of knowledge, technical
expertise, and best practices
on measures relating to scam
calls and scam short message
services, and on personal data
protection.
It also seeks to create cooper-
ation on emerging technologies
such as artificial intelligence,
5G, cloud computing, the Inter-
net of Things, big data, analyt-
ics, and robotics, among others.
“There will also be coopera-
tion and exchange of knowledge
to boost the digital innovation
ecosystem, including connecting
business owners with potential
solution providers; exploring
cooperation on digital capability
and capacity building programs;
and exchange of knowledge and
best practices on digital infra-
structure,” she said. ■
FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023 5

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6 Philippine News
Senators eyeing
to amend ASIN
Law, boost local
salt production
BY WILNARD BACELONIA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Senate Com-
mittee on Agriculture is now
pushing to amend Republic Act
8172, or An Act for Salt Iodization
Nationwide (ASIN), seeking to re-
vive the country’s salt industry.
According to Senator Cynthia
Villar who chairs the commit-
tee, the law should not require
all local producers to iodize salt
as most of the demand are being
used as fertilizers by farmers
and not for food consumption.
During a hearing conducted
by the committee on Wednes-
day, Villar said the law, which
was passed in 1995, became a
deterrent in the development
of the local salt industry instead
of promoting it.
“It has neglected to develop
new areas and invite new inves-
tors. It made all salt food grade.
In 2021, it was reported that, we
only produced seven percent of
our salt requirements and im-
ported 93 percent or 550,000
metric tons,” she noted.
Villar recalled that in the
1950s, the Philippines’ salt in-
dustry boomed as new fishponds
and salt farms were constructed
in the provinces of Pangasinan,
Bulacan, Occidental Mindoro,
Cavite, Paranaque City, Negros,
Cebu and other provinces.
“Salt producing areas in the
Philippines, reached an estimat-
ed peak of 5,000 hectares na-
tionally, producing an estimated
Salt industry thrives in Pasuquin town, Ilocos Norte province. To prevent iodine
deficiency, salt manufacturers are highly encouraged to mix iodine in their salt
products. (LEILANIE ADRIANO/PNA)
240,000 metric tons annually.
This boom in growth supported
a growing population and the
development of the salt industry
in the 1960s and 1970s.
One of the measures dis-
cussed in the hearing was Sen-
ate Bill No. (SBN) 1450 or An
Act Promoting and Revitalizing
the Salt Industry of the Philip-
pines filed by Senate Majority
Joel Villanueva, which seeks to
amend the ASIN Law.
Villanueva said the bill seeks
to revive the local salt industry,
increase the productivity and
income of local salt producers,
preserve the country’s local and
traditional production tech-
niques, and promote Philippine
artisanal salt, among others.
“We have an enormous, un-
tapped, and neglected resource
that could change the lives of
about 60 percent of our total
population, who live in coastal
zones. Aside from the urgency
of addressing the needs of the
industry, it is also significant to
this representation since our
home province of Bulacan is the
third largest producer of salt,
next to Pangasinan and Occi-
dental Mindoro,” he said.
The ASIN Law was projected
to protect and promote the health
of Filipinos, to maintain an effec-
tive food regulatory system, and
to provide the entire population,
especially women and children,
with proper nutrition.
It sanctions offenders who
❱❱ PAGE 12 Senators eyeing to
Proposed PH sovereign
wealth fund gets boost
at WEF
BY RUTH ABBEY GITA-
CARLOS
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – President Ferdi-
nand R. Marcos Jr. has earned
the backing of the World Eco-
nomic Forum (WEF) partici-
pants when he presented the
Philippines’ proposed sover-
eign wealth fund (SWF), Mala-
cañang said on Wednesday.
In a statement, Communica-
tions Secretary Cheloy Garafil
said Marcos received positive
feedback after he made a soft
launching of the planned SWF,
otherwise known as Maharlika
Investment Fund (MIF).
During the Philippines’
Country Strategy Dialogue at
WEF in Davos, Switzerland,
Marcos said the process for the
establishment of the MIF is al-
ready in the pipeline.
“The process of establishing
our first-ever sovereign wealth
fund is underway,” he said in his
opening remarks.
“Such a fund is one tool
among many in our efforts to
diversify our financial portfolio,
which includes our existing in-
stitutions pursuing investment
that will generate stable returns,
but also welfare effects spanning
employment creation, improve-
ment of public service, and a
decrease in costs of economic
activities,” Marcos added.
House Bill 6608 (HB 6608)
or the proposed MIF Act is
an independent fund that ad-
heres to the principles of good
governance, transparency and
accountability and shall be
sourced from the investible
funds of select government fi-
nancial institutions (GFIs),
contributions of the national
government, declared divi-
dends of the Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas and other sources.
Under the proposed measure,
the fund shall be used to invest
on a strategic and commercial
basis in a manner designed
to promote fiscal stability for
economic development and
strengthen the top-perform-
ing GFIs through additional
investment platforms that will
www.canadianinquirer.net
help attain the national govern-
ment’s priority plans.
The House of Representa-
tives approved HB 6608 on the
third and final reading on Dec.
15, 2022. It was transmitted to
the Senate on Dec. 19, 2022.
Senator Mark Villar, who is
part of the official Philippine
delegation in Switzerland, said
many of WEF attendees have
expressed interest in the Phil-
ippines and its proposed MIF.
The plan to create a sovereign
wealth fund would help the coun-
try generate income and improve
its fiscal health, Villar said.
“So through the wealth fund,
magkakaroon ng additional in-
come and fiscally mag-i-improve
‘yung fiscal situation ng ating
bansa (our country will have an
additional income and our fiscal
situation will improve),” Villar
said in an interview in Davos.
‘Professional’ management
In a breakfast meeting with
top international chief execu-
tive officers (CEOs) on the WEF
sidelines on Wednesday, Marcos
ensured the “professional” man-
agement of MIF, which is expect-
ed to encourage more public-pri-
vate partnerships (PPPs).
“The management of the wealth
fund must be seen to be rational,
sober, professional,” Marcos said.
“We will certainly make sure
that anyone who will look at the
fund will see that it is run pro-
fessionally and properly. In that
way, the wealth fund has a good
future to be able, as I said, to
succeed in doing what we want
to do, which is leveraging what
we have for these big-ticket in-
vestments,” he added.
Considering that his admin-
istration has insufficient funds
“to do all the things that [it
needs] to do,” Marcos said set-
ting up the MIF is a “good idea”
to leverage government assets
and pursue big-ticket infra-
structure projects, particularly
in energy and agriculture.
The proposed sovereign
wealth fund, Marcos said, would
also enable the government to
ramp up its digitalization efforts.
“The idea is that the sover-
eign wealth fund will play its
part in encouraging also our
JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY
PPPs. The rules have been
changed by the NEDA (Nation-
al Economic and Development
Authority)… and that has made
it much much easier now for
investors to come in and to en-
gage in PPPs,” Marcos said.
‘Well-performing’ PH
Meantime, Marcos also earned
praises from the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) for his
administration’s initiatives and
efforts to sustain the Philippines’
economic growth, Garafil said in
another statement.
This, after Marcos held a bi-
lateral meeting with IMF man-
aging director Kristaline Geor-
gieva on the sidelines of WEF
on Tuesday (Zurich time).
Georgiva said the Philippines
turned to be an “exceptionally
well-performing country” un-
der his leadership.
“What you have done in the
last year of turbulence to sus-
tain growth… is quite commend-
able,” Georgieva, as quoted by
the Presidential Communica-
tions Office (PCO), told Marcos.
Georgieva also expressed
the IMF’s readiness to help its
member countries, including
the Philippines, in achieving
sustainable growth and push-
ing for economic policies that
would benefit more Filipinos.
“We have been really interest-
ed to engage more deeply with
our members to recognize the
traditional challenges… They
are still there,” she said, after
Marcos raised the need for the
Philippines to “go back to the
basics” amid the present chal-
lenges confronting the country.
Marcos, during the meeting,
admitted that there are “weak-
nesses” in the country’s dif-
ferent systems, including food
supply, energy, infrastructure
and climate change.
The IMF is a special agency
of the United Nations which
focuses on promoting global
monetary cooperation, ensur-
ing financial stability and facil-
itating international trade.
The Philippines joined the
IMF on Dec. 27, 1945.
The Marcos administration
❱❱ PAGE 12 Proposed PH sovereign
FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023
Marcos says Asia-Pacific won’t embrace
Cold War mindset
BY RUTH ABBEY GITA-
CARLOS
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Asia-Pacific na-
tions are keen on charting their
own path to success without
embracing the “Cold War”
mentality, President Ferdinand
R. Marcos Jr. said on Monday.
Marcos issued the statement,
as he noted that Asia-Pacific
countries are facing “strong”
pressure to take sides because
of the intense geopolitical rival-
ry in the region.
Despite this, the Associa-
tion of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) and the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC)
member economies are commit-
ted to the idea of abandoning the
Cold War mindset, Marcos said.
“The forces of us going back
to that Cold War type of scenario
where you have to choose one side
or the other are strong,” he said
during a luncheon hosted for him
and Filipino chief executive offi-
cers by the Philippine economic
team in Davos, Switzerland.
“I think we are determined as
Court clears Ressa..
❰❰ 1 scription agreements
that would show that
the foreign entities
NBM and OM will become
owners of the shares of stock of
Rappler Inc. upon the issuance
of the PDRs,” it said.
Paragraph 4 of the PDR in-
strument stipulates that the
Rappler CEO Maria Ressa (PCOO)
a group in ASEAN and in the In-
do-Pacific, those around the In-
do-Pacific, despite all of this con-
flict we are determined to stay
away from that,” Marcos added.
The Cold War refers to the
period of conflict between the
United States and the Soviet
Union, as well as their respec-
tive allies, which began almost
immediately after World War II.
The Asia-Pacific region, Mar-
cos said, is focused on pursuing
its own destiny without being
controlled by any country.
“And simply because we are
anchored in the idea that the
future of the Indo-Pacific, the
future of Asia-Pacific for exam-
ple cannot be determined by
anyone but the countries of the
Asia-Pacific and that removes
us immediately from that
idea that you must choose, we
choose our friends, we choose
our neighbors, that’s the choice
that we will make,” Marcos said.
Marcos said while there are
some disruptions, world econ-
omies are still geared toward
globalization.
For now, the world has to deal
with “several big bumps on the
ownership of the shares of stock
of Rappler Inc. (RI) remains
with the issuer RHC.
The court ruled tht under the
deal entered into by Rappler,
the PDR holder “only retains an
option to purchase the underly-
ing shares of RI subject to cer-
tain conditions e.g. that there is
road,” Marcos said, adding that
there are tendencies for nations
to move “towards nationalism,
towards closing borders, to-
wards protectionism.”
“I think the tendency after
things have settled, after coun-
tries such as the Philippines,
have put in place the elements of
policy, the elements of legislation
that are necessary to be able to
adjust to what is the new coming
economy, once that is in place, I
think that the globalization will
start. We will start to return to
the tendency of globalization. I
think it is inevitable,” he said.
‘Very strong’ trade relations
Marcos acknowledged that
the present crises such as
the coronavirus disease 2019
(Covid-19) pandemic and the
Russia-Ukraien conflict have
an adverse impact in the future
of the world.
To overcome global challenges,
Marcos said “very strong” trade
ties among world economies are
“key to wealth for any country.”
“No country grew wealthy
without a very strong trade re-
lationship, not only with one or
two other countries but with
no law restricitng foreign own-
ership in the business of the op-
erating entity,”.
RHC issued PDRs to NBM in
two tranches –the first PDR cer-
tificate on May 29,2015, relating
264,601 shares in RI and were
put in escrow with the agent.
It issued the second PDR cer-
tififcate inn July 2015 in favor
of NBM, relating to 11,764,117
underlying shares in RI.
The CTA said there is no
legal basis in the imputed
gain of RHC in the amount
of PHP162,412,783 allegedly
treated as trading income.
Meanwhile, Solicitor Gener-
al Menardo Guevarra said they
have yet to receive a formal
copy of the ruling and will study
the implications, if any, of the
decision.
“(T)he OSG will surely dis-
cuss the matter with the BIR
(Bureau of Internal Revenue)
and the DOJ (Department of
Justice) to determine if any fur-
ther action is warranted,” Gue-
varra said .
www.canadianinquirer.net
Philippine News
the rest of the world,” he said.
The Philippines, Marcos said,
aims to strengthen its econ-
omy, given that the Covid-19
pandemic brought the country
back to the basics.
“I’ll use the Philippines as an
example... What happened during
the pandemic is that we were
brought back with a hard thud to
basics and so we have to strength-
en our own local economy to be
able to withstand shocks such as
the pandemic, such as Ukraine in
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. (OPS PHOTO)
NBM and OM fund organi-
zations in developing countries
backing organizations in Indo-
nesia, India, the UK, Mexico,
Israel and Japan.
In 2021, NBM raised USD2.7
million for Vietcetera, a Viet-
nam-based digital media net-
work .
NBM co-founder Sasa Vucin-
ic, is Serbian journalist who
co-founded the Media Develop-
ment Investment Fund (MDIF)
in 1995 originally with funding
from businessman George So-
ros’ Open Society Institute.
By 2012, the fund made over
USD100 million in loans to me-
dia outfits in 200 projects in 30
countries with an estimated au-
dience of 36 million receiving
news from MDIF-funded media.
OM was put up in 2004 by
eBay founder Pierre Omidyar
and calls itself a “philanthrop-
ic investment firm”. Among
the organization’s beneficiary
was the Wikimedia Foundation
which is the hosting non-profit
platform for Wikipedia. ■
7
the future,” Marcos said.
“And a central part of that
has always been my continu-
ing reminder to people that we,
the government, cannot do this
alone. And the partnerships
that we will need, a strong part-
nership with the private sector
and your being here and in the
past, have been so supportive
is a primary element and most
important element for that to
succeed,” he added. ■
Marcos touts PH’s..
❰❰ 3 that’s the right strategy
because, you know, our
location as a country is
so strategic.”
Aboitiz Group president and
CEO Sabin Aboitiz also lauded
Marcos’ economic vision for
the country.
Aboitiz, who also serves as
lead convenor of the Private
Sector Advisory Council, said
the Philippine private sector is
willing to partner with the big
and best businesses overseas
to realize the country’s goals,
considering the huge amount
of money needed for the Mar-
cos administration’s ambitious
infrastructure projects, such as
roads, ports, and airports.
“So when you have that dual
type of respect for each other,
it excites people and the Presi-
dent’s belief in the private sector
is very strong,” he said. “So we’re
gonna need a lot of the funds to
come in to the agriculture. So
we’re gonna need a lot of the
funds and the expertise from
countries around the world.” ■
8 Philippine News
Correspondent/Hosts
Joanna Belle Deala
Arianne Grace Lacanilao
Matte Laurel
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Babes Newland
Graphic Design
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Member
PNP probes abduction of dev’t
workers in Cebu
BY CHRISTOPHER LLOYD
CALIWAN
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Philippine National Police
(PNP) chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. has
ordered an investigation into the alleged
abduction of two development workers
supposedly carried out by police officers
at a port in Cebu on Jan. 10.
In a radio interview Tuesday, Azurin
said he tasked Police Regional Office
(PRO) 7 (Central Visayas) director Brig.
Bill seeks to expand legal aid, use
of funds for distressed OFWs
BY WILNARD BACELONIA,
MARITA MOAJE
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Senate must prioritize
a bill that will ensure the availability of
legal assistance and funds for distressed
overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Senate Majority Leader Joel Villan-
ueva said he has already filed Senate Bill
1448 that would amend Republic Act
8042 or the Migrant Workers and Over-
seas Filipinos Act to benefit about 10.6
million overseas Filipinos around the
globe, especially those in need.
Given the number of abused OFWs,
Villanueva emphasized the need to ex-
pand the system for the provision of le-
gal assistance.
“To curtail further delay in the use
of the Agarang Kalinga at Saklolo para
sa mga OFW na Nangangailangan
(AKSYON) Fund, the bill will allow the
Secretary of Foreign Affairs to delegate
the authority to approve an expenditure
chargeable to the fund to the head of the
post,” he said Tuesday during a hearing
conducted by the Committee on Mi-
grant Workers.
Villanueva cited data from the Over-
seas Workers Welfare Administration
(OWWA) that said the Middle East is a
hotspot for cases of abuse involving OFWs.
“According to OWWA, there are 6,035
cases of maltreatment/mistreatment
in the Middle East, while there are only
679 cases in Asia, Europe, and Americas
combined,” he said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs
(DFA) and Department of Migrant
Workers (DMW) supported Villanueva’s
measure, seeing that it can pull out the
“limitations” in the existing rules and
www.canadianinquirer.net
Gen. Jeary Bearis to get all the details
that could shed light on the kidnapping
which was caught on video and went vi-
ral on social media.
“There was a report that they (alleged
abductors) are policemen, we are check-
ing if they are indeed policemen, we re-
ally need to confirm this,” he added.
Development workers Dyan Guman-
ao and Armand Dayoha had just arrived
at a port in Cebu City from Cagayan De
Oro City when a group of men allegedly
shoved them inside a white van.
They were later dropped off in Car-
regulations in using the Legal Assistance
Fund (LAF) for overseas Filipinos.
DMW Undersecretary Bernard Olalia
said the measure would help engage oth-
er stakeholders who are willing to pro-
vide free legal assistance to OFWs.
“’Yung mga paralegal po natin, ‘yung
magtatapos ng abogasya, kinakailangan
po natin ito. Sa katunayan po ang DMW
ay may mga itinatag na MOU (Memo-
randum of Understanding) na sa iba’t
ibang mga university at sila po ay tumu-
tulong sa pagpo-provide ng legal service
sa ating mga OFW (Our paralegals, those
who are about to finish law school, we
need this. In fact, the DMW has signed
MOUs with different universities and
they are helping provide legal services to
our OFWs),” Olalia said.
Senator Raffy Tulfo has also filed
Senate Bill No. 1175 or An Act Encour-
aging New Lawyer-Scholars to Provide
Free Legal Services to Overseas Filipino
Distressed Filipino workers are leaving Kuwait in this photo taken on Tuesday (Jan. 17, 2023). (DE-
PARTMENT OF MIGRANT WORKERS/FACEBOOK)
JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY
men town where they were able to con-
tact their families.
Gumanao was among those arrested
and charged for holding a protest action
in front of the University of the Philip-
pines Cebu campus in June 2020 over the
alleged sloppy response of the national
government to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The case against her and seven other ac-
tivists was dismissed three months later.
Azurin said they need to get the state-
ments of the two development workers
to expedite the investigation. ■
Workers that will enhance the capacity
of DMW to assist OFWs.
Funding
DFA Undersecretary Eduardo Jose
de Vega said PHP215 million of LAF was
disbursed to assist 6,467 overseas Filipi-
nos in 2022.
“We always have a high utilization
rate kasi wala kaming dine-deny na legal
assistance basta ni-request (because we
never deny any request for legal assis-
tance),” de Vega said.
He also thanked the senators for sepa-
rating the funds of the DFA and DMW in
assisting overseas Filipinos.
Under the rules, the DMW would an-
swer for the legal expenses of OFWs us-
ing the AKSYON Fund.
The DFA would shoulder the legal ex-
penses of overseas Filipinos who are not
OFWs and of OFWs in countries without
❱❱ PAGE 11 Bill seeks to
FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023 9

恭禧發財
Gong Xi Fa Cai
Let's hope that the Year of the Water Rabbit
will hop into us with many sweet surprises.

Happy Lunar New Year!

www.canadianinquirer.net
10
Canada, a superpower? Here’s how the
country might one day fit the bill
BY ​​THOMAS KLASSEN, York
University, Canada
The Conversation
For the foreseeable future, the
United States will probably re-
main the world’s most powerful
nation. Yet, like any champion, it
must watch for challengers and
head them off. At present, Chi-
na’s rise on the global stage trou-
bles Washington. A few decades
ago, it was the Soviet Union.
But will future contenders
for superpower status be much
closer — specifically, north of
the U.S. border? The British
Empire ended in the mid-20th
century when it was outma-
noeuvred not by one of its long-
time rivals, France or Germany,
but rather by its ally, the U.S.
Could Canada do the same?
Canada’s population is just a
fraction of its southern neigh-
bour’s, but Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau’s Liberal gov-
ernment has announced an am-
bitious plan to bring in 500,000
immigrants each year by 2025.
The vast majority will be
young and selected via mer-
it-based criteria that give prior-
ity to education and workplace
skills. Canada’s population in
relation to the U.S. has also been
slowly increasing for decades
and is growing at a faster pace.
Canada and the U.S. are
roughly the same size, both
accounting for 6.1 per cent of
the world’s land mass. Much of
Canada’s land at present is cold,
barren and largely uninhabit-
able. But climate change has
made Canada’s landscape more
Canada News
temperate and suitable for ag-
riculture and other activities, a
trend expected to continue in
the decades to come.
Economic powerhouse
In some ways Canada is al-
ready a superpower. Its econom-
ic output is the eighth largest in
the world. The seven countries
with larger economies have big-
ger populations than Canada.
Even with a short growing sea-
son and relatively small area de-
voted to agriculture, Canada is
the fifth largest exporter of agri-
food and seafood products.
But economic strength is only
one measure of a global power.
Another is having the resources
that others need. In that regard,
Canada is extraordinarily rich
in natural resources, including
clean water. Regardless of fu-
ture economic, environmental
and technological trends, the
country will be an energy and
natural resources superpower.
Two other elements are
needed for superpower status:
a political system that provides
strong governance and a na-
tional culture that’s appealing
to its own citizens and to people
around the world.
Canadian politics prizes sta-
bility and moderation, both
hallmarks of a superpower.
Social change occurs with few
ideological battles. For exam-
ple, becoming the first devel-
oped country to legalize the use
and sale of recreational canna-
bis happened with scant con-
troversy or social division.
Even on expanding the scope
of medical assistance in dying
legislation, Canadians have re-
JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY
mained civil, with all stakehold- greater personal freedoms, such a transition would be pref-
ers willing to listen to each other. Canada’s multicultural policies erable to other scenarios, such as
Providing inspiration are a beacon of hope in a world China or Russia assuming more
Superpowers are not only often scarred by religious, eth- dominant roles in global affairs.
countries that dominate in var- nic and tribal battles. A shift in global power relations
ious spheres, but also countries Where will Canada be in would occur at a leisurely pace
that command the aspiration 2223? and with minimal disruption.
of — and provide inspiration for Much like when the U.S. In 1776, with a population of
— people around the globe. For steadily assumed the role of un- 2.5 million, few imagined that
two centuries, the U.S. has made challenged superpower from within two centuries, the U.S.
its national dream one that oth- Great Britain during the first half would become the dominant
ers around the world sought to of the 20th century, it might be superpower. It’s not inconceiv-
attain. American-style democ- that Canada gradually becomes able that Canada could perform
racy was the gold standard. a great power this century — per- the same feat by 2223. ■
This is now less and less the haps first as a partner to the Unit-
case. The “city on a hill” acting ed States, but then increasingly This article is republished
as a beacon of hope for others supplanting its neighbour. from The Conversation under a
has morphed in recent decades For many around the world, Creative Commons license.
into a selfish “America-first”
environment.
American citizens have
grown disillusioned by their po-
larized politics, while outsiders
question the excesses that drive
U.S. capitalism. Donald Trump’s
years in the White House have
left many dismayed about the
future of their country and wid-
ened the divisions between Re-
publicans and Democrats.
As neighbours, Canadians
shake their heads in wonder
at the inequities, lack of public
health care, lax gun control and
debates over abortion and im-
migration that dominate and
divide American politics.
Canadian culture, shaped by
the country’s history of being a
fragment of both the British and
French empires, has aspired to
promote equality, both between
individuals and groups, although
it’s failed in its abysmal treat-
ment of Indigenous Peoples.
Nonetheless, in an age of
globalization and demand for
www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023
Canada’s new COVID test rules: Targeting
travellers from China will not stop globally
circulating Omicron subvariant
BY JENNIFER FANG, Simon
Fraser University, JULIANNE
PIPER, Simon Fraser
University, KELLEY LEE,
Simon Fraser University
The Conversation
In a throwback to January
2020, when the novel corona-
virus SARS-CoV-2 began to
be detected outside of China,
many countries have again ad-
opted measures targeted at
travellers from China. These
measures include flight restric-
tions, pre-departure testing
and blanket entry bans.
As of Jan. 5, 2023, air trav-
ellers from China, Hong Kong
and Macau over two years of
age entering Canada must pro-
vide proof of a negative COVID
test prior to departure.
This latest round of travel
measures is in response to a
dramatic surge in new corona-
virus infections in China.
Following widespread pro-
tests against the prolonged
zero COVID policy in Novem-
ber 2022, the Chinese govern-
ment dismantled its strictest
COVID-19 rules with remarkable
speed. This included permission
for Chinese nationals, who were
largely banned from travelling
abroad during the pandemic, to
leave the country as of Jan. 8.
The abrupt change in direc-
tion, combined with low popu-
lation immunity, led to a spike
in infections and deaths. This
unfolding tragedy, amid limited
transparency and data sharing
by the Chinese government, is
stoking fears worldwide of a po-
tential new variant of concern.
Bill seeks to..
❰❰ 8 migrant worker offic-
es using LAF.
The LAF could be
availed of by both OFWs and over-
seas Filipinos while the AKSYON
Fund will be used to provide legal
and other forms of assistance to
OFWs, separate from the funds
managed by the DFA.
Unpaid wages
Meanwhile, the DMW asked
former workers of construction
Although governments have
justified the measures as sci-
ence-based, consensus on ef-
fective border management
during this pandemic remains
elusive. Chinese officials were
swift to dismiss the new mea-
sures as politically motivated.
This is difficult to dispute given
that previous measures target-
ing select countries were inef-
fective in preventing introduc-
tion of globally circulating new
variants such as Omicron.
Effective use of testing as a
travel measure
Available evidence shows that
testing combined with other mea-
sures can reduce SARS-CoV-2
introduction from a high- to a
low-incidence setting, if applied
early, universally and stringently.
Testing must be aligned with
the evolving science about the
accuracy of different tests and
the incubation periods of differ-
ent variants. Testing must also
be appropriately combined with
other proven measures, notably
quarantine and contact tracing,
to prevent onward transmission.
The introduction of pre-de-
parture testing alone, for se-
lected travellers arriving from
targeted countries, will not
advance these goals for several
reasons. By the time a variant or
subvariant is identified as con-
cerning, the volume of human
mobility worldwide means it
will have already spread to oth-
er countries not targeted.
The two known Omicron
lineages driving the surge in
infections among a low-immu-
nity Chinese population — sub-
variants BA.5.2 and BF.7 — are
described as “known and… al-
company Saudi Oger in Riyadh
to register and submit missing
documents for faster process-
ing of their claims.
In a video link sent by the DMW
to the media on Tuesday, Secre-
tary Susan Ople said that through
Undersecretary Py Caunan, the
Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia
instructed the unpaid workers to
update their data through http://
ehqaq.sa/saudioger.
Toronto Pearson Airport
ready circulating in other coun-
tries” during much of 2022.
Should a new variant emerge,
targeted measures like those now
being applied would still have
limited preventive effect. This is
because global patterns of travel
mean passengers mix with large
numbers of other people along
their journeys, often transiting
through several countries.
Moreover, reliance on a single
48-hour pre-departure testing
window overlooks variable incu-
bation periods, false negatives,
or new exposures during the
time window prior to departure.
Finally, it makes little sense
to test selected incoming travel-
lers to slow introductions while
lifting public health measures
and allowing uncontrolled do-
mestic transmission.
How should travel mea-
sures be used now?
Following the uncoordinated
and often chaotic use of travel
measures worldwide, our re-
The deadline for registration
through the link is on Jan. 19
but Ople said they requested for
an extension.
Inquiries may be sent via
email to Yousef-alswailem@
saudiogerb.com while request
for assistance can be sent at
DMW’s feedback@dmw.gov.ph.
A total of 11,000 OFWs were
displaced from Saudi Arabia from
2015 to 2017 due to an oil price
www.canadianinquirer.net
Canada News
search at the Pandemics and
Borders Project identifies les-
sons for their use three years
into the COVID-19 pandemic.
First, there is unlikely to be
capacity or political will to test
travellers universally and repeat-
edly to prevent the introduction
of any new variant of concern.
Instead, randomized testing of
all travellers, with genomic se-
quencing of positive test results,
would provide critical surveil-
lance data points at a time when
the virus is rapidly evolving and
moving about through travel.
This should be supplement-
ed with testing of wastewater
from, for example, airplanes
and cruise ships. Testing of
travellers for population and
sentinel surveillance would
support early warning of new
variants of concern.
Second, proven travel mea-
sures should be reframed as
practices to enhance risk mit-
igation, enabling rather than
crash that left employers, mostly
construction firms, unable to pay
salaries and other benefits.
Of the total, 8,000 were from
Saudi Oger.
Ople, who is part of the World
Economic Forum delegation in
Davos, Switzerland, assured the
DMW is regularly following up
on their case.
“Walang lumilipas na ling-
go na hindi kami nag fa-follow
11
restricting travel. Public health
messaging should challenge pop-
ulist-stoked narratives that, for
example, wearing masks during
a flight is a violation of individual
liberty. Instead, appropriate use
of testing, masking and vaccina-
tion enhances personal freedoms
by creating a safer environment
for all travellers.
Finally, travel measures
should be applied in ways that
enhance — rather than deter —
data sharing. The use of targeted
travel restrictions against south-
ern African countries in 2021 did
little to slow the Omicron vari-
ant. The restrictions may have
allowed politicians to reassure
their constituents at home that
something was being done but,
in practice, reporting countries
were simply punished for alert-
ing the world to an already glob-
ally circulating variant.
Similarly, insufficient data
sharing is currently cited as a
key reason for travel measures
targeting Chinese travellers.
Rather than complying, howev-
er, the Chinese government has
begun to retaliate by restricting
short term visas for travellers
from South Korea and Japan.
With the virus continuing to
change and circulate globally in
the foreseeable future, govern-
ments would do well not to re-
peat past mistakes. Instead they
should seek ways to improve
how decisions are made on the
use of travel measures during
the current and future public
health emergencies. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
up sa aming (Not a week goes
by that we do not follow up on
our) Saudi Arabia counterpart,”
Ople said. “Ang sabi sa amin
may formal notice na parating
para matuloy na ‘yung aming
pagpunta within this month,
sa buwan ng Enero (We were
told that there is a formal no-
tice coming so that we can go
ahead within this month, in the
month of January).” ■
 12
A national school food policy is no substitute
for reducing food insecurity
BY ELAINE POWER,
JENNIFER BRADY, DIAN
DAY
Policy Options
This is just one step toward
reducing poverty. The federal
government should also focus
on policies like affordable hous-
ing and child-care fees.
There are many good reasons
to endorse a national school
food policy. First is to support
school-aged children having
access to the nutritious food
they need for overall health and
success at school. School food
programs could help decrease
parental stress about providing
food for their kids while they
are at school. As well, depend-
ing on how policy translates
into action, a food program
could foster positive attitudes
and healthy relationships to
food and eating. Other bene-
fits include developing food
literacy skills among students;
creating jobs and promoting
economic development; sup-
porting local sustainable agri-
culture; reinforcing students’
awareness of, and connections
to, culture; and more.
This is why we support a na-
tional school food policy. But
it’s clear that the high rate of
poverty and food insecurity
among families with children
cannot be fixed by a school food
policy alone.
The federal government’s
claim that school food programs
could reduce food insecurity is
concerning. This rhetoric was
found in the initial budget an-
nouncement, discussion paper
and consultation questionnaire
about the development of a na-
tional school food policy. It was
also reiterated in the National
Advisory Council on Poverty’s
2022 report. However, there is
little evidence to support this
Proposed PH sovereign..
❰❰ 6 is expecting a strong
full-year gross do-
mestic product (GDP)
growth for 2022, most likely
much faster than its growth tar-
get of 6.5 to 7.5 percent.
For 2022, the government
forecasts the country’s econo-
Canada News
claim.
Advocates for a national pro-
gram cheered when it was an-
nounced that the ministers of
agriculture and agri-food, and
families, children and social de-
velopment would work together
along with provincial, territori-
al and municipal governments,
Indigenous partners and other
stakeholders on this policy. The
Coalition for Healthy School
Food is the main stakeholder,
representing 220 non-profit
organizations from every prov-
ince and territory.
One of the coalition’s guiding
principles is universality. This
is the concept that all children
should have access to food in a
non-stigmatizing way, and that
all children in Canada should
enjoy the benefits of school
food programs.
Universality is important.
There are many reasons why
kids might be hungry at school
that have little to do with a
lack of parental income. These
include long bus rides, before-
and after-school activities, ear-
ly morning school starts that
don’t give kids time to eat at
home, lack of appetite in the
morning and the energy de-
mands of growing bodies during
unpredictable growth spurts.
Universality eliminates the
stigma associated with non-uni-
versal programs; it is stigma that
keeps some hungry kids from ac-
cessing the food they need. When
school food programs are target-
ed only to low-income kids, some
parents may be reluctant to allow
their children to participate for
fear that they could be reported
to provincial authorities because
of lack of food in the home. This
legitimate concern goes far be-
yond embarrassment, shame or
“stigma.”
And yet, in the 2022 budget,
the federal government framed
their proposed policy as tar-
my to grow by around 7 percent,
Marcos said during the Country
Strategy Dialogue.
Consistency
In a separate meeting with
Marcos, former United Kingdom
Prime Minister Tony Blair stressed
the importance of “consistency”
geting “the most vulnerable”
kids. The opening lines of the
discussion paper on building a
pan-Canadian school food pol-
icy links “too many” hungry
children at school with “too
many families” unable to “reli-
ably access sufficient amounts
of nutritious food.”
This suggests that the federal
government may be planning a
targeted approach rather than
a universal one. It also suggests
that the government may use
the development of a school
meal policy to stall on more
effective ways of reducing the
high rates of food insecurity
among Canadian families.
A universal program may
alleviate the time and finan-
cial burdens associated with
preparing school lunches and
snacks. However, research con-
ducted in high-income coun-
tries has been inconclusive
about whether these programs
reduce food insecurity.
One research project that
sought to model the hypothet-
ical effects of adopting a U.S.-
style school food program in
Canada found modest improve-
ment for the most food insecure
when it comes to business.
“There should be some kind
of stability, some kind of con-
sistency whichever way you’re
going. So in terms of policy from
the political end, I think it’s im-
portant,” Blair, who concurrent-
ly serves as the executive chair-
www.canadianinquirer.net
families in a “best-case” sce-
nario. However, the study has a
number of limitations. For ex-
ample, the study did not include
a cost-benefit analysis, nor did
it account for the implications
for other benefits that may de-
crease, which could leave hun-
gry kids and their families no
better off.
Earlier research from 2003
concluded that over the entire
year, the effect of school food
programs on food insecurity is
limited. This makes sense con-
sidering that children would
eat, at most, one meal per day,
plus snacks, at school—but only
when at school. It doesn’t in-
clude school absences, school
closures or other breaks, sum-
mer holidays or professional
development days.
Moreover, research shows
mothers will do almost anything
to protect their children from
hunger. If a child shows up hun-
gry at school, it’s likely the whole
household is under significant
stress. The presence of a hun-
gry child is taken as a sign of the
most severe form of food inse-
curity. School food programs do
nothing to alleviate the hunger
man of the Tony Blair Institute
For Global Change, said during
his meeting with Marcos.
Blair issued the statement, as
he noted that the Philippines’
standing last year was “not
quite good.” ■
JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY
of parents, preschool age chil-
dren or others in the household,
nor the long list of expenses and
bills that food insecure families
struggle to pay.
Food insecurity is a problem
of inadequate income and is
one symptom of a broader prob-
lem of poverty. The provision of
food will ease immediate needs,
but it cannot reduce household
food insecurity. A household
with no food, limited food or
an inconsistent food supply is
struggling with many other is-
sues, including paying rent or
mortgage, utilities, medications
and other expenses. Increasing
household incomes is the only
effective remedy.
We agree that “far too many”
families are food insecure in
Canada. Almost one-in-six chil-
dren in this country live in food
insecure households. House-
holds headed by a BIPOC par-
ent or with a single parent have
even higher rates. This has pro-
found effects on child health,
including an increased risk of
suicide ideation.
If the federal government is
serious about its concern for
families living in poverty, there
are several different policy re-
sponses it can employ, starting
with a redesign of the Canada
Child Benefit to better support
low-income families. Campaign
2000 has a comprehensive list
of other reforms that could
effectively reduce high child
poverty rates in Canada, and
thus household food insecuri-
ty. In their annual report card,
No One Left Behind: Strategies
for an Inclusive Recovery, rec-
ommendations include policy
action on homelessness and
affordable housing, set and
geared-to-income child-care
fees, increasing the minimum
wage, employment insurance
❱❱ PAGE 18 A national school
Senators eyeing to..
❰❰ 6 violates any of its pro-
visions or promulgat-
ed rules and regula-
tions by a fine of not less than
PHP1,000 to not more than
PHP100,000, and the revocation
of its business permit and/or ban
of its product from the market. ■
FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023 Canada News 13

Alberta’s new policy on psychedelic drug

treatment for mental illness: Will Canada
lead the psychedelic renaissance?
BY ERIKA DYCK, University Early psychedelic research described as objects of unethi- patient accounts are competing much about spiritual health as
of Saskatchewan There is some precedent for cal research, recreational abuse for our attention. physical or mental health.
The Conversation taking the lead. In the 1950s and and personal risk including in- Meanwhile, the growing bur- This cosmology and ap-
‘60s, an earlier generation of jury and even death. den of mental illness continues proach does not easily fit under
researchers pioneered the first Underground chemists and to overwhelm our health-care the Canada Health Act, nor is it
Patients in Alberta will now wave of psychedelic science, consumers tried to combat this systems. Psychedelics are being obvious who should be respon-
be able to legally consider add- including Canadian-based image, suggesting that psyche- held up as a potential solution. sible for regulating or adminis-
ing psychedelic-assisted ther- psychiatrists who coined the delics provided intellectual and But, magic mushrooms are not tering rituals that sit outside of
apy to the list of treatment word psychedelic and made spiritual insights and enhanced magic bullets. our health-care system. These
options available for mental headlines for dramatic break- creativity. Beyond the medical mar- differences in how we might
illnesses. throughs using LSD to treat al- Most jurisdictions around ketplace imagine the value of psychedel-
Alberta psychiatrists and coholism. the world criminalized psy- Historically hallucinogenic ics is an opportunity to rethink
policymakers suggest that they Vancouver-based therapists chedelics, whether for clinical substances have defied simple the place of Indigenous knowl-
are getting ahead of the curve also used LSD and psilocybin research or personal exper- categorization as medicines, edge in health systems.
by creating regulations to en- mushrooms to treat depres- imentation. Indigenous and spiritual enhancers, toxins, sa- We are well positioned to
sure the safe use of non-western uses of cred substances, rave drugs, etc. take a sober approach to the
these hallucinogenic hallucinogenic plants Whether or not Health Canada, psychedelic hype, which has
substances in a thera- of course stretch back or the province of Alberta, re- been driven in large part by fi-
peutically supported even further in histo- classifies psychedelics as a bona nancial interests, and consider
environment. As of ry, and these too came fide therapeutic option, these what aspects of the psychedelic
Jan. 16, the option is under legal scrutiny psychoactive substances will experience we want to preserve.
available only through ... by the end of the 1960s through a combination continue to attract consumers Now may be a good time to
registered and licensed psychedelics had earned a of colonial pressures to outside of clinical settings. reinvest in our public institu-
psychiatrists in the assimilate and a loom- Canada has an opportunity tions to ensure that psyche-
province. reputation for recreational ing war on drugs that to take the lead once more in delics don’t simply become
Alberta’s new policy use and clinical abuse. did not distinguish be- this so-called psychedelic re- another pharmaceutical option
may set a precedent tween religious prac- naissance. But, it might be our that profits private investors.
that moves Canadians tices and drug-seeking chance to invest in more sus- Instead, we have an opportuni-
one step closer to ac- behaviours. tainable solutions to harm re- ty with psychedelics to rethink
cepting psychedelics as The return of psy- duction and ways of including how a war on drugs has harmed
medicinal substances, chedelics Indigenous perspectives, rather individuals and communities
but historically these In the last decade, than racing to push psychedelics and how we might want to build
drugs were widely sought out sion and homosexuality. While regulations prohibiting psy- into the medical marketplace. a better relationship with phar-
for recreational and non-clin- homosexuality was considered chedelics have started relax- Indigenous approaches to sa- maceuticals. ■
ical purposes. And, if cannabis both illegal and a mental disor- ing. The U.S. Food and Drug cred plants are not only about
has taught us anything, medi- der until later in the 1970s, psy- Administration has designated consuming substances, but in- This article is republished
calizing may simply be a short chedelic therapists pushed back breakthrough therapy status to volve preparation, intention and from The Conversation under a
stop before decriminalizing and against these labels as patients MDMA and psilocybin, based integration, often structured in Creative Commons license.
commercializing. treated for same-sex attraction on their performance in clin- ritualistic settings that are as
Psychedelic drugs — includ- more often experienced feel- ical trials with post-traumat-
ing LSD, psilocybin (magic ings of acceptance — reactions ic stress disorder (PTSD) and
mushrooms), MDMA (ecstasy) that aligned this particular ap- treatment-resistant depres-
and DMT (ayahuasca) — are proach in Vancouver with the sion, respectively.
criminalized substances in gay rights movement. Health Canada has provided
most jurisdictions around the Despite positive reports of exemptions for the use of psi-
world, but some people are sug- clinical benefits, by the end of the locybin for patients with end-
gesting it is time to re-imagine 1960s psychedelics had earned a of-life anxiety, and has started
them as medicines. A few places reputation for recreational use approving suppliers and thera-
are even considering decrimi- and clinical abuse. And, there pists interested in working with
nalizing psychedelics altogeth- was good reason to draw these psychedelic-assisted psycho-
er, claiming that naturally oc- connections, as psychedelic therapy. Training programs for
curring plants like mushrooms, drugs had moved from pharma- psychedelic therapists are pop-
even “magic” ones, should not ceutical experimentation into ping up across Canada, perhaps
be subject to legal restrictions. mainstream culture, and some anticipating a change in regu-
In the wake of cannabis re- researchers had come under lation and the current lack of
forms, it appears that psyche- scrutiny for unethical practices. trained professionals ready to
delics may be the next target Regulation and criminal- deliver psychedelic medicine.
in the dismantling of the war ization At the moment, the next gen-
on drugs. Canada made bold Most legal psychedelics eration of scientific research on
strides internationally with its ground to a halt in the 1970s psychedelics still lags behind
widespread cannabis decrim- with a set of regulatory prohibi- the popular enthusiasm that
inalization, but are Canadians tions and cultural backlash. In has catapulted these substances
ready to lead the psychedelic public health reports since the into the mainstream. Celebri-
renaissance? 1970s, psychedelics have been ty testimonials and compelling
www.canadianinquirer.net
14
Vietnamese president resigns
amid corruption scandals
Anadolu
Philippine News Agency
ISTANBUL -- Vietnam’s
President Nguyen Xuan Phuc
stepped down on Tuesday, tak-
ing responsibility for alleged vi-
olations committed by his min-
isters with regard to Covid-19
response management.
The ministers were found to
have “committed violations in
connection with Covid-19 test kits
and repatriation flights,” accord-
Russia is using drones to target Ukrainian
electricity and erode morale
BY JAMES HORNCASTLE,
Simon Fraser University
The Conversation
Russian officials, as well as
many outside observers, be-
lieved that Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, would
be a rapid affair. The war, howev-
er, has defied these expectations.
As we approach the one-year
anniversary of the conflict, Rus-
sia instead finds itself stuck in
a protracted conflict with no
easy exit. Russia, in order to
achieve the off-ramp it desper-
ately seeks, is now more than
ever focusing on targeting the
Ukrainian home front.
Russia’s changing strategy
for the conflict is the result of
the weakness of its convention-
al forces. The Russian army, in
short, possessed severe struc-
tural problems that limited its
offensive capabilities.
Furthermore, Russia’s efforts
to win the war in a rapid man-
ner while minimizing strain on
its people meant that units de-
signed to be supported by large
numbers of conscripts instead
went directly to the front. The re-
sult was that these units suffered
World News
ing to the Vietnam News website.
Phuc stepped down after the
13th-tenure Central Committee
of the Communist Party of Viet-
nam decided Tuesday “to relieve
Nguyen Xuan Phuc of all duties,
including the presidency, Politbu-
ro, and Party Central Committee
membership, and chairman of the
National Defense and Security
Council for the 2021-26 term.”
Acknowledging that Phuc
made “many efforts in leading the
national Covid-19 response and
achieved important accomplish-
overwhelming casualties in the
initial phases of the conflict.
Russian losses
The loss of these soldiers for
Russia, with estimates of more
than 100,000 dead, injured or
deserted, has proven devastat-
ing for the army.
Russia’s efforts to replace
these soldiers have become in-
creasingly desperate. Even the
Wagner Group, a highly trained
mercenary unit that was unoffi-
cially part of the Russian army,
has resorted to recruiting crim-
inals in an effort to replace their
depleted manpower.
The Russian state even went
so far as to enact a partial mobi-
lization of reservists in Septem-
ber 2022. This proved highly
damaging for Russian morale,
with men fleeing the country to
avoid conscription.
This decline occurred de-
spite indications that Russian
authorities focused their mobi-
lization efforts on the Russian
Federation’s minorities in or-
der to minimize the impact on
ethnic Russians. While the ef-
fort was initially devastating for
Russian morale, it did stabilize
the front lines of the conflict.
Ukraine has the advantage
ments,” the party said: “The Cen-
tral Committee noted that during
his term, Phuc must bear the ‘po-
litical responsibility of the leader’
as many officials, including two
deputy prime ministers and three
ministers, had committed viola-
tions and shortcomings, causing
very serious consequences.”
“Fully aware of his responsibil-
ities before the party and people,
Comrade Nguyen Xuan Phuc has
submitted an application to re-
sign from his assigned positions,
and retire,” the party said. ■
of morale
Stabilization, however, is not
enough for Russia. The longer
the war continues, the more
damaging it is for both the Rus-
sian state and its leadership.
There are also indications
that the Russian army is severe-
ly lacking equipment. It needs
the war to end sooner rather
than later.
In order to win, or at least
declare victory, it needs to un-
dermine Ukraine’s greatest
strength: the morale and spirit
of the Ukrainian people.
Ukrainian morale has been
the country’s greatest asset in
the conflict. Despite the dev-
astating effects of modern war,
morale in Ukraine remains
high. It directly transfers to
the battlefield, and has been a
strength of the Ukrainian army
since the war’s outset.
Russia’s deplorable actions
in occupied Ukraine, further-
more, have stoked Ukrainian
sentiment against Russia.
With Russia’s military un-
able to meet the government’s
political objective of a quick
end to the war, Russia has re-
doubled its efforts to weapon-
ize the Ukrainian population.
www.canadianinquirer.net
Nguyen Xuan Phuc (UN GENEVA/FLICKR, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
This is not a new development.
Russia had sought to weaponize
Ukrainian refugees at the out-
set of the conflict.
Targeting civilians
Now, with winter conditions
and inadequate supplies pre-
venting the Russian army from
fully continuing conventional
operations, it is directly targeting
Ukraine’s civilian population.
The target of Russian attacks,
as a result, is public infrastruc-
ture, especially electricity, with
the aim of causing demoralizing
hardship for Ukrainian civilians.
Direct attacks against civil-
ians contravene the Fourth Ge-
neva Convention and its sub-
sequent amendments. These
amendments, however, contain
a significant flaw. Attacks that
cause harm to civilians are al-
lowed so long as it is not dispro-
portionate to the “direct mili-
tary advantage anticipated.”
This loophole in the Geneva
Conventions is what Russia now
exploits in Ukraine. Russia in the
fall started systemic bombing
efforts to target Ukraine’s power
grid and infrastructure in an ef-
fort to break Ukrainian morale.
While such a campaign would
normally be cost-prohibitive, es-
JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY
pecially given Russia’s declining
missile stocks, it is employing a
21st-century weapon: drones.
Drones are both cheap and
hard to defend against when em-
ployed en masse, at least in a man-
ner that’s not cost-prohibitive.
With probable aid from Iran, Rus-
sia has flooded the country with
this cheap, and deadly, weapon.
Electricity disruptions
With electricity in Ukraine
constantly disrupted by Rus-
sian attacks, the Ukrainian pop-
ulation faces a difficult choice —
to remain in the country under
such conditions or flee abroad.
This choice, and the helpless-
ness it instils, is Russia’s plan. The
Ukrainian government has al-
ready been forced to ask refugees
from the conflict to remain abroad
due to the limited electricity.
Ukrainian determination, if
anything, has become more res-
olute in the face of such tasks.
Morale, however, is a concept
as fragile as it is strong. Concert-
ed efforts must be made, both in
Ukraine and abroad, to keep it
high in the face of such attacks. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023
Prince Harry says his military kills
were like chess pieces – the problem
of seeing war as a game
BY EMMA BREEZE,
University of Birmingham
The Conversation
Amid the many salacious
revelations in Prince Harry’s
memoir, Spare, one of the most
concerning was not about his
family. Harry revealed that he
killed 25 members of the Tali-
ban while serving in Afghani-
stan, and that he viewed them
like pieces on a chessboard. His
comments sparked criticism
from top military figures and
prompted Afghan families to
call for his prosecution.
Harry’s comments suggest
that military technology has ad-
vanced such that a soldier can
say with certainty the number
of kills they have made. But it
also reveals how much “gamifi-
cation” of warfare could become
part of the military mindset.
Advancements in technology
have allowed warfare to become
more remote and operators
more distant from their targets.
Some argue that this makes
them more likely to make risky
decisions. Remote warfare is
UK teachers, nurses to strike further over
pay disputes
Xinhua
Philippine News Agency
LONDON – Further strikes
were announced by teachers
and nurses in the United King-
dom (UK) on Monday, amid the
continued cost-of-living crisis
and lengthy disputes over pay.
If progress is not made in ne-
gotiations by the end of January,
February will see the most wide-
spread strike so far by National
Health Service (NHS) nursing
staff, the Royal College of Nurs-
ing (RCN) said on Monday.
The planned strikes follow walk-
outs in December and January.
“We are doing this in a des-
perate bid to get ministers to
rescue the NHS. The only cred-
exemplified by the use of drones
(unmanned aerial vehicles) in
the US war on terror.
Along with this has come
gamification of warfare, where
military operations and war
video games have become in-
distinguishable in some re-
gards. Over the last decade or
so, militaries have used tech
like video game controllers to
carry out missions. And the
gaming industry has spent large
sums of money to improve hu-
man-computer interactions,
which can aid in military train-
ing and improve the technology
used during combat.
The International Committee
of the Red Cross, aware of the
increasing realism of computer
games such as Call of Duty: War-
zone and Battlefield, have been
working with games producers
to enhance their compliance
with international humanitarian
law. Just as in real life, the ICRC
believes that these games should
include virtual consequences for
gamers’ actions, and that players
should be rewarded for following
the rules of armed conflict.
Distant warfare
ible solution is to address the
tens of thousands of unfilled
jobs -- patient care is suffering
like never before,” RCN Gener-
al Secretary Pat Cullen said.
Interim Chief Executive Saf-
fron Cordery at NHS Providers,
the membership organization
for NHS trusts in England, said
the strike escalation was “very
worrying.”
“We’ve seen how disruptive
these strikes can be, and more ex-
tensive industrial action is likely
to have an even greater impact.
Nobody wants this to continue
happening,” Cordery noted.
“We understand how frus-
trated nurses feel, and how
they have got into this point:
below-inflation pay awards, the
cost-of-living crisis, severe staff
Gamification is partly a result
of hundreds of years of warfare
becoming more remote from
its face-to-face combat origins.
This has been a topic of debate
since medieval times. The long-
bow allowed English archers
to shoot from over half a mile
away, leading to the eventual
demise of rules of chivalry on
the battlefield.
More recently, the rise of air
power significantly increased
the distance involved in warfare.
This led to arguments that the
further a target is from an attack-
er, the less the attacker may be
aware of the human cost. In turn,
this could result in the dehuman-
isation of warfare, meaning the
attacker may not fully appreciate
the impact of their destruction.
The research on this is mixed,
but there is increasing evidence
that the cost on drone operators
is substantial.
While technology has “gam-
ified” war it has also brought
conflict home in a way not seen
before. The advanced optics and
surveillance cameras equipped
to modern aircraft, and cer-
tainly in the case of drone op-
shortages and increasing work-
loads have created near-impos-
sible conditions,” she added.
Over the last year, the UK
has seen record-high inflation,
with the consumer prices index
(CPI) rising by 10.7 percent in
November.
However, wages have failed
to keep up.
Salaries for experienced
nurses are 20 percent lower in
real terms than in 2010, due to
successive below-inflation pay
awards, the RCN noted.
Also on Monday, the Nation-
al Education Union (NEU) an-
nounced that its members had
voted in overwhelming numbers
to take strike action in February
and March to demand a fully
funded, above-inflation pay rise.
www.canadianinquirer.net
World News
erators, means that pilots may
spend longer observing their
targets, and have a greater un-
derstanding of the impact of
their attacks than ever before.
Drone operators continue
to watch events post-attack to
assess the extent of the dam-
age. While Harry flew as a heli-
copter pilot, he wrote in Spare
about watching videos of the
Prince Harry (EVA RINALDI/FLICKR, CC BY-SA 2.0)
“This dispute can be resolved
without recourse to strike action.
We are willing to enter into ne-
gotiations at any time, any place,
but this situation cannot go on,”
the union said on Twitter.
A 5 percent pay rise offered in
July actually equates to a 7 per-
cent pay cut due to the soaring
inflation, the NEU noted.
There has also been a decline
of more than 20 percent in re-
al-term pay for teachers over
the past decade and educators
are leaving the profession in
their droves, it added.
Since last summer, the UK
has been in the grip of a wave of
strikes.
The government has locked
horns with the trade unions,
saying the pay rises that unions
15
kill missions after returning to
base. This review is essential
for compliance with the law of
armed conflict, and to ensure
that the objectives for each mis-
sion have been met.
These factors, combined with
the somewhat isolated environ-
ments where remote weapons
❱❱ PAGE 18 Prince Harry says
have demanded are unafford-
able, and higher pay would not
help fight inflation.
The widespread strikes have
dealt a further blow to the UK’s
already struggling economy.
Transportation and storage
fell month on month in Novem-
ber, driven to some extent by
postal and railway strikes, and
in the short term, the strikes
pose a risk to growth, a Credit
Suisse report said on Friday.
The total direct and indirect
cost of the strikes is estimated
for at least 1.7 billion pounds
(USD2 billion) over the eight-
month period to January 2023,
according to economist Karl
Thompson at the Center for
Economics and Business Re-
search. ■
16 World News JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY

China’s population growth sees

record fall in 6 decades
Anadolu
Philippine News Agency
ISTANBUL – China, the
world’s most populous coun-
try, has seen negative growth in
2022, a historic drop in popula-
tion in more than six decades,
according to national data re-
leased on Tuesday.
China’s total population
fell by 850,000 last year, the
National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS) said in a statement.
“By the end of 2022, the na-
tional population was 1,411.75
million (including the popu-
lation of 31 provinces, auton-
omous regions, and munic-
ipalities and servicemen), a
decrease of 0.85 million over
that at the end of 2021,” the
NBS statement said.
The data does not include
residents of Hong Kong, Macao,
and Taiwan, as well as foreign-
ers living in the 31 provinces,
autonomous regions, and mu-
nicipalities.
It stated that there were 9.56
million births, with a birth rate
of 6.77 per thousand.
“People don’t need to wor-
ry too much, as the main issue
is whether the population, the
demographic structure and
industrial system are compati-
ble,” NBS Director Kang Yi said
in response to a question about
whether China’s population
will continue to decline.
“The trend will continue,” he
projected.
“The overall supply of the la-
bor force is still greater than the
demand. It doesn’t mean that
once the total population is de-
creasing and the demographic
dividend is gone,” the Shanghai
Daily quoted Kang as saying.
“The decrease in China’s
population in 2022 was main-
ly caused by the drop in new
births which was related to a
decline in fertility intentions,
delay in marriage and child-
birth and the decrease of wom-
en of childbearing age,” he said.
It marks “the first time since
1950 that new births have fallen industrial system are compat- labor force is still greater than
below 10 million and the third ible,” Kang replied when asked the demand. It doesn’t mean
year the country’s birth rate has whether China’s population that once the total population is
fallen below 1%,” the Chinese will continue to decrease. “The decreasing and the demograph-
daily Global Times reported. trend will continue.” ic dividend is gone,” Kang said,
China witnessed the national “The overall supply of the according to Shanghai Daily. ■
birth rate fell to 6.77 births for
every 1,000 people last year – a
record low and down from 7.52
in 2021. It is the lowest rate
since records began in 1949.
The NBS data shows that the
number of deaths exceeded the
number of births last year, re-
sulting in a decrease in the total
population from 1.4126 billion in
2021 to 1.4118 billion last year.
Last year, the death rate was
recorded at 7.37 per thousand,
resulting in a national growth
rate of negative 0.6 per thou-
sand people.
The data revealed that 9.56
million babies were born last
year, a 9.98% drop from 10.62
million the previous earlier.
“People don’t need to wor-
ry too much, as the main issue
is whether the population, the
demographic structure and

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www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023
Entertainment
Fil-Am Miss USA wins Miss Universe 2022
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Filipino-Ameri-
can beauty queen R’Bonney Ga-
briel was crowned the 71st Miss
Universe on Sunday morning
(Philippine time) during the
coronation ceremony held in
New Orleans, Louisiana, US.
The 28-year-old bested 83
other national delegates, in-
cluding Amanda Dudamel from
Venezuela, who was the first
runner-up followed by Andreí-
na Martínez from the Domini-
can Republic.
Gabriel is also the first Filipi-
no-American to win Miss USA
in October last year. She was
born in Houston, Texas to Filipi-
no-American Remigio Bonzon
and American Dana Walker.
According to the Miss Uni-
verse website, Gabriel is “an
eco-friendly fashion designer,
model, and sewing instructor
with an excitement for life.”
She has a bachelor’s degree
Vhong is back on “It’s Showtime”
ABS-CBN
“It’s Showtime” family and
the madlang people gave host
Vhong Navarro a rousing wel-
come upon his return to the
popular noontime variety show
on Monday. The actor-host was
moved to tears as his fellow
hosts performed Moffats’ “I’ll
Be There For You.”
“Ang sarap ng pagtanggap
niyo sa akin. Hindi ko alam paa-
no kayo pasasalamatan sa mga
taong nagdasal, nagtiwala, at
hindi ako iniwan,” said Vhong.
“Pagpasok ko dito sa ABS, sin-
abi ko ayaw ko umiyak. Ayoko
ko umiyak kasi ito yung pangal-
awang bahay ko. Dito kung ano
man ang pinagdaanan ko sa bu-
hay ko, tanggap ka rito. Nandito
ung mga kapatid at kapamilya
ko pati na ang madlang pipol,
extension kayo ng pamilya ko.”
Vhong revealed that it took
in fashion design with a minor
in fibers from the University of
North Texas.
She is currently the chief
executive officer (CEO) of her
own sustainable clothing line,
R’Bonney Nola.
Gabriel is also the lead sewing
instructor at Magpies & Peacocks,
a Houston-based non-profit de-
sign house that is dedicated to
using “Fashion As A Force For
Good” through sustainability and
community impact.
She teaches sewing classes to
women that have survived hu-
man trafficking and domestic
violence.
During the first round of
the Q&A segment, Gabriel was
asked the following question:
“Miss Universe recently made
an inclusive change, allowing
mothers and married women to
compete next year. What’s an-
other change that you’d like to
see, and why?”
She replied: “For me, I would
like to see an age increase be-
cause I am 28 years old and that
him some time to return to the
show as he had to attend to im-
portant matters.
“Paglabas ko hindi ko pala
kaya magbalik agad kasi may
mga proseso pang kailangan
gawin. Pero mabait yung Pangi-
noon hindi niya ako pinabayaan
kaya andito na ako. Maraming
salamat sa ABS-CBN kasi may
trabaho ako ulit. Nandito rin
yung pamilya ko,” he added.
Meanwhile, Vice Ganda
shared that Vhong was unsure
as to whether he would receive
the same enthusiastic recep-
tion from the madlang people.
“Paulit-ulit ko na lang na pi-
naalala sa kanya na kung maka-
kagaan sa dibdib niya na mas
nararamdaman namin kung
gaano ka nila kamahal. I don’t
usually read comments pero
kung tungkol sa iyo binabasa ko.
More than 95% ng comments
tungkol sa pagmamahal at su-
porta sa iyo. Kaya hindi ma-
is the oldest age to compete. I
think it’s a beautiful thing. My
favorite quote is ‘If not now, then
when?’ As a woman, I believe
that age does not define us. It’s
not tomorrow, it’s not yesterday,
but it’s now. The time is now that
you can go after what you want.”
In the final Q&A segment, the
Top 3 contenders were asked
how they would work to demon-
strate Miss Universe as an em-
(@RBONNEYNOLA/INSTAGRAM)
giging mahirap ang pagbabalik
mo kasi inaantay lang nila ang
pagbabalik mo para mayakap,
mahalin, at suportahan ka,” the
Unkabogable star said.
Their fellow hosts Anne Cur-
tis, Ogie Alcasid, Kim Chiu, Ka-
rylle, Amy Perez, Ryan Bang,
Teddy Corpuz, Jugs Jugueta,
Ion Perez, Cianne Dominguez,
and MC Muah also expressed
their happiness at Vhong’s
comeback.
“Alam mo palaging sinasabi
ko sa chatroom na I know you
need the time as well to be with
the people who really missed
you. But I just wanted to see
that we are really happy to have
you back and welcome home,”-
said Anne.
“Alam mo noong wala ka,
nagdadasal kami na may mila-
gro na bumalik ka. Ikaw pala
yung milagro, “said Ogie.
Karylle emotionally shared,
“Hindi ko alam ang sasabihin
www.canadianinquirer.net
powering and progressive orga-
nization if they won the title.
Gabriel said: “I would use it
[the Miss Universe platform] to
be a transformational leader. As
a very passionate designer, I’ve
been sewing for 13 years. I use
fashion as a force for good. In
my industry, I’m cutting down
on pollution through recycled
materials when I make my
clothing. I teach sewing classes
ko kasi nawalan talaga ako ng
pag-asa. Sorry na naubos ung
pag-asa ko pero minsan may
darating na madlang people na
sasabihin na ‘one day mangya-
yari ito’ and ito nga nandito ka
na. I’m just so grateful.”
Teddy, Ryan, and Ion stat-
ed how they prayed to be with
It’s Showtime hosts with Vhong Navarro (@VHONGX44/INSTAGRAM)
17
to women who survived from
human trafficking and domestic
violence, and I say that because
it is so important to invest in
others, invest in our communi-
ty, and use your unique talent to
make a difference. We all have
something special and when
we plant those seeds to other
people in our life, we transform
them and we use that as a vehi-
cle for change.”
Meanwhile, Philippine con-
testant Celeste Cortesi failed
to advance to the top 16, ending
the Philippines’ streak of en-
tering the pageant’s semi-finals
since 2010.
Cortesi won Miss Universe
Philippines crown in May 2022.
This year’s pageant was or-
ganized for the first time by
JKN Global Group PCL, a Thai-
land-based media distribution
company, after tycoon and
transgender rights advocate
Anne Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip
bought the Miss Universe Orga-
nization for USD20 million in
October last year. ■
their brother Vhong again.
Don’t miss the excitement
and fun on “It’s Showtime,”
12:45PM on A2Z, Kapamilya
Channel, TV5, Kapamilya On-
line Live, ABS-CBN Entertain-
ment’s YouTube channel, and
Facebook page, iWantTFC, and
TFC IPTV. ■
 18
Why is Austin Butler still speaking in his
Elvis voice? It could be a case of ‘role spill’
BY LUZITA FEREDAY, Edith
Cowan University
The Conversation
If you’ve seen any of the vid-
eos or interviews with Austin
Butler at the recent Golden
Globes you may have noticed
he still sounds a bit like Elvis.
In fact, many people have not-
ed that despite being from Cal-
ifornia, he still sounds like he’s
from the Deep South.
For actors, learning a new ac-
cent is incredibly demanding.
Accent assimilation is a rigor-
ous process that often requires
listening deeply to archive ma-
terial, documentaries, movies
and interviews and observing
linguistic details.
Austin Butler in his role as El-
vis shows how an actor must be
acutely responsive to the specif-
ics of an accent, role, script style
and demands of the film.
The actor works with a dia-
lect coach, starting months or
years before filming. The coach
provides source recordings (a
real person, for example, Elvis)
and an accent breakdown. The
actor will listen to the sound
samples at every opportunity
for total immersion.
Significant practice and repe-
tition are needed to integrate a
new accent. Coaching includes
layering all the elements to give
an accent a solid foundation,
slowly building from words to
sentences, with the dialect coach
providing continuous feedback
until the actor is speaking in ac-
Prince Harry says..
❰❰ 15 operators are located,
have been found to in-
crease stress, mental
fatigue, burnout and post-trau-
ma responses particularly
among drone operators, and
those viewing events remotely.
Legal challenges
Drones are one of the most
well-known aspects of remote
warfare. But legally speaking,
drone operators are akin to their
colleagues in regular aircraft.
They must follow the same rules
to ensure compliance with the
law, whether they are on the
battlefield, in an aircraft or con-
trolling a drone in a bunker un-
Entertainment
cent easily and consistently.
A little less conversation a
little more action
In cases where an actor is
portraying an iconic figure,
such as Elvis, there is huge re-
sponsibility to be convincing
in the role. This can lead to ac-
tors staying in-accent for many
months or years.
Examples of performers in
this situation include Jamie
Foxx as Ray Charles, Natalie
Portman as Jackie Kennedy,
Meryl Streep as Julia Child, and
Ben Kingsley as Gandhi.
British actor Idris Elba told the
Guardian it took moving to New
York and three years of practising
to get his American accent believ-
able for his role in The Wire.
Australian actor Nicole Kid-
man when rehearsing for Nine
Perfect Strangers would stay in
accent all day, including at home
with her family. Over five months
the actors she was working with
did not hear her Australian ac-
cent until the day filming ended.
US actor Forest Whitaker,
when faced with the challenge
of Idi Amin’s accent in The Last
King of Scotland, admitted he
practised even when he wasn’t
on set in an effort to stay im-
mersed in the character.
There was one time into re-
hearsals that I dropped it because
I had to go down and meet all the
dignitaries, and it took me days to
get it back. I was so frightened be-
cause I was there a month before
and I was like, ‘this is not going to
happen again, I am not going to
lose this character’.
der the Las Vegas strip.
All aspects of armed conflict
are governed by internation-
al humanitarian law. This is
primarily found in the Geneva
Conventions, which balance
military necessity (what needs
to be done to achieve military
aims) with humanity (protect-
ing civilians, medical facilities
and other objects from the rav-
ages of war).
Any advancement in military
technology must be used in a
way that meets this standard.
Attacks must be directed only at
military objectives, which must
be distinguished from civilian
What is role spill?
Actors who live the part of a
role, integrating accent, body,
imagination and feelings may,
post production, experience role
spill. This is known in the acting
community as boundary blurring:
when the actor is finding it diffi-
cult to separate themselves from
the character they’re playing and
blurring the lines between profes-
sional and private roles.
Your voice is a direct expres-
sion of who you are and your
experiences. The fusing of per-
sonal identity with characters
is crucial to the craft of an actor.
However, some actors can lose
their “idiolect” (their individual
way of speaking) and can retain
features of accents they may
have used for their character.
An actor that completely
loses himself in a role is Gary
Oldman. Originally from South
London, but having spent many
years living in America, he has
had to relearn his English ac-
cent for a film character in Tin-
ker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
Margot Robbie told Grazia
magazine that during filming I,
Tonya, she “genuinely thought”
a conversation she was having
with fellow actor Sebastian Stan
who played Tonya’s abusive hus-
band, was real. The feelings and
emotions can become so inten-
sive they felt like the actor’s own.
De-roling
The term de-roling refers to
a technique which is thought to
have originated within drama-
therapy and psychodrama to
assist the actor in “disrobing”
targets. Any likely loss of civilian
life or damage to civilian prop-
erty must not be excessive in re-
lation to the direct and concrete
military advantage. This means
that any person conducting an
attack must take feasible pre-
cautions to avoid or minimise
the loss of civilian life.
The substantial improvement
in reconnaissance and surveil-
lance technologies means that
states and their militaries have
more information than ever to
make decisions before attacking.
In theory, states have an even
higher level of obligation to veri-
fy the identity of their targets.
www.canadianinquirer.net
or letting go of certain physical
character traits that are not their
own once they finish performing.
It’s a process that can help
actors shed intense emotions
or characters, and it’s crucial to
the health of an artist. This can
be done by shaking out the body
and doing physical activities such
as jumping and running on the
spot to shake off the character.
In addition to this, it can include
taking deep breaths and vocal ex-
ercises including humming to re-
lease vocal fold tension and let go
of negative emotions. In theatre,
the ensemble or cast can agree to
de-role together before leaving
the theatre.
It can be difficult to de-role for
an actor who has invested signifi-
cant commitment to a successful
transformation of accent, body
and character. It can take months
Austin Butler (EVA RINALDI/FLICKR, CC BY-SA 2.0)
The gamification of warfare
hasn’t changed the laws that
govern how conflict is conduct-
ed and who is held account-
able. These laws are designed
to protect civilians and retain
the humanity of warfare. But
Prince Harry’s “chess piece”
comments make clear that as
combat becomes more distant,
it is even more important to re-
member the humanity of those
caught up in conflict. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY
for an actor to feel they have let
the character go, especially if
they felt a strong synergy and
connection with the character.
Speaking about her role as
Mare Sheehan in the crime se-
ries Mare of Easttown, Kate
Winslet explained “it was the
hardest thing to let go of” and
“she got under my skin…”
Once an actor moves on to
a new project or spends time
with close friends and family
they may revert back to how
they sounded before – or may-
be not. Varying your speech
sounds is not likely to affect an
actor’s work opportunities in
the future – arguably the more
fluid you sound the better. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
A national school..
❰❰ 12 reform and greater
investment in and ser-
vices for First Nations
and racialized communities.
The implementation of a na-
tional school food policy as laid
out by the Coalition for Healthy
School Food is a positive step.
But it must be universal, and it
must not be used as an excuse to
avoid implementing other poli-
cies that deliver effective pover-
ty reduction. ■
This article first appeared
on Policy Options and is repub-
lished here under a Creative
Commons license.
FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023
This lunar year will be the
Year of the Rabbit or the Year of the Cat,
depending on where you live
BY MEGAN BRYSON,
University of Tennessee
The Conversation
On Jan. 22, 2023, more than a
billion people globally will wel-
come the Year of the Rabbit – or
the Year of Cat, depending on
which cultural traditions they
follow – as the start of the Lunar
New Year. In the New York City
public school district, Lunar
New Year has been observed as
a school holiday since 2015.
The Lunar New Year is some-
times called the Chinese New
Year, because it follows a calen-
dar that was developed in China;
but it is also celebrated in various
parts of Asia, such as Korea and
Vietnam. Tibetan and Mongolian
cultures follow a similar calendar
that will start the Year of the Rab-
bit about a month later, on Feb. 20.
While this calendar is some-
times just called “lunar,” it adds
an extra month every few years
to stay in sync with the solar cy-
cle, so it’s technically lunar and
solar, or lunisolar. This means
that the date of the Lunar New
Year in the Gregorian calendar
changes from year to year but
always falls in January or Feb-
ruary. The Gregorian calendar
is the solar calendar used to-
day in most parts of the world,
including the United States.
As a scholar of East Asian reli-
gions, I am familiar with the wide
range of lunar and lunisolar cal-
endars used in different religions
and cultures, and especially with
the religious significance of the
East Asian lunisolar calendar.
The lunisolar calendar that de-
veloped in China combines two
categories: 12 earthly branches,
each of which corresponds to an
animal, and 10 heavenly stems,
each of which corresponds to one
of the five elements – fire, water,
wood, metal and earth – and ei-
ther the feminine yin or mascu-
line yang force.
Lifestyle
While this lunisolar calendar
brings people together, differ-
ent countries and cultures have
their own legends and customs
surrounding the New Year.
Even the animal associated
with the year can vary.
Year of the Rabbit or Year
of the Cat?
In most parts of East Asia, the
new year that begins on Jan. 22
corresponds to the rabbit, and
also to the element of water and
the feminine yin force. The cycle
takes 60 years to complete, so
60th birthdays across East Asia
are times for special celebrations.
However, the animal associ-
ations of the zodiac can vary: In
Vietnam, Jan. 22 will usher in
the Year of the Cat instead. The
most recent Year of the Cat, in
2011, saw a baby boom in Viet-
nam because of the good luck
associated with that zodiac sign.
One explanation among
scholars for why Vietnamese
culture celebrates it as the Year
of the Cat is that the earthly
branch corresponding to “rab-
bit” is pronounced mao in Man-
darin and meo in Vietnamese,
which sounds similar to the
Vietnamese word for “cat.”
Another explanation comes
from two variations of a popular
legend about how the 12 zodiac
animals were chosen. According
to that legend, either the Buddha
or the Jade Emperor, head of the
Chinese pantheon, organized a
race across a river to choose the
zodiac animals and their order.
In the Chinese version, the
cat and rat were riding across a
river on an ox when the rat, in
its drive to be first, pushed the
cat into the water so that the cat
arrived last and was disqualified.
The rabbit was crossing the riv-
er by hopping on stones sticking
out of the water, but with one
lucky leap it landed on a float-
ing log that swiftly carried it to
shore, so that the rabbit finished
fourth. However, in the Viet-
namese version – which lacks a
rabbit – the cat could swim and
ended up arriving fourth.
Rabbits in Chinese culture
In the Chinese tradition, peo-
ple born in particular zodiac
years have some of their ani-
mal’s characteristics. Since the
late 20th century, Chinese re-
gions have seen birth rates spike
during Years of the Dragon be-
cause dragons are powerful sym-
bols of good fortune and success.
Some animals carry strongly
gendered meanings: the Year of
the Tiger is widely seen as a good
year for male births, but female
tigers are stereotyped as overly
aggressive. In Korea, the Year of
the Horse is similarly perceived
as a bad time for girls to be born.
Conversely, the Year of the
Rabbit is seen as a better year
for girls because the rabbit’s
qualities of kindness, empathy
and patience are stereotypically
feminine virtues. Moreover, rab-
bits have been associated with
male homosexuality since the
18th century, and the word “rab-
bit,” tuzi in Mandarin, is a slur
for male sex workers. The stig-
ma surrounding homosexuality
in Chinese cultures means that,
for some people, having a boy
in the Year of the Rabbit would
be less ideal. However, some
members of Chinese LGBTQ+
communities are rejecting this
stigma by reclaiming the Rabbit
God as a patron deity.
The Rabbit God is not always
understood as a god of male
same-sex love. He can also be
a symbol of longevity. Chinese
lore holds that a rabbit and toad
on the Moon work with the
moon goddess Chang’e to refine
the elixir of immortality.
Celebrating the Year of the
Rabbit
The Year of the Rabbit will
feature rabbit decorations, rab-
bit-themed marketing, and an
abundance of new pet rabbits.
19
However, the celebration will re-
main the same as in other years.
Chinese Lunar New Year cel-
ebrations emphasize family to-
getherness as well as good luck
and prosperity for the coming
year. In China, the Lunar New
Year marks the world’s largest
annual human migration, as
people who work in big cities
travel home to see their fami-
lies for the two-week holiday.
The new year officially ushers in
the spring, so it is also called Spring
Festival, or Chunjie in Mandarin.
To start the New Year on the right
foot, people get haircuts, clean
their houses and wear new clothes.
These new clothes, like most New
Year’s decorations, are red, which
symbolizes good fortune.
New Year’s foods also aim to
bring good fortune. Among the
dishes commonly eaten at New
Year’s are fish, because in Man-
darin “having fish,” you yu, is a
homophone for “having a sur-
plus.” Eating a dessert of glu-
tinous rice balls in sweet soup,
known as tangyuan, represents
the family being complete, be-
cause the word for round, yuan,
also means “complete.”
Family is the focus of New Year
celebrations, which traditionally
take place in the home of the hus-
band’s family. Adults generally
give gifts of money in red enve-
lopes to younger relatives who
are still in school. On the second
or third day of the new year, fami-
lies often travel to the wife’s fam-
ily home to see the in-laws.
The Lantern Festival, Yuanx-
iao jie, wraps up the festivities
two weeks after the New Year
begins with the first full moon of
the year. As the name suggests,
people celebrate with decorat-
ed lanterns, which often have
riddles attached. In addition to
guessing the answers to these
riddles, people celebrate by eat-
ing tangyuan or similar round
❱❱ PAGE 25 This lunar year
20 Lifestyle JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY

Curious Kids: is there such a thing as nothing?

BY JACCO VAN LOON, Keele
University
The Conversation
Is there such a thing as
nothing? – Reggie, aged seven,
Darlington
Could someone see nothing?
What does nothing look like? –
Maya, aged nine, Bristol
Imagine you hear a noise out-
side your window. You think it
might be a dog barking, or may-
be a child shouting. But when
you get up and have a look,
there’s no dog or child. “Oh,”
you say, “there’s nothing there.”
We often say we’ve “got noth-
ing”, or that there’s “nothing
there”. But what we mean is that
we haven’t got a particular thing.
When you looked outside, lots of
things were there – trees, hous-
es, cars and bicycles maybe – but
the particular thing you were
looking for wasn’t there.
Even if you were looking into
a completely empty room, there
would still be things there.
There’s always air, and air is
made up of molecules, like the
oxygen we need to breathe in to
keep us alive.
But what about space? There’s
no air in space: that’s why astro-
nauts need to wear a space suit
that provides oxygen to breathe
if they go on a “space walk”.
There are actually molecules
in space, too, but they are so few
and far between that it’s most-
ly empty space. This is called a
vacuum. We might think that the
emptiness we can see in between
stars in the night sky, where there
are very few molecules, will be
where we find “nothing”.
It turns out, though, when
you look into the dark night
sky, you are not seeing “noth-
ing”. This empty space is filled
with energy, and that’s some-
thing even if you cannot hold
it in your hand. Energy is what
makes things happen.
Energy never goes away and
it is never made out of noth-
ing. When you run, the energy
in your motion comes from the
energy you got out of the food
you ate. When you stop, that
energy goes into heat and mak-
ing a minuscule impact on the
motion of the Earth as your feet
rub against it when you brake.
Einstein realised that energy
and particles (tiny bits of stuff )
are two sides of the same coin.
The tiniest things we know
of – such as particles, which
are more than a million billion
times smaller than we are – are
made from energy. About a cen-
tury ago scientists realised that
these tiny things act differently
to bigger things in the universe.
Their behaviour cannot be pre-
dicted precisely, and it can only
be described with something
called “quantum mechanics”.
Particles and anti-particles
This also means that the con-
tent of vacuum is not precisely
zero. Tiny particles in it can
meet their exact opposites, “an-
ti-particles”. When this hap- is where space is, where stuff and it would be better to say it’s the
pens they cancel each other out energy are, and where time is. absence of anything.
and vanish, but this leaves be- Outside the universe? Nothing does exist as an idea.
hind the energy that had made Physicist Stephen Hawk- We can use “nothing” to count
them in the first place. ing explained the universe as with: the idea of “zero” was be-
The vacuum of space is a having no boundary, either in ing used 4,000 years ago, and the
“soup” of energy and pairs of space or in time. When you are oval symbol we use today was in-
particles and anti-particles. inside a house, the walls are vented over 1,000 years ago.
The Dutch scientist Hendrik the boundary and you could Perhaps this is the only place
Casimir suggested a way of think about what’s outside, per- where “nothing” exists: as an
proving this in 1948 – and half haps even see it through a win- idea in our minds. ■
a century later, we have found dow. But if the universe has no
out that he was right. boundary, then there is no such This article is republished
This energy in the vacuum thing as “outside” (or “before”). from The Conversation under a
also makes the universe grow We could call it “nothing”, but Creative Commons license.
bigger with time, like when you
blow up a balloon.
There are other things in the
vacuum of space, too. Space con-
tains “fields”, which are a way to
describe the influence something
can have throughout a region of
space. For instance, the Earth
pulls at the Moon through space
by way of a field called “gravity”.
When famous physicist Al-
bert Einstein was figuring out
how gravity works, he found
that space actually has shape.
Something with a lot of mass,
like a star or a planet, bends
the space around it, like how a
heavy ball held in the middle of
an outstretched blanket makes
the blanket change shape. If
space has shape then surely
space cannot be nothing.
It looks as if we won’t find
“nothing” anywhere in our uni-
verse. Perhaps the place to look for
nothing is beyond or outside the
universe. This may be an impossi-
ble question, though. The universe

NHCP opens Museum of Philippine

Maritime History in Iloilo City
BY PERLA LENA
Philippine News Agency
ILOILO CITY – The National
Historical Commission of the
Philippines (NHCP) on Friday
opened the Museum of Philip-
pine Maritime History in Iloilo
City that showcases the coun-
try’s rich maritime history.
NHCP chairperson Dr. Rene
Escalante said the museum has
two galleries at the ground floor
of the refurbished old Customs
House located at Muelle Loney
Street, corner Aduana Street in
the city proper.
The first wing tackles about
Philippine maritime history
until the end of the Spanish pe-
riod, while the second wing is
focused on the American period
up to the current.
The museum also showcases
other auxiliary facilities such as
the “parola,” custom house, tra-
ditions that are related to sea
transport and major tragedies
that happened in the country.
The maritime museum and
the refurbishing of the histori-
cal Custom House were two of
the four projects unveiled Fri-
day, the others being the mon-
ument of Gen. Macario L. Per-
alta Jr., who led the Free Panay
Guerrilla Forces against the
Japanese forces, and a marble
wall with the names of Ilong-
go guerrillas and veterans who
fought during the World War II.
Former senator Franklin
Drilon, who made sure that the
projects were funded during
his last term in the Senate, said
they undertook the projects to
emphasize to Ilonggos that they
should look back to their past
for them to succeed.
“Today these four projects
would really strengthen the be-
lief of Ilonggos that we should
look back to our history, in or-
www.canadianinquirer.net
der that we will achieve what
we want to achieve,” he said in
his message.
The projects are situated ad-
jacent the Sunburst Park, that
was also restored from being
once a decrepit plaza through
the efforts of the former Ilong-
go senator.
Sunburst Park is also a his-
torical site and is a living tes-
tament to the Ilonggos’ fight
and success over the Japanese
invaders. It was named after
the United States Army contin-
gent that helped liberate Panay
during the Second World War.
“The restoration of this
building (Customs House), the
restoration of the Sunburst
Park, and these historical mark-
ers are my modest contribution
to remind everyone of the rich
cultural heritage of the Ilong-
gos,” Drilon said.
Meanwhile, Mayor Jerry
Treñas said the newly opened
gallery, and all other museums
will highlight Iloilo as a “city of
museums.”
“One of the reasons why peo-
ple visit Iloilo is the number of
museums that we have. We will
be able to promote this as one
of our tourist destinations,” he
said in an interview. ■
FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023
Procrastination is linked
to poor health – new study
BY EVA SKILLGATE,
Karolinska Institutet,
ALEXANDER ROZENTAL,
Karolinska Institutet, FRED
JOHANSSON, Sophiahemmet
University
The Conversation
University students have a lot
of freedom but not much struc-
ture. This can be bad for ha-
bitual procrastinators. Studies
have shown that at least half of
university students procrasti-
nate to a level that is potentially
harmful to their education.
But this may not be the only
negative result of putting things
off until a later date. Studies
have found a link between pro-
crastination and poor health. It
is associated with higher levels
of stress, unhealthier lifestyles
and delays in seeing a doctor
about health problems.
However, these studies – by
the nature of their design – can-
not tell us the direction of the
relationship. Does procrasti-
nation cause poor physical and
Single-use plastic bans: research shows three
ways to make them effective
BY ANTAYA MARCH,
University of Portsmouth,
STEVE FLETCHER,
University of Portsmouth,
TEGAN EVANS, University of
Portsmouth
The Conversation
Governments around the
world are introducing sin-
gle-use plastic product bans to
alleviate pollution.
Zimbabwe banned plastic
packaging and bottles as early
as 2010. Antigua and Barbuda
banned single-use catering and
takeaway items in 2016, and the
Pacific island of Vanuatu did the
same for disposable containers
in 2018.
The EU prohibited cotton
buds, balloon sticks, plastic cater-
ing items and takeaway contain-
ers, including those made from
expanded polystyrene, in 2021.
The UK government has
mental health because people,
say, put off starting a new exer-
cise regime or seeing a doctor
about a health problem? Or is
it the other way around? Does
poor physical health, say, lead
people to procrastinate because
they don’t have the energy to do
the task now?
To try to solve this riddle,
we conducted a longitudinal
study – that is, a study that fol-
lowed people for a period of
time, taking measurements at
various points in the study. We
recruited 3,525 students from
eight universities in and around
Stockholm and asked them to
complete questionnaires every
three months for one year.
Our study, published in JAMA
Network Open, aimed to inves-
tigate if students who procras-
tinate have a higher risk of poor
mental and physical health. Of
the 3,525 students we recruited,
2,587 answered the follow-up
questionnaire nine months lat-
er, where several health out-
comes were measured.
To understand how procras-
followed suit by announcing a
ban on the supply of single-use
plastic plates, cutlery, balloon
sticks, and polystyrene cups and
containers supplied to restau-
rants, cafes and takeaways in
England. The measure will start
in April 2023. The same prod-
ucts sold in supermarkets and
shops will be exempt from the
ban, but subject to new regula-
tions expected in 2024.
While the forthcoming ban is
a step in the right direction, the
production, use and disposal of
plastics typically spans several
countries and continents. The
success of any policy aimed at
restricting the use of plastic
products in one country should
not be taken for granted.
Our research continues to
highlight that policies which
influence what consumers buy,
such as bans, taxes or charges,
lack the reach to confront the
global scale of pollution. The
tination relates to later health
outcomes, students with a
greater tendency to procras-
tinate (as scored on a procras-
tination scale) at the start of
the study were compared with
students with a lower tenden-
cy. The results showed that
higher levels of procrastination
were associated with somewhat
higher symptoms of depres-
sion, anxiety and stress nine
months later.
Students with higher levels of
procrastination were also more
likely to report disabling pain in
the shoulders or arms (or both),
worse sleep quality, more lone-
liness and more financial diffi-
culties. These associations re-
mained even when we took other
factors that could affect the asso-
ciation into consideration, such
as age, gender, parents’ level of
education, and previous physical
and psychiatric diagnoses.
Although no specific health
outcome was strongly associ-
ated with procrastination, the
results suggest that procrasti-
nation may be of importance
effect of banning single-use
plastic items is limited to the
jurisdiction in which it is im-
plemented, unless it inspires
a wider shift in public or com-
mercial behaviour across inter-
national boundaries.
Without supporting mea-
www.canadianinquirer.net
Lifestyle
for a wide range of health out-
comes, including mental health
problems, disabling pain and an
unhealthy lifestyle.
As mentioned above, in ear-
lier studies, participants were
only assessed at one point in
time, making it hard to know
which of the conditions came
first: procrastination or poor
health. By getting students to
answer questionnaires at sever-
al time points, we could be sure
that high procrastination levels
were present before we mea-
sured their health.
But it is still possible that
other factors not accounted for
in our analysis could explain
the associations between pro-
sures, or by failing to treat the
ban as the beginning of a broad-
er phase-down of plastic, ban-
ning some items does little to
change the attitudes which re-
inforce a throwaway culture.
The Global Plastics Poli-
cy Centre of the University of
21
crastination and subsequent
poor health outcomes. Our
results are not proof of cause
and effect, but they suggest
it more strongly than earlier
“cross-sectional” studies.
It can be treated
There is good news for habit-
ual procrastinators. Clinical tri-
als (the gold standard of medical
research) have shown that cogni-
tive behavioural therapy is effec-
tive at reducing procrastination.
The treatment helps the per-
son overcome procrastination
by breaking up long-term goals
into short-term goals, managing
distractions (such as turning off
❱❱ PAGE 26 Procrastination is
Portsmouth reviewed 100 pol-
icies aimed at tackling plastic
pollution worldwide in 2022 to
understand what makes them
successful. Here are three key
lessons which can make the
new English ban more effective.
1. Make it easy to use alter-
natives
Consumers and businesses
are less likely to comply with a
ban if they are expected to go
entirely without plastic over-
night. Ensuring businesses can
source affordable alternatives
is critical. Antigua and Barbu-
da did this by investing in the
research of more sustainable
materials and listing approved
alternatives to plastic, such as
bagasse, a byproduct of sug-
ar-cane processing.
To maintain public support,
it helps if there are measures
which prevent cost hikes being
❱❱ PAGE 25 Single-use plastic
22 JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY

Hidilyn chosen as athlete representative to
IWF Executive Board
BY JEAN MALANUM
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Tokyo Olympics
gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz was
chosen as one of three athletes
who will join the International
Weightlifting Federation (IWF)
Executive Board.
Also elected during the IWF
Athletes Commission online
meeting on Jan. 11 were chair-
person Forrester Osei of Ghana
and Luisa Peters of Cook Islands.
Diaz will serve as Osei’s deputy.
The three athletes will serve
as full voting members of the
IWF Congress.
“It’s a huge honor to be reap-
pointed by my peers as Chair of
the IWF Athletes’ Commission.
Sports
I’m very excited to continue the
work we’ve begun – for example,
on the athlete scholarships project
– with the benefit of even stronger
representation on the IWF Exec-
utive Board alongside Hidilyn and
Luisa. As athletes, we know we
have a key role to play in shaping a
positive future for our sport in the
crucial months ahead,” said Osei in
a news release posted on the IWF
website on Jan. 13.
IWF President Mohammed
Jalood said he was delighted to
welcome the three athletes to
the Executive Board.
“We look forward to working
closely together as we seek to shape
a new future for weightlifting,
which places athletes at the centre
of everything we do. As a Board, we
have been clear that strengthen-
ing athlete representation in deci-
sion-making is a key stepping stone
to greater accountability and prog-
ress in our sport,” said Jalood, who
is also vice president of the Asian
Weightlifting Federation.
Diaz ruled the women’s 55kg.
category at the 88th IWF World
Championships in Bogota, Co-
lombia last December.
The 31-year-old athlete from
Zamboanga City lifted 93kg.
in the snatch and 114kg. in the
clean-and-jerk for a total of
207kgs. in the competition which
was the first qualifying meet for
the 2024 Paris Olympics.
With her category excluded in
Paris, Diaz decided to move up
to 59kg., hoping to make it to the
competition proper and give the
Philippines another medal. ■ (@HIDILYNDIAZ/INSTAGRAM)

Ginebra pips Bay Area to Brownlee

win PBA Comm’s Cup title officially becomes
BY IVAN STEWART
SALDAJENO
Philippine News Agency
Filipino citizen
MANILA – Ginebra went
home with the PBA Commis-
sioner’s Cup title after beating
Bay Area, 114-99, in the final
game of the best-of-seven finals
in front of a new league record
54,589 fans at the Philippine
Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
The Gin Kings pulled away in
the second quarter, outscoring
the Dragons, 34-18, to open a
61-39 halftime lead even as the
guest team could not cut the
lead lower than 15 points in the
second half.
Justin Brownlee led Ginebra,
which moved to second all-time
in PBA championships with
15, with 34 points on 14-of-22
shooting, eight rebounds, 12 as-
sists, one steal and three blocks.
Jamie Malonzo, who had
been struggling all throughout
the playoffs, played his best
game of the knockout phases
right on the final match of the
conference, contributing 22
points, 17 rebounds, one assist,
one steal and two blocks.
Christian Standhardinger,
who was later named the Finals
Most Valuable Player, added 12
points, 10 rebounds and six as-
sists.
Myles Powell, Bay Area’s of-
fensive spark plug, fizzled in the
game where his contribution
Barangay Ginebra San Miguel (@SCOT_THOMPSON6/INSTAGRAM)
was badly needed as he was held
to 9-of-22 field goals and 7-of-12
free throws for 29 points with
seven rebounds, five assists and
one block.
Hayden Blankley added 25
points, nine rebounds, four as-
sists and two steals, while Liu
Chuanxing chipped in 17 points,
13 rebounds, two assists, four
blocks and two steals and Kobey
Lam had 13 points, 10 rebounds,
three assists and two steals. ■
BY LEONEL ABASOLA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Less than 24
hours after leading Baran-
gay Ginebra to the Philippine
Basketball Association (PBA)
Commissioner’s Cup title in his
last match as an import, Justin
Brownlee swore his allegiance
to the country on Monday.
As a naturalized Filipino, the
34-year-old Brownlee can now
suit up for the national team,
starting with the sixth window
of the FIBA World Cup Asian
Qualifiers in February.
The Philippines is already
qualified for the World Cup fi-
nal phase in August as one of
three co-hosts, the others being
Japan and Indonesia.
Senator Francis Tolentino,
Committee on Justice chair, of-
ficiated the oath-taking.
Republic Act 11937, signed by
President R. Ferdinand Marcos
Jr. on Jan. 12, granted Brown-
lee’s Filipino citizenship.
Brownlee led Ginebra past
Bay Area, 114-99, in the winner-
take-all finals before a league
record 54,589 fans at the Phil-
ippine Arena in Bocaue, Bula-
can on Sunday night.
He scored 34 points on 14-of-
22 shooting and hauled down
eight rebounds on top of 12 as-
sists, one steal and three blocks.
Brownlee said his stay in the
Philippines since 2016 has been
“unbelievable” and he is grate-
ful for the support of fans and
Congress.
The three-time PBA Best Im-
port awardee will also train and
enlist as a Philippine Army Re-
❱❱ PAGE 26 Brownlee officially

www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023
The 2023 Australian Open pauses a year of
profound political tensions in tennis
BY DARYL ADAIR, University
of Technology Sydney
The Conversation
Over the past 12 months, sig-
nificant challenges by way of
policy and politics have impact-
ed professional tennis.
Chief among them have
been participation constraints
around the COVID-19 pandem-
ic, followed by considerations
about the eligibility or other-
wise of Russian and Belarussian
competitors following the inva-
sion of Ukraine.
With the Australian Open be-
ginning today, where are we cur-
rently at with these quandaries?
The COVID conundrum
Public health measures
during the pandemic inevitably
impacted the staging of tennis
tournaments, with organisers
obliged to follow local protocols.
At many events this meant play-
ers needed to be vaccinated or re-
ceive a medical exemption. For the
most part this wasn’t an issue. For
example, in January 2022 the As-
sociation of Tennis Professionals
(ATP) reported 97 of the top 100
men’s players were vaccinated.
This suggested most tennis
professionals – much like work-
ers in many other occupations
– accepted the public health ob-
jectives underpinning vaccina-
tion. Doubtless, though, some
tennis players had been vaccine
hesitant, most notably Novak
Djokovic, who famously declared
he’d rather miss grand slams than
be vaccinated against COVID.
Just a year ago, Djokovic at-
tempted to take part in the Austra-
LeBron becomes 2nd player in
NBA history to surpass 38K points
Anadolu
Philippine News Agency
ANKARA – With his 35 points
contribution against the Phila-
delphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers
forward LeBron James on Sunday
became the second player in NBA
history to surpass 38,000 points.
He now has 38,024 career
lian Open on the basis of a “medi-
cal exemption”, which prompted
raised eyebrows among sceptics.
Eventually, the Serb was re-
quired to leave Australia after
his visa was cancelled, a deci-
sion that caused a furore in his
home country.
Djokovic says he cannot for-
get the experience of being
deported, but hopes he will be
received respectfully by fans at
this year’s tournament.
As with wider society, tennis
authorities have adjusted their
COVID protocols over time,
particularly in the wake of the
“opening up” of society follow-
ing widespread vaccination.
At the 2022 Australian Open,
players needed to be vaccinat-
ed or medically exempt, but in
2023 there’s no such require-
ment. Indeed, this year there’s
no COVID testing at all, and
players can even take part
should they contract the virus
during the tournament.
The contrast over 12 months
is stark, with some players find-
ing it hard to reconcile what
was required back then to now.
The Ukraine imbroglio
Russia’s February 2022 in-
vasion of Ukraine, endorsed by
its ally Belarus, shows no sign of
resolution.
In response to the incursion,
the North Atlantic Treaty Orga-
nization (NATO) and its allies
provided Ukraine with military
supplies and logistical support,
while implementing economic
sanctions against Russia.
Tennis, like many other sports,
has also been immersed in the
question of sanctions; specifical-
points and is just 364 points
from passing Abdul-Jabbar
to become the NBA’s all-time
leading scorer.
In January 2006, the 38-year-
old became the youngest-ever
NBA player to reach 5,000 ca-
reer points.
He reached the 10,000-point
milestone in 2008, at 23,
and in 2013 he entered the
ly, how to address the participa-
tion or otherwise of Russian and
Belarussian players.
For team-based competition,
the response was decisive, and
pro-Western. The Internation-
al Tennis Federation ruled that
Russian and Belarussian teams
be banned from the Davis Cup
and Billie Jean King Cup. This
was especially bad news for Rus-
sian tennis players, who were
expecting to defend victories in
both events from back in 2021.
However, in the case of tour-
naments focused on individ-
uals, where athletes officially
compete for themselves (and
unofficially on behalf of their
country), the position of tennis
authorities varied.
At the first grand slam follow-
ing the invasion, Wimbledon
organisers, with the support
of the British government, de-
clined to accept Russian and
Belarussian players.
However, this position was
repudiated by both the Associ-
20,000-point club.
In January 2018, LeBron
dropped more than 30,000
points, with only seven players
in NBA history to date.
He has a career scoring aver-
age of 27.2 points per game.
LeBron’s historic perfor-
mance, however, was not
enough as the Lakers absorbed
a 112-113 loss to the 76rs. ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
Sports
ation of Tennis Professionals
(ATP) and the Women’s Tennis
Association (WTA), which fined
the All England Club.
In an effort to counter what
they described as “discrimina-
tion” against sanctioned play-
ers, these international tennis
bodies determined that ranking
points would not be awarded at
Wimbledon, which disappoint-
ed many players.
At the French Open, however,
organisers deemed that players
from Russia and Belarus were el-
igible to participate, though with
the proviso they compete as “neu-
tral” athletes – bereft of regalia,
symbols, or status indicating a
connection with their homeland.
This would also require, at
the very least, neutrality in re-
spect of their public position
on the invasion of Ukraine. As
the tournament director em-
phasised, if any players were to
show support for Putin, sanc-
tions would follow.
Subsequently, the US Open
LeBron James (ERIK DROST/FLICKR, CC BY 2.0)
23
also allowed Russian and Belar-
usian participants, again under
an expectation of neutrality.
The tournament organisers ex-
pressed their “concern about
holding the individual athletes
accountable for the actions and
decisions of their governments”.
Meanwhile, though, ordi-
nary Russians are not treated
as “neutrals” by NATO and its
allies: they have been collec-
tively penalised by Western
sanctions, thus being made ac-
countable for Putin’s war.
In 2023, the Australian Open
– like the US and French Open
– announced that “neutral”
tennis players from Russia and
Belarus are welcome. This in-
censed the Ukrainian ambassa-
dor in Canberra, who labelled
Tennis Australia’s position as
“unprincipled”.
However, Daniil Medvedev,
the leading Russian men’s play-
er, expressed relief at being able
to play, asserting a personal
commitment to “peace”.
On the other hand, Belaru-
sian tennis star Aryna Sabalen-
ka complained that playing
under a neutral flag at the Aus-
tralian Open makes her feel she
is “from nowhere”.
Cheers and jeers
So, how might these political
issues impact this year’s Aus-
tralian Open?
Novak Djokovic is back in town,
chasing an incredible tenth sin-
gles title. After a year’s absence he
remains a polarising figure. How
will tennis fans respond?
And what of the Russian and
❱❱ PAGE 30 The 2023 Australian
24
PH-US trade relations to benefit from
USTDA office opening
BY JOANN VILLANUEVA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Large invest-
ment opportunities expected
to increase trading between
the Philippines and the Unit-
ed States have been cited as
the reason for the opening of a
United States Trade and Devel-
opment Agency (USTDA) office
here within this quarter.
“To meet the demands of the
Philippine market and in recogni-
tion of the potential in the Philip-
pine economy, USTDA is opening
an office in Manila,” US Ambassa-
dor to the Philippines MaryKay
Carlson said during the Indo-Pa-
cific Business Forum (IPBF)
Inflation report is a mixed bag –
an economist explains why some
items are rising faster than others
BY EDOUARD WEMY, Clark
University
The Conversation
Economists worried about
soaring inflation got some good
news to start the year: The rate
of inflation has eased. The first
report card of 2023 on consum-
er prices, released on Jan. 12,
showed that the overall cost of
goods and services decelerated to
an annual pace of 6.5% in Decem-
ber, the slowest in over a year and
down from 7.1% in November.
But there’s bad news too, espe-
cially if you are an egg-munch-
ing renter fond of frequent reg-
ular haircuts. In quite a few
categories, the cost of living rose
at an even faster pace.
That’s because price inflation isn’t
uniform. Different products and ser-
vices are affected by myriad factors.
So while some prices may have fallen
Business
event in Makati City on Thursday.
She said the agency will con-
duct feasibility studies that
“will focus on supply chains,
clean energy, infrastructure
and telecommunications.”
In an interview with journal-
ists, Carlson said results of the
feasibility studies can be used
both by the government and the
private sector to help them deter-
mine where the interests of US in-
vestors are in the Philippines and
where matches can be made.
She said not all US Embassies
around the world have USTDA
offices and the one to be opened
in the Philippines “is really
based on what we see as great
promise between the invest-
ment opportunities and trade
during December, slowing the annu-
al rate of inflation, other items kept
getting more expensive.
The Conversation asked
Edouard Wemy – an economist
from Clark University who never
sets off to work without his morn-
ing breakfast of two eggs, sunny
side up – to explain how different
items in the consumer price basket
fared in the latest inflation report.
Energy
When you look at the detail of
the latest report on the consum-
er price index, you’ll see that
overall energy costs declined.
That’s because there was a steep
decline in gasoline prices – down
9.4% in the month of December
after dropping 2% in November.
While that’s good news, it’s a
bit puzzling. AAA was expecting
demand for gasoline to be very
high over the month, which usu-
ally happens in winter. This typ-
ically pushes prices up. My best
opportunities between the Unit-
ed States and the Philippines.”
The US is one of the Philip-
pines’ top three trading partners
while the country is the US’ 31st
largest goods trading partner.
Carlson is optimistic regard-
ing the increase in investment
opportunities between the US
and the Philippines within the
Indo-Pacific area due also to the
people-to-people ties.
“People-to-people ties are
really a strong foundation and
a springboard for those types
of investments and trade op-
portunities not just to recover
from the pandemic but as I’ve
heard President (Ferdinand R.)
Marcos said to really accelerate
and go beyond simple recovery,
guess is either demand wasn’t as
strong as expected due to fears
of a coming recession or there
has been an easing on the supply
constraints that has contributed
to pushing the price of gas up.
An exception to this down-
ward energy price trend was in
energy services – that is, elec-
www.canadianinquirer.net
to revitalize and accelerate in
2023 and beyond,” she said.
Carlson disclosed that UST-
DA has signed with Bell Labs,
Nokia USA, and NOW Telecom
a USD1.5-million letter of intent
US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson (UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT
OF STATES (DOS), PUBLIC DOMAIN)
tricity and piped gas – where
prices actually ticked up. The
reason is largely due to the rising
cost of doing business. Utility
companies and pipeline services
are suffering as a result of high-
er labor costs and are passing
on the added cost to consumers
through higher prices. The latest
JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY
for the Philippines on Thursday.
She said the letter of intent,
signed during the ongoing 5th
IPBF, aims “to support clean
and trusted 5G communica-
tions networks.” ■
jobs report shows average hour-
ly earnings rose 4.6% in Decem-
ber from a year earlier.
Groceries
Overall food inflation slowed in
December, with the cost of grocer-
ies rising just 0.2% in the month –
down from 0.5% in November.
But there is a lot of variation in
the cost of grocery items. While
the price of fruits and vegetables
fell in December, the cost of eggs
jumped by 11.1%. That’s due to
an outbreak of bird flu that could
well last until into the summer.
In addition to that, farms are
seeing the same wage pressures
as other businesses, which are
then passed on to consumers.
Housing
The cost of shelter, whether
from renting or owning, rose
0.8% in December – the biggest
one-month gain since the 1980s.
❱❱ PAGE 29 Inflation report is
FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023
Stamp duty isn’t going anywhere until we
can agree on the tax to replace it
BY JOEY MOLONEY,
Grattan Institute, BRENDAN
COATES, Grattan Institute
The Conversation
Nearly all economists and
most politicians seem to agree
stamp duty is a bad tax. But
nearly all state and territory
governments rely on it to keep
the lights on.
It’s a bad tax because it taxes
homeowners every time they
move, merely because they
have moved. At A$40,000 per
move on a median-priced home
in Sydney or Melbourne, it’s
enough to dissuade people from
moving for a better job or to a
bigger or smaller home when
they have children or their chil-
dren move out.
It’s even a de facto tax on di-
vorce. When a family home is
sold to allow assets to be split,
each member of the separating
couple needs to pay stamp duty
to purchase again. It’s a big rea-
son more than half of divorced
women who lose their homes
don’t buy again within a decade.
And it’s unfair. Stamp duty
hits most the younger house-
holds that move around the
most. It leaves alone the older
residents who stay put.
New modelling by the Cen-
tre for Policy Studies at Vic-
toria University finds abolish-
ing stamp duty and replacing
the revenue lost with land tax
would put downward pressure
on the price paid by buyers of
Single-use plastic..
❰❰ 21 passed directly on to
consumers.
Alternative materi-
als or products must have a low-
er environmental impact than
the banned product, but this
isn’t always guaranteed. Substi-
tuting plastic bags for paper, for
example, may not be the best
idea when the entire life cycle
of a product is accounted for.
2. Phase in a ban
A phased approach to a ban
improves how well it works but
requires consistent and clear
messaging about what products
are banned and when. In Anti-
gua and Barbuda, phased plas-
tic bag bans in 2016 and 2017
about 4.7%, and downward
pressure on the price received
by sellers of about 0.1%.
In 2018 the Grattan Insti-
tute found a national shift from
stamp duties to land tax would
add up to $17 billion per year to
gross domestic product.
Most states aren’t really
removing stamp duty
So far only one state or ter-
ritory – the Australian Capital
Territory – has really taken the
plunge. Others are merely tin-
kering with stamp duty in or-
der to create what amounts to a
de-facto first home-buyer grant.
The ACT is halfway through a
genuine switchover designed to
take 20 years.
In Victoria, the Andrews gov-
ernment is merely expanding a
generated support for banning
other plastic products between
2017 and 2018.
In both cases, importing
these products was restricted
first, followed by a ban on dis-
tributing them, which gave sup-
pliers time to find alternatives
and use up existing stock.
This approach was used to
good effect in an English ban on
plastic straws, cotton buds and
stirrers in 2020, allowing re-
tailers to use up their supplies
during the six months following
the ban’s introduction.
3. Involve the public
Information campaigns
which explain why a ban is
system of exemptions for eligi-
ble first home-buyers already
available. NSW, Queensland,
Western Australia and Tasma-
nia also offer such exemptions.
Now in the lead-up to the
March election, the NSW gov-
ernment and opposition are
one-upping each other with
competing policies to offer even
more first home-buyers a way
to avoid paying stamp duty.
The NSW Labor opposition
pledged to abolish stamp duty
altogether for first home buyers
purchasing properties worth up
to $800,000 — expanding the cur-
rent exemption which is for homes
worth up to $650,000. First home
buyers purchasing more expen-
sive homes worth up to $1 million
will be offered a discount.
needed, what it means for the
public and businesses and what
alternatives are available serve
to support a ban. This was evi-
dent from Vanuatu, where the
inclusion of diapers in a ban
was postponed due to public
concerns around the availabil-
ity of sustainable alternatives.
Working closely with the
public like this can also encour-
age innovation. For example,
in Vanuatu in 2018, weavers
and crafting communities filled
the gap left by banned plastic
bags and polystyrene takeaway
containers with natural alter-
natives made locally, including
bags and food containers woven
www.canadianinquirer.net
Business
The Coalition government has
already legislated to offer first
home buyers the option of paying
an annual land tax rather than
stamp duty if they buy a property
worth up to $1.5 million.
By targeting these exemp-
tions to first home-buyers, both
sides of NSW politics and other
state governments are under-
cutting the key benefit of re-
moving stamp duty: removing
the tax on moving.
Most of these policies – in-
cluding the two offered in NSW
– amount to little more than
first home buyers’ grants. His-
tory shows such grants tend to
push up prices.
Actually axing stamp duty
means replacing it with
something
Stamp duty is critical to help-
ing state governments pay the
bills. All states or territories,
except the ACT, use them to
collect at least one-fifth of their
tax revenue.
These revenues pay to keep
our hospitals running and
schools open.
NSW expects to collect
around $10 billion in stamp
duty this financial year alone.
In contrast, Labor’s NSW give-
away for first-home buyers will
cost $722 million in its first three
years. The Coalition’s will cost
$728 million over four years.
To really get rid of stamp duty
altogether, we need to replace it
with something else. Land tax is a
good candidate because it doesn’t
distort people’s decisions.
from palm leaves.
Single-use plastic bans can
inspire wider changes to social
systems and the relationship
each person has with plastic.
But without planned access to
alternatives, a phased introduc-
tion, efforts to nurture public
support and broader consid-
eration of the entire life cycle
of plastic, product bans have a
limited effect on plastic pollu-
tion, and can even give the false
impression of progress. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
25
Whereas homeowners can
avoid paying stamp duty again
by refusing to move, land can’t
be moved, meaning land tax
can’t be avoided.
The NSW Coalition govern-
ment started with bolder plans
for a meaningful transition,
until a scare campaign and the
opposition from Labor and the
Greens forced it to wind it back.
This has left NSW Labor in
the unfortunate position of be-
ing against the bad tax (stamp
duty) but also against the good
tax that would have to replace
it: land tax.
Other options – such as in-
creasing the goods and services
tax to cover the cost of abolish-
ing stamp duty – appear even
less likely.
NSW is stuck in a quagmire in
which stamp duty seems here to
stay.
Only the ACT is showing
the way
The Australian Capital Territo-
ry’s approach of slowly reducing
one tax while slowly increasing
the other shows it can be done.
After announcing the switcho-
ver in 2012, the then treasurer An-
drew Barr was reelected as chief
minister in 2016 and in 2020.
He is ahead in the race to ac-
tually remove stamp duty by re-
placing it with something. He is
showing the rest of Australia it
needn’t be afraid. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
This lunar year..
❰❰ 19 dumplings called yu-
anxiao, and watching
dragon and lion dances.
The global Asian diaspora
means that Lunar New Year
is now celebrated around the
world, including in the United
States. Chinese American, Ko-
rean American, and Vietnam-
ese American communities will
mark the beginning of the Lunar
New Year with a variety of cel-
ebrations, some welcoming the
Year of the Rabbit and others
welcoming the Year of the Cat. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
 26
Physicists have used entanglement to
‘stretch’ the uncertainty principle,
improving quantum measurements
BY LORCAN CONLON,
Australian National University,
SYED ASSAD, Australian
National University
The Conversation
Almost a century ago, German
physicist Werner Heisenberg re-
alised the laws of quantum me-
chanics placed some fundamen-
tal limits on how accurately we
can measure certain properties
of microscopic objects.
However, the laws of quan-
tum mechanics can also offer
ways to make measurements
more accurate than would oth-
erwise be possible.
In new research published
in Nature Physics, we have
outlined a way to achieve more
accurate measurements of mi-
croscopic objects using quan-
tum computers. This could
prove useful in a huge range of
next-generation technologies,
including biomedical sensing,
laser ranging and quantum
communications.
We were also able to push be-
yond the limits of a variation of
Heisenberg’s “uncertainty prin-
ciple” in certain circumstances,
suggesting different uncertainty
principles may be necessary in
different scenarios.
Quantum uncertainties
If you want to examine the
properties of a large everyday ob-
ject like a car, it’s a simple process.
For example, a car has a
well-defined position, colour
and speed. You can measure
them one after another or all at
once with no issues. Measuring
Brownlee officially..
❰❰ 22 serve Officer.
“As a citizen, I will
try my best to make
the Filipino people proud. I
want to keep making you guys
proud and to do whatever I can
Technology
the position of your car will not
change its colour or speed.
However, this becomes much
trickier if you’re trying to exam-
ine microscopic quantum objects
like electrons or photons (which
are tiny little particles of light).
Certain properties of quantum
objects are connected to each
other. Measuring one property
can influence another property.
For example, measuring the
position of an electron will af-
fect its speed and vice versa.
These properties are called
“conjugate” properties.
The link between these prop-
erties is a direct manifestation
of Heisenberg’s uncertainty
principle. It is not possible to
simultaneously measure two
conjugate properties of a quan-
tum object to whatever degree
of accuracy you like: the more
you know about one, the less
you know about the other.
While the uncertainty prin-
ciple imposes a limit on how ac-
curate some measurements can
be, reaching that limit in practice
can be very challenging. Howev-
er, measuring quantum objects
in the greatest amount of detail
possible is important for advanc-
ing fundamental science as well
as developing new technologies.
Entangled objects
In our new research, we de-
signed a way to determine con-
jugate properties of quantum
objects more accurately. Our
collaborators were then able to
carry out this measurement in
various labs around the world.
The new technique revolves
around a strange quirk of quan-
to help the national team,” the
six-foot-five Brownlee said in
an interview.
Senators JV Ejercito and Chris-
topher Go presented Brownlee
with a copy of the law. ■
tum systems, known as entan-
glement. When two objects
are entangled, we can measure
them more accurately than if
they weren’t entangled.
We realised we could use
quantum computers, which can
precisely control the state of
quantum objects, to create two
identical quantum objects and
entangle them. By measuring the
entangled objects together, we
could determine their properties
more precisely than if they were
measured individually.
Measuring the two entangled
identical quantum objects re-
duces the noise in the measure-
ment, making it more accurate.
A less noisy future
In theory, it is also possible
to entangle and measure three
or more quantum systems to
achieve even better precision.
However, we haven’t been able
to make this work experimen-
tally as yet.
The results of measuring
three identical entangled ob-
jects together were very noisy.
However, as quantum comput-
ers improve and become more
accurate, it may be possible to
faithfully measure three copies
of a quantum system simulta-
neously in the future.
One of the key strengths of
this work is that a quantum
enhancement can still be ob-
served in very noisy scenari-
os. This bodes well for future
practical applications, such as
in biomedical measurements,
which will inevitably occur in
noisy real-world environments.
What about the uncertain-
Procrastination is..
❰❰ 21 mobile phones), and
staying focused on a
task despite experi-
encing negative emotions.
This requires some effort, so
it is not something a person can
www.canadianinquirer.net
ty principle?
This research also has impli-
cations for the aforementioned
uncertainty principle.
One interpretation of the un-
certainty principle is that it is
impossible to measure conju-
gate properties of quantum ob-
jects with unlimited accuracy.
But another interpretation is
that measuring one conjugate
property of a quantum object
must necessarily disturb the
second conjugate property by
some minimum amount.
In this research, we were able
to violate an uncertainty prin-
ciple based on the second inter-
pretation. This suggests that,
depending on what physical set-
ting is considered, different un-
certainty principles may be nec-
essary for different scenarios.
A global collaboration
We tested our theory on a
total of 19 different quantum
do while trying to meet a spe-
cific deadline. But even small
changes can have a large effect.
You can try it yourself. Why
not start today by leaving your
mobile phone in another room
JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY
computers, which used three
different quantum computing
technologies: superconduc-
tors, trapped ions and photon-
ics. These devices are located
across Europe and America and
can be accessed via the inter-
net, allowing researchers from
across the globe to connect and
carry out important research.
We carried out the study with
colleagues at the ARC Centre of
Excellence for Quantum Com-
putation and Communication
Technology (CQC2T), in col-
laboration with researchers
from the Institute of Materials
Research and Engineering at
A*STAR in Singapore, the Uni-
versity of Jena, the University of
Innsbruck, Macquarie Universi-
ty and Amazon Web Services. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
when you need to stay focused
on a task. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023
Why does Nepal’s aviation industry have
safety issues? An expert explains
BY CHRYSTAL ZHANG,
RMIT University
The Conversation
A Yeti Airlines ATR 72-500
aircraft crashed in Pokhara in
central Nepal on January 15
2023, killing at least 68 pas-
sengers on board. The aircraft
was en route from Nepal’s cap-
ital Kathmandu to Pokhara, the
country’s second largest city,
situated under the picturesque
Annapurna mountain range.
While the picturesque land-
scape of the country appeals to
tourists, it poses significant chal-
lenges to aviation operators, who
need to embrace and navigate
the challenging environment.
The air crash on Sunday was
Nepal’s worst aviation disaster
since 1992. The country has
been working to overcome its
challenges in aviation.
A challenging landscape
Topography has gifted Nepal
with picturesque landscapes,
but posits unrivalled challenges
to flight operations.
Nepal, situated between In-
dia and China, is home to eight
of the world’s 14 highest moun-
tains, including Mount Everest
or Sagarmāthā. For flight oper-
ations, it’s an almost unrivalled,
harsh environment with sud-
den weather changes that can
DOST-C. Luzon developing system to predict
accurate rice yield
BY ZORAYDA TECSON
Philippine News Agency
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO,
Pampanga – The Department
of Science and Technology in
Central Luzon (DOST-3) is de-
veloping a system that can pre-
dict rice yields accurately.
Dr. Amy Lizbeth Rico, a pro-
fessor of the Tarlac Agricultural
University (TAU) in Camiling
town, Tarlac province, said in
a statement on Thursday that
predicting rice yields accurately
“allows the government to plan
the production, distribution, and
consumption of food more effec-
make for hazardous conditions.
Airports built in mountain-
ous regions often need to have
shorter runways that can only
accommodate turboprop-pow-
ered regional aircraft, rather
than large jet airliners that can
access larger cities in Nepal.
As a result, aviation carriers
in Nepal have a variety of air-
craft on their fleets. These craft
vary in condition, presenting
potential safety hazards.
The ATR 72 aircraft is one
typical aircraft used by Nepali
carriers. It is a turboprop-pow-
ered regional aircraft with a
capacity between 44 and 78
passengers. These aircraft are
manufactured by a joint ven-
ture of Airbus in France and
Leonardo in Italy.
The aircraft involved in this
crash had been in service for 15
years, a fairly typical age for an
aircraft.
The final report on what hap-
pened to the tragic Yeti Airlines
flight will take over a month to
complete.
A growing and fast-chang-
ing industry
Nepal has welcomed private
investment into its aviation
sector since 1992. Yeti Airlines
is one of 20 domestic carriers.
The airline, headquartered in
Kathmandu, flies to ten do-
mestic destinations using ATR
tively, combat food insecurity,
and prepare for shortages and
supply shocks well in advance.”
Rico is the project lead-
er for a research study being
funded by DOST under its Re-
gional Grants-in-Aid program
(DOST3 – RGIA) entitled Sat-
ellite Imagery Crop Monitoring
and Forecasting Systems for
Agricultural Technology (SI-
CAT) project.
She cited the importance of
accurate prediction of rice yield
with a specific field to determine
the harvest per region consider-
ing that climate change and rapid
population growth in the country
have brought huge pressure on
72-500 aircraft. In addition, 29
international airlines operate
into Nepal’s capital too.
With air travel in Nepal be-
coming more accessible and af-
fordable, airport infrastructure
development has remained far
behind compared to the growth
of air traffic. This has result-
ed in increasing congestion at
airports, fare competition be-
tween airlines, and decreased
safety records.
In fact, the country has re-
corded at least 350 casualties
Yeti Airlines (PHILIP MILNE/FLICKR, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
food demand and production.
Through Project SICAT, a
rice crop advisory system de-
veloped by TAU, she said that
yield forecasting can be done
and necessary advisories could
be issued accordingly.
Rico said the project re-
searchers are now validating
rice growth satellite images and
developing phenological charac-
teristics and algorithms for rice
growth and yield that will be val-
idated with ground data for ac-
curate and precise predictions.
Likewise, she said informa-
tion dissemination among tar-
get users such as farmer groups
and agricultural technicians
www.canadianinquirer.net
Technology
associated with aeroplanes or
helicopters since 2000, which
has raised questions about the
effectiveness of its aviation
safety regulations.
The aviation regulator in
charge is the Civil Aviation Au-
thority of Nepal, a government
agency established in 1998.
Working hard to improve
Nepal became a member of the
UN’s International Civil Aviation
Organisation (ICAO) in 1960.
This membership obliges the
country to abide by international
in Tarlac is being conducted to
ensure the eventual smooth de-
ployment of the technology.
27
conventions, ICAO’s regulations,
standards, and recommended
practices in aviation safety.
While Nepal’s aviation indus-
try has made significant efforts
to improve safety, unfortunate-
ly the safety record still doesn’t
match up with the requirements
of other civil aviation authorities.
In particular, the European
Union banned all Nepali airlines
from operating in the bloc’s air-
space in 2013 after ICAO raised
a red flag. That ban still hasn’t
been lifted, and Nepal remains
on the EU Air Safety List.
Despite the tragic casualty
record, Nepal has stepped up its
efforts to improve aviation safe-
ty. The Civil Aviation Authority
of Nepal has been focusing on
improving safety in Nepali avia-
tion – such as building improve-
ments at airports, upgrading
safety equipment, and fostering
a positive safety culture by en-
couraging hazard reporting.
Nepal’s considerable im-
provement in safety measures
and compliance with interna-
tional standards was recognised
by ICAO in 2018. However, the
country must continue work on
its aviation reform to make its
skies safe for everyone.■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
The project is expected to be
completed by October this year. ■
28
Surigao del Norte contingent bags
3 major Sinulog awards
BY JOHN REY SAAVEDRA
Philippine News Agency
CEBU CITY – The visiting
contingent from Surigao del
Norte province has bagged
three major awards in the Sinu-
log 2023 festival on Sunday.
The organizers of Omega de
Salonera have as forefathers fi-
esta performers on Sanciangko
Street, one of Cebu City’s fa-
mous downtown roads, in the
early 1900s. It was adjudged as
the overall champion of the Rit-
ual Showdown in the Free In-
terpretation category and won
PHP1 million in cash.
The group was also chosen as
champion in the Street Dance
category, which entitled it to an-
other PHP1-million cash prize.
The contingent from Bucas
Grande Island in Surigao del
Norte also bagged the Best in
Costume and second place in
the Best in Musicality category.
The famous local talent,
Lumad Basakanon, who bagged
CDO rolls out weeklong
Chinese New Year, fetes
Fil-Chi Kagayanons
BY NEF LUCZON
Philippine News Agency
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -
The city government joined the
Filipino-Chinese community
Monday in launching a week-
long celebration of the Chinese
New Year, with a focus on the
contributions of Filipino-Chi-
nese Kagayanons to the city’s
development over the decades.
During the opening program,
city administrator Roy Hilar-
io Raagas said that without the
hard work and diligence of Filipi-
Travel
several awards in previous years’
Sinulog competition, bagged the
second prize for the grand pa-
rade street dancing category, fol-
lowed by Banay Labangon (3rd);
Banauan Cultural Group (4th);
and Tribu Mabolokon (5th).
In the free interpretation
category ritual showdown, the
Lumad Basakanon came in sec-
ond, Bailes De Luces La Cas-
tellana of La Castellana town
in Negros Occidental province
(3rd), Barangay San Roque Ba-
sakanon (4th), and Tribu Mab-
olokon (5th).
Local contingent, the Inay-
awan Talent Guild and Cultural
Troupe, bagged the grand prize
for the Sinulog-based Ritual
Showdown, followed by Baran-
gay Tejero (2nd), Banauan Cul-
tural Group (3rd), Banay La-
bangon (4th), Alpha Kappa Rho
- Cebu Supreme Council (5th).
The Free Interpretation Cat-
egory Best in Musicality grand
champion this year is Lumad
Basakanon, while the Omega
De Salonera placed second, fol-
no-Chinese traders, the city’s eco-
nomic development would not
have accelerated over the years.
“This goes to show that our
brothers and sisters in the Fil-
ipino-Chinese community have
indeed chosen the city as your
home, to be with among us as
one, as you consider the city a
place worth investing in,” said
Raagas, who represented May-
or Rolando Uy.
Raagas said it was also import-
ant for local government officials
to meet with Chinese ambassadors
two weeks ago to discuss develop-
ment partnership potentials.
lowed by Barangay San Roque
- Ciudad (3rd), Bailes de Luces
La Castellana - Negros Occi-
dental (4th), and Hugpong Ka-
batan-onang Tisaanon (5th).
Niño Ruben Mateo grabbed the
grand prize for the parade puppe-
teers category while fellow pup-
peteers, Orly Johnson Fuentes
and Angelie Marie Aranas placed
second and third, respectively.
The group Baruc Siblings and
Friends won as the parade “Hi-
gante” (giant) category champi-
Omega de Salonera of Bucas Grande Island, Surigal del Norte (COLIN KINTANAR VIA CEBU CITY • NEWS & INFORMATION/FACEBOOK)
In a statement, Uy said the
Chinese New Year festivity,
which will culminate on Jan. 22,
reminds the city’s constituents
of how Chinese culture and tra-
ditions have also enriched the
Filipinos’ customs.
“Treating each other equally
(is a virtue), especially in hon-
oring the elderly,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rosa Go, pres-
ident of the Misamis Oriental
Filipino-Chinese Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, Inc.,
said she hopes 2023 would
bring “fortune and prosperity,
hope and calm. ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
on, while Jerald Bilones’ giant
came in second place and ABC
Friendship’s entry, third place.
For the float parade, Inter-
national Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
was adjudged as the winner,
while the floats of ABC Friend-
ship and the Municipal Govern-
ment of Tuburan won second
and third prizes, respectively.
The Sinulog organizers also
awarded the Best Tent to Ce-
bu2World Megawide-Carbon
as first placer, while the De-
Ilocos Norte LGU
eyes improvement
of eco-park to
lure visitors
BY LEILANIE ADRIANO
Philippine News Agency
LAOAG CITY – The town of
Vintar in Ilocos Norte prov-
ince is eyeing to improve and
introduce more amenities in its
eco-tourism nature park to en-
tice more visitors.
Located about 46 kilometers
from this city, the Umok ni Si-
wawer Eco-Tourism Nature
Park in Barangay Parparuroc
JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY
partment of Tourism, Virgin-
ia, Choobi Choobi, and Jeju as
second, third, fourth, and fifth
placers, respectively.
The Hwacheon Beomangol
Nongak Preservation Association
from Korea graced the Sinulog
stage Sunday as guest performers.
There were five entries in the
Sinulog-based category and 11 in
the free interpretation category.
There were 40 entries in the
float, eight in the giant, and six
in the puppeteers’ category. ■
has been drawing a lot of na-
ture lovers and picnickers since
2019 until the pandemic re-
stricted movement of people.
As one of the local revenue
sources of the municipality
through the collection of en-
trance and rental fees of sports
amenities, the nature park im-
provement will go in full swing
early this year, said Mayor Rich-
ard Degala in an interview Friday.
❱❱ PAGE 30 Ilocos Norte LGU
FRIDAY JANUARY 20, 2023
Stop hating on pasta – it actually has a
healthy ratio of carbs, protein and fat
BY EMMA BECKETT,
University of Newcastle
The Conversation
New year, new you, new
diet. It’s a familiar refrain. One
popular dieting technique is to
create a food blacklist. Quit-
ting “carbs” or packaged foods
is common, which can mean
avoiding supermarket staples
like pasta.
But do we really need to ban
pasta to improve our diets?
This is what we call a reduc-
tionist approach to nutrition,
where we describe a food based
on just one of its key compo-
nents. Pasta isn’t just carbo-
hydrates. One cup (about 145
grams) of cooked pasta has
about 38g of carbohydrates,
7.7g of protein and 0.6g of fats.
Plus, there’s all the water that is
absorbed from cooking and lots
of vitamins and minerals.
“But pasta is mostly carbs!”
I hear you cry. This is true, but
it’s not the whole story. We need
to think about context.
Your day on a plate
You probably know there
are recommendations for how
much energy (kilojoules or
calories) we should eat in a
day. These recommendations
are based on body size, sex
and physical activity. But you
might not realise there are also
recommendations about the
profile of macronutrients – or
types of food – that supply this
energy.
Fats, carbs and proteins are
macronutrients. Macronutri-
ents are broken down in the
Inflation report is..
❰❰ 24 This is understand-
able given the numer-
ous interest rate hikes
during 2022. Rising interest
rates means that taking out a
home loan is more costly, which
in turn pushes more people into
renting. Added demand on rent-
al properties in turn pushes the
Food
body to produce energy for our
bodies.
Acceptable Macronutrient
Distribution Ranges describe
the ratio or percentage of mac-
ronutrients that should pro-
vide this energy. These rang-
es are set by experts based on
health outcomes and models
of healthy eating. They aim to
make sure we get enough, but
not too much, of each macro.
Consuming too much or too lit-
tle of any type of food can have
consequences for health.
The ratios are also designed
to make sure we get enough
of the vitamins and minerals
that come with the energy in
the foods we typically eat. We
should get 45–65% of our ener-
gy from carbohydrates, 10–30%
from proteins, and 20–35%
from fats.
Mangia pasta
Macronutrient ratios mean
it can be healthy to eat up to
between 1.2 and 6.5 times more
carbohydrates in a day than
protein – since each gram of
protein has the same amount
of energy as a gram of carbohy-
drates.
The ratio of carbs to protein
in pasta is 38g to 7.7g, which
equates to roughly a 5:1 ra-
tio, well within the acceptable
macronutrient distribution
range. Meaning pasta actually
has enough protein to balance
with the carbohydrates. This
isn’t just because of the eggs in
pasta either. Wheat is another
source of protein, making up
about 20% of the proteins eaten
globally.
If you are worried about the
prices that landlords demand up.
When interest rates eventually
drop, it should bring the overall
cost of shelter down, as it would
encourage more people to buy
homes. But I’m not optimistic that
rates will fall until 2024, so don’t
expect any downward movement
on shelter in the coming months.
calorie levels and weight gain,
that’s not so simple either.
In the context of an otherwise
healthy diet, people have been
shown to lose more weight-
when their diet includes pasta
regularly. And, a systematic
review of ten different studies
found pasta was better for post-
meal blood glucose levels than
bread or potatoes.
Instead of quitting spaghetti,
consider reducing portion siz-
es, or switching to wholegrain
pasta, which has a higher fibre
content which has benefits for
gut health and can help you feel
fuller longer.
Gluten-free pasta has slightly
less protein than wheat pasta.
So, despite being healthier for
people with gluten intolerance,
there are no increased health
benefits in switching to glu-
ten-free pasta for most of us.
Pass the pesto and the left-
over bolognese
Pasta is also not typically eat-
en alone. So, while some warn
about the dangers of blood sug-
ar spikes when eating “naked
carbs” (meaning just carbs with
no other foods), this typically
isn’t a risk for pasta.
When pasta provides the
base of a meal, it can be a ve-
hicle to help people eat more
vegetables in smooth or chunky
vegetable sauces. For kids (or
fussy adults) pasta sauce can be
a great place to hide pureed or
grated vegetables.
Not eating pasta alone is also
important for the protein pro-
file. Plant foods are typically
not complete proteins, which
means we need to eat combina-
Hospital visits
The cost of going to the hos-
pital was another category that
saw a big increase. Average pric-
es for hospital and related ser-
vices jumped 1.5% in December,
the biggest gain since 2015.
Again, this is due to the rising
cost of doing business – that is,
www.canadianinquirer.net
tions of them to get all the dif-
ferent types of amino acids (the
building blocks of proteins) we
need to survive.
But pasta, even though we
often focus on the carbs and en-
ergy, packs a good nutritional
punch. Like most foods, it isn’t
just macronutrients it also has
micronutrients.
One cup of cooked pasta has
about a quarter of our daily rec-
ommended intakes of vitamins
B1 and B9, half the recommend-
ed intake of selenium, and 10%
of our iron needs.
The news for pasta gets even
better when we eat it as left-
overs. When pasta is cooked
and cooled, some of the car-
bohydrates convert to resis-
tant starch. This starch gets its
name from being resistant to
digestion, so it contributes less
energy and is better for blood
sugar levels. So, your leftover
pasta, even if you reheat it, is
lower in calories than the night
upward pressure on wages – cou-
pled with still-high energy costs.
Used cars and trucks
Another category that helped
the overall pace of inflation slow
down is used cars and trucks.
After soaring throughout the
initial phase of the COVID-19
pandemic, used car prices have
29
before.
Look a little closer at ‘carb’
choices
There is a lot of talk about re-
ducing intakes of carbohydrates
for weight loss, but remember
carbs come in different forms
and in different foods.
Some of them, like pasta,
bring other benefits. Others
like cakes and lollies, add very
little else. When we talk about
reducing intake of refined car-
bohydrates, think first of sweets
that are eaten alone, before you
cut the staple carbohydrates
that are often served with vege-
tables – arguably the healthiest
core food group! ■
Emma Beckett, Senior Lec-
turer (Food Science and Human
Nutrition), School of Environ-
mental and Life Sciences, Uni-
versity of Newcastle
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
been plunging in recent months.
They fell 2.5% in December,
putting the annual decline at
8.8%. The cost of new cars also
dropped in December. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
 30
Noma to close: why it’s so hard to run a
sustainable innovation-focused restaurant
BY VAUGHN TAN, UCL
The Conversation
For over a decade, Noma
in Copenhagen has been one
of the standard bearers of the
high-end culinary world. This
“New Nordic” restaurant made
its reputation (and obtained
its three Michelin stars and
position in the World’s 50 Best
Restaurants ranking) by focus-
ing on culinary innovation, with
a frequently changing menu
driven by continual work by its
in-house culinary research and
development (R&D) team.
On January 9 2023, Noma’s
Danish chef and co-owner René
Redzepi announced an immi-
nent and significant transition:
Noma would close as a restau-
rant in 2025 to focus on pop-
ups and culinary innovation.
Over a decade ago, El Bulli in
Spain, one of the first innova-
tion and R&D-led restaurants,
made a similar transition.
Exploring the reasons behind
the decision, an article about the
upcoming changes at Noma in
the New York Times explained:
The style of fine dining that
Noma helped create and pro-
mote around the globe — wildly
innovative, labour-intensive and
vastly expensive — may be un-
dergoing a sustainability crisis.
“Sustainability” here means
something broader than eco-
nomics and profitability. It now
also includes a business’s envi-
ronmental impact and whether
its people (staff, management
and owners) work in physio-
logically and psychologically
healthy environments. A sus-
tainable business model in this
sense is one which could per-
sist indefinitely without losing
money or depleting either the
The 2023 Australian..
❰❰ 23 Belarusian players?
No player from either
country competed at
Wimbledon in 2022, and none
featured as finalists at last year’s
French and US Open. There’s
an opportunity in Melbourne
for that trend to change.
With these background ten-
sions in mind, Australian Open
boss Craig Tiley has instructed
Food
environment or its people.
In my book The Uncertain-
ty Mindset: Innovation Insights
From the Frontiers of Food, I
explore why it is hard for innova-
tion-centric restaurants like Noma
to have sustainable business mod-
els. The answer boils down to how
continual innovation requires en-
gaging with “not knowing”, which
is inherently at odds with consis-
tency and efficiency – this is true
not only in high-end cuisine but in
any industry.
The high-end restaurant
conundrum
Guests usually see a restau-
rant as somewhere to go for a
great experience because other
people are cooking and taking
care of hospitality. For a restau-
rant to do this and still be a vi-
able business, it must function
much like a factory.
A restaurant has to be consis-
tent, which means it must reli-
ably produce what guests want
to buy because they would oth-
erwise go elsewhere. It also has
to be efficient, producing with a
minimum of wasted resources.
This is because margins in the
restaurant industry are thin.
In high-end cuisine, the
problem is compounded be-
cause overheads are high and
the food is complex. Every dish
usually has many components,
and each component’s recipe
often features multiple ingre-
dients and techniques. Refining
a complex dish so it becomes
well-understood, well-de-
scribed and reliable can take
many cycles of cooking and
troubleshooting.
Cooking also draws on deep
stores of tacit knowledge. Tacit
knowledge is often the differ-
ence between cooking a recipe
acceptably and cooking it tran-
scendently. Anyone knows this
security to be on a tight leash in
the event of booing, declaring:
“If [fans] disrupt the enjoyment
of anyone else – boom, they are
out. We don’t want them on
site. They can stay away or we
will kick them out”. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
who has tried to cook a perfect
French omelette (creamy and on
the cusp of being set inside but
not liquid, yet completely unco-
loured outside) for the first time.
Cooks only acquire such
knowledge through extended
training, and high-end cuisine
is particularly demanding in
terms of tacit knowledge.
Innovation is the enemy of
consistency and efficiency
For high-end restaurants to
become both efficient and con-
sistent at producing complex
dishes, the people who work in
these institutions have to prac-
tise cooking the same dishes a
lot. This is both to work out the
kinks in recipes and to develop
the tacit knowledge needed to
cook them well. An efficient and
consistent restaurant not only
works better economically, it
is also an easier place in which
to work. The people who work
there know what to do and how
to do it fast and well.
This is why innovation is an-
tithetical to consistency and ef-
ficiency.
Every new dish introduced
means the restaurant has to
Main entrance of Noma in Copenhagen (PAZ.CA/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, CC BY 2.0)
Ilocos Norte LGU..
❰❰ 28 Degala said a new
building where visi-
tors can stay overnight
in the area will be constructed,
including the establishment of
a coffee shop, a swimming pool
and new cottages with outdoor
overhead showers.
“This will be constructed by
phase,” said Degala, adding that
the tourism project will be one
www.canadianinquirer.net
figure out again how to be con-
sistent and efficient. In many
cases, even the kitchen’s organ-
isation of roles and its network
of suppliers may need to change
to accommodate new dishes.
Innovation introduces un-
certainty into how people work
(and work together), the tim-
ings of processes, tacit knowl-
edge and supply chains. This in-
evitably creates waste, failure,
inconsistency and stress.
Innovating is even harder
when consumers expect near
perfection, as they do in high-
end cuisine. For a high-end
restaurant, this means even
more resources (time, effort,
money, product) must be spent
refining new dishes before they
can be allowed to go on to the
menu. In practice, this often
means there is a significant ex-
pense in creating, equipping
and staffing a culinary R&D lab
to support a relatively low-mar-
gin restaurant business.
Innovation makes the already
tough business of high-end cui-
sine even tougher. Continual in-
novation may make a restaurant
nearly impossible to sustain.
of his administration’s priority
to help generate more jobs for
the locals.
To attract more visitors, the
Vintar government also plans
to establish a food park where
people can relax with the nat-
ural ambience of the eco-park
overlooking verdant mountains
and the clean Bislak river.
Aside from a bike zipline,
JANUARY 20, 2023 FRIDAY
Sustainable business mod-
els around innovation
To be clear, it’s almost unique-
ly hard to build a sustainable
restaurant business model
based on continual innovation.
In cuisine, innovation is
generally only protected by se-
crecy, tacit knowledge is of dis-
proportionate importance, and
innovations have a short lifes-
pan. Whereas in other indus-
tries, innovation is protected by
patents, explicit knowledge is
more important for production,
and innovations can be exploit-
ed for much longer.
In these sectors, business mod-
els built around innovation are
more likely to make sense. This is
the case in some parts of the phar-
maceuticals, consumer hardware
and entertainment (film, music,
publishing) industries.
Back in the culinary world,
Noma’s plan to focus entirely
on innovation work and mon-
etise without an attached full-
time restaurant seems to have
worked for other culinary R&D
labs. The Cooking Lab (publish-
er of Modernist Cuisine and
other books and media) and
Chew Innovation (a consult-
ing food product development
company) are two examples.
High-end restaurants like
Noma must be both consis-
tent and efficient at producing
high-quality food in order to be
broadly sustainable. Unfortu-
nately, innovation is unavoidably
harmful to consistency and effi-
ciency. While most business mod-
els built on innovation may work,
a restaurant business model built
on continual innovation will al-
ways be at odds with itself. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
tourists may also want to try
other sports amenities such
as surfline, all-terrain vehicle
(ATV), hydrocycle water bike,
floater, zurball and kayak with
fees or rental rates ranging
from PHP50 to PHP1,000.
The park, manned by local
government personnel, is open
from Mondays to Sundays from
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ■
 JANUARY 20, 2020
JULY 17, 2023 cx328
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