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pcinews_twt MAY 5, 2023 www.canadianinquirer.net VOL. 8 NO. 538

KEEPING HER HEALTHY

A young girl is administered a vaccine during the launch of the “Chikiting Ligtas sa Dagdag Bakuna Kontra Polio, Rubella, at Tigdas” in a mall in Taytay, Rizal on Tuesday (May 2, 2023). In 2022,
UNICEF reported that the Philippines had a million children who have not received a single dose of childhood vaccine in 2021.
JOEY O. RAZON / PNA

Maritime cooperation
with US to help PH
protect WPS
BY PRIAM NEPOMUCENO
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The maritime cooperation
between the Philippines and the United
States will allow the country to have a cred-
ible deterrent and uphold its sovereign
rights in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
This was emphasized by US Embassy
in Manila political counselor Brett Black-
18
Maria in Vancouver:
Asia’s First Supermodel:
Walk Like Anna Bayle
shaw during a forum titled “Modernizing
Philippine defense capabilities and elevat-
ing security partnerships,” organized by 26
the Stratbase ADR Institute on Tuesday.
This event coincides with President `
A new monarch who is a divorcee would
Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s meeting with
US President Joe Biden at the White once have scandalised. But Charles’
House in Washington. accession shows how much has changed
It also happened on the heels of a When employers reward
PAGE 13
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2 MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY
FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023
US visit to strengthen alliance amid
‘turbulent times’ - Marcos
BY FILANE MIKEE
CERVANTES
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – President Ferdi-
nand R. Marcos Jr. on Tuesday
said his visit to Washington, D.C.
was vital to strengthen the al-
liance between the Philippines
and the United States, especially
during “turbulent times.”
In his speech during the din-
ner hosted by the Philippine
Embassy at the Blair House,
Marcos said that the way for-
ward to navigate the “almost
chaotic” international scene --
defined by the ongoing conflict
in Ukraine and the scourge of
the Covid-19 pandemic -- is for
the Philippines to have “strong
partners” or “strong allies”.
“Since things are so volatile
the stability would come from
those alliances, those partner-
ships. And it is a strange thing
to come from that situation
where you have very polarized
worldview, to come from that
situation where now we have to
look into very different direc-
tions all the time,” Marcos said.
He also pointed out that de-
spite their turbulent history, the
relations between the US and
the Philippines have endured.
“But similarly, to our ambas-
sadors’ friendships, like two
friendships, you go to turbulent
DILG, BFP warn public as fire incidents surge
nearly 40% in April
BY CHRISTOPHER LLOYD
CALIWAN
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Bureau of
Fire Protection (BFP) reported
that fires in the country went
up by 40 percent from April 1 to
26 compared to the same peri-
od last year.
In a statement on Monday,
the BFP said that from the 953
recorded fire incidents in April
2022, the number jumped to
times when there are misun-
derstandings, when there are
difficulties, when other forces
prevail upon both sides of the
partnership,” Marcos said.
“But between the Philippines
and the United States, we have
prevailed through all that like a
true friendship. And the reason
for that I believe is that we truly
have come to an understanding
as to how we believe certain val-
ues and what is important, and
our role in the world and that
has never really been dimin-
ished,” he added.
Marcos said the trade rela-
tions and partnership between
the Philippines and the US must
be “continually revisited” so
that both parties would mutual-
ly benefit from these initiatives.
“It still continually revisited
so as we can make the most of
our friendship and our partner-
ship. And so that is the world as
I see it today and the reasons
that will come. That is why I am
very grateful for the invitation of
President (Joe) Biden to come
to Washington, D.C. and gain the
opportunity to meet the leaders
of the government,” Marcos said.
He said the mutual defense
treaty between the US and the
Philippines should evolve to
adapt to changing environments.
“It should evolve because the
situation that we are surround-
ed with changes and we must
1,332 during the same period
this year.
According to the BFP, most
common reasons for these fire
incidents are due to faulty elec-
tric wires; dried leaves, grass
and garbage materials which
easily catch fire or lighted ciga-
rette butts.
With the soaring fire inci-
dents, Interior and Local Gov-
ernment Secretary Benjamin
“Benhur” Abalos Jr. and the
BFP called on the public to take
the necessary precautions to
evolve with that. Therefore, it
is extremely important that we
have these interactions, it’s ex-
tremely important that we are
constant in communication. It
is extremely important that we
understand what it is we are
trying to achieve,” he said.
Filipino Americans vital to
America’s fabric
US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken, for his part, highlight-
ed the vital role of Filipinos and
Filipino Americans in shaping
America’s social fabric.
“Filipinos and Filipino-Amer-
icans are a fundamental part of
the fabric of the United States,”
Blinken said in the presence of
key US cabinet secretaries.
Blinken also noted that the
Philippines and the US have
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and US President Joseph Biden (PCO)
prevent fire incidents, especial-
ly during the soaring heat of the
summer months.
Abalos also urged the local
government units (LGUs) to
conduct inspection and coor-
dinate with the BFP to ensure
the strict adherence of the es-
tablishments to the regulations
in Republic Act 9514, otherwise
known as the “Fire Code of the
Philippines (FCP.’’
“Tiyakin natin na ang mga
buildings ay mayroong fire
exits, fire protection systems
www.canadianinquirer.net
Philippine News
forged a bond 70 years ago
based on arbitral defense and
security, adding that both coun-
tries have reaffirmed their de-
sire to maintain peace and or-
der in the Pacific region.
“And just last year, thanks
to the leadership of President
Biden and President Marcos, we
have significantly strengthened
our alliance. We’ve launched
new initiatives together to cre-
ate economic opportunities for
Americans and Filipinos alike.
Because last year, trade between
our countries was worth more
than USD25 billion, a new re-
cord, and today President Biden
announced that he will send the
first ever presidential trade and
investment mission to the Phil-
ippines,” Blinken said.
tulad ng sprinklers, hose box,
at iba pang fire safety features
alinsunod sa Fire Code of the
Philippines. Huwag po nating
ipagwalang-bahala ang mga
ganitong bagay dahil buhay at
kaligtasan ng ating mga kaba-
bayan ang nakasalalay rito (Let
us make sure that buildings
have fire exits, fire protection
systems like sprinklers, hose
box and other fire safety fea-
tures pursuant to the Fire Code
of the Philippines. Let us not
disregard these things since
3
The US official also pointed
out that the two countries have
laid out plans to initiate new
clean energy projects that will
only increase power outputs
“but also create good paying
jobs for both our countries.”
Working with their Filipino
counterparts, Blinken said they
have taken steps to modernize
security alliances “so that our
forces can work even closer to-
gether despite natural disasters.”
Earlier in the day, Marcos
and Biden affirmed a series of
partnerships aimed at strength-
ening the alliance of Manila and
Washington.
In a joint statement, Marcos
and Biden hailed the “remark-
able ties of friendship, commu-
nity, and shared sacrifice that
serve as the foundation of the
US-Philippines alliance.”
“In efforts to promote inclu-
sive and broad-based prosperity,
invest in the clean energy transi-
tion and the fight against climate
change, uphold international
peace and stability, and ensure
respect for human rights and
the rule of law, the United States
and the Philippines will remain
the closest of allies, working
together to deliver a better fu-
ture for our citizens and tackle
the emerging challenges of the
twenty-first century,” the joint
statement read. ■
lives and the safety of our fel-
lowmen are at stake here),’’ Ab-
alos said in a statement.
The DILG chief said that
simple fire safety protocols like
unplugging of appliances not
being used, regular inspection
of the liquefied petroleum gas
(LPG) tanks, and storing high-
ly combustible materials in se-
cure places. ■
4 Philippine News MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY

Marcos vows to boost quality of jobs in PH

BY FILANE MIKEE
CERVANTES
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – President Ferdi-
nand R. Marcos Jr. has assured
overseas Filipino workers
(OFWs) that the government is
working to boost the quality of
jobs in the Philippines so that
time will come when Filipi-
nos would no longer have to go
abroad out of necessity.
During his meeting with the
Filipino community in Wash-
ington, D.C. on Monday (local
time), Marcos expressed grati-
tude to OFWs for “keeping the
Philippines afloat” during the
pandemic, as they contribut-
ed to the country’s economic
growth through remittances.
“Noong pandemya ay ang
bumuhay talaga sa ekonomiya
ng Pilipinas ay mga OFW. At
kaya’t… Kung hindi po sa inyo
ay siguro mas mahirapan po
na makabangon ang Pilipinas,
kaya’t ulit maraming, maram-
ing salamat sa inyo (The OFWs
helped the Philippine economy
thrived during the pandemic.
If it weren’t for you, the Phil-
ippines would have a hard time
recovering, that’s why we thank
you very much),” Marcos said.
In return, Marcos said the
government will ensure the pro-
tection and welfare of OFWs.
“Ang aming isusukli po sa inyo
ay lahat ng trabaho po namin
para asikasuhin ang kalagay-
an ng lahat ng ating mga kaba-
bayan, hindi lamang sa Pilipinas
kung hindi sa iba’t ibang lugar sa
buong mundo (What we will give
in return is that we will work
hard to ensure the welfare of all
Filipinos, not only in the Philip-
pines but also those in different
parts of the world),”he said.
The President also called on
Filipino Americans to encourage
their children and grandchildren
to visit the Philippines and see
for themselves the richness of
Philippine culture and history.
“Let them see for themselves
what the Philippines is about,
what is our culture, what is our
history. I’m sure the first and
second and third generation Fil-
ipino-Americans are more than
happy to learn about their proud
Philippine ancestry. Sooner or
later, we will be able to welcome
you back home to the Philip-
pines, especially those who have
re-acquired their Filipino citi-
zenship,” he said.
The Chief Executive also men-
tioned about his recent meeting
with US President Joseph Biden,
whom he thanked for accommo-
dating Filipinos and providing
opportunities for them to thrive.
“Kasama ko po ang ating mga
miyembro ng Gabinete upang
ipagtibay ang ating pagkakai-
bigan sa Amerika, United States
at saka ng Pilipinas… Naging
bahagi po sa usapan namin ay
nagpasalamat naman ako sa
kanila dahil sa dami ng Pilipi-
no na nandito sa Amerika, na
nandito sa US ay lahat naman
naging maganda ang buhay at…
tinanggap kaagad ng ating mga
kaibigang taga-US (I was with
the members of the Cabinet to
strengthen the friendship be-
tween United States and the
Philippines. It was part of our
discussion wherein I thanked
US for welcoming Filipinos in
their country, and all of them
are living better lives),” he said.
As the Philippines celebrated
Labor Day on May 1, Marcos Jr.
said the government is “working
conscientiously” to provide op-
portunities that will uplift the liv-
ing and social conditions of Fili-
pino workers and their families.
Marcos paid tribute to the
workers by describing them as
“essential to the sustenance of
our soaring economy”.
“That is why we strive to ad-
dress the cares and concerns of our
workers as well as provide them
with better opportunities so that
they are capacitated to their full
potential as active participants in
nation-building,” Marcos said.
“On behalf of our grateful Fili-
pino people, I laud our workforce
for their unwavering service and
sacrifice in their respective fields
and also for their significant con-
tribution in our country’s devel-
opment,” he added.
He urged the private sector
to work together with the gov-
ernment in “building on the
gains” of good governance and
labor reform initiatives to en-
sure the sustainability of jobs,
secure the livelihood of workers
and maintain the productivity
of the Philippine economy.
“If we all unite and work to-
gether with renewed hope, vig-
or, and enthusiasm in our re-
spective fields, industries, and
endeavors, I am certain that we
can usher in a more equitable
and prosperous future for all,”
Marcos said. ■

Biden to send ‘first of its kind’

presd’l trade mission to PH
BY FILANE MIKEE
CERVANTES
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – United States
President Joe Biden on Monday
(Washington, D.C. time) will
send a “first of its kind” presi-
dential trade and investment
mission to the Philippines in
a bid to promote broad-based
economic growth.
Biden announced this initia-
tive following the bilateral meet-
ing with President Ferdinand R.
Marcos Jr. in Washington, D.C.
The mission is expected to en-
hance US companies’ investment
in the Philippines’ innovation
economy, clean energy transi-
tion and critical minerals sector.
It would also feature the highest
caliber of US business leaders.
Biden underscored the “strong
partnership” and “deep friend-
ship” between the Philippines and
the US that has been “enriched by
millions of Filipino-Americans
and the communities all across
the United States.”
Biden also committed to step
up America’s support in a wide
range of issues, including climate
change mitigation and economy.
“We’re tackling climate
change, we’re accelerating our
countries’ chances… and we’re
standing up for our shared
democratic values and work-
ers’ rights… and together we’re
deepening our economic coop-
eration,” Biden told Marcos.
Both leaders have agreed to
deepen collaboration to fight
climate change, expand clean
energy production and protect
the environment.
In a joint statement, Marcos
and Biden particularly reaf-
firmed to undertake urgent ac-
tion to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, as well as expand
renewable energy production
to accelerate the clean energy
transition while bringing down
energy costs and expanding en-
ergy access for families.
Marcos thanked Biden
for America’s assistance and
sought to strengthen “alliances ral Resources Secretary Antonia ment Secretary Maria Susana
and partnership in the face of Yulo Loyzaga; Trade and Indus- “Toots” Ople and Foreign Affairs
the new economy that we are try Secretary Alfredo Pascual; Secretary Enrique Manalo.
facing post-pandemic.” Department of Information and Marcos is also set to visit the
During Monday’s Oval Office Communications Technology Pentagon and meet Cabinet ex-
meeting, the two leaders re- Secretary Ivan John Uy; Justice ecutives and business leaders
viewed opportunities to deep- Secretary Jesus Crispin Remul- during his stay in Washington. ■
en economic cooperation and la; Migrant Workers Depart-
promote inclusive prosperity,
expand both nations’ special
people-to-people ties, invest in
the clean energy transition and
address the climate crisis and
ensure respect for human rights.
The leaders also discussed
regional matters and coordi-
nate efforts to uphold interna-
tional law and promote a free
and open Indo-Pacific.
Philippine Cabinet officials
and their US counterparts also
held a meeting with Marcos and
Biden in an expanded bilateral
meeting in the White House.
Among the Philippine officials
who attended the expanded bi-
lateral meeting include National
Security Adviser Eduardo Año;
Defense Secretary Carlito Gal-
vez Jr.; Environment and Natu- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and US President Joseph Biden (PCO)

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FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023 5

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6 Philippine News MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY

PH, US agree to ‘​​ Cutting-edge’ micro

set up ministerial nuclear fuel tech eyed
team on agri to solve power woes
cooperation BY FILANE MIKEE
CERVANTES
said the Marcos administration
has made it a top priority to en-
earlier swiftly acted on the pow-
er crisis in the provinces with the
Philippine News Agency sure an unhampered supply of operation of at least three more
BY FILANE MIKEE exposed to our own university energy alongside the promo- power stations to provide 24-
CERVANTES system… so they in turn take tion and utilization of renew- hour electricity power service.
Philippine News Agency it back to the Philippines,” a MANILA – President Ferdi- able energy sources. “We also note that there’s a great
USDA official said. nand R. Marcos Jr. is consider- Francesco Venneri, CEO of deal of discussion about Mindoro
Marcos pointed out that the ing using a “cutting-edge” micro Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, having blackouts and that might be
MANILA – The Philippines coronavirus disease (Covid-19) nuclear fuel technology to ad- expressed interest to bringing an excellent….a good science [solu-
and the United States (US) have pandemic has revealed the dress the country’s power woes, clean and reliable nuclear ener- tion],” said Venneri.
agreed to enhance cooperation “weaknesses” of Philippine ag- Malacañang said Tuesday. gy to the Philippines, which the The micro modular reac-
in agriculture in efforts to boost riculture, stressing the need to Marcos met with officials of firm is seriously considering for tor (MMR) energy system is a
food security and efficiency, as strengthen it. US-based Ultra Safe Nuclear its first nuclear energy facility fourth-generation nuclear en-
well as research and develop- “As we had started to plan our Corporation (USNC), a vertical in Southeast Asia. ergy system that seeks to deliv-
ment in the sector, Malacañang way out of the pandemic econ- integrator of nuclear technolo- Venneri also vowed to help ad- er safe, clean and cost-effective
said on Tuesday. omy, even the financial experts, gies and services in Washington. dress the series of blackouts that electricity to users, according
President Ferdinand R. Mar- we would talk about the econ- In a news release, the Presi- hit several areas of the country.
cos Jr. and US Department of Ag- omy, we would talk about the dential Communications Office The Marcos administration ❱❱ PAGE 15 ​​‘Cutting-edge’ micro
riculture (USDA) officials led by more strictly financial aspects
Secretary Thomas Vilsack sealed of the development economy,
the deal on set- we still keep

4.7K applicants hired on

ting up a min- coming back to
isterial team agriculture and
on agricultural we cannot do
cooperation all of the things
during a meet-
ing on Monday
(Washington,
... coronavirus
that we would
like to do for
our economy if
the spot in Labor Day job
D.C. time), ac-
cording to the
Presidential
disease
(Covid-19)
our agriculture
is not -- there
are agricultural
fairs: DOLE
Communica- pandemic has system -- is not
tions Office. strengthened,” BY FERDINAND PATINIO ment Authority (TESDA), while services from various govern-
In the meet-
revealed the he said. Philippine News Agency 619 job hunters were provided ment agencies.
ing, Marcos “weaknesses” He also ex- with livelihood assistance op- Meanwhile, four areas are set
also sought to pressed hope portunities under the Bureau of to hold jobs fairs in the coming
bolster mutu-
of Philippine that the up- MANILA – A total of 4,728 job Workers with Special Concerns. days – at the NCCC Mall, Tagum
ally beneficial agriculture, coming Food applicants were hired on the spot The DOLE also reported that City, Davao del Norte on Tues-
agreements Security Dia- (HOTS) during Monday’s simul- 447 individuals were referred day; People’s Center, Balanga
to strengthen logue on May taneous Labor Day job fairs. to entrepreneurship oppor- City, Bataan on Wednesday; Bu-
agriculture 5 will further The number includes 2,525 tunities at the Department of lacan Capitol Gymnasium, Ma-
research for boost coopera- female and 2,203 male apppli- Trade and Industry. lolos City, Bulacan on Thursday;
development, tion on capac- cants, the Department of Labor A total of 4,233 jobseekers and at the third level of the Ala-
as well as ca- ity-building and Employment (DOLE) said have availed of one-stop shop bang Public Market on Friday. ■
pacity-build- and technology in its initial Labor Day Job Fair
ing initiatives specific to the support as the country works to- Report released on Tuesday.
advancement of biotechnology gether in building effective and This is from a total of 30,837
agenda in the country. efficient supply chains, export applicants who registered for the
Marcos said he wanted to in- and value-chain development of events -- 16,206 of whom were
crease market access of Philippine agricultural commodities. women while 14,631 were men.
agricultural products to the US. The president said the goal is to The number of HOTS is 15.33
The USDA, for its part, also strengthen agricultural research percent of the total number of
looked forward to strengthened and development, particularly on registrants.
knowledge transfer between the biotechnology centers, geospatial It reported that the top posi-
US and the Philippines, as well databases, climate-proof facilities tions filled were service crew, 248;
as continued cooperation on ag- and information services. cashier, 139; call center agents, 77;
riculture innovation systems. “This is an extremely import- bagger, 57; and merchandiser, 57.
“(We’re) looking forward to ant part of the transformation On the other hand, 1,603 job-
an initiative where a number of of our society and of our econ- seekers were provided with train-
your professors… will be com- ing opportunities at the Technical Jobseekers on the 2023 Labor Day Job Fair in SM City Davao.
ing to the United States, will be ❱❱ PAGE 9 PH, US agree Education and Skills Develop- (ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PNA)

www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023
Maritime cooperation with..
❰❰ 1 near-collision be-
tween Philippine and
Chinese vessels in
Ayungin Shoal and the pres-
ence of over 100 Chinese ves-
sels in the West Philippine Sea.
“A lot of our focus within the
alliance of maritime cooperation
is ensuring that you in the Philip-
pines (have) a credible deterrent
to uphold and defend its sovereign
rights. The past shows us appease-
ment does not work. It is import-
ant to show confidence and to de-
velop the capabilities to stand up
for lawful rights. And that is why
having allies and friends matters
so much,” Blackshaw said.
“Deterrence is not about
provoking conflict. It’s about
defending and that means, spe-
cifically EDCA. That is an im-
portant way that both our forces
can increase their interoperabil-
ity and training and exercise to-
gether to enable the Philippines
and their alliance in partnership
to be able to respond in any kind
of crisis and to uphold our obli-
gations under the Mutual De-
fense treaty,” he stressed.
At the White House meeting,
Biden reaffirmed the United
States’ ironclad alliance com-
mitments to the Philippines.
Remit employees’
premiums on time
– PhilHealth
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Philippine
Health Insurance Corporation
(PhilHealth) reminded em-
ployers to remit their employ-
ees’ contributions on time.
“In commemoration of La-
bor Day and in honor of our
workers’ hard work, we would
like to remind all employers,
both public and private, to re-
mit and report your employees’
PhilHealth premiums on time,”
said PhilHealth acting presi-
dent and chief executive officer
Emmanuel R. Ledesma Jr. in a
news release on Monday.
Ledesma reiterated that em-
ployers may use the state health
He emphasized that an
armed attack on Philippine
armed forces, public vessels, or
aircraft in the South China Sea
would invoke the US commit-
ments under the US-Philippine
Mutual Defense Treaty.
Blackshaw said that on a pol-
icy level, the United States is
ready to move ahead with its
combined maritime activities
with the Philippines.
“It [maritime cooperation]
means activities together in the
West Philippine Sea. I know that
often in public the word joint pa-
trols is used. We don’t really use
that (on) the US side. We talk
about combined maritime activi-
ties, which cover a whole range of
doing stuff together in the South
China Sea, West Philippine Sea.
The value there is it shows the
Philippines has partners and
friends who support your lawful
sovereign rights,” he added.
Meanwhile, former Armed
Forces of the Philippines (AFP)
chief of staff Gen. Emmanuel
Bautista explained the impor-
tance of deterrence at the WPS.
It was during his leadership in
2014 that the Enhanced De-
fense Cooperation Agreement
(EDCA) was signed.
insurer’s Electronic Premi-
um Remittance System or the
EPRS to remit their employees’
contributions safely and conve-
niently to PhilHealth.
“We have recently enhanced
the EPRS - our online payment
facility for employers – in part-
nership with MyEG Philip-
pines, to allow more payment
options for employers such as
electronic wallets GCash and
Maya, along with debit and
credit card payments,” he said.
“The payment process has
also been simplified with the
EPRS. Kailangan lang mag-gen-
erate ang employer o ang Phil-
Health Employer Engagement
Representative o PEER ng
Statement of Premium Ac-
Bautista recalled how the
two-month standoff between
the Philippines and China at the
Panatag Shoal in 2012 led to a
realization that the Philippines
lacked deterrence in the WPS.
“A reality check during
the Panatag Shoal incident
[in 2012] revealed that we
really had no deterrence to
deter aggression from other
countries and that, in fact,
highlighted the need for us
to upgrade our capability,
certainly, our military capa-
bility. That incident in 2012
really was a realization for
us so that in 2014, we signed
EDCA. It was our strategic
move to put us in our better
position to navigate those
complex situations we were
thrown into,” he added.
“The Philippines stands
on a moral high ground
when we won the case in the
Hague. We have demonstrated
that we are able to stand up for
our rights. We hope that we can
leverage that capital to achieve
multilateral support from other
potential allies from ASEAN and
the rest of the international com-
munity,” Bautista stressed.
Meanwhile, Stratbase presi-
counts (SPA) para sa buwan na
babayaran, pagkatapos ay pili-
in lang ang kanilang preferred
payment option at magbayad na
(The employer or PEER need
just to generate SPA for the
monthly payment, just choose
preferred payment and they
can pay already),” he added.
Ledesma said a payment con-
firmation email will instantly
be sent to the employer after
every successful transaction.
“Maaari pong i-access ng ating
employers ang EPRS sa Phil-
Health website, https://eprs01.
philhealth.gov.ph,” he added.
Ledesma said PhilHealth
partnered with MyEG Philip-
❱❱ PAGE 9 Remit employees’
www.canadianinquirer.net
Philippine News
dent Dindo Manhit also reiter-
ated the need to continuously
strengthen the country’s defense
cooperation with like-mind-
ed partners such as the United
States, Japan and Australia.
... the United
States is ready
to move
ahead with
its combined
maritime
activities with
the Philippines.
“With various elements at-
tempting to tear down the rules-
based international order, par-
ticularly in the WPS, the Marcos
Jr administration must contin-
ue to engage with like-minded
partners such as the United
States, Japan, and Australia,
among others, to secure Philip-
PBBM to appoint
‘competent
personalities’ who
lost in 2022 polls
BY FILANE MIKEE
CERVANTES
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – President Ferdi-
nand R. Marcos Jr. is considering
appointing politicians who lost in
the May 2022 polls after the one-
year ban is lifted this month.
In an interview with the me-
dia onboard Philippine Airlines
Flight PR 001 on Sunday, Mar-
cos said he would strengthen
the Cabinet by adding more
members during the beginning
of the second year of his term.
“Marami namang magaling
na hindi nanalo sa eleksyon na
gustong tumulong (There were
7
pine waters and contribute to
the security of the region. The
current administration must
implement a responsive and
strategic national security poli-
cy that enhances the capacities
of our military and protects
the livelihood of our fisher-
folk,” he explained.
Manhit also emphasized
the need to continuously
modernize the Philippine
defense capabilities through
joint patrols and military
exercises with like-minded
states to allow the Philip-
pines to respond to internal
and external security risks
effectively and strategically.
“This is demonstrated
in the recently concluded
Balikatan military exercises
between the United States
and the Philippines, which
Australia and Japan also
participated in. Deepening
cooperation is also seen in the
announcement of four new sites
under the EDCA. These devel-
opments are a practice of an in-
dependent foreign policy aimed
at facilitating renewed dialogue
and working toward peaceful
solutions in a rules-based inter-
national order,” Manhit said. ■
a lot of competent personalities
who didn’t win in the elections
that want to help). So we will
certainly look into that in dif-
ferent positions,” Marcos said.
Under the 1987 Constitution,
the losing candidates are barred
from assuming positions in the
government within a year after
the elections, which were held
on May 9, 2022.
Marcos, however, did not di-
vulge any names of the poten-
tial appointees as he wants to
talk with them first.
“They should not hear it
naman from the press. They
should hear it from me. Kami
muna mag-usap (We should
talk first),” Marcos said. ■
8 Philippine News
Correspondent/Hosts
Arianne Grace Lacanilao
Matte Laurel
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Babes Newland
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Member
PAGASA issues El Niño alert
BY MA. CRISTINA ARAYATA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The weather bureau is-
sued an El Niño alert on Tuesday, saying
the weather phenomenon might emerge
between June and July at 80 percent
probability and might persist until the
first quarter of 2024.
El Niño increases the likelihood of be-
low-normal rainfall conditions, which could
have negative impacts, such as dry spells and
droughts, in some areas of the country.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geo-
physical and Astronomical Services Ad-
ministration (PAGASA), however, said
above-normal rainfall conditions during
Marcos, Harris vow to pursue
digital inclusion, clean energy
BY FILANE MIKEE CERVANTES
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – President Ferdinand R. Mar-
cos Jr. and United States Vice President
Kamala Harris have vowed to foster stron-
ger cooperation between the Philippines
and the US to achieve digital inclusion, a
clean energy economy, and food security.
The two leaders made the commit-
ment during a meeting held at the US
Naval Observatory in Washington, DC
on Tuesday (US time).
Harris said the White House meeting
of Marcos and US President Joe Biden
deepened the alliance between the Unit-
ed States and the Philippines, noting
that it is “probably stronger than ever.”
She said the two countries could boost
their mutually beneficial partnerships
in a wide range of areas.
“During my visit to the Philippines,
we discussed many issues including the
importance of clean energy economy.
You and I share a passion for that... As
well as issues that relate to food security
and what we must do around digital in-
clusion,” Harris said.
Marcos said the friendship between
the two countries is currently on the
“upside” after the various “cycles” it has
undergone, thanking Harris for “laying
the groundwork” for his meeting with
Biden at the White House on Monday.
“After all the different cycles as in any
friendship… like any friendship we go
through many cycles... we’re very, very
happy to be here, to get this opportuni-
ty to speak with you and to have spoken
with your President,” he said.
www.canadianinquirer.net
the southwest monsoon season (“habag-
at”) may also be expected over the west-
ern part of the country.
“With this development, the PAGASA
El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
Alert and Warning System is now raised
to El Niño Alert. El Niño (warm phase
of ENSO) is characterized by unusu-
ally warmer than average sea surface
temperatures at the central and east-
ern equatorial Pacific. When conditions
are favorable for the development of El
Niño within the next two months at a
probability of 70 percent or more, an El
Niño alert is issued,” PAGASA said.
On April 18, PAGASA Deputy Admin-
istrator Esperanza Cayanan said the
chances for an El Niño between June
Marcos also acknowledged the effort
of US Second Gentleman Douglas Em-
hoff during the meeting as “part of the
process” of facilitating the meeting with
the American president.
“I think that has given us the very
attractive opportunity to continue to
strengthen that relationship between
our two countries in the face, in the con-
text of all of the difficulties and complex-
ities, the rising tensions in our region
and the world. And once again, we turn
to our American partners, our only trea-
ty partner in the world,” he said.
Harris also lauded Marcos for his
leadership to give priority “around our
mutual prosperity and security.”
She said the two countries would con-
tinue to work together on the issue re-
lating to the South China Sea.
“And on the issue of security of course,
the work that our countries are doing
together as it relates to the South Chi-
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and US Vice President Kamala Harris (PCO)
MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY
and August have increased from 55 per-
cent to 80 percent. The probability of El
Niño between November and January
2024 also rose to about 87 percent.
Drought or dry spells may be felt to-
wards the last quarter of 2023 and it is
possible to experience heavy rainfall be-
fore seeing the effects of El Niño because
of the “habagat” season in June to Sep-
tember, she added.
PAGASA said it would continue to
closely monitor the development of the
phenomenon.
“All concerned government agencies
and the general public are encouraged
to keep on monitoring and take precau-
tionary measures against the impending
impacts of El Niño,” it said. ■
na Sea, as it relates to what we must do
in terms of continuing to work together
through our Coast Guards,” she said.
In November last year, Harris traveled
to Puerto Princesa, Palawan, where she
met with residents, civil society leaders,
and Philippine Coast Guard officials.
‘Concerned as you could possibly be’
In a chance interview, Marcos said
security cooperation with the US would
“just keep going” amid tensions in the
Asia-Pacific region, as he expressed con-
cern over the provocative actions of Chi-
na in the West Philippine Sea.
“As concerned as you could possibly
be,” he said. “It is one of the major issues
that we have to face back home.”
“Well, cooperation with the United
States certainly is just something that we
are building upon that has been going on
for many, many, many decades. And we just
❱❱ PAGE 15 Marcos, Harris vow
FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023 9

Canadians have lots of reasons to be
skeptical about increased defence spending
BY ERIC VAN RYTHOVEN,
Carleton University
The Conversation
Leaked documents from
the Pentagon have revealed
what many suspected: Justin
Trudeau’s Liberal government
has no intention of meeting the
NATO defence spending target
of two per cent of GDP.
The story is hardly surprising
— the last time Canadians saw
this level of spending was under
Brian Mulroney’s Conservative
government in 1990.
The report sparked a wave of
recriminations over the poor
state of Canada’s defence and
security funding.
Complaints about the coun-
try’s lacklustre spending has be-
come something of a time-hon-
oured tradition. Canadians are
told they are ignorant and com-
placent to the dangers of the
world and need to spend more.
But what if we have the script
backwards?
What if the problem isn’t pub-
lic ignorance, but rather a de-
fence and security community
that refuses to face some hard
truths about Canadian politics?
What if, instead of simply chas-
tising Canadians, we spoke can-
didly about what may be entirely
valid reasons for skepticism?
Confronting these hard
truths may just be the first step
in building genuine public buy-
in for defence spending that has
eluded the country for decades.
Threat inflation abounds
For the last two decades, Ca-
Canada News
nadians have seen a variety of
defence and security figures
dramatically inflate threats well
beyond any reasonable point.
We were told Afghanistan was
vital to fighting terrorism (it
wasn’t), that Iraq had weapons
of mass destruction (they didn’t)
and that fighting ISIS was the
“greatest struggle of our genera-
tion” (not even close). But when
the dust settles and these claims
are revealed to be suspect, it’s
understandable why the Cana-
dian public might be skeptical.
The uncomfortable truth is
that for many in the defence
and security community and
others who offer commentary
— including journalists, politi-
cians and pundits — there are
strong incentives for dramatic
language and apocalyptic vi-
sions because it drives clicks
and boosts profiles.
But at the collective level,
they can cause a credibility
deficit that hurts their ability to
speak to the public.
Afghanistan’s lessons
With a considerable cost in
blood and treasure, the Afghan-
istan mission is a bitter memo-
ry for many Canadians. Despite
these sacrifices, Canada nev-
er received the recognition it
craved from NATO allies.
That’s why it’s not surprising
that in 2012, 69 per cent of Ca-
nadians believed the mission
was “not worth the human and
financial toll.” With the Tali-
ban’s eventual takeover of the
country, that number is likely
even higher.
The lesson learned for a gen-
eration of Canadians is that uency, some spending is often must be political leadership that
there are limits to contributing not worth the risk of criticism speaks candidly to the concerns
to NATO simply to appear as a for politicians. and skepticism of Canadians.
“good ally.” Addressing what matters It means there needs to be
The fact that we’ve embraced a to Canadians real and meaningful progress
polite national silence and never Meanwhile, other immediate on transparency and account-
had any real accountability for issues like the effects of climate ability — at all levels. It means
the failures in Afghanistan is a change are top of mind. More exercising restraint and not
lingering disappointment. Now than 500 Canadians died from sensationalizing every single
add to this a string of cringe-wor- the 2022 heat dome in British danger in the news cycle. It
thy procurement failures and ut- Columbia alone. means speaking to how Canadi-
terly disgraceful sexual miscon- Politicians and pundits can ans actually feel and experience
duct in the military. discuss cyber security all day insecurity, rather than simply
Is it any mystery why some long, but it won’t mean much telling them what it means.
question whether this system is to someone whose roof was just We can do all of this and more.
worthy of more money? ripped off in the latest derecho. Or we can go back to naively ad-
Cost-of-living crisis If politicians can’t speak to monishing Canadians for not
In 2022, food bank use was how Canadians actually feel spending enough on defence
at an all-time high in Canada. and experience insecurity, citi- and security. We already know
Homeless encampments are an zens won’t listen to them on de- how well that’s working out. ■
increasing feature of our cities. fence and security issues.
And now the average rent in To- That doesn’t mean public This article is republished
ronto, the country’s largest city, buy-in for increased defence from The Conversation under a
has crossed the $3,000 threshold. spending is impossible. But there Creative Commons license.
The reality is that the cost-of-
living crisis is a political jugger-
naut with no signs of abating.
For much of the Canadian
public, this is by far the biggest
priority. That leaves little band-
width for increased defence
spending.
Meanwhile, the prime min-
ister’s residence is crumbling
into a rat-infested, mouldy
death trap. The plane the prime
minister uses is so old the seats
were designed with ashtrays in
the arm rests.
We live in a country where
the taxpayer is considered sa-
cred and any even remotely
questionable spending is con-
sidered profane.
That means that unless it
serves a very specific constit- (JUSTIN TRUDEAU/FACEBOOK)

PH, US agree.. Remit employees’..

❰❰ 6 omy for the post-pan-
demic world,“ Marcos
said.
Joining the president in the
meeting were House Speaker
Martin Romualdez, Trade Sec-
retary Alfredo Pascual, Energy
Secretary Raphael Lotilla, Spe-
cial Assistant to the President
Secretary Antonio Lagdameo
Jr., Communications Secretary
Cheloy Garafil, and Philippine
Ambassador to the US Jose
Manuel Romualdez. ■
❰❰ 7 pines to support Re-
public Act No. 11032,
or Ease of Doing Busi-
ness and Efficient Government
Service Delivery Act, which
mandates all government de-
partments and agencies to
www.canadianinquirer.net
adopt a digital payment system
for government disbursements
and collections to promote ef-
ficient delivery of services and
expedite transactions.
PhilHealth activated its ac-
ceptance of online payment on
its Member Portal in 2021, al-
lowing self-earning Individuals
to pay for their contributions
using GCash, Maya, and credit
and debit cards. ■
10
The empty success of recent amendments
to Canada’s right-to-repair bill
BY ANTHONY
ROSBOROUGH, ALISSA
CENTIVANY
Policy Options
A ‘carve-out’ exemption is
unnecessarily broad and may
result in manufacturers using
it to prevent our right to repair
many electronic devices.
The federal government has
made the “right to repair” a key
policy priority, recognizing
its importance in fostering a
more sustainable and afford-
able future for all Canadians.
Recent amendments to a bill
before Parliament, however,
threaten to jeopardize the
government’s objectives.
The “right to repair” is
a social movement that
seeks greater repairability
of the products and devices
around us – many of which
have become unnecessarily
difficult to fix. This difficulty
is often the result of tactics
by product manufacturers
to control access to special-
ized parts, diagnostic infor-
mation and special tools needed
to complete repairs.
In the lead-up to the 2021 fed-
eral election, the Liberal Party
promised “a right to repair your
home appliances,” including
amendments to the Copyright
Act to ensure that manufactur-
ers cannot use software copy-
right and digital locks to prevent
the repair of digital devices and
appliances. This commitment
was solidified in the 2023 fed-
eral budget, where the govern-
ment committed to implement-
ing a right to repair, “with the
aim of introducing a targeted
framework for home appliances
and electronics in 2024.”
Forming a key part that
framework is Bill C-244, a pri-
vate member’s bill introduced
by Liberal MP Wilson Miao
(Richmond Centre) in Febru-
ary, 2022. The bill targets digi-
tal locks, or “technological pro-
tection measures,” under the
Copyright Act. Digital locks are
encryption, passwords or oth-
er mechanisms used to protect
copyrighted works.
Digital locks originated as
copy-control mechanisms for
physical media such as digital
Canada News
audio tapes and CDs at the turn
of the millennium. They were
incorporated into the Copyright
Act in 2011 amid considerable
scrutiny and criticism. They
have since evolved into tools
that prevent access to software
in computerized devices and
systems, regardless of whether
any infringement or unautho-
rized copying has taken place.
This has given device man-
ufacturers an unprecedented
... but the
amendment
appears to
protect the
interests of
“content
industries”...
amount of power in deciding
the terms and costs of diag-
nosing and completing repairs
to computerized devices. As
more and more of the products
and connected devices we buy
rely on embedded computer
systems, the more wide-reach-
ing this power gets – home
appliances, agricultural equip-
ment, electric vehicles, medical
equipment, personal comput-
ers, and the list goes on.
Bill C-244 proposes an ex-
emption to Canada’s rules on
digital locks to make it lawful to
circumvent or bypass these pro-
tections where the sole purpose
is for “diagnosing or repairing
a product.” The bill has been
lauded by repair advocates for
its potential to give independent
repair technicians the latitude
to complete repairs without the
fear of huge civil and criminal
penalties for unauthorized cir-
cumvention. These reforms may
also give provinces the breathing
room needed to enact important
amendments to consumer pro-
tection statutes without fear of
encroaching on the federal gov-
ernment’s jurisdiction over in-
tellectual property.
But a recent amendment to
the bill risks leaving it without
much reason for optimism. In a
meeting of the standing commit-
tee on industry and technology
on late March, members agreed
to amend Bill C-244 to create
a “carve-out” for devices with
embedded sound recordings. In
other words, it’s an exemption
to Bill C-244’s exception. There
is very little information on the
reasons for this amendment and
almost no discussion took
place before it was adopted.
While seemingly harm-
less at first blush, this cave-
at may serve as a powerful
loophole for manufacturers.
The most obvious devices
to which this would apply
are those primarily used
for playing music, but the
amendment to the bill is
broad enough that it could
be stretched much further.
We can only speculate,
but the amendment ap-
pears to protect the inter-
ests of “content industries”
– music, film, gaming – as
well as those industries
unrelated to the production of
creative content and digital me-
dia. In theory, the exemption in
the amendment would prevent
circumvention of digital locks
in devices where software con-
trols access to musical works.
For example, this could be a
digital lock in your smartphone
that prevents you from access-
ing the music audio files used by
a streaming app like Spotify. A
charitable view of this exemption
is that it would safeguard against
copyright infringement where a
user bypasses a digital lock and
www.canadianinquirer.net
then copies music or audio files.
But a less charitable view is
that it gives manufacturers an-
other tool to prevent access to
repair. We already have clothes
dryers, electric kettles and toi-
lets that play jingles as part of
their normal operation. With
this exemption to the excep-
tion, we can envision manu-
facturers embedding musical-
ity into an even wider range of
products – tractors, toasters,
wheelchairs – to take advan-
tage of this carve-out for sound
recordings. After all, manufac-
turers co-opting copyright law
to restrict repair is a big part of
the reason we are in this mess.
Beyond the potential to di-
lute the impact of Bill C-244,
the amendment also speaks to
a larger concern about copy-
right and intellectual property
policy. Carving out exceptions
for specific industries is difficult
to justify in the context of the
Copyright Act. It is not clear why
devices with embedded sound
recordings should be treated any
differently than any other type
of device when it comes to repair
or diagnosis. As drafted, the bill
already made clear that any ac-
tivities that constitute copyright
infringement are not within the
scope of “repair.” This leaves lit-
tle reason to single out devices
with embedded musical works
other than to create a loophole
for abuse by manufacturers.
Prohibiting infringement
or unauthorized distribution
of music, which the Copyright
Act already does, ought to be
enough. Through a 30-year war
on digital formats and devic-
es, the content industries have
MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY
been the principal architects of
digital locks. We have seen the
lengths that the recording and
content industries will go to
lock down technologies, start-
ing with the digital audio tape
(DAT) format in the 1980s, copy
protection on music CDs that
secretly installed viruses on
people’s home computers, and
the use of digital locks on iP-
ods, iPhones and other portable
media players beginning in the
early 2000s.
History shows us that where
copyright law leaves an opportu-
nity for technology manufactur-
ers to lockdown the devices they
produce, they take it. The public
interest will be impaired if we al-
low digital locks – a relic of copy-
right law intended to curtail dig-
ital and online infringement – to
restrict socially, environmental
and economically beneficial ac-
tivities such as repair, particu-
larly when it comes to products
and devices like farming equip-
ment or medical devices. Im-
portantly, these devices are not
primarily intended to embody
music or other copyright works
in the first place.
Canada should applaud the
effort and spirit behind Bill
C-244. The bill offers much
hope. If the government is se-
rious about achieving its cam-
paign promises and budgetary
goals, it ought to think twice
about including industry-spe-
cific carve-outs that leave so
much room for abuse. ■
This article first appeared
on Policy Options and is repub-
lished here under a Creative
Commons license.
FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023
Provinces must join effort to help
disabled escape poverty
BY PHIL OZGA, ISAAC
SMITH
Policy Options
The maximum annual income
for single people living with a
disability is below the pover-
ty line in all provinces, forcing
many to depend on food banks.
At first glance, 2023 started
off with a bang for people living
with disabilities.
The federal government’s
Bill C-22, its long-awaited dis-
ability benefit legislation, won
unanimous approval by the
House of Commons and is now
being considered by the Senate.
Around the same time, the
Ontario government changed
its rules so that clients of Ontar-
io Disability Support Program
(ODSP) can now earn $1,000 per
month (up from $200 previous-
ly) before facing clawbacks on
income over that level.
That’s after Ontario’s Ford
government increased disabil-
ity assistance rates by five per
cent last September.
With such a busy start to the
year, it may appear that disabil-
ity-related support is picking
up some much-needed speed.
However, there are many chal-
lenges yet to overcome.
The maximum annual in-
come for single people living
with a disability is below the
poverty line in all provinces,
forcing many of them to depend
on food banks. Collaborative
action must be taken to ensure
both the federal and provincial
governments are contributing
to closing the income gap and
to bringing an end to poverty
for those living with a disabil-
ity. However far the new Can-
ada benefit goes, provincial
legislatures must go the rest of
the way. Canada needs to get to
the point where low disability
assistance rates don’t mean an
automatic trip to the food bank.
Let’s begin at the national lev-
el. For Bill C-22 to become law,
it must first undergo scrutiny in
the Senate – a process that can
be surprisingly quick or pains-
takingly slow. Barring any un-
expected legislative setbacks,
we expect the bill to come into
law sometime this spring.
But that’s just the start. Reg-
ulations for its implementa-
tion will need to be defined and
amended. The bill says the fed-
eral government will not be re-
quired to even report on its reg-
ulatory progress until one year
after the act comes into force.
The act itself needs to come
into force only within a year of
receiving royal assent.
What does this mean? In a
worst-case scenario, Canadi-
ans don’t see a progress update
on the development of this
act’s regulations until halfway
through 2025.
The reality is that this bill
doesn’t bring us any closer to
understanding what a Cana-
da disability benefit will look
like. The act simply provides
the necessary permissions to
the government and minis-
ter to develop regulations that
will define the benefit. In other
words, they’ve been given per-
mission from the Commons to
develop the disability benefit.
For the time being, issues such
as eligibility, access and dollar
amounts are left in question.
Unfortunately, timing isn’t
our biggest concern for this
bill. Our concern rests with
the challenge that the federal
government will face in finding
harmony with the provinces,
and what the bill will eventu-
ally represent in terms of real
dollars for people who desper-
ately need better supports now.
Historically, provinces have
cut back on their own benefits
when the federal government
introduces access to new funds.
A prime example of this be-
haviour came during the pan-
demic, when some provinces
cut back on social assistance
or other provincial benefits for
those receiving CERB.
This brings us back to Ontar-
io. Despite what may seem like
recent efforts to help Ontario
residents who live with a dis-
ability, Ontario is among the
worst provinces for disability
assistance. Even with the five-
per-cent increase, disability as-
sistance in Ontario sits $10,000
a year below Canada’s official
poverty line. This trend re-
mains true for most other prov-
inces, where the gap between
assistance rates and the pover-
ty line is as much as $13,000 or
$15,000 a year.
www.canadianinquirer.net
Canada News
What this means is that un-
less the federal government is
ready to provide a $10,000 ben-
efit, the provinces will have to
step up and increase their social
assistance rates.
All that said, the poverty
line itself does not represent
the income level needed by a
thriving individual. Instead, it
represents the bare minimum
someone could deem as an ac-
ceptable annual income.
The number of individuals
experiencing food insecurity
in Canada is much larger than
the number of those living be-
low the poverty line (16 per
cent compared with six per cent
respectively). In addition, the
poverty line for an individu-
al living with a disability is the
same as someone who does not
live with a disability. Current
measurements do not consider
the additional costs that come
with having a disability.
The result of this inadequate
system is a disproportionate
11
number of people on disability
support seeking outside help.
When the benefits offered don’t
go far enough to provide ba-
sic necessities, those receiving
disability supports find them-
selves heading to their local
food bank.
Despite people with a dis-
ability making up only four per
cent of the total Ontario pop-
ulation, they represent 30 per
cent of the people using food
banks. For Ontario, this means
that people with disabilities
are seven times more repre-
sented in food banks. In Alber-
ta, those receiving disability
support (AISH) are more than
eight times over-represented
among food bank users. Since
2002, the adequacy of disability
support in every province has
dropped (except for B.C., which
has gone up by a whopping
three percentage points).
If there is any hope for a fu-
ture where those living with
disabilities do not have to live
in poverty, then provincial
governments will need to do
their fair share to improve the
situation. For more than two
decades, people living with dis-
abilities have been slipping fur-
ther into poverty.
Yes, a strong start to 2023
does signal some momentum.
But we can’t stop putting pres-
sure on all levels of government
to act quickly and effectively.
As it stands, many people re-
ceiving disability support can-
not afford to feed and house
themselves properly and, as a
result, are prevented from mov-
ing to a life beyond poverty. ■
This article first appeared
on Policy Options and is repub-
lished here under a Creative
Commons license.
12
The federal public service strike ends on
compromise over wages, remote work
BY KATHRYN MAY
Policy Options
The agreement will leave
many public servants unhap-
py and could set a template for
other workers across Canada in
a time of inflation.
The federal government and
its biggest union ended a historic
strike with a tentative deal that
fell short of expectations for some
public servants but set a standard
for wages and working from home
that others may follow.
The Public Service Alliance of
Canada (PSAC) led more 155,000
federal employees on one of the
country’s largest strikes for near-
ly two weeks. The agreement
struck by the federal government
and its biggest union could have
ramifications for employers and
workers across the country as
they emerge from a pandemic
and wrestle with high inflation
and remote work.
The settlement between
PSAC and Treasury Board would
give workers a 12.6 per cent raise
compounded over four years
and an agreement on remote
work that should open the door
to individual arrangements for
public servants – but will not be
enshrined in the contract.
PSAC President Chris Ayl-
ward said the deal is a win for
the union and recommended
members accept it in an upcom-
ing ratification vote.
“During a period of re-
cord-high inflation and soaring
corporate profits, workers were
told to accept less – but our mem-
bers came together and fought
for better,” he said. “This agree-
ment delivers important gains
for our members that will set the
bar for all workers in Canada. “
Many labour observers felt
PSAC was in a tough spot after the
government tabled its final wage
offer heading into the weekend’s
negotiating session. It became
clear the union wasn’t going to
get its wage demands so it had
to break new ground on remote
work and seek other concessions.
The deal ended the strike for
120,000 public servants in the
four Treasury Board groups
who have been on picket lines
since April 19. PSAC said the
Canada News
deal would give workers a one-
time, pensionable $2,500 lump
sum payment that represents
an additional 3.7 per cent of
salary for the average union
member in the four bargaining
groups, on top of the overall
wage increase.
The tax people are still on
strike
The deal doesn’t apply to
35,000 workers at the Canada
Revenue Agency who are still on
strike, which will continue to slow
the processing of tax returns.
PSAC said it’s at the table for a
“blitz of negotiations” to resolve
the gridlock. CRA workers had
much higher wage demands – up
to 30 per cent over three years.
The wage deal for other
workers fell short of the 13.5
per cent PSAC demanded over
three years – a 4.5 per cent in-
crease per year – to cover infla-
tion. The government dug in its
heels pointing to the nine-per-
cent raise over three years rec-
ommended earlier by the Pub-
lic Interest Commission (PIC).
Treasury Board President
Mona Fortier said the PIC’s rec-
ommendation was the baseline.
She said the deal will add about
$1.3 billion a year to the public
service payroll – less than half the
cost of PSAC’s original demands.
Although the government
can boast it kept raises to three
per cent per year, other extras
for the different groups have yet
to be released publicly.
The agreement on remote
work falls short of the break-
through PSAC sought. Fortier
said from the start that how and
where public servants work is
a management right that she
would not surrender.
Instead, the two sides drafted an
agreement that remote requests
will be assessed individually by
managers, in writing. Requests
that are denied will go to a joint
union-employer panel for review,
but they cannot be grieved.
The government’s hybrid
workforce model with workers
in the office for up to three days
a week remains in place. Trea-
sury Board also promised a re-
view of the existing 30-year-old
telework policy.
Strikes are unusual in the
federal sector because most
unions opt for arbitration to
settle disputes. This one stood
out because of its size and scope
with 155,000 striking workers
in all kinds of jobs, disrupting
services from passports and tax
processing to food inspections
and grain shipments.
It is also the first major strike in
years in a period of high inflation.
A model for others?
PSAC is the largest and most
militant of the federal unions.
It sets a pattern for raises for
all federal public servants, one
that is sometimes followed for
unionized workers in the prov-
inces, territories and municipal-
ities. The federal government is
now in negotiations with 28 oth-
er bargaining groups.
Ian Lee, an associate profes-
sor of management at Carleton
University’s Sprott School of
Business, said the government
gave “not one penny more” than
the three per cent year raise it
originally offered. But he argued
the government made a “clev-
er compromise” on working
from home that will reverberate
among workers who are pushing
back against returning to offices.
The deal is a far cry from get-
ting a remote work enshrined in
the collective agreement, which
would have meant workers
could grieve decisions. But it
remains a significant shift that
will affect all workers, Lee said.
He argued the move to individ-
ual assessments of who can work
www.canadianinquirer.net
from home will offer more flexi-
bility than the government’s pre-
vious one-size-fits all approach.
“It will be based on individu-
al criteria of each employee not
an arbitrary Treasury Board de-
cision that ‘all units and depart-
ment must return to work.’ This
will be an important precedent
for the entire labour force.”
The union also extracted con-
cessions from the government
on contracting and seniority
rights during layoffs, which bub-
bled up as sticking points during
the last few days of talks.
This is significant because
PSAC is girding for job reduc-
tions after a seven-year hiring
spree. The Liberals announced
$15 billion in cuts in the last
budget, but the real worry is
major downsizing that might
be inevitable after the massive
growth of the public service.
Larry Rousseau, executive
vice-president of the Canadian
Labour Congress, said PSAC in-
creased the “intensity” on con-
tracting and seniority rights to
protect against future govern-
ments shutting down entire di-
visions because of automation,
AI or privatization.
The union says new language
will ensure PSAC members
won’t lose jobs if they perform
the duties of contractors al-
ready working for the federal
government. Without retrain-
ing, it’s unclear how this will
work for contractors who were
MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY
brought for skills that public
servants don’t have.
Departments rely on thou-
sands of contractors, dubbed
the shadow public service,
who work across government.
The exploding cost and use of
contractors is currently under
study at a parliamentary com-
mittee. The union now has a
commitment from the govern-
ment to be consulted the issue.
Seniority vs. qualifications
PSAC pressed for seniority
rights when departments de-
cide on who to lay off – a system
where the last hired are the first
to go. This would be a signifi-
cant and potentially polarizing
shift for workers, especially for
the thousands of newly hired
young and diverse workers.
The government currently as-
sesses worker qualifications to
decide who gets laid off first. This
approach created a demoralizing
system of employees having to
compete against each other for
their own jobs during the Harper
government’s downsizing.
The parties agreed to jointly
ask the Public Service Commis-
sion, the keeper of the merit
principle, to examine the pos-
sible use of seniority after merit
has been applied when laying
off workers. ■
This article first appeared
on Policy Options and is repub-
lished here under a Creative
Commons license.
FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023
A new monarch who is a divorcee would
once have scandalised. But Charles’ accession
shows how much has changed
BY HENRY KHA, Macquarie
University
The Conversation
King Charles III is the first
British monarch who has previ-
ously had a civil marriage and a
civil divorce.
In 1981, Charles, then the
Prince of Wales, married Lady
Diana Spencer in a fairytale
wedding watched by 750 mil-
lion people worldwide.
However, the royal couple
separated in 1992 and they were
divorced in 1996. The marriage
had spectacularly broken down.
Charles later went on to mar-
ry his long-time love interest
Camilla Parker-Bowles. They
married in a civil ceremony in
2005. This broke with the tra-
dition of royal family members
getting married in an Anglican
church ceremony.
The extramarital relationship
of Charles and Camilla prevent-
ed them from being remarried
in church. But there was a sub-
sequent service of prayer and
dedication. Queen Elizabeth II
declined to attend the wedding,
reportedly because it conflict-
ed with her role to uphold the
Christian faith as supreme gov-
ernor of the Church of England.
The accession of Charles to
the throne is not only political-
ly significant, but also carries
religious importance. Charles is
the “defender of the faith” and
the supreme governor. Charles’
status as a divorcee puts him at
odds with his religious roles.
Royal divorces
King Henry VIII was infamous
for having six wives in the 16th
century. He annulled his first
marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
This meant the marriage was
never legally valid to begin with.
King George IV was almost
successful in divorcing his wife
World News
Queen Caroline in 1820. At the
time, divorce could only be grant-
ed by Act of Parliament. The trial
took place in the House of Lords.
The king accused his wife of com-
mitting adultery as grounds for
divorce. However, Prime Minis-
ter Lord Liverpool
eventually with-
drew the divorce
bill due to political
pressure.
King Edward
VIII was forced
to abdicate in
1936 because he
wanted to mar-
ry an American
divorcee Wallis
Simpson. This
conflicted with his
role as supreme
governor.
While Charles was in a sim-
ilar position to his great-uncle
in his marriage to Camilla, they
lived in different worlds. The
Conservative government and
the Church of England simply
could not tolerate Edward’s
marriage to a divorcee. It was
viewed as an affront to morality.
King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla (ANDY GOTT/FLICKR, CC BY 2.0)
Similarly, Princess Margaret
was pressured to not marry the
divorcee Group Captain Peter
Townsend. As the sister of the
queen, the marriage would have
been scandalous in some circles.
Queen Elizabeth called 1992
Charles had to seek his
mother’s permission to
marry Camilla.
the “annus horribilis” (horrible
year) for the royal family. Her
three children Prince Charles,
Princess Anne and Prince An-
drew’s marriages had all broken
down. Divorce by then had be-
come increasingly acceptable
in society.
Royal civil marriage
Charles had to seek his moth-
www.canadianinquirer.net
er’s permission to marry Ca-
milla. The Royal Marriages Act
1772 stipulated that all descen-
dants of King George II were
required to seek the consent of
the sovereign to marry.
This law was repealed in 2013.
Only the first six
persons in the line
of succession now
have to seek the
sovereign’s per-
mission to marry.
There was con-
troversy at the
time whether a
member of the
royal family could
legally marry in
a civil ceremo-
ny. The Marriage
Act 1836 permit-
ted civil marriages. But the
law stated this did not apply to
members of the royal family.
The British government re-
leased a statement declaring
Charles could legally enter into
a civil marriage. The view was
the Marriage Act 1949 had re-
pealed the previous legislation.
The government also argued
13
there was a right to marry un-
der the Human Rights Act 1998
and the European Convention
on Human Rights.
The civil marriage of Charles
and Camilla symbolised the
changing values of society. The
view of marriage had shifted
from a moral commitment to a
celebratory union. This marked
the modernisation of the mon-
archy over tradition.
A modern monarchy
The accession of a divorcee as
king a generation earlier would
have been unpalatable to many.
But Charles embodies the mod-
ern character of monarchy and
the liberal values of wider society.
Charles has recently affirmed
his commitment to Anglican
Christianity. This is an acknowl-
edgement of his constitutional
role in the Act of Settlement 1701.
Only Protestant Christians can
claim succession to the crown.
It also affirms his role as nom-
inal ruler of the Church of En-
gland. The monarch still appoints
bishops on the advice of the prime
minister. Anglicanism is the offi-
cial state religion of England.
Yet Charles is also pushing
for a modern monarchy. He has
viewed himself as a defender of
diversity. Upholding a space for
multifaith practice and expres-
sion of secular ideals form part
of the agenda of his reign.
The monarchy faces a ten-
sion between modernity and
tradition. As a divorced and
remarried monarch, Charles
III represents the reinvention
of the crown, an ancient insti-
tution that seeks to embrace
its role in a multicultural, reli-
giously diverse and more open
and tolerant society. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
14
Rejected Oklahoma plea for death
penalty commutation highlights clemency’s
changing role in US death penalty system
BY AUSTIN SARAT, Amherst
College
The Conversation
When the Oklahoma Pardon
and Parole Board decided not to
recommend clemency for death
row inmate Richard Glossip, the
case highlighted the role clemency
plays in the death penalty system.
Glossip had asked the board
to commute the sentence he
had been given for his role in an
alleged murder-for-hire plot.
He was convicted of paying his
co-defendant, Justin Sneed, to
kill Barry Van Treese in 1997.
Van Treese owned the motel
where Glossip was the manager.
The board, which met April 26,
2023, was split 2-2 over recom-
mending that Glossip’s sentence
be changed to life in prison. The
fifth member of the board re-
cused himself because his spouse
was involved in Glossip’s prose-
cution. A majority vote of three is
required for a favorable clemen-
cy recommendation.
Because Oklahoma law does not
permit clemency without a pos-
itive recommendation from the
board, its decision sets the stage for
Glossip’s execution on May 18.
From the start, Glossip, who
had never before been arrested
for any crime, maintained his
innocence. His case has attract-
ed wide attention, including
from some of Oklahoma’s most
conservative Republican legis-
lators, who contend that if the
state puts him to death it will be
executing an innocent man.
Oklahoma’s case against
Glossip rested on the testimony
of Sneed, who was induced to
be a witness with a promise of a
reduced sentence. In addition,
the prosecution destroyed evi-
dence that would have support-
ed Glossip’s claim of innocence,
and new witnesses have come
forward who further under-
mine confidence in the verdict.
An independent investigation
by a law firm engaged by state
legislators concluded that “no
reasonable juror hearing the com-
plete record would have convict-
ed Richard Glossip of first-degree
World News
murder” and that his trial could
not “provide a basis for the gov-
ernment to take … [his] life.”
Even the state’s Republican at-
torney general, Gentner Drum-
mond, has said Glossip is prob-
ably innocent and that “it would
be a grave injustice to allow the
execution of a man whose trial
was plagued by many errors.”
Drummond asked the Okla-
homa Court of Criminal Appeals
to vacate Glossip’s conviction
and grant him a new trial. The
court refused on April 20, 2023,
which led to the parole board
hearing the following week.
As someone who has studied the
history of clemency in capital cas-
es, I see three elements that make
this case noteworthy: Attorney
General Drummond’s actions, the
attempt to use clemency to pre-
vent a miscarriage of justice, and
the fact that grants of clemency in
death cases are today quite rare.
The role of the attorney
general
Clemency hearings like Glos-
sip’s are proceedings in which
opposing sides – representing
the condemned and the gov-
ernment prosecutors – present
evidence and arguments. In
Oklahoma, family members of
the victim are also given time to
make their views known.
In 1998, the U.S. Supreme
Court gave its approval to that
kind of procedure when it held
that clemency hearings must
afford due process to the partic-
ipants. The court said the con-
demned person must be given an
opportunity to convince a clem-
ency board that the government
should not put them to death
– just as the government gets to
defend its decision to do so.
And, as my research indi-
cates, that is what the govern-
ment has almost always done
when its representatives par-
ticipate in such a process.
But not in the Glossip case.
Drummond, his state’s top
prosecutor, took the unprece-
dented step of siding with the
petitioner – even against other
state officials.
“I want to acknowledge how
unusual it is for the state to
US Supreme Court (JOE RAVI/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, CC BY-SA 3.0)
support a clemency application
of a death row inmate,” Drum-
mond told the Pardon and Pa-
role Board. “I’m not aware of any
time in our history that an attor-
ney general has appeared before
this board and argued for clem-
ency. I’m also not aware of any
time in the history of Oklahoma
when justice would require it.”
Clemency as grace – or justice
I believe Drummond’s reference
to justice would have surprised
many of this country’s founders.
For them, doing justice was a
matter for the courts. Clemen-
cy was about something else.
In United States v. Wilson, a
decision from 1833 and the first
case about clemency to be de-
cided by the United States Su-
preme Court, Chief Justice John
Marshall made that distinction
clear. Instead of equating clem-
ency and justice, he called clem-
ency an “act of grace, proceeding
from the power entrusted with
the execution of the laws.”
Clemency, Marshall continued,
“exempts the individual on whom
it is bestowed from the punish-
ment the law inflicts for a crime he
has committed. It is … delivered to
the individual for whose benefit it
is intended, and not communicat-
ed officially to the court.”
A little more than 20 years af-
ter Marshall wrote that, another
Supreme Court justice, James
Wayne, reinforced this separa-
tion of clemency and justice. He
noted that clemency was about
“forgiveness, release and remis-
sion.” Wayne said it was a “work
www.canadianinquirer.net
of mercy … [that] forgiveth any
crime, offense, punishment, ex-
ecution, right, title, debt or duty,
temporal or ecclesiastical.”
But over the course of Ameri-
can history, both public and judi-
cial understandings of the pur-
pose of clemency have changed,
with grace, forgiveness and mer-
cy being replaced by justice.
Clemency, especially in cap-
ital cases, has come to be asso-
ciated almost exclusively with
correcting errors made in trials
and other legal proceedings.
Clemency hearings are now
generally just another arena
to which inmates like Richard
Glossip can appeal for justice.
This view reached its height
in the 1989 Supreme Court
decision Herrera v. Collins, in
which the court said that “A
proper remedy for the claim of
actual innocence … would be
executive clemency” – a com-
mutation or a pardon granted
by a governor or the president.
Clemency, the court contin-
ued – using language that nei-
ther Marshall nor Wayne would
have recognized – “is the historic
remedy for preventing miscar-
riages of justice where judicial
process has been exhausted.”
One example of this use of
clemency occurred in 1998, when
Gov. George W. Bush commuted
the death sentence of Henry Lee
Lewis after what Bush said were
“serious concerns … about his
guilt in this case.”
Clemency is rare in capital
cases
MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY
Glossip, joined by Attorney
General Drummond, sought
clemency in the hope of pre-
venting a miscarriage of justice
like the one Bush cited as a rea-
son to save Lewis’ life. Given
the facts of Glossip’s case, what
the Pardon and Parole Board
did shocked many observers.
But, from the perspective of
clemency’s recent record in
capital cases, the result should
not have been surprising.
As my research has shown, a
century ago clemency was grant-
ed in about 25% of capital cases.
But in more recent years, accord-
ing to the nonprofit Death Penalty
Information Center, clemencies
in capital cases have been “rare.”
The center notes, “Aside from the
occasional blanket grants of clem-
ency by governors concerned
about the overall fairness of the
death penalty, less than two have
been granted on average per year
since 1976. In the same period,
more than 1,500 cases have pro-
ceeded to execution.”
While the center does not in-
dicate how often clemency was
sought in those cases, request-
ing clemency is often a standard
part of the efforts death penalty
defense lawyers make to try to
save their clients.
It is hard to get clemency in
capital cases because, as the
center explains, “Governors are
subject to political influence, and
even granting a single clemency
can result in harsh attacks.” As a
result, “clemencies in death pen-
alty cases have been unpredict-
able and immune from review.”
And what is true nationwide
is also true in Oklahoma where
during the past half-century
there have been only five grants
of clemency in capital cases.
Following the denial of clem-
ency, Glossip’s lawyers have
promised to keeping fighting
and are asking both state and
federal courts to stay his execu-
tion. Meanwhile Gov. Kevin Stitt
has said he will do nothing to de-
lay Glossip’s date with death. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023 World News 15

US to end Covid vax ​​‘Cutting-edge’ micro..

6 to USNC officials. the Philippines after a meeting

requirements on May 11
❰❰
The MMR is being
licensed in Canada
and the US and considered the
with Marcos in Washington.
The PCO said that NuScale,
which is known for developing a

for foreign travelers

WAM
Philippine News Agency
WASHINGTON – The United
States will end its coronavirus
disease 2019 (Covid-19) vacci-
nation requirements for inter-
national travelers on May 11,
when the coronavirus public
health emergency ends, Reu-
ters quoted the White House
as saying on Monday.
In February, the US House
of Representatives voted to
lift the requirement that most
foreign air travelers be vacci-
nated against Covid-19, one of
the few remaining pandemic
travel restrictions still in place.
The Biden administration
last June dropped its require-
ment that people arriving in the
US by air must test negative for
Covid but kept in place Centers
for Disease Control and Preven-
tion (CDC) vaccination require-
ments for most foreign travelers.
The Homeland Security De-
partment also said Monday,
starting May 12 it would no
longer require non-US travel-
... it would start
the process to
end vaccination
requirements...
ers entering the United States
via land ports of entry and fer-
ries to be vaccinated against
Covid-19 and provide proof of
vaccination upon request.
The Biden administration’s
rules imposed in September 2021
requiring about 3.5 million fed-
eral employees and contractors
to be vaccinated or face firing or
disciplinary action have not been
enforced for more than a year
after a series of court rulings.
A federal appeals court in
March upheld a decision block-
ing the enforcement of the em-
ployee vaccine requirement.
The White House told feder-
al agencies in October 2022 not
to enforce the contractor vac-
cine requirements even after
a nationwide injunction was
lifted.
The Health and Human Ser-
vices Department said it would
start the process to end vaccina-
tion requirements for Head Start
educators and government-cer-
tified health care facilities. ■
first “fission battery” in com-
mercialization.
The company anticipates
eventual heavy demand for its
MMRs and its nuclear fuel and
envisions the Philippines as its
nuclear hub in the region.
Earlier, Oregon-based NuS-
cale Power Corporation ex-
pressed interest to invest in
Marcos, Harris vow..
❰❰ 8 keep going,” he added.
Joining Marcos
during the meeting
were First Lady Louise Ara-
neta-Marcos, House of Rep-
resentatives Speaker Martin
Romualdez, Ambassador Jose
Manuel Romualdez, Mrs. Maria
Lourdes Romualdez, and Ilocos
Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos.
In a joint statement on Mon-
day, both Marcos and Biden
welcomed the identification of
new sites under the US-Philip-
pines Enhanced Defense Coop-
safe modular, and scalable small
nuclear power system, is expect-
ed to invest USD6.5 billion to
USD7.5 billion (PHP415.5 bil-
lion) to provide 462 megawatts
to the country by the early 2030s.
Marcos said the country has
a “shortfall in power supply,”
which could be addressed with
the support of NuScale. ■
eration Agreement.
The two leaders said this
would strengthen Philippine
security and support the mod-
ernization goals of the Armed
Forces of the Philippines.
Both leaders underscored
their “unwavering commit-
ment” to freedom of navigation
and overflight in the West Phil-
ippine Sea, as well as the impor-
tance of respecting the sover-
eign rights of states within their
exclusive economic zones, con-
sistent with international law. ■

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16
Entertainment
How encrypted Victorian newspaper
personal ads shaped fiction like
Sherlock and Enola Holmes
BY JACQUELYN
SUNDBERG, McGill
University, NATHALIE
COOKE, McGill University
The Conversation
How familiar are you with
the Victorian-era newspaper
feature known as the Agony
Column? You are likely famil-
iar with its methods and cen-
tral plot lines, even if you don’t
know what it is!
Anonymous personal adver-
tisements made up the Agony
Column in the mid- to late- 19th
century. Authors of these adver-
tisements sometimes coded them
using different kinds of numbered
ciphers and pseudonyms.
Although the Agony Column
no longer exists as it did in the
19th century, our research has
documented how private messag-
es on this public forum have had
an enduring impact on fiction, en-
tertainment and popular culture.
Power of encryption
Encryption gave authors writ-
ing personal messages the abili-
ty to share private messages in a
public forum. Personal dramas
unfolding there day after day
meant the Agony Column was
widely popular in 19th-century
English newspapers.
In 1881, a book was published
about these private messages, in
which editor Alice Clay wrote:
“Most of the advertisements
… show a curious phase of life,
interesting to an observer of hu-
man existence and human eccen-
tricities. They are veiled in an air
of mystery … but at the same time
give a clue unmistakable to those
for whom they were intended.”
Longing, tragedy and the
everyday
Advertisements written by
individuals from across the Brit-
ish Empire were dubbed “the
agonies” by 1853 because they
were full of longing, tragedy
and profound misfortune shad-
owing the Victorian domestic
everyday. They occupied prime
real estate in the second column
on the front page of The Times.
Messages featured voices of
desperate parents, forlorn lov-
ers and savvy detectives. Many
were published anonymously
or under pseudonyms, making
it impossible for most readers
to know who wrote them.
As interest grew, the private
was increasingly made public.
Readers not only followed the
episodic narratives, but also
worked to crack the most puz-
zling codes and ciphers.
Detectives and amateur en-
thusiasts alike followed the dra-
ma of the agonies. As Stephen
Winkworth wrote in Room Two
More Guns: the Intriguing His-
tory of the Personal Column of
the Times, the Agony Column
became “more a meeting-place
than a market-place and a fo-
rum where national quirks
and characteristics can be ex-
pressed, where lovers can make
their rendezvous and lost caus-
es can be proclaimed.”
Fascination shaped novels
During the Victorian era,
fascination with the Agony Col-
umn shaped both newspapers
and novels.
Elements of sensational sto-
ries like the Constance Kent
Road Hill House murder from
front-page news began to ap-
pear in novels like Lady Aud-
ley’s Secret.
Original and modern re-
workings of Sherlock Holmes
contain a plethora of newspa-
per codes to crack. In the 2020
Netflix film adaptation of Enola
Holmes, based on Nancy Spring-
er’s novels, Sherlock Holmes’
case-cracking younger sister,
Enola, communicates with her
missing mother via ciphers.
MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY
Netflix video about codes in is difficult today. of the newspaper.
‘Enola Holmes.’ Visitors to the website can Changing vocabulary
Far beyond Sherlock and explore some of the encrypted Do you write like a Victori-
spinoffs, many popular films stories of The Times in a few an? How far has our vocabulary
have had their plots advanced unexpected ways, and gain a shifted since that time? Our re-
by the personal columns in the firsthand glimpse of another search team created the Victori-
newspaper: movies like Ghost era’s print media. an Vibecheck to allow visitors to
World (2001), Kissing Jessica Ignatius Pollaky, the so-called create period-appropriate text.
Stein (2001) and Desperately real-life Sherlock Holmes, was Vibecheck quantifies how
Seeking Susan (1985). known for advertising his own rarely, if ever, words in a giv-
Comparing novels and ‘the business in the Agony Column en text appear in our corpus of
agonies’ and for inserting mysterious more than 450 Victorian nov-
We explore this cultural fas- notes and messages in the news- els. The program then gives
cination in the exhibition News paper relating to his cases. you a score based on whether it
and Novel Sensations online We created a game as part of over- or under-uses words.
through the McGill Library. the exhibit called Pollaky’s Ag- Visitors can enter their own
This includes access to two onizing Adventure. The game text or choose from a list of
data sets: Our research team allows visitors to track coded examples to see if they can ap-
scraped 650,000 sentences clues in the agony columns by proximate a Victorian vibe.
from the Agony Column of The following fictionalized detec- How closely do Victorian nov-
Times between 1860 and 1879, tive case notes. els resemble the agonies, or does
and over 25 million words from Visitors can experience how our own language resemble the
a corpus of 220 Victorian nov- the agonies were embedded in Victorians’? We invite visitors to
els from 1800 to 1920. the emerging world of detective explore for themselves. ■
Both datasets are available practice, and experience how
for anyone to explore and the agonies made communicat- This article is republished
download on the project web- ing private messages and plans from The Conversation under a
page. This will be a valuable possible in the public medium Creative Commons license.
resource for those studying the
Victorian era and print history.
We will use both computa-
tional analysis of those data
sets, and close reading, to con-
tinue to explore ways news-
papers and the Agony Column
featured in and shaped Victo-
rian novels and Victorian read-
ers’ experiences.
Victorian detective’s per-
spective
1874 image from ‘Figaro’s
London Sketchbook of Celebri-
ties,’ showing Ignatius Pollaky.
(Lindsay Scrapbook/Ohio State
University, Billy Ireland Car-
toon Library & Museum)
While the agonies and coded
advertisements have captured
some time in the spotlight
thanks to the popularity of film
productions of Sherlock and
Enola Holmes, understanding
just how popular or influential
they were on Victorian society
www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023
In ‘Air,’ Michael Jordan’s silence speaks
volumes about the marketing of Black athletes
BY A. JOSEPH DIAL, Purdue
University
The Conversation
The film “Air,” which tells
the story of Nike’s signing of
Michael Jordan, isn’t actually
about Michael Jordan at all.
It’s about the beauty of design
and the seduction of marketing.
It’s about power suits, purple
Porsches and Rolexes.
It’s about white men
languishing through
midlife crises who sali-
vate over the branding
potential of a star bas-
ketball player.
As for Jordan? Audi-
ences just see his back as
he strolls into the Nike
offices and his hands as
he admires the Air Jor-
dan prototype – but nev-
er his face. In the entire film, he
utters only three words.
Much has been made about
Michael Jordan’s representa-
tion or lack thereof in “Air.”
How could a film about one of
the most famous Black men in
the world obscure his presence?
The film’s true power is its abil-
ity to convey an unnerving truth
about the sneakers’ mystique:
Jordan’s athletic ability was cru-
cial to the success of Nike and Air
Jordan; not so much his face –
and definitely not his words.
In this way, “Air” becomes the
story of how a struggling compa-
ny created one of the most suc-
cessful brands in the world on
the back of a Black body, a tale as
old as the nation itself.
Liftoff
In 1983, Nike’s marketing
director, Rob Strasser, wrote
an internal memo explaining
the importance of using star
athletes to sell their products:
“Individual athletes, even more
than teams, will be the heroes;
symbols more and more of what
real people can’t do anymore –
risk and win.”
This memo appeared during
a turbulent period for Nike.
The company had gone public
in 1980 with a listless opening.
In 1984, the company posted its
first losing quarter and initiat-
ed a monthlong wave of layoffs
employees called the “St. Valen-
tine’s Day Massacre.”
Who would be that hero? The
ailing shoe company sought a body
brimming with transcendent tal-
ent, a superhuman athlete.
Enter the Chicago Bulls’ Mi-
chael Jordan, of whom Boston
Celtics legend Larry Bird once
said, “I think he’s God disguised
as Michael Jordan.”
During the summer of 1984,
Nike shoe designer Peter
I think he’s God
disguised as
Michael Jordan.
Moore and Strasser gathered in
the Washington, D.C., office of
Jordan’s agent, David Falk.
In a scene authors Rodrigo
Corral, Alex French and Howie
Kahn detail in their 2017 book,
“Sneakers,” Falk, after exchang-
ing pleasantries, looked to
Strasser and said, “Rob, I’ve got
an idea. I want to marry Michael
to your airbag technology.”
Nike had developed its air
cushionsin 1977. It involved
infusing the midsoles of shoes
with pockets of pressurized gas
to absorb shock, but the com-
pany was having a difficult time
marketing it.
Falk then paused for dramat-
ic effect, before uttering, “Air
Jordan.”
In 1985, Nike released the first
Air Jordan sneaker. A year later,
Nike sold US$100 million worth
of Air Jordan shoes and apparel,
boosting the company’s prof-
its to $59 million from only $10
million the year before.
After 38 years and 37 iter-
ations of their flagship line of
basketball shoes, Jordans have
become a transcendent cultur-
al talisman memorializing Mi-
chael Jordan’s career and bas-
ketball’s influence on American
life – but also, his labor.
Today, Nike is worth a stag-
gering $200 billion. Meanwhile,
the Jordan brand, which was
spun off into its own company
Entertainment 17
in 1997, brings in billions of dol- tive, centers an incredibly old Adidas were popular on street
lars per year, of which Jordan tradition of Americans seeing corners and basketball courts
pockets 5%. Black bodies as being spectacu- around the country – a histo-
Buying a piece of Blackness larly convertible to profit. ry told by DJ and author Bob-
I’m writing a book that ex- Air Jordans romanticize an bito Garcia in his 2003 book,
plores the intimate connections American wistfulness for the “Where’d You Get Those?”
between sneakers and Blackness. stoic and branded Black work- Nike and the Air Jordan,
In it, I argue that the Black body’s horse. John Henry, the legend- however, represented a wa-
long history of objectification ary steel driver, was a hero, and tershed moment in which this
and commodification undergirds so, too, is Jordan. For Black bubbling market of “sneaker
the branding, mass consumption bodies – Jordan and Henry, but fiends,” as Garcia calls them,
and culture of sneakers. also athletes like Damar Ham- went mainstream. Through
What “Air” does bet- lin, who suffered a near-fatal artful placement in Black films
ter than anything else is injury during an NFL game in – specifically Spike Lee’s “Do
to unbox a provocative, early 2023 – heroism is articu- the Right Thing” – with an as-
sobering truth about lated through the hypnotizing sist from Michael Jackson and
Jordans’ meteoric rise: anthem of toil and exhaustion. hip-hop culture and music, the
They are cast as liter- Sports provide an easy cover Air Jordan line transformed
al extensions of Black for the perpetuation of this myth. sneakers into one of the most
bodies. They represent Disgraced sports commenta- important footwear items and
the literal molding of a tor Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder fashion brands the world has
Black man’s feet, with once said, “The Black is a better ever witnessed.
their vulcanized rubber, athlete to begin with … They can Nike would go on to feature
leather and laces encap- jump higher and run faster.” scores of other Black athletes
sulating Black athletic How far removed is the mar- in its ad campaigns, and the
greatness and cool. keting of Air Jordans from the names of these heroes ring off
Finally figuring out how to words of Jimmy the Greek? the tongue sharp and proud like
sell Nike’s airbag technology As the voiceover in the first a trumpet’s blare: Bo Jackson,
was the other side of Air’s reci- Air Jordan television ad pro- Penny Hardaway, Kobe Bryant,
pe for success. claims, “Who says man was not Venus and Serena Williams,
In truth, Nike Air was a curi- meant to fly?” Lebron James.
osity. It was unstable and unreli- Bodies ripe for the picking An ad from Nike’s iconic ‘Bo
able. But runners became enam- Before Nike’s dominance,
ored with the idea of a cushioning brands like Pony, Converse and ❱❱ PAGE 23 In ‘Air,’ Michael
technology they couldn’t see and
much less understand. People
knew they loved the sensation
of Air even though the “how” re-
mained a mystery.
The seemingly simple concept
of explaining Air had eluded the
company. In an interview with
journalist Scoop Jackson, Bruce
Kilgore, Nike designer responsi-
ble for the Air Force 1, articulat-
ed the difficulty of taking the air
midsole from idea to execution to
market: “How do you take some-
thing inherently unstable and
put [it] into [a basketball shoe]
that is all about stability?”
But six years after the devel-
opment of the air midsole, David
Falk cracked the code of Nike’s
transparent, little black box:
Don’t market the technology.
Market the body that wears it.
The first TV ad for Air Jordans
features the iconic line, ‘Who
says man was not meant to fly?’
This marketing ploy to shift
the attention of consumers
from mundane pockets of poly-
urethane to on-court perfor-
mances, while indeed innova-
www.canadianinquirer.net
18
Asia’s First Supermodel:
Walk Like Anna Bayle
BY MATTE LAUREL-ZALKO
Decades before Catriona
Gray’s famous “lava walk” and
“slow-mo twirl”, there was the
renowned and legendary “Anna
Bayle walk” (pronounced as
“Bay-lee”). This so-called walk
was coined by the New York
Times in reference to the unique
runway strut that was made fa-
mous by Asia’s first Supermodel,
Filipina beauty, Anna Bayle.
In an article written in 1988,
the New York Times described
Anna Bayle’s goddess glide “as
if she were crushing a cigarette
butt with each step down the run-
way.” Oohh, fierce! Anna Bayle
is the original glamazon who
defined the 80’s haute fashion
scene; covering magazines such
as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and
W to name a few; appearing in
various advertising campaigns
from cosmetics to clothings, and
walking the runways of the most
fabled names in fashion: Thi-
erry Mugler, Christian Lacroix,
Givenchy, Azzedine Alaïa, Yves
Saint Laurent, Chanel, Valenti-
no, Ungaro, Versace, et al.
I first came across Anna Bayle
when I was a young and impres-
sionable teenager living and
studying in London during the
80’s. At that time, my life was
heavily influenced by European
pop culture and fashion. I can’t
remember the particular year,
but my mom bought an Italian
edition of Harper’s Bazaar mag-
azine with Anna Bayle on the
front cover. I was captivated as
it was the first time I saw some-
one on the cover of Harper’s Ba-
zaar whose Filipina looks I could
identify with. Incidentally, you
can still see this particular Harp-
er’s Bazaar Italian edition online!
It was definitely one of those
“I-have-to-pinch-myself” mo-
ments as I could hardly believe
that an Asian woman could ac-
tually be on the cover of Harper’s
Bazaar magazine because in those
days, her exotic Asian beauty was
both rare and uncommon. Not
too many Asians were featured
on the cover of top magazines; in
fact, only half-caste models such
as Cusi Cram and Phoebe Cates
were featured on the front covers
of the magazines.
I followed Anna Bayle’s ca-
reer ever since and I was al-
ways proud of her success and
achievements as she rose to be-
come one of the top 10 models
of the world in the 80’s. Togeth-
er with Brooke Shields, Anna
Bayle became a source of in-
spiration for me as I navigated
through my teenage years.
Fast forward to 2023 and I
get the first wonderful opportu-
nity for this year: to interview
Anna Bayle. Yay, that’s a tick off
my bucket list! I was admittedly
scared and wasn’t hopeful at all
that she’d respond to my request.
Imagine my surprise, when Anna
Bayle immediately responded to
my request with a positive an-
swer. Our email and messenger
exchanges were so delightful it’s
definitely going to be for keeps;
oh, and she has the coolest and
sexiest voice I’ve ever heard! I
know, I’m gushing — sorry, not
sorry! Not only that, she’s been
most gracious and generous all
throughout our conversations.
Suffice to say, I was absolute-
ly gobsmacked and star struck!
I was charmed and impressed
with her genuine kindness and
generosity. It made me realized
that these were her secrets to
her success. Anna Bayle became
Asia’s first Supermodel because
she always had the right attitude
in life. Let’s revisit Philippine’s
Pride and how she became The
Anna Bayle.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
Born in 1956 to a family of sev-
en, Anna was a scholar from the
Philippine Science High School
and was a pre-med student at
the University of the Philippines
when her friends encouraged
her to join a beauty contest — the
1976 Miss Republic of the Phil-
ippines where she was declared
Miss Luzon or the equivalent
of a first runner up. Her beauty
is reminiscent of Paul Gaugin’s
women in his paintings: satiny,
glossy brown skin with long black
shiny hair and soulful dark doe
eyes. Anna shares, “I was a schol-
ar all my life. I was inspired to
become a neurosurgeon, but des-
tiny had a different plan for me.”
Indeed, the universe has other
plans for this statuesque 5’10½”
MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY
stunner: one of Philippines’ top
fashion designers, Auggie Corde-
ro took Anna under his wings
and mentored her after he spot-
ted her at the pageant. Anna was
a fast learner and from Auggie
Cordero, she learned everything
there is to learn in the fashion in-
dustry at a young age.
Under Cordero’s tutelage,
Anna remembers, “The very first
time I walked on the runway in
the Philippines, it was for Chito
Vijandre and Larry Leviste
(upcoming young designers in the
Philippines at that time). When
you have a history of doing theatre
plays and winning declamation
contests and spelling bees, then,
going on stage is not foreign to me.
In theatre, it is a matter of having
confidence, stage presence and el-
ocution. You still need to have all
of that when you walk down the
runway. The difference is that at
the fashion ramp, you were judged
more by your body, face, beauty
and your grace whereas in the the-
atre stage, you are judged more
by your elocution, stage presence,
confidence and intelligence.” Photography by Norman Parkinson. (PHOTO COURTESY OF MS. ANNA BAYLE)
THE ROAD TO BECOMING
ASIA’S FIRST SUPERMODEL girls had a monopoly on all the tocratic photographer. I thought
Once again, the universe modelling jobs, but fortunate- after my photoshoot, I’d head to-
showed its sense of humour and ly for me, they liked me enough wards the Gala show to watch it.”
conspired to change this teenage to book me even though I was of Anna elaborates, “When I ar-
model’s destiny. Anna fondly re- a different race and nationali- rived at the venue and on my way
calls how she got started in the ty. From my dealings with Ellen to the elevator, a frantic woman
international fashion scene, “The and Susan, I learned that it was grabbed my arm and asked me:
Hyatt models (which I was a part important to be likeable in this “Are you Anna Bayle, the model?”
of) were on a trip to Hong Kong for business. It was great that I had a When I replied yes, she immedi-
Auggie Cordero. It was my first trip likeable personality because that ately shepherded me backstage
out of the country. It was a great ex- certainly helped me secure the and was led towards the fash-
perience and since that fateful trip, best fashion jobs in Hong Kong.” ion dressers. They immediately
I have not looked back. It certainly Anna continues, “In Hong stripped me off my street clothes
changed my life! During that trip, I Kong, they have the yearly Hong and dressed me with the clothes
met my then fiancé, a famous En- Kong Fashion Trade Gala where that were intended for the gala.
glish newscaster, the equivalent of foreign models were imported The fashion director, Julius Scho-
Brian Jennings in American news to walk the runway at the gala field, instructed that he will guide
casting. Because of my relation- show. It was always directed by me on what to do before I step out
ship, I relocated and lived in Hong Julius Schofield from England. on the runway. I was surprised
Kong for 4 years. It was in Hong They had fashion models with by what’s happening but being
Kong where I first understood that big names like Billie Blair, Carol a professional, I went with the
I am as good as the other interna- Miles and Toukie Smith. This par- flow. I looked at my reflection in
tional models.” ticular fashion gala was supposed the mirror and then I saw Billie
Anna adds, “In Hong Kong, I to be “The Ultimate Fashion Blair’s name on top of the mirror.
was doing well as a fashion mod- Show”, complete with awesome It suddenly dawned on me that I
el and was busy working; I was choreography and some dancing was replacing Billie Blair in the
slowly getting noticed and was movements, which the models had gala! They told me that Billie had
always seen in all of Hong Kong’s already rehearsed a week before an unfortunate accident earlier
lifestyle news. This was a difficult the show. That day, I was booked in the morning, hence I was re-
feat as the jobs were controlled by for a photoshoot for British Vogue placing their star model!”
two Chinese models — Ellen and and my photographer was Lord Anna further says, “African
Susan Lee. These two Chinese Patrick Lichfield, the famous aris- American model Toukie Smith
www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023
(the sister of the RTW designer
Willi Smith), smiled at me and re-
assured me, “Just follow what I’m
doing and you’ll be fine!” I did what
I was told and just followed the
other models. I also paced myself
so there was symmetry on the run-
way, then my adrenaline kicked in
and I just modelled and did what
the other models were doing. I had
fun and was told by the fashion di-
rector that the other models and
I did a great job! After the show,
the organizers quickly grabbed
me and put me in a separate room
where I was met with hundreds of
photographers with their cameras
clicking and bulbs flashing! It was
a room filled with Chinese press. I
was overwhelmed. These press peo-
ple worked for the Hong Kong dai-
lies so no one really spoke English.
I called my fiancé to rescue me, as
I was still so young then, and I was
not used to all the attention. I didn’t
know how to give interviews. The
following day, my face was plas-
tered all over the front pages of all
the Hong Kong newspapers with
the same headline: THE FILIPI-
NA THAT SAVED THE SHOW.
Photo by Norine Perreault for the Tatler article. (PHOTO COURTESY OF MS. ANNA BAYLE)
I realized after that fortuitous
event, that if I can take the place of
a star model, I can become one too!”
LIFE AS A SUPERMODEL
Shortly after, Anna worked
in the Paris fashion scene for
four years with the hopes of re-
locating to New York. In Paris,
her first fashion show was with
French fashion doyen, Thierry
Mugler. Anna vividly reminisc-
es, “My first fashion show in Paris
was with Thierry. It was the most
sought after fashion ticket. I was
sitting down waiting for the hair-
dressers to do my hair. Jerry Hall,
who has this famous signature
long blonde locks came up to me
and said: “Oh you have such beau-
tiful hair!” I replied, “I can say the
same for you.” For me, everyone
is beautiful in their own special
way. Moreover, It is important to
believe that I was just as beautiful
as the other models, in order to feel
I belong. I have to constantly re-
mind myself that I’m just as beau-
tiful and just as good.”
From that first fashion show
in Paris, Anna walked the run-
ways for the top fashion power-
Maria in Vancouver
house brands in and outside of
Paris, New York, London, Milan,
Shanghai, Tokyo, and Berlin. She
was signed up by the Elite Model-
ling Agency where only the high-
end models are signed up. She did
major global campaigns for fash-
ion houses and well known cos-
metic brands. Photography icons
took photos of Anna for various
magazines — Helmut Newton,
Francesco Scavullo, Sir Patrick
Lichfield, Norman Parkinson,
and Richard Avedon. She became
a signature model for both YSL
and Azzedine Alaïa, whom Anna
fondly calls “Papa”.
Anna Bayle became more in
demand and quickly rose to be-
come one of the top 3 models in
the 80’s. She reigned over the
fashion runway together with her
two contemporaries, Imanand
Dalma. Anna Bayle commanded
diva fees and was considered the
highest paid model of her time.
Anna, Iman, Dalma, Brooke
Shields, Ines de La Fressange,
and Jerry Hall paved the way for
the next batch of top models in
the late 80’s and mid-90’s: Chris-
ty Turlington, Naomi Campbell,
Cindy Crawford, Linda Evange-
lista, and Claudia Schiffer. Just
a fun fact, Anna Bayle mentored
both Naomi Campbell and Linda
Evangelista!
When asked about the secret
to her modelling success, Anna
replies, “Everyone I have worked
with would often describe me as
the quintessential professional,
which I took pride in. I was always
on time. I was always ready and
I always came well prepared on
the job. I always gave them what
they wanted. In return, they would
always book me all the time,
throughout the years. As soon as I
was booked by a designer and they
experienced what it’s like to work
with me, they would rebook me
and would continuously use me
as their in-house model for years.
The two main reasons why I was
so successful with my modelling
career was because I was always
consistent and highly disciplined.”
I asked her two questions that
most interviewees probably al-
ways ask her (but I still asked,
because I really had to know):
Who was your favourite designer
that you worked with and which
other model did you have a great
working experience with? Anna
moans, “Arrggh, I always get
asked these questions! I loved all
of the designers I worked with.
Maybe that is why they all loved
me too! They’re all different from
www.canadianinquirer.net
each other because they all have
their own personalities. They were
all masters of their craft. For me,
fashion is an art form. Everything
that the designers create is beauti-
ful, just like art. Each time a fash-
ion show finishes, there is always
a party and designers send their
garments to your home or your
hotel, for you to wear to the party.
I always make it a point to decline
because I do not want to choose
whose design I am going to wear.
I have so much respect for all the
people I worked with and I did not
want them to think that I’d choose
other designers over them. Fash-
ion designers are humans too; they
get possessive and jealous.”
Anna goes on, “I was discov-
ered by Thierry Mugler so I am
very close to him. He made me a
star, so I am very grateful to him.
I was called a Mugler girl when
I first arrived in Paris and on his
10th-anniversary collection, I
took on the role of a Mugler angel.
But at the same time, I also grew
up in Azzedine Alaïa’s atelier, fit-
ting all his clothes. It was at Papa
Azzedine’s atelier where I learned
to speak French. There was a time
in Paris, when I wore nothing but
Alaïa’s clothes. I also love Chris-
tian Lacroix and I always went
down on my knees and prayed the
night before his couture shows;
Lacroix’s couture shows were ex-
tremely special to me. I also had
memorable working experiences
with the great, late Yves Saint
Laurent — I wrote a blog called
“The King and I”, which was
about my past work experiences
with YSL. With regard to the other
models I worked with, they’re all
special and fun to work with.”
As a successful Supermod-
el, how has life changed for her?
Anna responds, “I felt so lucky and
privileged that I was able to travel
to different countries and learn
their different cultures. I was fortu-
nate to have lived in the most beau-
tiful cities in the world: Paris, New
York, Hong Kong, and Manila. But
perhaps, the most important thing
about being a supermodel is that it
was an outlet for my creativity.”
Out of sheer curiosity, I asked
Anna what kind of photoshoots
are the hardest to do? She an-
swers, “Photographic shoots are
a one giant team effort — photog-
raphers, stylists, models, makeup
artists, hairdressers, lighting, and
weather must all cooperate and
work together. When one of the
above does not cooperate and does
not work with everyone, then, the
photo shoot becomes difficult to
19
do. But, when everyone gives their
absolute best, then, magic hap-
pens and beautiful photographs
come out of the fashion shoot.”
And of course, this interview
won’t be complete without dis-
cussing the much talked about
“Anna Bayle walk”. Anna’s walk
became so popular that Paul
Groove wrote a song about it! I
know this might sound really stu-
pid but I’ll ask anyway: Pray tell,
how did she learn the Anna Bayle
walk? She giggles and shares, “My
walk is how I normally walk, and
because I’ve had so many years
of experience wearing beautiful
clothes while walking the runway,
I am able to learn, adjust, and per-
fect my gait and my stance so that
I can best show the dress I’m wear-
ing. Also, one must have this spe-
cial inner strength when walking a
runway and sashaying confidently
in front of thousands of spectators.
It is so important to have this pos-
itive energy from within so when
you walk the runway, this vibrant
energy exudes from you and gives
you such a strong and beautiful
aura. It’s really all about the pos-
itive energy that’s coming from
deep within.”
And what of fame? How was
she able to handle the enormi-
ty of her fame? Anna remarks,
“With much grace and humility.
I come from a family of 7 kids
and we love each other so much.
My siblings will not put up with
any arrogance from me. When
I am with them, I am just one
of them and that has kept me
grounded all these years. I even
have a brother who uses my mag-
azine covers as his dart board!”
With regard to sharing tips
and advice to aspiring models,
Anna shares, “It is important to be
yourself because what is special in
you is probably what the client is
looking for. It is important to un-
derstand that being pleasant and
professional at work is what the
clients will pay for all the time.”
When it comes to her beauty
secrets, Anna laughs, “Sleep, sleep,
sex, sleep……lots of sex, lots of sleep!”
ALWAYS PROUD OF HER
FILIPINO ROOTS
When Anna Bayle was still in
school in the Philippines, her
whole family migrated to the US.
Anna stayed behind to finish her
schooling in Manila. Even when
she became an international
model, Anna retained her Filipi-
no citizenship and would queue
for long hours to get her visas to
❱❱ PAGE 23 Asia’s First Supermodel:
20
The importance of solitude – why time on
your own can sometimes be good for you
BY THUY-VY NGUYEN,
Durham University
The Conversation
Spending time alone can in-
duce fear in a lot of people, which
is understandable. At the same
time, the difference between
moments of solitude and loneli-
ness is often misunderstood.
As a psychologist, I study sol-
itude – the time we spend alone,
not interacting with other peo-
ple. I started this research more
than ten years ago and, up to
that point, findings on young
people’s time alone had sug-
gested they often experience
low moods when alone.
On social media, television
or in the music we listen to, we
typically picture happiness as
excitement, enthusiasm and
energisation. From that per-
spective, solitude is often mis-
taken for loneliness.
In psychology, researchers
define loneliness as a distressed
feeling that we experience when
we don’t have, or are unable to
get, the kind of social connec-
tions or relationships we hope
for. Solitude is different.
While people’s definitions
of solitude might vary, what is
interesting is that for many, be-
ing solitary doesn’t necessarily
mean there’s no one else around.
Instead, many people can, and
do, find solitude in public spaces,
whether this be sitting with a cup
of tea in a busy cafe or reading a
book in a park. And my research
Lifestyle
suggests that taking some time
for yourself could have a positive
impact on your daily mood.
Many of us have had days
when there are troubles at work,
when things don’t go as expect-
ed, or when we take on too much
and feel overwhelmed. What
I’ve found is that learning to
take a little time for yourself, a
moment of solitude, could help
you deal with these feelings.
What can we gain from sol-
itude?
In a series of experiments, I
brought undergraduate students
into a room to sit quietly with
themselves. In some studies, I
took away the students’ back-
packs and devices and asked them
to sit with their thoughts; at other
times, the students stayed in the
room with books or their phones.
After just 15 minutes of being
alone, I found that any strong
emotions the participants might
have been feeling, such as anx-
iety or excitement, dropped. I
concluded that solitude has the
capacity to bring down people’s
arousal levels, meaning it can
be useful in situations where we
feel frustrated, agitated or angry.
Many people might assume
that only introverts would en-
joy solitude. But while it is true
that introverts might prefer to
be alone, they are not the only
people who can reap the bene-
fits from solitude.
In a survey of more than
18,000 adults around the world,
more than half voted for soli-
tude as one of the key activities
they engage in for rest. So, if you
are an extrovert, don’t let this
stop you from taking time for
solitude to calm down.
Sitting with your thoughts
can be difficult
The challenging part about
spending time alone is that it can
be boring and lonely sometimes.
Many people find that sitting
with their thoughts can be dif-
ficult, and prefer having some-
thing to do. Indeed, forcing your-
self to sit and do nothing can lead
to you finding time alone less
enjoyable. So you might prefer to
have some sort of activity during
your moment of solitude.
In my study, I gave partici-
pants the choice to do nothing
www.canadianinquirer.net
or spend their time sorting hun-
dreds and hundreds of golf pen-
cils into boxes. After being asked
to be alone for ten minutes, most
participants chose to sort the
pencils. This is the sort of activ-
ity I thought most people would
find boring. However, the choice
to do the boring task stems from
the desire to keep busy when
other people are not around to
occupy our mental space.
So, if you find yourself scroll-
ing on your device every time
you have a few moments of sol-
itude, this is quite common.
Don’t be hard on yourself. Many
people scroll to cope with stress
and boredom. Some people also
prefer spending their time alone
MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY
doing daily chores, such as going
grocery shopping or doing laun-
dry. This is valid solitary time.
Engaging in fun activities
alone
It is interesting, however, that
many people shy away from en-
gaging in fun activities alone, like
going to the cinema or dining at a
restaurant. This might be because
we tend to think of them as activ-
ities we do with friends and close
ones, so doing them alone can
make us feel judged and self-con-
scious. Travelling alone is another
activity that can be intimidating,
particularly for women.
But a key benefit of going solo
is the opportunity to find calm,
and having the freedom to choose
what to do and how to do it.
In my time studying solitude, I
have challenged myself to take on
some of these fun activities in my
moments of solitude, and I have
found the experience rather lib-
erating. Other women have sim-
ilar experiences, especially when
travelling, which has left them
feeling empowered and freed.
To overcome our fear of sol-
itude, we need to recognise its
benefits and see it as a positive
choice – not something that
happens to us. While taking a
solo trip might be a bit much for
you right now, taking time out
of your busy schedule for small
doses of solitude might well be
just what you need. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023
An epic global study of moss reveals it is far
more vital to Earth’s ecosystems than we knew
BY DAVID JOHN
ELDRIDGE, UNSW Sydney,
MANUEL DELGADO-
BAQUERIZO, Consejo
Superior de Investigaciones
Científicas (CSIC)
The Conversation
Mosses are some of the oldest
land plants. They are found all over
the world, from lush tropical rain-
forests to the driest deserts, and even
the wind-swept hills of Antarctica.
They are everywhere; grow-
ing in cracks along roads and
pathways, on the trunks of
trees, on rocks and buildings,
and importantly, on the soil.
Yet despite this ubiquity, we
have a relatively poor under-
standing of how important they
are, particularly the types of
moss that thrive on soil.
New global research on soil
mosses published today in Na-
ture Geoscience reveals they play
critical roles in sustaining life on
our planet. Without soil moss-
es, Earth’s ability to produce
healthy soils, provide habitat for
microbes and fight pathogens
would be greatly diminished.
What causes volcanoes to erupt?
BY RACHEL BEANE,
Bowdoin College
The Conversation
What causes volcanoes to
erupt? – Avery, age 8, Los Angeles
On Nov. 27, 2022, Mauna Loa –
the world’s largest active volcano
– erupted on the island of Hawaii.
For days, fountains of lava, boil-
ing at more than 2,000 degrees
Fahrenheit (1,100 degrees Cel-
sius), spewed upward and flowed
down the mountain’s sides.
For tens of millions of peo-
ple around the world, the vid-
eos were a mesmerizing sight.
Then, a few weeks later, the
eruption ended. Fortunately,
there were no known deaths,
and no major property damage.
About a week later, Mount Se-
meru in East Java, Indonesia,
erupted a mix of ash, gas and hot
A global survey of soil mosses
The results of the new study
indicate we have probably un-
derestimated just how import-
ant soil mosses are.
Using data from 123 sites across
all continents including Antarcti-
ca, we show that the soil beneath
mosses has more nitrogen, phos-
phorus and magnesium, and a
greater activity of soil enzymes
than bare surfaces with no plants.
In fact, mosses affect all major
soil functions, increasing carbon
sequestration, nutrient cycling
and the breakdown of organic
matter. These processes are crit-
ical for sustaining life on Earth.
Our modelling revealed that
soil mosses cover a huge area
of the planet, about 9 million
square kilometres – equivalent
to the area of China. And that’s
not counting mosses from bo-
real forests, which were not in-
cluded in the study.
The strength of the effect
mosses have on soil depends on
their growing conditions. They
have the strongest effect in nat-
ural low productivity environ-
ments, such as deserts. They are
also more important on sandy
rocks. The plumes rose a mile
above the mountain’s summit.
Thousands living in the vicinity
were evacuated; many wore masks
to protect themselves from the
ash-filled air. Mount Semeru has
continued to erupt for months.
I am a geologist who studies
minerals in volcanic rocks. I want
to learn more about what causes
volcanoes to erupt. Millions of
people live near an active volcano
– that is, one of the 1,328 volca-
noes worldwide that have erupt-
ed over the past 12,000 years.
At any given time, 20 to 50
of these active volcanoes are
erupting. The proximity of peo-
ple and buildings makes it im-
portant to study volcanoes and
understand the hazards.
How volcanoes blow their
stacks
The center of the Earth is
called the core; the next layer
and salty soils, and where rain-
fall is highly variable.
Not unexpectedly, mosses have
the strongest effects on soils where
vascular plants – those that con-
tain specialised tissues to conduct
water and minerals – are sparse.
An intimate connection
Mosses lack the plumbing
that allows vascular plants to
grow tall and pull water from be-
neath the soil. This keeps them
relatively short, and means they
develop an intimate connection
with the uppermost soil layers.
Mosses are extremely absor-
bent and can attract airborne
dust particles. Some of these
particles are incorporated into
the soil below. It is not surpris-
ing then that they have such a
strong effect on soils.
Our modelling shows that,
across the globe, mosses store
6.4 gigatonnes more carbon
than soils without plant cover.
Losing just 15% of the global
cover of soil mosses would be
equivalent to global emissions
of carbon dioxide from all land
use changes over a year, such as
clearing and overgrazing.
Not all mosses are equal
up is the mantle; the outermost
layer is the crust.
Over time, magma – which is
melted rock mixed with gas and
mineral crystals – accumulates in
an underground chamber beneath
the volcano. The magma at Mau-
na Loa forms when a hot mantle
plume – think of a conveyor of heat
– partly melts rock in the mantle.
The volcano is essentially an
opening that lets magma out
onto the surface of the Earth.
Once released from the volca-
no, the magma is called lava.
In the months leading to its
eruption, scientists noted in-
creased earthquakes and a bulg-
ing of Mauna Loa, like a balloon
being inflated. These signs sug-
gested that more magma was
making its way upward, because
pressure from rising magma can
expand the sides of a volcano and
cause rocks to shift and break,
www.canadianinquirer.net
Lifestyle
We also found some mosses
are more effective at promoting
healthy soils than others. Long-
lived mosses tended to be associ-
ated with more carbon and great-
er control of soil pathogens.
The ability of mosses to pro-
vide ecosystem services and
support a diverse community
of microbes, fungi and inver-
tebrates was strongest in loca-
tions with a high cover of mat-
and turf-forming mosses such
as Sphagnum, which are widely
distributed in boreal forests.
Soils are a huge reservoir of
soil pathogens, yet the soil be-
neath mosses had a lower pro-
portion of plant pathogens.
Mosses can help to reduce the
pathogen load in soils. This abil-
ity may have originated when
mosses evolved as land plants.
A special group in the desert
A special type of moss flour-
ishes in deserts. They either live
hard (perennial mosses) or die
young (annual mosses).
Mosses in the family Potti-
aceae are uniquely suited to
life under dry and inhospitable
conditions. Many have special-
ised structures that allow them
which leads to earthquakes.
Typically, for an eruption to
occur, enough magma must ac-
cumulate in the chamber under
the volcano. Then something
needs to trigger the eruption.
That could be an injection of
new magma into the chamber,
21
to survive when water is scarce.
These include boat-shaped
leaves with long hairy tips that
help to funnel water into the
centre of the plant. Some moss-
es twist around their stem to
reduce the area exposed to the
sun and conserve moisture.
Desert mosses also protect the
soil against erosion, influence how
much water moves through the
upper layers and even alter the
survival chances of plant seedlings.
Other mosses have spe-
cial moisture-absorbing cells
(papillae) that swell up and pro-
vide them with a moisture re-
serve when conditions are dry.
Our global study showed that
mat- and turf-forming mosses
such as Sphagnum had the stron-
gest positive effects on the diver-
sity of microbes, fungi and inver-
tebrates, and on critical services
such as nutrient supply. Predict-
ably, longer-lived mosses sup-
ported more soil carbon and had
greater control of plant patho-
gens than short-lived mosses.
Protect the mosses
Overall, our work shows moss-
❱❱ PAGE 23 An epic global
a buildup of gases within the
volcano, or a landslide that re-
moves material from the top of
a volcano.
Types of volcanoes
Mauna Loa is a shield volca-
❱❱ PAGE 26 What causes volcanoes
22
PH to host rhythmic gymnastics
Asian Championships
BY JEAN MALANUM
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Philippines
will host the 19th Junior and
14th Senior Rhythmic Gym-
nastics Asian Championships
from May 31 to June 3 at the Ni-
noy Aquino Stadium inside the
Rizal Memorial Sports Com-
plex in Malate.
The tournament is a qualifi-
er for the 40th FIG Rhythmic
Gymnastics World Champion-
ships which will take place in
Valencia, Spain on Aug. 23-27.
A total of 191 athletes -- 96 in
juniors and 95 in seniors -- from
China, Hong Kong, Indonesia,
India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyr-
gyzstan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia,
Mongolia, Singapore, Sri Lanka,
Thailand, Taipei, Uzbekistan,
Vietnam, Australia, New Zea-
land and Philippines will see
action in the event organized by
Hidilyn leads PH team at
Asian Weightlifting Championships
BY JEAN MALANUM
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Tokyo Olympics
gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz will
lead the Philippine campaign at
the Asian Weightlifting Cham-
pionships scheduled May 3-15
in Jinju, South Korea.
The Zamboangueña will
compete in the women’s 59kg
category along with fellow
Olympian Elreen Ann Ando of
Cebu.
Others in the lineup are Rose
Jean Ramos (women’s 45kg),
Rosegie Ramos (women’s 49kg)
and Kristel Macrohon (wom-
en’s 71kg) of Zamboanga City,
Sports
the Gymnastics Association of
the Philippines (GAP) headed
by Cynthia Carrion.
Takhimina Ikromova, the
2022 individual all-around
champion, will banner the Uz-
bekistan team while individu-
al all-around bronze medalist
Yating Zhao will spearhead the
Chinese squad.
Representing the Philip-
pines are Breanna Labadan,
Daniela Dela Pisa and Trisha
Mae Montefalcon (senior indi-
vidual); Jasmine Ramillo and
Cristalin Zoe Valencia ( junior
individual); and Angelika Leigh
Buenavidez, Andrea Mae Em-
perado, Jenny Eusebio, Katrina
Loretizo and Divina Sembrano
(senior group).
Labadan, 16, is the first Fili-
pino gymnast to qualify for the
39th World Championships in
Sofia, Bulgaria in September
last year.
She won the individual all-
Vanessa Sarno of Bohol (wom-
en’s 71kg), Lovely Inan of An-
gono, Rizal (women’s 49kg) and
John Febuar Ceniza of Cebu
City (men’s 61kg).
Also joining the trip are
coaches Nicolas Jaluag (Bohol),
Patrick Lee (Pampanga) and
Christopher Bureros (Cebu),
and Samahang Weightlifting ng
Pilipinas president Monico Pu-
entevella as head of delegation.
The Asian Weightlifting
Championships is the second
qualifying event for the 2024
Paris Olympics after the World
Championships in Bogota, Co-
lombia last year.
The 32-year-old Diaz joined
and won the 55kg gold medal
around bronze medal at the
Vietnam SEA Games.
She pocketed the silver (rib-
bon) and bronze (hoop) at the
International Rhythmic Gym-
nastics Tournament-Gracia
Fair Cup held on Feb. 3-5 in Bu-
dapest, Hungary.
Labadan has been training
with Hungarian national cham-
pion and world-class gymnast
Dora Vass since 2017.
In 2018, she bagged the Indi-
vidual All-Around gold medal at
the Queens Cup in Hong Kong
(January) and the All-Around
bronze medal at the Gracia Cup
(February).
After winning five gold med-
als and named MVP at the Palar-
ong Pambansa in Vigan (Ilocos
Sur), she moved to Budapest in
August. During the 2019 Manila
SEA Games, Dela Pisa captured
one gold (hoop) and two bronz-
es (balls and clubs) while Em-
perado, Loretizo and Sembrano
in Colombia but the category is
not included in Paris. The 2022
SEA Games and 2018 Asian
Games champion decided to
move up to 59kg where Ando is
also trying the get an Olympic
berth.
Ando saw action in Tokyo,
finishing seventh overall in
the 64kg category. She got
three medals at the 2020 Asian
Weightlifting Championships
in Tashkent, Uzbekistan -- a
bronze in snatch and two sil-
vers from the clean and jerk and
total lift. She also won the silver
medal in Vietnam.
Sarno, the reigning Asian
champion, won the women’s
71kg category in the Vietnam
www.canadianinquirer.net
(RAMON FVELASQUEZ/FLICKR, CC BY-SA 3.0)
won the bronze in group all-
around with Jean Caluscusin
and AJ Melgar.
Meanwhile, the schedule of
the Asian Championships is as
follows: May 31 - Qualification
Individual (Hoop, Ball) and
All-Around Group (5 Hoops);
June 1 - Qualification Individ-
ual (Clubs, Ribbon) and All-
Around Group (3 Ribbons + 2
Balls), Awarding Ceremony for
SEAG, setting new records in
snatch (104kgs), clean and jerk
(124kgs) and total (239kgs). She
bagged three gold medals at the
2022 Asian Youth and Junior
Weightlifting Championships
in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Rosegie Ramos, a protégé of
coach Allen Drayfus Diaz, also
competed in Uzbekistan where
she took the gold medal in the
49kg. She secured a bronze
medal in the Vietnam SEAG.
Rose Jean Ramos, 17, suc-
cessfully defended the women’s
45kg title at the 2022 World
Youth Weightlifting Champi-
onships in Leon City, Guana-
juato, Mexico. She topped the
clean and jerk (85kgs), came in
MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY
Team and Group All-Around;
June 2 - Apparatus Finals Indi-
vidual (Hoop, Ball) and Group
(5 Hoops); June 3 - Apparatus
Finals Individual (Clubs, Rib-
bon) and Group (3 Ribbons + 2
Balls), Awarding Ceremony for
all Apparatus Finals.
Teams are expected to arrive
on May 28-29 while the judges
meeting and the draw will be on
May 30. ■
second in the snatch (70kgs)
and registered the best total of
155kgs.
Ceniza won the silver medal
(55kg) at the 2019 Manila SEA
Games.
After the Asian Champi-
onships, five athletes namely
Ando, Macrohon, Sarno, Inan
and Ceniza will return to Ma-
nila and join teammates Ange-
line Colonia (women’s 49kg),
Rosalinda Faustino (women’s
55kg), Dave Lloyd Pacaldo
(men’s 67kg) and John Dexter
Tabique (men’s 89kg) in the
flight to Phnom Penh, Cam-
bodia on May 11. Diaz will skip
the SEA Games to focus on her
training. ■
FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023
In ‘Air,’ Michael..
❰❰ 17 Knows’ campaign, fea-
turing star athlete Bo
Jackson.
None of this would be possible
without Nike’s big bet on Jordan.
So why does a film give Mi-
chael Jordan, the man who had
so much to do with Nike’s suc-
cess, so little to say?
I believe the answer is as
uncomfortable as it is simple:
Michael Jordan isn’t the film’s
subject, but its object.
In one of the film’s more
memorable scenes, Nike mar-
keting executive Sonny Vac-
caro, played by Matt Damon,
goes to visit the Jordan family
in Wilmington, North Carolina.
When he arrives, he greets
James, Michael’s father, before
being passed off to the real deci-
sion-maker: Deloris Jordan, the
matriarch of the Jordan clan.
Viola Davis portrays Deloris
with a drowning depth. Every
utterance and glance simmers.
“Five generations of Jordans
Asia’s First Supermodel:..
❰❰ 19 different countries be-
cause she was so proud
to be a Filipino. One
day, Anna was refused entry to It-
aly and slept overnight at the air-
port. The famous Italian design-
er, Valentino, had to pull strings
just to get her out of the airport.
From that inconvenient mo-
ment, Anna decided to call her
Mom and get help with acquir-
ing her US citizenship. However,
to this day, Anna is a dual citizen
and has always kept her Filipino
citizenship and passport.
Anna explains, “I am proud to
be a Filipino. I am proud of my
heritage. I am proud of my brown
skin and my long, black hair. It’s
common knowledge that I re-
fused to have my hair dyed lighter
and cut short when one designer
asked me to. Also, in the earlier
days of my modelling career, I
was asked to change my name
to Maria Montezuma but I re-
fused. I am a Filipina. I’ll always
be a Filipina on the way I look,
the way I carry myself, the way I
think and the way I behave.”
FROM SUPERMODEL TO
SUPERMOM
In 1994, Anna Bayle had her fi-
nal catwalk in Christian Lacroix’s
Spring 1994 Haute Couture show
in Paris. Anna emphasizes, “I want-
ed to end on a high note, and when
I retired, I never looked back. It’s
are buried in these forests,” she
announces as she sits with Vac-
caro in their backyard. She’s
polite but distant. Her piercing
eyes know to be wary of unan-
nounced visits from white men
in shiny cars. Everyone wants a
piece of her son, and it’s her job
to keep him whole.
In the film, before unveiling
the Air Jordan 1 to Vaccaro and
Strasser, Peter Moore, played
by Matthew Maher, describes
the shoe: “It has the logic of wa-
ter, like shoe was always here,
like it always existed.”
What Moore cannot know is
how right he really is. Deloris
Jordan and those five buried gen-
erations have always been here.
The Black body, from Ameri-
ca’s inception, has always been
there, as cotton and as sugar,
ripe for the picking. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
always best to leave when you’re at
the top, which is why I had my final
walk with Christian Lacroix.”
Anna adds, “I have reinvented
myself so many times. When I
retired from modelling, I worked
for fashion TV and wrote for
fashion newspapers and maga-
zines. After that, I had a very suc-
cessful lipstick line. Just as I had
the best mentors in modelling, I
also had the best mentor when it
came to my lipstick business — I
learned so much from the for-
mer head of Esteé Lauder, John
Dempsey.” It was also around
this time when Anna Bayle di-
vorced from her New Zealander
husband, Simon Spence with
whom she has one son, Callum.
Anna stepped away from her
business to focus on raising her
only son. She became a hands-on
single mom to Callum and she
raised her son while living off her
financial investments from her
modelling career. Callum went
to a private day school from kin-
dergarten to high school. When
Callum went to the prestigious
college, Sarah Lawrence College
in Bronxville, New York, Anna
decided to go back to work and
entered the real estate indus-
try. She had to pay for Callum’s
$70,000-a-year tuition fees so
she had to go back to a full-time
job. Her hard work paid well be-
An epic global..
❰❰ 21 es influence important
soil processes and func-
tion in the same way
vascular plants do. Their effects
may not be as strong, but their to-
tal cover means mosses are poten-
tially as significant when summed
across the whole globe.
But mosses are under increas-
ing threats globally; disturbance
by livestock, overharvesting,
cause Callum was an outstanding
student and was also a part of his
college’s swimming team.
Anna and her son became so
close and inseparable through-
out the years. Anna believed that
it is important to be physically
present for her son 100%. While
raising her son as a single parent,
Anna had to be both nurturing
and tough at the same time. Hav-
ing learned about her life as a sin-
gle mom to her unico hijo, I could
totally relate to Anna and I fully
understand the journey she had
while raising her only son. How-
ever, it is not all hardships and
struggles for us single moms. To
quote Meg Lowrey, “Being a sin-
gle parent is not a life full of strug-
gles, but a journey for the strong.”
Indeed, Anna Bayle got her
rewards for being such a SU-
PERMOM to Callum. Her
25-year-old son graduated in
2019 with Distinction in Liberal
Arts Degree and Masteral Arts
Degree. He is now dabbling be-
tween modelling (just like his
Mom) and projection design.
According to Anna, “For me, the
most important thing is that I
raised a kind young man. A young
man who is both assertive and
independent. I am grateful and
proud that I raised a young man
with proper life values. Just to
give you an insight on what kind
www.canadianinquirer.net
land clearing and even changing
climates are the greatest threats.
We need a greater acknowl-
edgement of the services that
soil mosses provide for all life
on this planet. This means
greater education about their
positive benefits, identifying
and mitigating the main threats
they face, and including them in
routine monitoring programs.
of a young man Callum is: he
asked my permission if he could
skip his graduation rites and in-
stead fly to Prague because he got
accepted for a summer job there!
Of course, I said yes because I be-
lieved that travelling is always a
wonderful experience and he will
learn a lot from visiting different
countries. I don’t want to get in
the way of his own adventures.”
Now that Callum is grown
up, Anna has shifted her focus
on becoming a successful real
estate broker. Anna divulges,
“During the years that I was
raising Callum, I’ve been a real
estate investor specialist on the
side, helping other people find
their real estate investment op-
portunities in New York City.
Today, I’m still a realtor and re-
cently, I’ve been awarded numer-
ous accolades by my company,
Douglas Elliman, for reaching
the number 14 top spot in a group
of 2500 agents in New York City.
Being a real estate broker turned
out to be the perfect job for a for-
mer model like me. I am self-em-
ployed and I’m thankful that I
don’t work in an office environ-
ment doing a 9 to 5 job because
that’s not for me. I enjoy finding
luxury homes for my clients who
are so happy with the way I help
them find their dream homes.”
Is there anything that she
23
Soil mosses are everywhere,
but their future is far from se-
cure. They are likely to play in-
creasingly important roles as
vascular plants decline under
predicted hotter, drier and more
variable global climates. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
misses in her past life as Asia’s
first Supermodel? Anna gush-
es, “The standing ovations and
thunderous applause!”
ANNA BAYLE 2.
It seems that Asia’s first Su-
permodel also has the Midas
touch — anything that she ven-
tures into turns into gold —
from being a scholar in school
to becoming one of the top 3
models in the world back in
the 80’s to transitioning as a
successful businesswoman, an
awesome writer, a top notch re-
altor and a SUPERMOM! What
is next for Anna Bayle?
Anna dishes, “My aim is to
finish writing my book!”
There you go, another feather
to add to her beautiful cap! Tru-
ly, they don’t make Supermodels
like Anna Bayle nowadays. Anna
Bayle is in a league of her own.
There will always be only one
Anna Bayle, the original, and
Asia’s first Supermodel. Ladies,
what are we waiting for? Let’s
walk in life like Anna Bayle! ■
Matte Laurel-Zalko is a former
restaurateur and hotelier, a moth-
er, a wife, a health and wellness
aficionado, food and wine enthu-
siast, a dog-lover, and lifestyle col-
umnist exclusively for Philippine
Canadian Inquirer (PCI).
24
Recent banking crises are rooted in a
system that rewards excessive risk-taking
– as First Republic’s failure shows
BY ALEXANDRA DIGBY,
University of Rochester,
DOLLIE DAVIS, Minerva
University, ROBSON
HIROSHI HATSUKAMI
MORGAN, Minerva University
The Conversation
First Republic Bank became
the second-biggest bank failure
in U.S. history after the lender
was seized by the Federal De-
posit Insurance Corp. and sold
to JPMorgan Chase on May 1,
2023. First Republic is the lat-
est victim of the panic that has
roiled small and midsize banks
since the failure of Silicon Val-
ley Bank in March 2023.
The collapse of SVB and now
First Republic underscores how
the impact of risky decisions at
one bank can quickly spread into
the broader financial system. It
should also provide the impetus
for policymakers and regulators
to address a systemic problem
that has plagued the banking in-
dustry from the savings and loan
crisis of the 1980s to the finan-
cial crisis of 2008 to the recent
turmoil following SVB’s demise:
incentive structures that encour-
age excessive risk-taking.
The Federal Reserve’s top regu-
lator seems to agree. On April 28,
the central bank’s vice chair for
supervision delivered a stinging
report on the collapse of Silicon
Valley Bank, blaming its failures
on its weak risk management, as
well as supervisory missteps.
We are professors of econom-
ics who study and teach the his-
tory of financial crises. In each
of the financial upheavals since
the 1980s, the common denom-
inator was risk. Banks provided
incentives that encouraged ex-
ecutives to take big risks to boost
profits, with few consequences if
their bets turned bad. In other
words, all carrot and no stick.
One question we are grap-
Business
pling with now is what can be
done to keep history from re-
peating itself and threatening
the banking system, economy
and jobs of everyday people.
S&L crisis sets the stage
The precursor to the banking
crises of the 21st century was the
savings and loan crisis of the 1980s.
The so-called S&L crisis, like
the collapse of SVB, began in a
rapidly changing interest rate
environment. Savings and loan
banks, also known as thrifts, pro-
vided home loans at attractive
interest rates. When the Federal
Reserve under Chairman Paul
Volcker aggressively raised rates
in the late 1970s to fight raging
inflation, S&Ls were suddenly
earning less on fixed-rate mort-
gages while having to pay higher
interest to attract depositors. At
one point, their losses topped
US$100 billion.
To help the teetering banks,
the federal government dereg-
ulated the thrift industry, al-
lowing S&Ls to expand beyond
home loans to commercial real
estate. S&L executives were
often paid based on the size of
their institutions’ assets, and
they aggressively lent to com-
mercial real estate projects,
taking on riskier loans to grow
their loan portfolios quickly.
In the late 1980s, the com-
mercial real estate boom
turned bust. S&Ls, burdened by
bad loans, failed in droves, re-
quiring the federal government
take over banks and delinquent
commercial properties and sell
the assets to recover money
paid to insured depositors. Ulti-
mately, the bailout cost taxpay-
ers more than $100 billion.
Short-term incentives
The 2008 crisis is another
obvious example of incentive
structures that encourage risky
strategies.
At all levels of mortgage financ-
ing – from Main Street lenders to
Wall Street investment firms –
executives prospered by taking
excessive risks and passing them
to someone else. Lenders passed
mortgages made to people who
could not afford them onto Wall
Street firms, which in turn bun-
dled those into securities to sell
to investors. It all came crashing
down when the housing bubble
burst, followed by a wave of fore-
closures.
Incentives rewarded short-
term performance, and execu-
tives responded by taking big-
ger risks for immediate gains.
At the Wall Street investment
banks Bear Stearns and Lehman
Brothers, profits grew as the
firms bundled increasingly risky
loans into mortgage-backed se-
curities to sell, buy and hold.
As foreclosures spread, the val-
ue of these securities plummet-
ed, and Bear Stearns collapsed in
early 2008, providing the spark of
the financial crisis. Lehman failed
in September of that year, para-
lyzing the global financial system
and plunging the U.S. economy
into the worst recession since the
Great Depression.
Executives at the banks, how-
ever, had already cashed in, and
none were held accountable.
Researchers at Harvard Uni-
versity estimated that top exec-
utive teams at Bear Stearns and
Lehman pocketed a combined
$2.4 billion in cash bonuses and
stock sales from 2000 to 2008.
A familiar ring
That brings us back to Silicon
Valley Bank.
Executives tied up the bank’s
assets in long-term Treasury
and mortgage-backed securities,
failing to protect against rising
interest rates that would under-
mine the value of these assets.
The interest rate risk was partic-
ularly acute for SVB, since a large
share of depositors were start-
ups, whose finances depend on
investors’ access to cheap money.
www.canadianinquirer.net
A branch of First Republic Bank. (ALPHA PHOTO/FLICKR, CC BY-NC 2.0)
When the Fed began raising
interest rates last year, SVB was
doubly exposed. As startups’
fundraising slowed, they with-
drew money, which required
SVB to sell long-term holdings
at a loss to cover the withdraw-
als. When the extent of SVB’s
losses became known, depos-
itors lost trust, spurring a run
that ended with SVB’s collapse.
For executives, however,
there was little downside in
discounting or even ignoring
the risk of rising rates. The cash
bonus of SVB CEO Greg Becker
more than doubled to $3 mil-
lion in 2021 from $1.4 million in
2017, lifting his total earnings to
$10 million, up 60% from four
years earlier. Becker also sold
nearly $30 million in stock over
the past two years, including
some $3.6 million in the days
leading up to his bank’s failure.
The impact of the failure was
not contained to SVB. Share
prices of many midsize banks
tumbled. Another American
bank, Signature, collapsed days
after SVB did.
First Republic survived the
initial panic in March after it was
rescued by a consortium of major
banks led by JPMorgan Chase,
but the damage was already done.
First Republic recently reported
MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY
that depositors withdrew more
than $100 billion in the six weeks
following SVB’s collapse, and on
May 1, the FDIC seized control of
the bank and engineered a sale to
JPMorgan Chase.
The crisis isn’t over yet.
Banks had over $620 billion in
unrealized losses at the end of
2022, largely due to rapidly ris-
ing interest rates.
The big picture
So, what’s to be done?
We believe the bipartisan bill
recently filed in Congress, the
Failed Bank Executives Claw-
back, would be a good start. In
the event of a bank failure, the
legislation would empower
regulators to claw back com-
pensation received by bank ex-
ecutives in the five-year period
preceding the failure.
Clawbacks, however, kick in
only after the fact. To prevent
risky behavior, regulators could
require executive compensation
to prioritize long-term perfor-
mance over short-term gains.
And new rules could restrict the
ability of bank executives to take
the money and run, including
requiring executives to hold sub-
stantial portions of their stock
and options until they retire.
❱❱ PAGE 28 Recent banking crises
FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023
Devils in the detail: an economist
argues the case for a Tasmanian
AFL team – and new stadium
BY TIM HARCOURT,
University of Technology
Sydney
The Conversation
The Australian Football
League’s announcement of a
Tasmanian football club – like-
ly to be called the Tassie Devils
– is now a formality, after the
federal goverment’s pledge of
A$240 million to a new stadium
and precinct in Hobart.
A new stadium is the last
of 11 AFL requirements for a
Tasmanian club to become the
league’s 19th team, joining ten
Victorian clubs and two each
from the other four states.
The view was that UTAS sta-
dium in Launceston could be up-
graded but that upgrading Hobart’s
Bellerive Oval (known as Blund-
stone Arena) made less sense than
a new facility in Hobart’s CBD, on
Macquarie Point, north of Ho-
bart’s Constitution Dock.
The Tasmanian government
wants the stadium, which it
will own, to anchor a new “arts
and sports” precinct. It will
contribute $375 million of the
estimated cost of $715 million.
Another $85 million will come
from loans against future land
Number of OPEC+ countries voluntary cut
oil production from May
TASS
Philippine News Agency
MOSCOW -- A number of
countries participating in the
OPEC+ agreement have volun-
tarily reduced their oil production
beginning from May 1 and until
the end of the year and the total oil
output downfall is now estimated
at 1.66 million barrels per day.
The OPEC+ countries at the
issue announced on April 2 vol-
untary reduction in oil output
until 2024.
Saudi Arabia has decided to
sales and leases in the revital-
ised area. The AFL will contrib-
ute the final $15 million. There
will also be $10 million to build
a headquarters for the new club.
This is part of $360 million
the AFL will spend on AFL in
Tasmania over the next ten
years, with $209 million to sub-
sidise the new club and $120
million to support grassroots
participation and the develop-
ment of talented players.
Compared with the $3.4 bil-
lion the federal government
has committed to buildings for
the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, its
contribution to the Hobart are-
na is relatively minor.
But critics say the stadiums
in Hobart and Launceston are
adequate, and that the money
would be better spent on public
housing – with rents having ris-
en 45% in the past five years. As
novelist Richard Flanagan put it:
Tasmania doesn’t have a sta-
dium problem. It has a housing
and homelessness problem.
The problem with this ar-
gument is that economies are
dynamic, not static. Was it also
wrong to have built the Sydney
Opera House because of hous-
ing issues in the late 1960s?
Without an AFL team and
reduce oil production by 500,000
barrels per day (bpd) from May
until the end of 2023, while the
UAE will reduce production by
144,000 bpd, Iraq - by 211,000 bpd,
Kuwait - by 128,000 bpd, Oman -
by 40,000 bpd, Algeria - by 48,000
bpd, Kazakhstan - by 78,000 bpd
and Gabon - by 8,000 bpd.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Min-
ister Alexander Novak an-
nounced earlier in the year that
Russia would extend a volun-
tary reduction in oil output of
500,000 barrels per day from
the average February level until
the end of 2023.
new stadium, Tasmania is likely
to still have a homeless prob-
lem. In fact, the problem may
even be worse without econom-
ic activity the new team and sta-
dium will bring.
Economic rationale
The rationale for the federal
and state governments is that
a new stadium is a precondi-
tion for a Tasmanian AFL, and
that both together will generate
$2.2 billion in economic activ-
ity over 25 years according to
Tasmanian government.
Governments favour infra-
structure projects because con-
struction has a high “multiplier
effect” – generating flow-on
benefits. The Tasmanian gov-
ernment estimates construc-
tion will generate $300 million
in economic activity and 4,200
jobs. It expects the stadium
when operational to sustain
950 jobs and generate $85 mil-
lion in economic activity a year.
This will depend on hosting
major events along with AFL
fixtures. The Tasmanian govern-
ment’s business case anticipates
the venue hosting at least 44
events a year, attracting 123,500
overseas and interstate visitors.
These expectations will be
buoyed by the success of the
On April 2, a number of
OPEC+ nations announced a
voluntary output reduction
from May to the end of 2023.
Decisions on the issue were
confirmed following the meeting
of the OPEC+ ministerial moni-
toring committee held on April 3.
The total volume of voluntary
oil output reduction was estimat-
ed at that time at 1.66 million bar-
rels per day and the decision was
made in addition to agreements
enforced in November 2022 on
reduction in output by 2 million
barrels per day within the frame-
work of the OPEC+ deal. ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
Business
AFL’s “Gather Round” in mid-
April, in which all AFL games
were played in South Austra-
lia. A reported $15 million state
government contribution gen-
erated an estimated $85 mil-
lion in economic benefit from
60,000 interstate fans.
The case for a Tassie team
In assessing this decision, we
can’t just consider the business
case for the stadium. It’s about the
case for a Tasmanian AFL club.
Tasmania may only have a to-
tal population of 558,000 (with
247,000 in Hobart) but its claim
to have an AFL team is as good
as the Gold Coast (home of the
Suns, population 640,000) or
even Geelong (home of the Cats,
population about 280,000).
Townsville, where the North
Queensland Cowboys play in
the NRL, has 235,000 people.
According to James Coven-
try’s 2018 book Footballistics:
How the Data Analytics Revolu-
tion is Uncovering Footy’s Hid-
den Truths, no other state has a
higher percentage of AFL fans.
In WA it’s 62.3%, in South Aus-
tralia 75.7%. In Victoria, 70.2%.
In Tasmania it’s 79%.
Aussie Rules is really the
only game in town on the Apple
Isle, writes Hunter Fujak his
25
2021 book Code Wars, which
explores the nation’s “Barassi
Line” split between AFL and
National Rugby League. The
percentage of Tasmanians that
only follow the AFL is 35%,
compared to the national aver-
age of 19%.
More than the bottom line
Yes, the AFL is a multimil-
lion-dollar business, but it’s
also a community organisation,
managing a public good. As the
Richmond president Peggy
O’Neal put it in Coventry’s book:
It’s sort of a blend of strict
financial business and not for
profit […] If we wanted just to
make money, our model would
be quite different.
This explain the AFL’s pre-
paredness to commit $345 mil-
lion over the next decade to
support the new club, as well as
grassroots football across Tas-
mania, to ensure local commu-
nity footy doesn’t lose out from
the resources and energy being
put into the AFL team. This will
include building 70 new ovals
across the state, and funding
football academies in Hobart,
Launceston and Penguin (west
of Devonport on the north coast).
❱❱ PAGE 28 Devils in the
 26
When employers reward ‘ideal’ workers,
gender equality suffers
BY SHIREEN KANJI, Brunel
University London
The Conversation
UK deputy prime minister
Dominic Raab recently resigned
following the publication of a re-
port into workplace complaints
about his conduct, including
bullying allegations. But this ele-
ment of his behaviour wasn’t the
only concerning workplace prob-
lem highlighted by the report.
It also detailed how, seem-
ingly unencumbered by re-
sponsibilities outside work, his
working hours ran from 7:30am
until 10pm, Monday to Thurs-
day, while Fridays were spent
on constituency business, usu-
ally followed by extensive work
on weekends.
When organisations or lead-
ers support such working prac-
tices – either by working long
hours themselves or rewarding
those that do – it can deepen
inequality in the workplace.
Setting an expectation that it’s
OK (or even necessary) to work
beyond your contracted hours
disadvantages those that need
more flexibility, such as carers,
who are typically women.
Unfortunately, long hours
are essentially a requirement
for promotion in many man-
agerial and professional jobs.
Such working practices accord
with the very values that led to
the emergence of modern cap-
italism and the creation of the
concept of the “ideal worker”,
as argued by sociologist Max
Weber. It’s hardly surprising,
What causes volcanoes..
❰❰ 21 no, built up over thou-
sands of years through
lava eruptions. Its
sides slope gently downward in
all directions.
But Mount Semeru is differ-
ent – it’s a composite volcano,
also known as a stratovolcano,
with steep sides that come to
a point at the top, like an up-
side-down sugar cone.
Semeru’s most recent eruption
started when heavy rains washed
away rocks near the top of the
Business
then, that many organisations
value and require long hours,
even if they are inefficient.
But long working hours under-
mine health, raising the risks of
cardiovascular disease, chronic
fatigue, stress, depression, sleep
quality, self-perceived health,
use of alcohol and cigarettes,
and a host of other conditions
and problems. Inefficiently long
hours could also contribute to
low productivity, as well as pro-
moting gender inequality at work
and in the home.
Work flexibility versus ca-
reer progression
Feminist scholars have also
long pointed to the adverse ef-
fects of long hours on women
in particular. Research shows
this is a key source of the gender
wage gap disadvantage. The UK’s
Equal Pay Act made a substan-
tial difference in narrowing the
gender pay gap, but long work-
ing hours still stand in the way of
this progress – particularly for
those who have caring respon-
sibilities, such as mothers. It is
partly because of care that the
gender wage gap continues to
widen up to the age of 42. During
this time, those who can’t work
excessive hours could miss out
on career opportunities.
Any kind of work flexibility
can come at a high price in terms
of career progression, as I found
in my study of professional and
managerial women’s exit from
work, conducted with organ-
isational psychologist Emma
Cahusac. We found that even
women who continued to work
full-time after having a child
volcano. That allowed gas to es-
cape – and ash to start erupting.
The dangers
Many hazards are associated
with erupting volcanoes: lava
flows, acidic gases, ash and la-
hars, which are dangerous flows
of water, ash and rock that run
miles down the steep slopes of
volcanoes, sometimes at over 100
miles per hour. The force of la-
hars can move huge boulders and
destroy bridges and buildings.
Mount Semeru’s recent erup-
were disadvantaged because
in professional and manageri-
al work, full time often means
being available any time. Many
women are pushed into less
interesting work because face
time and on-call availability are
disproportionately rewarded.
Reducing women’s domestic
work can contribute to closing
the gender pay gap. Numerous
studies have shown that house-
work is negatively associated
with wages. This is why it mat-
ters when men do much less
around the home than women.
Their contributions have grad-
ually increased to a small de-
gree, with men’s involvement in
childcare picking up more than
their participation in the mun-
dane daily housework tasks.
But women still perform the
lion’s share, and tend to take re-
sponsibility for domestic work,
tion covered nearby villages
with ash – tiny particles of rock
that can go deep into lungs,
causing irritation and making it
hard to breathe.
As falling ash accumulates,
it can smother crops, contami-
nate water supplies and trigger
the collapse of buildings. Newly
fallen dry ash weighs 10 to 20
times more than snow.
Generally, scientists don’t try
to stop volcanoes from erupting.
They are a natural part of the
www.canadianinquirer.net
taking on the “mental load” of
making sure chores get done.
Organisations reinforce this
unequal sharing in the home
when they make working long
hours a pre-condition for suc-
cess. Such company cultures
uphold an unspoken “gendered
contract” that it is women who
are meant to perform care.
Working fewer hours
If long hours are an ingre-
dient of success in modern or-
ganisations, not everyone is
convinced – even those who
benefit. I conducted a study
with University of Luxembourg
sociologist Robin Samuel which
showed that on average even
male breadwinners – the main
beneficiaries of the long hours
system and those who actually
work the longest hours – would
prefer to work fewer hours for
less pay. Further, when male
Earth. But monitoring volca-
noes is critical. People need an
early warning of an eruption so
they can move out of harm’s way.
While we cannot predict the
exact time of an eruption, scien-
tists are learning more about what
causes them, and how to protect
people who live near them.
What’s critical: warning sys-
tems for lahars, planned evacu-
ation routes in areas threatened
by volcanoes, and excellent
communication between the
MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY
breadwinners want to work
fewer hours, our research
shows it’s often because they
feel their jobs interfere with
their family lives.
Recent examples of toxic
workplaces should encourage
debate about what it is reason-
able to expect from employees.
Gender inequalities relating to
the reconciliation of work and
care remain largely a side issue
within organisations, although
both the crisis of care and how
people can accomplish work and
care are critical issues facing
our society. The #MeToo move-
ment shone a light on sexual ha-
rassment, but it hasn’t been the
turning point many had hoped
for in terms of boosting gender
equality at work. There has been
a substantial backlash to it, in
part emanating from the gulf in
understanding between those
affected by such abuse and those
who perpetrate or condone it.
A similar divergence can be
seen in discussions about tox-
ic workplaces – whether that’s
about bullying or deep-rooted
employer expectations about
working practices such as long
hours, which systematically
disadvantage some employees.
Some people may see working
long hours as linked to being
robust, high-achieving, re-
sults-driven and demanding,
others believe it diminishes
employees and degrades the
workplace environment. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
scientists at volcanic monitor-
ing stations and government
agencies who can let people
know when a volcano is about
to go. ■
Curious Kids is a series for
children of all ages. If you have
a question you’d like an expert
to answer, send it to curiouskid-
sus@theconversation.com.
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023
How close are we to reading minds?
A new study decodes language and
meaning from brain scans
BY CHRISTINA MAHER,
University of Sydney
The Conversation
The technology to decode our
thoughts is drawing ever closer.
Neuroscientists at the Universi-
ty of Texas have for the first time
decoded data from non-invasive
brain scans and used them to re-
construct language and meaning
from stories that people hear,
see or even imagine.
In a new study published
in Nature Neuroscience, Al-
exander Huth and colleagues
successfully recovered the gist
of language and sometimes
exact phrases from function-
al magnetic resonance imag-
ing (fMRI) brain recordings of
three participants.
Technology that can create
language from brain signals
could be enormously useful for
people who cannot speak due to
conditions such as motor neu-
rone disease. At the same time,
it raises concerns for the future
privacy of our thoughts.
Language decoded
Language decoding models,
also called “speech decoders”,
aim to use recordings of a per-
son’s brain activity to discover the
words they hear, imagine or say.
Until now, speech decod-
ers have only been used with
data from devices surgically
implanted in the brain, which
limits their usefulness. Other
decoders which used non-in-
vasive brain activity recordings
have been able to decode single
words or short phrases, but not
continuous language.
The new research used the
blood oxygen level dependent
signal from fMRI scans, which
shows changes in blood flow
and oxygenation levels in dif-
ferent parts of the brain. By fo-
cusing on patterns of activity
in brain regions and networks
Technology
that process language, the re-
searchers found their decoder
could be trained to reconstruct
continuous language (includ-
ing some specific words and the
general meaning of sentences).
Specifically, the decoder took
the brain responses of three par-
ticipants as they listened to sto-
ries, and generated sequences of
words that were likely to have
produced those brain responses.
These word sequences did well
at capturing the general gist of
the stories, and in some cases in-
cluded exact words and phrases.
The researchers also had the
participants watch silent mov-
ies and imagine stories while
being scanned. In both cases,
the decoder often managed to
predict the gist of the stories.
For example, one user
thought “I don’t have my driv-
er’s licence yet”, and the decod-
er predicted “she has not even
started to learn to drive yet”.
Further, when participants ac-
tively listened to one story while
ignoring another story played si-
multaneously, the decoder could
identify the meaning of the story
being actively listened to.
How does it work?
The researchers started out
by having each participant lie
inside an fMRI scanner and lis-
ten to 16 hours of narrated sto-
ries while their brain responses
were recorded.
These brain responses were
then used to train an encoder
– a computational model that
tries to predict how the brain
will respond to words a user
hears. After training, the en-
coder could quite accurately
predict how each participant’s
brain signals would respond to
hearing a given string of words.
However, going in the opposite
direction – from recorded brain
responses to words – is trickier.
The encoder model is de-
signed to link brain responses
with “semantic features” or the
broad meanings of words and
sentences. To do this, the system
uses the original GPT language
model, which is the precursor of
today’s GPT-4 model. The decod-
er then generates sequences of
words that might have produced
the observed brain responses.
The accuracy of each “guess”
is then checked by using it to
predict previously recorded
brain activity, with the predic-
tion then compared to the actu-
al recorded activity.
During this resource-inten-
sive process, multiple guesses
are generated at a time, and
ranked in order of accuracy.
Poor guesses are discarded and
good ones kept. The process
continues by guessing the next
word in the sequence, and so
on until the most accurate se-
quence is determined.
Words and meanings
The study found data from
multiple, specific brain regions
– including the speech network,
the parietal-temporal-occipi-
tal association region, and pre-
frontal cortex – were needed for
the most accurate predictions.
One key difference between
www.canadianinquirer.net
this work and earlier efforts is
the data being decoded. Most
decoding systems link brain
data to motor features or ac-
tivity recorded from brain re-
gions involved in the last step of
speech output, the movement
of the mouth and tongue. This
decoder works instead at the
level of ideas and meanings.
One limitation of using fMRI
data is its low “temporal reso-
lution”. The blood oxygen level
dependent signal rises and falls
over approximately a 10-second
period, during which time a per-
son might have heard 20 or more
words. As a result, this technique
cannot detect individual words,
but only the potential meanings
of sequences of words.
No need for privacy panic
(yet)
The idea of technology that
can “read minds” raises con-
cerns over mental privacy. The
researchers conducted addi-
tional experiments to address
some of these concerns.
These experiments showed
we don’t need to worry just yet
about having our thoughts de-
coded while we walk down the
street, or indeed without our
27
extensive cooperation.
A decoder trained on one
person’s thoughts performed
poorly when predicting the
semantic detail from another
participant’s data. What’s more,
participants could disrupt the
decoding by diverting their at-
tention to a different task such
as naming animals or telling a
different story.
Movement in the scanner
can also disrupt the decoder as
fMRI is highly sensitive to mo-
tion, so participant cooperation
is essential. Considering these
requirements, and the need for
high-powered computational
resources, it is highly unlikely
that someone’s thoughts could
be decoded against their will at
this stage.
Finally, the decoder does not
currently work on data other
than fMRI, which is an expen-
sive and often impractical pro-
cedure. The group plans to test
their approach on other non-in-
vasive brain data in the future. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
 28
Are you under digital distress? 3 ways tech-
triggers may be affecting your mental health
BY BRITTANY HARKER
MARTIN, University of
Calgary
The Conversation
Mental Health Week, which
runs from May 1 to 7, provides
an opportunity to reflect on
our collective well-being. In ad-
dition to rising mental health
issues, there seems to be a gen-
eral malaise across normally
well individuals in society. This
is manifesting as cognitive and
physical exhaustion, limited
patience, disinterest in work
and a resentment of the stress-
ors in our lives.
Many of these stressors may
be coming from interactions
with technology: small but fre-
quent frustrations that quick-
ly dissipate, but when added
up become micro-aggressive
tech-triggers of digital distress,
defined here as a form of psy-
chological distress caused by a
dysfunctional user experience
with technology.
Tech-triggers are pervasive,
yet seemingly innocuous be-
cause we’ve learned to click
them away or compartmental-
ize their effects. No one is going
to do anything about them un-
til we acknowledge their harm,
and that it’s a problem. Here are
three main types of tech-triggers
and their corresponding effects
to consider if this is affecting you.
Pop-ups & prompts — I’m lost!
Pop-ups are designed to in-
terrupt and draw our attention
through notifications, calendar
reminders, software updates,
website ads, low-battery alerts
and more. Frequent disrup-
tions put us on high alert like
a jack-in-the-box, triggering a
release of adrenaline, norepi-
nephrine and cortisol. These
Recent banking crises..
❰❰ 24 The Fed’s new report
on what led to SVB’s
failure points in this
direction. The 102-page report
recommends new limits on exec-
utive compensation, saying lead-
ers “were not compensated to
manage the bank’s risk,” as well
Technology
chemicals are designed to make
us be alert and ready to protect
ourselves when we are under
threat; but when we are not in
actual danger, they just make us
feel like we’re on edge.
Prompts for our username
and password can be the ulti-
mate trigger. With many people
having login details for numer-
ous websites, it can be chal-
lenging to keep track of it all.
And often, trying to log into one
of your accounts can feel like
an oppressive regime of trial
and error, sifting through your
memory for ludicrously jum-
bled passwords and immemo-
rable usernames.
Keeping such things in our
heads is antithetical to the way
our memory works, and repeat,
failed attempts can create the
same psychological state as
being lost. The state of being
psychologically lost involves
feeling isolated, uncertain and
disoriented.
With too many pop-ups and
prompts, we may be in constant
fight or flight mode. It’s no wonder
they make us feel lost and jumpy.
Digital clutter — I’m failing!
Digital clutter creates a slow-
burn of deep-seated aware-
ness that there is too much to
manage, and we’re failing at it.
Unclearable email queues, clut-
tered digital folders and our in-
ability to complete tech-tasks
(like printing photos or deleting
old drafts) can create a psycho-
logical state of failure. Organiz-
ing and decluttering is our way
of feeling in control, but some-
times there is just so much to
manage. It can feel defeating.
So, too, can the infinite scroll
feature on social media apps.
Long sessions of scrolling,
swiping and tapping make our
brain check out and send neu-
as stronger stress-testing and
higher liquidity requirements.
We believe these are also good
steps, but probably not enough.
It comes down to this: Fi-
nancial crises are less likely to
happen if banks and bank exec-
utives consider the interest of
rochemical signals of demoti-
vation and failure.
This may be a combination of
rising cortisol and lowering do-
pamine, which creates a biophys-
ical experience of feeling stressed
and bored at the same time.
This might be amplified by
the frequent failure experienced
with other tech-triggers, such as
disruptive software updates and
continuously newer versions
of tech, just different enough
to make you feel like you don’t
know what you are doing.
This constant state of up-
grade is antithetical to how we
learn. Humans are motivated
by growth: we like to learn more
and get better at tasks, not to
feel suddenly stupid and slowed
down. With too much to sort
through and more on the way,
our system is frequently trig-
gered for failure. It’s no wonder
we feel overwhelmed.
Cyber insecurity — I’m afraid!
A third tech-trigger is caused
by apprehensions about our cy-
ber-security and how safe our
digital information really is.
Although online shopping and
the entire banking system, not
just themselves, their institu-
tions and shareholders. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
www.canadianinquirer.net
banking seems secure, there
can be a sneaking suspicion that
our credit card and financial in-
formation are not as protected
as we’re told. We manage this
fear with a few clicks, or per-
haps with a purchase that re-
stores our sense of control.
Terror management theo-
ry suggests that societies gain
comfort through avoidance. Is it
possible people click “allow all”
on cookie notifications to make
themselves feel better? If so,
the same theory explains how
this can also trigger existential
anxiety and depression. With so
much at stake, our system is fre-
quently triggered to feel unsafe,
and it’s no wonder our brain is
warning us to stay alert.
What can we do about it?
The effects of these tech-trig-
gers mean we might regularly
feel lost, stupid and afraid. The
question is: what can we do about
it? Many of these interactions
are embedded in our work and
lifestyles and yet, our bodies and
minds are telling us this isn’t right.
Digital distress may be our
body’s way of warning us that
Devils in the..
❰❰ 25 The AFL has sub-
sidised the AFLW for
similar reasons. It’s
about more than just the bot-
tom line.
Tasmania has waited far too
long for a team of its own. The
entry of the Tassie Devils into
MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY
something’s got to change. If so,
awareness is a start, and can help
us better manage the situation
and regulate our responses. Here
are a few things you can try:
• Take the time to review
your settings for pop-up block-
ers, cookies, authorized data
access and notifications. Turn
them off (or better yet, set a
time to turn off your devices)
and see if you feel more calm.
• Schedule time for sorting
through digital clutter before it
becomes overwhelming (or bet-
ter yet, consider what you want
to receive or save in the first
place). If you don’t deal with it
now, you’ll have to deal with it
later with more stress.
• Stay alert for workplace
tech-triggers and challenge
them when they first arise.
Some so-called solutions are
problematic, like having to log in
to the same account repeatedly
throughout the day or having to
go through too many authenti-
cation steps. Employers might
reconsider tactics if employee
mental health is on the line.
We can also create small
changes that make us less
tech-dependent, such as bring-
ing back wall clocks so we can
glance at time without a screen;
noting schedules on paper to
avoid being drawn into email
via our digital calendar; and
change our settings in apps and
devices to have more control
over our digital experience.
Small, proactive counter-
measures can increase our
self-efficacy in a way that will
reduce our digital distress and
make us feel more empowered
over our mental health. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
the AFL can be justified on eco-
nomic, social and (most of all)
footy grounds. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
FRIDAY MAY 5, 2023
Sunflowers lure tourists back to
Ilocos Norte agro-tourism site
BY LEILANIE ADRIANO
Philippine News Agency
LAOAG CITY – Thousands of
sunflowers in this agro-tourism
site in the quaint village of Maru-
aya in Piddig are once again in
full bloom, drawing tourists back
into the the Ilocos Norte town
and providing a more stable live-
lihood for local farmers.
Located about 25 kilometers
or less than an hour’s drive from
this city, the Piddig Organic
Farmer’s Association developed
a two-hectare flower farm and
food garden as part of Piddig’s
agro-tourism project, which aims
to show the town’s best practices
in sustainable agriculture.
Piddig municipal agricultur-
ist Harvey Adap said the farm
showcases diversified organic
Return of Chinese tourists to PH
seen due to group visa – envoy
BY LIZA AGOOT
Philippine News Agency
BEIJING – The Philippine Em-
bassy in China has expressed con-
fidence that target Chinese tourist
arrivals will be achieved this year
following the restoration of group
visa and e-visa applications.
Philippine Ambassador to
China Jaime FlorCruz said they
noticed a surge in tourist appli-
cation even before the so-called
May Day holiday.
“May surge ng application
lalo na nang nag-restore na tayo
nggroup visa starting April 10
(We saw a surge in applications,
especially with the restoration
of the group visa application
starting April 10),” FlorCruz
said in a recent interview.
He said the Philippines is
Travel
farming systems and is a model
for the national government’s
convergence initiative program.
“While we develop the farm
as an agro-tourism enterprise,
we also teach our farmers how to
make more income through di-
versified farming. We help them
organize as a cooperative and em-
ploy new technologies to improve
their productivity with the help of
various government institutions,”
he told the Philippine News Agen-
cy (PNA) on Thursday.
Aside from rows of sunflowers,
the farm also features colorful art
installations the locals themselves
designed for instant attraction.
Since its launching in 2019,
the Piddig agro-tourism project
has spurred local employment,
with farmers earning not only
from the sale of their various
farm produce but also from the
popular to the Chinese because
of its tropical weather, tropical
fruits, beautiful beaches and
Filipino hospitality.
“They are brought by accredit-
ed travel agencies, so we are con-
fident that there is an upsurge of
revenge travel,” he added.
He said accredited travel
agencies have started availing of
the group travel visa application.
“With the five-day holiday, many
of them have planned to spend five
to seven days in the Philippines
during the May Day holiday. It’s a
good timing for us that we restored
our group visa,” he said.
He said travel agencies have
started to process group visa of
10 to 20 and even 100 Chinese
nationals wishing to travel to
the Philippines.
Erwin Balane, the Philippines’
Department of Tourism (DOT)
collection of entrance fees.
Farm workers said they are
thankful for the continuing de-
velopment of the area as it sus-
tains their livelihood.
“I’m so much grateful for this
project. I learned a lot about
modern farming as an enter-
prising business,” Noel Gacho,
a resident of Piddig town, told
the PNA also on Thursday.
Aside from hiring farm labor-
ers to look after the plants and
animals, tourist guides have
likewise been hired as tourists
started flocking the farm.
In-season fruits and vegetables
are also available for “pick and
pay.” Every year, the Piddig sun-
flower farm continues to evolve
with more features and amenities.
This year, more Insta-
gram-able sites are available
including a lagoon with a center
attaché in northern China, said
e-visa processing would further
increase the number of Chinese
tourists looking to visit the Philip-
pines as China is among the areas
known for its implementation.
“We have specific instruc-
tion from the President, so we
have to do it. Hopefully by July
or August, it will be up and run-
ning. We are going to inform our
friends here in China that the
system will be available already
so that it will hasten the facili-
tation of the application for visa
for the Philippines,” he said.
Balane said at the end of 2022,
China ranked 13th as a source of
tourists in the Philippines and
has improved to seventh place
after the first quarter of 2023.
In 2019, around 1.73 mil-
lion Chinese tourists arrived
in the Philippines, spending
www.canadianinquirer.net
FLOWER POWER. Sunflowers remain a top attraction at a farm in Piddig,
Ilocos Norte amid the pandemic. Located in Maruaya village, the farm is open
from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. (LEILANIE ADRIANO/PNA)
island gazebo, a hobbit house or
reading nook, a petting zoo with
farm animals, a pond where
visitors can catch fish and grill
them at rented cottages.
The farm currently collects
an entrance fee of PHP50 per
person. Children aged 12 years
over USD2.33 billion before the
borders closed due to Covid-19
pandemic in 2020.
“Ibig sabihin nagpi-pick-up
na tayo pero malayo pa rin tayo
sa numero na hinahanap natin
sa pre-pandemic level. Inaa-
sahan pa rin natin na sa mga
pagbabago na ginagawa natin
sa visa at mga produktong bine-
benta natin sa China, baka saka-
li makahabol tayo (It means, we
are recovering but we are still
far from the pre-pandemic lev-
el that we are targeting. We are
still hopeful that the changes
we have made in visa and prod-
ucts we sell to China, we can
still catch up),” Balane said.
The DOT is expecting at least
500,000 Chinese tourists will
visit the Philippines in 2023
after the Chinese government
ease pandemic restrictions on
29
old and below are free of charge.
The farm is open from 7 a.m. to 6
p.m. daily even during holidays.
Among the latest develop-
ment in the area is the con-
struction of a stone masonry
slope protection on a portion of
the Maruaya Road. ■
travel abroad.
Balane said the first post pan-
demic charter flight from China
arrived in Kalibo, Aklan on Friday.
“Magandang record iyan at
may mga susunod pang char-
ter flights (That is a good record
and there will be more charter
flights). On May 15, we will be go-
ing to Chengdu to launch Cheng-
du-Kalibo also, so hopefully oth-
er charter flights will follow until
the summer holiday,” he said.
Yanghua Huang, professor at
Renmin University, said more
Chinese tourists are expected to
visit other countries following the
easing of Covid-19 restrictions.
“Chinese have money and
they now want to help others
have money too by buying prod-
ucts and visiting countries,”
Yanghua told the group of for-
eign journalists on Friday. ■
30
Wild-caught seafood is often untraceable –
and some industry players don’t want that
to change. Here’s why
BY BENJAMIN
THOMPSON, Monash
University
The Conversation
The wild-caught fish you buy
was landed far away from cam-
eras or scrutiny. So how do you
know it really is what the label
says? How do you know it was
caught in a sustainable fish-
ery? Even in regulated fisheries
like Australia’s, the answer is,
broadly, you don’t.
That’s because most wild-
caught seafood is untraceable.
Yes, it could have been caught
sustainably by pole and line
fishers. But it could have been
relabelled as a different fish alto-
gether. Worldwide, seafood fraud
is rampant. That’s why conser-
vationists ask fish buyers to use
apps like GoodFish to check.
And while technologies now
exist to solve this problem and
make opaque supply chains
transparent, our new research-
suggests many players in the
Australian industry are not in-
terested in change – particular-
ly large wholesalers, processors
and fish markets.
What did we find?
We interviewed people who
work in seafood supply chains
in Australia – from fishers and
aquaculture companies to sea-
food traders and restaurants.
These insiders believed bigger
supply chain actors were often
not doing the right thing, by con-
cealing trade information, ma-
nipulating prices, and with little
concern about product origin.
Fishers and fish farmers ex-
plained that once their catch de-
parts for the big seafood markets,
they “lose control of the supply
chain”, have “no idea where they
go”, and that it’s “impossible to
keep track of any of it”.
Our interviewees told us a
degree of food fraud still exists.
Food
This is when a species is incor-
rectly labelled by name, origin
or how it was caught.
This can be accidental, or
done deliberately to mask cer-
tain information or to justify
selling it at a higher price. For
example, critically endangered
species such as the school shark
are being mislabelled as gum-
my shark – which is sustainably
caught in Australia.
Chefs told us about regularly
seeing species labelled as local-
ly caught when they knew they
were out of season in their state.
Fish farmers told us cheap
overseas fish of questionable
quality would often be sold as
their fish. As one barramundi
farm representative told us:
It honestly really frustrates
and upsets me because you do all
this work and your barramundi
is happily substituted.
Fishers, fish farmers, and
restaurants were largely sup-
portive of traceability technolo-
gies. But they feared a backlash
from the wholesalers on which
their sales relied. Some inter-
viewees reported experiences of
threatening, bullying and cajol-
ing from some wholesalers.
As one interviewee told us:
I know that these guys [whole-
salers], right or wrong, can hold
me to ransom. If they don’t buy my
fish, we don’t have ability to send
[high volumes] to anyone else.
How would traceability
improve the situation?
At present, tracking where
fish, prawns, shellfish and oth-
er seafood come from relies on
largely paper-based systems.
These are prone to human error,
negligence, or manipulation.
In an effort to fix the problem,
several traceability platforms
have been developed in Austra-
lia. These tend to rely on block-
chain, where encrypted “blocks”
of product, trade, and price data
are stored along a digital “chain”
which is publicly visible.
This data is linked to a QR
code on individual fish or box-
es of fish. Data added include
the species name, time of catch,
product weight, and the time of
each physical handover point
– with new data being verified
against preexisting data in the
chain. Traders and consumers
can scan these QR codes to ac-
cess information on the seafood
product in front of them.
In short, digital tracing of
seafood would create a trans-
parent trading environment by
making public how the market
operates, from buyers and sell-
ers to the prices paid, and the
ability to track seafood from
ocean to plate.
A system like this would also
give fishers more power. At
present, wholesalers are often
able to name a price that fishers
simply have to accept.
Fishers would much prefer to
be able to set their own prices.
Traceability technology could
help here too, to give fishers a
sense of which seafood prod-
ucts are in demand right now
and allow them to price their
products accordingly.
www.canadianinquirer.net
Australia should embrace
greater seafood transparency
Estimates of food fraud in
global fisheries range widely,
from 20% up to 90%. That is to
say, we know there’s a real prob-
lem here – we just don’t know ex-
actly how large. But we do know
there are very real problems in
the world’s wild-caught fisheries.
Australia could have a role
here to demonstrate what good
fisheries can look like. At pres-
ent, our fishing authorities are
primarily concerned with catch
regulations at sea.
There’s not enough focus
on what happens next. Our la-
bel-based traceability systems
are weak compared to the Euro-
pean Unionwhich has the strict
import laws and seafood label-
ling standards that conservation-
ists in Australia are pushing for.
But digital technology could
offer something even better.
While the EU’s solution is pos-
itive, it’s been criticised by
scholars for being overly bu-
reaucratic and not delivering
the same depth of information.
Could it happen? Yes – but it
would have to happen over the
protests of those who would be
MAY 5, 2023 FRIDAY
disadvantaged, such as some
seafood wholesalers.
One way it could happen is if
the government adds more in-
formation disclosure require-
ments to laws governing fair
competition. This would give
the market the nudge required
to see traceability technologies
more rapidly adopted.
If nothing is done, Australia’s
seafood industry could become
less viable since illegal fishing
practices would remain diffi-
cult to identify, putting strain
on fish stocks. But we are op-
timistic that innovators will
eventually succeed in bringing
together enough actors across
the supply chain to make the
shift to digital traceability hap-
pen.
While many academics, dis-
ruptors and commentators
often laud blockchain as a way
to rapidly drive sustainable
change, our research suggests
this will only occur if the most
influential supply chain actors
see value in using it. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
 MAY
JULY 5, 2020
17, 2023 cx328
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Vehicle(s) may be shown with optional equipment. Dealers set selling and leasing price which may vary from MSRP. Limited time offers. See your Ford Dealer for complete details or call the Ford Customer Relationship Centre at 1-800-565-3673. For factory orders, a customer may either take advantage of eligible raincheck-
able Ford retail customer promotional incentives/offers available at the time of vehicle factory order or time of vehicle delivery, but not both or combinations thereof. Retail offers not combinable with any CPA/GPC or Daily Rental incentives, the Commercial Upfit Program or the Commercial Fleet Incentive Program (CFIP).
Until April 30, 2023, receive 0.99% APR purchase financing on new 2022 Ford Mustang EcoBoost 100A/101A, EcoBoost 200/201A, and GT 300A/301A/400A/401A models for up to 72 months to qualified retail customers, on approved credit (OAC) from Ford Credit Canada Company. All prices are based on Manufacturer’s
Suggested Retail Price. © 2023 Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited. All rights reserved.

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