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Leader Man City drops points at Palace to open door for Liverpool

LONDON — Leader Manchester City was held to a 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace on Monday as the Premier League title race took yet another dramatic twist.

With nearest challengers Liverpool having cut the gap to three points with their victory at Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, their eighth successive league win to remain in City’s rear-view mirror, the onus was the champions to respond.

City dominated in the first half at Selhurst Park, but could not find a breakthrough. The post was rattled in the opening period by Joao Cancelo and again after the break by Kevin De Bruyne as the visitors were left frustrated time and again.

Pep Guardiola’s men threw everything at Palace late on, but could not find a winner as they dropped two valuable points in their quest to make it four league titles in the last five seasons.

The stalemate means Liverpool can close to within one point of City if they win their game in hand against Arsenal on Wednesday, raising expectations the title race will go right to the wire.

“Luck doesn’t exist in football,” Guardiola told the BBC. “We have to score goals and we didn’t do it.

“We played to score goals and concede few. We struggled a little bit. The team that was there today was there before and will be there in the next game. I am very pleased with the performance and the way we played.”

City soon settled into their rhythm and dominated possession as they often do in South London, creating several promising early openings — Bernardo Silva missing the most glaring of them.

Defender Aymeric Laporte also seemed to have left his shooting boots at home as he blazed over with the goal at his mercy, reacting first to the rebound after Cancelo’s long-range shot had come out off the post.

Palace looked a danger on the break, with Wilfried Zaha firing wide from a good position, but otherwise it was one-way traffic, with City having 14 first-half efforts at goal.

The last side to stop City scoring in the Premier League was Palace in October, and another shutout was looking more likely as chances continued to come and go for City.

De Bruyne’s arrowing second-half strike seemed destined for the bottom corner but came out off the upright, with Mahrez denied by a brilliant stop from Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita from the rebound.

Silva almost got on the end of a fizzing low cross but arrived a fraction too late, with City putting a bit too much on passes, or taking an extra touch at key moments.

Palace dug in and held on as they stretched their unbeaten run to five games in all competitions to stay 11th, but it is those watching on Merseyside who will have celebrated this result more than anyone else.

“When you play against City, you have to concede chances,” Palace manager Patrick Vieira told the BBC. “It’s all about having your luck on the day but also putting in a shift as a team.

“We did that today. We fought for the luck and we got a point. We’re happy with the performance.” — Reuters

Smith survives wild final round to win Players and PGA Tour’s biggest winner’s purse

CAMERON Smith survived a wild week and a roller-coaster final round to claim a one-shot victory over Anirban Lahiri at the Players Championship on Monday and collect the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour’s biggest payout, pocketing the winner’s check of $3.6 million.

Two shots back of front-running Lahiri going into the weather-delayed final round, the 28-year-old Australian held his nerve when needed, carding a six-under 66 for a winning total of 13-under 275 to capture his second title of the season and fifth of his career.

Lahiri closed with a 69, his disappointment eased by the $2.1-million second-place purse while Briton Paul Casey returned a final round 69 as well to finish two shots back alone in third.

“I felt as though one of these big ones was the next step for me,” said Smith. “I’ve knocked on the door a few times and I just felt like it was my time.

“I hit a lot of quality golf shots and didn’t really back down and just kept trying to make birdies.”

He made 10 of them in the final round, most with his putter one putting 13 holes.

Smith mounted an early charge rolling in a 38-foot monster putt for a birdie at the first and continued to ring them up registering five on his opening six holes.

But his round went off the rails with three straight bogeys from the seventh to wobble into the turn.

Smith’s Jekyll and Hyde round took another sudden twist with four consecutive birdies to start the back nine constructing what looked to be a comfortable three-shot cushion heading onto the 18th.

Lahiri, bidding to become just the second golfer from India to win on the PGA Tour, birdied the famous par-three 17th island green to trim the lead to two while ahead of him, Smith had found the water.

Smith took bogey at 18, leaving Lahiri needing a birdie at the last to force a playoff, coming up just short when his chip from 40 feet came to rest inches from the cup.

With torrential rains and raging winds hammering the TPC Sawgrass through the opening rounds, the PGA Tour’s flagship event became a test of endurance with a Monday finish and Smith proved he could go the distance claiming golf’s unofficial fifth major and the PGA Tour’s richest stop with a total prize purse of $20 million.

Dustin Johnson had the round of the day matching the course record with a nine-under 63 to climb up into a tie for ninth while world number one Jon Rahm closed out a tough week with a five-over 77 to finish well back, tied for 55th. — Reuters

Shock loss costs Medvedev no. 1 rank; Brooksby beats Tsitsipas at Indian Wells

DANIIL Medvedev lost his world number one ranking after a stunning 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 loss to Gael Monfils in the third round of Indian Wells on Monday, while fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was eliminated by American Jenson Brooksby.

Monfils let out a roar as he secured the upset on the sixth match point in front of an adoring California crowd with a backhand winner to set up a meeting with Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz in the fourth round.

“I’m quite happy right now — I’m in my zone,” Monfils said. “I moved quite good and then I changed the speed quite a lot.”

The Frenchman handed Medvedev the break in the ninth game of the first set with a pair of double faults and two forehand errors, as the reigning US Open champion dropped just four points on his serve in the opener.

But Medvedev lost the momentum in the second set, unable to convert on five of six break point opportunities.

Monfils broke him in the fourth game with a backhand winner and again in the eighth with a fiery forehand.

Overcoming obvious exhaustion, Monfils won the first four games of the final set as Medvedev was unable to set up a single break point opportunity.

It was the first time in 13 years that the 35-year-old Monfils beat the number-one ranked player in the world.

Twenty-times Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic will return to the top of the world rankings when they are updated next Monday.

Later on Monday, local hope Jenson Brooksby fought back from a set down to secure a shock win over world number five Stefanos Tsitsipas (1-6, 6-3, 6-2).

Tsitsipas got off to a flying start, breaking twice to claim the opening set, but Brooksby stormed back into the contest in the second set, winning the first three games to take a 3-0 lead, which he held onto to force a decider.

Brooksby carried his momentum into the final set, breaking twice in quick succession to go 4-0 up, before he served out to eliminate the 23-year-old Greek.

“I felt really good going into the match. I was hitting well, I thought I prepared well but yeah, I just got a little tight,” 43rd-ranked Brooksby said.

“I think I got a little bit in my own head (in the first set), but it’s a whole match. I breathed a little bit, I calmed down and I got myself to turn things around.”

Tsitsipas is the second top-10 player to have fallen at the hands of a young American in the tournament, with world number three Alexander Zverev crashing out after a 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(2) loss to Tommy Paul on Sunday.

Spaniard Rafa Nadal sent Daniel Evans packing with a routine 7-5, 6-3 win to extend his unbeaten streak in 2022 to 17-0 after winning a men’s record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.

Down an early break, Nadal leveled it in the eighth game and again broke Evans to close out the first set and seize the momentum.

He dropped just two first-serve points in the second set, breaking his opponent early and wrapping up his 400th Masters match win with a forehand winner before thrusting his hands in the air to cheers from the crowd.

He reaches the fourth round after staging a breath-taking, three-set comeback on Saturday against American Sebastian Korda and said after the match he was pleased to wrap up Monday’s affair in a tidier fashion.

“Happy to be able to keep going in the tournament,” Nadal said. “I think after a few games I have been playing better and better.”

Nadal will next face American Reilly Opelka, who beat 13th seed Denis Shapovalov (6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4).

Elsewhere on the men’s side, Alcaraz beat fellow Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut (6-2, 6-0). — Reuters

Raptors jump on Lakers early, roll to victory

PASCAL Siakam had 27 points and 11 rebounds and the visiting Toronto Raptors led all the way to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers (114-103) on Monday night.

Siakam has scored at least 20 points in a career-best seven consecutive games.

Gary Trent, Jr. scored 28 points for the Raptors, who have won four straight and are 4-1 with one game to go on their six-game road trip.

Scottie Barnes had 15 of his 21 points in the first quarter for Toronto. Chris Boucher finished with 13 points, Precious Achiuwa had 10 points and 11 rebounds, and Fred VanVleet chipped in with 11 points.

LeBron James had 30 points and nine rebounds for the Lakers, who have lost two in a row and four of their past five. They fell 140-111 to the host Phoenix Suns on Sunday.

Talen Horton-Tucker added 20 points for the Lakers, and Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony each had 14 points.

Toronto, up by 21 after the first quarter and by 18 half time, extended its lead to 28 in the third quarter and took a 20-point lead into the fourth.

James’ dunk had the Lakers within 15 points with 4:24 to play. Anthony made three free throws with 3:20 remaining, cutting the gap to 11. When James hit a 3-pointer with 2:19 to go, the margin was down to nine.

Trent made two free throws with 53.1 seconds to play, and the lead was back to 12.

Toronto led 33-12 after one quarter as the Lakers shot 3-for-25 from the field and trailed by as many as 24 points.

Malik Monk made a 3-pointer with 5:13 to play in the second quarter to cut the difference to 19. Westbrook’s layup moments later trimmed the lead to 17.

Anthony’s 3-pointer reduced the margin to 13 with 2:05 left in the first half. Toronto responded with a 9-4 surge and led 58-40 at half time.

The Lakers shot 12-for-45 (26.7%) from the field in the first half. Toronto shot 22-for-47 (46.8%).

Siakam’s 3-pointer with 8:46 to play in the third quarter restored Toronto’s 22-point lead. Trent made two free throws with 3:04 remaining in the quarter to stretch the advantage to 28.

Tucker-Horton finished the third quarter with a 3-pointer to cut Toronto’s lead to 91-71. — Reuters

Vaccine mandate

A roar erupted from the overflow crowd of 18,057 with 4:21 left in the second quarter of the Nets’ homestand against the Knicks. No, it wasn’t because Evan Fournier stood on the charity stripe for two shots. Rather, it was because Kyrie Irving, who had been hitherto been unable to trek to the Barclays Center because of prevailing health protocols in New York, emerged from the visitor’s tunnel and made his way to his courtside seat. No doubt, the surreal sight of the All-Star guard taking in the action but prevented from actually participating in it was not lost on them.

For all the illogic of the city government distinguishing Irving the Spectator from Irving the Player, there can be no going around the lifting of the vaccine mandate that enabled the former and the continued enforcement of the private sector mandate that restricted the latter. In any case, the Nets managed to avert disaster by prevailing over the otherwise-hapless Knicks, however barely, on the strength of an otherworldly effort from future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant.

Considering the admittedly ridiculous development that unfolded over the weekend, the criticism that went city mayor Eric Adams’ way was to be expected. Whether it was deserved, however, depends on perspective. The tug-of-war between economic and safety concerns will invariably bring about compromise. As Irving himself said, “It’s not an easy job to be the mayor of New York City. And with COVID looming, the vaccination mandates, everything going on in our world, with this war in the Ukraine, and everybody feeling it across America, I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes right now trying to delegate whether or not one basketball player can come and play at home.”

In other words, the world does not revolve around Irving. And while the public cheered when Durant called Adams to task for the seeming absurdity playing out on a nationally broadcast match, the Nets’ top dog would have been better off pressuring his teammate instead. The science behind vaccinations is clear, as is the central role Irving has taken in keeping the issue alive.

 

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.

Search engines help consumers navigate ‘messy middle’ of online shopping

UNSPLASH

By Patricia B. Mirasol, Reporter 

“The messy middle,” according to Google, is the space consumers navigate between triggers and purchases. A brand’s marketing success, per the search engine, depends on how well it learns how to navigate this “labyrinth of searches, ads, links, and clicks.”

When people are exposed to a purchase trigger — such as a billboard or a conversation with a friend — they begin the process of using a range of online sources to review their options, said Sapna Chadha, vice president for marketing for Google’s India, Southeast Asia, and South Asia markets.  

“At its core, the messy middle is fueled by emotional tensions that are looking to be resolved and is unique to every single person,” she said.  

Ms. Chadha herself switched from a known cosmetics brand to a number of new brands after she Googled professional looks for women, and ended up watching a video that discussed contouring, skin tone, and red lipsticks. 

“It’s also a really important thing to remember that there is rarely a right or wrong answer in these instances,” she said at a March 15 event by Google. “What’s right is different for every person.” 

According to Byron Sharp, a professor of marketing at marketing research center Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, people are very loyal. 

“Of the millions of brands we could buy, we keep going back to a few,” he said. “We’re not passionately in love with those brands, but we love being loyal because it makes our lives easy.” 

For people to be loyal to a brand, however, marketers need to make it available — in both the physical and mental sense. 

A brand’s mental availability refers to the probability that a buyer will notice, recognize, and/or think of a brand in buying situations. Physical availability, on the other hand, is the scope of a brand’s distribution, and how easy it is for consumers to purchase its products. 

“You think that sampling is effective, that if you give consumers a free product — and if it’s a good product — they should adopt it into their repertoire. But so often it doesn’t, because [sampling] doesn’t lay down the mental structures [for future purchases],” said Mr. Sharp. “Advertising needs to overlap with that physical availability both before and after purchase.”  

Search advertising helps by giving products digital availability, he said. It provides an opportunity for marketers for when consumers are in a buying mood, and adds touch points to a marketing campaign. 

Google holds 91.9% of the search engine market as of this January and was visited 82.6 billion times in February, according to dropshipping app Oberlo. 

“We’re in a world where we’re inundated with information,” said author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell, known for his bestsellers on pop psychology and behavioral economics. “We’re dealing with mysteries. You have a big mound of data in front of you. Now your job is to sift through that data, make sense of it, throw out what isn’t important, and zero in on what is. In the digital age, the problems we are faced with are — overwhelmingly — mysteries.”

Digital interventions vs climate change

FREEPIK

It’s summer. Temperatures are rising, and now that most mobility restrictions have been lifted, many children can be seen playing outdoors. One sunny, sweltering afternoon, however, the sky turned gray, and a downpour ensued.

This might seem erratic to many of us, but the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), says we should not be surprised. Most of their climate models, they say, suggest that La Niña is likely to continue through the months of March, April, and May, despite the warm and dry season that has started this month.

The combined effects of these weather systems may potentially trigger rains that may cause floods, flash floods, and rain-induced landslides in vulnerable areas. Moreover, the rainfall forecast for the month of March suggests we should expect near to above normal rainfall conditions in most parts of the country.

Climate change is indeed upon us. The complex environmental challenges it triggers affect everyone, especially the most vulnerable, at a far greater level than what was expected before.

The Philippines is one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Tragically, Filipinos still have a low awareness and understanding of the dangers and consequences of climate change.

In a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted from Oct. 20-23, 2021, respondents were asked what they thought was the main reason preventing the country from addressing climate change. Thirty-four percent said they don’t know, can’t understand the question, were not aware of climate change, or had no answer.

Alarmingly, another 40% responded with an invalid answer.

Yet the same survey found that 89% of Filipinos agree that there are benefits in the integration of digital technologies in the country’s economic activities. Some 82% of Filipinos also agree that the growth of the Philippine economy will be accelerated if the government collaborates with the private sector, and 81% agree that the government should engage the private sector to invest in public infrastructure.

Philippine Business for Environmental Stewardship (PBEST) believes that climate action is one of the areas where the government can collaborate with the private sector. Specifically, the private sector’s initiatives and expertise in digital technologies can help advance our efforts in combatting the effects of climate change.

Planting trees is perhaps the most conventional nature-based solution. It is a relatively inexpensive way of tackling climate change and its environmental side effects. In addition to their natural carbon sink capabilities, trees help prevent soil erosion and provide clean air, shade, and shelter. Forest products such as wood are also essential in the economy’s infrastructure development.

Our forest cover, however, has been on a steady decline. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the Philippines had a forest area of 12 million hectares in 1960. The World Bank (WB) says this significantly decreased to only 7.19 million hectares in the years that followed. Some 24.1% of the total landmass remains as forest area.

Fortunately, there are some bright, encouraging spots.

There are private sector-led interventions. A good model is the data-backed Liveable Cities Challenge (LCC) Dashboard project of the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), and its private sector partners which contains multi-year data on local communities’ basic information such as labor, education, local economy, doing business, mobility and connectivity, health, urban environment, resiliency and emergency response, and safety and security.

This data helps local communities and their governments spot local trends and their connections to enable community stakeholders to make timely and effective decision-making and help determine vulnerabilities and issues that need to be addressed.

Digital technologies are now being harnessed not just to champion environmental stewardship but also in implementing environment, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives. Several companies have linked their tree-planting advocacies to actual trees being planted and monitored. Sites that need reforestation and scaling of tree-related sustainability programs are efficiently identified and prioritized. People can now help fight climate change by using these smart platforms to participate in these programs while availing themselves of the online services through their phones.

The fast transition to online platforms for daily business transactions since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out two years ago has reduced carbon emissions and business interactions to a digital-first attitude, resorting to face-to-face meetings only when very necessary and observing the required safety protocols.

Still, the potential of digital tools and technologies, in terms of advancing climate action and resiliency, remains largely untapped, primarily because of the lack of a general understanding of climate change itself and how digitalization can address it. The government should also lead in its integration into Philippine communities and their infrastructure. Enough government resources must be allocated to build up our national digital infrastructure to a level that is globally competitive.

National and local policies and frameworks should be conducive in enabling the sectors’ ESG-based initiatives and investments that are sure to provide Filipinos with access to financial tools while participating in environmental stewardship programs. The Philippines must now step up its climate risk preparedness investments that would enhance nature-based solutions to climate change. These would also reduce physical risks to the people and the environment.

Climate change has a profound effect on our economic sustainability and resiliency. Having access to reliable digital tools is now considered a basic human need. It is also an indispensable factor to ensure economic continuity and recovery, and a sustainable post-pandemic era.

 

Engineer Felix M. Vitangcol is a Stratbase ADRi Environment fellow and secretary general of Philippine Business for Environmental Stewardship (PBEST).

A strategic plan for the IT-BPM industry: India

FULLVECTOR-WFREEPIK

(Part 2)

Although India and the Philippines are the top two countries (leaders) among the 11 countries evaluated on location, both are rated weak in business environment in comparison with the other criteria such as financial attractiveness, people skills, and availability factors. India was perceived to be a top global service destination and scored the highest among the 11 countries. The country’s affordable investment cost and large talent pool attract global companies to set up or outsource their business to India, resulting in a higher ranking for financial attractiveness, people skills and availability. India, however, ranks the lowest in business environment among the 11 countries. Likewise, despite its second-place position in the global outsourcing market, the Philippines ranks only 7th in the Global Services Location Index because of its relatively poor business environment.

The weaknesses in business environment of countries are especially monitored by two international organizations, the World Bank and the Institute for Management Development (IMD). When the Frost & Sullivan study was conducted in 2015 (“Accelerate PH (Future Ready) Roadmap 2022,” done in association with the IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines or IBPAP), in the Ease of Doing Business Index of World Bank, the Philippines ranked 8th and India last among the 11 countries considered for IT-BPM (Information Technology-Business Process Management) location sites. The most business-friendly countries among the 11 were Malaysia, Poland, and Mexico in that order. Under the World Competitiveness Index of IMD, the Philippines ranked also 8th and India second to the last. In 2019 — the last time the World Bank came out with the Index since it decided to discontinue the series on Sept. 16, 2021 and replace it in the future with what will be called the Business Enabling Environment (BEE) — the Philippines ranked second to the last among the 11 countries. The 2019 ranking was as follows: Malaysia (12), Thailand (21), China (32), Poland (40), Chile (59), Mexico (60), India (62), Vietnam (70), Indonesia (73), Philippines (95), and Brazil (124).

The Administration that will be elected in May 2022 will have a great challenge to undo the damage done during the Duterte Administration to our ease of doing business. To be fair, however, much has been done after 2019, despite the pandemic, to improve the business environment, the outstanding accomplishments among which are the much-improved infrastructures resulting from the Build, Build, Build program, greater competition in the telecom sector, and the passing of the Public Service Act that has liberalized the entry of Foreign Direct Investments.

As regards the World Competitive Index of IMD, the latest rankings were in 2021. The IMD Competitiveness Ranking analyzes and ranks countries according to how they manage their competencies to achieve long-term value creation. It is based on the assumption that economic progress cannot be reduced only to GDP and productivity because enterprises also have to cope with political, social, and cultural dimensions. Governments have the obligation to provide an environment characterized by efficient infrastructure, institutions, and policies that encourage sustainable value creation by the enterprises. The Yearbook provides extensive coverage of 64 countries (which does not include Vietnam), based on the availability of comparable international statistics and collaboration with local Partner Institutes. For 2021, the ranking of the 10 countries (Vietnam excluded) in our list of leading destinations for IT-BPM outsourcing enterprises is as follows: China (16), Malaysia (25), Thailand (28), Indonesia (37), India (43), Chile (44), Poland (47), the Philippines (52), Mexico (55) and Brazil (57). It is advisable that those who will govern the Philippines in the next Administration examine closely the criteria used by IMD in computing the rankings which go much beyond physical infrastructures, institutions and policies and include innovation, digitalization, welfare benefits and social cohesion.

In fact, IBPAP President Jack Madrid recently came out with what are their expectations of the types of help and assistance they would like to obtain from the next Administration. He said that the next Administration should continue to improve the digital infrastructure of the country to allow further expansion in other areas across the country. There are other regions (Tier 2 and Tier 3) where there are surplus pools of highly educated professionals because of the high-quality education, especially in the English language, available in their universities. Examples of these are Baguio, Puerto Princesa, Tuguegarao, Dumaguete City, Iloilo City, Cagayan de Oro, Naga and others that can supplement the depleting human resources supply of Metro Manila. In fact, in some of the municipalities, university graduates speak better English than those in Metro Manila. Unfortunately, these cities leave a lot to be desired in terms of digital infrastructure. The Government should actively attract foreign telecom and other related enterprises to take advantage of the Public Service Act that now permits as much as 100% foreign ownership in telecom and other public services related to the digital infrastructure. As Mr. Madrid was quoted by BusinessWorld (March 3) as saying, “Much progress has been made during the coronavirus disease COVID-19 pandemic, but more work needs to be done to allow our telecommunications partners, private sector, and the government giving us more incentives to make internet connectivity more cost-efficient and available across the countryside.”

Mr. Madrid also said that the next Administration can help implement a permanent work-from-home (WFH) law after such a work arrangement has been in place for some two years during the pandemic. The IBPAP can help the government to enact a more permanent long-term WFH, in fact work-from-anywhere, law. This would be essential to maintain our country’s competitiveness. We should be prepared for the WFH or hybrid work arrangement to be adopted by countries all over the world. To keep our competitiveness, we must be ahead of the game in crafting a plan to allow BPO firms to transition more smoothly to these new work arrangements. Mr. Madrid said that their association is crafting a plan to provide their member companies a smoother and longer runway because, after all, a great number of workers in varied sectors have already been working from home during the last two years. The IT-BPM industry just needs a little bit more time to secure a healthy and well-organized transition back into what will be a hybrid work environment. The next Government must be quick and ready to help provide the necessary legislation and policy, especially as regards labor and social security issues.

There is also a need to change existing school curricula to come out with skills required for digitized work. As Mr. Madrid said, “More of our work is increasingly complex and increasingly digital and we need to match the expectations of our customers to the needs of the industry for more digitized work. The more complex tasks that are needed must be matched with what our universities provide with their respective curricula.”

As I had discussed in my series of articles on “A Strategic Plan for Philippine Education,” we must get rid of the obsession with college diplomas of parents and the youth in our country. True, there are high levels of skills in the digital industry, such as those of data scientists, that can only be produced in traditional bachelor’s and masteral programs in the universities. But there is a need for a variety of non-college programs, more along the TESDA or tech/voc track, to train skilled workers for other jobs in the digital sector. In the field of Big Data alone, the numerous data encoders and data analysts that will be employed have no need for a college diploma. In fact, the hundreds of thousands that have been employed in the call centers could have been better trained in short programs focused on verbal English proficiency. Filipino talents in the animation industry have no need of a college degree but could have been more cost effectively trained through short upskilling, reskilling or retooling programs in the visual arts. As AI and robotics increasingly replace human beings in the customer care services or call center business, the IT-BPM industry, working together with the government and the academe, must be ready with upskilling, reskilling and retooling programs that will upgrade our call center agents to higher knowledge-based skills such as application development and maintenance (ADM), Finance and accounting (F&A), Healthcare services, and animation and game development. Again, our educators and human resource experts must be able to distinguish those skills in these knowledge-intensive digital occupations that require a college or even post-graduate degree and those that can be effectively trained in short vocational or technical courses. In my opinion, this distinction is one of the most important educational reforms that the next Administration must be able to introduce to the Philippine educational system.

(To be continued.)

 

Bernardo M. Villegas has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, is professor emeritus at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and a visiting professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He was a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.

bernardo.villegas@uap.asia

Ukraine invasion splits Orthodox Church, isolates Russian patriarch

NATANAELGINTING-WFREEPIK

VATICAN CITY — Russian Patriarch Kirill’s full-throated blessing for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has splintered the worldwide Orthodox Church and unleashed an internal rebellion that experts say is unprecedented.

Kirill, 75, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, sees the war as a bulwark against a West he considers decadent, particularly over the acceptance of homosexuality.

He and Putin share a vision of the “Russkiy Mir,” or “Russian World,” linking spiritual unity and territorial expansion aimed at parts of the ex-Soviet Union, experts told Reuters.

What Putin sees as a political restoration, Kirill sees as a crusade.

But the patriarch has sparked a backlash at home as well as among Churches abroad linked to the Moscow Patriarchate.

In Russia, nearly 300 Orthodox members of a group called Russian Priests for Peace signed a letter condemning the “murderous orders” carried out in Ukraine.

“The people of Ukraine should make their choice on their own, not at gunpoint, without pressure from the West or the East,” it read, referring to millions in Ukraine now split between Moscow and Kyiv.

Moscow says its action is a “special military operation” designed not to occupy territory but to demilitarize and “de-Nazify” its neighbor.

Of 260 million Orthodox Christians in the world, about 100 million are in Russia itself and some of those abroad are in unity with Moscow. But the war has strained those relations.

NO PRAYERS FOR THE PATRIARCH
In Amsterdam, the war convinced priests at St. Nicholas Orthodox parish to stop commemorating Kirill in services.

A Russian bishop in Western Europe visited to try to change their minds but the parish severed ties with the Moscow Patriarchate, calling the decision a “very difficult step (taken) with pain in our hearts.”

“Kirill has simply discredited the Church,” said Rev. Taras Khomych, a senior lecturer in theology at Liverpool Hope University and member of Ukraine’s Byzantine-rite Catholic Church. “More people want to speak out in Russia but are afraid,” he told Reuters in telephone interview.

Ukraine has about 30 million Orthodox believers, divided between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) and two other Orthodox Churches, one of which is the autocephalous, or independent, Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Ukraine is of visceral significance to the Russian Orthodox Church because it is seen as the cradle of Russian civilization, where in the 10th century Byzantine Orthodox missionaries converted the pagan Prince Volodymyr.

Kyiv Metropolitan (Archbishop) Onufry Berezovsky of the UOC-MP appealed to Putin for “an immediate end to the fratricidal war,” and another UOC-MP Metropolitan, Evology, from the eastern city of Sumy, told his priests to stop praying for Kirill.

Kirill, who claims Ukraine as an indivisible part of his spiritual jurisdiction, had already severed ties with Bartholomew, the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch who acts as a first among equals in the Orthodox world and backs the autonomy of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church.

“Some Churches are so angry with Kirill over his position on war that we are facing an upheaval in world Orthodoxy,” Tamara Grdzelidze, professor of Religious Studies at Ilia State University in Georgia and a former Georgian ambassador to the Vatican, told Reuters.

In a joint statement, Orthodox theologians from institutions including the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University in New York and the Volos Academy for Theological Studies in Greece condemned those Church leaders “directing their communities to pray in ways that actively encourage hostility.”

Other Orthodox leaders who have criticized the war include Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and all Africa, Patriarch Daniel of Romania and Archbishop Leo of Finland.

CHASM WITH OTHER CHRISTIANS
Kirill’s stand has also created a chasm between the Russian Orthodox Church and other Christian churches.

The acting Secretary General of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Ian Sauca, wrote to Kirill asking him to “intervene and mediate with the authorities to stop this war.”

Kirill responded that “forces overtly considering Russia to be their enemy came close to its borders” and that the West was involved in a “large-scale geopolitical strategy” to weaken Russia. The WCC released both letters.

After the 1917 Russian revolution, Soviet leaders began liquidating the Russian Orthodox Church. Stalin revived it after Hitler’s invasion of Russia in World War Two to rally society.

“This same idea is being revived now by Putin,” said Olenka Pevny, professor of Slavonic and Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge in the UK and an American of Ukrainian origin.

“As the Russian position in the world and Russian identity began faltering, Putin once again enlisted the Church to help him gather the Russian people under his control and attempted to tie the peoples of independent nations such as Ukraine to Russia by pushing the notion of a unified Russia Orthodox Church so as to deny any religious diversity,” she told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Kirill’s pro-Putin stand also has upended relations with the Vatican.

In 2016, Pope Francis became the first Roman Catholic pontiff to meet a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church since the great schism that split Christianity into Eastern and Western branches in 1054.

A second meeting that both Francis and Kirill said they wanted to hold this year is now virtually impossible, the experts said.

Singapore still wants smart, rich expats

MACROVECTOR-FREEPIK

SINGAPORE appears to be shutting its doors to foreign talent just as the exodus of expatriates from Hong Kong gathers pace. The government recently tightened visa rules for white-collar workers, adding hoops to a process that employers already complain is too onerous. Will the city-state miss its golden opportunity to scoop up Hong Kong’s disgruntled elites? Hardly. It’s a different slice of the labor market that will feel the pinch from these stricter measures.

Within a matter of weeks, Singapore introduced a series of dramatic changes to its work visa for highly skilled foreigners, raising the minimum salary requirements and introducing a points system not unlike what’s used in the UK and Canada. Starting next year, new applicants will need to accumulate a certain score across a range of criteria that includes educational qualifications and skills, as well as salary relative to comparable locals (the higher the better). Companies willing to shell out big expat paychecks must have found truly exceptional talent, the thinking goes. Another important assessment is whether an applicant’s nationality contributes to company diversity.

The new regulations come as economic anxiety hits an apex, with inflation rising at its fastest clip in almost a decade. But years before the surging price of lattes and staggering electricity bills, locals bemoaned widening income inequality as aspirations of home ownership fell increasingly out of reach. It’s also hard to un-see the two-toned Rolls Royces roaring down Orchard Road when you’re puttering around as a Grab driver in a weathered Camry after a full day’s work.

As in many other rich countries, the pandemic brought those fears to the foreground. Social media buzzed with worries about losing jobs to foreigners and nationalist rhetoric started becoming more common. The concern isn’t unjustified: Non-residents comprise 27% of a population of 5.5 million, and foreigners make up more than 20% of the professional labor force.

In the most basic terms, there are two different types of expats: Those willing to get paid less than Singaporeans, thus undercutting the domestic workforce, and the handsomely compensated executives from abroad who make more. Employment-pass holders in the first group often do unglamorous but decently paid IT and back-office work in the financial sector. Expats in the second category are more likely to be the managing-director and wealth-adviser types coming in from Hong Kong.

Which set is more vulnerable to the new rules? Think about it: Raising the minimum salary requirement for the financial sector to S$5,500 ($4,000) a month — S$66,000 a year — isn’t going to hit fancy executives, who pull in several hundred thousands of dollars, if not more. These are exactly the sort of residents Singapore wants, splashing out on spacious apartments, BMW leases, and pricey bottles of wine. In 2020, then-Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung, who has since become the health minister, said in Parliament that the median wage for Singaporeans in the financial sector was S$6,000 to S$8,000 a month, compared with S$8,000 to S$10,000 for permanent residents and foreigners.

What will narrow is the pipeline of expats from the first category, who were getting paid right at the cut-off and below. Fewer such workers will open up opportunities for fresh graduates and middle-class Singaporeans to get jobs they should be perfectly capable of doing: Singapore is a highly educated country, whose graduates gravitate toward engineering, business, and the sciences. While it’s true that the city-state’s shrinking population may not be able to meet all of the demand in the labor market, locals certainly should get the first bite. On social media, the government is urging mid-career professionals to reskill.

The new nationality requirement is a curious one. Though the parameters apply to candidates of all backgrounds, they appear to be aimed at deterring companies from hiring large clusters of Indian, Chinese, British, or American employees. Singapore’s Indian community, in particular, has become a target of racist attacks in recent months amid accusations of unfair competition for jobs. “The perception exists in large part because the Indian middle-class professional is very visible — and perceived as different to the local-born Indian,” said Laavanya Kathiravelu, an associate professor in the School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. “Thus, highly successful Indian immigrants, even after naturalization, are still often perceived as ‘outsiders’ to the nation, stealing jobs from locals.” Don’t forget that many Indians in Singapore are top-end earners, according to Binod Khadria of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

It’s hard to know whether there’s any justification for these suspicions. The government does not provide public data on the nationality of employment pass holders. Amid lengthy debate about the role of foreign workers in Singapore’s labor market in July, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng told Parliament that the share of Indians in this category had risen quickly, from about one-seventh of the total in 2005 to a quarter in 2020. By contrast, those from China, another top nationality, had remained relatively steady.

In a roundtable attended by Bloomberg Opinion last week, Tan said that sharing nationality information could compromise Singapore’s “security interests” and “competitiveness.” The only way to understand this view, it seems, would be to think of the city-state as a company, unwilling to divulge its staffing on sensitive projects. In reality, the absence of a transparent discussion in the public domain risks sowing skepticism, even if the points system offers the business community a more predictable framework to plan hiring.

The biggest mystery may be how such an inwardly oriented, pro-labor policy made it through Singapore’s mill of globalist technocrats in the first place, without much visible opposition from the business community. The changes being introduced to protect domestic wages are nothing short of a wish list for advocates of reform to skilled migrant visas in the US, who meet stiff resistance from well-funded tech and corporate lobbies. Tan said the new rules were well signaled months, if not years, in advance, and that corporations are on board. Some may simply be intent on finding loopholes.

But make no mistake about the direction of travel. The world’s smartest, richest expats will always be welcome in Singapore. Whether they can hire below them to their liking will be another matter entirely.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

China’s richest drop $53 billion in a day as stocks plunge

REUTERS
COINS and banknotes of China’s yuan are seen in this illustration picture taken Feb. 24. — REUTERS

CHINA’s stock rout cost the nation’s richest tycoons more than $53 billion on Monday.

Zhong Shanshan, known as China’s king of bottled water, led the plunge as his fortune fell by $5 billion, while Tencent Holding Ltd.’s Pony Ma dropped $3.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Shares of Zhong’s Nongfu Spring Co. tumbled 9.9% in Hong Kong trading — the most since the company went public 18 months ago — though he still remains China’s wealthiest person with a fortune of $60.3 billion. Tencent fell the most since 2011 after a report that it’s facing a record fine for violating anti-money laundering rules. Pony Ma, once the country’s wealthiest person, is now third with a net worth of $35.2 billion.

The slide in Chinese stocks accelerated Monday after US officials said Russia asked Beijing to help with the war in Ukraine, raising concerns over a backlash against Chinese companies, potentially even sanctions. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index tracking shares traded in Hong Kong sank the most since Nov. 2008, while the Hang Sang Tech Index tumbled 11% for the worst decline since its inception. The rout continued on Tuesday.

With Monday’s drop, the 76 Chinese billionaires among the world’s 500 richest people have lost $228 billion this year — one-fifth of their combined fortune.

Tencent fell 9.8% on Monday and dipped further on Tuesday, heading to its lowest price since 2019. The Wall Street Journal reported the People’s Bank of China found its WeChat Pay had allowed the transfer of funds for illicit purposes, along with other issues. While China’s industry crackdown has already erased billions from the value of the nation’s tech giants, Tencent had so far mostly managed to avoid regulatory action.

Zhang Yiming of ByteDance Ltd. — which is private and therefore more shielded from the recent market volatility — is the country’s second-richest person, with a fortune of $44.5 billion.

Jack Ma, who was China’s wealthiest before Pony Ma surpassed him, now ranks No. 4 with a net worth of $34 billion. His fortune surpassed $60 billion in late 2020, before the government started an anti-monopolistic campaign, halting the listing of his Ant Group Co. payments company just two days before it was scheduled to go public.

Since then, China’s tech shares have struggled amid increased regulatory scrutiny and worries about potential delistings from the US.

On Friday, Didi Global, Inc. shares slumped a record 44% as the ride-hailing giant suspended preparations for a Hong Kong initial public offering. Its founder, Cheng Wei, lost his billionaire status. — Bloomberg

U.S. warns China against helping Russia as sanctions mount

CHINESE AND US flags flutter near The Bund in Shanghai, China July 30, 2019. — REUTERS

LVIV, Ukraine – The United States warned China against providing military or financial help to Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine, as sanctions on Russian political and business leaders mounted and civilians sought to flee intense fighting on the ground.

Further talks between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators to ease the crisis were expected on Tuesday after discussions on Monday via video ended with no new progress announced.

Thousands have been killed in intense fighting and bombardments since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Russia calls its actions a “special military operation” to “denazify” the country and prevent genocide, a claim the United States and its allies reject as a pretext for an unjustified and illegal attack.

According to U.S. officials, Russia has asked for military and economic support from Beijing, which signaled a willingness to provide aid.

Moscow denies that, saying it has sufficient resources to fulfill all of its aims. China‘s foreign ministry has labelled the reports on assistance as “disinformation”.

“We have communicated very clearly to Beijing that we won’t stand by,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters after U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with China‘s top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome. “We will not allow any country to compensate Russia for its losses.”

The seven-hour meeting was “intense” and reflected “the gravity of the moment,” according to a U.S. official.

 

‘NO WAR’

In Russia, a rare anti-war protest occurred in a studio during the main news programme on state TV’s Channel One, which is the primary source of news for millions of Russians and closely follows the Kremlin line.

A woman held up a sign in English and Russian that said: “NO WAR. Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They are lying to you here.” Read full story

Britain’s defence ministry said Russia could be planning to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine in response to a staged fake attack on Russian troops, without citing evidence. U.S. officials have made similar statements.

Russia has accused Ukraine of planning to use biological weapons. The United Nations on Friday said it had no evidence Kyiv had such a program.

Moscow on Monday allowed the first convoy to escape besieged Mariupol, home to the worst humanitarian crisis of the conflict.

“In the first two hours, 160 cars left,” Andrei Rempel, a representative of the Mariupol city council told Reuters.

Local authorities say as many as 2,500 civilians have died so far, a toll that cannot be independently confirmed.

The United Nations says more than 2.8 million people have now left Ukraine since the start of the war.

“I am fleeing with my child because I want my child to stay alive,” said a Ukrainian woman named Tanya who said she traveled from the town of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine across the Danube river to Romania. “Because the people that are there now are Russians, Russian soldiers, and they kill children.”

Russia says it does not target civilians.

 

FURTHER SANCTIONS

EU member states agreed on Monday to a fourth package of sanctions against Russia, according to France. Read full story

Details were not officially disclosed, but diplomatic sources said they would include an import ban on Russian steel and iron, an export ban on luxury goods and a ban on investment in the energy sector. Chelsea soccer team owner Roman Abramovich and 14 others would be added to the EU blacklist, the sources said.

Japan on Tuesday announced an asset freeze for 17 Russian individuals, including 11 members of the Russian Duma, or parliament, five family members of banker Yuri Kovalchuk, as well as billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.

Western-led sanctions have cut Russia off from key parts of global financial markets and have frozen nearly half of the country’s $640 billion gold and foreign exchange reserves, triggering the worst economic crisis since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Russia’s finance ministry said it is preparing to service some of its foreign currency debt on Wednesday, but such payments will be made in rubles if sanctions prevent banks from honouring debts in the currency of issue. –Reuters

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