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Tolentino reelected as PhilCycling president

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo, Senior Reporter

ABRAHAM “Bambol” Tolentino stays as Integrated Cycling Federation of the Philippines (PhilCycling) president after being reelected on Tuesday.

Mr. Tolentino, who also got a fresh term as Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president in November, retained his PhilCycling post along with Alberto Lina (chairman) and Oscar “Boying” Rodriguez (vice-president).

Alejandro Vidallo and Engr. Greg Monreal, meanwhile, are the new treasurer and auditor, respectively, of the federation.

Reelected as members of the board were Jun Lomibao, Juancho Ramores, Paquito Rivas, Moe Chulani, Carlos Gredonia, Atty. Marcus Andaya and Jojo Villa, with Sunshine Joy Mendoza, the country’s first female national road commissaire, elected as a new member of the board along with Erwin Bollozos. Atty. Billy Sumagui was reappointed secretary-general.

Given the nod once again to lead PhilCycling, Mr. Tolentino, also a sitting congressman representing the eighth district of Cavite, shared that he would push for the staging of national championships for road, mountain bike and BMX in 2021 with or without a vaccine against the coronavirus but will observe proper health and safety protocols.

“I am looking at Clark or Subic for the national championships for road and Tagaytay City for BMX and mountain bike,” said Mr. Tolentino, adding they are eyeing a bubble setup similar to that staged by the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), where participants were holed up in a controlled environment to guard against the spread of the coronavirus for the duration of the tournament.

“If the PBA did it in Clark, we could do the same in the same venue, in Subic and Tagaytay.”

The PhilCycling president also threw his support for the merger between the country’s top two road race organizers — Air21/UBE Media, Inc. (Le Tour de Filipinas) and LBC (Ronda Pilipinas), and shared that another priority for him next year are the Tokyo Olympics, 31st Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam and the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, where BMX will be played.

The PhilCycling elections were held at the East Ocean Palace restaurant in Pasay City with POC membership chairman Bones Floro heading the elections committee.

The proceedings were held under strict health protocols that had everyone undergoing antigen swab tests.

New mom Iniong looking forward to ONE Circle return

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo, Senior Reporter

HAVING reconsidered initial thoughts of retiring from mixed martial arts, Gina “Conviction” Iniong said she is now more determined and driven, and is looking forward to plunging back into action in ONE Championship.

Ms. Iniong (9-4), who recently gave birth to her first child, last saw action in ONE in January this year, beating Asha Roka of India by unanimous decision. Prior to it, she represented the Philippines in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, winning gold in kickboxing.

Then she learned that she was in the family way with husband Richard Araos just as the coronavirus pandemic halted sporting activities, including those of ONE.

While away from the game, Team Lakay’s Iniong thought of retiring altogether to focus on building a family and taking care of daughter Gianna Rose.

But her coach, Mark Sangiao, convinced her to postpone such a decision until she had given birth so she could think it through better.

And after some thought, Ms. Iniong did reconsider her retirement plans and is now looking at her career with added perspective and motivation.

“This year, everything just fell into place for me, and I learned a lot of valuable lessons. The biggest lesson I learned this year is that time is so precious. You can’t put a price on it. It’s the only thing you can never make more of. It’s life’s most expensive commodity,” she said in a statement.

Adding, “[As for my career] I want to be the best Gina Iniong in the Circle possible. I can’t wait to get back in the Circle. I’ve missed it. Once I’m cleared to go back to training, and when my body feels right, you can expect to see me alongside your favorite Team Lakay superheroes again.”

In the ONE atomweight division, Ms. Iniong is one of the contenders for the title currently held by Angela Lee of Singapore, who incidentally is also pregnant with her first child. But with her being inactive for now, she fell outside of the top five.

But the Filipina fighter is not discouraged by it and vowed to put in the needed work to get back in the mix.

“My division is really exciting right now. There are so many great talents and I’m so excited for a lot of potential matchups. Any opponent that ONE Championship will give me, I’ll be ready,” she said.

“I’m hungry and motivated to reestablish myself at the top. Fans can expect a stronger, wiser, and more dangerous Gina Iniong next year.”

SEASON WRAPPED UP
Meanwhile, ONE Championship wrapped up its coronavirus pandemic-hit season on Dec. 25 with “ONE: Collision Course II” with Jamal Yusupov of Russia beating Samy Sana of France by unanimous decision in their headlining ONE featherweight muay thai battle.

The pre-recorded event capped what was a challenging year for Asia’s biggest sports media property that saw it temporarily suspending activities in March because of the pandemic before resuming with a reconfigured setting to adapt with the prevailing conditions in June.

It is hoping for a better 2021, beginning with “ONE: Breakable” on Jan. 22 in Singapore.

Pioneering artist David Medalla, 78

A performance by David Medalla and Adam Nankervis at the 57th Venice Art Biennale

FILIPINO pioneering international artist David Medalla, whose works have been shown or installed in art capitals London, New York, Paris, Madrid, and Munich, died on Dec. 28. He was 78 years old. His death was announced by Mr. Medalla’s partner and curator Adam Nankervis, who said in a Facebook post, “David has left us to enter the dream. Dave passed away gently in his sleep in Manila today.”

Born in Manila in the middle of the Second World War on March 23, 1942, Mr. Medalla, who was admitted to Columbia as a teen, co-founded the important gallery, Signals, in London in the 1960s. The space was one of the places where the field of kinetic art flourished, making him a pioneer of that style. The artist also made various works in painting and performance art, and was one of the pioneers of installation art. One of his most famous works is Cloud Canyons No. 31, which, while it was conceptualized during that London period in 1964, was executed in 2016. It was exhibited at the 14th Biennale de Lyon, and was shortlisted for the first Hepworth Prize for Sculpture in 2016. That work was made of Plexiglas tubes, wood, and fiberglass; all working together with oxygenators to emit soap bubbles.

While that iteration of Cloud Canyon is now in the lobby of BDO Unibank, Inc., other Cloud Canyon works have either been seen or are installed at the Tate Modern, the Singapore National Gallery, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, and The City Art Gallery in Auckland.

Mr. Medalla had been ill for quite some time, as a result of two strokes. Mr. Nankervis told BusinessWorld in 2019 (https://www.bworldonline.com/blowing-bubbles/), “Speaking is difficult for him now.” Still, this did not stop him from working. “He’s still painting, he still becomes extremely focused, even obsessed with work,” Mr. Nankervis said.

Critic and curator Carlos Quijon, Jr. told BusinessWorld in a message, “Medalla was a pioneer. Not only of kinetic art, but more so of a sensibility about art that embraces its vulnerabilities — be it to time, process, participation, climate, even. Because Medalla’s works allow themselves to be affected by all these things, they are rendered sensitive, alive. Medalla’s idea of ‘cosmic propulsions’ is a faith in the cosmos, faith in art, in the agency that inheres in it.”

As Mr. Nankervis said in the Facebook post announcing Mr. Medalla’s passing, “His spirit has transcended and moved so many artists, friends, strangers and the art loving public over time and space, inspired by his genius as an artist, poet, activist, wit, philosopher and raconteur. His curiosity, joy, his immense curiosity, his alchemical spirit knew no bounds.” — Joseph L. Garcia

Metro Manila Film Festival 2020: Just missing perfection

By Joseph L. Garcia, Reporter

MOVIE REVIEW
Tagpuan
Directed by: McArthur Alejandre

ALFRED Vargas had been a fine actor in his youth, and proves to be a fine producer for his film, Tagpuan. As for his acting, the Quezon City politician might benefit from returning to the ring more often.

Mr. Vargas plays the film’s lead, Allan, batting his bets in a multilayered nonlinear plot (written by Ricky Lee, no less). It’s beautifully shot in Manila, Hong Kong, and New York; it’s thematically sound in its visuals, and the soundtrack isn’t bad either.

(Spoiler alert!!!)

Allan is a wooden, stoic businessman who has the misfortune of falling in love with unconventional women. His first partner is Agnes (played by Iza Calzado). Flashbacks tell of a troubled marriage in upper middle-class Manila, where Agnes plays the role of a perfect wife dressed in several shades of pink, and various items of conservative jewelry: either a string of pearls, or her diamond eternity wedding band. In a time jump where they meet again in New York, she’s dressed significantly less glamorously; but comfortably, in a palette of blues. She now sports hoop earrings, and hops from one relationship to another, all while juggling a career in literature and the arts, a dream she had to postpone to be a perfect wife and mother.

I might say the hoop earrings can be a bit on the nose when implying a woman’s loose morals. In the period between meeting his ex-wife in New York, he meets a Manic Pixie Dream Girl named Tanya (a trope that has seen its day in Western media; she’s still a novelty over on these shores) played by Shaina Magdayao (in a departure from her usual good-girl roles). Yes, she’s also in hoop earrings. She reminds one of Clementine from Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind — down to the orange outerwear and outre hair. She does switch up to blue (hair and outfit) in a bit. The costumes are visual markers for which timeline and country we’re currently exploring.

Poor Mr. Vargas has to act stony due to his character’s personality, but one can be stony and still have a spark of life left in those eyes. It’s understandable when he gets chewed up by Ms. Magdayao, whose initial appearances appear as if they’re meant for slapstick, but as we go through the plot, we realize that the hamminess in her first scenes were surprisingly integral to the plot. (Ms. Magdayao bagged the MMFF Best Supporting Actress award on Sunday.) What’s sad is seeing him not being able to catch up to Ms. Calzado, who plays her role with her usual subtlety. If one can’t show a pulse next to someone considerably more sedate, there’s not much to go on with. While Mr. Vargas helms the film in more ways than one, it’s certainly the women in the production who carry the film and hold its interest.

The plot can be confusing (but that is definitely a deficiency on my part). The story takes place over several timelines: the initial failed marriage in Manila, the various sojourns with Hong Kong-native Tanya, and his reunions with the two women, both in New York. A flaw in Philippine films sometimes is to show exotic locales through the eyes of a tourist, but this one treats its locations matter-of-factly, wisely placing the story front and center. Nevertheless, the director’s eye has a certain gift in capturing appealing grit: whether it’s Hong Kong tenements or NY Chinatown slums. The nonlinear plot is also integral, and is beyond a stylistic choice. It was, I think, the only way to show relationships in their various stages without following a formula: there’s the initial spark (Tanya’s scenes with Allan in Hong Kong), various stages of decline, but also an oft-ignored reality: the silences that follow eventful relationships. The nonlinear plot also allows for better illustrations of the changes within people — we’ve noted this in Iza Calzado’s costume changes, but it takes a more significant turn in showing the personal decline of Tanya (she’s shown to be a liar with a heart; she simply can’t catch a break!). Finally, the nonlinearity gives room for societal issues: the film thus becomes more than a romantic drama, but a story about diaspora (Filipino and otherwise). It mentions the harsh realities of being an immigrant in Trump’s America, the plight of low-paid workers in Hong Kong (even the region’s unrest), inequality, class, social pressure, sex work, women, family, feminist intersectionality and a whole lot more — all handled with sensitivity and not piercing into the carefully pieced story (this must be the handiwork of Mr. Lee).

While I understand the choices that made the film so — the lead actor also being its producer, after all — it’s that one choice that makes the film less than the sum of its parts. For example, the film would have had a completely different tone had the narrator been either one of the women. Barring that, a more sensitive actor would have been able to play off the strengths of the two female leads. It’s ironic that the choices that created the film are the same ones holding it back from being close to perfect as it could have been.

Because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Metro Manila Film Festival is being held online, with the entries screening via Upstream.ph. The festival is ongoing until Jan. 7.

Metro Manila Film Festival 2020: A sweet love story

By Zsarlene B. Chua, Senior Reporter

MOVIE REVIEW
The Boy Foretold by the Stars
Directed by Dolly Dulu

THE YEAR 2020 has been horrible, but despite how bad the year has played out, the tiniest positive spark came from the surge in popularity of so-called Boys’ Love series and films in the Philippines, largely attributed to the popularity of quarantine-favorite 2Gether: The Series, a Thai series about teenage boys falling in love.

It was a triumph for those in the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer, etc.) community because they finally “felt seen” and that their “stories are finally told and heard,” as the film’s director Dolly Dulu said in her acceptance speech when The Boy Foretold by the Stars won Second Best Picture at the Metro Manila Film Festival awards on Sunday.

The Boy Foretold by the Stars is a coming-of-age romantic drama between Dominic (played by Adrian Lindayag), an effeminate gay teenager, and Luke (Keann Johnson), the school jock getting over a heartbreak, set in an all-boys Catholic school and a school-sponsored retreat program.

The story is full of romantic tropes: meet-cute, budding relationship, conflict, and resolution, but while the film is formulaic, it makes up for it with the purpose of sincerely trying to deliver a love story between teenagers.

What I did like about the film is that while set in a Catholic all-boys school, this was not used to demonize the religious institution or homosexuality but rather opens it up for discussion — one scene tackled the “homosexuality is a sin, the Bible says so” argument in one class but the teacher, a Brother, argued that the Bible’s teachings are open for interpretation.

The chemistry between the leads felt genuine and you can feel how their characters fall in love with each other, slowly but continuously, through small talk, with a push from fate here and there.

There’s a psychic who tells Dominic that he will meet his destined love in a week while Luke bases most of his decisions on a flip of a coin. But at the end of the film, they both finally break free from fate’s shackles and do what they want to do. It is a bittersweet moment.

The Boy Foretold by the Stars is a film for those who have been looking for a film that represents LGBTQ+ falling in love and not just relegated to the sidelines as the best friends of the straight leads. And it’s a film for everyone who is looking to relive their highschool days while regretting that their highschool love stories were not as magical as this one.

Because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Metro Manila Film Festival is being held online, with the entries screening via Upstream.ph. The festival is ongoing until Jan. 7.

Metro Manila Film Festival 2020: Faith healing

By Zsarlene B. Chua, Senior Reporter

MOVIE REVIEW
Suarez: The Healing Priest
Directed by Joven Tan

THERE was always a sort of mysticality and otherworldliness about Father Fernando Suarez — famously known as a “healing priest” because of the many people who have testified that, yes, they were healed after taking part in the priest’s healing masses that drew thousands — and that, I think, was what Joven Tan tried to capture in his Metro Manila Film Festival entry, Suarez: The Healing Priest.

Biopics as a genre are difficult — especially for a person celebrated for having healed people — as the reconciliation between man and the myth is a delicate balancing act, an act that Mr. Tan, as a director, attempted to do but in this writer’s opinion, failed at.

The film follows the story of Fernando Suarez, told in non-linear narrative, a boy from Batangas who promised to be the family’s breadwinner after becoming an engineer at another town. But his heart called him to another profession, being a priest.

While Suarez tried to demystify the healing priest, it is apparent that Mr. Tan is a fan of Fr. Suarez — the controversies of his past are chalked up as plots to destroy him as bishops grow apprehensive and jealous of his fame, and his tribulations (including a scene where he is sent to “rehabilitation” because of allegations against him) are framed to show that God, indeed, favors Fr. Suarez and that the bishops were wrong. (Fr. Suarez was accused of molestation of two young boys and misappropriating funds, among other allegations.)

During Fr. Suarez’s “rehabilitation,” a sort of forced period of reflection, a deluge happens right outside the window, with one bishop (on a call with another) saying something along the lines of: “God knows about our ‘plans’ for him and He doesn’t like it.”

Fr. Suarez is also shown as having supernatural powers beyond healing, apparently being able to summon water to flood a beerhouse after his co-workers try and tempt him with a girl, and, in another scene, helping a seminarian escape temptation by calling him and telling him to get out of the situation.

Suarez is a disjointed and unfocused film that clearly was created to solidify Fr. Suarez’s legacy (he died in February of this year). Some parts of the film look inspired by Mike de Leon’s Bayaning Third World (2000), with Alice Dixson presented as a talk show host trying to look behind the legend of Fr. Suarez and then being converted into a believer once she actually meets him.

Even the casting of John Arcilla, an actor best known for playing the feisty General Antonio Luna in Jerrold Tarog’s Heneral Luna (2015), was calculated to make Fr. Suarez larger-than-life, although Mr. Arcilla delivered only one emotion, a forced holiness, which inspired in this writer flashbacks to Francis O. Villacorta’s Pedro Calungsod: Batang Martir (2013), a biopic about the Cebuano saint.

My main gripe about how holy people are portrayed in these two films is that they are presented as otherworldly, removed from human failings and emotions because they were chosen by the heavens. It’s not relatable, and I think it was never meant to be.

Still, I understand the fervor around Fr. Suarez — many people want to be healed and when science fails, faith may be their only chance. And now that Fr. Suarez has passed, his final prayer at the end of the film may be the last his believers will ever have of his healing powers.

I would like to point out that a line in the film, said less than three minutes in, made a very good point about healing and faith. It went something like: “The problem with faith healing is when it fails, the blame falls on us because we didn’t have enough faith.”

Because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Metro Manila Film Festival is being held online, with the entries screening via Upstream.ph. The festival is ongoing until Jan. 7.

Metro Manila Film Festival 2020: ‘Back to the ‘80s’

By Joseph L. Garcia, Reporter

MOVIE REVIEW
Mang Kepweng: Ang Lihim ng Bandanang Itim
Directed by Topel Lee

MANG Kepweng: Ang Lihim ng Bandanang Itim, shown at this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival, had no right taking my P250 and wasting my time. Frankly, I feel that they owe me money for letting me watch that.

Look, I’m no snob. I laugh at Toni Gonzaga. I laugh at Vice Ganda. I laughed exactly once while watching Mang Kepweng (a reboot of an old Chiquito movie, itself based on a komiks franchise), and that was at a scene where a cursed nun chases Vhong Navarro’s Kepweng under a bed, rolling conveyor belt-style. Okay, and I laughed at the witch too, but she appeared during the last 15 to 25 minutes of the film. Otherwise, there were jokes about women with male characteristics, ugly women, and boring chase routines. What is this, 1988?

I watched this movie with three of my friends, who took bathroom breaks during the one hour and 47 minute-runtime of the film. They told me not to bother pausing the film for them, and sometimes begged me to fast-forward through it. I don’t blame them: a demon played by Joross Gamboa steals a black scarf able to cause illness. This bandana is the foil to Mang Kepweng’s healing red scarf, which is losing power because he used the scarf (a relic from the original Mang Kepweng) for fame and fortune. To restore its powers, his friends, played by Benjie Paras, Ion Perez, Ryan Bang, and Barbie Imperial, have to go through a quest: go to an old fairground to enter the realm of kapres and get a cigar, go to a convent to enter a portal to a lake with mermaids, then collect a toenail from an aswang. They gave those ingredients to a witch, who was making soup (that’s why I laughed). There’s a final battle between the handsome demon and Vhong. Vhong wins. Otherwise, I hardly smiled all throughout the film, and I even recall calling Jollibee delivery during the haunted convent scene, because I’ve seen this chase scene at least seven times before, and knew I wasn’t about to miss an important detail. Unfortunately, the ending hints at another sequel, possibly forming a trilogy (this film is a sequel to 2017’s Mang Kepweng Returns).

Barbie Imperial looks far too young to serve as Vhong Navarro’s leading lady — Kris Aquino falling in love with Rene Requiestas in Pido Dida seems more likely than these two doing so. They gave too many lines to the main actor, while the rest of the cast were a few degrees funnier. Only one of my friends actually laughed out loud during the movie, and that was because of Benjie Paras. I can’t say I even like the film visually: they’re not exactly going for Gawad Urian here. The costumes were bad, and the jokes were flat. They shot the throne room scene with the fairy queen (played by Ritz Azul) in what looked like either a recycled set, a backyard gazebo, or a village clubhouse.

One good point though: the CGI was much better than expected. If you squint hard enough, it looked like Harry Potter, though the animators haven’t quite mastered blending in human figures and CGI backgrounds seamlessly.

Should you watch this? No. You can get your cheap comedy thrills somewhere else. You can even find it in the cooking YouTube channel of actress and chef Judy Ann Santos, in the episode where she makes sandwiches out of holiday leftovers. We laughed, as a group, six times in 30 minutes (that’s a laugh every five minutes) while watching that. Imagine that: an actress cracking jokes while cooking was funnier than Mang Kepweng, with all its movie stars, a script, CGI, and comedic history.

Because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Metro Manila Film Festival is being held online, with the entries screening via Upstream.ph. The festival is ongoing until Jan. 7.

Welcoming 2021 at The Pen

AFTER the events of 2020, the new year can only be met with open arms. The Peninsula Manila — known for its New Year’s celebrations — suggests welcoming the new year with family in a manner that is both safe and joyful. While eschewing the grand party of yesteryears, the hotel’s celebration is no less special this year. Over at The Lobby, there will be a New Year’s Eve Six-course Set Dinner Menu (P6,500 for adults; P3,000 for children under 12) served between 8:30 p.m. and midnight, with the  Peninsula Strings and Peninsula Jazz Quartet performing throughout. Over at Escolta, a New Year’s Eve Dinner Buffet (P6,000 with free-flowing wine; P4,500 for adults; P2,200 for children under 12) will be served, with seatings at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Escolta’s special buffet menu will include salads, Italian antipasti, ripe cheeses, fresh sushi, pasta, holiday hot and cold main course specialties, a carving station with all the condiments and a dessert selection. On New Year’s Eve, Spices offers an Asian-inspired a la carte dinner menu amidst the serene setting of a koi pond and the outdoor pool. The a la carte lunch and dinner will be served at 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 6 to 11 p.m., with minimum consumption of P2,300 for adults and P1,100 for children under 12. For an even more special celebration, the hotel offers the New Year’s Eve Revelry Room Package which includes an antigen test for two, a six-course set dinner menu for two at The Lobby on Dec. 31, a set breakfast for two adults and two children five years old and below at The Lobby, and complimentary use of hotel’s Fitness Center facilities and outdoor swimming pool (rates start at P23,000 for a Deluxe Room). The hotel also offers a New Year’s Eve Stay-and-Dine in Escolta Room Package which also includes two antigen tests, a buffet meal at Escolta on New Year’s Eve, set breakfast for two adults and two children five years old and below at The Lobby, among others (room rates start at P19,000 for a Deluxe Room). For inquiries and reservations, call 8887-2888, or e-mail diningpmn@peninsula.com (Food and Beverage) and reservationpmn@peninsula.com (Room Reservations).

Humanizing healthcare through design and technology

By Patricia Mirasol

Design creates value across the different life stages. Experts talked about how healthcare can be humanized with design and technology at the recent Business of Design Week (BODW) event.

“If you pull out your smartphone and type in the word ‘designer’ on any SMS application, you get an image that looks like a yellow French person from the 1940s holding a paintbrush. Designers do more than that,” said Rama Gheerawo, director of The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design of the Royal College of Art (RCA). “Design is a process. We have frameworks, strategies, and processes that help design deploy itself creatively into human life.” 

In his talk, Mr. Gheerawo presented four design considerations in the context of healthcare, the first of which is being human. Humans move to hospital wards – spaces that are radically different from the homes they grow old in – as they age. He explained that at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, they rethought the care home to make it a place people would want to stay in, as opposed to a space given at the end of one’s life. This rethinking included changing the existing color palette, typically the color of body fluids, into a cheerful one. An additional example brought up was the replacement of white plates with blue ones in another care home so the elderly could see the white food that was being served. (The aforementioned care home initially thought that the residents had given up on life because they weren’t eating.)

“You shouldn’t design anything you wouldn’t use yourself,” he added. 

A second consideration is bringing humanity into technology. A web service called SloMo was created at the King’s College in London as a digital intervention for those with psychosis. Mr. Gheerawo said that they later realized the service was also useful for everyone who has ever experienced stress and needs to slow down for a moment.

The other considerations involve making every conversation better and putting people first. Mr. Gheerawo advised working with some of the 7.6 billion inhabitants of earth that have health concerns instead of relying on marketing stereotypes when designing solutions.

“Healthcare will shift from the hospital to the home, and design can play a role in enabling that,” he told the BODW audience. “We need to work with big data numbers, but we also need to have a deep understanding [of that data]. Numbers give you big data. People give you deep data.”

ASKING KEY QUESTIONS
Larry Keeley, an innovation scientist and author of the Ten Types of Innovation, also conveyed the importance of thinking about the human first. In a world where remote diagnostics, artificial intelligence, and the real-time processing of sensors are a reality, he proposed paying attention to the following: how overall population health is functioning; how global health norms are shifting; and which innovations are making the difference in diagnostics and treatments.

He proposed figuring out how healthcare can be made affordable too. “If you don’t find new ways to pay for this and make it affordable and seamless – specifically to change people’s behaviors, rather than only investing in costly care when they have difficulties – it will sink [into] most thoughtful governments in the ways in which they’re addressing things,” added Mr. Keeley. 

Students of design should consider the issues that drive a longer and healthier life, and produce things that make the biggest difference. As health moves steadily into smarter homes, Mr. Keeley said that human needs must be met by design efforts that incorporate how human beings live.

After property scandal, Pope tightens money controls

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has issued a new decree making charity funds more transparent and tightening controls on Vatican finances after a scandal over a luxury London property deal.

The main target is the Secretariat of State, the most important part of the Vatican administration, which must relinquish management of its funds, investments and real estate and submit to supervision by two other economic offices.

Published on Monday and signed by the pope on Dec. 26, the decree takes effect over two months from Jan. 1.

In 2014, the Secretariat invested about 200 million euros ($244 million) as a partner in a deal to buy a luxury building in London. As the deal became onerous, it paid tens of millions of fees to middlemen in attempts to change the terms.

Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s former treasurer, told Reuters earlier this month there had been “enormous losses”. . In September, the pope fired Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a former top Secretariat official.

An investigation into the London deal led to the suspension last year of five Vatican employees, four from the Secretariat. The Vatican has also accused the middlemen of extortion.

‘PETER’S PENCE’

The Secretariat of State’s assets are being transferred to a department called Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA) and will be overseen by the Secretariat for the Economy.

The Secretariat of State also loses control of “Peter’s Pence”, a fund which the faithful can contribute to and is aimed at helping the pope run the Church and finance his charities.

In past years, the Vatican has dipped into Peter’s Pence to cover budget deficits. The fund’s reputation has suffered from reports it may have been used for questionable investments, such as the London building.

The decree sets up three new accounts – one for Peter’s Pence, another for a “Papal Discretionary Fund”, and a third to hold funds which donors want used for a specific purpose. To guarantee transparency, they will become part of the Vatican’s budget, the pope said in the decree.

A Vatican statement said the changes to Peter’s Pence were meant to reassure donors that contributions were properly used. — REUTERS

COVID SCIENCE – UK variant linked to high viral loads, Neanderthal gene offers protection

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

UK coronavirus variant associated with higher viral loads

The highly infectious COVID-19 coronavirus variant that has been circulating in Britain is linked to higher loads of the virus in the blood, according to a research report published on medRxiv on Sunday ahead of peer review. Around 35% of patients infected by the variant form had very high levels of the virus in their samples, compared to 10% of patients without the variant, study leader Michael Kidd of Public Health England and Birmingham University told Reuters. Higher viral loads have been linked with worse COVID-19 outcomes. The tests were conducted at the Birmingham Turnkey Lab. Kidd said additional study was needed to confirm or refute the findings. If confirmed, he hopes scientists will investigate how this particular variant manages to make more copies of itself in infected patients.

Neanderthal gene protects against COVID-19

A specific form of a protein passed down from Neanderthals protects against severe COVID-19, and medications that boost levels of this protein could potentially help treat the disease, according to a study reported on medRxiv on Thursday ahead of peer review. The protein, called OAS1, is involved in the body’s response to viruses. People with higher levels of the Neanderthal-related form of OAS1 are less susceptible to COVID-19, and if they do become infected, they are at lower risk for hospitalization, intubation and death, the researchers found. “This protective form of OAS1 is present in sub-Saharan Africans but was lost when the ancestors of modern-day Europeans migrated out of Africa. It was then re-introduced into the European population through mating with Neanderthals” who lived more than 40,000 years ago, said coauthor Brent Richards from the Jewish General Hospital and McGill University in Montreal. An earlier study linked a cluster of genes inherited from Neanderthals to higher risks of hospitalization from COVID-19. “These findings further implicate Neanderthal ancestry in COVID-19 severity,” Richards said.

Early antibody production key to COVID-19 recovery

The speed of patients’ antibody production – rather than the volume of antibodies they produce to fight the new coronavirus – determines whether they will survive COVID-19, new data suggest. Researchers who studied more than 200 COVID-19 patients, including 179 who were hospitalized, found those who produced so-called neutralizing antibodies within 14 days of developing symptoms eventually recovered, while those who did not produce neutralizing antibodies until more than 14 days had elapsed developed higher viral loads and more severe disease. “It is unclear why antibodies generated after this time point are unable to promote viral clearance and recovery in COVID-19 patients,” the researchers said in a report posted on medRxiv ahead of peer review. Study leader Akiko Iwasaki of the Yale University School of Medicine tweeted on Saturday, “It’s possible that virus somehow becomes resistant by hiding in inaccessible tissues.” The new findings, she added, suggest therapy with so-called monoclonal antibody drugs – such as those from Regeneron given to U.S. President Donald Trump — is likely to work only if used soon after infection. — REUTERS

S.Korea sets $8.5 bln package to fight new coronavirus wave – finmin

SEOUL – South Korea unveiled a fresh 9.3 trillion won ($8.49 billion) package on Tuesday to support small businesses hit by a third wave of coronavirus and those vulnerable to unemployment due to the outbreak.

Of the total package, 5.6 trillion won will be used to fund cash handouts to coronavirus-struck small businesses, temporary or freelance workers and taxi drivers affected by the prolonged pandemic, the finance ministry said.

Some 2.9 trillion won will be used to support small and medium-sized businesses including ski resorts and hotels, which received damage from the government’s year-end special COVID-19 regulations, and to keep more Koreans in jobs.

The South Korean government has added new restrictions this week such as banning on gatherings of more than four people and suspending ski resorts and tourist sports, aimed at stopping the virus spread during Christmas and New Year holidays.

Another 0.8 trillion won is aimed at strengthening the public health system.

The ministry said the cash handouts will be offered starting from Jan. 11, and expects that the latest measures could help around a total 5.8 million people.

On Monday, the country vowed to speed up efforts to launch a coronavirus vaccination programme as it continued to report near-record daily cases and discovered its first cases of the coronavirus variant linked to Britain.

Meanwhile, the $8.5 billion package will be funded by the finance ministry’s reserve fund, leftover budget for the year as well as 2021 budget, the ministry said in a statement. — REUTERS

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