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Ironed

By Noel Vera

Movie Review
A Wrinkle in Time
Directed by Ava DuVernay

WORD IS OUT: Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic piece of children’s literature A Wrinkle in Time has provoked critically mixed reviews, has reportedly underperformed at the box office. The Disney magic, so spectacularly validated with Ryan Coogler’s critically and commercially beloved Black Panther seems with this production to have stumbled, big-time.

The movie itself? Well…

DuVernay starts out by focusing on the family trauma that has stricken the Murrys — father Alex’s (Chris Pine) unexplained disappearance, eldest daughter Meg’s (Storm Reid) resulting state of alienation and pain. Meg has become standoffish and fellow schoolmates have abandoned her; some (particularly Veronica, played by Rowan Blanchard) have reacted with hostile remarks about a straying father. We feel for Meg; we’re enchanted with Storm Reid’s unconventionally fresh looks, expressiveness, vulnerability. We’re ready to follow her to whatever strange worlds she may stumble upon, any bizarre adventures she may undertake on her quest for her missing dad.

What we get instead is Reese Witherspoon at her Legally Clueless brightest, decked out in a billowy white dress (she looks like she’s about to tack into the wind) and tangerine fishtail braids. Witherspoon plays Ms. Whatsit, a next-door neighbor enjoying uncanny rapport with Meg’s younger brother Charles Wallace Murry (Deric McCabe); she’s joined by a Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) sporting a yearlong crochet project and speaking Brainyquote, and by a Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey) 20-feet tall with spangled eyebrows, wearing a Mack radiator grill. What Who Which explain to Meg that her father wasn’t crazy after all but had discovered a tesseract, and with this four-dimensional (five in the book) mathematical concept has managed to lose himself somewhere out in the universe.

Before you can say “Kansas!” Meg, pretty-boy admirer Calvin (Levi Miller), and Charles Wallace hie off to the utopian planet Uriel, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the utopian land of Wakanda except with a more temperate clime (hard to explain beyond the thought that DuVernay and Coogler — and come to think of it Gunn and Whedon and the brothers Russo before them — haven’t strayed much from Disney’s house repertory of bright family friendly epically dull digital effects*).

And we’re off and running, with a plot involving a dark amorphously evil It (basically Peter Jackson’s Sauron only with smoke instead of fire pouring out), a Happy Medium (Zach Galifianakis balancing his career at one end of a seesawing stone), and a Man with Red Eyes (Michael Peña sporting the world’s most painful-looking pair of contact lens burns).

Not a big fan of DuVernay’s previous work (Selma, 2015) but to be fair the filmmaker doesn’t hide her sympathies, which are clearly with the Murrys: Meg, Charles Wallace, mother Kate (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), and even MIA father Alex are given their moments of longing for each others’ presence: the sense of family is arguably the strongest unalloyed achievement of the picture. DuVernay even grants the other youths their little epiphanies (turns out Veronica teases Meg for personal reasons and Calvin, who is outwardly popular at school, inwardly needs a serious self-image makeover).

To highlight that sense of family and community however, you need the contrast of an equally strong antagonist, and (skip the rest of the paragraph if you plan to see the movie!) diesel fumes gathering in a sapphire blue sky don’t do much for me nowadays, no matter how noxious-looking they may be. Peña’s Red Eyes offer a moment of mild shock when first glimpsed but he’s barely sketched in as a presence, much less a character; it’s telling that when he no longer has a function in the plot he’s dropped like an unwanted marionette. Charles Wallace’s genius-turned-monster child is the movie’s most memorable villain by default — we know him from earlier scenes, we like his light charm; when he turns bad we squirm at the ruthlessness with which he wields his knowledge of Meg’s most intimate faults and fears to his advantage.

Alas not enough — or rather, was enough till DuVernay decided to retell The Neverending Story with production design by Hobby Lobby. I keep thinking of filmmakers who’ve done this sort of thing better on a smaller budget — Terry Gilliam with Time Bandits (his child hero was barely a character at all, but you watched the mind-bending effects); Tim Burton with Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (again, barely a narrative or character but the visual wit is palpable [and nondigital]). Did they have their bizarre details, their off moments that really shouldn’t work? No worry; a spry sense of humor transforms said detail into part of the movie’s wayward appeal, a bit of prestidigitation DuVernay seems unable to bring off.

Wrinkle’s story — haven’t read the book myself — seems more compelling than any of the aforementioned examples: family must wander time and space before it can bring itself back together. But DuVernay, while careful to get her family just right, seems to have ceded control of the various worlds over to the Rat Factory, whose corporate “creativity” flattens the sense of wonder in this — or just about any — fantasy picture.

*(Though to be fair Gunn did embrace said effects’ inherent cheesiness, and let his inner disco shine.)

MTRCB Rating: G

PNB books higher net earnings

PHILIPPINE National Bank (PNB) saw its net income rise in 2017 on the back of growth in its core earnings.

In a disclosure to the local bourse on late Thursday, the Tan-led PNB booked a consolidated net income of P8.2 billion in 2017, 14% higher than the P7.2 billion it recorded the previous year.

The lender’s net interest income rose 13% in 2017. This was mainly driven by the expansion in its loan portfolio to P502.1 billion, up by 17% from the P428.2 billion logged in 2016.

PNB’s total deposits, on the other hand, increased by 12% to P637.9 billion in 2017, up from the P570.5 billion recorded in 2016.

Meanwhile, net service fees and income from commissions went up 16% due to the growth in loan- and deposit-related services as well as improved investment banking fees.

PNB also booked a net gain of P3.9 billion for disposing its properties, up from the P2.5 billion booked in 2016. This was in line with the bank’s strategy to reduce its non-earning assets.

Trading and foreign exchange gains dropped 22% year-on-year, while operating expenses, excluding provisions for impairment and credit losses, increased 7% in 2017.

Overall, PNB’s total consolidated assets were at P836.2 billion, up 11% from the P754 billion in 2016.

In 2017, the lender raised P10.1 billion from the issuances of the second and third tranches of its P20-billion long-term negotiable certificates of deposit (LTNCD) program.

PNB plans to raise more capital by launching another LTNCD program of up to P20 billion which may be done in one or more tranches.

“The proceeds will be used to extend the maturity profile of the bank’s liabilities as part of overall liability management, support compliance with required BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) liquidity ratios, and raise long-term funds for general corporate purposes,” PNB said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange in January.

LTNCDs are similar to regular time deposits which offer higher interest rates, but the difference is that these cannot be pre-terminated. Being “negotiable” means that these can be traded at the secondary market prior to maturity date.

According to the latest data from the BSP, PNB is the sixth-largest bank in the Philippines in asset terms as of September 2017.

PNB shares closed at P56.40 apiece on Friday, down 20 centavos or 0.35%. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

Ryanair Holdings hands German pilots full contracts in peace overture

RYANAIR Holdings Plc. will offer direct employment to some German pilots currently working under contract, as a recruitment specialist ends its services for the discount carrier in the country.

“Ryanair has now begun the process of offering these contractors direct employment,” the Irish airline said in an e-mail after UK-based McGinley Aviation wrote to air crew confirming its withdrawal in a letter obtained by Bloomberg News.

McGinley Managing Director Elizabeth Cusack said in a separate e-mail that her firm reached the decision itself following an operational review and will continue serving Ryanair in all other countries.

The switch may help pave the way for a unionization deal between the Dublin-based airline and its German pilots after they staged the first strike in the company’s history on Dec. 22. The four-hour stoppage was called after a breakdown in talks with the Vereinigung Cockpit labor group over the transition to collective bargaining.

Vereinigung Cockpit is aware of the McGinley letter, and the change to direct contracts is a welcome development, though tax implications need to be clarified, the union’s international relations officer James Phillips said by phone.

Germany, where about half of Ryanair’s pilots are outside contractors, has remained a thorn in the carrier’s side after it secured labor accords in markets including the UK and Ireland. Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary has been forced to drop a long-standing anti-union stance after staff gained bargaining power following a rostering mixup that led 20,000 flights to be scrapped.

McGinley will end its work for Ryanair in Germany on Oct. 31, according to its letter. — Bloomberg

NBC News plans online streaming service to attract younger viewers

NEW YORK — Comcast Corp.’s NBC News plans to launch an online streaming service this year as part of its effort to reach younger viewers who prefer to watch their favorite shows online, executives said on Wednesday.

NBC News, like other broadcast news outlets, faces an aging audience. The median age of NBC Nightly News, for example, is 64 years old, according to Nielsen.

Launching an online streaming service would help attract younger viewers, said Andy Lack, NBC News chairman, in a news briefing at NBC’s offices in New York.

The company has not decided if the service would be subscription-based.

To cater to millennial viewers, NBC has stepped up its focus on growing its digital business. Comcast NBCUniversal invested $500 million in Snapchat owner Snap, Inc. during its initial public offering.

In July, NBC News launched a twice-daily news show on Snapchat called Stay Tuned.

That show has 5 million subscribers, said Nick Ascheim, head of digital at NBC News. It is on track to have 37 million to 38 million unique visitors in March, up from 33 million in February, he said.

Snapchat has 80 million daily active users in North America, according to the company’s fourth-quarter earnings.

Still, the “core audience,” or those viewers coming back for three episodes over the past seven days is increasing — a sign of engagement, Ascheim said.

More than half of the 33 million unique visitors watched the show at least three times in the past week, he said.

NBC is having success with Stay Tuned at a time when other programmers have struggled to make money on Snapchat. Late last year, Time Warner, Inc.’s CNN shut down its daily show on Snapchat just four months after having launched it.

Despite its increased focus on digital, NBC News has no plans to bring any of its content back to Facebook, Inc. because it does not see it as a friendly environment to news organizations, despite its size, Lack said.

“Facebook doesn’t have value for publishers,” he said.

Facebook was not immediately available for comment. — Reuters

Payoneer picks Philippines as hub for Southeast Asia

PAYONEER has designated the Philippines to be its hub for Southeast Asia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, as it sees the continued rise of business process outsourcing and freelancing businesses in the country.

The New York-based financial services company, which entered the country in 2016, designated the Philippines as its hub starting this year.

Payoneer Chief Executive Officer Scott Galit said trends of cross-border work and online jobs for back-office functions bodes well for the Philippines as a market for Payoneer.

“We had to succeed in the Philippines, and the market is large here with the level and quality of English,” Mr. Galit said in a media roundtable.

Mr. Galit said the company is optimistic with the growing number of freelancing and small BPO centers in the country. The company will open a customer center in addition to its head office.

Payoneer said it has seen a 472% growth in the number of active monthly users, leading to a record 483% rise in monthly core payment volume and 663% increase in billing service payment volume since the start of its operations. This growth was primarily driven by freelancers and service providers.

Payoneer provides digital payment services and online transaction services. Its main clients are small and medium enterprises in the Philippines. — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo

Noir on steroids

By Alexander O. Cuaycong
and Anthony L. Cuaycong

AS THE BRAINS behind such groundbreaking titles as Killer7, Killer is Dead, and No More Heroes, video game designer Goichi Suda offers a distinctive style. His creations are what conventional wisdom would term dysfunctional, far from a breeze to comprehend but made with such originality that it’s hard not to appreciate their quirkiness. The 25th Ward: The Silver Case is no exception. As the follow-up release to The Silver Case, one of Suda51’s first works, it presents the same dystopian setting and dark humor as its well-received predecessor.

The 25th Ward has you gripped from the outset. You’re charged with investigating a string of murders in an experimental city where organized bureaucracy has been done away with, and where life is supposedly idyllic. In aiming to solve the mystery that binds these deaths together and consequently catch the mastermind, you move back and forth between three seemingly disparate story arcs made up of five episodes each. “Correctness” has you following Heinous Crimes Unit detective Mokutaro “Jabroni” Shiroyabu and Shinko Kuroyanagi, his superior. In “Placebo,” you view events through the eyes of the Regional Adjustment Bureau’s Shinkai Tsuki. And in “Matchmaker,” you are reunited with The Silver Case protagonist Tokio Morishima.

The 25th Ward unwraps in typical visual-novel fashion; lengthy narrative segments over static visuals alternate with exploration phases. You travel between locations, talk to people and witnesses, examine areas, and look for any clues en route. Now and then, you encounter puzzles that require you to meet varied sets of objectives. It presents itself well in this regard, requiring you to invest in story and dialogue and then getting you to reap the benefits of your efforts through its involving atmosphere and sharp script. And with fleshed-out characters and challenging puzzles coming into play, you’re not wrong to envision a darker, grimmer version of Phoenix Wright.

On the flip side, The 25th Ward can get too clever for its own good. As a sequel, it naturally harks back to The Silver Case, but those unfamiliar with the latter are largely left to fend for themselves. It can be treated as a standalone release, true, but some exposition at the start would have helped all the same. Moreover, you are left to decide how you want to approach it through its three storylines, never mind that it is best appreciated taking each a chapter at a time.

Parenthetically, The 25th Ward can get clunky now and then, and, while far from game-breaking, its flaws tend to draw you out of the moment. For instance, a handful of puzzles become difficult to follow because of the cryptic writing. And with translation issues occasionally popping up, you can get stuck on a particularly hard one because you aren’t clear on what you need to do. Meanwhile, some narrative sections require you to exhaust every dialogue option available before you can move on. It’s as if you’re in a big enclosed space; you have freedom to move around as you wish, but you’re hindered from leaving it until you do everything you know is required of you — and some you don’t.

Nonetheless, The 25th Ward leaves a positive impression. It’s noir on steroids, engrossingly juxtaposing a futuristic look with a gritty setting to more than offset its blemishes. And the story provides immense replay value, with literally a hundred endings to be had. Once in a while, the tension can be drained by grammatical errors and imperfect controls (which are surprisingly more pronounced on the PC), but, for the most part, you’re hooked. You’re immersed in Suda51’s world, and it makes you worth your while to linger.

Video Game Review

The 25th Ward: The Silver Case
PlayStation 4 / PC via Steam

THE GOOD
• Interesting design and atmosphere, featuring outstanding writing
• Stylistic art design with music
• Eclectic mix of puzzles and story segments

THE BAD
• Overly cryptic puzzles that halt progress
• Translation errors
• Shoddy PC controls

RATING: 7.5/10

PayMaya expands Robinsons partnership

PAYMAYA Philippines, Inc. has expanded its collaboration with Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc.

In a statement, the digital payments arm of PLDT, Inc.’s Voyager Innovations said PayMaya QR will now be available as a mode of payment at more shops under Robinsons Retail.

These include Robinsons Department Store, Robinsons Supermarket, Robinsons Appliances, Robinsons Builders, True Value, True Home, Handyman, Toys ‘R’ Us, Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Burton Menswear, Miss Selfridge, Warehouse, G2000, Daiso Japan, Southstar Drug, and The Generics Pharmacy.

Ministop last November deployed Paymaya QR at its branch in Robinsons Galleria.

“As we step up our efforts toward realizing our vision for financial inclusion, we count Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. and all its affiliate brands as key partners and enablers in revolutionizing the way Filipinos pay through PayMaya QR. More and more, brands and enterprises are adopting mobile payments in their stores, and we are glad that our partner brands at Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. are leading the way in bringing these innovations into the mainstream,” Manuel V. Pangilinan, PLDT chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement.

Last year, PayMaya partnered with Facebook to allow PayMaya customers to send money and pay bills on Facebook Messenger.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — PPCM

Kinky Boots kicks again

Theater Review
Kinky Boots
Presented by Atlantis Productions
Directed by Bobby Garcia
March 16, 8 p.m.,
March 17 and 18, 2 and 8 p.m.
Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium,
RCBC Plaza, Ayala cor. Pedro Gil Aves., Makati City

By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman,
Reporter

THOSE who already saw Kinky Boots last July are lucky to have the opportunity see it again thanks to the ongoing rerun at RCBC’s Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium. But those who are seeing it for the first time just as lucky as Kinky Boots is kinkier the second time around. Encores, after all, can only get better than the original runs for obvious reasons, for instance, the song and dance numbers are more polished — not that they weren’t good the first time ’round. The punch lines are better told. The lines are delivered smoother.

Speaking to the press some weeks before the rerun opened on March 2, Nyoy Volante, who plays one of the leads, the drag queen Lola, said he’d “up his game” and make the comedy punchier. And he did.

I was not able to watch the first run in July, but true to what the critics said then, Mr. Volante is good. He is flawless, literally (no armpit hair!), and figuratively. His performance gives justice to Lola, a boxer before he becomes a flamboyant drag queen and the brains behind the revival of a dying shoe factory. Lola’s jokes crack up the audience not because the humor comes at the expense of the LGBTQ community, but because of Lola’s wit, execution, and perfect timing.

Mr. Volante has done impersonations before on television. But in Kinky Boots, he does more than copying; he uplifts Lola’s character. While it is unfortunate that we live in a society where prejudice and stereotypes still exist, Mr. Volante’s Lola enlightens without preaching to the audience about what it means to be a “real” man.

A pop singer who started his career in the early 2000s, Mr. Volante displays on stage his ability to shift from one song to another. In one scene, he sings and dances — in six-inch heels — one of the musical’s Cyndi Lauper penned-songs, “Sex is in the Heels,” while in another, he powers it up and goes on a full diva mode in the heartfelt “Hold Me In Your Heart.”

A famed American singer and LGBT rights activist, Ms. Lauper wrote the play’s music and lyrics.

Volante is supported by another crowd favorite — Lola’s Angels, a group of showstopping groovy drag queens who can do mid-air splits and body-bending acrobatics. The Angels — Gerhard Krysstopher, Mark Pineda, Ritz Beltran, Jorge Jahnke, Michael Jahnke, and Jazztin Cacayan — are members of the dance group G-Force, hence their energetic, spotless, and lively dance numbers. One of the highlights of the show has the whole cast dancing on treadmills while singing.

Mr. Volante’s real life wife, theater actress Mikkie Bradshaw, replaces the first run’s Yannah Laurel as one of the shoe factory employees who has a crush on her boss, Charlie. Her solo number, “The History of Wrong Guys,” showcases her comedic timing, a few dance routines, and her singing skills. She is fun and funny to watch on stage; a goofball and a ball of energy.

Kinky Boots tells the story of Charlie Price (played by Laurence Mossman) who inherits a shoe factory, which he does not like and know nothing about. But the business needs to stay afloat so when he — fortuitously — meets Lola, he asks him to be the shoe designer. As the two forges a friendship, together they follow their own dreams and discover who they want to be.

Wanting to pursue a singing career in Manila, Mr. Mossman moved to the country in 2015 and went on to join a vocal group called Primo. He made his theater debut in another Atlantis production, Fun Home in 2016. In Kinky Boots, his solo of “Soul of a Man” demonstrates that, like Charlie, he is on the right path in following his dreams and discovering who he really is meant to be.

Tickets are available at TicketWorld (www.ticketworld.com.ph).

Shattering the glass ceiling playbook for women

It’s International Women’s Month and so I’m reminded about this old joke in the audit profession that brings out the issue of gender stereotypes. It says, “If you want to know how women auditors or accountants perform, just look at their body shape: are they concerned about figures?”

I’m glad that I don’t hear this joke anymore, at least not in the Philippines where gender gap is less a concern compared to other countries. Recent findings from Grant Thornton International’s Women in Business report offer a sobering view of women in the corporate boardroom. One of four in senior management teams worldwide is a woman, putting the current global average at just around 25%. In the case of the Philippines, there are twice more Filipino women in top management positions than in most parts of the world, placing the country on top of our global survey of more than 4,500 executives in 35 countries. While this is good news, there are also research studies that say it could take another 75 to 80 years to reach gender parity in the workplace at the current pace of progress we are making.

The global audit profession is one concrete proof that gender diversity in the workplace is a good thing — not just for the sake of corporate box ticking, but because it makes business sense. True, the auditing profession is age-old and has been historically a man’s territory. But there’s a significant demographic shift happening that thrusts women into higher positions in audit.

According to Catalyst, a global nonprofit that help build workplaces for women, women comprised more than half of all accounting degree holders in 2016. It also says more than 60% of all accountants and auditors in the United States are women, with some of the largest firms being led by females.

In his speech at P&A Grant Thornton’s 30th anniversary last February 15, Grant Thornton International Global CEO Peter Bodin cited two things that make the corporate culture in the Philippine firm strong: its gender balance and the presence of millennials. “So much research and experience show that diverse and gender-balanced businesses deliver better results, are better able to handle the disruption that goes in every sector, and are more resilient,” he said in his speech.

Overcoming gender diversity challenges in an organization, however, could be a tougher glass ceiling to shatter because of the continuous stereotyping of women, and not just by men. Women, too, are sometimes guilty of believing in certain myths about their work attitudes and performance that prevent them from taking on senior leadership roles. Here are some of these myths that we need to debunk:

Myth No. 1: Women tend to overanalyze.

Before accepting responsibility, women tend to overthink, unlike men who jump right ahead before thinking. This casts both sexes in a bad light when people in senior management roles almost always have to make difficult calls while employing empathy and fair judgment in their decision making and thought processes.

Myth No. 2: Women don’t like recognition.

Women feel a tinge of guilt when accused of self-promotion, and instead prefer to work in the shadows until the spotlight shines on them. So while women pull all-nighters crafting extensive and time-consuming reports, they allow their male colleagues to make the actual presentations and earn recognition for it in the process.

Today, this is neither the case nor it should ever be the case for women gunning for senior leadership roles. You are building your brand, and what you do, how you work, and how you behave are all part of this brand building. Seeking a leadership role means analyzing and poring over what is expected, and then developing your self to be fit to lead.

Myth No. 3: Women need to sacrifice their family life if they were to pursue career ambitions.

Some women feel taking on additional or leadership roles at work may tip the scales of their personal and professional lives. When a female executive is offered job promotion, she is made to feel guilty about compromising her family or personal life and ends up passing up the opportunity. Fortunately, there are now women proving to be excellent role models in balancing work with personal responsibilities and more and more workplaces are promoting work-life balance.

Some countries even argue for lengthening paternity leaves, not shortening maternity leaves. Childcare is a shared role and there’s growing recognition that the father can also take care of the children and therefore balance the opportunities for himself and his wife in the workforce. A woman’s promotion to an executive role is therefore a family decision to make (not her personal burden).

The list of myths could go on: women ask tough questions, women don’t get along with men in the boardroom, and women aren’t inclined to lead or spearhead initiatives. The long and short of it is that driving gender diversity in the workplace begins by shattering stereotypes, and not just the glass ceiling.

 

Ma. Victoria C. Españo is the President of the Financial Executives’ Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) and the Chairperson and CEO of Punongbayan & Araullo Grant Thornton, one of the leading Audit, Tax Advisory and Outsourcing firms in the Philippines.

marivic.espano@ph.gt.com.

China dragoons viewers to make pro-Xi film a blockbuster

SHANGHAI — Citizens across China are being corralled into cinemas to watch a propaganda film extolling the Communist Party and Xi Jinping, as an intensifying personality cult around the 64-year-old leader hits the big screen.

The mass viewings by staff from companies and government agencies have catapulted the feature-length movie, called Amazing China in English and released March 2, into the ranks of the country’s biggest box-office earners, with state media saying it was already the country’s highest-grossing “documentary” ever.

The feature, produced by state broadcaster CCTV and a government film group, fawns over China’s achievements in science, technology, industry, and poverty reduction since Xi took power in 2012, and the mobilisation of moviegoers underlines his increasing dominance of public life.

“Most of us are from a state tobacco company. We all came together,” said a woman who was among hundreds of viewers at a Shanghai cinema that was, unusually for a weekday, sold out. “It’s a very patriotic movie, and contains much of our party’s doctrine, so it’s our duty to watch it,” she said cheerfully.

The timing of the release of the film, distributed by Alibaba Pictures, is no accident.

China’s annual parliament meeting opened in Beijing on March 5 and on Sunday the Communist-controlled legislature voted to abolish presidential term limits, paving the way for indefinite rule by Xi, who has rapidly become China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

The move, which has prompted fears of a budding dictatorship, is part of an accelerating drive by Xi to accumulate power as he pushes his long-term plans to propel China to superpower status, backed up by a relentless domestic propaganda campaign.

The official Xinhua news agency said Amazing China was the most talked-about film at parliament, cited by various ministers as proof of the country’s progress.

Breathlessly narrated segments praise China’s armed forces modernisation, infrastructure achievements, space programme and economic development in backward regions like Buddhist Tibet and predominantly Muslim Xinjiang.

Critics in those regions have complained of repression by Beijing and both have suffered bouts of violent anti-Chinese unrest in recent years. None of this is mentioned in the film. Major problems like chronic air pollution and corruption are also ignored.

Instead, Tibetans are portrayed as the appreciative recipients of Communist aid that has saved them from poverty.

Every few minutes, Xi materializes to offer fresh wisdoms and drive home the message.

The viewer rating function on leading Chinese movie platform Douban.com has been disabled for Amazing China, apparently to stifle criticism.

But many Chinese internet users complained of being pressured to see the movie at their own expense and to write an appraisal of it.

Some users of the Twitter-like Weibo platform pleaded with others to share their essays.

“It’s like schoolchildren being taken to watch a movie and then given homework on it,” said one user, complaining that viewers were being treated like “big babies.”

Xinhua said Amazing China had so far earned 227 million yuan ($36 billion) — and counting — at the box office. Star Wars: The Last Jedi, by comparison, made around 267 million yuan in China, according to official sources. — AFP

What to see this week

3 films to see on the week of March 16-23, 2018

Game Night


MAX and Annie hold a weekly couples game night which takes a funny turn when Max’s brother, Brooks arranges a murder mystery party. One evening, the six gamers set out to solve the case and discover unexpected twists and turns. Directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, it stars Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, and Jesse Plemons. Empire’s Amy West writes, “Game Night throws plenty of inventive twists at the audience, mostly at the characters’ expense. And it’s never afraid to call itself out on how on-the-nose it can be at times, either.”

MTRCB Rating: R-13

My Perfect You


BURN proposes to his girlfriend and gets rejected. Then he gets fired from his job. Devasted, he goes on a trip to Zambales where he meets Abi who runs a camp in the area. They begin to spend most of their time together and know about each other more. Directed by Cathy Garcia-Molina, it stars Pia Wurtzbach and Gerald Anderson.

MTRCB Rating: PG

The Hurricane Heist


OPPORTUNISTIC criminals infiltrate a US Mint facility in the face of an oncoming hurricane to steal $600 million. Needing a vault code only known to one Treasury Agent, their plan turns into a murderous operation. Directed by Rob Cohen, it stars Maggie Grace, Tobby Kebbell, Ryan Kwanten, Ralph Ineson, Randy Couture, and Melissa Bolona. Variety’s Andrew Barker writes, “[The Hurricane Heist is] a perfect storm of deliriously watchable inanity and ineptitude. It may be a strong early candidate for the worst movie of 2018, but don’t let that deter you — bad movies this fun don’t come along every day.”

MTRCB Rating: PG

Managing introverts and overly cautious managers

Our department head, who holds the rank of director, is low-key and not sociable. Most of the time, he keeps himself busy inside his room and would prefer to manage us via e-mail, texting, and phone calls even if we’re only few meters away from his room. Sometimes, he takes too much time to make decisions because he wants everyone to contribute their ideas to certain issues, even if the ones consulted are not part of the equation. Could you please help us understand the situation? — Bit Puzzled.

Really, it depends so much on the circumstances. Let me tell you a story of a farmer who just saw a young soldier with what appeared like a parachute inside the farm. “You must be brave to come down in a 100-mile-per-hour windstorm in that parachute,” says the farmer to the soldier.

“I didn’t come down in a chute,” replies the soldier. “I went up and down safely with this tent!”

You may not know it, but there has been a growing awareness that introvert-managers have some valuable personal traits that contribute to them becoming good leaders because of their people-handling skills. Why is that so?

Adam Grant, Francesca Gino and David Hofman suggest in their article, “The Hidden Advantages of Quiet Bosses” published in the December 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review that “extroverted leaders have important strengths. However, they also tend to command the center of attention and take over discussions. In a dynamic, unpredictable environment, introverts are often more effective leaders — particularly when workers are proactive, offering ideas for improving the business.

“Such behavior can make extroverted leaders feel threatened. In contrast, introverted leaders tend to listen more carefully and show greater receptivity to suggestions, making them more effective leaders of vocal teams.”

The coauthors have validated the findings by conducting “a lab experiment in which (they) asked 163 college students to work in groups to see how many T-shirts the (students) could fold in 10 minutes. Each group had a leader and four followers, two of whom were research assistants posing as followers.

“To manipulate the behavior of the leaders, (the authors) had each read a statement before the activity began: Some read a statement extolling extroverted leaders (like JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr.); others read a statement praising reserved leaders (like Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln).

“We also predisposed some followers toward proactive behavior. For instance, some of the researcher-followers stopped their groups after 90 seconds and suggested a better way to do the task. The groups with proactive followers performed better under an introverted leader — folding, on average, 28% more T-shirts. The extroverted leaders appeared threatened by and unreceptive to proactive employees. The introverted leaders listened carefully and made employees feel valued, motivating them to work hard.”

There are many advantages for being an introvert-manager. According to Grant, Gino and Hoffman, they are “more cautious and deliberate,” with “greater ability to listen and take suggestions” and “more creative” like Steve Wozniak, the other half of Steve Jobs who established Apple. Their partnership complemented one another as Jobs was known as the extrovert, while Wozniak is known for his reclusive style, spending long hours working alone to create Apple’s first computer.

Now, that prescription is in an American context. Do we have evidence to prove that being introvert and all of its many advantages can be treated as universal that could be done also by people from other cultures?

With or without evidence, being an introvert has its own advantages in this part of the world but only if your boss can do the following:

One, switch from being withdrawn to outgoing from time-to-time. But not all the time. He can’t be an introvert all the time. As part of the management team, he needs to personally meet the customers and of course, the workers who can only be managed through an eyeball-to-eyeball setup. Your boss must have the capacity to be flexible as the need arises.

Two, explain the reason for such long hours inside his room. He must be upfront and clear on why he has to stay much longer inside his comfort zone and away from the madding crowd. At times, he can make the excuse that he’s more productive that way. But not if he wants to clarify certain issues, many of which cannot be reduced to writing.

Three, manage by walking around than sit all day long. One primary reason for this is health and wellness. Prolonged sitting can cause low back pain, limb pain and numbness. But more than that, there’s no better way to initiate a proactive communication process with the workers by having a regular visits to their work stations, not to “snoopervise,” but to show them that you’re always visible and available for consultation.

Every manager, regardless of rank, has his or her share of wrongful employee perceptions, some of which may be difficult to correct. That’s why it is always a requirement for anyone with a fabulous title to see the big picture and be able to assess what can be done at the soonest possible time.

ELBONOMICS: Think slowly and be successful. Think fast and be last.

 

elbonomics@gmail.com

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