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Moon acts to stop discrimination in South Korean hiring practices

WHEN 28-year-old Joo Yerim applied for a job at an art distribution company in Seoul last year, she was required to provide her height and weight on the application. The experience left her angry and frustrated.

“That has nothing to do with my ability to work,” said Joo, a university graduate who had interned at similar companies in the US.

The questions faced by Joo, who eventually landed a position at an art magazine, would bring an avalanche of complaints and a consumer boycott in many countries. In others, the firm would be hauled before the courts. But in South Korea employers routinely demand such information, along with personal details like an applicant’s age, religion and even the occupations of their family members.

It adds up to what President Moon Jae-in says is discrimination against people who are less affluent or deviate from the mainstream. Moon pledged during his campaign to prohibit such practices as part of his fight against growing inequality, particularly in the job market.

As South Korea continues to move up the value chain from heavy industry to a more creative economy, diversity will become more important.

While research and development spending and high-tech manufacturing have helped the economy win accolades for innovation, a rigid two-tier labor market is the focus of widespread anger over stagnant wages and limited opportunity. Many young people, even those with college degrees, see themselves as largely excluded from careers, with little chance of being able to afford to get married and raise children.

Sometimes the information sought by companies veers into strange territory. Yang Changmo, 26, said he was once required to provide his blood type, and is frequently asked about his “drinking and smoking capacity” during interviews. Heavy drinking with colleagues is a core element of the country’s work culture.

“I think they chose me over the female applicant with almost the same qualifications as mine because I said I was a good drinker,” said Yang, who worked in the hotel industry before quitting to find a new position.

Moon’s administration is working to fulfill his pledges. It will issue guidelines on questions private companies can ask later this month, before revising workplace laws to make those guidelines binding, the labor and finance ministries said in a recent joint statement.

The government is already taking action in the public sector. By the end of August, 481 public offices and companies will be banned from asking job seekers for certain personal information, including family relations and physical details. Applicants will also no longer need to submit a photo of themselves. Because a civil service test must be taken, in many cases they also won’t be required to submit their educational background.

Some say South Korean companies put too much emphasis during hiring on the reputation of the universities applicants attended, feeding an unhealthy level of competition to get into those schools. Critics say the system favors rote learning and leaves talented, less wealthy students behind early in life, with few opportunities to catch up.

“Discrimination against those whose schools have a ‘bad’ name has long been a custom,” said An Sang-jin, head of the nonprofit group World Without Worries About Private Education, which was founded to address problems stemming from the intense focus on private education.

While new laws would mark a step in the right direction, the prejudices that underlie discriminatory practices also need to be rooted out in the long term, said Lee Sang Min, a professor of sociology at Hanyang University in Seoul. — Bloomberg

Taking pictures fashionably

By Joseph L. Garcia, Reporter

SWEET AND CHARMING, the actress Liza Soberano lends her face to a new line of cameras from Fujifilm. Thanks to their retro designs, they function almost as fashion accessories for Ms. Soberano, and may similarly enhance other users’ outfits as well.

During a launch in SM Mall of Asia last week, Ms. Soberano, in a black shirt and a gray vest, gamely posed with photographers as she took selfies with Fujifilm executives as well as other guests. Ms. Soberano took up in her hands a black and gray Fujifilm X-A3 camera, with a new touch screen operation and a newly developed 24.2 megapixel APS-C sensor. It also has a screen that flips to face users as they take selfies, to ensure that you will be able to see yourself look perfect.

Ms. Soberano also took photos with an Instax Mini 9, with the special feature which determine the best brightness for each photo — which it will also print. Coming in bright pastel colors, they looked cute in contrast to Ms. Soberano’s sober outfit. She also took photos with the SQ10, a hybrid camera with the features of a digital camera, with all the fun of printing an instant photograph.

Glenn Gatan, Senior Product Specialist for Fujifilm said that for enhancing (and taking photos of) outfits, Ms. Soberano’s XA-3 does the trick. “The XA-3 is actually a mirrorless camera, so it’s smaller, it’s more compact than your DSL-R’s, so definitely it compliments your outfits. It’s easier on the eyes compared to the big chunk DSL-R’s out there.”

Ms. Soberano meanwhile, said during a group interview, “When traveling out of the country, if you want a touristy feel to your outfit — I used to use the XA-2, but now that I have the XA-3, that’s what I’m going to be using. Since mine is black, it goes well with everything.”

While she knows how to take a good selfie (“I make sure that the background is nice, I look for the perfect lighting, and I put on my best smile”), Ms. Soberano, ambassador for a line of cameras that make taking selfies easier, doesn’t really like selfies.

“I don’t really do OOTD’s (Outfit of the Day pictures),” she said when asked how she takes perfect OOTD’s. “I wouldn’t have that much knowledge to give to you. I guess you just have to pose in a certain way that looks artsy.”

When asked how many selfies she takes in a day, she said, “Sometimes, I don’t take selfies. I like to take pictures of other people more than I like to take pictures of myself.”

“I just don’t like looking at myself that much.”

The Fujifilm X-A3 (Php 34,990) camera is part of Fujifilm’s Mirrorless Digital Camera X-series (Colors available: brown, silver and pink). The new Instax SQ10 is priced at P14,999. The new InstaxMini 9 is P3,999. All Fujifilm and Instax products are sold at authorized dealers nationwide.

Coal plants might be even more toxic than we thought

By Eric Roston, Bloomberg

SCIENTISTS studying the aftermath of a massive coal-ash spill in North Carolina have discovered a byproduct of the fossil fuel that may pose human health risks.

Duke Energy Corp. announced in early February 2014 that drainage from a broken pipe was leaking coal-ash into the Dan River, which runs through Virginia and North Carolina. Within a few days, researchers at Virginia Tech realized the spill created an unusual opportunity to better understand how particles just billionths of a meter wide, notably arsenic, embedded themselves in an ecosystem. They published that work in 2015.

Then came the surprise.

Electron-microscope analysis of sediment samples revealed a strange-looking substance, streaked in a pattern that called to mind zebras, according to Michael Hochella, a distinguished professor at Virginia Tech concentrating in nanogeoscience.

“It was just scientific curiosity,” Hochella said. “What the hell is this stuff?”

Whatever it was and wherever it was from, it appeared downstream of the spill, not upstream. Eventually, they found it in coal ash and were able to reproduce it in a lab.

Air pollutants are the result of impurities in coal that, once burned, can become air- or water-borne hazards, including soot, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury, all of which are regulated in the US. This stuff kills or sickens people. Air pollution contributes to an estimated three million deaths every year, according to the World Heath Organization. Another estimate put that figure at 1.6 million alone in China, which is boosting natural gas use and renewables to reduce harm to public health from coal.

The newly identified material, made of titanium and oxygen, had been produced experimentally in labs as early as the 1930s, but it is extremely rare in nature. The Virginia Tech team sought out coal-ash samples from states, including Virginia and Illinois, and from as far away as China. Sure enough, they found “titanium sub-oxides” in 22 samples. They suspect that in the US, scrubbers mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) capture the material, reducing its prevalence. Dust analyzed from Shanghai sidewalks, streets and standing water contained the material, according to their research, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

It would be unethical to test a substance that might sicken or kill humans, yet, “in the real world, we’re doing that all the time”

Coal contains from 0.1% to 6% titanium dioxide, the same chemical that’s commonly used in sunblock, makeup, and paint. This substance has drawn scientific scrutiny in recent years for potential health hazards on the nano-scale. Testing the titanium sub-oxides on zebrafish (the aquatic cousin of lab rats) showed it to be toxic when ingested; the toxicity was significant in tissue not exposed to sunlight. Analogous effects in small-to-large animals, including humans, “are likely to be found,” the authors concluded. Research will turn to that question next.

Searching for human health effects exposes a paradox between how science is conducted and what society allows industry to pump into air and water, according to James Kubicki, chair of the department of geological sciences at University of Texas-El Paso, who didn’t participate in the coal-ash study. It’d be unethical to test a substance on human subjects, because it might sicken or kill them. And yet, “in the real world, we’re doing that all the time,” he said.

The study doesn’t mention Duke Energy by name. Jeff Brooks, a spokesman for the company, contends that water quality near the coal-burning plant is good and local agriculture and wildlife weren’t affected by the spill. The company is conducting a widespread cleanup of its coal-ash facilities.

There’s still lots of work to do gathering evidence about the titanium sub-oxides’ prevalence and toxicity in humans. The authors of the new paper wrote that their work “has not been formally reviewed by EPA.”

Potential health effects are front-of-mind to the scientists, but the discovery may have another implication as well. Given how rare the new titanium materials are in nature, documenting where they turn up may give researchers a “tracer” for coal-burning and the production of coke, used in steel-making. If previous experience holds, they expect they’ll find the stuff all over the Earth, including Antarctica, half a world away from most of the world’s coal plants.

Bad trip: Marijuana use increases blood pressure death risk

LONDON — People who smoke marijuana have a three times greater risk of dying from hypertension, or high blood pressure, than those who have never used the drug, scientists said on Wednesday.

The risk grows with every year of use, they said.

The findings, from a study of some 1,200 people, could have implications in the United States among other countries. Several states have legalized marijuana and others are moving toward it. It is decriminalized in a number of other countries.

“Support for liberal marijuana use is partly due to claims that it is beneficial and possibly not harmful to health,” said Barbara Yankey, who co-led the research at the school of public health at Georgia State University in the United States.

“It is important to establish whether any health benefits outweigh the potential health, social and economic risks. If marijuana use is implicated in cardiovascular diseases and deaths, then it rests on the health community and policy makers to protect the public.”

Marijuana is also sometimes used for medicinal purposes, such as for glaucoma.

The study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, was a retrospective follow-up study of 1,213 people aged 20 or above who had been involved in a large and ongoing National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In 2005–2006, they were asked if they had ever used marijuana.

For Yankey’s study, information on marijuana use was merged with mortality data in 2011 from the US National Center for Health Statistics, and adjusted for confounding factors such as tobacco smoking and variables including sex, age and ethnicity.

The average duration of use among users of marijuana, or cannabis, was 11.5 years.

The results showed marijuana users had a 3.42-times higher risk of death from hypertension than non-users, and a 1.04 greater risk for each year of use.

There was no link between marijuana use and dying from heart or cerebrovascular diseases such as strokes.

Yankey said were limitations in the way marijuana use was assessed — including that researchers could not be sure whether people had used the drug continuously since they first tried it.

But she said the results chimed with plausible risks, since marijuana is known to affect the cardiovascular system.

“Marijuana stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, leading to increases in heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen demand,” she said.

Experts not directly involved in the study said its findings would need to be replicated, but already raised concerns.

“Despite the widely held view that cannabis is benign, this research adds to previous work suggesting otherwise,” said Ian Hamilton, a lecturer in mental health at Britain’s York University. — Reuters

Phoenix head coach happy to have a double barrel offensive weapon in time for playoffs

THE acquisition of Jeff Chan will not only give young Phoenix gunner Matthew Wright a mentor inside the court, but it will also give head coach Ariel Vanguardia a double barrel weapon as the Fuel Masters make their last push for a playoff spot.

“He’s a winner. He has a championship experience and he could serve as mentor to Matt,” Mr. Vanguardia told BusinessWorld in a telephone interview. “Of course, it will also give our team two options at the perimeter. Left and right, we now have a weapon.”

Mr. Chan, a veteran lefty gunner, was acquired by the Fuel Masters from Rain or Shine in exchange for Mark Borboran and the Fuel Masters’ 2020 second round draft pick.

The Bacolod sniper will bring in his championship experience to this young team. He is a two-time champion at the Elasto Painters camp and a former gunner of Gilas Pilipinas.

With Mr. Wright serving the national team for the time being and probably in future international tournaments to come, Mr. Vanguardia did the logical thing of tapping Mr. Chan.

Phoenix is making another push for the playoffs. Last conference, the team made it to the quarterfinals and Mr. Vanguardia is hoping the squad could make it to the next level.

“That’s our goal. Before, we were just looking at the other teams while they were playing in the playoffs. Now, it’s our time to be there. But we need to make it to the next level, which is the semifinals. To get there, we need to get the right pieces,” added Mr. Vanguardia.

Teams in the PBA is now taking a break to give way for the FIBA Asia Cup, but the long respite will allow Mr. Chan to get himself more adjusted to Phoenix’s style of play.

It will also serve as a blessing in disguise, according to Mr. Vanguardia, as import Eugene Phelps is on his way to recover from a foot injury.

“They’re trying to remove the cast in the next few days and see how strong is his foot,” said Mr. Vanguardia. “But I think the long break will help him recover. We’re not playing until the 18th.” — Rey Joble

Eye of the beholder

By Noel Vera

Movie Review
Kita Kita
Directed by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo

I’M GUESSING the secret to Sigrid Andrea Bernardo’s success with Kita Kita — the surprise hit to the tune of P200 million in two weeks — turns on two things: 1.) She wasn’t looking to make the usual romantic comedy; and, 2.) Audiences were sick to death of the usual romantic comedy and wanted something else.

All that said, Ms. Bernardo wasn’t exactly trying to reinvent the wheel. Blind girl meets penniless man? Charlie Chaplin turned the idea into one of his most commercially successful comedies back in 1931 (arguably my favorite of his, for the record). Pretty woman with less-than-pretty man? Beauty and the Beast, 1740.

Ms. Bernardo does bring a few fairly fresh tricks to the party, like setting the story in Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido prefecture. Akira Kurosawa shot his adaptation of The Idiot in this province because of all the regions in Japan it most resembled Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg best; possibly Ms. Bernardo’s biggest mistake is in not shooting in winter when the city is (I’m told) especially magical — the Snow Festival sculptures are as large as buildings, and if you take a train to the east coast you can watch ice drifting past the shoreline.

There’s still plenty of beauty in summer: the (as seen in the movie) toy-like town clock tower, the Fushimi Inari Shrine’s rows of scarlet torii gates, the brilliant flower fields of Biei.

Alessandra de Rossi’s Lea strides past everything on gangly fawn-like legs, her dark-coffee complexion and fresh-faced beauty the perfect contrast to all the primary colors. As her Romeo, Empoy Marquez’s Tonyo looks anything but with his oddly assembled head that says “comic relief” more than “romantic lead.”

But why should the movie’s romantic lead look like a romantic lead? Why can’t he be a schlub like the rest of us? Charlie Chaplin, Woody Allen, Dolphy — were they good-looking? The fact that the girl’s blind only makes the whole setup plausible, even if the story leading up to her disability — temporary blindness my ass — seems implausible.

What makes the whole picture sing is Ms. Bernardo simply locking down the camera and letting the two leads improvise: Mr. Marquez teasing and flirting, Ms. De Rossi responding with a slap or shove or startled shriek. The two actors are clearly enjoying each other’s company; all the director has to do is string the resulting footage together and — voila! Romantic comedy worth hundreds of millions in the box office.

It’s probably not as simple as all that. The director needs to know enough to put as little in the way of her actors as possible (the simple camera setups capturing the lovers’ interactions recall Chaplin) needs to know enough to listen to her independent filmmaker instincts rather than her commercial studio instincts (Oh wait a minute — she’s never directed a studio movie). She needs the deftness to introduce a homage to Disney’s Lady and the Tramp — Lea and Tonyo eating noodles together — without anyone being the wiser and still make the scene work, comically and romantically.

Perfectly possible that Ms. Bernardo didn’t have her actors improvise, that the lovers’ scenes together were as carefully scripted and choreographed as any Hong Kong martial arts fight sequence. The trick then is to make it all seem spontaneous despite all that precision — no easy feat.

With the movie’s second half (skip this paragraph if you plan to watch) Ms. Bernardo needs to introduce a jaw-dropping plot twist, a straight out-of-nowhere accident that changes all (I admit to checking my watch and wondering: What else is there to add to this story?). Turns out the director, having finished sketching the bold outlines of Lea’s love story, is scribbling in textures, shadings, nuances; three-dimensional life in effect. We learn of a less savory side to Tonyo, his creepy stalker side as he follows Lea to her job as tour guide, comes home to play her unhappy role as neglected girlfriend. We learn a reason why (other than Lea’s beauty) Tonyo would want to approach her, a reason why (other than Lea’s blindness) Tonyo would be bold enough to even consider approaching her. Do we forgive Tonyo for the stalking? I mostly did.

I liked the picture. I bought the premise (despite the “temporary” crap), bought the unlikely couple — bought them because they were so unlikely — bought the somewhat controversial second half because beyond the sunshine and fun there has to be a flip side, for balance.

And when in the movie’s closing sequence Lea puts on a blindfold it’s like something out of The Karate Kid (okay I don’t exactly remember him ever putting on a blindfold but) — she’s alone in this scene and she needs to get that specific set of thoughts and feelings back, however, she can. I can relate to that.

MTRCB Rating: PG

Taylor Swift shaken and humiliated by groping, mom tells trial

DENVER — Pop superstar Taylor Swift’s mother recounted before a US jury on Wednesday the moment her “shattered” daughter said she had been groped by a local radio host.

The 27-year-old singer alleges that David Mueller grabbed her by the buttocks during a photo opportunity at a 2013 concert in Denver — while he is counter-suing, arguing that the accusations are false and cost him his job.

Andrea Swift, a member of her daughter’s senior management group, told the Denver federal court she knew something was wrong as soon as they returned to the “Bad Blood” singer’s dressing room.

“When she told me someone had grabbed her, I was very upset,” Andrea Swift said, describing her daughter as “really shaken” and humiliated.

“I know what happened. I heard it from my daughter’s mouth,” Swift told the jury. “That guy,” she added, pointing to Mueller. “He sexually assaulted her.”

Since the Denver incident, the singer has changed how she handles meetings with fans, cutting back on meet-and greet opportunities, her mother said, and avoiding going into the audience during gigs.

“It absolutely shattered us, this incident,” Andrea Swift said.

Frank Bell, the Grammy Award-winning chart-topper’s radio liaison, backed up Swift’s version of events, what she said to him immediately after the photo session.

Bell told the court Swift had said: “This guy from radio stuck his hand up my skirt and grabbed my bare ass.”

Mueller had given evidence in the morning session, conceding that a picture taken during the alleged assault could be interpreted as incriminating.

‘SLANDER’
“Someone could have concluded it appeared she was trying to get away from me,” Mueller said.

The photograph of Swift, Mueller and his girlfriend at the pre-show meet-and-greet shows the morning presenter on radio station KYGO with his hand behind the singer. Mueller claims his knuckles may have touched her ribs, well above where his arm is shown.

Swift maintains he sexually assaulted her by lifting her skirt and fondling her buttocks.

Mueller denied the charge, but admitted he did not know where his hand was because he was looking at the photographer.

“If anyone touched her rear, she had a right not to like it. I didn’t want to hurt Ms. Swift,” Mueller told the court.

The singer, who was 23 at the time, did not file a police report because she did not want the incident made public, her attorney Doug Baldridge said.

Swift’s security guards threw Mueller out of the Pepsi Center and told him he was banned for life from Swift concerts.

The star’s staff reported the incident to KYGO executives who fired Mueller two days later for violating the morals clause of his contract, the court has heard.

Mueller filed a lawsuit seeking almost $3 million in lost and future wages because of “slander” from members of the Swift camp, while Swift has counter-sued for the alleged sexual assault.

The singer, who was joined in court by her mother and father Scott Swift, has said she will donate any damages awarded in her suit to charities that fight sexual assault on women. — AFP

Staying at the quiet side of Boracay

By Joseph L. Garcia, Reporter

The hum of cicadas during the evening as I looked out from my balcony at the Savoy Hotel accented a silence that these days is unheard of in Boracay. The Savoy Hotel lies in the heart of a new development by Megaworld, a township to be called the Boracay Newcoast.

When Boracay first opened to tourists, the island was praised for its pristine nature and the beautiful white sand beach. As the years passed, it morphed into a party island, replete with bars, restaurants, and screaming revellers either leaving or entering an all-night Bacchanalia. As such, the cicada’s chirps in the hotel are welcome music to a harried tourist who just really wants to see the ocean.

Guests were welcomed to the Savoy Hotel last month by Megaworld, and what we immediately noticed was the lack of doors in the lobby. As you step onto the driveway, steps lead you to an expanse of travertine and purple counters, along with a tall white web-like structure rising from the lobby’s floors to its ceiling, suggesting trees. Its lattice pattern is repeated throughout the hotel, in its doors and windows. Said Adie Gallares, the hotel’s general manager, “We have to let in natural light and natural air,” since this should be an immediate benefit in an island like Boracay. This is also an effort by the hotel, and the rest of the township, to contribute to environmental sustainability, as the design allows for the reduced use of air-conditioning throughout the hotel. Dining areas such as its restaurant Savoy Café, as well as all the bedrooms, boardrooms, and function rooms are air-conditioned, however. As for the food at the Savoy Café, come for the creative chef who makes Asian fusion cuisine, resulting in deconstructed pancit and great roasted and grilled meats.

The hotel has two swimming pools, an adult wading pool, and a concert pool arena: think tables immersed on a pool, facing a stage perfect for parties. The adult wading pool beside the Savoy Café, meanwhile, has a swim-up bar, cabanas and lounge chairs.

All along the hotel are decorative accents colored magenta, aqua, moss green, and purple. “We have to be true to our tagline, ‘Color your experience,’” said Mr. Gallares. There are 559 rooms in all, divided into four categories: the Deluxe, the Corner Deluxe (located at the corners of the hotel thus offering better views), the Premier Deluxe (with a queen-sized bed), and the Executive Suites where we stayed. The Deluxe rooms are basic hotel rooms, with a TV, closets, a safe, air-conditioning, a balcony, and a bathroom with a shower and wide sink counters (for all your beauty products for the beach). The Executive Suite includes all that, but with a queen-sized bed, and two TVs: one in the bedroom, and another in the sitting room.

The hotel, as is required, also included eight rooms for persons with disabilities (PWD), which have grab bars in the bathroom, wider openings for wheelchairs, as well as an emergency call button for immediate assistance. The rest of the hotel, with its wide expansive hallways and the use of wider, shorter stairways and ramps, were also created with PWDs in mind. “You have to visualize that wherever they move in the hotel, there’s access for them,” said Mr. Gallares.

The empty beach, a 10-minute walk from the lobby, is perfect for reading or knitting by the shore — no evidence of drunken revels here, and hardly any noise. Sleeping in the rooms and moving about the hotel, which still smelled new, was an experience that made one think of youth. The bright colors, the swings in the lobby, and the pool arena all seem to point at young people, which according to Mr. Gallares, is the target for this particular hotel.

THE TOWNSHIP
As I walked to the beach, the whir of machines in wild activity to construct Boracay Newcoast was left behind in the silence of the beach, but their half-finished looming silhouettes were not to be ignored.

The whole development — situated on the opposite side of the island from the famed White Beach, away from the boat stations and the luxury hotels already built there — covers 150 hectares of the 1,600.64-hectare island. As with every Megaworld township, it consists of commercial and residential components, with the work component consisting of the tourism industry (in other Megaworld townships  this component is usually filled with office buildings).

Soon to rise is a small commercial complex, called the Shophouse District, with small shops at the ground floors of three-storey residential buildings, all following a theme (it will be reminiscent of Miama Beach or The Hamptons). The shophouses are anticipated to be snapped up by small business owners. “We want to provide venues for businessmen to put up their own,” said Jennifer Palmares-Fong, vice-president for sales and marketing for Boracay Newcoast.

As for the residential areas, there are to be condominiums like the Oceanway Residences and the Ocean Garden Villas — four towers have already been put up for Oceanway, and most of them have already been sold. Another residential area is Newcoast Village, a gated community of luxury homes with views of the ocean, with some homes already built, as BusinessWorld saw during its visit.

Another area of interest would be the Boutique Hotel district, where one can set up one’s own boutique hotel, following, of course, Megaworld’s prices and guidelines. While sounding small and chic, one of the builders already planting a stake there is the Marriott.

A retail strip called the Newcoast Station is also in the works, which would include restaurants, cafés, and clubs.

This development doesn’t come cheap, environmentally speaking. To ensure the sustainability of the project, Megaworld put up a Materials Recovery Facility, detention and siltation tanks for drainage, its own sewage treatment plant, rainwater irrigation systems, provides e-jeepneys for transportation, underground cabling, solar power systems, and the use of LEDs in the streetlights. Also, 60% of the development is devoted to greenery. “We want this to be a model of sustainable development as far as infrastructure is concerned,” said Ms. Fong. “We believe that the environment is a big issue in Boracay island.”

While there are those who say that the island is noisy enough, and has been overdeveloped, Ms. Fong defends their work by saying, “It’s how you build the island; how you’ll be able to adapt to the influx of tourists, that really matters. That is why we’re building a master-planned community so it will be able to inspire the government… on how to be able to not close the island to tourists… but at the same time, become sustainable.

“We see an opportunity for Boracay to be a truly world-class island… we will be able to [further] put Boracay onto the world map.”

Divorce and its damaging effect on children and society

“We know the statistics — that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and twenty times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.”

That was Barack Obama, speaking on Father’s Day 2008. He should know, himself being a product of a single parent household.

It’s pretty much acknowledged that depression, suicidal tendencies, mental illness, the inability to handle stress are rising among today’s children and the preferred primary villain for this is social media.

In one school gathering I attended recently, psychiatrists from a popular metro university clung to this theory, all the while ignoring the possibility of another, more obvious cause.

As I wrote in a previous article, social commentators and medical experts have long pointed to the “changing family structure, and it turns out that adolescent depression and suicide are closely linked with divorce and single parenting. Teens who live with a single parent have twice the rate of suicide attempts as those who live with both parents. The same is true of other forms of distress and self harm.” (“The Kids Are Not All Right,” Mona Charen, National Review, 02 June 2017)

Author and historian Joshua Charles admits that “older generations are inclined to be harsh toward millennials. We certainly deserve it, in some ways. We avoid marriage and family life and when we marry, we tend to marry late. Millennials seem ‘afraid of commitment.’ We won’t ‘settle down.’”

But, as Charles points out, “part of the reason is way too many of us have seen our parents, you, divorce.” “No generation has seen divorce among its parents as much as the millennial generation. I would not at all be surprised that it has necessarily played a role in many millennials’ decisions to get married later, not at all, or to go on ‘test runs’ with significant others through cohabitation.” (“What’s Wrong With Millennials? Partly, Their Parents’ Divorces,” The Stream, 04 August 2017)

Unfortunately, studies have shown that the latter “remedy,” that is cohabiting before marriage, also tends to an increased likelihood for divorce.

The myth being perpetuated is that divorce is a far acceptable alternative for children, rather than have them seeing their parents fight all the time. Not true.

While children in quite high conflict homes may benefit by being removed from that environment (not necessarily through divorce), the situation of children in lower-conflict marriages (of which 2/3 of divorces are of this type) can go much worse following a divorce.

Furthermore, children experience lasting tension even after their parents divorce, particularly as a result of the increasing differences in their parents’ values and ideas. The point: children of even so-called “good divorces” fare worse emotionally than children who grew up in an unhappy but “low-conflict” marriage (see foryourmarriage.org, citing Paul R. Amato and Alan Booth, A Generation at Risk, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997; also Ten Findings from a National Study on the Moral and Spiritual Lives of Children of Divorce, Elizabeth Marquardt).

What makes divorces even more devastatingly ironic is that studies have conclusively shown that “children benefit if parents can stay together and work out their problems rather than get a divorce.” Read this alongside the research showing that only if couples stick together, reform themselves, and pull through, they’ll find themselves much happier later on (“very happy” or “quite happy”; see foryourmarriage.org, citing Linda J. Waite and Maggie Gallagher, The Case for Marriage, 2000).

To continue with divorce’s irony, we move on to marriage’s crucial role in poverty alleviation.

As Princeton’s Robert P. George cogently puts it (“Marriage — Can We Have Justice Without It? An Interview,” The Plough, 25 June 2014): “Virtues are indispensable in any society, since its legal, political, and economic institutions depend on them. But these virtues aren’t produced by legal, political, or economic institutions: they are produced by the family, which in turn is based on the marital covenant between husband and wife. When that is compromised — when the marriage culture begins to erode and then collapse in a community — the consequences are easy to see.”

The thing is “marriage is the original and best department of health, education, and welfare. It plays an indispensable role in providing children with the structure, nurturing, and education that enables them both to flourish and to contribute to the flourishing of others. It enables them to become people who will respect themselves and respect others, and will order their own lives according to virtues like honesty, integrity, conscientiousness, the willingness to work hard, to defer gratification, and to respect the property and lives of others.”

The point is: for the sake of kids, just say no to divorce.

Jemy Gatdula is a Senior Fellow of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations and a Philippine Judicial Academy law lecturer for constitutional philosophy and jurisprudence.

jemygatdula@yahoo.com

www.jemygatdula.blogspot.com

facebook.com/jemy.gatdula

Twitter @jemygatdula

A party game

By Alexander O. Cuaycong and Anthony L. Cuaycong

Life can sometimes feel short — especially, they say, when you’re having fun. If so, then nothing must be more fun than being one of the Death Squared’s cubic “protagonists,” destined not only to solve puzzles for their almighty creator, but also to die. Horribly. Over and over again.

The Story mode of Death Squared has you immediately thrust inside a digital world filled with lasers, spikes, pitfalls, and false blocks. Playing the part of an AI, you must cater to the whims of David, your creator, and Iris, his robotic assistant, and move their respective cubes across a board in real time until the latter hit pads of the appropriate colors. Once all cubes have been matched to the proper pads, the level ends and a new one begins.

At the start, Death Squared is refreshingly easy. The game’s true nature starts to show itself a few levels in, when the difficulty starts to ramp up. Succeeding levels add more and more hazards and gimmicks to play around. Spikes and lasers actively impede progress and become common challenges. Certain segments of the game require careful consideration, lest one of the cubes accidentally fall to their doom or get incinerated by accident. If that does happen, you have no choice but to restart the level from the beginning.

This game, while seemingly straightforward, is made far more complex by its level design, which is unique, fun, and at times, frustratingly difficult. Death Squared loves throwing around balancing puzzles, floating blocks, and moving platforms, and deaths can get rather common later on in the game when the levels get harder. Thankfully, while deaths can get plentiful, they aren’t punishing, in part because of how short each level can potentially be. Be forewarned, though: They can wear you out, as some deaths feel cheap and out of the blue, and when combined with the game’s predilection for concealing instant-death switches, it’s not all that hard for you to entertain the thought of quitting out of sheer frustration.

On the whole, Death Squared’s penchant for testing your patience seems to be a deliberate choice on the developer’s part. Death becomes acceptable, and the number of times rinsing and repeating is done becomes inconsequential to you in the long run. Add to that the available two- or four-player cooperative options, and you have a game seemingly tailored around being played with friends, where failures can be laughed at and plans of actions can be discussed during gameplay. Thankfully, co-op play is something the Switch can handle with ease. Simply pass the other Joy-Con to a friend and you’ll find Death Squared to be a lot more easy-going in a heartbeat. Prior knowledge of the game isn’t even mandatory, as its simplistic goals combined with its visual cues make it easy for newcomers to pick it up and play. Simply put, the red block goes to red circle, the blue block goes to blue circle, and so on and so forth.

And therein lies its most inherent flaw. As a party game, Death Squared is a great pickup, especially when taken none too seriously. Amidst friendly shouting and trash talking, the game proves quite entertaining. But on single player? It can get rather annoying. Even alone with the Switch, you must control at least two cubes at once. Both cubes have to reach the pads, and both must survive — and if you’re not ambidextrous, it feels awkward and tedious manipulating both cubes at once. And after multiple deaths and trial-and-error runs, there is the danger of you falling prey to anger and the temptation of hurling Joy-Cons across the room.

There are also the absence of a level editor and the lack of replay value a puzzle game typically has for you to contend with. Had Death Squared featured these, it would have been a definite must-have title on any self-respecting Switch owner’s library. Instead, it’s a cautious recommend. It has its Eureka moments. It’s a lot of fun with friends. It plays smoothly without any hitches. It’s also rather short on the whole, and some parts are bound to make players want to pull their hair out. In short, it’s a good game with a niche audience that is best played in and as a group.

THE GOOD:
• Interesting level design
• Offers four-player co-op mode
• Easy to pick up and play without preamble

THE BAD:
• No level editor to design your own puzzles
• Very little replay value once the levels are done
• Hit-or-miss style of gameplay

Beauty and the Beast roars onto Blu-ray with must-see extras

By Heather Turk
Front Row Features

A tale as old as time is at once fresh and familiar thanks to Disney’s remarkable live-action adaptation of the animated classic Beauty and the Beast, now available on Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack with Digital HD from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

The story of a beautiful young girl who selflessly gives up her freedom to free her father from being held captive in an enchanted castle by a fearsome beast — and slowly starts to see the wayward prince within her captor — Beauty and the Beast is often regarded as one of Disney’s most beloved musicals. That rare feature film that’s pretty much perfect (hence its Academy Award nomination for Best Picture — the first ever given to an animated movie), it may be impossible to improve upon the original animated tale, but director Bill Condon’s (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1 and 2, Dreamgirls) live-action adaptation comes pretty darn close.

For the most part, the live-action film stays fairly true to the 1991 masterpiece, however, screenwriters Stephen Chbosky (Rent) and Evan Spiliotopoulos (The Huntsman: Winter’s War) flesh out certain characters and scenarios to give the story a little more depth. LeFou (Josh Gad, Frozen) isn’t quite as evil this time around (and, in case you missed the controversy surrounding the movie, there are also ever-so-slight hints that he’s gay), Gaston (Luke Evans, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) is much more dark and twisted, and the Beast (Dan Stevens, Downton Abbey) and Belle’s (Emma Watson, the Harry Potter films) budding romance doesn’t come across quite as much like a severe case of Stockholm syndrome as it does in the animated feature, thanks to an emotional new backstory in which the two bond over losing their mothers as kids.

These additions are seamlessly woven into the familiar fairy tale, which brings to life such dazzling musical numbers as “Be Our Guest,” “Belle,” “Gaston,” “Something There,” “The Mob Song,” and, of course, “Beauty and the Beast” with such gorgeous detail, fans can’t help but get teary-eyed as they watch them unfold on their TV screen. Sadly, the same can’t be said for a few of the new musical numbers featured in the film, especially “Days in the Sun” and “Evermore,” which resemble the tone of “Human Again” (the musical number originally cut from the animated feature and later added to the special edition DVD release after its inclusion in the Broadway musical) and “If I Can’t Love Her” (from the Broadway musical) so much that Beauty and the Beast fans will wonder why composer Alan Menken (who wrote the score for the animated feature as well as the stage version) didn’t just use those established musical numbers instead. Of course, it’s obvious the new numbers were added in hopes of winning a Best Original Song Oscar nomination at the 2018 Academy Awards, but they’re not as good as the previously recorded numbers Menken wrote.

That being said, Céline Dion’s new end credits song, “How Does a Moment Last Forever” (which also briefly appears in the film, just not sung by Dion), is a great addition to the Beauty and the Beast music catalog, and it just feels right having the original Beauty and the Beast songstress contributing to the live-action soundtrack.

With regard to the casting, fans can rest assure that Watson, better known for her acting than singing skills, is delightful as the strong-willed protagonist and her voice actually works quite well for the part. There may be better singers out there, but it’s hard to say whether there’s a better actress to play the iconic role.

Gad, Stevens, and Evans all shine in their respective parts as well, particularly Evans who is positively a joy to watch as the egotistical Gaston. The rest of the supporting cast, which includes Ewan McGregor (the Star Wars prequels) as Lumière, Sir Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) as Cogsworth, Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility) as Mrs. Potts, and Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda) as Belle’s father, Maurice, also do a wonderful job, and are given more of a backstory for viewers to enjoy as well.

The Beauty and the Beast Blu-ray release gives viewers the opportunity to experience the film three different ways — the original theatrical cut, the premiere cut with overture, or a sing-along version — and features more than an hour of entertaining extras, including a look at the cast’s “Enchanted Table Read.” Not your typical table read by any means, viewers will discover that not only did the cast gather together to read through the script from start to finish, but they also performed several of the musical numbers during the lively read-through. Viewers will see Luke Evans performing “Gaston” after three weeks of rehearsals with the ensemble cast (Josh Gad sadly sits the performance out), Emma Watson getting up to do an unprompted waltz during the “Beauty and the Beast” musical number, and even the ensemble cast performing “Be Our Guest.”

“A Beauty of a Tale” is an extensive look at the making of the film, which quickly address why the filmmakers even decided to do a live-action adaptation to begin with (according to Watson, who loved the animated film since she was four years old, it was because there was still so much more to explore and tell). Broken up into several segments, the informative extra covers everything from the “Enchanted Performances” to the special effects needed to pull off the challenging “Be Our Guest” musical number and make the Beast a believable character. Viewers will hear the crew sing director Bill Condon’s praises and talk about how he was perfect for the job being a huge musical theater fan; discover how the entire Beauty and the Beast world was basically created at Shepperton Studios in England (minus the forest scenes); see Sir Ian McKellen get the rare opportunity to “tackle something new” with the role of Cogsworth; and hear Josh Gad discuss the challenge of “putting your own stamp” on a part so many people already know and love.

“The Women Behind Beauty and the Beast” takes a look at the many women who worked behind the scenes of the movie, like production designer Sarah Greenwood, costume designer Jacqueline Durran, and casting director Lucy Bevan. Introduced by Emma Watson, the inspiring extra encourages viewers at home to follow their dreams by finding something that they love doing and then going out and doing it, with many of the female crew members admitting that they didn’t even realize their particular jobs existed at first.

“From Song to Screen: Making the Musical Sequences” focuses on four of the original animated Beauty and the Beast musical numbers the live-action film brought to life: “Belle,” “Be Our Guest,” “Gaston,” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Featuring interviews with the cast and crew, viewers will hear Watson admit that she had “terrible butterflies” before singing the movie’s beloved opening number, “Belle,” and how filming “Be Our Guest” was “the most boring scene” the actress ever performed in since she literally just sat in a chair and reacted to nothing. Other interesting tidbits audiences will learn during the making-of extra include how the various townspeople in “Belle” eventually play much larger roles at the end of the film; how it took six months to plan the shooting of “Be Our Guest,” one month to actually film the musical number and then 15 months to complete its CGI; how Josh Gad and Luke Evans rehearsed “Gaston” for a month before filming the scene; and how Dan Stevens had to dance in stilts for the “Beauty and the Beast” ballroom number.

Several other music-inspired extras are included on the release as well, including an extended version of “Days in the Sun.” Viewers will hear from director Condon how the musical number had to be reshot because test audiences originally confused the Beast’s dying mother with the enchantress who casts a spell on him at the start of the movie since the two actresses looked so much alike. The filmmakers later had to recast the young prince when reshooting the scene, too, because in the version of “Days in the Sun” that ended up in the movie, the young prince starts singing the song instead of his mother and the boy originally cast in the part couldn’t sing.

“Making a Moment with Céline Dion” features the legendary performer discussing how she was conflicted on whether or not to record “How Does a Moment Last Forever” following her husband René Angélil’s death last year since he was such a major part of her original Beauty and the Beast experience. While it was a difficult decision to make, Dion said she’s ultimately proud of her decision to go ahead and record the song and knows that René’s watching over her and is proud of her choice, too.

The music video for Ariana Grande and John Legend’s take on Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson’s original “Beauty and the Beast” single is also included on the disc, which actually features the pony-tailed pop star performing the number with her hair down for a change. A quick featurette on the making of the music video is included as well, in which the two singers discuss performing the song for a new generation. Legend notes it was both a “challenge and an honor” for him and Grande to get the opportunity to put their own spin on the classic track.

For those who simply want to enjoy their favorite musical numbers from the film over and over again, the Disney Song Selection feature lets guests quickly access their favorite musical scenes with the push of a button or via a Play All option that plays all of the main musical numbers featured in the movie: “Belle,” “How Does a Moment Last Forever” (Music Box), “Belle” (Reprise), “Gaston,” “Be Our Guest,” “Days in the Sun,” “Something There,” “How Does a Moment Last Forever” (Montmartre), “Beauty and the Beast,” “Evermore,” The Mob Song,” and “Beauty and the Beast (Finale).” As an added bonus, as each scene plays, the lyrics to the song appear on the bottom of the screen for viewers to sing along to just like in the sing-along version of the film.

Wrapping up the extras are eight deleted scenes — “Gaston Courts Belle,” “Bread and Jam for Agathe,” “Storming the Ice Gates,” “Lumière Torches LeFou,” “Monsieur Toilette,” “Cogsworth Rescues Lumière,” “Treacle the Lasses” and “LeFou and Monsieur Toilette Reunite” — which viewers learn from an optional introduction by director Condon were either cut from the film for run time or tonal shifts. Guests can watch each scene individually or via a Play All option. For the most part, each scene runs under a minute in length, with the exception of the humorous “Gaston Courts Belle,” which is more of an extended scene of Gaston going off to save the so-called “damsel in distress” from being harassed by the townspeople while doing some laundry. Most of the deleted scenes take place during the final battle sequence in the Beast’s castle, too, so they don’t really add much to the story, although audiences do get to meet a funny new character, Monsieur Toilette.

The DVD included with the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack sadly contains just one bonus feature: Ariana Grande and John Legend’s music video for “Beauty and the Beast.”

While many people will argue that Jon Favreau’s recent live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book is now the definitive Disney version of the classic tale, the only reason moviegoers won’t consider this live-action adaption of Beauty and the Beast the new Disney go-to is because the original movie didn’t have any noticeable flaws. That doesn’t mean this new version of the cherished tale, however, is any less magical than its predecessor. A stunning visual achievement, die-hard fans who were worried that the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast would tarnish the original movie in some way have nothing to fret: the film is a modern-day masterpiece well deserving of the Disney name and a place in everyone’s home video collection.

Healing sea and the Bravo awards

The sun and the sea have amazing healing qualities. A kaleidoscope of sensations and moods mesmerizes the restless spirit.

The ocean is both a fascinating refuge and a source of creative inspiration. Serenity calms the heart and soothes the mind.

Sunrise is a delightful surprise. The pale lavender — silver gray sky at dawn slowly turns to light powder blue as the sun begins its slow ascent. Walking on a deserted shore is a precious luxury. The sound of the rolling waves is music. The seagulls are not yet awake. A flying fish suddenly sprouts from the water and dives back.

One can bask under the mellow and mild sunshine and gaze at drifting puffy clouds in the cobalt sky. The sound of the waves rushing forth and receding is soothing. The racing anxious heartbeat slows down. The electrical impulses of the hyperactive brain settle into a gentle pattern.

Random thoughts and bright ideas begin to crystallize. The imagination begins to unfold images of wondrous light.

The water appears to be a sheet of mirror stretched out to the horizon. Only a solitary sailboat glides across the line between sky and sea.

As the morning ripens into noon, the sky turns cobalt blue with towering cumulus clouds. Seagulls soar ad swoop like white kites dipping into the water. Kingfishers perch on the ledges of caves searching for their aquatic pry. Little sea turtles crawl out from their hatched eggshells and tiptoe lightly on the shoreline. The waves make bubbles and leave tangled seaweeds, scattered shells and a lonely blue starfish.

In the late afternoon, the sky deepens into azure. The sea becomes pewter gray with flecks of gold and copper that cascade forth, streaks of magenta and violet magically transform the clouds into sheer gaze ribbons.

Perched on the side of the cliff, a curious traveler marvels at the Divine tableau created by a giant brush and palette. The sky is splattered with impressionistic dots and strong, energetic brushstrokes. A work-in-progress.

The radiant orb begins its solemn descent into a hazy horizon. Streaks of copper and rust ripple on the moving water. The dramatic sky turns into startling shades of peach, orange, fuchsia, crimson and lavender.

The fresh salty air is a heady cocktail of oxygen and the fragrance of wet grass and wild flowers. The heart feels the sharp sting, a tight tug. The minutes tick ever so slowly as the golden sun vanishes into the horizon.

The afterglow evokes bittersweet nostalgia, memories of happy summers and melancholy sunsets past.

The moon rises from the east. It had been so long since one has seen the phenomenon of the simultaneous sunset and moonrise. A splendid synchronicity in nature.

Twilight turns the sky into a velvet indigo backdrop for astrologers and astronomers. The evening star twinkles brightly. The planets and stars align into familiar constellations. One can trace their glittering designs by reaching out and making diagrams.

Shooting stars, comets and meteor showers streak across and fall into the ocean. It is a different cosmic spectacle every night. One feels like a tiny insignificant speck in the vast universe.

The luminous moon ascends and bathes the jagged cliffs with a magical silvery sheen. Its radiant reflection is gentle and soothing to the aching heart.

To gaze at the timeless panorama of sea and sky is to find harmony in heaven and earth. That priceless moment is like coming home, and healing — at last.

BRAVO AWARDS 2017
Zonta will honor women achievers who have not yet been recognized by any organization nationwide. “This organization’s advocacy is to empower women in various levels of society. They are the unsung heroes that we can emulate,” Zonta Makati and environs president Armita B. Rufino remarked.

The Bravo awards, co-presented by Security Bank Corp., were launched in 2014.

Ms. Olivia Ferry, Bravo Awards Chair explained the five criteria for the awards:

Vision and leadership. Social impact. Innovation. Sustainability.

The nominee’s standing as role model as shown through activities that have significantly enhanced the lives of people in the community.

Congratulations to this year’s outstanding achievers:

Sister Mary Placid Abejo OSB — Awardee for Arts, Culture and Heritage

Mary Beth Maningas — Awardee for Science and Technology

Zarah Jane Juan — Awardee for Business

Sadhana Buxani — Awardee for Media

Yvette “Betsy” Medalla — Awardee for Sports

Susan V Ople — Awardee for Social Service

Susana P. Guerrero — Awardee for Culinary Arts

Jessie Coe Lichauco — Special Award for Social Service

Ms. Lichauco is an American who has resided in the Philippines since 1930. She was granted Philippine citizenship in 2012 through Republic Act No. 10356 which was signed into law by President Benigno Aquino III, citing her for her social contributions to the country, adopting the Philippines as her home, speaking the Filipino language, and for embracing Filipino culture. Her life, her social work and support of the arts and culture of the Philippines is captured in her award-winning life documentary produced by her granddaughter Sunshine Lichauco De Leon entitled Curiosity, Adventure and Love. She is 105 years old.

The panel of judges are: Ms. Marife Zamora chair of Convergys and president, Management Association of the Philippines; Dr. Esperanza Cabral secretary; Dr. Jikyeong Kang president of Asian Institute of Management; Ms. Emily Abrera, former CEO and president of McCann Erickson; Ms. Elis Flores, RTC judge, Muntinlupa.

(The Bravo Awards will be held on Aug. 16 at the Security Bank Centre, JYD Hall Auditorium, Makati City.)

Maria Victoria Rufino is an artist, writer and businesswoman. She is president and executive producer of Maverick Productions.

mavrufino@gmail.com

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