ZURICH — Swiss advocates for non-binary rights hailed local star Nemo’s victory in Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest, urging the country’s authorities to enable official recognition of people who identify as neither male or female.
In a politically charged night in the Swedish city of Malmo, Nemo, a 24-year-old Swiss musician who uses they/them pronouns, claimed the top spot after dominating the jury section of the vote to beat out the audience favorite, Croatia’s Baby Lasagna.
The Eurovision’s traditionally carefree tone was clouded by booing and demonstrations from protesters who wanted Israel excluded from the contest because of its government’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
Israel’s contestant, Eden Golan, placed second in the popular vote and wound up fifth overall.
Nemo’s victory came a year-and-a-half after the Swiss government rejected proposals to create a third gender or non-specific option for official records, arguing that a binary gender model was still “strongly anchored” in Swiss society.
Sibel Arslan, a Swiss Green Party lawmaker who launched a legislative proposal in 2017 to overhaul rules to enable non-binary designations, hailed Nemo’s victory.
“A non-binary person who officially doesn’t exist in Switzerland has won Eurovision 2024 for us all with #BreakTheCode,” Arslan wrote on X, referencing Nemo’s winning song “The Code” at the musical extravaganza.
Her proposal, she said, is now “more relevant than ever.”
An Ipsos LGBT Pride online poll in 2023 stated that 6% of respondents in Switzerland identified as either transgender, non-binary, gender-fluid, or differently from male or female, the highest proportion among the 30 countries surveyed.
“The Code,” Nemo’s drum-and-bass, opera, rap and rock song, describes their journey of self-discovery as a non-binary person, which the artist brought to a crescendo in Malmo while balancing precariously on a large, tilting revolving disc.
The youth wing of the Green Liberal Party said Nemo’s success was a triumph for Switzerland and non-binary people.
“It’s time that Switzerland broke with its binary gender designation,” the group said on X.
Still, a nationwide survey last year by polling firm LeeWas for media 20 Minuten and Tamedia showed 62% of the Swiss public were broadly opposed to the introduction of a “third gender” designation on official documents, with only 35% in favor. — Reuters
After a career focused on banking and finance across the Asia-Pacific region, Filipino Mike Samson recently landed back in home territory, as country leader for Standard Chartered Bank
After a career that has granted him a ringside view of the Asia-Pacific growth story, Mike Samson recently returned to Manila to take up the high-profile role of CEO Philippines for Standard Chartered. Thanks to work experience across corporate finance and leveraged finance roles in some of this region’s powerhouse banking markets, Samson says his return to a key leadership country role has been thrilling.
“Coming home to the Philippines after a 27-year banking career overseas is its own reward,” he enthuses. “I feel privileged to take over one of the Bank’s oldest and most established branches within the Standard Chartered network.” As he notes, Standard Chartered has been a proud witness to the rich history of the Philippines — it was the nation’s first international bank, established in 1872.
Described as a perfect example of ‘Glo-cal’ talent (a globalized local), Samson spent a decade working across exciting roles and business challenges for Standard Chartered Singapore from 2011, then almost three years in Sydney as CEO and Head of Commercial, Corporate and Institutional Business for Standard Chartered Australia. Yet when home came calling, he knew he had to say yes.
His extensive banking experience, deep knowledge of ASEAN markets and strong client relationships further deepens the bank’s corporate and investment business across the nation. “The Philippines is a strategic part of the bank’s ASEAN network with immense opportunities. My key focus is to drive our strategic agenda and leverage our strong ASEAN presence — to deliver sustainable growth and value for our stakeholders.”
New growth opportunities
Mike Samson
The new role provides Samson and his team the chance to play an important part in several transformative moments for the nation’s economy. “It is an exciting time in the Philippines, with generational changes happening in digital payments, infrastructure and climate transition. Because of these generational changes, the Philippines is on the cusp of significant growth, which we in Standard Chartered are keen to be part of,” he notes.
Over the next five years, he says Standard Chartered plans to expand its focus from industries such as oil and gas, power and utilities, and banking, into future-facing industries such as clean-tech and renewables, battery metals, digital infrastructure and digital payments.
“We will also be expanding our traditional strength within the banking sector to align with the liberalization of the financial environment,” he notes. In 2022, amendments to the Foreign Investment Act allowed for first-time foreign investors to fully own domestic enterprises in the Philippines. The Retail Trade Liberalization Act reduces the minimum paid-up capital requirements for foreign retail enterprises; while the Public Services Act allows foreign investors to own 100% of public services projects in the country.
Samson believes such measures are producing positive ripples for new business activity, encouraging a diversity of new players into the market, including non-bank lenders, asset managers, electronic payment platforms, private equity and institutional investors.
According to McKinsey, the Philippines ended 2023 on a high note, as the fastest-growing economy across Southeast Asia with a growth rate of 5.6%. This was driven by commercial activities, public infrastructure spending, and growth in digital financial services.
“We will be aligning to the infrastructure drive of the Philippine government, expressed through the newly established Maharlika sovereign wealth fund,” Samson notes, referring to the Philippines’ newly created US$2.3-billion fund, investing in projects that help build the country’s economic pillars such as agriculture, energy, tourism and infrastructure.
“The Bank supports the government’s efforts in airports, ports, gas terminals, toll roads, rail, digital infrastructure (such as data centers), and electricity transmission,” he explains.
A stronger ASEAN
Samson returns to Southeast Asia at an important time for ASEAN. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) projects the region’s gross domestic product (GDP) to expand by 4.7% this year, up from 4.3% in 2023. Despite a challenging market environment, foreign direct investment (FDI) in ASEAN reached a record high of $224 billion in 2022, up 5.5% from the previous year.
Samson believes ASEAN will continue to be an economic bloc of growing importance: a unified voice on matters of standards such as Climate Taxonomy, and Just Transition Principles. “ASEAN is also becoming important in the reconfiguration of the global manufacturing and supply chain, especially as manufacturing shifts from ‘Just In Time’ to ‘Just In Case’. As companies create a second manufacturing hub outside of China, countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia will benefit,” he notes.
He also sees the electric vehicle (EV) revolution transforming ASEAN into a critical region for upstream metals (especially Nickel) and downstream, through the manufacture of EVs and Batteries. According to estimates, Indonesia and the Philippines currently account for nearly 60% of global nickel supply.
“The region is also home to some of the fastest-growing economies with the largest populations, and we are rapidly aligning to the global digital revolution, with fintechs, blockchain supply, and digital payment platforms creating a number of unicorns.”
Finding broader solutions
Likewise, Samson believes ASEAN plays a key role in helping to stabilize the region’s financial platforms, a key requirement for stimulating growth and breaking poverty cycles. “The banking system, being a key component of the various economies in ASEAN will require political stability, liberalization of laws to spur investment, tax reform — and where possible, to create the right climate for banks to support innovation.”
Having recently sat on the other side of the region, Samson believes countries like Australia could play a key role in helping ASEAN pursue its strategic goals.
“The areas of synergy between ASEAN and Australia will be in three key areas. The first is in technological transfer and co-innovation of clean technologies. Second is cross-border investments within areas such as greenification of manufacturing, and processing of nickel for batteries. And third is shared agreement around key standards across platforms — for example in batteries, climate taxonomy, recognition of carbon credits, and joint papers on climate positions.”
Breakthrough deal
Samson’s new role is also expected to be an exciting one in terms of new financial arrangements. One recent highlight for Standard Chartered in the Philippines deal space was the AU$277-million (US$180 million) Syndicated Green Term Loan Facility for renewables company ACEN Australia.
Standard Chartered, alongside Bank of China and CTBC, acted as Joint Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners for the Facility, to finance ACEN’s renewable energy portfolio in Australia. The funds will help finance the development and construction of ACEN’s project pipeline in Australia, encompassing solar, wind, battery storage, pumped hydro power and energy storage. The financing will contribute to ACEN’s strategic aspiration to grow its renewables capacity to 20 GW by 2030.
The transaction marks Standard Chartered’s maiden green loan transaction with the Ayala Group and is in line with the bank’s commitment to mobilize US$300 billion in green and transition finance by 2030.
“We are very proud to support ACEN in its expansion into Australia: a key pillar of its strategy to focus on markets such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Australia which are all expanding rapidly in renewable technologies,” notes Samson. “It was also of particular focus for Standard Chartered to be part of ACEN’s growth out of the Philippines — since our strategy is to help our clients not just in their home market but across their whole business,” he explains.
“In many markets, especially in Asia and Australasia, our long history and sizeable domestic franchises make us uniquely placed to offer a complete suite of services to our clients.”
Home focus
For Samson, coming home to head up operations for one of the world’s leading banks, is not something he takes lightly. “As a longstanding pillar of the Philippine banking system, we are very focused on our ability to help in nation-building and uplifting the lives of Filipinos at home and throughout our 52-country network,” he notes.
Speaking of life at home, Samson and his wife see the return to Asia as a perfect opportunity to explore their other passions. “My wife and I are collectors of contemporary Southeast Asian art,” he shares. “We started over two and a half decades ago, from a small core of Philippine art to almost all the countries of ASEAN — including Laos and Cambodia. It has been our privilege to form a relationship with many artists across a diverse set of artistic disciplines such as painting, sculpture, video, installation, and even performance.”
As he explains, Southeast Asian artists today are successfully shaking off legacy issues of the past, and confronting contemporary challenges around rapid urbanization, generational transformation and climate change. “In short, the story of Southeast Asian art is the story of ASEAN itself.”
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TAN-LED Megaworld Corp. said it has allocated P55 billion for its capital expenditure (capex) budget this year to support its expansion plans.
“This year, Megaworld has budgeted P55 billion for capex, which is an important part of our overall P350-billion five-year capex program that began in 2023,” Megaworld Executive Vice- President Kevin Andrew L. Tan said during the company’s annual stockholders meeting on Monday.
“The budget will be used to develop our existing and upcoming townships, residential projects, investment properties, as well as land acquisition,” he added.
Megaworld aims to have three million square meters (sq.m.) of gross leasable area (GLA) under its leasing portfolio by 2030 for both Megaworld Premier Offices and Megaworld Lifestyle Malls.
By 2030, Megaworld said its office space GLA will reach two million sq.m., while mall GLA will reach one million sq.m. The figure is 52% higher than the company’s total leasing portfolio as of end-2023.
Megaworld will finish around 180,000 sq.m. of offices and about 100,000 sq.m. of mall and commercial retail spaces this year.
The new office supply will come from Megaworld townships in Bulacan, Pampanga, Cavite, Bacolod, and Metro Manila, while the new retail spaces will be sourced from new mall properties in Cavite, Rizal, Pampanga, Bulacan, Bacolod, Cebu, Davao, Boracay, and Palawan.
“Growing our malls and office segments within the next six years is a big part of our continuing expansion,” Mr. Tan said.
In 2023, the company increased its office portfolio under Megaworld Premier Offices by 69,000 sq.m. of GLA to 1.5 million sq.m. following the turnover of the International Finance Center in Uptown Bonifacio.
Megaworld Lifestyle Malls increased its GLA by 33,000 sq.m. to 517,000 sq.m. with the opening of four new retail locations in various Megaworld townships.
Megaworld is the property unit of the Tan family’s holding company Alliance Global Group, Inc.
On Monday, Megaworld shares rose by 1.14% or two centavos to P1.78 per share. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
We are privileged to exist in an unparalleled era. Our concern for improving health conditions led to many remarkable strides in science and technology that significantly enhanced life expectancy. They contributed to a unique phenomenon where five generations (reference: Pew Research Center Generational Categories) are living and working side by side, coexisting in this world, each bringing their own set of experiences, insights, and perspectives.
The conversations had always been about the growing challenge for organizations to manage a multi-generational workforce but while this is a critical issue given the growing complexity of workforce issues, the business implications go beyond that. The markets/customer bases are now multi-generational, the priorities in terms of reforms and legislations are multi-generational, the political climates, governance, and a host of other interests are influenced by multi-generational concerns.
The stable, financially prudent and cautious “Silent” Generation (1928-1945) whose struggles made them risk-averse, value stability expressed in conformity and adherence to tradition.
The confident and self-assured Baby Boomers (1946-1964) are great believers in hard work and in relationship-building as the paths to achieving life goals.
The resilient and independent Generation X (1965-1980) experienced a period of economic uncertainty, and this made them prepared to adapt to changes.
The creative, progressive, tech-savvy and mission-driven Generation Y or Millennials (1981-1996) value purpose and a strong social development agenda in what they do.
The collaborative Generation Z (1997-2012) are digital natives that embrace diversity and find their own unique identities.
And now comes the digitally empowered Generation Alpha (those born after 2012, our 12-year-olds and younger) who are making their presence felt. They are the first generation to experience remote classrooms, streaming services, and portable digital devices from early childhood. They are the ones most affected by the decisions the five preceding generations made and will make today, because these will affect their future.
The five generations carry significant implications in a company and with its external stakeholders, which include customers, shareholders, suppliers, and the broader community. They require businesses to adopt flexible and inclusive approaches, tailoring strategies, products, and services to meet the diverse needs and preferences of each generation while embracing technological advancements and social trends that are now the keys to success across industries moving forward.
Strategic implications to consider:
• Business is no longer usual. The preferences and needs of different generations vary and are increasingly experiential. Companies may need to adapt their products and services to cater across different generation-specific touchpoints, offering more features, customization options, or service delivery methods to appeal to diverse and more discriminating customer segments.
• Expanded marketing channels. While segmenting markets and selecting appropriate marketing channels still work, non-traditional cross-sections will need to be considered — generational preferences, and the use of targeted messaging, imagery, and content. Where before there were just tri-media to consider, the rise of social media platforms now influences how products and services are perceived. Companies must tailor their marketing strategies to effectively reach and engage consumers across different generations, in the shape and form that resonate with them.
• To tech or not to tech. There are varying levels of comfort and proficiency with technology across generations. The use of products and services requires communication styles and user-friendly interfaces that customers can understand and apply.
• Plugging the needs and gaps. Generational diversity can open opportunities for innovations in products and services development, business strategies, and marketing directions. The unique needs of each generation can help in identifying gaps that companies can leverage to differentiate themselves from competitors and capture bigger market share.
Within the organizations, a multi-generational workforce can be a management challenge, but they can also bring advantages to the table.
• The diverse perspectives of multiple generations can lead to better understanding of the markets, more innovative ideas and solutions, and creative marketing directions.
• Companies can create opportunities for cross-generational mentorship that can fuse wisdom, energy, and passion among the workforces. It may even help address mental health issues when guidance and counseling can be provided by the more senior members of the organization.
•Positive perception of the company can be enhanced because it demonstrates inclusivity and responsiveness to the diverse needs of different generations of the workforce.
Workplace policies and practices need to be adaptive when managing a multi-generational workforce, however. These may include flexible work arrangements, training and development programs tailored to different learning styles, and recognition and incentives that resonate with the preferences of each generation. Leadership training programs should be geared towards developing leaders that can work amidst generational differences in values, work styles, and communication preferences to foster collaboration and harmony within the organization.
Each of the generational segments are movements by themselves — the stability and resilience of the Silent Generation, the social responsibility for the Baby Boomers, the efficiency and productivity issues of the Gen X, the mission-oriented Millennials, the tech-driven Gen Zs, and the Gen Alpha born natives of a digital world. Nevertheless, we must be mindful to avoid stereotyping because while those born within those periods exhibit similarities in attitudes and predispositions, people change as they age, mature, and undergo life’s transitions.
The idea is to highlight how each can complement one another’s strengths and weaknesses, instead of focusing on the differences. The imperative is to create a symphony of strategies in five movements so that we can hear and see a beautiful composition that merges all the diverse images each element weaves into this masterpiece we call life.
By understanding multi-generational attributes, companies can craft strategies to navigate the complexities of an evolving marketplace, seize opportunities for growth, and maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly interconnected, collaborative and fast-paced business landscape.
Join the 22nd International CEO Conference of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) which will tackle the challenges and opportunities in a multi-generational world with its theme “Business in Five Movements: Wisdom, Passion and Inspiration Across Multiple Generations” on Sept. 10, Tuesday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Grand Ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Manila in BGC, Taguig City. Register now to avail of early bird rates. For particulars, contact the MAP Secretariat via <map@map.org.ph>.
Alma Rita R. Jimenez is the vice-chair of the MAP CEO Conference Committee, the chair of the MAP Trade, Investments and Tourism Committee, the president and CEO of Health Solutions Corp., and is a former undersecretary of the Department of Tourism.
LOS ANGELES — A fresh installment in the Lord of the Rings movie series, one of the biggest film franchises of all time, is scheduled to debut in theaters in 2026.
It is one of two new Lord of the Rings films announced by Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav on Thursday.
Andy Serkis will reprise his role as Gollum and will direct the first of the two films, which has a working title of Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.
Peter Jackson, who directed the Lord of the Rings trilogy two decades ago followed by three Hobbit movies, will serve as a producer of the new films.
The movies are based on books written by J.R.R. Tolkien and set in the fictional land of Middle-earth inhabited by humans, elves, dwarves, and hobbits.
The prior movies in the franchise have earned nearly $6 billion combined at global box offices. The 2003 movie, Return of the King, won 11 Oscars including best picture.
A previously announced animated Lord of the Rings film, called The War of the Rohirrim, is set for release in theaters this December. — Reuters
MORE than 30 areas outside the franchise area of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) have expressed interest in being served by the power distributor, House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman and Albay Rep. Jose Maria Clemente “Joey” S. Salceda said on Monday.
“At least 29 municipalities and cities and at least four provinces outside the franchise area have formally expressed interest to be served by Meralco,” Mr. Salceda said in a statement.
The lawmaker has filed House Bill No. 9793, which seeks to extend the power distributor’s existing franchise set to expire in 2028. The bill also aims to expand the scope of the company’s operations, a provision absent in its current franchise under Republic Act No. 9209, signed into law in June 2003.
“The case for renewing Meralco’s franchise is plain and simple: it has complied with the conditions of the franchise law and it is good for the economy and the consumer,” he said.
“Meralco provides the most reliable service among all major electric cooperatives and distribution utilities (ECDUs), with outages suffered by the average consumer totaling to mere minutes in an entire year, versus days or weeks worth of blackouts for other neighboring ECDUs,” Mr. Salceda added.
He said that under a scenario where all ECDUs functioned comparably to Meralco, it could potentially lead to an annual increase of P201 billion in gross value added to the economy, attributed to the avoidance of outages.
PARTNERSHIP Meanwhile, Meralco said it has teamed up with the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines, Inc. (JCCIPI) to promote sustainable, innovative and energy efficient solutions in the energy sector.
“Meralco can provide expertise in the energy sector while JCCIPI can contribute technological advancement and investment. This collaboration can result in sustainable energy solutions,” Bernice Gretchel P. Garcia-Rama, Meralco’s head of enterprise-commercial and conglomerates, said in a statement on Monday.
For his part, JCCIPI Vice-President Nobuo Fujii said: “Through this partnership, we aim to harness the power of innovative technology from Japanese companies, coupled with Meralco’s expertise in the energy sector, to drive forward sustainable solutions in the Philippines.”
JCCIPI is a private and nonprofit organization consisting of Japanese or Japanese-related companies and organizations in the Philippines.
Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera
THE GOVERNMENT upsized the volume of Treasury bills (T-bills) it awarded on Monday as rates dropped across all tenors following slower-than-expected April inflation and with the market looking ahead to the central bank’s policy meeting on Thursday.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) raised P17 billion from the T-bills it offered on Monday, higher than the P15-billion program, as total bids reached P59.842 billion or nearly four times the amount on the auction block.
Broken down, the BTr borrowed P5 billion as programmed from the 91-day T-bills as tenders for the tenor reached P21.412 billion. The three-month paper was quoted at an average rate of 5.727%, 5.3 basis points (bps) lower than the 5.78% seen last week. Accepted rates ranged from 5.698% to 5.755%.
The government likewise made a full P5-billion award of the 182-day securities, with bids reaching P19.91 billion. The average rate for the six-month T-bill stood at 5.893%, down by 3.7 bps from the 5.93% fetched last week, with accepted rates at 5.873% to 5.91%.
Lastly, the Treasury raised P7 billion via the 364-day debt papers, higher than the programmed P5 billion, as demand for the tenor totaled P18.519 billion. The average rate of the one-year debt dipped by 1.9 bps to 6.037% from the 6.056% quoted last week. Accepted yields were from 6% to 6.045%.
The BTr made a full award of its T-bill offer as rates were “all lower than previous auction and secondary market benchmark rates,” it said in a statement.
“The auction was almost four times oversubscribed with total bids reaching P59.8 billion, prompting the Committee to double the accepted non-competitive bids for the 364-day securities to P4 billion,” it added.
At the secondary market before the auction, the 91-, 182-, and 364-day T-bills were quoted at 5.7818%, 5.9081%, and 6.0751%, respectively, based on PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service Reference Rates data provided by the Treasury.
“The awarded T-bill rates this week reflected the softer-than-expected Philippine inflation rate reported last April,” a trader said in an e-mail.
Headline inflation picked up for a third straight month to 3.8% year on year in April from 3.7% in March, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported last week. Still, this was slower than the 6.6% print in the same month a year a prior.
This was within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) 3.5-4.3% forecast for the April consumer price index (CPI) and marked the fifth straight month that inflation settled within the central bank’s 2-4% annual target range.
The April CPI was also below the 4.1% median estimate in a BusinessWorld poll of 16 analysts.
For the first four months, headline inflation averaged 3.4%, lower than the BSP’s 3.8% full-year forecast.
The better-than-expected April inflation print could lead to more dovish signals from the Monetary Board at their meeting this Thursday, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.
A BusinessWorld poll conducted last week showed 17 out of 19 analysts expect the BSP to maintain its policy rate at a 17-year high of 6.5% for a fifth straight meeting at its May 16 review.
Meanwhile, one analyst expects the BSP to cut rates by 25 bps, while another sees the central bank raising rates amid persistently elevated inflation.
The central bank raised borrowing costs by a cumulative 450 bps from May 2022 to October 2023.
BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona, Jr. earlier said they would consider starting their easing cycle within the year if inflation could settle firmly at around 3% for several months. However, worsening upside price risks could cause the central bank to delay its rate cuts to early next year.
On Tuesday, the BTr will offer P30 billion in reissued 20-year Treasury bonds with a remaining life of 14 years and eight months.
The Treasury wants to raise P210 billion from the domestic market this month, or P60 billion from T-bills and P150 billion via T-bonds.
The government borrows from local and foreign sources to help fund its budget deficit, which is capped at P1.48 trillion or 5.6% of gross domestic product for this year. — Aaron Michael C. Sy
LONDON — The Beach Boys share their story in a new book chronicling their rise from a small garage band formed in a Los Angeles suburb in the early 1960s to one of the world’s greatest groups.
The Beach Boys by The Beach Boys is described as their only official book and features previously unseen photographs from recording sessions and pages of concert shots.
“It’s high time we had a really good book… there’s a lot of stuff from yesteryear, us growing up and different phases of our career,” band member Mike Love told Reuters at the London launch on Thursday evening.
“We actually wrote this… this is a book from The Beach Boys,” his band mate Bruce Johnston said.
The book is described as “told through the words of” Love, Johnston, Brian Wilson, his late brothers Dennis and Carl, who died in 1983 and 1998 respectively, and Al Jardine.
The group was formed in 1961 by the three brothers, their cousin Love and friend Jardine. Johnston joined in 1965.
“It’s positivity and harmony and the love of making that music and it translates to the audience,” Love said of the group’s lasting success. “(Our music) is all about positivity and harmony and people just love to feel that.”
Their hits range from pop classics celebrating Southern California’s sunny youth culture, including “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” to the complex musical masterpieces of “Surf’s Up,” “Heroes and Villains,” and “Good Vibrations.”
Their story took a tragic turn as their renowned composer Brian Wilson — hailed as a genius by Paul McCartney — struggled with his mental health, even as he recorded some of his era’s most compelling harmonies.
In February, two longtime associates of Wilson petitioned a court, at his family’s behest, to place him under a conservatorship, saying he could not care for himself following his wife’s death in January.
The petition, approved by a judge on Thursday, asked that Wilson’s publicist-manager, Jean Sievers, and his business manager, LeeAnn Hard, be appointed “co-conservators of his person.”
Speaking before Thursday’s hearing took place, Johnston said of Wilson: “I think Brian’s doing better than people think … Brian’s such a mystery but Brian’s still Brian.”
Love said band members, including Wilson, met up last year in Paradise Cove, where The Beach Boys shot their first album cover.
“(Wilson) brought up things that I’d forgotten about in the past and we actually sang a few things a cappella,” he said. Some of the scenes feature in new documentary, The Beach Boys, to be released on Disney+ on May 24, he added. — Reuters
THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, formed in the late 1500s by several provinces that had just broken free from Spanish rule, soon established itself as Europe’s leading bastion of religious liberty and personal freedom. Slavery was frowned upon there and never became legal in the country proper.
As Dutch merchants turned their attentions overseas in the early 1600s, they vowed to steer clear of the trade in human beings already common in the Portuguese and Spanish colonies that they hoped to supplant. But that resolve began to give way as Dutch privateers captured ships bearing slaves and sold them off, and the Dutch conquered Portuguese sugar-cane-growing colonies in Brazil that they decided couldn’t function without slave labor. By the late 1630s, the Dutch West India Co. was a leading player in the Atlantic slave trade, and slavery wasn’t ended in Dutch colonies until 1863 — the same year as the Emancipation Proclamation in the not-exactly-on-the-abolition-forefront US.
I learned a lot more than I previously knew about all this at a conference in New York City a week ago on “Slavery and the Slave Trade in New Netherland and the Dutch Atlantic World,” organized by the New Netherland Institute, the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the New-York Historical Society. I attended because of my long-running interest in the history of New York, which until 1664 was New Netherland, but left wondering about the implications of the Dutch experience with slavery for modern attempts to put moral concerns ahead of worldly ones.
“The moral compass in the 17th century might not have been all that different from today,” said Michiel van Groesen, a history professor at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, “but ideology follows politics.”
Van Groesen’s presentation — based in part on his 2016 book, Amsterdam’s Atlantic: Print Culture and the Making of Dutch Brazil — emphasized the role that a 1638 tract by Dutch theologian Godfried Udemans played in paving the way for acceptance of slavery. In The Spiritual Helm of the Merchant’s Ship, Udemans argued that enslaving Christians was a sin, but heathens were fair game. He also urged that these heathens be treated fairly, converted to Christianity, and eventually freed — and definitely not sold to “Spaniards, Portuguese, or other crude people” — but these instructions were seldom followed.
Criticism of the slave trade did continue within the Netherlands, with writer Jacques Joosten in 1649 comparing slavery in Dutch Brazil to the Ottoman Empire’s enslavement of Christians, “although the Turks in general treat the Christians better.” But the West India Co. and its more famous counterpart, the East India Co. (the world’s first publicly traded corporation), were always able to find defenders and given a mostly free rein to engage in practices overseas that wouldn’t have been acceptable at home.
Van Groesen said he had found a similar dilution of anti-slavery views expressed in England in the first half of the 17th century as the country’s colonial activities grew. By contrast, public discussion remained consistently anti-slavery in less-free France — until France got into the slave trade in a big way later in the century.
This was far from the only theme explored at the conference, where a plurality of presentations were (mostly fascinating) exercises in reconstructing the experiences of enslaved and free Black people in the Dutch Atlantic on the basis of extremely spotty archival information. But it’s the one that felt most relevant to my day job as a business and economics journalist.
Why do US and European efforts to promote human rights, greenhouse-gas reduction, and other ostensibly universal causes overseas so often fizzle? Well, partly because of the — historically well-supported — perception that such Western efforts are self-interested and quickly abandoned when self-interest points in a different direction. Or think of the attempts to steer the development of artificial intelligence in directions that will benefit humanity rather than, say, enslave it — every one of which so far seems to have given way to commercial imperatives.
Nothing will ever equate with the horror of slavery, of course, but the current common practice that seems to me most likely to be looked back upon with some disgust is eating animals, or at least our fellow mammals (and yes, I’m a meat eater). Yet some state legislatures are passing laws banning lab-grown meat because it competes with local cattle farmers, while the alarming spread of avian influenza among cattle has been greeted so far with a relatively laid-back response that is surely shaped in part by the financial interests of the dairy and meat industries.
Doing the right thing when the wrong one is more profitable is just hard. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying or that there has been no progress over the centuries in raising standards of behavior. But the famous 17th century Dutch commitment to freedom wasn’t enough to withstand the temptations of the slave trade, and many of today’s good intentions seem likely to meet similar fates.
GLOBE Telecom, Inc. on Monday said it has completed the sale of its 100 towers to Phil-Tower Consortium, Inc. (PhilTower) for P1.5 billion.
Overall, Globe has closed the sale of 1,100 towers, representing 80% of the 1,350 towers to be acquired by PhilTower, the company said in a regulatory filing.
“The transaction will result in availability of funds for Globe to support future capital expenditures, debt repayments and debt avoidance with the expectation to improve the balance sheet health of the company,” it said.
In September last year, Globe signed an agreement with PhilTower for the sale of 1,350 telecommunication towers and related passive infrastructure for about P20 billion.
For this year, Globe is allocating $1 billion for its capital expenditures funded by internally generated funds, debts and proceeds from its tower sales.
PhilTower is a local tower company. It builds shared telecommunication infrastructure for mobile operators.
At the stock exchange on Monday, shares in the company closed P40 or 2.23% higher at P1,830 apiece. — Ashley Erika O. Jose
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas main office in Manila. — BW FILE PHOTO
THE PHILIPPINE banking industry’s total assets rose by 10.8% as of end-March, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data.
Banks’ combined assets increased to P25.65 trillion as of end-March from P23.15 trillion in the same period a year ago, preliminary data from the central bank showed.
Banks’ assets are mainly supported by deposits, loans, and investments. These include cash and due from banks as well as interbank loans receivable (IBL) and reverse repurchase (RRP), net of allowances for credit losses.
The banking industry’s total loan portfolio inclusive of IBL and RRP rose by 9.9% to P13.22 trillion in the first quarter from P12.03 trillion a year ago.
Net investments, or financial assets and equity investments in subsidiaries, climbed by 10% to P7.36 trillion in the period from P6.69 trillion.
On the other hand, cash and due from banks declined by 4.9% to P2.94 trillion at end-March from P3.09 trillion in the year prior.
Net real and other properties acquired went up by 5.9% to P106.99 billion in the first quarter from P101.03 billion.
BSP data showed banks’ other assets surged by 64% to P2.02 trillion from P1.23 trillion.
Meanwhile, the total liabilities of the banking system rose by 10.7% to P22.53 trillion in the first quarter from P20.36 trillion a year earlier.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said the higher asset level as of end-March was consistent with recent loan growth data.
Outstanding loans of universal and commercial banks grew by 9.4% year on year to P11.796 trillion as of March, BSP data showed.
“This was also facilitated by the growth in banks’ deposits that supported the continued growth in banks’ loans, investments, and in overall assets,” Mr. Ricafort said in a Viber message.
“Furthermore, the continued growth in banks’ earnings also led to higher capital that also supported increased lending and investment activities, thereby leading to further growth in banks’ assets,” he added.
Separate central bank data showed that the Philippine banking industry’s net income rose by 2.95% to P92.107 billion at end-March from P89.47 billion in the same period a year ago. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson
LOS ANGELES — Ncuti Gatwa, the first Black actor to play the lead role in Doctor Who, says its new series feels like “a fresh era” as the British sci-fi television show goes global.
The much-loved BBC cult show will now also be streamed to audiences outside the United Kingdom in a new collaboration between the British broadcaster and Walt Disney Co.’s streaming service Disney+.
The Rwandan-born Scottish actor, who shot to fame in Netflix show Sex Education, plays the latest incarnation of the Time Lord in the new series, which also sees screenwriter and producer Russell T Davies return as showrunner.
“It feels very much like a new era and a fresh era. So, it’s a really great point for people to jump on board to the show,”
Mr. Gatwa told Reuters at the series premiere in Los Angeles on last week.
“We’ve got new villains and new monsters. The Doctor’s a lot more out of his depth than we’ve ever seen him before.”
The Doctor is able to regenerate, allowing different actors to play the role since the series first aired in 1963.
“My approach was to watch, study all the past Doctors that have been before, find out their weaknesses and how I can be better,” Mr. Gatwa joked.
“No, I really wanted to immerse myself in the world of it all and just understand what was unmistakably the doctor about each of them and like what they brought individually to the role and tried to see where I could fit in with that. I don’t know whether I’ve done that or not but we shall see.”
Actor Millie Gibson, known for British television soap Coronation Street, plays the Doctor’s new companion Ruby Sunday.
In the new series, the pair will head to the Regency era as well as war-torn future worlds in their TARDIS, a time-traveling craft in the shape of a police telephone box that famously looks bigger on the inside than the outside.
“It’s timeless. I mean, not only does the doctor regenerate, the show regenerates with it and so does its audience,” Gibson said.
Doctor Who premiered on Disney+ on Friday and on the BBC on Saturday. — Reuters
