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pcinews_twt JUNE 10, 2022 www.canadianinquirer.net VOL. 8 NO. 493

PHILIPPINE FLAG

A street vendor waves the Philippine flags in different sizes which he is selling along Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City on Tuesday (June 7, 2022). Signed by former president Fidel Ramos in 1994,
Executive Order (EO) 179 encourages the display of Philippine flags in government offices, business establishments, schools, and private homes from May 28 to June 12.
ROBERT OSWALD P. ALFILER/PNA

Comelec extends 10

SOCE deadline for

winning candidates
BY FERDINAND PATINIO
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Winning national and local
candidates in the May 9 elections have
until November to file their Statements of
Contribution and Expenditures (SOCE).
In a statement Wednesday, Com-
mission on Elections (Comelec) Edu-
cation and Information Department
Ontario election: Doug Ford’s
victory shows he’s not the
polarizing figure he once was
(EID) director James Jimenez said the
poll body’s Resolution No. 10505 allows
winning bets in last month’s polls to file 24
their SOCEs within six months after
proclamation. `
“Comelec Resolution No. 9991, as Is my dog too cold?
amended by Resolution No. 10505, gov- How cold is too cold for a walk?
erns campaign finance and disclosure. Here’s how to tell
The June 8 deadline in relation to the South Africa’s economy has
taken some heavy body blows:
PAGE 22
❱❱ PAGE 7 Comelec extends SOCE can it recover?

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www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022 3

HAPPY
INDEPENDENCE
DAY
Being able to explore the wonders
of our country and living our lives
the way we do now are just some of
the gifts we got from our ancestors
who fought for this freedom.

For the 124th year, let us remember

to continue to protect this gift and
defend our rights.

Happy Independence Day from PCI!

www.canadianinquirer.net
4 Philippine News
Admin raps await Duterte trusts next admin
‘pastillas’ suspects will ‘do its very best’
charged with graft to fight drugs
BY BENJAMIN PULTA,
WILNARD BACELONIA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Bureau of Immi-
gration (BI) employees impli-
cated in the so-called “pastil-
las” scam will still face separate
administrative charges distinct
from the suits filed by the Office
of the Ombudsman.
The bail for the temporary
liberty of each of the 43 BI offi-
cials and staff was recommend-
ed at PHP90,000 each.
The Ombudsman charged
them with violating the An-
ti-Graft and Corrupt Practices
Act after it was uncovered that
they conspired in receiving bribe
money from Chinese nationals
who entered the country without
going through regular and strin-
gent profiling or screening.
The money was wrapped like
pastillas candies, a milk-based
soft delicacy.
The foreigners were report-
edly referred by a travel agency
and other Chinese nationals in
the country.
Department of Justice (DOJ)
Secretary Menardo Guevarra said
the agency launched a parallel ad-
ministrative investigation after a
fact-finding inquiry by the BI.
“The resolution of the separate
administrative case is also forth-
coming,” Guevarra told reporters
via text message on Tuesday.
He said the respondents in
the administrative complaint
are not the same set in the crim-
inal complaint submitted by the
National Bureau of Investiga-
tion (NBI) to the Ombudsman.
“It is the resolution of the ad-
ministrative case that will deter-
mine the disciplinary action that
may be taken against the respon-
dents therein,” Guevarra said.
Among those slapped with
graft charges were former Dep-
uty Commissioner Marc Red
Mariñas and senior immigration
officers Grifton Medina, Erwin
Ortañez, and Glenn Ford Comia.
In February 2020, the Senate
probed the scheme, after which
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente
formed a fact-finding investiga-
tion committee (FFIC) to look
into the alleged irregularity.
The FFIC subsequently is-
sued a report finding prima fa-
cie evidence for grave miscon-
duct and conduct prejudicial to
the best interest of the service
against the BI personnel.
The FFIC also recommended
that a formal administrative in-
vestigation be conducted with-
out prejudice to the filing of an
independent criminal action.
On Oct. 23, 2020, Guevarra
issued a formal charge for grave
misconduct, gross neglect of duty,
and conduct prejudicial to the
best interest of the service against
the BI officials and employees.
Success
Senator Risa Hontiveros is
thankful for the Ombudsman’s
move.
“Tagumpay ito ng mga ka-
babaihan at kabataang biktima
ng human trafficking, lalo na ang
mga naglakas loob magsalita tu-
lad nina Carina at Ivy (This is a
success for the women and the
youth who were victims of hu-
man trafficking, especially the
ones who were brave enough to
speak like Carina and Ivy),” she
said in a statement, referring to
the two victims who testified
about prostitution rings mostly
serving Chinese clientele
Hontiveros, chair of the Com-
mittee on Women, Children, Fam-
ily Relations and Gender Equal-
ity that helped bare details of the
“pastillas” scam, said the filing of
cases showed Senate hearings are
indeed of help to the country.
“Pwede maging katuwang ng
estado at (We can work with
the state and) law enforcement
agencies para labanan ang kati-
walian (the committee to fight
irregularities). Our committee
worked very closely with the
DOJ, the NBI, the DSWD (De-
partment of Social Welfare and
Development),” she said.
In November 2020, President
Rodrigo Duterte summoned the
suspects to Malacañang where pa-
per bills in “pastillas” wrapper were
waiting for them to munch on.
Out of respect for Guevarra
who was also at the Palace at
the time, the President canceled
their “snack” but said he wanted
them fired from the service.■
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – President Ro-
drigo R. Duterte believes the
administration of his succes-
sor, President-elect Ferdinand
“Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will “do
its very best” in continuing the
fight against illegal drugs.
“Well, I trust that the next
administration will also do
its very best to confront itong
drug[s],” he said in a prerecord-
ed Talk to the People.
Although he admitted that he
is “scared” that the drug industry
would proliferate when his term
ends, he expressed confidence
that the police and military would
“maintain the momentum” in the
anti-narcotics campaign.
“I place my full trust and con-
fidence on the two institutions
that we have na iyon lang ang
ating panglaban (that fight for
us): it’s the police and the mili-
tary. These are the institutions
that would, I think, will not al-
low the drug people to prevail,”
he added.
Duterte acknowledged that
there are some bad eggs in the
country’s police force, but not-
ed that the Philippine National
Police (PNP) is continuously
cleansing its ranks of scalawags.
“I still trust the police. May-
roong mga scalawags, mayroon
ring nasa droga pero (There are
some scalawags, there are some
involved in illegal drugs) — a
few of them. And yet the police
had to police its own ranks and
maraming pulis na nahuli nila
(and many police officers have
been caught),” he said.
He urged anew members of
the PNP to serve the country
and people, regardless of who
the country’s leaders are.
“Dadaan lang kami eh…Kita
mo ako mayor tapos parang
kahapon lang dumaan lang sa
harap ko (We are just passing
by…You see I used to be a mayor
and it seems like only yester-
day when I passed in front of
you). But the organization of the
Armed Forces and the police will
be there always. So kayo ang ---
nakikiusap ako sa inyo na main-
www.canadianinquirer.net
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (JOEY DALUMPINES/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)
tain your ‘yung ano ninyo your
reputation na maasahan ang
pulis, maasahan ang military (So
you, I appeal to you to maintain
your reputation as police and
military who can be relied on) to
save the country,” he said.
Duterte also reminded them
to steer clear of involvement in
the illegal drug trade.
“Kaya kung kayong mga pulis
kung talagang mahal ninyo ang
bayan (That is why you cops, if
you really love your country), stay
away from drugs, the temptation
of money,” he said. “I said it’s very
corrosive to the values of a human
being, the lure of money.”
On communist insurgency
Meanwhile, Duterte criti-
cized human rights groups anew
for accusing him of “going to the
extremes” in his administra-
tion’s crackdown on illegal drugs
while failing to investigate kill-
ings of law enforcement officers
and civilians under the hands of
communists and terrorists.
“Is there any case pursued by
the human rights, international
or the local, to at least equalize
the situation by also going after
the terrorists who are crimi-
nals?” he said.
He castigated members of the
Communist Party of the Philip-
pines-New People’s Army-Na-
tional Democratic Front (CPP-
NPA-NDF) for killing barangay
(village) captains and other lo-
cal government officials.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a
terrorist organization by the
JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY
United States, European Union,
the United Kingdom, Australia,
Canada, New Zealand, and the
Philippines.
The NDF has been formally
designated as a terrorist orga-
nization by the Anti-Terrorism
Council on June 23, 2021, citing
it as “an integral and insepara-
ble part” of the CPP-NPA creat-
ed in April 1973.
Duterte also praised efforts
being done by the National Task
Force to End the Local Com-
munist Armed Conflict (NTF-
ELCAC) to address the coun-
try’s decades-long insurgency
problem.
“Ang success ng ELCAC, iy-
ong whole-of-government ap-
proach, ‘pag na-maintain ‘yan,
mas madali (The success of the
ELCAC, its whole-of-govern-
ment approach, if we are able to
maintain that, it would be easi-
er),” he added.
He expressed confidence that
the government would almost
“wipe out” communist rebels in
“another two years.”
Executive Order 70, inked
by Duterte in December 2018,
institutionalizes a whole-of-
nation approach to attain in-
clusive and sustainable peace,
and creates the NTF-ELCAC to
oversee its implementation.
In previous speeches, Dute-
rte said he hoped the next ad-
ministration will continue the
government’s anti-insurgen-
cy programs under the NTF-
ELCAC. ■
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022 5

www.canadianinquirer.net
6 Philippine News
Marcos tackles food security, climate change
with European envoys
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Food security,
climate change, and renewable
energy were among the topics
discussed by President-elect Fer-
dinand “Bongbong” Marcos with
ambassadors from Spain, Moroc-
co, and Germany during separate
meetings on Tuesday morning.
Jorge Moragas, Ambassador
of Spain to the Philippines; Am-
bassador Mohammed Rida El
Fassi of Morocco; and German
Ambassador Anke Reiffenstuel
were received by Marcos sepa-
rately during a series of meet-
ings at the BBM headquarters
in Mandaluyong City.
In a press briefing after the
private meeting with Marcos,
Reiffenstuel said apart from en-
hancing cooperation between
their two countries, they also
discussed global challenges in-
cluding food security and cli-
mate change.
“We exchanged (views) about
the ongoing bilateral cooper-
PH avoids new Covid-19 surge due to vax,
protocol adherence: PRRD
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Philip-
pines avoided another surge in
Covid-19 cases through contin-
uous Covid-19 vaccinations and
adherence to minimum pub-
lic health standards, outgoing
President Rodrigo R. Duterte
said Monday.
In a prerecorded public ad-
dress, Duterte touted anew
his administration’s success in
containing Covid-19 infections
and reopening the economy.
“If I were to judge myself,
the one single thing that my
government did was to contain
Covid-19 in a very much earlier
span of time. And to think na
yung iba sa ngayon nagkaroon
ng (other countries are having
a) surge simply because maybe
the citizens of that country do
not want to follow regulations.
E tayo dito, sabi ko, takot (But
ation and the cooperation in
the international frame in the
multilateral formats, and dis-
cussed potentials for furthering
cooperation not only on mutu-
al interests but also to address
global challenges like climate
change,” the ambassador said.
The envoy added that she in-
formed the incoming president
about the ongoing programs
of Germany to help the Phil-
ippines in addressing climate
change including their Euro25
million donation for climate
change-related projects.
They likewise discussed the
priority project of Marcos re-
garding food security.
“I informed him about the
upcoming international minis-
terial conference on global food
security, this is also against the
background of the impact of the
Russian war against Ukraine
with regards to the challenges on
global food security,” she noted.
Reiffenstuel also disclosed
that they also tackled the safe-
guarding of rule of law and hu-
An airport staff sprays disinfectant on the boxes containing newly delivered
Pfizer vaccine at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 Wednesday
(March 2, 2022) night. (AVITO DALAN/PNA)
us here, we are afraid),” he said.
Duterte commended Filipi-
nos’ compliance with Covid-19
health protocols, adding that
this also allowed them to regain
confidence to return to work.
“Because we (re)started our
economy, yung mga trabahante
bumalik na, nakalabas na (work-
ers are able to return to work,
leave their homes),” he added.
man rights.
“I also underlined the impor-
tance Germany attaches to the
rule of law and safeguarding hu-
man rights, and of our contin-
ued commitment to the same,”
she said.
“In this context that I also
mentioned, the (continuing)
German support, contribution
and funding of the United Na-
tions joint program on human
rights here in the Philippines,”
she added.
Reiffenstuel said they also
focused their discussion on
renewable energy which is
also among Marcos’ campaign
promises to provide lower pow-
er rates to the people.
“Renewable energies of
course are of great importance
to us, to Germany, and we ex-
changed about the experiences
and the commitment and the
distributions and the shares of
renewable energies in our two
countries’ power protections,”
she added.
The ambassador noted that
Meanwhile, he enjoined
healthcare workers and vacci-
nators to “stretch their efforts”
and help in identifying Filipi-
nos who have yet to get their
Covid-19 jabs.
“Yung hinahanap natin yung
itong mga vulnerable o kaya ng
may mga edad na na hindi naka-
kalabas at di pa naiinjeksyunan
(What we are looking for are
www.canadianinquirer.net
Marcos illustrated his early
commitment to renewable en-
ergy by mentioning the wind
farm in Ilocos Norte, and they
agreed that there is a need to
continue to deepen the discus-
sions since this has been an area
of mutual interest.
Last Monday, Marcos also
met separately with ambassa-
dors from Italy and different
those vulnerable or elderly who
cannot leave their homes and
have not received their jabs), if we
can manage to find them,” he said.
He acknowledged that many
of them are bone-weary, but ap-
pealed to them to “do more” for
fellow Filipinos.
“Alam kong pagod na kayo
(I know you are tired) but you
have to do more for your coun-
trymen. ‘Yan lang ang pakiusap
ko sa inyo (That is my only re-
quest)...This time do it for the
country and do it for your coun-
trymen,” he added.
The Philippines has so far
inoculated more than 69 mil-
lion people or 77.2 percent of
its target population of 90.005
million, while 14.3 million in-
dividuals have already received
booster shots.
Recent data from the Depart-
ment of Health showed that a
total of 1,295 new infections
were logged from May 30 to
June 5 with an average of 185
JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY
Asean countries during which
they discussed expanded co-
operation between the Phil-
ippines and their respective
countries.
The ambassadors relayed con-
gratulatory messages of their
heads of state on his victory and
affirmed their interest in improv-
ing bilateral and diplomatic rela-
tions with the Philippines. ■
daily cases, 1.4 percent lower
than the daily infections logged
in the previous week.
Tokyo-based news magazine
Nikkei Asia earlier ranked the
Philippines at the 33rd spot of
its Covid-19 Recovering Index,
noting Manila’s improving pan-
demic response.
Gratitude to China
Recalling how the Philip-
pines struggled during the on-
set of the pandemic, Duterte
thanked China anew for pro-
viding the country with the first
batch of Covid-19 vaccines.
“We started with zero. We
were just floating, waiting for
the next thing to happen. And
maski anong sabihin ng iba and
other nations (And whatever
other nations say), we would
like to reiterate again our grat-
itude to China,” he said.
While other countries were
hoarding doses of Covid-19 vac-
❱❱ PAGE 10 PH avoids new
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022
Marcos junior is the latest beneficiary of
‘bloodlines’ in Southeast Asian politics
BY JAMES CHIN, University
of Tasmania
The Conversation
While there is widespread
nervousness at the victory of
Ferdinand Marcos junior in the
Philippines, for many of us it
was a reminder that “blood” is
still an important element in the
politics of the developing world.
Before you get smug, it’s
called “political dynasties” in
the developed world. In the US,
it’s the Kennedy, Bush and Clin-
ton families.
In much of Southeast Asia,
the idea of political blood is
taken much more seriously.
Despite the modernisation pro-
cess, politics is still stuck in the
old ways.
A brief look is disturbing. In
the Philippines, Gloria Macapa-
gal Arroyo and Benigno “Noy-
noy” Aquino III both succeed-
ed their parents as president of
the Philippines. In Indonesia,
Megawati Sukarnoputri is the
daughter of the country’s first
president, Sukarno. In Thailand,
Yingluck Shinawatra succeeded
her brother Thaksin as prime
minister. Singapore is ruled by
Lee Hsien Loong, son of Lee
Kuan Yew. Najib Razak is the
son of Malaysia’s second prime
minister, Abdul Razak Hussein.
And Hun Manet, the son of Hun
Sen, is almost certain to take
over Cambodia soon.
Hontiveros urges
speedy review of
minimum fare hike
Office of Senator Risa
Hontiveros
Senator Risa Hontiveros on
Wednesday urged the Land
Transportation Franchising
and Regulatory Board to imme-
diately review the petition to
increase the minimum fare of
public utility jeepneys to help
boost the earnings of the driv-
ers amid the rising fuel prices.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III (left) and House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco raise
the hands of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. during his proclama-
tion in Batasan Hills, Quezon City on Wednesday (May 25, 2022). (AVITO DALAN/PNA)
These are the most promi-
nent ones. The truth is thou-
sands of others in the region
hold high political office due to
their bloodline.
Others are waiting: Mahathir
Mohamad’s son Mukhriz in Ma-
laysia, Agus Harimurti Yudhoy-
ono, the son of former Indone-
sian president Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono (SBY), Panthong-
tae Shinawatra, the only son of
Thaksin, all have a shot at their
nation’s highest office. Hisham-
muddin Hussein, son of Ma-
laysia’s third prime minister,
is in the same boat. If they did
not come from rich and power-
ful families, it is unlikely they
would ever attain high office.
Are they simply a natural
product of political families?
The Senator made the state-
ment after jeepney drivers
expressed worry about losing
income due to the prolonged pe-
riod of fuel price hikes as well as
free rides from the government.
“Dapat timbangin mabuti
ang petisyon sa taas-pasahe.
Noong 2018 pa nuwebe pesos
ang minimum fare. Doble na
ang itinaas sa presyo ng krudo,
❱❱ PAGE 10 Hontiveros urges
The argument goes that if you
grow up in that kind of house-
hold you cannot escape your
“calling”. Some even liken it to
“national service”. The other
argument is that since it’s a de-
mocracy, if the polity voted for
them, that should be the end of
the argument.
But the reality is that polit-
ical dynasties are created, and
often accompanied by formal-
ities steeped in custom and
traditional political culture.
They are nothing to do with
meritocracy. In Southeast Asia,
it’s often linked to “patron-cli-
entism”, where a powerful per-
son (patron) and a follower (cli-
ent) mutually benefit from the
relationship.
In a nutshell, why should you
Comelec extends SOCE...
❰❰ 1 2022 NLE is final and
non-extendible, ex-
cept for winning can-
didates and party-list groups,”
he added.
He added that winning aspi-
rants must submit their SOCEs
or they will not be allowed to as-
sume their posts.
“The office of an elected can-
didate who failed to file their
SOCE shall be deemed vacant
until they have complied and
submitted their SOCE within a
period of six months from proc-
lamation. After the lapse of said
period, a permanent vacancy
occurs,” he added.
However, the poll body said the
deadline for SOCE filing is not ex-
tendible for losing candidates.
www.canadianinquirer.net
Philippine News
hold high office just because you
are born with a certain surname
or lucky enough to be born into
a particular family?
In almost all cases, political
dynasty members use their su-
perior wealth, connections and
education to rise. Along the
way, they attract the follow-
ers of their forebears and keep
them loyal with patronage,
sometimes called the “coat-tail
effect”. I take the view that po-
litical dynasties, in all societies,
are bad in the long run and have
negative consequences for po-
litical development.
First, political dynasties hin-
der meritocracy and fair com-
petition. In rural areas of South-
east Asia, it is extremely rare for
a political unknown to defeat a
“name” that has been in power
for generations. This explains
why the power bases of many
political dynasties are often
found in rural constituencies.
Second, political dynasties
promote the idea of political
elitism. That is, the selection
process is closed and the lead-
ers are drawn from the same
pool of people.
Third, political dynasties
are closely linked to econom-
ic power. Concentration of
political power among a few
families benefits a narrow set
of economic interests. This
process institutionalises eco-
nomic and income inequalities
and creates a culture in which
“Except for elected candidate
and party-list group, the dead-
line shall be final and non-ex-
tendible,” added the Comelec
resolution which was promul-
Comelec Education and Information Department director James Jimenez
(ROBERT OSWALD P. ALFILER/PNA)
7
“connections” become the
most important criteria for ev-
erything. These political fam-
ilies are able to claim a major
portion of the state’s resources
legally through their control of
the political system, leaving the
country vulnerable to corrupt
practices.
However, it seems political dy-
nasties’ hold on politics in South-
east Asia remains unshakeable.
Some countries have “term lim-
its” to stop political dynasties,
but they are totally ineffective in
practice. For example, there is
nothing to stop a brother or sis-
ter from the same political family
succeeding each other.
Will social media and the in-
ternet change the situation? It is
very unlikely. The most import-
ant criterion for political change
is probably education, which
means an education system that
teaches citizens to be critical
and think in a rational way.
But in Southeast Asia, state
education is about producing cit-
izens who obey authority – in bu-
reaucratic speak they are called
“loyal” or “patriotic” citizens.
So, should we be surprised
by Bong-Bong Marcos’s victo-
ry? Not in the least. There will
be similar victories by people
with very familiar names in the
future. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
gated on February 28, 2019.
Comelec Resolution No.
10695 has earlier set the dead-
line for the filing of SOCEs on
June 8, 2022.■
8 Philippine News JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY

PH detects 3 additional cases of

Omicron subvariant BA.5
BY MA. TERESA MONTEMAYOR for other lineages and 61 or 32.1 percent sabihin ang collection dates natin ay
Philippine News Agency have no assigned lineage. mula (this means their collection dates
Correspondent/Hosts Among the 114 new Omicron cas- are from) August 2021 to January to
Bea Kirstein T. Manalaysay
Joanna Belle Deala es, emerging Omicron sublineages - April 2022 and 79 were the usual run
Kathleen Mae Guerrero MANILA – The Department of Health BA.2.12.1 with seven cases and three collection dates of May 2022,” she said.
Arianne Grace Lacanilao (DOH) has detected three new cases of BA.5 cases - were detected. “Among the retrospective run, Omi-
Violeta Arevelo
Babes Newland Omicron subvariant BA.5 in its latest se- Vergeire noted that 103 among the cron ay 59 cases, 13 ay Delta cases. Mula
Matte Laurel quencing run. Omicron cases detected are local cases, naman po sa ating usual run, 55 ang
Graphic Design
In an online media forum Tuesday, three are returning overseas Filipinos, Omicron cases at isa naman ang Delta
Shanice Garcia DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Ver- and the remaining cases are being veri- variant (Fifty-nine are Omicron cases,
Ginno Alcantara geire said two of the cases are from Re- fied whether they are local or not. 13 are Delta cases. From our usual run,
Arlnie Colleene Talain Singca
gion 4-A (Calabarzon) while the address “One hundred eleven out of these 55 are Omicron cases and one is Delta
Account Manager of the other case is still being verified. samples were retrospective runs, ibig variant),” she added. ■
Kristopher Yong The case with the still unverified address
Director/Producer
is fully vaccinated while one of the two cas-
Boom Dayupay es from Calabarzon is unvaccinated.
The DOH is still verifying the vaccina-
Photographers/Videographers
Ginno Alcantara
tion status of the other case from Cala-
barzon together with their exposures
Operations and Admin and travel histories.
Victoria Yong “Symptoms manifested by the indi-
Amelia Insigne
viduals are still being verified. However,
Management the three individuals are now tagged as
Alan Yong recovered,” Vergeire said.
The Omicron variant remains the most
common lineage detected in the country.
For photo submissions, please email
As of June 6, out of the total 190 sam-
editor@canadianinquirer.net ples sequenced, 114 or 60 percent were
positive for the Omicron variant, 14 or
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info@canadianinquirer.net
7.4 percent are positive for the Delta
variant, one or 0.5 percent was positive
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arising out of error in any advertisement.
Member
BY JOYCE ANN L. ROCAMORA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Malacañang on Tuesday
assured the public that the government
is looking for ways to fight hunger in the
country.
The assurance came after the Social
Weather Stations (SWS) reported a
higher hunger incidence in the country
in the first quarter of 2022
According to the SWS’ April 19 to 27
survey, around 12.2 percent or an esti-
mated 3.1 million Filipino families expe-
rienced “involuntary” hunger from Jan-
uary to April 2022 due to lack of food.
The number of Filipino households
who experienced hunger in the past three
months of 2022 was 0.4 percentage points
higher than the 11.8 percent or estimated 3
million families recorded in December 2021.
Sought for reaction, acting presiden-
tial spokesperson and Communications
Secretary Martin Andanar said the gov-
ernment is exhausting all efforts to ad-
dress hunger problem in the country.
“Patuloy nating tinutugunan ang is-
www.canadianinquirer.net
sue ng kagutuman (We continue to ad-
dress the hunger issue),” Andanar said
in an online press conference.
The SWS interviewed 1,440 adult Fil-
ipinos, using sampling error margins of
±2.6 percentage points for national per-
centages and ±5.2 percentage points for
Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Vi-
sayas, and Mindanao.
The highest hunger incidence, SWS
said, was registered in Metro Manila,
with 18.6 percent or estimated 636,000
families in the country’s metropolis hav-
ing no food to eat. The figure, however,
was down by 4.2 percentage points from
22.8 percent or estimated 770,000 fami-
lies logged in December 2021.
Following Metro Manila were Mindanao
(13.1 percent or an estimated 761,000 fami-
lies from 12.2 percent or estimated 703,000
families) and Balance Luzon (11.7 percent
or estimated 1.3 million families from 9.2
percent or estimated 1 million families).
The lowest hunger rate was recorded
in the Visayas, which is at 7.8 percent or
estimated 373,000 families, lower by 1.9
percentage points from 9.7 percent or
estimated 462,000 families.
Despite this, Andanar said then latest
hunger incidence in the Philippines is
still lower compared to the 16 percent or
an estimated 4 million families who ex-
perienced involuntary hunger in the last
quarter of 2020.
He added that the Duterte administra-
tion has created the Inter-Agency Task
Force (IATF) on Zero Hunger to help Fil-
ipinos who are experiencing hunger.
The IATF on Zero Hunger, created by
virtue of Executive Order 101 inked by
President Rodrigo Duterte in January
2020, is tasked to ensure that govern-
ment policies, initiatives, and projects
on attaining zero hunger will be “coordi-
nated, responsive, and effective.”
The task force’s initiatives include the
creation of the Enhanced Partnership
Against Hunger and Poverty; pilot feed-
ing programs under the First 1000 Days
of Life; launching of Pilipinas Kontra
Gutom; formulation of the Philippine
Multi-sectoral Nutrition Project Propos-
al for the World Bank; Gulayan sa Baran-
gay at sa Pamayanan programs; and vari-
ous livelihood projects aimed at uplifting
the lives of farmers and fisherfolk. ■
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022
What are Canada’s options in Ukraine?
BY NICOLE JACKSON
Policy Options
It’s time for the Trudeau gov-
ernment to clarify the aims and
limits of its intervention in the
war.
Whether or not you think
it’s time for Canada to push for
peace in Ukraine, it’s definitely
time to clarify the aims, benefits
and limits of its responses.
Those responses have
evolved over the course of the
war. Canada acted early and
sent Ukraine non-lethal mili-
tary aid and financial support.
In a bid to change Russian Pres-
ident Vladimir ’s war calculus,
the government joined allies
to impose unprecedented eco-
nomic and political sanctions
along with humanitarian and
refugee assistance. Canadians,
outraged by the violence, were
motivated to help.
Over time, our government
began to send lethal weapons
that it had previously denied,
and it sent more troops to
Ukraine’s borders. Amongst oth-
er actions, in late May it banned
1,000 sanctioned Russians from
entering Canada. As part of the
G7, Canada pledged a further
$20 billion of financial support,
alongside U.S. President Joe
Biden’s $40-billion aid package.
On May 24, the government an-
nounced its largest donation of
military equipment.
Canada has already achieved
its first, limited aim of helping
Ukraine defend against Russia’s
advances towards Kyiv and in
the northern part of Ukraine.
European security has been
strengthened. NATO has unified
and Finland and Sweden have
applied for membership. Rus-
sia’s economy is weakened. It
has suffered great military loss-
es and it will long remain politi-
cally isolated from the West.
However, Canada’s goals are
now unclear. Is its aim, for ex-
ample, to achieve a resolution
that supports a relationship be-
tween a sovereign Ukraine and
the West and Russia? Is it to
prevent Russia from launching
Canada News
future attacks? Is it to push Pu-
tin out of power? Or is it, more
broadly, to prevent the victory
of an authoritarian state?
Our aims seem to be esca-
lating in reaction to events,
including Russia intensifying
its bombardment of the wider
Donbas region and in the south.
Ukraine’s continued success
cannot be guaranteed.
The war has become more
complex. How long and at what
cost does Canada want to support
a war against a nuclear-armed
tyrant threatening more death,
misery and destruction?
Ukrainians confront tough
choices. Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s aim has
not been clear, but it appears
he is resisting and pushing for-
ward. Recently, his aide called
for restoration of Ukraine’s 1991
borders. Canada seems to have
decided to support him in this
effort, but it should be clear for
how long and at what expense.
Realistically, it will be hard to
extricate Russia from the Don-
bas and Crimea where Russian
troops have been dug in since
2014. Russian Foreign Minis-
ter Sergei Lavrov has called the
Donbas an “unconditional pri-
ority” for Russia. Putin’s pres-
tige is at stake.
This war will drag on. Many
more Ukrainians will die as
homes, buildings and infra-
structure are further destroyed.
If NATO looks to break Russia’s
blockade of the port of Odesa,
the risks of an expanding war
increase. The additional danger
is an escalation with nuclear
weapons.
However, if Ukraine does not
push forward, it will leave Rus-
sia with a land corridor from
Crimea to Donbas (and per-
haps more). Ukraine would be
a truncated and poorer state
if it were cut off from the min-
eral-rich south-east and lost
access to the Black Sea. Those
would be major losses.
Recently, Zelenskyy men-
tioned a third possibility – to
negotiate. Perhaps now is the
time to once again push for
diplomacy, in the hope of pre-
9
venting more deaths and de- Negotiations would require Ukrainians must decide their
struction in a protracted war. all parties to discuss the status own way forward. For now, they
There are great risks and ex- of Lukhansk and Donetsk in seem to want complete resto-
traordinary costs, including Ukraine, and the rights of Rus- ration of their territory.
famine and increasing energy sian-speakers there. Zelenskyy Ukraine deserves Canada’s
prices, of a continuing war. will want to settle on terms fa- support to defend itself in re-
With growing evidence of vourable to Ukraine, including sponse to Putin’s unprovoked
atrocities and little agreement demilitarization and access to invasion. Along with our allies,
on facts, some will argue that is the Black Sea. Putin will push Canada has shown the will and
it too early, too naïve ability to answer Pu-
or too dangerous. tin’s aggressions and
Putin shows little the right of countries
inclination to pur- to defend themselves.
sue peace. However, Canada can con-
eventually, the war ... the government tinue to arm Ukraine
will be ended with and impose more and
negotiation. joined allies to impose tighter sanctions.
The earlier a unprecedented economic However, this may be
settlement can be a long and increasingly
reached, the sooner and political sanctions dangerous war of attri-
Canada can help with along with humanitarian tion. Our government
the massive recon- should make sure that
struction, refugees and refugee assistance. responses continue to
can return home and be commensurate with
children’s education Canadian values and
can resume. Nego- goals. Canadians need
tiations might even a clear idea of the costs,
prevent the Donbas limits, and possible un-
from becoming another sepa- to keep his territorial gains. For intended consequences of our
ratist conflict with no political Russia and Ukraine, this is an engagement.
resolution or having Russia an- existential war, making com- When Ukrainians are ready,
nex more of its territory. promises difficult. supporting their inclination
Negotiations won’t be easy Earlier in the war, Zelenskyy towards peace may be the best
and will require political will, signalled that he might be open way to save lives, stand for uni-
and international support to a referendum on the ques- versally held ideals and prevent
which do not currently exist. tion of Ukraine’s neutrality. further aggression. ■
They would require an imme- Ukraine would not join NATO
diate, sustained ceasefire. The if it receives sufficient securi- This article first appeared
real danger is that Russia takes ty guarantees another way. He on Policy Options and is repub-
the opportunity to regroup and may be holding this back as a lished here under a Creative
attack again. bargaining chip. Commons license.
www.canadianinquirer.net
 10 Canada News JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY

Ontario election: Doug Ford’s victory shows

he’s not the polarizing figure he once was
BY JONATHAN MALLOY,
Carleton University
The Conversation
Doug Ford has won a larger
majority government in On-
tario, a victory that serves as a
reminder that the Progressive
Conservative party ruled Ontar-
io for much of the 20th century.
That 42-year unbroken run,
from 1943 to 1985, was not by
accident. The 20th century On-
tario PCs won election after
election by continually evolving.
In turn, political scientists of
the day identified an “Ontario
political culture” that valued
moderation and cautious prog-
ress. With leaders like Bill Davis
and his famous line that “bland
works,” the PCs and Ontario
seemed made for each other.
The idea of a durable and
moderate Ontario political cul-
ture took a hit in the 1990s when
the province lurched first to the
NDP and then the so-called
Common Sense Revolution of
the Mike Harris PCs. But it was
restored by the coming of Dal-
ton McGuinty who, although a
Liberal, reflected the 20th cen-
tury PC tradition of unflashy
but adaptable leadership.
The concept took another hit
in 2018 with the election of the
distinctly un-bland Doug Ford.
But the results of the 2022 On-
tario election suggest the tradi-
tion is alive and well.
Ford has positioned himself in
the longstanding tradition of the
adaptable Ontario PCs and an en-
during provincial political culture.
‘Get it done’
Years ago, Western Univer-
sity political scientist Sid Noel
argued that: “More than the
people of any other province…
Ontarians tend to define politi-
cal leadership in terms of man-
agerial capability.”
The 2022 PC slogan, “Get It
Done,” aligned perfectly with
Noel’s 20th century thesis.
The change is remarkable.
Two and a half years ago, it
seemed that the 2022 election
would surely be a referendum
on Ford. To some degree it still
was. But while some people
deeply dislike Ford, he is not the
polarizing figure he was in 2018.
Rather, Ford and his party
have successively portrayed
themselves as competent man-
agers adapting to the needs of
Ontario in 2022. Whether their
policy record actually holds up
is a different story. The point
is that they successfully con-
vinced enough Ontarians that
they are the best party to run
the province.
This wasn’t really an elec-
tion about divisive issues. The
biggest exception was the pro-
posed Highway 413, promised
by the PCs and opposed by the
other parties. Instead, the PCs
managed to make this a retail
election about immediate items
for sale, more than big concepts
and philosophies.
This was tailor-made for
Ford’s strengths. He’s not a
traditional ideologue or liber-
tarian. Rather, as he lays out
candidly in his book Ford Na-
tion, the Ford family political
philosophy is simple: “Custom-
er service.” Ford sees politics
on an individualized, taxpayer
and customer basis, much more
than a sense of broader system-
ic issues and challenges.
A promise extravaganza
The retail focus made for a
bewildering array of promis-
es in all directions during the
election campaign, as the oth-
er parties played along. Many
promises seemed random and
unconnected to broader ideas.
Future political junkies can
play a quiz: “Who promised
what in the 2022 Ontario elec-
Doug Ford (FORDNATION/FACEBOOK)
tion?” Which party promised
to bring back Grade 13? Who
promised to end truck tolls on
Highway 407? Which party
promised to increase disability
benefits by five per cent? (Cor-
rect answers, respectively: The
Liberals, the Greens and the
NDP, and the PCs.)
The PC machine was so un-
stoppable throughout the cam-
paign that the two other ma-
jor parties spent most of their
energy fighting each other for
second place. The Liberals were
desperate to climb back from
their 2018 wipeout, and largely
failed, while the NDP struggled
to maintain their foothold.
The two main opposition
parties were hampered by
their leaders, both of whom an-
nounced their resignations on
election night. Liberal Leader
Steven Del Duca was not able
to sell his suburban dad image
and lost his seat. New Democrat
Andrea Horwath has simply not
been able to capture public at-
tention — either positively or
negatively — despite her fourth
election and announced it was
time to “pass the torch” to a
new leader.
Role of the pandemic
The unanswerable question
is whether this election would
have been different without the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ford government had
a rocky record managing
COVID-19. But it is notable how
the PC party stayed largely unit-
ed — unlike the Alberta United
Conservatives who spiralled into
civil war, resulting in the demise
of their leader, Jason Kenney.
Four members of the Ontario
PC caucus left or were expelled
during the pandemic after
speaking out publicly against
the government’s COVID-19
policies, and the party faced two
breakaway rivals on the right,
the New Blue and Ontario par-
ties. But both failed to win seats
or stop the PC momentum.
This again suggests there is
something distinct about On-
tario and its political culture,
and the PC party under Ford
has figured out what it is. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.

Hontiveros urges... PH avoids new...

❰❰ 7 marapat lang siguro ommendation of the economic P6,500 subsidy sa Pantawid Pas- insufficient to keep the trans- ❰❰ 6 cines, he said China
na pakinggan ang hi- managers to repress transport ada. Pero limang buwan nang port sector running. was generous enough
naing ng ating mga fares that have been stuck at patuloy na tumataas ang presyo Hontiveros reiterated her call to share their vaccines
tsuper,” she said. their present levels since 2018, ng krudo. Kung walang gagawing to immediately earmark the ex- to the Philippines.
“Bakit nga naman mamamasa- when diesel prices were only aksyon, hindi lang mga tsuper cise tax on fuels to improve the “One day, without us really
da pa kung mapupunta lang ang half of what they are today. ang mawawalan, kundi ang mga public transport system and fund expecting it, China announced
kikitain sa pagpapa- pasahero na umaasa the service contracting program. that they’re shipping to the
karga ng krudo at wala sa kanila,” Hontiveros “Kapag mahal ang presyo ng Philippines vaccines to start the
nang maiuuwi sa pam- stated. petrolyo, dapat kasabay na pi- yung panlaban natin (our fight),
ilya? Huwag nating ha- Earlier, Hontiveros nalalaki ang service contracting the war against the Covid-19,”
yaan na mangyari ito Dapat timbangin mabuti had been calling on kasama ang fare adjustments. he added.
sa kanila,” she said. the government to As much as I don’t want to point Duterte, in previous speech-
Hontiveros said ang petisyon sa taas-pasahe. install a more sus- fingers, I would like to call out es, said he personally wants
that the Department tainable solution to the economic managers for un- to visit Chinese President Xi
of Transportation the rising petroleum dermining the fare adjustment Jinping for their government’s
(DoTr) already knew prices directly affect- process at the LTFRB. This has Covid-19 vaccine donations.
that a P6500 fuel sub- ing the transportation caused unnecessary distress to In March 2021, the Philippines
sidy for PUJs would be good for “Ang kalihim ng DoTr mismo sector. Likewise, she warned drivers and is now endangering kicked off its Covid-19 vaccination
only a month, yet in mid-March, ang nagsabi nung mid-March na that drivers will stop plying the the viability of the transport drive using China’s Sinovac-made
the agency agreed with the rec- sapat lang sa isang buwan ang roads as the one-time fuel aid is system,” she concluded. ■ “CoronoVac” vaccines. ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022
Canada-Indonesia trade deal risks
deepening global troubles
BY SHANE MOFFATT,
SYAHRUL FITRA
Policy Options
The climate crisis, social in-
equality and biodiversity loss
could all worsen from increased
trade in forest products, rubber
and palm oil.
Canadian chemical fertiliz-
ers are being sent in large quan-
tities to Indonesia. Rubber and
palm plantations are major
users of chemical fertilizers in
that country to produce goods
often linked to deforestation
that are then exported back to
Canada. At the same time, wood
products already flow in both
directions with questionable
transparency regarding corpo-
rate ownership or environmen-
tal protections.
This March we learned nego-
tiations are accelerating towards
a Canada-Indonesia Compre-
hensive Economic Partner-
ship Agreement (CEPA).
The first round took place
in Jakarta, followed by an
in-person meeting between
Foreign Minister Melanie
Joly and her Indonesian
counterpart Retno Marsu-
di in mid-April. A second
round of talks in Ottawa is
imminent.
This deal is likely to en-
trench reliance on chem-
ical fertilizers, exacerbate
deforestation and threaten
the rights of local commu-
nities and Indigenous peo-
ples. It will rely on bilateral
trade in risky commodities
like forest products, rub-
ber and palm oil.
A better trade deal is possi-
ble, however. One that both Ca-
nadian and Indonesian govern-
ments should cooperate on to
deliver. A new agreement that
is radically transparent, focuses
on climate change and the bio-
diversity crisis and centers the
rights of Indigenous peoples
and local communities.
Chemical fertilizer, rub-
ber plantations and big agri-
business
Rubber, writing paper and
clothing are among the top five
imports from Indonesia into
Canada every year, worth over
$250 million as of 2019. In the
other direction, chemical fertil-
izers and wood pulp are among
the largest exports from Cana-
da to Indonesia, amounting to
roughly $400 million.
Chemical fertilizers are the
second largest category of ex-
ports from Canada to Indone-
sia – roughly $240 million in
2019. Much of these are syn-
thetic nitrogen fertilizers, also
known as “fossil-fertilizers.”
These generate vast amounts
of greenhouse gasses in their
production and then lead to
enormous emissions of nitrous
oxide when applied to the soil.
Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse
gas over 250 times as potent as
carbon dioxide.
Globally, Greenpeace is call-
ing for a phase out of these
chemical fertilizers as part of a
shift to more ecological farming
methods. These include prac-
tices that lead to lower emis-
sions and provide greater fair-
ness for farmers who shouldn’t
Canadian
chemical
fertilizers are
being sent in
large quantities
to Indonesia.
be dependent on high-cost arti-
ficial fertilizers for their essen-
tial livelihoods.
Big agribusiness interests
like rubber and palm oil plan-
tations in Indonesia often get
the lion’s share of available fer-
tilizers. Rubber is the number
one export from Indonesia to
Canada. Rubber plantations
in Indonesia are connected to
deforestation and Indigenous
rights violations.
So too has palm oil, which has
seen imports to Canada rise over
1,600 per cent in the past 20 years
alone. Wilmar – a prominent
palm oil producer in Indonesia –
is also a leading importer of chem-
ical fertilizers from Canada.
Next up, forest products
Chemical wood pulp was the
third largest export from Can-
ada to Indonesia in 2019, worth
$155 million. Wood pulp is a key
component in writing paper,
which is then again one of Indo-
nesia’s largest exports to Cana-
da – the fifth largest, amounting
to $45 million that year.
What’s more, the largest wood
pulp producer in Canada – Paper
Excellence – has been linked to
the Sinar Mas Group, a palm oil,
pulpwood and property empire,
recently valued at U.S. $45.8
billion. The Sinar Mas Group
has a long track record of defor-
estation, peatland destruction
and social conflict in Indonesia,
which has been well-document-
ed by Greenpeace Indonesia and
others on the ground.
The logging industry in Can-
ada is itself under pressure for
“some of the worst forestry in
the world” responsible for tre-
mendous loss of biodiver-
sity and massive green-
house gas emissions from
unsustainable logging.
Given this, it’s hard to
imagine the deal will take
pressure off some of the
world’s last great forests,
whether Indonesian rain-
forest, Canadian boreal or
coastal temperate.
Where does this all
leave us?
The Canadian govern-
ment promotes potential
benefits of the deal for “up-
holding labour rights and
promoting environmental
sustainability.” But a closer
analysis reveals looming
commodity driven risks to com-
munities, climate and nature.
More than 50,000 Canadians
have signed a petition opposing
this deal already.
Greenpeace Canada and
Greenpeace Indonesia are both
opposing this deal given the
enormous risks. But another
deal is possible. One which sup-
ports local communities, small
farmers and Indigenous peo-
ples, not transnational corpora-
tions. One which takes us closer
to our climate and biodiversity
goals, not further away.
Here’s what a good deal
would include.
First, more transparency. The
deal and its draft texts should be
www.canadianinquirer.net
Canada News
shared with the public in both
countries and independent im-
pact assessments should be con-
ducted with the involvement of
civil society organizations, eval-
uating effects on human rights
and the environment.
This would allow an evalua-
tion of the effects in both coun-
tries. Monitors could be set
up over time, with particular
attention paid to Indigenous
rights, species at risk and large-
scale operations. This would
also allow us to assess whether
Canada ends up reducing emis-
sions from synthetic nitrogen
fertilizers within Canada, only
to increase the market for these
fertilizers globally and driving
associated emissions and defor-
estation overseas.
Second, the public has a right to
know how the deal will contribute
to both governments’ commit-
ments under the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of In-
digenous Peoples (UNDRIP),
Convention on Biological Diver-
sity (CBD), Paris Agreement and
Glasgow leaders’ Declaration to
end Deforestation.
The most recent report by
the Intergovernmental Pan-
el on Climate Change (IPCC)
made abundantly clear that
“food, forests and farming”
must be transformed to limit
global warming. Clear goals in
these areas are essential for the
right kind of outcomes.
Third, any deal should dis-
tinguish between goods based
on how they are produced
or harvested and guarantee
11
traceability of all products and
investments. This requires
enforceable guarantees that Ca-
nadian forest products are not
originating without the free, pri-
or and informed consent of In-
digenous peoples or originating
in threatened species habitat.
And the same must be said for
Indonesia products originating
from deforestation or linked to
human rights abuses.
Fourth, protecting people’s
rights and the environment
should not be viewed as “barri-
ers” to trade. A good deal would
explicitly recognize social and
environmental regulations as
necessary protection measures
for the environment, commu-
nities, consumers and workers,
health and public services. It
should enable the continuous
improvement of these standards.
Trade deals go a long way to-
wards defining the cooperation
that takes place among nations
around the world. In that spirit,
we need to see a Canada-Indo-
nesia deal that truly reflects the
most urgent global issues that
require cooperation to resolve.
These are climate change, the
biodiversity crisis, rampant
social inequalities and the con-
centration of resources in the
hands of a wealthy few. Com-
plete transparency and public
oversight are the best ways to
achieve it. ■
This article first appeared
on Policy Options and is repub-
lished here under a Creative
Commons license.
12
Queen Elizabeth II: a reign that saw
the end of the British empire in Africa
BY ROGER SOUTHALL,
University of the
Witwatersrand
The Conversation
In the UK the Queen’s official
title is: Elizabeth the Second, by
the Grace of God, of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland and of Her
other Realms and Territories
Queen, Head of the Common-
wealth, Defender of the Faith.
There has been a lot of politi-
cal and social change during her
70 years on the throne. None less
than in what was once
her African empire.
Famously, she was
in Kenya (then pro-
nounced by the Brit-
ish as “Keenya”), at
the luxury Tree Tops
game lodge, when her
father died in 1952.
She returned hastily to
Britain to accede to the
throne that year.
This was her second
trip to Africa. She had
accompanied her par-
ents to South Africa in
1947, the monarchy’s
“last hurrah” in the country be-
fore the National Party, which
formalised apartheid, displaced
General Jan Smuts’ United Par-
ty the following year.
At its height, the British Empire
extended over something like a
third of the world, but was already
in recession when the Queen
came to the throne. India had
been the “Jewel in the Crown”,
but had proceeded to a violently
partitioned independence involv-
ing the creation of predominantly
Muslim Pakistan in 1947. Burma
(now Myanmar) went in 1948.
There were still other territories
in Asia, notably Malaya, odd out-
posts in Latin America and vari-
ous islands in Oceania. And there
was still Africa.
There Britain’s territories in-
cluded:
• four territories in west Africa
World News
• four in east Africa (inclu-
sive of Zanzibar, then still sep-
arate from Tanganyika),
• the two Rhodesias (Zambia
and Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland
(Malawi)
• the three High Commission
Territories in southern Afri-
ca (Bechuanaland, Basutoland
and Swaziland),
• the island of Mauritius, and
• the Dominion of South Africa.
All are now independent, and
have become republics, although
all (Zimbabwe being the excep-
tion) belong to what used to be
known as – but is no longer known
There has been a lot
of political and social
change during her 70
years on the throne.
as – the “British” Commonwealth.
It was not realised at the
time, nor intended, that the
Empire would begin to dissolve
as fast as it did after the Queen
had come to the throne. How-
ever, by the early 1970s a bulk of
the Empire had gone.
Britain effectively scuttled
in the face of early nationalist
stirrings (Ghana); the expense
in blood, money and prestige of
confronting armed struggle and
violence (Malaya and Kenya);
the increasing cost of demands
for “development” in the colo-
nies; the foreign policy disaster
of Suez; and London’s develop-
ing sense that it should reorient
its trade to a uniting Europe.
In fact, the decolonisation
process had started half-a-cen-
tury before. Ironically, it was
South Africa which provided the
constitutional precedent for the
decolonisation process which
was to take place so rapidly
during the reign of Elizabeth II.
The story of the dominions
The rot (if that is the right
word) started at the 1911 Im-
perial Conference , the first of
several meetings of the British
Prime Minister and his coun-
terparts in the four “domin-
ions” (Australia, Canada, South
Africa and New Zealand). These
were all countries of white set-
tlement, territories to which
Britain had exported popula-
tion since the end of the Napo-
leonic wars.
Some went as “ex-
plorers”, more as trad-
ers, and some (notori-
ously to Australia) were
dispatched as convicts.
The majority went to
make a new life, many
escaping hunger and
misery at home.
Fearful of a repeat
of the loss of their
American empire, the
British governments
of the day conceded
“ s e l f - g ove r n m e n t ”
to British settlers, al-
beit in fits and starts. An early
marker was laid down with by
the North America Act of 1867
which created confederation in
Canada.
As dominions, such settler
states enjoyed “self-govern-
ment” over their internal af-
fairs. But, they lacked total
independence as Britain con-
tinued to control their foreign
affairs, and notably, the right to
take them into a war.
South Africa had become a
“dominion” at Union in 1910,
and Prime Minister Louis Botha
attended the imperial confer-
ence of the following year. In
response to the growing asser-
tiveness of the four dominions,
the British government made a
significant concession.
It retained the right to de-
clare that the dominions would
www.canadianinquirer.net
Queen Elizabeth II (MICHAEL GARNETT/FLICKR, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
join it in declaring war against
an enemy state. But it conceded
that they would have the right
to decide their level of support
for the war effort. The British
were wholly confident that Aus-
tralia, Canada and New Zealand
would display their loyalty for
“the mother country” in any
European conflict.
However, a question hung over
South Africa. Its government
headed by Botha and Jan Smuts,
two former Boer generals who
had recently been fighting against
the British. This was answered in
1914. When it came to the crunch,
Botha and Smuts threw South Af-
rican troops into the First World
War without any hesitation.
They subsequently took to
the field in uniform to crush an
Afrikaner Nationalist rebellion
against fighting “Britain’s war”.
Yet when the war was over, a
Nationalist government led by
another former Boer general,
Barry Hertzog, led the way in
securing a further concession
from the British at the Imperial
Conference in 1926.
This time round, the domin-
ions gained the right to run their
own foreign policies, to have sepa-
rate diplomatic representation in
countries around the world, and
importantly, to decide for them-
selves whether to side with Brit-
ain in the event of another war.
All this was confirmed by the
JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY
Statute of Westminster of 1931.
Come 1939, Smuts won a critical
vote in the Union Parliament to
lead South Africa into the Sec-
ond World War against Nation-
alist opposition. But, they took
their revenge by defeating him
in the 1948 election.
Although Nationalist desire
for South Africa to cut ties with
Britain and become a republic
ran deep, caution initially pre-
vailed, and formally, the Queen
remained head of state, repre-
sented by a governor-general as
her viceroy. But when faced with
hostility to apartheid by African
states, Prime Minister Hendrik
Verwoerd led South Africa out of
the Commonwealth.
By 1961 it was also a republic.
Decolonisation
This began with the Gold
Coast, which achieved “self-gov-
ernment” in 1951 before moving
rapidly to independence as Gha-
na in 1957. Government was now
firmly in African hands. But, the
imperial legacy remained in the
form of a governor-general, who
represented the Queen as the
country’s formal head of state
and sovereign. But this was not
to last long.
The time of the Great White
Queen sitting at the heart of
Empire had long gone, and Gha-
na transitioned to the status of
❱❱ PAGE 15 Queen Elizabeth II
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022
Ukraine war: the US and UK missile
systems which will challenge Russia’s
artillery dominance
BY FRANK LEDWIDGE,
University of Portsmouth
The Conversation
The US and UK have agreed
to send Ukraine several me-
dium-range missile systems,
despite continuing threats and
warnings from Russia about
the consequences of continued
western support in general,
and supply of these weapons
in particular. Russia possesses
similar weapons in abundance
– and has used them extensive-
ly. So why are they so concerned
about the delivery of fewer than
a dozen rocket launchers?
Since the first world war,
when shelling accounted for
more than 60% of casualties on
the western front, artillery has
dominated the battlefield. For
decades, the Soviet Union and
then Russia based their ground
forces doctrine around guns and
rocket systems blanketing the
combat zone with explosives
and shrapnel. Other combat
arms acted to support artillery,
rather than the other way round.
Artillery remains Russia’s “god
of war”. The Russians have used
their greater numbers in rocket
launchers and guns to blast their
way through Ukrainian towns,
cities and defences.
The ability to hit a target,
or saturate it with explosives
when required, not only has an
obvious destructive power, it is
also deeply damaging to enemy
morale. A friend of mine, Steve
Weiss, who served as an infan-
tryman in the second world war
and endured far too much artil-
lery, said that this scene from
the television series Band of
Brothers comes closest to cap-
turing its terrifying effect.
Until now, the Russians have
not only had a preponderance
of guns and rocket systems,
they have also been able to
out-range their Ukrainian op-
ponents. Range is of huge sig-
nificance to artillerymen. The
greatest threat to artillery is
other artillery used in a “count-
er-battery” role.
So crews are trained to move
very quickly (“bug out”) from a
firing position as soon as a “fire
mission” is completed on a tar-
get. They know that enemy ra-
dar-ranging equipment (which
track shells back to their source)
will be calculating a fix on them.
If the enemy’s guns have a great-
er range than yours, the situa-
tion is simple – they can hit you,
but you can’t hit them.
It is worth looking at this clip
showing what the Ukrainians
do here to a Russian thermo-
baric rocket launcher. Notice
that the Russian launcher is de-
stroyed with a single, probably
drone-guided shell or missile.
A traditional artillery count-
er-battery fire mission would
have involved dozens of rounds
which would certainly have
killed the Russian journalist in
that clip.
As with air power, the use
of artillery is changing from a
weapon which relied on satu-
ration to be sure of destroying
a target, to a precision instru-
ment. To work efficiently, gun-
ners not only need to be able to
locate their target using recon-
naissance – usually provided
nowadays by drones or aircraft
– but to hit it with as few rounds
as possible. Why use 50 shells
when one will do?
The use of artillery is noto-
riously logistics-heavy. More
shells mean more trucks and a
great deal more effort and po-
tential logistics problems. For
any army – particularly the
Russians whose army is not
built for operations with any
kind of extended supply lines –
this is difficult.
Ukraine’s growing ar-
moury
These vital factors of precision
and range are why the Ukrainian
army is desperate to get hold of as
many precise longer-range guns
and rocket systems as possible.
They were very pleased to get
hold of 90 excellent M777 guns
from the US, plus a few more
from Canada which are already
proving effective.
Similarly the French Cesar,
Slovak Zuzana and German and
Dutch Panzerhaubitzer 2000s
self-propelled gun systems are
very important. All are impressive
in range, accuracy and lethality.
But no system is more formi-
dable than the Himar (High Mo-
bility Rocket Artillery System).
This is descended from a pre-
vious, similar system called the
M 270 Multiple Launch Rocket
Systems (or MLRS) – some of
M142 high mobility artillery rocket system (LANCE CPL. GRACE GERLACH/U.S. MA-
RINE CORPS VIA U.S. PACIFIC FLEET/FLICKR, CC BY-NC 2.0)
www.canadianinquirer.net
World News
which the UK has announced it
will donate to Ukraine.
The reason the Ukrainians
were so vocal in their efforts to
get these systems was to reach
positions far further behind
Russian lines than the guns
they presently have. Some of the
many versions of Himars rock-
ets have ranges of up to 300km.
Levelling up
The Americans are very con-
scious of the messages that
any long-range system sends,
especially the Himars, and are
reluctant to provide very long-
range ammunition. According-
ly Ukraine will not be getting
the Army Tactical Missile Sys-
tem (ATACMS) with ranges up
to 190 miles, which might tempt
Ukrainian army commanders
to go after supply bases or head-
quarters in Russia itself.
The degree of Russian dis-
pleasure at this possibility was
recently indicated by the first
cruise missile strikes on Kiev
for five weeks, accompanied by
threats from Vladimir Putin to
the effect that there would be
more of the same if such sup-
13
plies continued.
The M30 and M31 rockets
the Ukrainians are likely to be
given to fire from the Himars
and MLRS have shorter but
still considerable ranges – in
excess of 40 miles. This makes
the Himars a very formidable
addition to their armoury. The
most recent donations by the
US and others of artillery in-
clude equally crucial enablers,
such as counter-artillery ra-
dars, capable of identifying the
locations of enemy guns and
rocket launchers with speed
and accuracy.
It will take several weeks
before Ukrainian soldiers are
trained to use these complex
weapons systems. More time
will be required to deploy and
gain experience in using them.
In the numbers they are being
donated (only four Himars and
around the same number of UK
MLRS are being given for now.
It is also not clear how many
missiles the UK will supply, al-
though a defence spokesman
stated that it would be “at scale”,
presumably meaning a lot.
These MLRS and Himars
will not win the war on their
own. Ukraine’s army will need
a great deal more of the same
– plus tanks, drones, aircraft
and many other less glamorous
systems and equipment, such
as trucks and tank-transport-
ers, to ensure success for their
counteroffensives later in the
summer. That said, their new
gun and rocket artillery is very
good news for Ukrainian army
– and very bad news indeed for
Russians. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
14
Boris Johnson wins ‘no-confidence’ vote:
but the margin will make him nervous
BY CHRISTOPHER
KIRKLAND, York St John
University
The Conversation
Boris Johnson has survived a
“no-confidence” vote by 211 votes
to 148 votes against his leadership.
But Johnson’s margin of victory is
smaller (as a percentage of all Con-
servative MPs) than that achieved
by his predecessor Theresa May
in 2019, six months before she re-
signed and he won the support of
the majority of the Conservative
Party and took office. Now, after
weeks of speculation during the
“partygate” scandal, 40% of his
MPs have attempted to vote him
out of power.
The no-confidence vote was
triggered after 54 (or possi-
bly more) MPs submitted let-
ters to Sir Graham Brady, the
chairman of the influential
1922 committee, saying they no
longer believed Johnson is the
right person to lead the party.
The 148 votes against John-
son means that for the first time
the public, and the rebels, know
the scale of the opposition
Johnson now faces. This figure
for has this evening virtually
trebled from the 54 needed to
instigate a leadership contest to
148 who were willing to vote to
change leader. Although not yet
sufficient to topple Johnson, it
is far from the decisive victory
Johnson will wish to present
Beyond boats, beef and Bali: Albanese’s
unfinished business with Indonesia
BY TIM HARCOURT,
University of Technology
Sydney
The Conversation
Indonesia may be the world’s
fourth most populous nation –
with more than 270 million peo-
ple – but Australian news cover-
age of it typically involves three
things: beef, boats and Bali.
Anthony Albanese’s visit to
Indonesia in his third week as
prime minister is an important
sign the relationship can’t be
World News
(BORIS JOHNSON/FACEBOOK)
this as and could yet galvanise
more calls for him to resign.
The contest was a straightfor-
ward yes or no vote. To win the
vote, Johnson needed a simple
majority of the ballots to be re-
turned in his favour. All of the 369
Conservative MPs took part and
Johnson has managed to hold on
to the majority. Under the party’s
current rules, he will not face an-
other such vote for 12 months.
Including Johnson, four of
the five previous Conserva-
tive prime ministers have been
publicly challenged over their
position as party leader, going
back to Edward Heath in 1974.
And Iain Duncan Smith lost a
no-confidence vote as leader of
the opposition in 2003.
Their example tells us that
winning the vote may not prove
to be enough to secure John-
son’s position. May survived a
defined by domestic concerns
about asylum seekers, live cat-
tle exports and drug smuggling.
Accompanied by Foreign
Minister Penny Wong (who
speaks Bahasa) and Science and
Innovation Minister Ed Husic
(whose Muslim faith was of in-
terest to the Indonesian press),
Albanese has made it clear In-
donesia is of utmost diplomatic
importance to Australia.
Calling on Jakarta first
Albanese has followed a re-
cent tradition of Australian
prime ministers heading to Ja-
vote of no confidence in Janu-
ary 2019, and both Thatcher and
Major faced leadership chal-
lenges (although under different
rules and after significantly lon-
ger in office than either Johnson
or May). Remarkably, all three
won their respective ballots but
both Thatcher and May resigned
shortly afterwards and Major
went on to lose the 1997 general
election by a landslide.
Johnson’s team will hope to
use a victory to “draw a line”
under partygate and other
scandals but this may be diffi-
cult to achieve in a party that is
publicly as divided as the Con-
servatives currently are.
Any victory will inevitably be
compared to May’s in Decem-
ber 2018. May won her vote by
200 votes (63%) to 117. In order
o reach the equivalent level of
support, Johnson would have
karta early, before London or
Washington. His predecessor,
Scott Morrison, visited Indone-
sia in September 2018 as his first
port of call. So too did Malcolm
Turnbull and Paul Keating.
Indonesia is perhaps the Aus-
tralian continent’s first trading
partner.
Evidence from the 1600s
shows the indigenous fishers
of Arnhem land traded sea cu-
cumber and other goods with
counterparts from Makassar
– on the island now known as
Sulawesi – which the Makas-
www.canadianinquirer.net
needed to get the support of at
least 236 of his fellow Tory MPs.
He failed in this.
Had he lost, the Conservative
Party would have had to begin
the process of electing a new
leader and, by virtue of losing the
vote, Johnson would have been
prohibited from standing in the
resulting leadership election.
Now Johnson will remain in
office, but the speculation will in-
evitably intensify as to whether –
and for how long – he can survive.
Possible leadership con-
tenders
Waiting in the wings are an ar-
ray of Conservative colleagues
who are thought to have leader-
ship ambitions. Among them are
several of his cabinet colleagues
and other senior Tories, who have
either chaired parliamentary
committees or held senior posts
in previous administrations.
They include Rishi Sunak,
chancellor of the exchequer,
who was previously seen as a
forerunner to replace Johnson.
But the cost of living crisis, and
a fine for attending the same
event that brought Johnson his
fixed penalty notice, has seen
his personal ratings plummet.
Other prominent cabinet
members who are reported to
harbour leadership ambitions
include the foreign secretary,
Liz Truss, who has been loyal to
Johnson but is expected to stand
should a vacancy arise. Penny
Mordaunt, the minister of state
sarese then sold to Chinese
merchants. Makassar remains
an important port, which Alba-
nese visited after meeting Indo-
nesia’s President Joko Widodo
at his presidential palace.
Supportive from the be-
ginning
Australia’s interest in close
ties with Indonesia were estab-
lished immediately after the
second world war.
Future President Sukarno
and Vice-President Moham-
mad Hatta issued their Proc-
lamation of Indonesian Inde-
JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY
at the Department for Interna-
tional Trade is seen as a possible
unifying figure, something the
party may well come to increas-
ingly value. Other senior figures
tipped as possible contenders
include the defence secretary
Ben Wallace, the education sec-
retary, Nadhim Zahawi, and the
health secretary, Sajid Javid.
Meanwhile, there are heavy
hitters outside the cabinet whose
attraction is that they could help
the party to move on with a nar-
rative of change. One prominent
Johnson critic is the chair of the
foreign affairs committee, Tom
Tugendhat, who was the only
figure to publicly state he would
run if a vacancy emerges. Other
potential contenders include the
former health secretary, Jeremy
Hunt, who came second in the
members’ ballot behind Johnson
in 2019.
But the prime minister re-
mains in post – for now. The
next big indicators of the public
mood will the the two by-elec-
tions on June 23 in Wakefield
in Yorkshire and Tiverton and
Honiton in Devon. These two
very different constituencies,
in both of which the Conser-
vatives are trailing in the polls,
will be watched very carefully
by all 369 MPs as they consider
their position going forward. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
pendence on August 17 1945, six
weeks after the surrender of the
occupying Japanese.
By November 1945, an Austra-
lian diplomatic mission headed
by William MacMahon Ball was
in Jakarta (then still called Bata-
via) to meet with them and other
independence officials.
Economist Joe Isaac, who
would go on to become depu-
ty president of the Australian
Industrial Relations Commis-
sion and deputy chancellor of
❱❱ PAGE 32 Beyond boats, beef
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022
New York raises age to
buy semiautomatic guns
after US shootings
Anadolu
Philippine News Agency
HOUSTON, Texas – Echoing
US President Joe Biden’s wish
to raise the age for buying semi-
automatic weapons from 18 to
21, the state of New York did
exactly that on Monday.
“Thoughts and prayers won’t fix
this, but taking strong action will,”
said New York Governor Kathy
Hochul as she signed the bill rais-
ing the age of buying a semiauto-
matic rifle in the state to 21.
“It just keeps happening.
Shots ring out, flags come down
and nothing ever changes, ex-
cept here in New York,” she
continued. “We will do that in
the name of the lives that have
been lost, for the parents who
will no longer see their children
stepping off the school bus.”
Under the new law, New York-
ers under the age of 21 will not
be allowed to buy semiautomat-
ic assault-style firearms, making
New York one of the first states
to enact major gun control laws
following a rash of deadly mass
shootings in the US.
New York is
also revising its
“red flag” law...
Two of the most recent dead-
ly shootings involved gunmen
under the age of 21.
An 18-year-old gunman went
on a shooting rampage at Robb
Elementary School in Uvalde,
Texas, killing 19 students and
two teachers.
Another 18-year-old gun-
man gunned down 10 people at
a Tops supermarket in Buffalo,
New York.
In addition to raising the age
for buying semiautomatic rifles
to 21, the state’s new gun control
measures also include requiring
microstamping in new firearms,
which could help investigators
solve gun-related crimes.
New York is also revising its
“red flag” law, which allows
courts to temporarily take
away guns from people who
might be a threat to themselves
or others.
“In New York, we are taking
bold, strong action. We’re tight-
ening red flag laws to keep guns
away from dangerous people,”
Hochul said.
“Today is the start, and it’s
not the end.” ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
World News
Queen Elizabeth II...
❰❰ 12 a republic in 1960 with
Kwame Nkrumah be-
coming its first pres-
ident and head of state. Albeit
with local variations, this was
the route followed in virtually
every other British African ter-
ritory over the course of follow-
ing two decades.
By the late 1970s, every for-
merly British African state, bar
Lesotho and Swaziland (now
Eswatini) whose own monarchs
replaced the Queen as head of
state, had become a republic.
The exception which proved
the rule was Rhodesia. White
Rhodesians, a tiny proportion
of the territory’s population,
had obtained self-government
in 1923, yet Britain had retained
nominal sovereignty. As one Af-
rican government after another
swept to freedom, the Rhode-
sians wanted to follow suit to
retain white rule, but fearing
African reaction, Britain had de-
clined to grant full independence
unless an incoming government
had a democratic mandate.
Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Front
party rebelled and unilaterally
declared independence in 1965
and although the white settlers fa-
15
mously thought themselves more
British than the British them-
selves, declared in 1970 that they
no longer recognised the Queen
as head of state and declared Rho-
desia a republic. This never gained
international recognition, and a
conservative politician, Christo-
pher Soames returned briefly as
governor and the Queen’s repre-
sentative in 1980.
The last British governor in
Africa, he waved goodbye when
Rhodesia transitioned to in-
dependence as the Republic of
Zimbabwe in 1980.
Looking to the future
Britain’s relationships with
its former African colonies are
now those of trade, aid and di-
plomacy. The Queen herself
remains highly respected, and
acknowledged as head of the
Commonwealth. Yet once she
has gone, and that cannot be
long, even that status for the
British monarch may go.
At that moment, the rout of
the British monarchy in Africa
will be complete. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
16 JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY

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FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022
Entertainment
Running Up That Hill: How Stranger Things
and TikTok pushed Kate Bush’s 1985 pop
classic back to the top of the charts
BY D. BONDY VALDOVINOS
KAYE, Queensland University
of Technology
The Conversation
Netflix’s nostalgia-laden
thriller Stranger Things re-
turned last month and with
it came the revival of another
classic from the 1980s, Running
Up That Hill by Kate Bush. The
song plays a prominent part in
the narrative connected to one
of the show’s leading teen cast
members and is featured in a
climatic, and visually stunning
scene that has been making the
rounds on the internet.
In a post shared to her web-
site over the weekend, Kate
Bush showered praise on the
show and Netflix:
You might’ve heard that the
first part of the fantastic, grip-
ping new series of Stranger
Things has recently been re-
Happy
Filipino Heritage
Month!
ShaunChenMP Shaun_Chen
leased on Netflix… It features
the song, ‘Running Up That Hill’
which is being given a whole new
lease of life by the young fans
who love the show – I love it too!
Making a deal with TikTok
One thing missing from the
acknowledgement is mention
of another digital platform help-
ing to boost the song’s presence:
TikTok. A thirty-second ver-
sion of the Stranger Things clip
has been posted and reposted
on TikTok, gaining millions of
views in just over a week, and
Kate Bush’s song has been used
in over 500,000 short videos.
Videos featuring the song de-
pict teens cosplaying as charac-
ters, acting out scenes from the
shows, and making humorous
meme videos (“my friends play-
ing my favourite song trying to
save me… my airpods die”).
Others engage less with
Stranger Things and more with
Kate Bush, in videos depicting
Member of Parliament
Scarborough North
SHAUN CHEN
4386 Sheppard Avenue East, Unit C
Scarborough, Ontario M1S 1T8
416-321-CHEN (2436)
info@shaunchen.com
shaunchenmp www.shaunchen.com
17
connecting with parents over
a shared love, recommending
more of Bush’s music, and shar-
ing joy that a new generation of
audiences might be discovering
the influential artist for the first
time. The song speaks to mis-
fits and of desperation, themes
as relevant to teens in 2022 as
they were in 1985.
Running up that hill and
going viral
The runaway resurgence of
Bush’s 1985 classic could be a sig-
nal to film and TV producers to
make clips more “TikTokable”.
Songs with short catchy
hooks that are attached to
eye-grabbing visual sequences
in clips that are sixty, or better
yet thirty, seconds maximum
are more likely to be picked up
on and shared on TikTok.
The chances of going viral can
be improved by choosing classic
chart-toppers that may find a re- lowed users to draw from an in- development. In the past much
vival among younger audiences. ternal library of popular songs, money and influence has been
Naturally when a beloved artist creatively add them to video involved in getting music onto
is found by Gen-Z audiences, it creations, and use features like the radio. For a song that has
leads to gatekeeping by longtime Duet to place themselves side- not received play for decades
fans as well as counter-gate- by-side their favourite artists. to spontaneously reappear is a
keeping by fans who are thrilled
to see a younger audience con-
necting with one of their favou-
Unlike streaming services
like Apple Music or Spotify, us-
ers can take a more active and
“watershed moment” accord-
ing to a Warner Music label ex-
ecutive. Despite the growth and
rite artists’ music. playful role interacting with dominance of streaming, radio
Stranger Things is not the music on TikTok. still plays a pivotal role for cura-
first to capitalise on the power of Radio and the charts tion and discover in music mar-
musical nostalgia. The success As with other musical Tik- kets such as the US, Australia,
of films like Guardians of the Tok phenomena, Running Up and around the world.
Galaxy have proven to be power- That Hill might be more than a Radio play brings songs like
ful tools to give older a reprisal momentary flash in the pan. In to those who might not use Tik-
on the radio and popular charts. 2020, TikTok claimed over 70 Tok or haven’t gotten around
TikTok challenges and audio artists who first emerged on the to watching the new season of
memes have helped catapult platform had secured record Stranger Things.
other classics back into vogue deals an the Billboard charts While much focus in the music
such as Harry Belafonte’s Jump now frequently feature songs industry has centred on how to
in the Line, The Shangri-Las’s that went viral. make songs go viral on TikTok,
Leader of the Pack remixed into The song has returned to the labels and artists might want to
Oh No by Kreepa, and, of course, Top 10 singles charts in the UK reconsider the radio as the true
Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams.
TikTok is a music-centric
and is set to overtake Harry
Styles As it Was as the number
measure of success for songs
traveling through the pipeline
platform. It takes advantage of one single in Australia. from TV to TikTok to Top 40. ■
musical innovations pioneered Kate Bush being reserviced
on earlier short video platforms, to radio, physically or digitally This article is republished
like Flipagram, Dubsmash, and delivering music to radio sta- from The Conversation under a
Musical.ly. These platforms al- tions by her label, is a significant Creative Commons license.
www.canadianinquirer.net
18 Entertainment JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY

Love Island ditches fast fashion: how reality

celebrities influence young shoppers’ habits
BY ROSE MARRONCELLI,
Nottingham Trent University
The Conversation
This year, contestants on the
TV show Love Island will be
scantily clad in secondhand rath-
er than new clothing – a pivot
away from fast fashion that could
influence more eco-conscious
shopping habits in fans. The be-
loved reality show will return to
televisions next week, and with
it, an array of colourful bikinis
and skintight outfits that viewers
will seek out in order to dress like
their favourite Islanders.
For the past three years Love
Island has partnered with on-
line fast fashion brand I Saw it
First, which sponsored the show
and provided clothes for contes-
tants. This year, Love Island will
be sponsored by eBay, and con-
testants will be dressed in sec-
ondhand outfits on screen.
Sustainability advocates will
welcome the change, having crit-
icised the show for encouraging
fast fashion consumption. In
June 2019, the online fashion re-
tailer Missguided advertised a £1
bikini during a commercial break
for Love Island. Former Love
Island contestants were used as
models to promote the bikini,
cementing the link between fast
fashion and reality television.
Excessively low price points
encourage a throwaway culture by
implying that clothing has no val-
ue. Missguided said the £1 bikini
was a promotional item “sourced
to the same high standards as all
of our other products”, and that
the company absorbed the pro-
duction cost as a gift to customers.
Of course, partnering with
eBay won’t discourage con-
sumption overall. Viewers will
be able to explore eBay’s “pre-
loved fashion” via the official
Love Island app, where they
can purchase similar outfits to
what they can see on screen.
The sponsorship may well en-
courage consumers to purchase
secondhand clothing while the
show is airing over eight weeks.
Influencing shopping habits
The show will still create influ-
encers, who may form lucrative
partnerships with fast fashion
brands once they leave the villa.
Last year’s winner, Millie Court,
has since signed a deal with ASOS
and launched her own range. Per-
haps the most commercially suc-
cessful contestant is Molly Mae
Hague, who landed a six-figure
clothing deal with Pretty Little
Thing in 2019, before being named
their creative director in 2021.
Young consumers follow Love
Island contestants and other
reality celebrities on social me-
dia, and this affects their fashion
purchasing choices. These celeb-
rities often remain in the public
eye after appearing on televi-
sion, promoting fashion brands
through their platforms. Shop-
pers look to reality stars for fash-
ion inspiration, and many report
being swayed by digital influenc-
ers to make purchase decisions.
Love Island is especially influ-
ential in the UK. In 2018, 80,000
hopefuls applied to appear on
the show, while just 19,400 peo-
ple applied to the University
of Oxford that same year. Ap-
pearing on Love Island for eight
weeks is likely to earn you more
money over the course of your
life than three years at Oxbridge.
It is not uncommon for contes-
tants to leave the show with over
a million followers on social me-
dia. This is appealing to brands,
who then pay these contestants
to advertise their products. All of
this has contributed to changing
values among younger gener-
ations, who admire the instant
success achieved by reality stars.
Reality celebrities and oth-
er influencers use social media
to encourage followers to pur-
chase the clothing they adver-
tise at the click of a button. The
instant gratification of purchas-
❱❱ PAGE 19 Love Island ditches

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www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022 Entertainment 19

Top Gun: Maverick is a film

obsessed with its former self
BY ERIN HARRINGTON,
University of Canterbury
The Conversation
Legacy films are more than
a sequel: they hand franchis-
es down to a new generation of
viewers, passing a cultural baton.
At the opening night screen-
ing I attended of Top Gun:
Maverick, when the lights went
down, someone loudly whis-
pered “let’s go!” – a perfect evo-
cation of such films’ sense of ex-
pectation and repetition.
Films can’t entirely escape
their contexts.
Top Gun (1986), an arena
rock concert of a film, paints
hot-shot US Navy aviator Lt
Pete “Maverick” Mitchell
(Tom Cruise) as a charismatic
all-American rebel. He doesn’t
play by the rules, but knows
how to be loyal when it counts.
Maverick and his best friend
Lt Nick “Goose” Bradshaw
(Anthony Edwards) train at
the elite Naval Fighter Weap-
ons School, dubbed TOPGUN,
which schools the “best of the
best” in aerial dog-fighting.
Accompanied by a hy-
per-masculine soundtrack of
screaming electric guitars and
thudding synths, the reck-
less Maverick must negotiate
his grief at Goose’s accidental
death, his rivalry with Lt Tom
“Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilm-
er) and the long shadow of his
father’s reputation – before
beating out enemy fighters and
getting the girl.
In this new film, Maverick,
now a test pilot, is reluctantly
recalled to TOPGUN to train top
graduates in a seemingly impos-
sible mission of global impor-
tance – or be grounded forever.
A film obsessed with itself
Like recent legacy hits such
as the third Star Wars trilogy,
Blade Runner 2049 and The
Matrix: Resurrections, Top
Gun: Maverick is a film ob-
sessed with its earlier self.
It’s still a competition film
with exhilarating action and
flight sequences. It matches
many of the original film’s nar-
rative and emotional beats.
It restages key moments and
re-imagines others.
The film revisits old charac-
ters, reworks the original score
and incorporates earlier footage
into flashbacks. It surrounds the
characters with photographs
of their younger selves. It even
rolls its end credits over the
same burnt orange skies.
Legacy films always have an
implicit relationship with the old-
er films’ ideas and politics, and the
conditions of their creation.
Top Gun heralded a new, pow-
erful relationship between Hol-
lywood and the US Department
of Defense that persists today.
Producers Jerry Bruckheimer
and Don Simpson had pitched
a film to the Pentagon based on
journalist Ehud Yonay’s 1983
article Top Guns well before any
screenplay was written.
The US Navy was actively
seeking a beneficial project to
support. The Navy offered sig-
nificant practical support and
had input into the script, and
the film was regarded as a se-
ductive recruitment tool.
The TOPGUN program
The TOPGUN program was
established by the US Navy in
1969 to train elite pilots in re-
sponse to aerial combat failures
during the Vietnam War. The
1986 film helped rehabilitate
the US military’s image in pop-
ular culture after Vietnam.
The film expressed vibrant-
ly the jingoistic patriotism of
the Reagan era. The Americans
are noble good guys who don’t
shoot first. The “bogeys” are
faceless antagonists, their red
star insignia and Soviet MiGs
marking them part of a Com-
munist threat.
The geopolitics of Top Gun:
Maverick are vague, even
chaste. The baddies are an
unnamed power that has de-
veloped a secret uranium en-
richment facility deep within a
mountainous region. They are a
threat to NATO allies, have su-
perior technology, and anony-
mous soldiers – and that’s it.
This doesn’t affect the action,
but the mission is backdrop to a
small-scale, human story about
bridging intergenerational divides,
coming to terms with the past and
re-establishing familial bonds.
It is inoffensive enough to
cater to Hollywood’s global
audience. Beyond mention of
contemporary American pilots
spending more time dropping
bombs from on high than en-
gaging in aerobatic dogfights,
Tom Cruise (GAGE SKIDMORE/FLICKR, CC BY-SA 2.0)
and passing references to Iraq
and Bosnia, this is a military
film largely devoid of war.
It has a pervasive sense of na-
ivete. Tom Cruise in his white
t-shirt still looks like a pres-
ent-day James Dean. It is nostal-
gic more for images and stories
of loyalty and heroism than the
murky conditions of conflict.
What is the conflict?
The thrumming, sexualised,
objectophilic tension of the
first film centred on the sweaty,
muscular white bodies of its
cast and similarly muscular im-
ages of military technology.
The disciplined, diverse cast of
young fighter pilots of Top Gun:
Maverick are up against a more
insidious foe: skilled human pilots
are replaced by unmanned drones.
Maverick, we are told, is a
fossil – the last of his kind. We
hear time is the pilots’ greatest
adversary; Maverick is about to
be grounded for good; the future
is coming and Maverick isn’t it.
But Maverick’s heroism persists
in his concern for people, their
families and their jobs.
We are repeatedly told supe-
rior technology is one thing, but
it’s not the plane that’s import-
ant. It’s the (American) pilot
and their instincts.
Maverick is Tom Cruise, the
singular ageing movie star-hero
hybrid. The film is a celebration
of film itself. This is a prop-
er blockbuster of old that can
bring in the punters at cinemas.
In the film’s dynamic climax,
Maverick seeks to demonstrate
just how powerful the old gear,
and the old ways, still are. It’s
not subtle.
In Top Gun, the takeaway
message was constant vigi-
lance was a means of upholding
American exceptionalism. In
this film, we hear the end might
be coming, but there is still
much more in the tank.
That may well be the case for
the traditional action blockbust-
er, which is one of the United
States’ greatest global exports.
But well after the end of the
“American Century”, and at a
time of significant domestic and
global disruption, this might be
a more nuanced and complicat-
ed statement than intended.■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.

Love Island ditches...

❰❰ 18 ing clothes, without
the need to visit the
local high street, adds
to the desirability – and dispos-
able nature – of fast fashion.
Fast fashion and the planet
The detrimental environmen-
tal impacts of the fast fashion in-
dustry are well documented. In
the UK, people buy more clothes
per person than in any other
country in Europe. The fashion
industry in the UK grows at a
faster rate than the rest of the
economy, and an estimated £140
million worth of clothing is sent
to landfill each year. Many fast
fashion garments are not made
from single fibre materials, and
therefore cannot be recycled.
Fashion is destroying the planet,
and yet we keep buying clothes.
Fast fashion is affordable,
meaning that it is not always
high quality, and often doesn’t
contain durability or longevi-
ty. It is also resource intensive,
and when disposed of in landfill,
takes an extremely long time to
biodegrade.
However, it is possible to love
fashion and still be environmen-
tally aware. Changes in consum-
er values, vintage inspirations
used by current fashion design-
ers, and increased sustainability
awareness have fuelled a grow-
ing popularity of the second-
hand clothing market.
Love Island’s decision to ditch
fast fashion sponsors in favour
of secondhand options is a step
in the right direction. It will be
interesting to see if this year’s
contestants go on to partner with
fast fashion brands or more sus-
tainable and secondhand options
upon leaving the show -– this
may be the real test of success of
the partnership with eBay. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
20
Has lowering the drinking age caused more
crime? Despite ongoing concern,
the evidence isn’t clear cut
BY ALEXANDER PLUM,
Auckland University of
Technology, CHRISTOPHER
ERWIN, Auckland University
of Technology, KABIR
DASGUPTA, Auckland
University of Technology
The Conversation
It’s fair to say that drinking
alcohol is popular among Kiwis,
to the point of potential harm.
According to the latest New
Zealand Health Survey, one in
five adults – or 824,000 people
– have an established drinking
pattern that “carries
a high risk of future
damage to physical or
mental health”.
In 2016, data
showed heavy drink-
ing sessions were
much more com-
mon in New Zealand
than in the UK, the
US, Canada and even
countries like Fin-
land, Norway and
Sweden.
Alcohol abuse is
also a major con-
tributor to crime. In
2010, the New Zea-
land Police estimated
about one-third of all
police apprehensions involved
alcohol and half of serious vi-
olent crimes had alcohol as a
contributing factor.
Dropping the purchasing age
However, in a landmark al-
cohol reform enacted in 1999,
New Zealand reduced the mini-
mum purchasing age from 20 to
18 years old.
Politicians in favour of the
change argued that an 18-year-
old could vote and marry and
should therefore be given the
chance to drink in a safe envi-
ronment.
Since then, there has been an
ongoing debate among social
and political commentators,
Lifestyle
including health professionals,
over whether the legal purchas-
ing threshold should be raised
back to 20.
Critics of the 1999 reform
usually cite a potential increase
in public health risks to support
their point of view.
Last year, in an unprece-
dented move, the heads of the
district health boards released
a joint statement calling for
the reform of the 2012 Sale and
Supply of Alcohol Act.
The statement proposed nu-
merous changes to reduce easy
access to alcohol, including in-
In 2016, data showed
heavy drinking
sessions were much
more common in New
Zealand than in the
UK, the US, Canada...
creasing the legal purchasing
age from 18 to 20.
Does alcohol access cause
a jump in crime?
In a recent study, researchers
found monthly consumption
jumped drastically when indi-
viduals turned 18 and could le-
gally purchase alcohol.
The researchers used Statis-
tics New Zealand’s integrated
data infrastructure (IDI) to test
whether this change in drinking
behaviour prompted a corre-
sponding spike in alcohol-relat-
ed criminal behaviour among
18- and 19-year-olds.
The analysis also took advan-
tage of the detailed crime regis-
ter administered by the Minis-
try of Justice.
The spectrum of offences is
broad, ranging from minor inci-
dents, such as bringing alcohol
into an alcohol banned area, to
severe crimes like causing inju-
ry through excess alcohol.
The authors considered con-
victions a more accurate mea-
sure of crime than arrests, as not
every arrest leads to a conviction.
Researchers looked at the
difference in alcohol-related
criminal behaviour for ages just
below the minimum legal pur-
chasing age versus ages right
above the mandated
age threshold.
Put simply, the re-
search compared the
criminal outcomes of
youths who had just
gained the right to buy
alcohol to those who
were close to turning
18 and therefore un-
able to legally buy it.
There was a slight
increase in traffic viola-
tions by drivers around
the currently mandat-
ed age of 18. Howev-
er, the analysis found
little evidence that
18- and 19-year-olds
committed more alco-
hol-related crimes after reaching
the legal purchasing age.
From 2014 to 2018, the aver-
age number of alcohol-induced
offences for those aged 17 years
and 11 months stood at 53 con-
victions per 100,000 people and
increased by four convictions
in the month turning 18. This
equals an increase of 8% but is
not statistically significant.
However, similar to previous
research, the analysis indicat-
ed that gaining easier access
to alcohol was associated with
an immediate spike in other
crimes, particularly dangerous
acts and property damage.
The average number of prop-
www.canadianinquirer.net
erty damage convictions (per
100,000 people) where alcohol
was involved increased from 40
to 51 (28%), and dangerous acts
increased from 47 to 60 con-
victions (27%) in the month of
turning 18.
Alcohol purchasing age of 20
The researchers also exam-
ined how criminal behaviour
changed in the period between
1994 and 1998 when the legal
alcohol purchasing age was 20.
They found that all al-
cohol-related convictions
dropped from 203 to 163 (19%)
in the month of turning 20.
This surprising pattern is
caused by changes in the legal
breath and blood alcohol limit,
which takes place at the same
age and permits higher blood
alcohol levels for drivers aged
20 and above.
When removing those types
of convictions, the researchers
find no observable jump in al-
cohol-related crimes. That said,
there was an increase in offenc-
es against public order and oth-
er traffic-related convictions.
Alcohol and crime in the
US and Canada
These findings align with the
data from the United States and
Canada.
JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY
A US study looked at how
crime rates changed around the
minimum legal drinking age of
21 in the states where drinking
and purchasing alcohol below
the age of 21 is not permitted.
The authors found individu-
als aged just over 21 were 5.9%
more likely to be arrested than
individuals just under 21. How-
ever, crime levels for this age
group were substantially higher
compared to New Zealand.
In Canada, where the min-
imum legal drinking age for
most states sits at 18, and 19 in
Alberta, Manitoba and Québec,
a sharp increase of 7.6% in all
crimes was observed – with a
large jump of 29.4% for disor-
derly conduct.
As two decades of data shows,
allowing younger people to drink
has resulted in upticks in some
types of crime, but not all of
them. Understanding the impact
of lowering New Zealand’s drink-
ing age can inform the ongoing
policy debate and offers decision
makers an insight into how these
sorts of thresholds can change
society in unexpected ways. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022
What’s taking the biggest toll on our mental
health? Disconnection, financial stress and
long waits for care
BY MARLEE BOWER,
University of Sydney, MAREE
TEESSON, University of
Sydney, SCARLETT SMOUT,
University of Sydney
The Conversation
The new Labor government
arrives at a time of mounting
mental health strain: Australians
have endured COVID, extreme
weather events and financial
stress from increased living costs.
The new government has a lot to
fix in the mental health system but
policy priorities should be guided
by the voices of Australians.
To learn more about the na-
tion’s priority mental health
concerns, our new research sur-
veyed more than 1,000 adults
aged 18 to 85 across the nation.
Without being prompted, par-
ticipants consistently highlight-
ed three major issues: the mental
health service system, financial
stress, and social disconnection.
A strained mental health
system
The COVID pandemic added
pressure to an already strained
mental health-care system.
Why it isn’t always your fault
when you can’t remember
BY THOR GRÜNBAUM,
University of Copenhagen,
SØREN KYLLINGSBÆK,
University of Copenhagen
The Conversation
Most of us have experienced
the embarrassment of forget-
ting to do that important thing
we promised someone we would
do. Sometimes you did every-
thing you could to remember,
yet it still slipped your mind.
Our new research could hold
the explanation. No matter how
hard you try to remember your
plans, there is always an ele-
ment of luck involved.
In the morning you decide
to call your old friend in the
Cost of living pressures have had a significant impact on Australians’ mental health.
Countless Australians – many
experiencing mental ill-health
for the first time – were left
without appropriate support.
Participants described over-
whelming barriers to accessing
treatment, including high costs,
wait-lists and inaccessibility:
The out of pocket expense
makes receiving regular, effec-
tive psychological treatment
prohibitive, especially as a sin-
gle parent.
evening. During the interven-
ing time, you also decide to buy
groceries for dinner, pick up
the kids from afterschool club
and many other things. Psy-
chologists say we can’t keep
all these intentions active in
our working memory all day.
Working memory is the type
of memory involved when you
maintain some information in
your mind to solve problems
(like subtracting 377 from 527)
or to write down a list of names
(when the pen and paper is at
the other side of the room).
Working memory is limited,
both in its capacity and in the
duration of time we can hold
information. That’s why peo-
ple need long-term memory to
– female, late 30s, NSW
When people are in crisis, they
need the help at that time. Not six
months down the track when an
opening finally becomes avail-
able at the counselling centre.
– non-binary person, early
70s, Tasmania
Financial stress
Respondents shared how the
pandemic “pressurised” oth-
er mental health triggers, like
financial stress, as JobKeeper
store their intentions. Long-
term memory is a store of infor-
mation maintained by the brain
outside the conscious mind.
The intention race
As we go about our lives, we
hold several intentions for the fu-
ture at the same time. To walk the
dog after work, buy a fruit salad
for lunch, to take your medicine
after dinner, and to call a friend
in the evening as promised. We
showed in our recent study, that
all of these intentions are in a
race, competing to get across the
finish line in working memory.
We built a mathematical mod-
el of how our mind selects an in-
tention to remember. Think of
each intention in your long-term
memory as individual horses in a
www.canadianinquirer.net
Lifestyle
and the Coronavirus Supple-
ment were wound back and cost
of living increased.
A NSW woman in her late-
20s living with a disability
shared that prior to receiving
the Coronavirus Supplement: “I
felt it would be better to kill my-
self than try and make it work”,
but with the supplement, “For
the first time in years money
wasn’t so tight.”
The removal of the supplement
was described by another as:
crushing and damaging to
your mental health
– female, late 20s, Tasmania
The low payment amount af-
ter the supplement was removed
was not seen as “sufficient in-
come to live a ‘reasonable life’”.
Together, the stress of low
incomes and the return of de-
manding mutual obligation re-
quirements for JobSeeker (the
often-unrealistic set of job-re-
lated tasks which recipients
must undertake to keep receiv-
ing payments) worsened some
peoples’ mental health, making
recovery difficult.
The social welfare system isn’t
equipped to support those of us
That awful feeling when you realise you forgot something important.
race. The speed of an “intention
horse” is influenced by how well
the intention is matched by the
environment and how important
the intention is to the person.
An intention to take your yel-
low pill the moment you have
swallowed your last bite of din-
ner can have a stronger match
with the environment (yellow
21
who struggle to work because of
mental health issues. I cry ev-
ery day at my full-time job and
would like to focus on recovery,
but the tiny rate of Centrelink
payments means I keep strug-
gling through
– female, early 30s, Victoria
With increasing living costs,
a NSW man in his late 20s re-
ported “stressing about having
money to make ends meet […]
the cost of food going up, and not
having money to heat my home
in winter”. He described making
difficult financial decisions like
choosing to “not eat” in favour
of “making sure my dog is fed”.
Many spoke of financial stress
in relation to housing as a key
priority for their mental health,
particularly “unaffordable hous-
ing prices” (female, early 30s,
NSW) and “prohibitive rent”
(female, late 60s, Victoria).
Social disconnection
Many described a lack of social
and community connection as a
mental health priority, perhaps
unsurprising with COVID lock-
downs and strict border controls.
❱❱ PAGE 25 What’s taking the
pills and swallowing the last
bite) than a plan simply to take
your medicine. The importance
of an intention is how reward-
ing it will be for you.
Match and importance influ-
ence the speed of the intentions
in their race towards selection.
❱❱ PAGE 23 Why it isn’t
22
Is my dog too cold? How cold is too cold
for a walk? Here’s how to tell
BY MELISSA STARLING,
University of Sydney
The Conversation
As winter sets in, you might
be wondering: how do you know
if your dog is warm enough?
And how cold is too cold to take
them for a walk?
It’s a tricky one; much depends
on their natural coat. We go
through this question on a daily
basis in my household in winter
because one of my dogs is small
and hasn’t got much coat – she is
currently wearing a jumper and
on my lap, under a blanket.
But the majority of breeds
are probably OK in most Aus-
tralian temperatures. In many
ways, it’s easier to keep a cold
dog with a thin coat warm than
to keep a hot, thick-coated dog
cool when the mercury climbs.
That said, there are some good
general rules to follow to ensure
your canine friends don’t suffer
when an Antarctic blast hits.
Some guidelines to follow
My rule of thumb is to feel their
extremities. If I can feel their ears
or feet are a bit chilly to touch, that
suggests their core temperature
might be a bit low. Then I would
provide a coat or put the heater on
(if we’re staying in).
Much depends on whether
Decisive people don’t make better decisions –
new research
BY WOJCIECH
ZAJKOWSKI, Cardiff
University
The Conversation
I’ve always been an indecisive
person. What to wear, which menu
item to pick, when to do house
chores; always thinking through
scenarios before committing to
even the most trivial of choices.
If this sounds like you, you’re
certainly not unusual: many
people struggle with these is-
sues. Our new research may
not be able to help you choose
which restaurant to go to, but
it might reassure you. Decisive
people may be more confident
Lifestyle
your dog has a double coat or not –
many dogs do. You can see if your
dog has an undercoat by parting
their hair and seeing if there is a
downy layer of pale hair between
the glossy top coat and the skin.
Breeds that have a double coat
include most kelpies, cattle dogs,
German shepherds, and huskies.
Some breeds, like Samoyeds,
have really dense undercoats
and can tolerate cold really well.
A dog with a thick undercoat
doesn’t need anything more to
stay warm on a cold day.
If your dog has a single coat,
you might need to think a bit
more carefully about the cold.
Breeds in this category include
maltese, cavaliers, greyhounds,
whippets, and staffies.
In addition to coat, also con-
sider the golden rule of surface
area to volume ratio.
Smaller animals have more
surface area for their weight than
larger animals, which means
they have more surface area to
lose heat from compared to a dog
that is bigger and heavier.
Small, lean dogs will generally
struggle with the cold a bit more
than other dogs for this reason.
For example, Italian greyhounds
are much more vulnerable than
regular greyhounds.
If we feel cold then they prob-
ably do too. A thicker coat helps
in the choices they make but
they are no better at making de-
cisions than the rest of us.
The starting point for my re-
cent study into the differences
between decisive and indecisive
people was finding a reliable way
of distinguishing between partic-
ipants. My team used the Action
Control Scale, a yes or no ques-
tionnaire about everyday choic-
es and behaviour. For example,
whether you get bored quickly
after learning a new game.
This scale can reveal whether
a person is action or state-ori-
ented. Action-oriented people
focus on action. They are more
decisive, flexible and likely to
implement their intentions in
slow down heat loss, which is
good if you live in a cold envi-
ronment, but not so great if you
live in a warm environment.
What behaviours can we
look for?
If your dog is shivering, hunched
with tail tucked, trying to tuck their
paws in close to their body or lift
them off the cold ground, they’re
uncomfortably cold.
If the dog is being still, they
are at more risk of getting cold.
For example, we wrap our small-
est dog in a blanket when she’s in
the car – but once she’s running
around, she seems to generate
enough heat to stay comfortable.
At home, pay attention to
where the dogs are sleeping. If
they are curled up in a tight ball
the face of adversity.
State-oriented people focus on
their emotional state. They are in-
decisive, often struggle to commit
to their choices and abandon their
commitments more frequently.
We surveyed 723 people,
from whom we chose the 60
most action-oriented and the
60 most state-oriented to take
part in the main experiments.
The participants went through
a set of cognitive tasks, with
low-risk choices. For example,
we tested their simple percep-
tion (whether a cloud of dots is
moving to the left or right) and
preference (which of the two
snacks would you rather eat).
We compared the following
www.canadianinquirer.net
on the thickest bed they can
find, or nuzzling under blan-
kets, they are trying to keep
themselves warm.
My small dog has learned to
show me if she wants a jumper
on by wagging her tail and stick-
ing her head in it if I hold it out to
her. So we might be able to teach
our dogs to answer the question
“Do you want another layer on?”
If dogs are not sleeping well
at night or getting up a lot in
the wee hours, it’s a good idea
to check how cold they feel and
try offering them some warmer
sleeping options.
If you’ve got a dog in the yard,
make sure they have access to
shelter and a bed to get them
off the cold ground, especially
cognitive processes between
the two groups:
• evidence-processing speed
(how fast you can acquire new
information)
• decision caution (how
much you need to know to com-
mit to a choice)
• initial bias (how much the
choice is influenced by some
prior knowledge)
• metacognitive sensitivity
(how accurately you can judge
the correctness of your choice)
• metacognitive bias (how
confident you are about your
decision).
What we found
The only difference in the
two groups, across all the exper-
JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY
when there is a cold wind.
Letting your dog choose
In Australia, a cold day is gen-
erally easier to manage for dogs
than a hot day.
So yes, you could have an Ital-
ian greyhound as a pet in south-
ern Tasmania, as long as you add
layers when needed and maybe
accept they are going to sleep in
bed with you under the covers.
I like to let dogs choose, as
much as possible, what they
need to manage their core tem-
perature.
For example, you might pro-
vide a bed with a cover, or extra
bedding and blankets on a cold
day, so they can use what they
need and move away from it when
they have warmed up enough.
Once I put a jacket on my
dog, she is unable to take it off
herself, so I am relying on being
able to tell somehow that she
doesn’t want it on anymore.
Still, this is an improvement on
her simply climbing into my jack-
et with me all the time, which she
still does sometimes even when
she’s got her own extra layers on.
Sometimes you just want to cud-
dle up to a warm friend, though. It’s
hard to argue with that! ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
iments, was that action-orient-
ed people were more confident
in their choices. There were no
differences in accuracy, speed,
cautiousness, bias or sensitiv-
ity. The action-oriented group
was more confident, despite not
being in any way better, faster
or more accurate.
Certainly it can seem exces-
sive, and sometimes debilitating,
when you can’t even decide what
to have for lunch. Indecisiveness
can hinder our ability to pursue
our goals. For example, exercise
becomes difficult if each morning
we second-guess ourselves and
deliberate staying in bed.
❱❱ PAGE 27 Decisive people don’t
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022
Nadal beats Ruud to win record-extending
14th French Open title
XINHUA
Philippine News Agency
PARIS – Rafael Nadal cruised
to a record-extending 14th
French Open title in style,
sweeping Casper Ruud of Nor-
way 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 in a one-sided
final here on Sunday.
By capturing his 22nd Grand
Slam trophy, the Spaniard, who
turned 36 on Friday, moved
further clear of Novak Djokovic
and Roger Federer in the Grand
Slam race, with the Serbian and
the Swiss tied on 20 major titles.
“For me personally, it is very
difficult to describe the feelings
that I have. It is something that
I have never believed. To be
here at 36, being competitive
again on the most important
court of my career,” Nadal said
during the trophy ceremony.
Ginebra’s Scottie Thompson
named PBA MVP
BY IVAN STEWART
SALDAJENO
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Scottie Thomp-
son all but sealed his new status
as the new face of the Ginebra
franchise after winning the
Most Valuable Player (MVP)
award on Sunday during the
47th Season Opening Ceremo-
nies at the Smart Araneta Coli-
seum in Quezon City.
Despite having the low-
est statistical points among
the four final MVP nominees,
Thompson scored a landslide
win in the votes from the play-
ers, media, and the PBA Com-
missioner’s Office to beat TNT’s
Mikey Williams, NorthPort’s
Robert Bolick, and Magnolia’s
Calvin Abueva for the league’s
top individual honors.
Sports
“One more title means a lot.
It means a lot of energy to try
and keep going ... I don’t know
what can happen in the future
but I am going to keep fighting
to try and keep going.”
The King of Clay needed
multiple injections to relieve
the pain in his left foot during
the tournament and has left his
future uncertain in the press
conference after the match.
“It’s obvious that with the
circumstances that I am play-
ing, I can’t and I don’t want to
keep going, so the mindset is
very clear. I’m going to keep
working to try to find a solution
and an improvement for what’s
happening in the foot,” said
the Spanish veteran, who will
undergo treatment again this
week back in Spain.
“If it works, I keep going. If not, it
will be another story and I will ask
Thompson garnered a total
of 2,836 points, more than dou-
ble the score Williams, the sec-
ond placer, got.
The battle for second was
actually tight as Williams fin-
ished with 1,332 points, Bol-
ick amassed 1,295, and Abueva
scored 1,066.
Williams, however, had a
landslide win of his own by also
(@SCOT_THOMPSON6/INSTAGRAM)
myself if I am ready to do a major
surgery which may not guarantee I
will be competitive and may take a
long time to be back.”
As for the upcoming grass
major in Wimbledon where he
is a two-time champion, Nad-
al said he would absolutely go
there if his “body is ready”.
“Wimbledon is not a tourna-
ment that I want to miss,” he said.
With huge applause and sup-
port from the full stadium, the
fifth seed struck 37 winners in
the match including 14 from the
deciding set, with his opponent
only at 16.
Eighth seed Ruud, who once
practiced at Nadal’s tennis
school, tried to bounce back
in the second set, breaking in
game four to take a 3-1 lead. But
the Spaniard proved why he is
the King of Clay rapidly, win-
ning 11 games in a row to wrap
tallying more than double his
closest competitor’s score in
the Rookie of the Year race.
Williams finished with 3,327
points, while NorthPort’s Jamie
Malonzo was in second with 1,583.
Rain Or Shine’s Santi San-
tillan came in third with 664
points.
❱❱ PAGE 27 Ginebra’s Scottie
www.canadianinquirer.net
up the victory in two hours and
18 minutes.
“He plays the same style in
practice and matches. He takes
the practices very seriously, and
so do I,” said the Norwegian.
“But the circumstances were
a bit different today. It was the
first time I have experienced
being in this situation and play-
(@RAFAELNADAL/INSTAGRAM)
Why it isn’t...
❰❰ 21 This happens subcon-
sciously. The inten-
tion pops up for the
person, often while they are en-
gaged in some other task.
But an intention’s strong
match with the environment
and its high importance do not
guarantee it is selected. Even if a
task is very important to you and
will be very rewarding, there is
always a possibility you will for-
get and perform some irrelevant
or less important task. And that
means chance is always involved
in remembering intentions. The
best horse doesn’t always win.
A serious matter
This has moral and legal im-
plications.
In some circumstances, sus-
pects in criminal cases have their
freedom restricted. They may
be asked to make a daily phone
call or attend an appointment at
a police station every day, for an
extended period of time. Eventu-
ally they may forget one of these
sessions, which can be taken as a
sign that they do not value their
23
ing a Grand Slam final. It was
a little bit tough to find myself
too comfortable in the situation
in the beginning,” the 23-year-
old said.
Nadal, the oldest winner in
Paris, improved his stunning
record at Roland Garros to 112
wins against just three defeats
after the final. ■
legal obligations.
Are we demanding too much
of people’s ability to remember
their goals? Research has esti-
mated the probability of forget-
ting an intention is 3%-10%. A
study, which asked participants
to keep a diary of when they re-
alised they forgot something,
calculated that more than half
of everyday memory failures are
remembering intentions. Many
factors can influence the risk of
forgetting, such as age, stress,
psychiatric conditions, and sleep.
You might be embarrassed by
forgetting to do that important
thing, but it isn’t always care-
lessness. The best thing you
can do is to think of your inten-
tion in detail, give great value
to keeping your promise, and
set up cues and reminders that
help you remember. The rest is
up to chance. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
24
South Africa’s economy has taken some
heavy body blows: can it recover?
BY JOHANNES P S
SHEEFENI, University of the
Western Cape
The Conversation
Economists are growing in-
creasingly concerned about
South Africa’s economy. This is
because the country’s three ma-
jor macroeconomic problems
– lacklustre economic growth,
growing inflation and
very high unemploy-
ment – have been ex-
acerbated by a series
of major disruptions.
These include the
COVID pandem-
ic that started as a
health crisis but es-
calated quickly to an
economic crisis. Mil-
lions of people lost
their jobs as econom-
ic activity came to a
halt under lockdown.
In the middle of the pandem-
ic violence that lasted for eight
days erupted in Kwa-Zulu Natal
and Gauteng. Further pressure
has been piled on by Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine which is
pushing up food prices.
The most recent blow has
been devastating floods in some
parts of the country that caused
loss of lives and massive de-
struction of infrastructure, in-
cluding to the country’s biggest
port in Durban.
These events hit an already
fragile economy. The South
African economy has been on
the receiving end since 2009. It
has, since then, never returned
to its initial levels of economic
growth pre-2007/2008 global
downturn (financial crisis). The
crisis is reported to have lead
to job losses of about 1 million.
Moreover, the economic growth
saw a decline from 2011 onward
due a decline in demand for
commodities resulting from
changes in commodity prices.
The continuous economic
stagnation was further com-
pounded by slow-paced invest-
Business
ment. Other domestic factors
that contributed to economic
stagnation included restrictive
macroeconomic policies and
budgetary cuts.
Prior to the pandemic South
Africa had entered into a tech-
nical recession – when an econ-
omy experiences economic
decline in two successive quar-
ters. Gross Domestic Product
growth declined by 0.6% in
The South African
economy has been
on the receiving
end since 2009.
quarter three and -1.4% in quar-
ter four of 2019. The trend of
low growth continued, becom-
ing worse when COVID-19 hit.
The causal-effects of the
disruptions
The pandemic: South Af-
rica’s economy became more
depressed during the pandemic
because production in most sec-
tors came to a halt due to hard
lockdowns imposed in an effort
to curb the spread of the virus.
In the process various busi-
nesses shut-down temporarily,
with others closing permanent-
ly. This resulted in job losses by
millions of South Africans.
The violence: In July 2021,
businesses, shops and ware-
houses were destroyed, looted
and in some instances burnt
in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of
Gauteng. This disruption which
lasted for eight days is reported
to have cost the economy more
than R50 billion as well as al-
most 2 million jobs.
The floods: The recent heavy
rains in Durban and parts of the
Eastern Cape caused major in-
frastructural damage. It also
brought to a halt production in
some sectors and even forced
some businesses to shut-down.
Many businesses affected were
in the process of rebuilding af-
ter being destroyed during the
July 2021 unrest. The closing of
shops and businesses automat-
ically translated into job losses,
further exacerbating the unem-
ployment rate.
The Ukraine war: Russia
and Ukraine are both
big players in global
food markets in terms
of production of bar-
ley, maize, sunflower
oil and wheat. As a re-
sult the war will lead
to slow growth in the
global economy and
accelerated inflation.
South Africa is no ex-
ception as prices of
food items such as oil
and grain shoot up.
In addition, there
is an upsurge in the prices of
commodities and fuel which
triggers inflationary pressures.
This has led to the South Afri-
ca Reserve Bank increasing the
repo rate on two consecutive
occasions adding an extra pinch
to the consumers’ woes.
The most obvious question
that follows is if there is any-
thing that can be done? The an-
swer is yes.
What can be done
It is evident that since the
global financial crises in 2008,
South Africa’s economic growth
has been on the decline. Specif-
ically, growth has been on the
downward trajectory with an av-
erage growth rate of just under
1.7% for the period 2008 to 2016
and worsened further below 1%
for the period 2015 to 2016.
This trend of decline in eco-
nomic growth negatively affect-
ed job creation to the extend
that it translated into a jobless
growth. This was evident in
2019, when South Africa expe-
rienced a technical recession,
with little growth and decreas-
ing levels of employment. It
www.canadianinquirer.net
is more pronounced among
young people. As such there is
high demand for employment
but low or limited supply of em-
ployment. This is due to the fact
that potential employers are
limited in taking on new em-
ployees or completely closing
down because of the state of the
economy and specifically the
cost of doing business.
Moreover, the consumer’s
purchasing power is deterio-
rating on daily basis due to high
prices for food, electricity, in-
terest rates (cost of borrowing)
and many more. This is com-
pounded by high inflation since
2018 which averaged 5.9%. This
is the inflation rate South Africa
is experiencing currently.
There is therefore a need to
think of quick economic solu-
tions to neutralise the problems
of rising unemployment, rising
prices and low economic growth.
First, South Africa needs
to address the energy crisis
because it is hurting already
wounded businesses. Allowing
an independent power pro-
ducer into the energy market
would be a good start.
Second, there is an urgent
need to accelerate the creation
of labour-intensive employ-
ment (in agriculture and tour-
ism). More so, there is a need
JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY
to revive industrial-based em-
ployment which has been on
the decline over the years. This
type of employment will be
more inclusive.
Third, there are a lot of youth
with entrepreneurial ideas.
Hence, there is a need for pro-
active regulations (exemptions)
that minimises barriers to small
and medium enterprises enter-
ing the markets that are largely
dominated by bigger firms.
These interventions could
bring about inclusive growth.
In addition, the private sector
needs to get involved in funding
small and meduim enterprises
as part of social responsibility
or giving back to the communi-
ty by empowering the entrepre-
neurial culture.
Finally, the government
needs to address the problem of
rising prices. It needs to admin-
ister the prices of some staple
food as an additional interven-
tion to the already zero rated
items. Many of these are still
expensive and unaffordable to
many people. The administer-
ing of the prices can be tem-
porary while working towards
long term interventions. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022
Financial system improvements
allow market to prepare for crisis
BY JOANN VILLANUEVA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Citing the im-
provements in the financial
market in the last three decades,
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
(BSP) Governor Benjamin Dio-
kno has underscored the need
to be prepared against the risks
that come with these changes.
During the launch of the sys-
temic risk crisis management
(SRCM) framework on Mon-
day, Diokno said technology
has provided financial services
firms greater access to their
markets and vice versa but this
also opened more channels for
various spillovers.
He said preparing for any
eventualities is thus important
since crises come during unex-
pected times and “create signif-
icant disruptions as they unfold.
Diokno said “someone will
Economic recovery,
lower alert level seen
to boost businesses
BY LESLIE GATPOLINTAN
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Food ingredients
and plastics manufacturer D&L
Industries sees the recovery in
the domestic economy and im-
plementation of a lower alert
level benefiting its business in
the second quarter and the rest
of the year.
In a virtual press briefing
Monday, D&L president and
chief executive officer Alvin
Lao said the second quarter
in terms of economic activity
“looks quite good” even though
there was no large election
spending due to the pandemic.
“Airlines (are) reporting
things are almost back to nor-
mal, traffic almost back to nor-
mal. Restaurants are full again
and I noticed also there are re-
furbishments. More people are
going on vacations,” he said.
Lao said should there be no
always bear the costs of the
least disruptions, and invari-
ably it is the public.”
He highlighted the need to look
ahead, such as during this time
when the economy is recovering
from another crisis, and recognize
lessons during the recent hard-
ships “while anticipating the pos-
sibilities of the future.”
This, Diokno said, is the goal
of the Financial Stability Coor-
dination Council (FSCC) when
it came up with the SRCM
framework.
“Financial stability, after all,
is about systemic risks and the
continuous task is to enhance
the resilience of the financial
system. Stability is therefore
simply about risks and resil-
ience –ensuring the latter by
both avoiding shocks to the sys-
tem, as well as strengthening
the ability to recover once those
shocks occur,” he said.
Diokno said the SRCM aims
new variant that will cause re-
strictions, companies whose
performances are correlated
with the economy “should see
quite good performance” this
April to June period and the
rest of the year.
D&L Industries grew its
earnings by 12 percent in the
first quarter of the year despite
the imposition of stricter quar-
antine measures.
Lao further said they thus
remain committed to its expan-
sion facility in Batangas prov-
ince which is deemed to come
at an “opportune time” given
the recovery in the domestic
economy and the company’s
growing export business.
“This will be instrumental in
our future growth as we plan to
develop more high value-added
coconut-based products and
penetrate new international
markets. This expansion is set
to start commercial operations
by January 2023,” he said.
to help stakeholders manage
systemic risks and strengthen
the resilience of the system.
“It defines arrangements
among the FSCC agencies that
we will rely on in good times so
that we are best organized under
stressed conditions,” he added.
Diokno said that “while fi-
nancial stability is not about a
forecast of the future, it is none-
theless all about considering all
reasonable likely outcomes.”
“While it is virtually impossi-
ble to forecast the next crisis, its
timing and its specific nature,
this should not stop us from be-
ing prepared,” he said.
Diokno said enabling stake-
holders to be highly aware of the
overall situation will help them
make well-informed choices.
“All these challenges simply
mean that systemic risk crisis
management, and invariably
financial stability at large, is a
collective effort,” he said.
Lao added that coconut-based
products under food and oleo-
chemicals were the main driv-
ers behind the robust export
growth, as coconut oil contin-
ues to gain traction in the global
market due to its perceived nat-
ural antiviral, antibacterial, and
antifungal properties.
The Board of the Philippine
Economic Zone Authority last
year granted an extension of the
start of commercial operations
to January 2023 of the Batangas
plant to D&L Premium Foods
Corp. (DLPF) given delays en-
countered due to the spike
in coronavirus disease 2019
(Covid-19) cases, the imposition
of quarantine measures, and
shipping delays for equipment
and machineries for the plant.
DLPF is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of D&L Industries
which manufactures various
food ingredients to cater to
the company’s growing export
business. ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
Business
Diokno further said provid-
ing people with all the things
they need to know about the
financial system will minimize
surprises, such as what happens
when a crisis hits.
“We want systemic risk com-
BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno (BANGKO SENTRAL NG PILIPINAS/FACEBOOK)
What’s taking the...
❰❰ 21 Some felt this was
linked to a lack of physi-
cal spaces for socialising:
We need facilities for people
and communities to socialise in
a healthy environment. Get rid
of the poker machines and make
pubs a place where people can
openly socialise again
– male, late 40s, NSW
Others sensed a broader cul-
tural shift away from valuing
community:
We need supportive communities
[…] We are too ‘private’ don’t share
our troubles, don’t ask for help
– female, late 40s, NSW
[S]ociety has become very
individually focused and less
about support
– male, late 40s, Victoria.
Building resilience
The voices of diverse Austra-
lians included in our study pro-
vide clear guidance for the gov-
ernment to build a more resilient
and mentally healthy future.
Labor’s election promise to
re-instate the telepsychiatry
Medicare item in regional and
rural areas is important, but the
government must address other
pressing service issues, including
long wait-times and high costs.
The government also needs
to address the causes of mental
25
munication to be helpful and
not to be a source of undue pan-
ic. These sensitivities to risk
can be developed by frequent
and responsible communica-
tion between and among stake-
holders,” he added. ■
ill-health, such as financial inse-
curity and social disconnection.
While Labor has promised to
tackle job security and housing
affordability, it didn’t back an
increase to income support ben-
efits. This should be revisited.
In 2021, Labor commit-
ted to addressing loneliness
and social isolation, although
no related election promises
were made. Doing so would
require changes outside the
“health” portfolio. We need a
whole-of-government social
and emotional well-being lens
on all federal policies.
Finally, our study highlight-
ed that drivers of poor mental
health are further strained in
disaster settings, such as pan-
demics or extreme weather
events. As the Labor govern-
ment develops its disaster read-
iness plan, mental health im-
pacts – in addition to economic
and infrastructure impacts –
must be a key consideration. ■
If this article has raised issues
for you, or if you’re concerned
about someone you know, call
Lifeline on 13 11 14.
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
26
Listening to asthma and COPD:
An AI-powered wearable could
monitor respiratory health
BY NICOLE Y.K. LI-JESSEN,
McGill University, ANDREAS
M. KIST, Friedrich–Alexander
University Erlangen–Nürnberg
(FAU)
The Conversation
A neck patch that monitors
respiratory sounds may help
manage asthma and chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease
(COPD) by detecting symptom
flareups in real time, without
compromising patient privacy.
Asthma and COPD are two of
the most common chronic re-
spiratory diseases. In Europe,
the combined prevalence is
about 10 per cent of the general
population. In Canada, an esti-
mated 3.8 million people expe-
rience asthma and two million
people experience COPD.
The chronic nature of asthma
and COPD requires continuous
disease monitoring and manage-
ment. Patients with these condi-
tions share many similar clini-
cal symptoms such as frequent
coughing, wheezing and short-
ness of breath. These symptoms
can worsen from time to time
and situation to situation, such
Technology
as exposure to smoke.
Even with optimal treatment,
patients encounter unpredict-
able flareups or exacerbation
of their conditions. These can
become life-threatening and
need immediate medical atten-
tion. Effective and predictive
tools, which enable continuous
remote monitoring and early
detection of exacerbation, are
crucial to prompt treatment
and improved health.
An international collabora-
tion between Canada and Ger-
many with expertise in upper
airway health, audio/acoustic
engineering and wearable com-
puting is developing a wearable
device to monitor these respi-
ratory symptoms.
Privacy concerns
Wearable technologies have
been widely applied for remote
monitoring of asthma and COPD.
Most of these devices have built-
in microphones to collect audi-
ble clinical symptoms, such as
coughs, from patients. However,
such designs hamper patients’
full compliance because of pri-
vacy concerns about continuous
monitoring of all sounds in their
daily life encounters and home
environment.
Efficient and intelligent algo-
rithms are required for health
wearables to meaningfully in-
terpret data as soon as it’s fed
into the system. Recent advanc-
es in artificial intelligence (AI)
have rapidly changed many
fields of medical diagnosis and
therapy monitoring.
However, the AI “black-box”
problem also creates ethical
and transparency
concerns in biomed-
icine. Most AI tools
only allow us to know
the algorithm’s input
and output (for ex-
ample, turning an in-
put X-ray image into
a predicted diagnosis
as output) but not the
processes and work-
ings in between. That
means we don’t know
how the AI tools do
what they do.
Also, implementing real-time
analytics in wearable devices is
challenging due to constrained
computational resources in these
devices, but is essential for time-
ly detection of airway symptoms.
The development of trustworthy
and cost-effective “wearable AI”
is crucial to this project.
To address these unmet chal-
lenges, our AI-powered wear-
ables will have the capacity
to protect speech privacy and
perform near-real-time data
analysis to empower patients
and clinicians to take informed
actions without delay.
Listening with protected
speech privacy
At McGill University, the
Canadian team is developing a
wearable device, similar in size
to a Fitbit, to track and monitor
the health status of the upper
airway during daily activities.
The device is based on mecha-
no-acoustic sensing technology.
In a nutshell, a small, patch-
like skin accelerometer is cus-
www.canadianinquirer.net
tomized to be placed on the
neck. When a person experienc-
es upper airway symptoms such
as cough, hoarse voice, etc., the
characteristic body sounds of
those symptoms create acous-
tic waves that spread across to
the neck skin and turn into me-
chanical vibrations detectable
by the skin accelerometer.
Most features of recognizable
speech are within the high-fre-
Efficient and intelligent
algorithms are required
for health wearables...
quency range (around six to
eight kilohertz). Human neck
tissues serve as a filter that only
low-frequency components
of a signal can pass through.
That means identifiable speech
information is detectable as
sound by our sensors but inau-
dible by human ears, preserving
users’ speech privacy.
We are now working to de-
velop a smartphone application
that will connect to the wear-
able device. This mobile app
will generate a diary summary
of upper airway health for pa-
tients. Also, with users’ consent,
the report can also be sent to
their primary healthcare pro-
viders for remote monitoring.
Small and intelligent AI
At Friedrich-Alexander-Uni-
versität Erlangen-Nürnberg,
the German team has devel-
oped deep neural networks, a
specific subfield of AI, that are
very lean and only need very
small computational memory
of less than 150 kilobytes. Also,
JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY
continuous monitoring gener-
ates a large and complex data
source. In a recent publication,
we reported that our algorithms
are on par with state-of-the-art
algorithms, even though they fit
on a low-cost microcontroller.
Our current project will build
upon these findings and expand
these cost-effective AI algo-
rithms to automate the analysis
of mechanical acoustic signals.
That information, to-
gether with other us-
er-specific data (such
as local air quality and
reliever used), can be
used to predict a pa-
tient’s risk of asthma/
COPD symptom exac-
erbation.
At present, the de-
vice is at the testing
stage. By looking at
the magnitude and
pattern of these neck
surface vibration sig-
nals, our AI-based technology
is currently capable of identify-
ing symptoms related to airway
health such as cough, throat
clearing and hoarse voice with
over 80 per cent accuracy,
which is important for accu-
rately determining severity.
Early detection of asthma
and COPD flareups remains an
unmet clinical need, but this
technology may be useful for
other conditions, too. For ex-
ample, we anticipate that this
application can be extended to
monitor “long COVID” because
some of its symptoms — such as
shortness of breath and cough-
ing — overlap with those of
asthma and COPD.
With advances in wearable
monitoring technology, we
hope to empower and engage
patients to take charge of their
airway health. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022
We’re told AI neural networks ‘learn’
the way humans do. A neuroscientist
explains why that’s not the case
BY JAMES FODOR, The
University of Melbourne
The Conversation
Recently developed artificial
intelligence (AI) models are ca-
pable of many impressive feats,
including recognising images
and producing human-like lan-
guage. But just because AI can
perform human-like behaviours
doesn’t mean it can think or un-
derstand like humans.
As a researcher studying how
humans understand and reason
about the world, I think it’s im-
portant to emphasise the way
AI systems “think” and learn is
fundamentally different to how
humans do – and we have a long
way to go before AI can truly
think like us.
A widespread misconception
Developments in AI have pro-
duced systems that can perform
very human-like behaviours.
The language model GPT-3 can
produce text that’s often in-
distinguishable from human
speech. Another model, PaLM,
can produce explanations for
jokes it has never seen before.
Most recently, a general-pur-
pose AI known as Gato has been
developed which can perform
hundreds of tasks, including
captioning images, answering
questions, playing Atari video
games, and even controlling a
robot arm to stack blocks. And
DALL-E is a system which has
been trained to produce modi-
fied images and artwork from a
text description.
Decisive people don’t...
❰❰ 22 But our research
suggests that indeci-
sive people are in no
way worse at making choices.
We can process evidence as fast
and harness prior knowledge
just as effectively as decisive
people (and careful consider-
ation can pay dividends when
making life-changing choices,
like choosing a university or
buying a house – even if, as a
millennial, this is only an issue
in theory).
These breakthroughs have
led to some bold claims about
the capability of such AI, and
what it can tell us about human
intelligence.
For example Nando de Fre-
itas, a researcher at Google’s
AI company DeepMind, ar-
gues scaling up existing models
will be enough to produce hu-
man-level artificial intelligence.
Others have echoed this view.
In all the excitement, it’s easy
to assume human-like behaviour
means human-like understand-
ing. But there are several key
differences between how AI and
humans think and learn.
Neural nets vs the human
brain
Most recent AI is built from
artificial neural networks, or
“neural nets” for short. The
term “neural” is used because
these networks are inspired
by the human brain, in which
billions of cells called neurons
form complex webs of connec-
tions with one another, pro-
cessing information as they fire
signals back and forth.
Neural nets are a highly sim-
plified version of the biology. A
real neuron is replaced with a
simple node, and the strength
of the connection between
nodes is represented by a single
number called a “weight”.
With enough connected
nodes stacked into enough lay-
ers, neural nets can be trained
to recognise patterns and even
“generalise” to stimuli that are
similar (but not identical) to
what they’ve seen before. Sim-
Being less or more confident
of the choice that has been made
cannot affect the outcome. It
can however influence future
ones. State-oriented people are
less confident of whether the
choice is right, which makes
pursuing our goals a much
greater challenge.
It is easy to see how this can
relate to things such as prepar-
ing for an exam, exercising or
learning a new skill. If you have
low confidence that you are
ply, generalisation refers to an
AI system’s ability to take what
it has learnt from certain data
and apply it to new data.
Being able to identify fea-
tures, recognise patterns, and
generalise from results lies at
the heart of the success of neural
nets – and mimics techniques
humans use for such tasks. Yet
there are important differences.
Neural nets are typically
trained by “supervised learn-
ing”. So they’re presented with
many examples of an input
and the desired output, and
then gradually the connection
weights are adjusted until the
network “learns” to produce
the desired output.
To learn a language task, a neu-
ral net may be presented with a
sentence one word at a time, and
will slowly learns to predict the
next word in the sequence.
This is very different from
how humans typically learn.
Most human learning is “unsu-
pervised”, which means we’re
not explicitly told what the
“right” response is for a given
stimulus. We have to work this
out ourselves.
For instance, children aren’t
given instructions on how to
speak, but learn this through a
complex process of exposure
to adult speech, imitation, and
feedback.
Another difference is the sheer
scale of data used to train AI. The
GPT-3 model was trained on
400 billion words, mostly taken
from the internet. At a rate of 150
words per minute, it would take
making meaningful progress,
it can discourage regular prac-
tice. The reasons for this confi-
dence gap are yet to be properly
explained. But some research
suggests a link with how people
regulate their emotions. This
confidence gap might be the
reason why some people suc-
ceed where others do not.■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
www.canadianinquirer.net
Technology
a human nearly 4,000 years to
read this much text.
Such calculations show hu-
mans can’t possibly learn the
same way AI does. We have
to make more efficient use of
smaller amounts of data.
Neural nets can learn in
ways we can’t
An even more fundamental
difference concerns the way
neural nets learn. In order to
match up a stimulus with a
desired response, neural nets
use an algorithm called “back-
propagation” to pass errors
backward through the network,
allowing the weights to be ad-
justed in just the right way.
However, it’s widely rec-
ognised by neuroscientists
that backpropagation can’t be
implemented in the brain, as it
would require external signals
that just don’t exist.
Ginebra’s Scottie...
❰❰ 23 Thompson, Wil-
liams, and Abueva
headlined the Mythi-
cal First Team.
Fajardo, who had to relinquish
the MVP award after winning it
an unprecedented six consecu-
tive times from 2014-2019, still
made the Mythical First Team
even as NorthPort’s Arwind
Santos completes the cast.
Bolick headlined the Myth-
ical Second Team along with
Beerman CJ Perez, Gin King
27
Some researchers have pro-
posed variations of backprop-
agation could be used by the
brain, but so far there is no ev-
idence human brains can use
such learning methods.
Instead, humans learn by
making structured mental con-
cepts, in which many different
properties and associations are
linked together. For instance,
our concept of “banana” in-
cludes its shape, the colour yel-
low, knowledge of it being a fruit,
how to hold it, and so forth.
As far as we know, AI sys-
tems do not form conceptual
knowledge like this. They rely
entirely on extracting complex
statistical associations from
their training data, and then ap-
plying these to similar contexts.
Efforts are underway to build
❱❱ PAGE 30 We’re told AI
Christian Standhardinger,
Magnolia Hotshot Ian San-
galang, and Phoenix Fuel Mas-
ter Matthew Wright.
Santos headlined the All-De-
fensive Team alongside Mer-
alco’s Cliff Hodge, TNT’s Kelly
Williams, Magnolia’s Jio Jalalon,
and San Miguel’s Chris Ross.
Terrafirma’s Juami Tiongson
won the Most Improved Player
award, while NLEX’s Kevin Alas
won the Samboy Lim Sports-
manship Award. ■
28
A unified cybersecurity strategy
is the key to protecting businesses
BY CAMÉLIA RADU,
Université du Québec à
Montréal (UQAM), NADIA
SMAILI, Université du Québec
à Montréal (UQAM)
The Conversation
Following the changes the
pandemic has brought about
in the business world, organi-
zations have significantly in-
creased their use of data and the
internet. This, in turn, has in-
creased the prevalence of cyber-
attacks and cybersecurity risks.
Accounting firm Pricewa-
terhouseCoopers recently re-
leased a report estimating that
about 62 per cent of Canadian
organizations were impacted
by ransomware incidents and
attacks in 2021.
Since these risks have cru-
cial implications for companies
and their investors and clients,
cybersecurity spending saw a
major increase. Global cyber-
security spending grew to more
than $120 billion in 2017 from
$3.5 billion in 2004.
The Center for Strategic and
International Studies estimates
that malicious cyber activity
costs the world $945 billion
Video game worlds are often
devoid of children – here’s why
BY EMMA JOY REAY, Anglia
Ruskin University
The Conversation
While the potential bene-
fits or drawbacks of children
playing video games receives a
lot of attention, little notice is
taken of the place of children
within video games themselves.
However, the representation of
children in media can tell us a
lot about how they are viewed
by society, and the rules, beliefs,
and social systems that shape
contemporary children’s place
in the world.
My recent research looked at
how children were represent-
ed in over 500 commercially
successful and critically ac-
claimed video games, published
Technology
annually, while Cybersecurity
Ventures estimates that glob-
al cybercrime costs could in-
crease to $10.5 trillion by 2025.
As a result, investors, clients,
suppliers and employees are
demanding better management
and protection of corporate
data, along with better cyberse-
curity accountability and trans-
parency to mitigate increased
cyber risks.
In an article soon to be pub-
lished in the Journal of Man-
agement and Governance, we
argue that better cybersecu-
rity and data protection can
be achieved through a formal
program put together after a
careful auditing process. We
outline the objectives of such a
program below.
A shared responsibility
The responsibility of cyber-
security management no lon-
ger falls just on the shoulders of
IT departments, but is now the
responsiblity of the entire busi-
ness. We argue that all firm de-
partments should be involved
in cybersecurity programming
and planning.
Management and directors
should be directly involved in
carrying out best practices to
between 2009 and 2019. These
included games aimed both at
adults and at children.
I found that there were many
places in gameworlds where chil-
dren simply weren’t welcome,
and that representations of chil-
dren followed particular patterns
in terms of gender and race.
Although video games are
often considered a children’s
medium, I found that of the 506
video games I looked at, 331 did
not contain any child characters
at all. In the remaining titles
that did feature a child charac-
ter, less than half of them were
significant characters. Child
characters simply did not exist
in the majority of gameworlds,
reflecting children’s exclusion
from many areas of society.
Making certain game envi-
mitigate cybersecurity risk.
Firm managers should lead by
example by embedding security
throughout their company’s op-
erations and responding rapidly
to cyber threats as they arise.
Corporate board members
should ensure the necessary cy-
bersecurity protections are in
place for their companies, and
approve and review the cyber-
security governance and data
protection program regularly.
At the very least, every board
should have one cyber expert
with proven, up-to-date cre-
dentials on its panel. This will
lead to better protection for
company investors, clients,
suppliers and employees.
Auditing is the first step
The first step in creating such
a program is to assess the cur-
rent effectiveness of an organi-
zation’s cybersecurity risks and
data management through a
program like the Canadian gov-
ernment’s Cyber Security Audit
Program or one of the U.S. gov-
ernment’s auditing resources.
These publicly available tools
help auditors assess the cyber-
security of their organizations.
As part of the audit, businesses
should also hire third-party hack-
ronments “adults only” can
protect virtual children from
aspects of the game that involve
taboo activities such as vio-
lence. But virtual children can
only ever be placed in virtual
danger. This suggests that con-
cern for digital children is per-
haps best understood as a need
to defend an imagined, ideal-
ised version of “the child”.
How “the child” is treated in
media like video games is a re-
flection of the morals of wider
society. If a game treats chil-
dren badly without explicitly
condemning this treatment, it
violates these morals.
This accounts for the absence
of child characters in contro-
versial open-world games such
as those in the Grand Theft
Auto (GTA) series, which pre-
www.canadianinquirer.net
ers to test the security of their sys-
tems through a penetration test.
Hackers bring a unique insight to
the audit process, and are capable
of finding gaps that security pro-
fessionals might overlook.
During a penetration test,
hired white- or grey-hat hackers
carry out an authorized cyberat-
tack to try and find vulnerabili-
ties in a business’s cybersecurity
defences. Once detected, busi-
nesses can tighten their security
to prevent these vulnerabilities
from being exploited.
This assessment would pro-
vide businesses with a road map
for creating a cybersecurity ac-
tion plan to ensure the protec-
tion of sensitive information
systems, and the data and pri-
vacy of a company’s employees,
investors and clients.
Creating the program
A comprehensive cybersecu-
rity and data protection plan
should cover a wide variety of
areas, including the creation
and safeguarding of passwords,
remote and restricted access,
email encryption, social media,
anti-virus measures, contin-
gency plans, data breach re-
sponses and training programs.
Crucially, it would also involve
dominantly invite players to
steal cars, shoot people, and
evade the police.
GTA games are often accused
of being deliberately immor-
JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY
the creation of an IT disaster
recovery and emergency plan.
Businesses must be prepared for
any number of disasters, includ-
ing power outages and cyberat-
tacks, and be able to act accord-
ingly to recover any lost data.
We also recommend that
companies create a whis-
tleblowing policy, since 42 per
cent of occupational fraud is
reported through tips and more
than half of those tips come
from employees. A good whis-
tleblower policy will include a
hotline for complaints and en-
sure confidentiality and protec-
tion for all whistleblowers.
Ultimately, a high quality cy-
bersecurity and data protection
program will help firms adjust
their management protocols and
be better prepared for future cy-
bersecurity risks. The internet is
only becoming more and more
integral to business operations as
the years pass. If companies want
to stay abreast of new technolog-
ical developments, they will need
to make cybersecurity central to
their organizations. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
al and offensive because they
encourage players to explore
the boundaries both of what is
❱❱ PAGE 29 Video game worlds
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2022
Legazpi City
to revive
celebration of
Ibalong Festival
(DEXBALDON - OWN WORK/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, CC BY-SA 4.0)
BY CONNIE CALIPAY,
EMMANUEL SOLIS
Philippine News Agency
LEGAZPI CITY – After almost
two years of suspension due to
the coronavirus (Covid-19) pan-
demic, the city government here
is now in the thick of preparation
for the resumption of its festive
and colorful Ibalong Festival.
Agapita Pacres, City Tourism
Office (CTO) head, said in an in-
terview on Thursday they met
with outgoing Mayor Noel Rosal
and other members of the Ibalong
Executive Committee (ExeCom)
last Tuesday to discuss the events.
Among the highlights of the
previous Ibalong celebrations
was a parade of the main char-
acters of the Ibalong epic -- Bal-
tog, Handyong and Bantong.
The festival, which is now in its
31st year, is set for August 10-21.
Pacres said the opening day
is the most awaited due to the
street dancing and float parade,
opening of a weekend market
and a concert at the Sawangan
Park in front of the Albay Gulf.
“We will invite all the govern-
ment agencies and all the baran-
gay officials within the city to join
in the opening day as their gesture
of support to the festival,” she said.
Pacres said she is also urging
the different malls and estab-
Travel
lishments here to hold enter-
taining events such as an art ex-
hibit as part of the celebration.
She noted that some of the high-
lights of this year’s festival are the
Mount Mayon Triathlon which
would be participated in by pro-
fessional cyclists from around the
country and neighboring Asian
countries, Mutya ng Ibalong pag-
eant, and other sporting events.
Pacres said all the participants
must be fully vaccinated as part
of the health protocols imposed
by the city government.
Rosal, in an interview, said
Ibalong symbolizes the resil-
iency of residents in times of
calamities and at the same time
showcases their best talents.
“We want to take advantage of
this festival in promoting the city
not only in the regional level but
also national and international lev-
els to once again improve the tour-
ism industry of our city,” he said.
Rosal said most of the activities
in the festival will prove that Le-
gazpi is considered as one of the
safest and most beautiful places
for any kind of sporting event.
Ibalong Festival is a yearly
non-religious event depicting
Bicol’s early beginnings based
on the Ibalong Epic written by
the late Professor Merito Espi-
nas. It tells of mythical superhe-
roes, villains, monsters, and wild
animals in ancient times. ■
New mobile app seen to
boost tourism in
Nueva Ecija
BY ZORAYDA TECSON
Philippine News Agency
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO,
Pampanga – The province of
Nueva Ecija has launched a mo-
bile tourism app that could help
boost its local tourism industry.
Tourism officer Jose Maria
San Pedro said on Tuesday the
easy-to-use app will allow users
to know more about the rich
cultural and tourist destina-
tions in the province.
“This is the first and only tour-
ism application that is available
through iOS (iPhone Operating
System) and Android devices.
Inilunsad natin ito para magka-
roon ng digital platform na kung
Video game worlds...
❰❰ 28 possible and what is
permissible. However,
the game’s designers
chose to systematically exclude
children from the otherwise de-
tailed and comprehensive sim-
ulated cities of GTA.
Children were absent from
games that aren’t particularly
violent, too. Child characters
did not feature in the majori-
ty of sports games and racing
games. They didn’t appear in
training games or fitness games,
and music games such as Guitar
Hero, SingStar, SongPop, Rock-
band, and the Just Dance series
represented all of the on-screen
performers as adults.
In many of these games, the
player’s progress is tracked as
if they were climbing a career
ladder in a real-world industry.
Sports games in particular of-
ten pay homage to professional
leagues and athletes. Because
the majority of children are ex-
cluded from the world of work,
games that simulate aspects of
real industries represent virtu-
al environments that are only
www.canadianinquirer.net
saan ang lahat ng tourism estab-
lishments ay matatagpuan natin
sa isang mobile application (We
launched this to have a digital
platform wherein all tourism
establishments can be found in
one mobile application),” San
Pedro said in a news program.
The Nueva Ecija Tourism
App can be downloaded via
Google Playstore.
Once downloaded, the app is
available even offline.
“So, even without internet
connection, this can be used of-
fline,” San Pedro said.
Aside from tourist destina-
tions, he said users can also
see places to eat and stay in the
province in the app.
San Pedro encouraged tourism
populated with adults.
The imaginary child
Child characters in video
games can also tell us about
how society visualises the fig-
ure of the child. Research has
found that adult characters in
video games are more likely to
be white and male. I found this
same pattern in my research on
child characters.
I found that where playable
child characters were given a
gender, 25 were male and six
were female. The lack of play-
able girl characters reinforc-
es the idea that boys are at the
centre of the action and girls
exist only on the sidelines.
I found that 18 child play-
er-characters were white, and
only three child player-charac-
ters were non-white. Because
they were animals, fantasy crea-
tures, or automatons, 15 child
player-characters had no race.
One child player-character had
a customisable race and 9 child
player-characters were catego-
rised as “Mukokuseki”, a Japa-
nese term usually used to refer to
29
establishments in the province
to visit municipal or city tourism
offices in their localities so that
they could register for the Nueva
Ecija Tourism App for free.
“Para sa ating mga tour-
ism establishment, ibig sabi-
hin kung kayo ay isang hotel,
restaurant o resort at hindi na
po ninyo gustong mag-print
ng brochure, meron na po tay-
ong sariling digital brochure at
ito po ay ang ating Nueva Ecija
tourism app (For our tourism
establishments, which mean a
hotel, restaurant or resort and
you no longer want to print bro-
chures, we now have our own
digital brochure and this is our
Nueva Ecija tourism app),” he
added. ■
characters rendered in an anime
style who could be understood as
either white or Japanese.
This echoes a problem in
western children’s litera-
ture. Research has found that
non-human characters appear
less frequently than white child
protagonists but significantly
outnumber child protagonists
of all other races.
Western video games seem to
equate childhood with white-
ness. This has real-life parallels
with the way non-white chil-
dren are often treated as older
than they are, a phenomenon
known as “adultification”.
Common understandings of
childhood still tend to see it as a
natural, timeless, and universal
phenomenon. Examining the
digital kids that populate virtu-
al gameworlds is a great way to
show that how societies perceive
“the child” is often in a narrow
and exclusionary way. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
 30
What makes smoky, charred barbecue
taste so good? The chemistry of
cooking over an open flame
BY KRISTINE NOLIN,
University of Richmond
The Conversation
The mere thought of barbe-
cue’s smokey scents and intox-
icating flavors is enough to get
most mouths watering. Sum-
mer is here, and that means it is
barbecue season for many peo-
ple in the U.S.
I am a chemist who studies
compounds found in nature,
and I am also a lover of food –
including barbecue. Cooking
on a grill may seem simple, but
there is a lot of chemistry that
sets barbecue apart from other
cooking methods and results in
such a delicious experience.
Cooking with fire
First, it is important to define
barbecue because the term can
mean different things in differ-
ent cultures or geographic loca-
tions. At its most basic, barbecue
is the cooking of food over an
open flame. What sets barbecue
apart from other cooking meth-
ods is how heat reaches the food.
On a barbecue, the hot grill
grates heat the food via di-
rect contact through a process
known as conduction. The food
also warms and cooks by ab-
sorbing radiation directly from
the flames below. The mix of
heating methods allows you to
sear the parts of the food touch-
ing the grill while simultane-
ously cooking the parts that
aren’t touching the griddle –
like the sides and top – through
radiating heat. The resulting
range of temperatures creates
a complex mixture of flavors
We’re told AI...
❰❰ 27 AI that combines differ-
ent types of input (such
as images and text) –
but it remains to be seen if this
will be sufficient for these mod-
Food
and aromas. When cooking on a
stovetop, there is much less ra-
diation and most of the cooking
is done where the food is in di-
rect contact with the pan.
When barbecuing, you can ei-
ther put the food directly above
the flames – what is called di-
rect heat – or farther away on
indirect heat. The direct cook-
ing method subjects the food to
very high temperatures, as the
grilling surface can be anywhere
from 500 to 700 degrees Fahr-
enheit (260 to 371 Celsius). The
indirect cooking method places
the heat source to the side of the
food or far below, exposing the
food to temperatures around
200 to 300 F (93 to 149 C).
Cooking is the process of us-
ing high temperatures to drive
chemical reactions that change
food at a molecular level. When
you cook meat at higher tem-
peratures – like over direct heat
on a barbecue – the first thing
to happen is that water near the
meat’s surface boils off. Once the
surface is dry, the heat causes
the proteins and sugars on the
outside of the meat to undergo a
reaction called the Maillard Re-
action. This reaction produces
a complex mixture of molecules
that make food taste more savory
or “meaty” and adds depth to
scents and flavors. The reaction
and the flavors it produces are
influenced by many variables, in-
cluding temperature and acidity
as well as the ingredients within
any sauces, rubs or marinades.
A similar process occurs with
vegetables. Barbecuing allows
the water to evaporate or drip
down without getting trapped
els to learn the same types of rich
mental representations humans
use to understand the world.
There’s still much we don’t
know about how humans learn,
by a pan. This keeps the veg-
etables from becoming soggy
and promotes caramelization
reactions. These reactions turn
carbohydrates and sugars into
smaller compounds like maltol
– which has a toasty flavor –
and furan – which tastes nutty,
meaty and caramel-like.
Char and crisp
Another hallmark of barbe-
cued food is the unique char
it develops. When foods are
exposed to heat for prolonged
periods of time, non-carbon
atoms in the food break down,
leaving behind the crispy, black
carbon. This is the process of
burning or charring.
Almost no one likes a com-
pletely burnt piece of meat, but
little splashes of crispy char
flavor can add such depth to
foods. Cooking over the direct
heat of a barbecue allows you to
add just the amount of char to
match your taste.
Unfortunately for those who
like a little extra crisp, some of
the chemicals in charred meat
– molecules called heterocyclic
amines and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons – are known car-
cinogens. Though the dangers are
far lower than smoking cigarettes,
for example, limiting the amount
of charring on meats can help re-
duce the risk of developing cancer.
Smokey flavors
The final quintessential
barbecue flavor is smokiness.
Cooking over wood or charcoal
involves a lot of smoke. Even on
a gas grill, melting fats will drip
onto the heat source and pro-
duce smoke. As smoke swirls
around the barbecue, the food
understand and reason. How-
ever, what we do know indicates
humans perform these tasks
very differently to AI systems.
As such, many research-
www.canadianinquirer.net
will absorb its flavors.
Smoke is made up of gases,
water vapor and small solid par-
ticles from the fuel. Burning
wood breaks down molecules
called lignans, and these turn
into smaller organic molecules –
including syringol and guaiacol
– that are mainly responsible for
the quintessential smokey flavor.
When smoke comes in con-
tact with food, the components
of the smoke can get absorbed.
Food is particularly good at tak-
ing on smokey flavors because
it contains both fats and water.
Each binds to different types of
molecules. In chemistry terms,
fats are non-polar – meaning
they have a weak electric charge
– and easily grab other non-po-
lar molecules. Water is polar –
meaning it has areas of positive
charge and an area of negative
charge similar to a magnet –
and is good at binding to other
polar molecules. Some foods
are better at absorbing smokey
flavors than others, depending
Smoke gives barbecued foods much of their unique flavor.
ers believe we’ll need new ap-
proaches, and more fundamen-
tal insight into how the human
brain works, before we can
build machines that truly think
JUNE 10, 2022 FRIDAY
on their composition. One way
to use chemistry to make food
more smokey is to periodically
spray it with water during the
barbecuing process.
Smoke can contain hundreds
of possible carcinogens depend-
ing on what you are burning.
Only a small amount of research
has been done on whether
grilled foods absorb enough
smoke to pose a significant risk
to health. But researchers know
that inhaling smoke is strongly
correlated with cancer.
While the idea of barbecuing
your favorite dish may evoke
the feeling of simple pleasures,
the science behind it is quite
complex. The next time you en-
joy the smoky goodness of food
from a grill, you will hopefully
appreciate the diverse nature of
the compounds and reactions
that helped produce it. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
and learn like humans. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
 JUNE
JULY 10, 2022
17, 2020 31
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Beyond boats, beef...

❰❰ 14 Monash University, gave up attempts to reassert its into bat for Indonesia against tralia’s 13th biggest trading Indonesia. This compares to
was part of the delega- colonial control in 1949). Accord- the International Monetary partner, worth A$17.8 billion in more than 3,000 in China.
tion. He later recalled ing to Isaac, the action of the wa- Fund (IMF) and the Clinton two-way trade. Indonesia hasn’t attracted
the meetings with Sukarno: terside workers against Dutch administration, which both Almost 2,500 Australian manufacturers looking for low-
Mac [MacMahon Ball] out- ships as well as Australia’s support wanted to impose severe fiscal businesses export goods to In- cost opportunities like China,
lined the purpose of his mission for Indonesian independence in austerity measures. donesia. Vietnam and Bangladesh. For-
[…] and that Australia was sym- the UN Security Council were in- Australia favoured more ex- But in many ways Indonesia eign companies have mainly
pathetic to the political aspira- strumental in shaping a positive pansionary policies – partly in- is still underdone as an eco- gone there for its massive do-
tions of the Indonesians; and he view of Australia in Indonesia. formed by Reserve Bank deputy nomic partner – not just when mestic consumer market, espe-
canvassed Sukarno’s reaction to Recent economic assistance governor Stephen Grenville, compared with China and In- cially the urban middle class in
the despatch by the Australian Australia’s desire for close who had been a diplomat in In- dia, and our longstanding part- cities like Jakarta, Yogyakarta
Government of a boat load of relations with Indonesia has donesia and understood the In- ners in Japan and South Korea, and Surabaya.
medical supplies. No doubt think- been challenging – in particular donesian economy. but also with southeast Asian So, there’s still a great poten-
ing of the action of the Australian over Indonesia’s annexation of The Australian view pre- neighbours Singapore and tial for Australian trade and for-
waterside workers (who refused West Papua in 1969 and of East vailed, and the Indonesian Thailand. eign investment to help build
to load Dutch ships hostile to In- Timor in 1975. economy fared much better as More Australian small and capacity way beyond boats, beef
donesian independence) Sukarno But in recent decades there a result, avoiding the pitfalls of medium sized companies export and Bali. ■
expressed gratitude for the sup- have been some great occasions the developing economies sub- goods to Fiji than Indonesia.
port of the Australian people. of economic co-operation. ject to the IMF prescription. And despite Indonesia’s massive This article is republished
This support was a big deal at During the Asian financial Room to grow population, just 250 Australian from The Conversation under a
the time (the Netherlands only crisis of 1997-99, Australia went As of 2020, Indonesia is Aus- companies have a presence in Creative Commons license.
Unknown, Rosario Street and Binondo Church, ca. 1840-45. Daguerreotype, 21.7 x 27.2 x 0.9 cm. Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York, NY.

Unknown, Cathedral taken April 4th, ca. 1840-45. Daguerreotype, 22.6 x 27.2 x 0.9 cm. Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York, NY.

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