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The end of the Marlboro Man

FREEPIK

As early as July 2021, with COVID-19 in full force, Philip Morris International announced that it was quitting the cigarette business in the United Kingdom in 10 years. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody, considering the general decline in cigarette smoking worldwide in the last 50 years.

Cigarette smoking’s heydays were in the 1960s and 1970s. In a report by Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser titled, “Smoking,” published online at OurWorldInData.org., they noted that sales data from 1875 to 2015 indicated worldwide sales of cigarettes to adult smokers in wealthy countries peaked from around 1962 to 1974. Since then, sales have been falling.

And this decline in sales is the result of several factors: bans on tobacco advertising; increasing taxes on cigarette or tobacco sales; more smoking-related cancer deaths, etc. “The rise, peak then decline of smoking in rich countries took around a century. A long trajectory with severe health impacts,” wrote Ritchie and Roser.

“The positive news is that… smoking is already falling in most countries today… the share of adults who smoke has declined in most countries in the world over the past decade. This is a surprising fact to many, since it means smoking prevalence is not only falling in high-income countries, but also at low-to-middle incomes,” they wrote.

They noted that “low-to-middle income countries have effectively ‘leapfrogged’ the century-long rise-peak-decline pathway of rich countries. Almost everywhere, smoking is on the decline.” As a result, “in poor countries, where fewer people were smoking in the past, tobacco is responsible for a much smaller fraction of cancer deaths… Globally more than one in five cancer deaths (22% in 2016) are attributed to smoking… In most richer countries the share is higher — the average in high-income countries is 28% in 2016.”

This, in a way, partly explains why “the iconic Marlboro cigarette brand will disappear from UK shelves within 10 years,” as reported the Financial Times (FT) in July 2021 through Jonathan Eley, quoting Philip Morris International tobacco group CEO Jacek Olczak. The tobacco executive was also quoted by FT as saying that “the ‘problem of smoking’ could be solved in the UK within ‘10 years maximum’… as part of a broader effort supported by regulation.”

He was also quoted as telling the UK-based news website the Daily Mail that the company strategy “absolutely means stopping selling traditional cigarettes in the UK,” and that the Marlboro brand of cigarettes would “disappear” from that market. Company revenues from the UK were estimated at about £800 million a year.

To date, Philip Morris is already invested heavily in nicotine alternatives, including electronic cigarettes that heat rather than burn tobacco. “Globally, the company derives almost a quarter of its revenue from alternative products, a much higher proportion than rivals such as Altria and Imperial Tobacco,” FT reported. The company has also “committed itself to earning half its revenue from non-smoking products.”

Quoting Philip Morris Chief Financial Officer Emmanuel Babeau, “We believe in, and we are going to contribute to, cigarettes being phased out.” FT noted that the “commitment to phase out traditional cigarettes in the UK is also partly driven by consumer and investor behavior, and government policy. Smoking rates in the country are already comparatively low while cigarettes are heavily taxed and, since 2016, are sold in plain packaging.”

Hannah Ritchie’s and Max Roser’s “Smoking” report in OurWorldInData.org. noted that “tobacco smoking has already been one of the world’s largest health problems for many decades. Over the course of the 20th century, it killed around 100 million people, most of them in today’s rich countries. The health burdens of smoking are now moving from high-income to low-to-middle income countries; some estimates have suggested that one billion people could die from tobacco over the 21st century.”

This finding is particularly important to Asian countries like the Philippines as the authors also noted that “there are a number of countries where at least 40% of population smoke, if not more. The places where many people smoke are clustered in two regions. South-East Asia and the Pacific islands and Europe — particularly the Balkan region — but also France, Germany, and Austria.”

But based on historical precedents, and available data, the way to fight the tobacco plague is not rocket science. The authors noted that “taxing cigarettes, bans on advertising, and support to help quit smoking are all critical to accelerate the decline of smoking.” In this line, local regulatory effort should be focused on these three main areas, while at the same time making it more difficult to access cigarettes and tobacco products and alternatives, particularly the youth’s access.

I hope our policymakers, legislators, and regulators are taking note of worldwide trends and developments in the tobacco industry and global tobacco consumption, as well as the obvious growth in the sale of tobacco alternatives. Philip Morris decision to end Marlboro sales in the UK in 10 years should be viewed positively, and be seen as indicative of the industry’s shift.

As such, policies and regulation of tobacco and its alternatives like electronic cigarettes deserve further study and scrutiny, especially in the areas of taxation, advertising or marketing, support for smoking cessation, and shouldering healthcare costs for smoking-related illnesses and diseases.

Regulation of tobacco and tobacco alternatives should not just adjust to the times. For once, maybe regulation can be ahead of the curve rather than always playing catch-up. Instead of calibrating to industry trends, perhaps regulators can actually set the path and thus make the industry follow its lead to a smoke-free environment and a healthier population.

 

Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippine Press Council

matort@yahoo.com

A horrific situation 

KREMLIN.RU

Putin has been accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine. Adam Durbin of BBC News wrote a few days after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had accused Putin of committing war crimes.

BBC News noted that at the Prime Minister’s Question Time, Johnson said bombing innocent civilians “already fully qualifies as a war crime.” Johnson was responding to the Scottish National Party’s Ian Blackford, who called for Putin to be prosecuted.

In a television interview and also reported by Durbin, International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan said “he was now investigating possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.”

Some 39 countries acted to refer the situation to the ICC prosecutor which reacted by saying that “collection of evidence has started.” Durbin states that “the UK government described the referral as the largest in the history of the court which relies on cooperation with countries worldwide for support, particularly for making arrests.”

Putin is accused of giving the orders to conduct indiscriminate bombing of schools, hospitals, civilian infrastructure, and Ukraine’s nuclear power plant, and for targeting civilians traveling in civilian corridors who want to flee to other countries. Russian troops are heavily bombarding thickly populated cities like Kharkiv. Russia has accused Ukraine of using civilian infrastructure to shield weapons of war. Russia has been charged with bombing the same corridors for escape which were identified as part of a so-called ceasefire but Russian bombing resumed after a lull of two hours and 45 minutes when it was supposed to be part of a 12-hour ceasefire.

The Economist says that Russia does not recognize the authority of the ICC. But the court, Mr. Khan argues, has jurisdiction over war crimes committed on Ukrainian soil because the government of Ukraine had twice accepted — once in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and again in 2015, when it recognized the court’s jurisdiction for “an indefinite duration.”

As things now stand, Putin now has the dubious and dangerous distinction of being the world’s biggest pariah.

Being a pariah and isolating Russia from the rest of the world will certainly create economic difficulties for the porous Russian economy and could lessen the effectivity of Putin as a leader. How long will it be before the ordinary Russian starts to feel the effects of worldwide sanctions (which Putin says is equivalent to a declaration of war)? How long can security forces quell unrest and discontent brought about by economic and political difficulties? How long can Putin’s military and his KGB, the Committee for State Security, Foreign Intelligence and Domestic Security, prop up Putin before the military establishment itself feels the economic pinch?

And being a pariah has extended beyond Putin’s person but has extended to Russian businesses, citizens, and recently to athletes and performing artists like sopranos, ballerinas, and conductors. It is not only countries taking action and putting together economic sanctions against Russia and, most likely, Belarus, for providing access to Russian troops to facilitate the invasion. The United States, the United Kingdom and other countries have announced that they will go after the “ill begotten wealth” of Russian oligarchs and Putin cronies who have dishonestly profited from Russian government projects or projects dependent on government permits and regulations.

In sports, which is important to Putin, World Athletics, the international governing body of the sport of Athletics, the centerpiece event of any Olympic-type sports competition, has banned the participation of athletes and support personnel of Russia and Belarus in international competitions such as the world indoor championship to be held in Belgrade, Serbia from March 18 to 20, 2022 and the world outdoor championship at Eugene, Oregon in August this year. Both countries have also been banned from international gymnastics and figure skating.

The ban and actions taken against Russian citizens involved in non-political endeavors — and who therefore claim not to have anything to do with Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine and harm its population — has spawned the familiar debate on the propriety of mixing sports with politics and holding accountable citizens of a country for the aggression committed by its government.

Artists and athletes claim their purpose is to perform before the public and to avoid commenting on political and social issues and to help create peace. The question is: Should influential parties use their fame and platform to comment on the toughest and thorniest social and political issues? Tennis star Naomi Ossaka won the US Open title in New York in September 2021, using black masks to honor Black victims of violence. Each mask she wore each day bore the name of a different victim over the years. Osaka justified her activism by saying that the “point is to get people talking about it (these issues).” Basketball superstar LeBron James has no problem with expressing his views on social and political issues, making public his preference for then candidate Joe Biden as president of the US, to the chagrin of eventual loser Donald Trump.

Years earlier, the US boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest over the then USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviets returned the favor by boycotting the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. And much earlier, South Africa was banned from international tournaments because of its racist apartheid policy.

In the Philippines, then street parliamentarian Nikki Coseteng (subsequently elected Congresswoman and Senator), then owner of PBA team Mariwasa, and later, Galerie Dominique, pleaded with PBA management and the competition director to hold a minute of silent prayer before the tip-off of her team’s game at Araneta Coliseum with another squad, for former Senator Ninoy Aquino who had been executed a few days earlier, on Aug. 21, 1983, at the Manila International Airport Ninoy was killed in broad daylight and despite a security cordon thrown around the tarmac, the terminal, and in the airport premises. The PBA rejected the request on the grounds that it did not want to get sucked into politics, especially mindful of the brutality of the Marcos regime.

Certainly, sport is an opportunity provided to the public to unwind and spend time with friends and family away from all daily concerns — including politics. The reality however is that people are confronted with the horrors of war daily in living color, seeing corpses of elderly men and women, children and babies. People are horrified by the brutality and indiscriminate bombing by an invader of a neighbor which is militarily inferior but is ready to defend every inch of its territory.

As the invasion enters its second week, casualties mount. As worldwide condemnation of Russia grows (with the exception of dictatorial regimes in Nicaragua, China, and former members of the USSR, among others), the Ukrainians and international volunteers vow to continue the fight for freedom. In the meantime, millions of Ukrainians find it difficult to imagine Russian troops out in Ukrainian streets. Everything is surreal.

There are concerns about how much more is NATO willing to do as millions of Ukrainian refugees stream into neighboring countries. But Ukraine, which Putin calls a manufactured country, vows to fight for as long as it will take, raising the specter of a guerrilla war which Russia might not be able to justify to its citizens as body bags and coffins come back from Ukraine.

Ukrainians ask, “What does Putin want? To bring us down to our knees?” Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, now the newest face of freedom, defiantly says that “Ukrainians should fight at every opportunity.” In the meantime, the humanitarian crisis worsens despite the world’s generosity.

 

Philip Ella Juico’s areas of interest include the protection and promotion of democracy, free markets, sustainable development, social responsibility and sports as a tool for social development. He obtained his doctorate in business at De La Salle University. Dr. Juico served as secretary of Agrarian Reform during the Corazon C. Aquino administration.

Damage control

VECTORJUICE-FREEPIK

MISTAKES HAPPEN. Sometimes these are what are called “unforced errors” in basketball, like stepping on the line or double dribbling. In public life, miscalculations are first dismissed as glitches.

The admission of fault, especially arising from a wrong sense of priorities or thoughtlessness, is not the automatic reaction to mistakes made. The default response is a process of cover-up, which PR practitioners call “damage control.” Often, the damage being controlled involves the possible derailment of a career.

Media that receive letters to their editors (or now more frequently blogs) pointing to mistakes like misidentifying a person in a photo or attaching a wrong (often lower) title like a corporate Vice-President for a newly promoted Senior Vice-President routinely print a section called “erratum” or errata, for plural mistakes — wrong name and wrong title. That such a correction section is buried in the inside pages of the obituary section (missing the irony in this placement), or maybe in the classifieds beside an advertisement for cough drops or promo motel rates in Cebu, does little to promote the sincerity of this act of contrition.

In digital media, however, fake news or “intentional errors” promoted by those hired for this specific purpose are just too routine. There is no effort to correct such planted land mines to reputations as their object is to blow these up to smithereens. The effort of the wounded party is almost futile as the troll attacks come fast and furious — start Phase 2 of the attack.

Readily admitting mistakes is not the automatic human reaction. Apologies are issued after other options like denials and blame-passing fail. The first thoughts that come to mind before an admission of guilt or incompetence involve deferring action or making a definitive statement.

Dilatory tactics are employed.

Let’s form a task force to see what really happened. Sure, you saw me on video clips making the rounds and seeming to bat away a fan trying to shake my hand too vigorously. Those video clips are misleading — I was trying to do a fist bump and hit the fan’s head instead. Also, I had a stigmata on my right hand and it’s still healing. I apologize that it looks like a contemptuous gesture on my part. It wasn’t meant to be. (Too much information?)

A spokesperson is appointed, preferably one who is not involved in the controversy. This allows the frontliner (reputation nurse) to start his briefing with a disclaimer — I was in Sydney when this thing broke out. I’m still gathering the facts and people have been so cooperative in putting the puzzle together for me. As soon as I have something, you’ll be the first to know. Please don’t tiptoe too long.

All these strategies are variations of postponing an inevitable admission of wrongdoing. The hope is that the public will forget about the whole matter and move on to a new crisis. There’s always one around the corner waiting to distract everybody from the current preoccupation.

As the entanglements multiply and the story falls apart, a confession becomes inevitable. It is curiously devoid of any admission of guilt. Phrases like “inappropriate conduct” and “subordinates eager to help but unaware of the consequences” and “it’s the fault of the computer that exercised its delete functions on the footnotes” are invoked.

So, there is a school of thought that adheres to the belief that the best way to avoid mistakes like misstatements and ineffective apologies for past regimes to which one is inevitably linked (as if to an umbilical cord) is to simply avoid public discussions altogether.

Damage control can also refer to future mistakes. Isn’t it better to avoid the possibility of error rather than defending it afterwards? The likelihood of being confronted and blubbering in reply to a pointed accusation or question is best evaded.

Does steering away from conflict rather than meeting this head on work? Brand managers of political personalities are willing to stake their reputations on conflict avoidance as a strategy for avoiding errors and having to apologize for them later.

The call for unity and the careful avoidance of conflict can be beguiling as a political strategy. (We don’t want to make enemies.) But isn’t engaging in discourse and resolving conflicts part of the job description? Clearly, one of the job applicants doesn’t agree… to disagree.

 

Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com

World’s next food emergency is here as war compounds hunger crisis

REUTERS
WHEAT is seen in a field near the southern Ukranian city of Nikolaev, July 8, 2013. — REUTERS

RUSSIA’s invasion of Ukraine means the food inflation that’s been plaguing global consumers is now tipping into a full-blown crisis, potentially outstripping even the pandemic’s blow and pushing millions more into hunger.

Together, Russia and Ukraine account for a whopping portion of the world’s agricultural supplies, exporting so much wheat, corn, sunflower oil and other foods that it adds up to more than a tenth of all calories traded globally. Now, shipments from both countries have virtually dried up.

Commodity markets are soaring — wheat is up about 50% in two weeks and corn just touched a decade high. The surging costs could end up weighing on currencies in emerging markets, where food represents a bigger share of consumer-price baskets. And analysts are predicting export flows will continue to be disrupted for months even if the war were to end tomorrow.

The crisis extends beyond just the impact of grain exports (critical as they are). Russia is also a key supplier for fertilizers. Virtually every major crop in the world depends on inputs like potash and nitrogen, and without a steady stream, farmers will have a harder time growing everything from coffee to rice and soybeans.

Plainly speaking, there are few other places on the planet where a conflict like this could create such a devastating blow to ensuring that food supplies stay plentiful and affordable. It’s why Russia and Ukraine are known as the breadbaskets to the world.

“It’s an amazing food shock,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, an independent market analyst and a former senior economist at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. “I don’t know of a situation like this in the 30 years I was involved in this sector.”

BUYERS AT RISK
The shock is already reverberating across the world.

In Brazil, another agricultural powerhouse, farmers can’t get the fertilizers they need because retailers are reluctant to provide price quotes. In China, one of the world’s biggest food importers, buyers are snapping up purchases of US corn and soybean supplies amid concerns that fewer crop shipments from Russia and Ukraine could set off a global scramble for grains. In Egypt, people are worried that prices for the subsidized loaves of bread they depend on could rise for the first time in four decades, while footage of citizens in Turkey trying to grab tins of cheaper oil went viral. And within Ukraine itself, food is running short in some major cities.

“The damage is done,” Abbassian said. “We’ll have months before we return to anything called normality.”

The timing couldn’t be worse. When the pandemic first hit in 2020, images of lines snaking around food banks and empty grocery shelves shocked the world as nearly a tenth of the global population went hungry. But at the time, food inventories were still abundant.

That’s no longer the case. Grains are the staples that keep the world fed, with wheat, corn and rice accounting for more than 40% of all calories consumed. But grain stockpiles are poised for a fifth straight annual decline. A combination of higher shipping costs, energy inflation, extreme weather and labor shortages have made it harder to produce food.

As a result, global food prices are already at record highs, with the benchmark U.N. index increasing more than 40% over the past two years. The surge has had crushing consequences. Food insecurity has doubled in the past two years, and the World Food Programme estimates 45 million people are on the brink of famine.

The current crisis is going to make things worse, likely sending hunger to unprecedented levels as the conflict turns millions of people into refugees and sends food prices even higher.

“The bullets and bombs in Ukraine could take the global hunger crisis to levels beyond anything we’ve seen before,” David Beasley, executive director of the U.N. agency, said in a statement.

The world has grown hugely dependent on Ukraine and Russia for their wheat, a crop used in everything from bread to couscous and noodles. The nations account for a quarter of global trade. They are also cheap suppliers, which makes their exports favorites for importers in the Middle East and North Africa, including in Egypt, the world’s biggest wheat buyer.

Benchmark wheat futures traded in Chicago reached a record-high price Tuesday.

“You’re going to see a spike of starvation around the world,” Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer told Bloomberg TV’s Surveillance.

Wheat is a key commodity to watch because bread prices have a long history of kickstarting unrest. Going back to the days of the French Revolution, food insecurity has sent people into the streets demanding better conditions. Supplies from Russia have been part of this bigger picture before. In 2010, the country experienced a record heat wave that devastated crops, and the government banned exports. Wheat prices in international markets doubled in a matter of months, raising the cost of bread for millions of people. The price run-up simmered as part of the mix of factors that sparked uprisings in the Arab Spring.

BREADBASKET TO THE WORLD
While Russia’s wheat hasn’t come directly under sanction, trade from the country has been severely disrupted. Some Russian grain is flowing by land, while vessel transit is near a standstill due to the military action in the Black Sea.

Meanwhile in Ukraine, where farming is so core to the national identity that its flag depicts blue skies blanketing yellow fields, growers are finding fieldwork perilous, while some have joined the military just weeks before spring planting begins. Analysts are warning that lots of acres could go bare this year.

“The potential is here for a serious hole in world grain supplies in 2022,” said Scott Irwin, an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois.

Food moves through the world in a complex web of imports and exports.

Many countries have positioned agricultural production toward exporting a few key products, rather than for food sufficiency. So nations like Ghana and Cameroon can be big global players in the cocoa market, but are still hugely dependent on shipments for wheat.

Meanwhile, grain-exporting nations can see what’s happening in Russia and Ukraine and decide that the world won’t have enough wheat or barley, so instead of shipping, they move to keep supplies at home. That can lead to a dangerous domino effect of increasing protectionism that hurts the world’s poorest and the countries most dependent on imports.

There are some early signs of protectionism brewing. Hungary is banning grain exports, and Serbia’s president said Monday the country will soon curb wheat shipments. Argentina and Turkey made moves last week to increase their control over local products.

Other players could see an opening with what’s happening in Russia and Ukraine and decide to fill the hole. India, for example, has increased wheat shipments in recent years. Vijay Iyengar, chairman and managing director of Singapore-based Agrocorp International Pte., predicts the South Asian country will see exports exceed a record 7 million tons in the current season if the conflict drags on.

But many of the nations that could typically help fill supply deficits are themselves seeing production problems. In Brazil, a major supplier of corn and soybeans, a crippling drought is ruining crops. Dry weather also wilted fields in Canada and parts of the US last year.

“It’s a global commodity squeeze at the moment,” said Andy Soo, commodities broker at Advanced Research Commodities in Singapore.

HUNGER’S TOLL
Nate Mook has been on the ground in western Ukraine, serving meals to families who are waiting as many as 30 to 40 hours in line to cross the border in Poland. It’s becoming hard to source some kinds of food where he’s been working in Lviv, while he hears from his World Central Kitchen colleagues in Kyiv that they’re running into shortages. Supply chains are crumbling — as just one example, truck drivers that would be deployed for mass distribution of things like rice or potatoes are afraid to go out for fear of being mistaken for a military vehicle and getting attacked.

In Russia, too, hunger will likely be on the rise as sanctions hurt the nation’s economy. In the 1990s, economic sanctions against Iraq were linked to the death of half a million children as malnutrition rose.

Since the start of the pandemic, hunger has been increasing in almost every corner of the world, with the biggest toll coming in parts of Africa and Asia.

“The last thing the world needed at this point was another conflict, because conflict is driving hunger in the world,” said Deepmala Mahla, vice president for humanitarian affairs at CARE. “I just find it unacceptable to a level of disbelief that in this day and age, people are sleeping hungry when the world has the ability and is producing more than the food required to feed everyone.” — Bloomberg

China eyeing Indo-Pacific as Russia attacks Ukraine — Australian official

PIXABAY

SYDNEY — A “troubling new strategic convergence” between Beijing and Moscow has developed and the risk of “major power conflict” had grown since Russia invaded Ukraine, Australia’s intelligence chief said on Wednesday.

Andrew Shearer, director general of the Office of National Intelligence, said China’s President Xi Jinping appears to be planning to dominate the Indo-Pacific region and use it as a base to overtake the United States as the world’s leading power.

The comments reinforce warnings that the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has met near-universal condemnation by the West, may spread into a regional or global conflict. This week Australian Prime Minister called on liberal democracies to stop an “arc of autocracy” reshaping the world. Read full story

“We’re going to have to work much harder to maintain the liberal quality of the rules-based order in Europe and here in the Indo-Pacific region,” director-general of the Office of National Intelligence Andrew Shearer said at a conference hosted by the Australian Financial Review.

“We see a leader who’s really battening down and hardening his country for this struggle to overtake the United States as the world’s leading power,” he added, referring to Mr. Xi. “The base camp … is to establish primacy in the Indo-Pacific region.”

Mr. Shearer said the geopolitical threat would center around technology, including use of cyber-attacks, so Australia must bolster its cyber defenses without closing itself to trade and information-sharing.

“We need a growing, open economy so we can fund the increases in defense spending that the government’s committed to, but this can’t be a zero-sum trade-off between economics and security,” he said.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which it has called a “special operation,” Australian intelligence professionals considered that “a major power conflict unfortunately is becoming a less remote prospect than it was previously”, Mr. Shearer said.

He echoed many Western commentators by saying he was surprised by the effectiveness of Ukraine’s resistance to Russian forces. But he foreshadowed a “brutal, bloody couple of weeks” since Russian leader Vladimir Putin had “everything at stake now (and) it’s hard to see an elegant, or inelegant, dismount”.

The Kremlin describes its actions as a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and unseat leaders it calls neo-Nazis. Ukraine and Western allies call this a baseless pretext for a war of choice that has raised fears of wider conflict in Europe. — Reuters

Beauty biases on weight and skin tone persist in Southeast Asia

FREEPIK

Southeast Asia hasn’t quite caught up with the body positivity wave experienced in other cultures, according to panelists in a discussion on beauty biases. Even in multiracial societies, said Malaysian fashion model Nalisa Alia Amin, slim, fair skin, and straight hair is still the standard. 

“[Malaysia is] a multiracial country. Why is there only one skin tone?” she asked the audience of the March 8 event by Hong Kong-based news channel South China Morning Post (SCMP). Ms. Amin is the first plus-size model to open Kuala Lumpur’s Fashion Week in 2018. 

“I think we have to do our own protest and [voice out that] we no longer support this kind of beauty standard,” she added.

The skin whitening industry targets women of color. Its most lucrative markets are in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, where growth is expected to reach $11.8 billion by 2026, per a January 2022 CNN report.

In Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines, a lighter complexion is associated with wealth, power, and authority. Even babies have not been spared criticism for their morena (brown) skin.

This notion is a result of the country’s Spanish colonialism, which demarcated Filipino society’s upper echelons from everyone else, according to sociologist Ricardo G. Abad in a previous BusinessWorld article.

“It also happened, however, that those with power and authority were largely white-skinned…,” Mr. Abad said. “Since that social stratification lasted for centuries without much challenge, it was fairly easy to ingrain in people’s mind that skin color (and maybe texture as well) is associated with success, or being on top of the social heap.” 

People also tie beauty to thinness in Asian culture, said Stephanie Teng, a Hong Kong-based artist and photographer, in the March 8 event. She related how, growing up, relatives she seldom saw would comment on her weight.

“At a young age, it wasn’t a choice to separate ourselves and see beauty that isn’t tied to the idea of thinness. Skinny means you’ll have a more successful life, a better life,” she said.

The many stories that have been emerging of late, however, reflect the welcome development that women are now empowered to speak up on the challenges they face, according to Michelline Espiritu Suarez. 

“Growing up, we didn’t have that,” the Filipina author and Philippine Star columnist noted at the November 2021 book launch of an all-female anthology. 

“We were just taught to be patient with our elders who would make comments about our appearance,” said Ms. Suarez, who added she is raising her two daughters to find their identity outside of their physical appearance.

Beauty biases can be broken if a more dynamic definition of beauty is embraced, said Stephanie Ng, founder and executive director of Body Banter, a non-profit that works with young people come to terms with their body image and mental health.  

“We can see beauty as something that is an experience rather than an achievement,” Ms. Ng said at the SCMP discussion. — Patricia Mirasol

Fintech company Volopay raises $29M for regional expansion

SINGAPORE-BASED fintech start-up Volopay said it will use its recently secured $29 million from a Series A round to drive continued expansion and technology innovation.

“We’ll put the money we raised toward developing and creating new technologies to complement our current offering,” the company told BusinessWorld in an e-mailed reply to questions on Monday.

Some technologies they’re working to improve are ERP (enterprise source planning), HRM (human resources management), and CRM (customer relationship management) software, as well as top project management tools. 

“In the Philippines, we are also rapidly hiring for important positions such as operations, sales, administration, and others,” it added. Expansion in the country is slated for the 2nd quarter of 2022. 

Investors that participated in the round were JAM Fund, Winklevoss Capital Management, Accial Capital, Rapyd Ventures, Acorns CEO Jeffrey Cruttenden, Access Ventures, Antler Global, and VentureSouq.

Volopay was launched in 2019 as a business spending management platform that makes expense reports digital, fast, inclusive, and safe through the use of corporate cards and automated payables based on its own AI infrastructure.

The company said that it has grown exponentially since its seed funding in 2021, and now has a team of over 150 members spread across the Asia Pacific region, including Singapore, Australia, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

“The strategic investment from leading blue-chip investors will fuelVolopay’s foray into the Philippine market to tackle two of the most pressing problems that SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and startups face – high FX (foreign exchange) charges incurred for international payments and the lack of a uniform platform to access all spend data,” it said. 

It added that the platform provides companies with multi-currency wallets to hold money in Philippine Peso and any major currency and subsequently use it for payouts, eliminating “exorbitant amounts of FX charges levied on international payments.” 

Volopay co-founder and chief executive officer Rajith Shaji said in an official statement: “Volopay is an ambitious project. To build an alternative toVolopay, you would have to launch five different startups. We are building the control center for modern companies for all their financial management needs.” — Bronte H. Lacsamana

Closing the gender gap in the workplace

FREEPIK

Though the Philippines has taken strides to improve workplace gender equality, research by various women empowerment groups and inclusive employing industries ahead of International Women’s Day 2022 have found that sustainable practices must be instituted for women to be better off.

For instance, a report titled “Workplace Gender Equality-Sustainability Reporting: Initial Analysis of the Top 30 Publicly Listed Companies (PLCs) in the Philippines as of July 2021” was able to get companies to disclose their policies on board diversity, safe and respectful workplaces, employee training and development, and gender pay equity.

“Gender equality indicators play a significant role in the narrative and conduct of sustainability reports,” said Ma. Aurora “Boots” D. Geotina-Garcia, Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (PBCWE) co-chair, at a March 4 policy forum. 

“Philippine PLCs are compliant [with] policies and regulations and are making it clear that disclosures concerning people are critical to recover from the pandemic,” she added.

PBCWE is one of the partners engaged in policy reform work for gender equality, along with the Philippine Women’s Economic Network (PhilWEN),the Australian initiative Investing in Women (IW), and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). 

The report also uncovered insights on gender composition in the country’s top companies, with reports of over 50% of employees being male in the mining, power, energy, and telecommunications industries.

Jose Solomon Cortez, associate director of the Ramon del Rosario Sr. Center for Corporate Social Responsibility at the Asian Institute of Management, brought up the need for a third-party entity to validate the information the companies were disclosing. 

“One of the challenges that we found companies faced is in finding the right balance of what gender-related information they are to disclose based on existing regulatory requirements, or if they’re adopting to globally accepted standards or business principles,” he explained at the policy forum. 

He also pointed out that one company in the report claimed there was no gender pay gap in their organization, something that as of now there is no means to verify. 

DOING WELL
The World Bank (WB) said in its Women, Business and the Law 2022 report released this month that legal and economic gender equality in the Philippines had no change in the past year, especially in terms of parenthood, marriage, and assets metrics.

Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum (WEF) acknowledged in its Global Gender Gap Report 2021 the country’s progress in narrowing the gender gap in terms of economic participation and opportunities. The Philippines ranked 17th out of 156 countries.

For more marked improvements, policymaking and gender reporting must continuously be ramped up, according to Dr. Allinnettes Go Adigue, head of the Association of South East Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) regional hub of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

“While we do so well in education and health, we’re not doing so well in economy and politics,” she said at the forum. “If the sector is mostly dominated by men, then we have men deciding and creating policies that also impact women. That’s why it is important to have more representation of women in terms of policymaking.” 

She also said the PBCWE report’s findings were consistent with key global findings on women’s issues, adding that sustainability reporting was introduced in 1997 and is still not yet widely adopted and institutionalized to this day. 

Kelvin Lester Lee, commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), assured that they are working towards making it mandatory in the country by 2023, as stipulated in the Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 04 s. 2019, which requires PLCs to submit an annual sustainability report.

“But one issue we’ve been facing is that it was issued back in 2019. We are a little wary on the effect that COVID has had on the resources of PLCs,” he said. “[2023] is still the goal but we are studying the possibility of moving it a little bit.”

The MC in question obligates companies to create a sustainable business landscape and implement environmental and social initiatives that will benefit future generations. 

NET BETTER OFF
While global and nationwide policies are still being improved, companies in the meantime must start instilling good practices to build a culture of empowering women, according to Ambe C. Tierro, senior managing director and technology lead of professional services group Accenture in the Philippines.

The group’s study, Better to Belong, launched on March 2, explored the ways women can thrive in inclusive organizations. The results showed that when women feel “net better off” (NBO), or respected, appreciated, and supported in the workplace, their maximized potential will ultimately lead to better corporate results.

These findings came from a 2021 survey of 7,000 employees across 14 countries. 

“Trust, job satisfaction, and great place to work are directly impacted when we address the NBO dimensions,” shared Ms. Tierro. “Top performing employees had higher scores on those three aspects compared to those performing less satisfactorily.” 

The six dimensions in the NBO framework are financial, emotional and mental, relational, physical, purposeful, and employable. If employers address these concerns from women employees, then it will improve the working environment, she said. 

Accenture found that 29% of women surveyed reported having lower support compared with only 26% of the men who said the same. Meanwhile, 20% of women reported dissatisfaction with their job compared with just 17% of the men.
Ms. Tierro stressed: “When leaders support people during moments that matter, employees are left ‘net better off.’ That’s when we promote true inclusion and diversity and a culture where people feel that they belong.” — Bronte H. Lacsamana

Taiwan studies Ukraine war for own battle strategy with China

XANDREASWORK-UNSPLASH

TAIPEI – Taiwan‘s military strategists have been studying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the country’s resistance, for the island’s own battle strategy in the event its giant neighbor China ever makes good on its threat to take them by force.

While Taiwan‘s government has not reported any unusual activity by the military in China, which views the island as its own territory, Taipei has raised its alert level.

Russia’s use of precision missiles, as well as Ukraine‘s tactically well thought through resistance despite being outmanned and outgunned, are being carefully watched in security circles in Taiwan, whose own forces are likewise dwarfed by China‘s.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has championed the idea of “asymmetric warfare”, to make its forces more mobile and hard to attack, with for example vehicle-mounted missiles.

Ma Cheng-Kun, director of the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies at Taiwan‘s National Defense University, said Ukraine had used the same concept with mobile weapons to stymie Russian forces.

“Ukraine‘s military has been making full use of asymmetric warfare, very effectively, and so far successfully holding off Russia’s advance,” added Ma, a government advisor on China policy.

“That’s exactly what our armed forces have been proactively developing,” he said, pointing to weapons like the lightweight and indigenously-developed Kestrel shoulder-launched anti-armor rocket designed for close-in warfare.

“From Ukraine‘s performance we can be even more confident in our own.”

Taiwan has been developing other missiles which can reach far into China.

Last week, the defense ministry said it plans to more than double its yearly missile production capacity to close to 500 this year, including the upgraded version of the Hsiung Feng IIE missile, the longer-range Hsiung Sheng land-attack missile which military experts say is capable of hitting targets further inland in China. Read full story

Taiwan‘s Defense Ministry says it has a “close grasp” of the international security situation and that it is working hard to “improve its armaments and national defense combat capability all the time” but that the military is “not provocative”.

 

NATURAL BARRIER

There are big differences however between Taiwan and Ukraine‘s positions that have offered reassurance.

Taiwan‘s government has repeatedly pointed out, for example, the natural barrier of the Taiwan Strait which separates it from China. Ukraine has a long land border with Russia.

Strategists say Taiwan can also easily detect signs of Chinese military movements and make preparations ahead of an invasion in which China would need to mobilize hundreds of thousands of soldiers and equipment like ships, which could be easily targeted by Taiwanese missiles.

To put boots on the ground China would have to cross the strait, “so it’s a much higher risk” for China, said Su Tzu-yun, an associate research fellow at Taiwan‘s top military think tank, the Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

It’s not only about hardware.

Looming in the background is the perennial debate – given new focus by the Ukraine war – about whether U.S. forces would ride to Taiwan‘s aid in the event of a Chinese attack. Washington practices “strategic ambiguity” on the subject, giving no clear answer either way.

Lo Chih-cheng, a senior lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party who sits on parliament’s defense and foreign affairs committee, said the Biden administration sending a team of top former officials to Taiwan last week shortly after Ukraine was invaded should dispel the idea that the United States is not to be relied on.

“At this time it sent a message to the other side of the strait, to Taiwan‘s people, that the United States is a trustworthy country,” he told a party podcast on Tuesday.

Taiwan, a major semiconductor producer, hopes its geographic and supply chain importance makes it different from Ukraine.

But the Biden administration repeatedly ruling out sending troops to Ukraine has caused unease for some in Taiwan.

“Do people in Taiwan really think now that the West and the United States will still come to save us?” said Chao Chien-min, a former deputy head of Taiwan‘s Mainland Affairs Council now at Taiwan‘s Chinese Culture University. – Reuters

Big brands and oil ban punish Russia as Moscow makes new pledge on Ukraine refugees

A RUSSIAN FLAG flies with the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin in the background in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 27, 2019. — REUTERS

WASHINGTON/LVIV, Ukraine – A U.S. ban on imports of Russia‘s oil ratcheted up punishment for the invasion of Ukraine on Tuesday as McDonald’s and Starbucks closed outlets and Moscow promised safe passage for some people to flee.

As the number of refugees created by the biggest assault on a European country since World War Two surpassed 2 million, several of the most internationally famous brands added to the Kremlin’s global isolation on the 13th day of the incursion.

McDonald’s, a symbol of capitalism that opened in Russia as the Soviet Union fell, and coffeehouse chain Starbucks will temporarily close stores, while Pepsi will stop selling its soft drink brands and Coca-Cola is halting business in the country. Read full story

Washington, meanwhile, imposed an immediate ban on imports of Russian energy, sparking a further increase in the oil price, which rose around 4% on Tuesday. Prices have surged more than 30% since Russia‘s incursion began on Feb. 24. O/R

Russia – the world’s second-largest exporter of crude – has warned the cost will skyrocket further if the West implements bans.

Despite the prospect of higher household bills, U.S. President Joe Biden said President Vladimir Putin needed to face consequences for the assault. Read full story

“The American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin’s war machine,” he said.

The Kremlin describes its actions as a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and unseat leaders it calls neo-Nazis.

Ukraine and Western allies call this a baseless pretext for an invasion that has raised fears of wider conflict in Europe and could deal a further hit to the world economy as it tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Civilians fled the besieged city of Sumy on Tuesday in the first successful “humanitarian corridor” opened since Russia‘s invasion but Ukraine accused Russian forces of shelling another evacuation route, from Mariupol in the south of the country.

Talks between Kyiv and Moscow over safe passage have previously failed, with Ukraine opposing routes out of the country to Russia or its ally Belarus.

Moscow is ready to provide humanitarian corridors so people can leave capital Kyiv and four other cities – Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol – on Wednesday, Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia‘s National Defence Control Centre, was quoted as saying by the Tass news agency.

“In order to ensure the safety of civilians and foreign citizens, Russia will observe a regime of silence from 10 am Moscow time (0700 GMT) on March 9 and is ready to provide humanitarian corridors,” he said. It was unclear if the proposed routes would pass through Russia or Belarus.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy renewed calls on Tuesday for no-fly zones, something the West has rejected for fears of escalating the conflict.

The United States turned down a surprise Polish offer to transfer MiG-29 fighter jets to a U.S. base in Germany to help replenish Ukraine‘s air force.

The prospect of flying combat aircraft from NATO territory into the war zone “raises serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance,” the Pentagon said. Read full story

Instead, the West has focussed its pressure on sanctions, mainly on individuals and financial institutions. Up until now, oil and natural gas had been excluded.

The United States is not a leading buyer of Russian oil and Europeans, who are far more reliant on it, have been reluctant to follow suit.

Britain, however, said it would also phase out the import of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022, while the EU published plans to cut its reliance on Russian gas by two thirds this year. Read full storyRead full story

Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia‘s State Duma lower house of parliament, said the measures would hurt Europe while helping the United States.

“By promoting sanctions against Russian energy resources, Washington is seeking to occupy the European market,” he said in an online post.

 

‘APOCALYPTIC’

In Mariupol, hundreds of thousands of people have been sheltering under bombardment for more than a week. Many tried to leave on Tuesday along a safe corridor but Ukraine‘s foreign ministry said Russian forces violated a ceasefire and shelled it.

Moscow denies targeting civilians.

International Committee of the Red Cross spokesman Ewan Watson said people in Mariupol were fast running out of electricity, heat, food, and drinking water.

“The situation in Mariupol is apocalyptic,” he said.

Russia opened a separate corridor out of the eastern city of Sumy. Buses left for Poltava further west, only hours after a Russian air strike which regional officials said had hit a residential area and killed 21 people. Reuters could not verify the incident.

Russia said 723 people had been evacuated via that corridor, including 576 Indian nationals.

Residents were also leaving Irpin, a frontline Kyiv suburb.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian troops repulsed efforts by Russian forces to enter the eastern city of Kharkiv on Tuesday and foiled a planned operation by 120 Russian paratroopers near the border, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said.

Five people, two of them children, were killed late on Tuesday when Russian planes attacked the town of Malyn, some 100 kilometres (62 miles) northwest of Kyiv, and destroyed seven houses, the state emergency service said in an online post. Reuters was unable to corroborate.

The United Nations human rights office said it had verified 1,335 civilian casualties in Ukraine, including 474 killed and 861 injured, since the invasion began on Feb. 24. The real toll is likely higher, it said.

A total of 2 million people, mostly women and children, have fled, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.

 

ADVANCE SLOWED

Western countries say Russia‘s initial battle plan for a rapid strike to topple Ukraine‘s government failed early in the war, and Moscow has adjusted tactics for longer sieges of cities.

“The tempo of the enemy’s advance has slowed considerably, and in certain directions where they were advancing it has practically stopped,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych told a briefing on Tuesday.

Ukraine‘s defence ministry said Vitaly Gerasimov, first deputy commander of Russia‘s 41st army, was killed on Monday, the second Russian major general killed during the invasion. Russia‘s defence ministry could not be reached for comment.

The main Russian assault force heading towards Kyiv has been stuck on a road north of the capital. But to the south, Russia has made more progress along the Black and Azov Sea coasts.

Within Russia, the war has led to a severe new crackdown on dissent, with the last remaining independent media largely shut last week and foreign broadcasters banned.

Russian police arrested at least 100 protesters against the invasion of Ukraine on Tuesday, the OVD-Info monitoring group said. Police made no comment. – Reuters

At SM, we know what women want

Throughout the whole month of March, women take center stage at SM Supermalls. For inspiring us with their voice, their courage in everything they do, SM Supermalls salutes all Women of The World by giving them what their hearts desire most.

The Womenpreneur Market

From comfort food and beauty cosmetics to active lifestyle and more. Great finds that women love are on sale at the Womenpreneur Market, a gathering of pop ups of small and medium business endeavors for women, by women. Presented in partnership with various SM tenants, affiliates and women’s partner organizations. The Womenpreneur Market is open from March 1 to March 15.

Women at Home

The Home Edit Fair for Women opens a world of hobbies that women love to indulge in. Interior designing, gardening, baking, art and other ways of sprucing up the home have taken the fancy of today’s women. An inviting and charming home for her family and guests is in every woman’s bucket list. The Home Edit Fair is open from March 16 to March 31.

Women’s Wellness and Wednesday Sale

To be pampered from head to foot is an offer no woman can refuse. To avail of the offer at discounted prices makes it even more irresistible. For the whole month of March, women can avail of great deals from wellness salons at SM Supermalls, from facials, hair and body treatments to nail care and massage. Women’s Wellness is on from March 1 to March 31.

The Wednesday Sale is a weekly offering of special deals exclusively for women. Shopping on Wednesdays has become even more tempting for her at SM Supermalls. Catch the sale every Wednesday of the month: March 2,9, 16, 23, and 30

Women Who Lunch

From dining deals to specially prepared dishes and free drinks, women are in for some flavorful treats this month. Moms, Titas, Mars, Lolas, Sis and girlfriends may fulfill their cravings at participating restaurants and food outlets that are whipping up delicious offers exclusively for women. From March 1 to March 31.

Women’s month at SM Supermalls began with a Summit on Women Empowerment for a Sustainable Tomorrow entitled, Women Now and The Future that took place last March 8, in partnership with UN Women, Spark Philippines, Connected Women, and Girl Scouts of The Philippines. The hybrid summit focuses on womenpreneur mentorship with women in business such as, Rissa Mananquil- Trillo, Krie Lopez, Gina Romero and Jammy San Juan-Magsino, as well as empowering the next generation women with Antoinette Taus, Sam Tamayo, Mariane Rosario and Nina Lim-Yuson of Girl Scouts of the Philippines. Hosted by Karen Davila with keynote speech from Steven Tan, live at SM Megamall and the @smsupermalls Facebook page.

Women’s World, a celebration of Women’s month at SM Supermalls, aims to make every woman’s shopping experience more special and meaningful. Because at SM Supermalls, we know what she wants and what she deserves. Visit this link to see all our treats just for you. #WomenFeelAweSM

 

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Do not sabotage Iran deal with new conditions, West tells Russia

VIENNA – Western powers on Tuesday warned Russia against wrecking an almost completed deal on bringing the United States and Iran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear accord, as Iran‘s top negotiator was set to return from consultations in Tehran.

Eleven months of talks to restore the deal which lifted sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program have reached their final stages.

But they have been complicated by a last-minute demand from Russia for guarantees from the United States that Western sanctions targeting Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine would not affect its business with Iran.

U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said Russia was seeking to reap extra benefits from its participation in the effort to restore the nuclear agreement, but it will not succeed.

“Russia is trying to up the ante and broaden its demands with regard to the (nuclear deal) and we are not playing ‘Lets make a deal‘,” Nuland, the No. 3 U.S. diplomat, told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Iran‘s top negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani is due back in Vienna on Wednesday after unexpectedly returning to Tehran on Monday for consultations, an Iranian and a European official said.

The talks’ coordinator, Enrique Mora of the European Union, said on Monday the time had come for political decisions to be taken to end the negotiations.

“The window of opportunity is closing. We call on all sides to make the decisions necessary to close this deal now, and on Russia not to add extraneous conditions to its conclusion,” Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement to the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation Board of Governors.

Iran has sought to remove all sanctions and it wants guarantees from the United States that it will not abandon the agreement once more, after then-U.S. President Donald Trump walked out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.

Diplomats have said until now that several differences still needed to be overcome in the talks, including the extent to which sanctions on Iran, notably its elite revolutionary guards, would be rolled back and what guarantees Washington would give if it were to again renege on the deal.

Two Western officials said there was now a final text on the table and those issues had been resolved.

While they couldn’t rule out further last-minute surprises, they said the last big open question was whether Russia‘s demands were manageably narrow and limited to nuclear cooperation spelled out in the agreement, as Moscow’s envoy to the talks has told other parties, or much broader, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has described them.

“We are very close to an agreement. It is essential we conclude while we still can,” France’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre told reporters in a daily briefing. Read full story

“We are concerned by the risks that further delays could weigh on the possibility of concluding,” she said.

 

COMMON INTEREST

Moscow threw the potential wrench in the works on Saturday, just as months of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington in Vienna appeared to be headed for an agreement, with Lavrov saying the Western sanctions over Ukraine had become a stumbling block for the nuclear deal.

The EU’s Mora and Russia‘s top negotiator Mikhail Ulyanov held talks in Vienna on Tuesday evening, exchanging views on the “current developments and way ahead,” Moscow’s envoy said on Twitter.

Western officials say there is common interest in avoiding a nuclear nonproliferation crisis, and they are trying to ascertain whether what Russia is demanding regards only its commitments to the Iran deal. That would be manageable, but anything beyond that would be problematic, they say.

The new agreement would lead to Russia taking in excess highly enriched uranium that would be taken out of Iran to bring Tehran back into compliance with the original deal‘s caps on the purity and amount of the enriched uranium it is stockpiling.

Rosatom, a state-run company formed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2007, is key to that and has still not been added to Western sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken played down the issue during a visit to Estonia on Tuesday and said Russia and the United States still shared a desire to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Read full story

European negotiators from France, Britain, and Germany had already temporarily left the talks as they believed they had gone as far as they could go and it was now up to the two main protagonists to agree on outstanding issues. – Reuters

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