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Digitally speaking

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MESSAGING via SMS or online chat has become the normal form of communication, even for masked couples physically in the same place — “When I am dead, my dearest, sing no sad songs for me.” This can be met with an emoticon of surprise.

With billions of messages a day sent just in this country, the numbers surging even higher with free online apps, do people still have regular conversations outside the home? Is there a decline in verbal exchanges with turn-taking, arguments, and interaction where one can display erudition by mentioning that Da Vinci’s Last Supper was his only mural and discussing the impact of the pandemic on local art auctions? (Do people still talk like this?)

Is digital dialogue a real conversation?

Messages are abbreviated and with word prediction algorithm can end up being cryptic. (About that supper, did you mean Da Vinci or Denny’s?) There can also be a lag time in the response. (I was in a Zoom meeting.) The absence of clues like inflection of voice or raised eyebrows removes emotional context, like enthusiasm or dismay.

When she replies to a possibly seductive wink (How’s the rose garden?) with an exclamation point, was she puzzled or offended? When the reply is delayed, did she just pause to get a glass of water or was she turned off?

Virtual communications do not provide body language clues. Words are delivered without inflection. There is no meditative pause or a hesitation where the body tenses before an emphatic phrase is delivered. The glow of joy at an uttered endearment is replaced by an emoticon, an ovoid creature with puckered lips.

Face-to-face conversation, even with masks, is digitally framed too. It’s called an eyeball meeting (or in-person) as opposed to winking from home (WFH). Even when a couple is physically together, they may be absorbed by their digital toys: playing games, sharing political posts, or texting other people.

Digital conversations tend to stick to a single topic at a time and rarely jump outside the thread. Otherwise, there is a mystified head-scratching when a new and unrelated topic pops up. Virtual meetings even have an agenda and the need to raise a digital hand to be given permission to ask a question, or interrupt the speaker — do you see my charts?

Real conversation meanders. It flows like a river, twisting around rocks and driftwood, deep in some parts, shallow in others, moving fast one moment and then slowing down over an alligator’s back. It requires intimacy and the license to be irrelevant — why are you bringing that up now?

Conversation used to be a form of direct social intercourse requiring no digital intermediary or energy source (I have to charge my phone). Homes would feature some found object as a “conversation piece.” This can be a discarded and un-tuned piano retrieved from a dump site and tuned and buffed like new. The serendipitous discovery of such a treasure sparks comment and elicits delight in discussing the importance of music in the home and the discovery of some hidden talent — have you composed a sonata yet?

The digital culture may have gotten us closer to a paperless office using e-mails and SMS instead of memos and physical meetings. And the pandemic, with its various (and variable) statuses, has only accelerated the digital alternative. In real conversations, spoken words cannot be retrieved or deleted after some deep breathing. They’re already out there irretrievable in their impact. Wait, that is an inappropriate word: I meant morose, not moron. Sorry, you cannot delete.

At the height of the ’60s (age alert) soirees (literally, evening gatherings) were a form of mass dating for college students, usually from two non-coed schools. In the soiree, a “good conversationalist” can be a prized person who probably can’t dance or have flat abs. He may have very thick eyebrows that form a single line. But he can discuss the migration pattern of the monitor lizard and the impact on local governance of the Spanish colonization.

The aim of the tea party was to secure a phone number or two. In that era of the fixed line, a call had to go through the one picking up — Hey Sis, it’s that moron you are trying to avoid.

Digitally speaking, confirming appointments, and getting agreements on decisions are efficiently accomplished. As for appreciating a person and the quality of her shampoo, only a face-to-face meeting can delight… as well as disappoint.

 

Tony Samson is Chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com

Climate, COVID-19 dominate UN as Biden and Xi up their promises

REUTERS
The United Nations headquarters building is seen from inside the General Assembly hall in New York City, Sept. 21, 2021. — REUTERS/EDUARDO MUNOZ/POOL

JOSEPH R. BIDEN and Xi Jinping boosted their efforts to help other nations address climate change as fears over the global environment and the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic dominated the first day of world leaders addressing the annual United Nations General Assembly.

President Biden said in his speech Tuesday morning that the US would double funding to aid developing countries cope with climate change, helping bring the world closer to a $100-billion annual target sought ahead of a climate conference in Scotland next month.

“Making these ambitious investments isn’t just good climate policy, it’s a chance for each of our countries to invest in ourselves and our own future,” Mr. Biden said.

China’s President Xi, speaking hours later in a prerecorded video, said his country will stop financial support for the construction of coal-fired power plants abroad, a move long sought by climate activists.

“China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad,” Mr. Xi said.

The moves by leaders of the world’s two biggest economies signaled the importance placed on climate change as governments globally face mounting costs from extreme weather events.

Continuing the focus on climate, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he’ll submit the Paris climate accord to his nation’s parliament for approval, while the president of the Maldives, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, said rising global temperatures would be a “death sentence” for his island nation.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised the announcements by Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi Tuesday but said in a statement that “we still have a long way to go” to ensure the conference next month “marks a turning point in our collective efforts to address the climate crisis.” 

Sounding a bleak tone for the gathering, Mr. Guterres warned in remarks earlier Tuesday that the world is hurtling toward ecological destruction and that the “climate alarm bells” are “ringing at fever pitch.” Calling current global efforts insufficient, he forecast a “hellscape of temperature rises” if emissions aren’t cut more than currently planned.

“We are weeks away from the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, but seemingly light-years away from reaching our targets,” Mr. Guterres said. “We must get serious. And we must act fast.”

Global leaders are in New York this week against the backdrop of a world that’s increasingly fracturing into polarized camps. 

Repeating vows to work more collaboratively with allies and global institutions, Mr. Biden urged the world to turn from conflict toward cooperation. While that message is meant to contrast with former President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach to the world, Mr. Biden found himself trying to assuage frayed nerves among key allies.

Some foreign leaders were upset over the hasty withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. French officials also remain outraged over a new defense alliance that calls for the US and UK to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.

The deal cost Paris a $66-billion contract to build Australia a diesel-powered submarine fleet. In response, France last week recalled its ambassador from Washington for the first time.

“It’s not so much about breaking a contract,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters at the French mission in New York on Monday. “It’s about unilateralism and unpredictability, the absence of consultations between allies.”

VACCINE INEQUITY
Even UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared caught by surprise by positive news: The US decision to ease travel restrictions on foreigners who can show proof of vaccination. European nations had long called for US travel barriers to be eased.

With the UNGA taking place in a hybrid mode — many leaders stayed home and delegations in New York were kept smaller than normal — the global COVID-19 pandemic continued to be a key issue.

Mr. Guterres decried the vaccine inequity that has left rich countries with surplus doses and considering booster shots as developing nations have barely started vaccinating their populations.

“Perhaps one image tells the tale of our times: The picture we have seen from some parts of the world of Covid-19 vaccines in the garbage, expired and unused,” he said. “It is an obscenity.”

Reviewing the mistrust and lack of unity he says have undermined global efforts to address Covid and climate, Mr. Guterres said, “Instead of the path of solidarity, we are on a dead end to destruction.” While millions go hungry, Mr. Guterres said, they see “billionaires joyriding to space.”

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro  — who was bashed by Mayor Bill de Blasio for coming to New York without being vaccinated, though he had previously contracted COVID-19 — sought to strike a moderate tone in a bid to improve his nation’s image abroad.

In a speech that kicked off the day’s addresses by leaders, the conservative president highlighted efforts to open the Brazilian economy to foreign investment, defending his environmental policies and his track record during the pandemic. The South American nation suffered the world’s largest COVID-19 death toll after the US and faces broad condemnation over lax policies to protect the Amazon.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS
And while the UN, like many institutions, has placed renewed emphasis on gender equity, the difficulty of doing that at a national level was highlighted by the opening day’s agenda, which featured just one female head of government.

Slovakia’s President Zuzana Caputova sent a video speech to the General Assembly in which she urged the international community to stand up in particular for girls and women in Afghanistan, where the Taliban-led government that has taken power was condemned in the 1990s for its harsh human rights record.

“Over the past two decades, girls and women in Afghanistan could exercise their legitimate rights,” she said. “These must not be taken away.”  — Bloomberg

Australia rocked by one of its biggest quakes on record

UNSPLASH

SYDNEY/MELBOURNE — A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck near Melbourne on Wednesday, Geoscience Australia said, one of the country’s biggest quakes on record, causing damage to buildings in the country’s second-largest city and sending tremors throughout neighboring states.

The quake’s epicenter was near the rural town of Mansfield in the state of Victoria, about 200 kms (124 miles) northeast of Melbourne, and was at a depth of 10 kms (six miles). An aftershock was rated 4.0.

Images and video footage circulating on social media showed rubble blocking one of Melbourne’s main streets, while people in northern parts of the city said on social media they had lost power and others said they were evacuated from buildings.

The quake was felt as far away as the city of Adelaide, 800 kms (500 miles) to the west in the state of South Australia, and Sydney, 900 kms (600 miles) to the north in New South Wales state, although there were no reports of damage outside Melbourne and no reports of injuries.

More than half of Australia’s 25 million population lives in the southeast of the country from Adelaide to Melbourne to Sydney.

“We have had no reports of serious injuries, or worse, and that is very good news and we hope that good news will continue,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Washington.

“It can be a very disturbing event, an earthquake of this nature. They are very rare events in Australia and as a result, I am sure people would have been quite distressed and disturbed.”

Quakes are relatively unusual in Australia’s populated east due to its position in the middle of the Indo-Australian Tectonic Plate, according to Geoscience Australia. The quake on Wednesday measured higher than the country’s deadliest tremor, a 5.6 in Newcastle in 1989, which resulted in 13 deaths.

The mayor of Mansfield, Mark Holcombe, said he was in his home office on his farm when the quake struck and ran outside for safety.

“I have been in earthquakes overseas before and it seemed to go on longer than I have experienced before,” Holcombe told the ABC. “The other thing that surprised me was how noisy it was. It was a real rumbling like a big truck going past.”

He knew of no serious damage near the quake epicenter, although some residents reported problems with telecommunications.

No tsunami threat was issued to the Australian mainland, islands or territories, the country’s Bureau of Meteorology said in a statement.

The quake presented a potential disruption for anti-lockdown protests expected in Melbourne on Wednesday, which would be the third day of unrest that has reached increasing levels of violence and police response. — Reuters

Pandemic threatens Asia-Pacific’s progress  on global development goals

PHILSTAR

MANILA — The coronavirus pandemic may have pushed as many as 80 million people in developing Asia into extreme poverty last year, threatening to derail progress on global goals to tackle poverty and hunger by 2030, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday.

Developing Asia’s extreme poverty rate — or the proportion of its people living on less than $1.90 a day — would have fallen to 2.6% in 2020 from 5.2% in 2017 without coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but the crisis likely pushed last year’s projected rate higher by about 2 percentage points, ADB simulations showed.

The figure could even be higher considering the inequalities in areas like health, education and work disruptions that have deepened as the COVID-19 crisis disrupted mobility and stalled economic activity, the ADB said in a flagship report on the region.

“As the socioeconomic impacts of responses to the virus continue to unfold, people already struggling to make ends meet are at risk of tipping over into a life of poverty,” the Manila-based lender said.

Among reporting economies in Asia and the Pacific, which refers to the 46 developing and three developed ADB member economies, only about one in four posted economic growth last year, it said.

As unemployment rates increased the region also lost about 8% of work hours, affecting poorer households and workers in the informal sector.

The economic damage brought about by the pandemic had further intensified the challenge of meeting global development goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015.

U.N. members unanimously passed 17 Sustainable Development Goals, known as SDGs, in 2015, creating a blueprint of ambitious tasks from ending hunger and gender inequality to expanding access to education and health care.

The goals had a deadline of 2030.

“Asia and the Pacific has made impressive strides, but COVID-19 has revealed social and economic fault lines that may weaken the region’s sustainable and inclusive development,” ADB Chief Economist Yasuyuki Sawada said in a separate statement. — Reuters

BDO Foundation receives Enterprise Asia award for 5th straight year

For the fifth consecutive year, BDO Foundation was recognized by Enterprise Asia at the prestigious Asia Responsible Enterprise Awards.

BDO Foundation’s corporate citizenship initiatives were recognized once again as among the most outstanding in Asia. For its efforts to help control the spread of the coronavirus, support frontliners and aid underserved sectors of society vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic, the corporate social responsibility arm of BDO Unibank was recently awarded by international non-governmental organization Enterprise Asia.

The award was officially conferred at the Asia Responsible Enterprise Awards (AREA) 2021, a virtual event witnessed by audiences across the continent. BDO Foundation has received recognition from Enterprise Asia for five consecutive years now.

Out of the more than 200 nominees Enterprise Asia received from 16 countries this year, BDO Foundation’s entry was among 69 honored at AREA. The foundation was one of only five Philippine organizations awarded as other winners were based in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The award-giving body acknowledged the foundation for its pooled testing program, relief assistance forfamilies affected by the health crisis and COVID-19 initiatives designed to support health workers.

As part of its COVID-19 response, BDO Foundation funded the pilot implementation of pooled testing in the Philippines. The mass testing intervention—considered a game-changer in efforts to curb the transmission of the virus—was carried out in Makati, Cebu and Mandaluyong for 18,000 market vendors, public utility drivers and medical frontliners.

The foundation also embarked on a donation drive, donated 10,000 test kits to 10 hospitals, distributed 8,000 food packs in disadvantaged communities on lockdown and supported the donation of 1,900 hygiene kits to repatriated overseas Filipino workers. It supported the government’s efforts to facilitate the movement of frontliners during quarantine and to accelerate the distribution of financial assistance to beneficiaries of the Social Amelioration Program. Further, the foundation facilitated the donation of 200,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to the government.

“Guided by BDO Unibank’s ‘We find ways’ philosophy, BDO Foundation has made significant strides to promote the health and well-being of Filipinos,” BDO Foundation president Mario A. Deriquito said as he accepted the prestigious award. “Moving forward, we will continue to help underserved sectors of society grappling with the pandemic. We will find ways to help communities recover from COVID-19, mindful of our commitment to sustainable development and nation-building.”

Now on its tenth year, AREA honors corporations in Asia that promote sustainable and socially responsible business practices. The awards program is organized by Enterprise Asia, an NGO that recognizes responsible entrepreneurship in the areas of green leadership, investment in people, health promotion, social empowerment, corporate governance, circular economy leadership and responsible business leadership.

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Social entrepreneurs fight to make gig work fairer, greener

DURBAN – When Londoner Rich Mason signed up as a bicycle food delivery rider in 2017, he found the long hours, poor pay and lack of communication from management “jaw-dropping” – so he started his own delivery app instead.

One of his proudest moments was in June this year when his phone pinged with the first order on his Wings platform, which he says pays bicycle couriers above minimum wage, is an eco-friendly alternative to motorbikes and supports family-run restaurants.

“We wanted to create a model that is good for riders, good for society and good for the environment,” said Mason, 32, adding that he wanted to humanize the gig economy into a model that is worker-focused.

“Our brand is built on community,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a video call, adding that Wings also partners with local charities to deliver food to people in need.

The gig economy – where people pick up work in a flexible manner – boomed during COVID-19 lockdowns, as people around the world suddenly needed goods and food delivered to their homes and millions of newly jobless were looking for work.

By 2020, there were more than 777 digital labour platforms – from food delivery to web design – around the world, up from about 140 a decade earlier, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

But many people drawn to gig work for its flexibility have reported being exploited by companies paying low wages, and offering weak insurance policies and no sick leave while encouraging long hours.

Now social enterprises like Wings are trying to rejig the gig economy model by offering tech-driven, on-demand services that prioritize workers’ rights and ethical supply chains.

“It is always exciting to see communities taking ownership of digital tools for work and production in a way that is fair and inclusive,” said Kelle Howson, a researcher at Fairwork, a gig economy research project at the Oxford Internet Institute.

PLANET AND PEOPLE
At the large companies that dominate the gig platform sphere, most delivery drivers are classified as “partners”, not employees, meaning they have flexible work hours but few to no benefits, such as healthcare or paid leave.

But some businesses are using elements of the gig economy – like reliance on tech, employment flexibility and direct-to-consumer orders – to create both profit and social change.

In 2014, Colombian entrepreneur Diego Benitez launched SiembraViva, an e-commerce platform that connects rural smallholder farmers with consumers while helping the farmers transition to organic produce through training and technical support.

The platform uses a WhatsApp chatbot to gather planting information from farmers to determine their ideal harvesting schedules based on customer demand, reducing waste and guaranteeing an income for the farmers.

“We work to make the fruit and veg supply chains sustainable, inclusive and efficient,” said the 40-year-old former banker, who hopes to expand into other countries in South America in the coming years.

Similar startups have sprung up around the world from Namibia to the United States, utilizing technology and direct-to-consumer models to help small-scale, organic farmers hold their own against bigger grocery stores.

A core component of the gig economy involves door-to-door deliveries and Spanish courier company Koiki realized they could boost eco-friendly job opportunities for people at risk of social exclusion, like migrants or homeless people.

Koiki provides the technology, training and parcels for delivery people who are hired by partner charities or organizations, said marketing director Patricia De Francisco, adding that all parcels are delivered on foot or on bike to reduce the company’s carbon emissions.

Many of Koiki’s 150 couriers have physical or mental disabilities and they work out of delivery centers in their own neighborhoods so that the routes are familiar to them, said De Francisco.

“They were the heroes of the pandemic, the only ones on the roads delivering medicine and food to people in need,” she said, adding that all workers are on fixed or flexible contracts aligned with the minimum wage.

“We realise we have to take care of the planet and people if we want to be here longer,” said De Francisco.

In East Africa, Kenya-based Digital Lions became the world’s first Fairtrade verified digital agency, highlighting the enterprise’s commitment to fair pay and environmental protection using solar power and emissions offsetting.

The company has trained 300 members of the largely pastoralist community on the shores of Lake Turkana in business and tech skills, helping them enter the international market as web designers, animators and more.

“We can create jobs in remote areas, empower and educate women and deliver quality service, that’s very hard to beat,” said co-founder Jan Veddeler.

Major gig platforms are beginning to take note of smaller players in the sector, with some incorporating their social impact goals into their own model.

In June European gig companies Delivery Hero, Bolt, Glovo, and Wolt announced the European Purpose Project – an online consultation inviting individuals to help draw up an inclusive gig economy code of conduct.

In India, businesses working with temporary staff like garment and construction workers have begun turning to LabourNet, a training and employment mediator for gig workers that has helped improve work contracts and social security benefits.

So far they have helped 8,000 people with the aim of reaching 15,000 in the coming year, said founder Gayathri Vasudevan.

Bigger corporates have also used their capital to fund ethical gig platforms – like Robinhood – launched by Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank last year to help small food businesses that had taken a hit during lockdowns.

Launched as part of the bank’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, the app does not charge merchants a fee for listing on the platform, and has drawn 150,000 small food vendors and more than 2 million subscribers.

‘READY FOR ETHICAL ALTERNATIVES’
Co-operatives and enterprises like Wings and SiembraViva say consumer demand and decision making is a huge factor in rethinking the gig economy model.

Customers are getting more discerning about how online services use their money and their impact on communities and the environment, said Mason at Wings.

“People are ready for ethical alternatives … I hope we will have built up a loyalty in our community that will come through for us and stand with us if an Uber Eats tries to kill us off in a year or two,” he said.

But customer loyalty alone is not enough, said Howson, the gig economy expert.

“To enable (these) enterprises to succeed, we need changes in wider commercial, tax, supply-chain and labour policy settings … (regulation) should favour companies providing maximum social and economic benefits to local communities,” she said over email.

Social entrepreneurs like Benitez agree that the gig economy is not going anywhere, but that using elements of the gig model for good would make it both more sustainable and profitable.

“Success is not just about money. We can make money and capture carbon and create equitable supply chains for farmers … we can do it all, so that the next generation lives in a better place than we do now,” he said. — Thomson Reuters Foundation

Evergrande wooed retail investors with Gucci bags, Dyson appliances

SHANGHAI – Lured by the promise of yields approaching 12%, gifts such as Dyson air purifiers and Gucci bags, and the guarantee of China’s top-selling developer, tens of thousands of investors bought wealth management products through China Evergrande Group.

Now, many fear they may never get their investments back after the cash-strapped property developer recently stopped repaying some investors and set off global alarm bells over its massive debt.

Some have been protesting at Evergrande offices, refusing to accept the company’s plan to provide payment with discounted apartments, offices, stores and parking units, which it began to implement on Saturday.

“I bought from the property managers after seeing the ad in the elevator, as I trusted Evergrande for being a Fortune Global 500 company,” said the owner of an Evergrande property in the conglomerate’s home province of Guangdong surnamed Du.

“It’s immoral of Evergrande not to pay my hard-earned money back,” said the investor, who had put 650,000 yuan ($100,533) into Evergrande wealth management products (WMPs) last year at an interest rate of more than 7%.

More than 80,000 people – including employees, their families and friends as well as owners of Evergrande properties – bought WMPs that raised more than 100 billion yuan in the past five years, said a sales manager of Evergrande Wealth, launched in 2016 as a peer-to-peer (P2) online lending platform that originally was used to fund its property projects.

Some 40 billion yuan of the investments are outstanding, said the person, declining to be named as they were not authorized to speak with the media.

China Evergrande did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, which was a public holiday in China.

With more than $300 billion in debt, Evergrande’s liquidity crisis rattled global markets this week. The company has vowed to repay WMP investors.

CHRISTMAS PROMOTION

China’s years-long effort to deleverage its economy has pushed companies to resort to off-balance sheet investments in search of funding.

After Beijing further capped debt levels of property developers last year, the most indebted players like Evergrande felt even more pressure to find new sources of capital to ease mounting liquidity stress, turning to employees, suppliers and clients for cash through commercial paper, trust and wealth management products.

Evergrande Wealth started to sell WMPs to individuals in 2019 after a regulatory crackdown led to a collapse of the P2P lending sector, said the sales manager and another Evergrande employee who bought the WMPs.

To attract investors, the sales manager offered gifts such as Dyson air purifiers and Gucci handbags to each person who bought more than 3 million yuan of WMPs during a Christmas promotion last year.

A product leaflet provided by the sales manager seen by Reuters showed the WMPs are categorised as fixed-income products suitable for “conservative investors seeking steady returns”.

‘DE-FACTO EVERGRANDE PRODUCT’

In two products sold last November, a construction company in Qingdao was looking to raise up to 10 million yuan with annualised yield of 7% in one and 20 million yuan with yields ranging from 7.8% to 9.5%, depending on the investment size, in another. Minimum investments were 100,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan, respectively.

Evergrande also usually offers additional yield up to 1.8% to certain investors, which can push returns to above 11% for a 12-month investment, said the sales manager.

Proceeds were to be used for Qingdao Lvye International Construction Co’s working capital, the documents showed. The firm could not be reached for comment during a public holiday.

Repayment would either come from the issuer’s income or from Evergrande Internet Information Service (Shenzhen) Co, a subsidiary that runs Evergrande Wealth and promises to cover the principal and interest if an issuer fails to repay, the prospectus said.

The sales manager said the Qingdao company was working on Evergrande projects and would use the payment from Evergrande upon completion to repay investors.

“It’s a de-facto Evergrande product,” the person said.

Other highly leveraged Chinese conglomerates including HNA Group, which declared bankruptcy early this year, and China Baoneng have used similar products.

In a petition to various government bodies, a group of WMP investors in Guangdong accused Evergrande of inappropriately using money that should have gone to the issuers to fund its own projects, and not sufficiently disclosing the risks.

They also complained that they were misled by the stature of its chairman, Hui Ka-yan, noting that he was seated prominently during a 2019 celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

“The investors trusted Evergrande and bought Evergrande’s WMPs out of our love for and faith in the Party and government,” they wrote. — Reuters

McDonald’s Happy Meal toys to go green globally by 2025

McDonald’s Corp said on Tuesday it will drastically cut the use of plastic in the more than 1 billion children’s toys it sells globally each year by the end of 2025.

The change involves swapping out a plastic figurine of Batman, for example, for one made with a dozen cardboard pieces that kids can put together themselves.

More toys will also be made from recycled or plant-based plastics, McDonald’s said. The changes will allow the Chicago-based company to cut its use of virgin fossil fuel-based plastic for Happy Meals by 90% compared with 2018.

McDonald’s is one of many restaurant chains aiming to reduce environmental harm from packaging and other products.

Burger King, a unit of Restaurant Brands International Inc , said in 2019 that it would stop giving out free plastic toys and that customers could return existing ones to be melted down and used as trays and other items.

Stephanie Feldstein, population and sustainability director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement that if McDonald’s really wanted to be more sustainable it should reduce the amount of beef it serves and “stop nibbling around the edges of sustainability.”

McDonald’s, which started selling Happy Meals in 1979, shifted to more sustainable toys in the UK, Ireland and France in 2018.

Some similar toys will soon make their way to the more than 100 other countries where Happy Meals are sold.

In the United States, McDonald’s is already using some sustainable toys, including books and Pokemon collectible cards.

More such toys will hit the U.S. market in January, said Amy Murray, vice president of global marketing enablement. The revamped Happy Meals will not cost franchisees more money, she said. — Reuters

Celebrity mayor eyes Philippine presidency, challenging Duterte

Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko" Moreno Domagoso / Photo by Edd Gumban, Philippine Star

The movie star turned mayor of Manila declared his candidacy for the Philippine presidency in next year’s elections, posing the biggest challenge to President Rodrigo Duterte’s plans to extend his hold on power.

Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko” Moreno Domagoso, 46, said on Wednesday he will soon unveil his platform, but pledged to expand his pandemic response and projects for the poor in the capital on a national level. He also said he will appoint officials outside his circle and encourage millennials to join a “government of national reconciliation.”

“The road to recovery will be hard, the journey long, the challenges complex,” Moreno said in a speech declaring his presidential bid. “There is no magic wand that will make our problems go away, only hard work will.”

Moreno has picked cardiologist Willie Ong as a running mate, his political strategist Lito Banayo said in an earlier interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.

The Manila mayor’s entrance heats up a crowded presidential race as he is the nearest rival to Duterte’s daughter, Sara, in a presidential preference survey carried out in June. While Duterte’s daughter has since said she will no longer seek the presidency in next year’s elections, her father accepted his party’s vice-presidential nomination with his aide-turned-senator Christopher “Bong” Go as a potential presidential candidate.

Moreno was a garbage collector before becoming a movie teen star in the 1990s. He later entered Manila politics as a city councilor and eventually became its vice-mayor. Rivals have often tried to use Moreno’s sexy photos from his showbiz career to cast doubt on his character, but Moreno has been candid about his past and often talks about how his impoverished childhood in Manila gives him perspective in governing the city.

In a sign of increasing rivalry, Duterte in August mocked a mayor who has “bikini” photos, without naming Moreno. Duterte himself appointed the former movie star as the social welfare undersecretary in 2018 before Moreno resigned a year later to seek the top post in Manila, which he won.

Moreno is now the third politician to confirm joining next year’s presidential race. Aside from him, boxer-turned-senator Manny Pacquiao, who is from the same ruling party as Duterte, launched his bid over the weekend, while Senator Panfilo Lacson declared his run earlier this month.

The son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos has said he’s eyeing a national post in the 2022 elections. — Bloomberg

US to donate an additional 500 million COVID-19 vaccines

Handout

WASHINGTON – The United States plans to donate an additional 500 million COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE to nations around the world, lifting the total the country is sharing to more than 1 billion doses, according to a source familiar with the plans.

President Joe Biden is hosting a virtual summit on COVID-19 on Wednesday and is likely to announce the new pledge then.

Earlier on Tuesday, Biden told the United Nations General Assembly that the United States had put more than $15 billion toward the global response to COVID-19 in order to fund more than 160 million COVID-19 vaccines in other countries.

The U.S. has already purchased 500 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and donated them through the global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX.

Vaccines have already landed in 100 countries, Biden said, adding he would announce additional commitments on Wednesday at the U.S.-hosted global COVID-19 summit.

The United States is pushing global leaders to endorse its targets for ending the COVID-19 pandemic, including ensuring 70% of the world’s population is vaccinated by this time in 2022, according to a draft U.S. document viewed by Reuters.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping reiterated on Tuesday in a speech to the UNGA that China aims to provide 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to the world by the end of the year.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi were critical of plans by rich countries to provide booster shots when so many people in the developing world are unvaccinated.

“Rich countries hoard life-saving vaccines, while poor nations wait for a trickle,” Duterte said in his address to the General Assembly. “They now talk of booster shots, while developing countries consider half-doses just to get by.

“This is shocking beyond belief,” he said, stressing the pandemic will not end unless the virus is defeated everywhere.

Speaking to the Asia Society think tank, Marsudi emphasized restrictions on the export of materials to make vaccines must end, saying “access to safe and affordable vaccines is critical.”

U.S. regulators could authorize a booster shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for older and some high-risk Americans this week, in time for the government to roll them out by Friday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to give the nod to the third shots for at least this group before advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are due to meet on Wednesday.

As the gap widens between vaccinations in wealthy and poor countries, the World Health Organization has repeatedly implored the United States and other wealthy countries to hold off on plans to offer boosters and to use those doses to help inoculate the many people worldwide who have yet to receive their first shots. — Reuters

Duterte vows accountability for anyone who went ‘beyond bounds’ in drug war

REUTERS

UNITED NATIONS – Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that anyone found to have “acted beyond bounds” in his campaign against illegal drugs would be held accountable under national laws, while appearing to reject an International Criminal Court probe.

Duterte told the United Nations General Assembly he had instructed the Philippines Justice Department and police to review the conduct of the campaign, in which more than 6,100 suspected drug dealers and users have been killed since he took office in June 2016.

“Those found to have acted beyond bounds during operations shall be made accountable before our laws,” Duterte said in a video address to the annual gathering.

Duterte made no mention of a formal investigation into possible crimes against humanity, which was approved by judges from the International Criminal Court last week, although he appeared to reject outside interference in human rights issues.

“We have recently finalized with the United Nations our Joint Program on Human Rights. This is a model for constructive engagement between a sovereign Member State and the United Nations,” he said.

“Meaningful change, to be enduring, must come from within. The imposition of one’s will over another – no matter how noble the intent – has never worked in the past. And it never will in the future.”

Duterte’s government said last week it will not cooperate with the ICC or allow any investigators into the Philippines. Duterte and his police chiefs have said the killings were in self-defense and his government has insisted the ICC has no right to meddle in the country’s affairs.

Rights groups say Duterte personally incited deadly violence in the drug war and accuse police of murdering unarmed suspects on a massive scale. Rights group say the police summarily executed suspects, which the policy deny.

In February, the Philippine police said they were looking into a government review of the killings after the justice minister made an unprecedented admission to the United Nations of widespread police failures. — Reuters

FEU to conduct virtual stockholders’ meet on October 16

The 2021 Annual Stockholders’ Meeting of Far Eastern University, Inc. (FEU) will be conducted virtually on October 16, 2021, at 3 p.m.

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